The official course of action for COS in cases like these is set down by elron himself, basically sue, sue, harass, and then sue some more regardless of winning or losing. And unfortunately they have so much sway that sending multiple C&D's to sites/ISP's will cause most sites to drop any links or references anyway as they are too intimidated by the COS.
Note that by "COS" I am of course referring to the "Cult of Scientology", as no-one could ever confuse this group with any modern day religion!
Not having a go at anyone in particular, but why does it seem that people who have supposedly become informed as to the real intent of COS, still refer to Scientology as a religion instead of the well organised cult that it is? At the higher levels it's about the most exclusive Boy's Club there is, and at the lower levels it's a blatant parasite on the lower to middle classes. Surely part of the process of stripping away any false claims of legitimacy is not elevating COS to a level akin to religions? Granted some of the religions over the centuries have been responsible for amazingly heinous behavior, but in general most religions no matter the past, don't compare nowadays to the organised potential threat posed by COS. I couldn't imagine a scarier scenario than COS members being elected to US government. Imagine a COS member being the person elected to look after health reforms, mental illness, etc.
Don't get me wrong, i'm simply pointing out that there were different motivations depending on the era for teens to not rebel too much, in school when we got caught behind the sheds smoking, we got the strap (and I got a few times too!), at home if I did something really bad, I got a quick whack.
My motivation growing up was to avoid getting the strap or a whack as a result of breaking clearly defined boundaries of responsibility, and the associated expected bahavior.
Now for the kids who are:
Clearly more knowledgeable than their parents or any other living adults, apart from Eminem of course, Whose friends know everything that they themselves don't know, Have it drummed in by authority that being yelled at, smacked, or made to feel "oppressed" by adults is illegal, Are actually offered living allowances by welfare to help them move out of home into a druggie hovel if they are indeed feeling "oppressed", Are repeatedly informed of their rights, but with no accompanying responsibility,
What is their motivation?
I think you only have to look at the falling standards of education, and indeed general intelligence levels, particularly over the years, to see there is a very serious problem for society as a whole. And I'm not trying to flame, but how many kids do you know who spell in kiddiescript, or MSN speak, or phonetically as opposed to the correct spelling? I've seen my daughters friends school work when they've been over and i'm now banned from "offering" spelling suggestions as they like using 3l33t writing in school work. If I handed it in when I was in school it would have been handed back or failed, now though of course it is considered too harsh to criticise such work!
As a parent it is almost impossible to counter the peer pressure and, despite all the wisdom or love in the world, they are an "I want an oompaloompa and I want it now" generation, but they back it up with, "I might tell my teacher you hit me" cause you took their MSN access away as they didn't do their homework!
A family we have been sort of helping with some troubles over 5-6 years had this exact kind of situation, as a parent I really felt like slapping their daughters face myself for being such a gutless and ungrateful teen that she actually had welfare and police called in over a lie. It took weeks of unbelievable distress before she finally admitted what she thought would get her a day off school turned into an horrific saga. You could say "yeah, well, it's a one off", or "sometimes that happens, they are just pushing the envelope", but this is part of a growing attitude of the "ME!" culture being permeated by society and especially peer groups.
And her parents literally are the nicest people you could meet, European background with very strong family ethics, but even bringing her up so well, she responds to the peer pressure and treats her parents inexcusably bad because she knows she CAN get away with it.
Her dad is now praying she moves out as soon as she is old enough now as he is terrified what might happen next time things don't go the way she wants it too.
So making use of technology to limit the amount of gameplay makes YOU as a parent a failure???
I suspect you live in a fairly rosy-colored world or have some helpful medications, because the majority of your comments I think are so ridiculous it doesn't bear consideration.
Yes in a perfect world our children would only push the envelope a little bit. Yes in a perfect world our children would always be thankful for vigilant guidance. Yes in a perfect world our children would always respect our authority and value the parents accumulated wisdom.
What the hell planet do you live in? "your only hope of success is to stop the kid from finding out. It usually works." CRAP! If you have kids in school, especially high school, THEY ARE discussing, behaving, and doing things that would horrify you as a parent.
The kids now have SO MANY friends who KNOW everything, and they are convinced we as parents know nothing, even though we get to routinely say "we did try to tell but you just don't want to listen!"
Couple with the tremendous peer pressure now in schools, the falling standards of education, and the minority groups educating us adults that we must "reason" with the teenagers! Reason??? Sometimes the kids make it clear they can barely tolerate parents, and this is fairly universal I've found. and YES, we HAVE had homeless kids living with us, and numerous kdis staying over, and vast amounts of volunteer work at school and kinder, etc, etc.
I think your attitude is so narrow minded I can't believe based on your remarks you have a well adjusted relationship with your kids, especially if they are teens. They really do turn to animals when they hit the teens!
Things are considerable different now than when we grew up, when we were kids we had the sense to at least pretend to respect our elders as we soon got a backhander if we didn't!
If the kids now want to do something, they feel it is their God given right, no matter what it is, and there's been plenty of adult groups whispering in their ears over the years, "mum or dad smacked you just because you swore at nanna?, you should report them to child welfare, they'll fix them up and you'll never have to do anything again cause mum and dad will be too scared!"
I totally agree that parents should monitor and correct their children's behavior, but having four children of my own, two of them teenagers, it is not that simple. I've found that no matter how much you create and build the relationship, by the time they are in early teens, peer pressure is so strong, and with diminished responsibility, that the teenagers as a result are so aimless, unmotivated, and generally obnoxious and full of their own perception of their "rights" that it is very difficult to counter. I find this with virtually all the parents I talk to, most simply put it down to them being teenagers, and can't wait for them to move out. So I welcome any move from a vendor that allows me to within reason limit the hours spent on a singular device such as the XBOX. I would love something similar for computers.
Without trying to start a flamewar, the results I see from most kids becoming increasingly socially backward spending several hours (every day!) chatting on MSN and by chatting I mean nothing more substantial than often repeated "LOL", "wassup?", and "rofl", and umpteen hours playing games does not help at all intellectually, don't get me wrong, I love nothing more than playing a bit of Unreal T or WOW on occasion, but it's a fact, if you don't use the grey cells when younger, they DON'T increase much later.
Even though I generally consider Microsoft to be from the Dark Side, they are offering a very useful "checks and balances" option to counter the growing problems in society of raising kids.
1 - hook up and power on laptop
2 - get breakfast and coffee
3 - go through security and domain logins for laptop
4 - start eating breakfast
5 - login to servers and slashdot
6 - glance at emails for anything important
7 - COFFEE!
Unless I misunderstood the story, it seems that the same state authorities that ensured the school made all it's state loan payments, "2008 was the year the district was scheduled to finish making state loan repayments under its previous loan plan", now wants IBM to not get their agreed payments? This is somewhat conceited I think. Don't worry about large prior debts, so long as you pay the state what you owe.
I didn't get the feeling that the submitter was trying to inflame or insult anyone by his terminology, and while I myself would certainly qualify as a linux fanboy, I don't blame him in the least that he was concerned about this aspect. While being passionate about something can be admirable, some fanboy's ( and there are a fair few of them) approach people with genuine questions like these with the sort of zealotry akin to the Spanish Inquisition, and in turn give the entire Linux community the "fanboy" or " fanaticist" label. Not good! But good on him for asking some genuinely good questions that at least a fair amount of people have tried to answer in a helpful way as only a (generally) like-minded, well informed and resourceful community can.
As this is basically electronic whiteboard technology applied to a laptop, it probably will only work with a flat screen CRT if at all. Although for an LCD as mentioned it seems a ludicrous product. Definately the fastest way to destroy the LCD and void a warranty! Some cheap end solutions end up quite expensive!
But surely seeing as the internet is a series of tubes, why not do all the filtering at the main tap? Or even just turn the tap off a bit to slow it to a trickle, so the kids just give up waiting ages for the obligatory 500 pop-ups to load before the porn JPEG finally does?
It always suprises me that a large percentage of people will generally state that the victimised "adult" should "turn the other cheek" and forget it as it's just a bunch of kids. I look at some of the kids in my childrens school and eevn though it's a pretty good, a lot of them are truly vicious and amazingly horrid to other kids for no reason, and usually they are like this for no reason other than they are spoilt little sh*ts who'd run home and cry to their mum if they copped the treament they dished out.
Fine and good to say it's just kids being kids, but we aren't talking about putting worms in the microwave, or other similar less soul destroying pranks are we? Until you have been in a situation like this, or even had one of your own kids in this situation like I have, you can't even begin to imagine the complete and utter despair, hopelessness, and complete sense of futility and frustration these victims feel at the hands of these gutless bullies. It actually makes you begin to understand why you read so often about kids that have been pushed to the end of their tether and then go in to school with a gun. The power these cowards attempt to wield at the painful expense of others should not be ignored,
Minority groups want to give the kids more rights, we're told kids are equal to and should be treated like adults, discipline and punishment are illegal. WAKE UP! We are talking for the most part about irresponsible, immature, children! We are breeding a generation of hopeless, aimless CHILDREN who are constantly told they have all the rights of adults, but without any of the accompanying responsibility so they learn a healthy respect for others, and life in general.
Whether or not the Principal was a prick or not doesn't matter, he and his family have been cruelly and visiously attacked by anonymous and gutless cowards, I say sue the pants off them! Even if he doesn't get any settlement, maybe these brats might learn the idea that actions may have actually have consequences! Theres an idea! And to all the people saying "so what", if it was your little darling that the principal published such guttertrash lies about in an international forum, would you still be saying, "it's only words, don't worry about it and it will go away"?
"WORDS WILL NEVER HURT ME", what a load of crap! Tell that to a victim of these kids that should be sent to military school for these horrible actions.
ummm...walk into any McDonalds or Reject Shop, buy something for $2 even, hand over a $10 note and watch how the staff cannot actually work out the change without the till informing them! I'm not talking about the staff quickly confirming their calculation with the till, what I am talking about is the inevitable look of confusion on their face as they look at the till several times while fishing out the $8 change!
A little while ago we had the same situation, the kids would come home from school and the first thing that happened when they got in was the TV went on to whatever soapie crap was on at the time! They would literally sit like a group of vegetables, mumbling incoherently when asked a question as it distracted them from the TV. Our youngest son was rapidly and very noticeably going backwards with his speech and reading. Fed up with this, I enforced a rule that the TV did not go on for around 2 1/2 hours after they got home. After a week of sulking and complaining about what horrid, unfair parents we (I) were, they actually started to play outside a bit, read books, and most amazingly, talk to each other!!!! (sorry for the extra exclamation marks but this last fact was truly amazing as generally they all acted as though they could barely tolerate each other).
I do agree wholeheartedly that as parents we need to enforce discipline, and most definately not cater to their every whim, and set real boundaries that must have consequences. If the kids know there are real expectations, they will react accordingly and despite what all the minority groups state, WILL actuially make them a better and more socially adjusted person for it! At the end of the day, they are CHILDREN, not adults, and must be treated accordingly. To treat them as adults might work for the extreme minority, but for the majority it gives a false sense of authority, and rights, with a lack of responsibility.
Paint me cynical, but why does everyone seem to think all learning must be fun?
Surely if teachers are concerned about students not learning at a high enough standard, getting them to disconnect further from reality, and gain their education from a sub-standard teaching game will further acerbate this problem?
The general "dumbing down" of the masses should be a trend that is reversed, not encouraged. If countries such as the U.S. put a fraction of their war effort budget into R&D across many fields, think of the amount of training and employment opportunities that would be created, providing an incentive to kids to further their schooling with a real result at the end?
I know with my own son, and his friends, just coasting along barely passing is the norm now, and I truly believe this is because socially they are being treated at a level they are not mature enough to appreciate, and thus they end up with a very skewed view of reality, and the long term results of under-achievement.
Education can be engaging, and informative, while not being totally futile and/or painful, it's really up to the parents and teachers, and the education department to make a real difference, instead of the increasing use of "learn by being read to by the instructor" boring the kids senseless.
Slashdot Mirror
The official course of action for COS in cases like these is set down by elron himself, basically sue, sue, harass, and then sue some more regardless of winning or losing. And unfortunately they have so much sway that sending multiple C&D's to sites/ISP's will cause most sites to drop any links or references anyway as they are too intimidated by the COS. Note that by "COS" I am of course referring to the "Cult of Scientology", as no-one could ever confuse this group with any modern day religion!
Not having a go at anyone in particular, but why does it seem that people who have supposedly become informed as to the real intent of COS, still refer to Scientology as a religion instead of the well organised cult that it is? At the higher levels it's about the most exclusive Boy's Club there is, and at the lower levels it's a blatant parasite on the lower to middle classes. Surely part of the process of stripping away any false claims of legitimacy is not elevating COS to a level akin to religions? Granted some of the religions over the centuries have been responsible for amazingly heinous behavior, but in general most religions no matter the past, don't compare nowadays to the organised potential threat posed by COS. I couldn't imagine a scarier scenario than COS members being elected to US government. Imagine a COS member being the person elected to look after health reforms, mental illness, etc.
Doesn't this pretty much come to down to a popular saying, "Never argue with an idiot, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference".
Don't get me wrong, i'm simply pointing out that there were different motivations depending on the era for teens to not rebel too much, in school when we got caught behind the sheds smoking, we got the strap (and I got a few times too!), at home if I did something really bad, I got a quick whack.
My motivation growing up was to avoid getting the strap or a whack as a result of breaking clearly defined boundaries of responsibility, and the associated expected bahavior.
Now for the kids who are:
Clearly more knowledgeable than their parents or any other living adults, apart from Eminem of course,
Whose friends know everything that they themselves don't know,
Have it drummed in by authority that being yelled at, smacked, or made to feel "oppressed" by adults is illegal,
Are actually offered living allowances by welfare to help them move out of home into a druggie hovel if they are indeed feeling "oppressed",
Are repeatedly informed of their rights, but with no accompanying responsibility,
What is their motivation?
I think you only have to look at the falling standards of education, and indeed general intelligence levels, particularly over the years, to see there is a very serious problem for society as a whole. And I'm not trying to flame, but how many kids do you know who spell in kiddiescript, or MSN speak, or phonetically as opposed to the correct spelling? I've seen my daughters friends school work when they've been over and i'm now banned from "offering" spelling suggestions as they like using 3l33t writing in school work. If I handed it in when I was in school it would have been handed back or failed, now though of course it is considered too harsh to criticise such work!
As a parent it is almost impossible to counter the peer pressure and, despite all the wisdom or love in the world, they are an "I want an oompaloompa and I want it now" generation, but they back it up with, "I might tell my teacher you hit me" cause you took their MSN access away as they didn't do their homework!
A family we have been sort of helping with some troubles over 5-6 years had this exact kind of situation, as a parent I really felt like slapping their daughters face myself for being such a gutless and ungrateful teen that she actually had welfare and police called in over a lie. It took weeks of unbelievable distress before she finally admitted what she thought would get her a day off school turned into an horrific saga. You could say "yeah, well, it's a one off", or "sometimes that happens, they are just pushing the envelope", but this is part of a growing attitude of the "ME!" culture being permeated by society and especially peer groups.
And her parents literally are the nicest people you could meet, European background with very strong family ethics, but even bringing her up so well, she responds to the peer pressure and treats her parents inexcusably bad because she knows she CAN get away with it.
Her dad is now praying she moves out as soon as she is old enough now as he is terrified what might happen next time things don't go the way she wants it too.
All I can is WOW!
So making use of technology to limit the amount of gameplay makes YOU as a parent a failure???
I suspect you live in a fairly rosy-colored world or have some helpful medications, because the majority of your comments I think are so ridiculous it doesn't bear consideration.
Yes in a perfect world our children would only push the envelope a little bit.
Yes in a perfect world our children would always be thankful for vigilant guidance.
Yes in a perfect world our children would always respect our authority and value the parents accumulated wisdom.
What the hell planet do you live in? "your only hope of success is to stop the kid from finding out. It usually works." CRAP! If you have kids in school, especially high school, THEY ARE discussing, behaving, and doing things that would horrify you as a parent.
The kids now have SO MANY friends who KNOW everything, and they are convinced we as parents know nothing, even though we get to routinely say "we did try to tell but you just don't want to listen!"
Couple with the tremendous peer pressure now in schools, the falling standards of education, and the minority groups educating us adults that we must "reason" with the teenagers! Reason??? Sometimes the kids make it clear they can barely tolerate parents, and this is fairly universal I've found. and YES, we HAVE had homeless kids living with us, and numerous kdis staying over, and vast amounts of volunteer work at school and kinder, etc, etc.
I think your attitude is so narrow minded I can't believe based on your remarks you have a well adjusted relationship with your kids, especially if they are teens. They really do turn to animals when they hit the teens!
Things are considerable different now than when we grew up, when we were kids we had the sense to at least pretend to respect our elders as we soon got a backhander if we didn't!
If the kids now want to do something, they feel it is their God given right, no matter what it is, and there's been plenty of adult groups whispering in their ears over the years, "mum or dad smacked you just because you swore at nanna?, you should report them to child welfare, they'll fix them up and you'll never have to do anything again cause mum and dad will be too scared!"
Again, WOW!
I totally agree that parents should monitor and correct their children's behavior, but having four children of my own, two of them teenagers, it is not that simple. I've found that no matter how much you create and build the relationship, by the time they are in early teens, peer pressure is so strong, and with diminished responsibility, that the teenagers as a result are so aimless, unmotivated, and generally obnoxious and full of their own perception of their "rights" that it is very difficult to counter. I find this with virtually all the parents I talk to, most simply put it down to them being teenagers, and can't wait for them to move out. So I welcome any move from a vendor that allows me to within reason limit the hours spent on a singular device such as the XBOX. I would love something similar for computers. Without trying to start a flamewar, the results I see from most kids becoming increasingly socially backward spending several hours (every day!) chatting on MSN and by chatting I mean nothing more substantial than often repeated "LOL", "wassup?", and "rofl", and umpteen hours playing games does not help at all intellectually, don't get me wrong, I love nothing more than playing a bit of Unreal T or WOW on occasion, but it's a fact, if you don't use the grey cells when younger, they DON'T increase much later. Even though I generally consider Microsoft to be from the Dark Side, they are offering a very useful "checks and balances" option to counter the growing problems in society of raising kids.
1 - hook up and power on laptop 2 - get breakfast and coffee 3 - go through security and domain logins for laptop 4 - start eating breakfast 5 - login to servers and slashdot 6 - glance at emails for anything important 7 - COFFEE!
I was actually thinking the same thing! Sometimes it's just too painful for words to express.
Unless I misunderstood the story, it seems that the same state authorities that ensured the school made all it's state loan payments, "2008 was the year the district was scheduled to finish making state loan repayments under its previous loan plan", now wants IBM to not get their agreed payments? This is somewhat conceited I think. Don't worry about large prior debts, so long as you pay the state what you owe.
I didn't get the feeling that the submitter was trying to inflame or insult anyone by his terminology, and while I myself would certainly qualify as a linux fanboy, I don't blame him in the least that he was concerned about this aspect. While being passionate about something can be admirable, some fanboy's ( and there are a fair few of them) approach people with genuine questions like these with the sort of zealotry akin to the Spanish Inquisition, and in turn give the entire Linux community the "fanboy" or " fanaticist" label. Not good! But good on him for asking some genuinely good questions that at least a fair amount of people have tried to answer in a helpful way as only a (generally) like-minded, well informed and resourceful community can.
OKAY, I couldn't help it! Someone HAD to sign Bill up!
As this is basically electronic whiteboard technology applied to a laptop, it probably will only work with a flat screen CRT if at all. Although for an LCD as mentioned it seems a ludicrous product. Definately the fastest way to destroy the LCD and void a warranty! Some cheap end solutions end up quite expensive!
But surely seeing as the internet is a series of tubes, why not do all the filtering at the main tap? Or even just turn the tap off a bit to slow it to a trickle, so the kids just give up waiting ages for the obligatory 500 pop-ups to load before the porn JPEG finally does?
It always suprises me that a large percentage of people will generally state that the victimised "adult" should "turn the other cheek" and forget it as it's just a bunch of kids. I look at some of the kids in my childrens school and eevn though it's a pretty good, a lot of them are truly vicious and amazingly horrid to other kids for no reason, and usually they are like this for no reason other than they are spoilt little sh*ts who'd run home and cry to their mum if they copped the treament they dished out. Fine and good to say it's just kids being kids, but we aren't talking about putting worms in the microwave, or other similar less soul destroying pranks are we? Until you have been in a situation like this, or even had one of your own kids in this situation like I have, you can't even begin to imagine the complete and utter despair, hopelessness, and complete sense of futility and frustration these victims feel at the hands of these gutless bullies. It actually makes you begin to understand why you read so often about kids that have been pushed to the end of their tether and then go in to school with a gun. The power these cowards attempt to wield at the painful expense of others should not be ignored, Minority groups want to give the kids more rights, we're told kids are equal to and should be treated like adults, discipline and punishment are illegal. WAKE UP! We are talking for the most part about irresponsible, immature, children! We are breeding a generation of hopeless, aimless CHILDREN who are constantly told they have all the rights of adults, but without any of the accompanying responsibility so they learn a healthy respect for others, and life in general. Whether or not the Principal was a prick or not doesn't matter, he and his family have been cruelly and visiously attacked by anonymous and gutless cowards, I say sue the pants off them! Even if he doesn't get any settlement, maybe these brats might learn the idea that actions may have actually have consequences! Theres an idea! And to all the people saying "so what", if it was your little darling that the principal published such guttertrash lies about in an international forum, would you still be saying, "it's only words, don't worry about it and it will go away"? "WORDS WILL NEVER HURT ME", what a load of crap! Tell that to a victim of these kids that should be sent to military school for these horrible actions.
ummm...walk into any McDonalds or Reject Shop, buy something for $2 even, hand over a $10 note and watch how the staff cannot actually work out the change without the till informing them! I'm not talking about the staff quickly confirming their calculation with the till, what I am talking about is the inevitable look of confusion on their face as they look at the till several times while fishing out the $8 change!
A little while ago we had the same situation, the kids would come home from school and the first thing that happened when they got in was the TV went on to whatever soapie crap was on at the time! They would literally sit like a group of vegetables, mumbling incoherently when asked a question as it distracted them from the TV. Our youngest son was rapidly and very noticeably going backwards with his speech and reading. Fed up with this, I enforced a rule that the TV did not go on for around 2 1/2 hours after they got home. After a week of sulking and complaining about what horrid, unfair parents we (I) were, they actually started to play outside a bit, read books, and most amazingly, talk to each other!!!! (sorry for the extra exclamation marks but this last fact was truly amazing as generally they all acted as though they could barely tolerate each other). I do agree wholeheartedly that as parents we need to enforce discipline, and most definately not cater to their every whim, and set real boundaries that must have consequences. If the kids know there are real expectations, they will react accordingly and despite what all the minority groups state, WILL actuially make them a better and more socially adjusted person for it! At the end of the day, they are CHILDREN, not adults, and must be treated accordingly. To treat them as adults might work for the extreme minority, but for the majority it gives a false sense of authority, and rights, with a lack of responsibility.
Paint me cynical, but why does everyone seem to think all learning must be fun? Surely if teachers are concerned about students not learning at a high enough standard, getting them to disconnect further from reality, and gain their education from a sub-standard teaching game will further acerbate this problem? The general "dumbing down" of the masses should be a trend that is reversed, not encouraged. If countries such as the U.S. put a fraction of their war effort budget into R&D across many fields, think of the amount of training and employment opportunities that would be created, providing an incentive to kids to further their schooling with a real result at the end? I know with my own son, and his friends, just coasting along barely passing is the norm now, and I truly believe this is because socially they are being treated at a level they are not mature enough to appreciate, and thus they end up with a very skewed view of reality, and the long term results of under-achievement. Education can be engaging, and informative, while not being totally futile and/or painful, it's really up to the parents and teachers, and the education department to make a real difference, instead of the increasing use of "learn by being read to by the instructor" boring the kids senseless.
WOW! We be edumacated!
Then again, it could just be a conspiracy?