I think that Netflix is being brilliant, actually, in their quest to be ubiquitous. They could have gone the route of "You want to stream? Buy this box." but instead chose to say "You want to stream? Okay, what've you got? game console? tivo? roku? blueray player? laptop? "
If they're everywhere, then they'll be the first thing someone thinks of when they want streaming, digital entertainment.
I've seen some people furiously shake their iPhone, on purpose. When asked what they're doing, they say that shaking makes the App do a "refresh", only it doesn't always register the command, so they have to do it again. You know what I do to make an app refresh it's content? I hit the refresh button with my finger, which has benefits including, but not limited to: not looking like a fool, not accidentally launching my phone across the room, not requiring an order of magnitude more energy to perform, and oh, did I mention not looking like a fool?
Considering the state of the world, I don't think some people would mind trying having temporarily having a king to kick the asshats out of government. Some days I think we should just give absolute power to one man temporarily so he can get fire and get rid of people who are not doing their jobs.
They tried that once. His name was Julius Caesar. They had to assassinate him to get him to give up the power.
This is advice worth taking. I've got a 10-year old Epson inkjet that I pray never dies, because I can get a 6 pack (3 b&w, 3 color) off EBay for less than $20.
Usually it seems like the newer the model, the less 3rd-party options there are, but if you can manage to hang onto (or find) an older model printer, the ink starts to drop in price quite substantially.
The teacher's union of Toledo, Ohio has for years had a "peer review" policy where they would meet annually to discuss & potentially dismiss teachers that have been deemed "incompetent". This isn't the school board firing teachers... it's the teacher's union itself.
This, I think, is an example of a union doing exactly what it should be doing: Protecting it's valued members and getting rid of the dead weight. With a system in place (which is largely supported by the union members) to keep a shared level of quality among members, I would think that their bargaining power when it comes to discussing benefits & pay could be largely deserved.
If more unions took it upon themselves to actively resist providing shelter to the incompetent, I think the general impression of unions wouldn't be nearly as negative.
but every year he would take leave from work and go down to the tag office and wait in line for 2-3 hours to renew his tag on the very last day you could do it. He wouldn't do it through the mail, which was an option, because that would cost money for postage AND the state charged you 1 dollar extra for renewing it by mail
And he was actually *losing* money by waiting in line to do it in person. Cost to renew by mail: ~$1.37, whereas 2 hours of his time cost (I have no idea what his rate would have been, but let's assume $50/hr) $100 in lost income. So he's not only cheap, but stupid.
"I _wish_ CS degrees actually taught people different programming languages these days"
Personally, I'm glad they don't. I see nothing wrong with an Intro to C/C++/Java class way at the beginning, but that's about as far as it should go. Once you have the foundation to understand how languages work, classes should focus on higher-level concepts which apply to nearly all programming languages, rather than showing you how to do specific things in a specific language.
Once you know one procedural/object oriented language, you basically know them all. They all have closely overlapping abilities, with the only large hurdle being syntax, which can be overcome by having a language reference handy the first few days of coding. I can understand a seperate class to delve into the complexities of, say, functional programming (LISP) and another for logic programming (ProLog), and maybe even low-level Assembly coding, but again, with those, once you get the "style" down, you are set. Do you really need a seperate C, Java,.NET, PHP, etc class?
Personally, I don't care what color of ink is in my pen, it only matters that I know how to write.
I've been using my Palm PDA as an MP3 player for some time now. I only have a 256 MB SD card for it, but I find that I can fit more music on it than the battery can last anyway. I'm okay with swapping out music every couple of days. I understand how music lovers might want a dedicated device such as an iPod, however for the person who just wants some music occasionally, and could make use of a PDA, then it's a great option.
The only real limiting factor is the short battery life compared to other standalone MP3 players. I can get about 5 hours out of my Palm when I keep the screen off while it is playing. More than enough for my needs, and it charges back up very fast if need be.
And of course the big benefit to relying on a PDA with swappable memory cards, is that the price of flash-based memory is constantly falling. I'm eyeing the 1 Gig SD cards presently. Cheapest I've seen is a rebate offer bringing them down to ~$50. Next time I spot one of those deals, I'll most likely pick it up so that I won't need to manage the music on my card nearly as often.
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I think that Netflix is being brilliant, actually, in their quest to be ubiquitous. They could have gone the route of "You want to stream? Buy this box." but instead chose to say "You want to stream? Okay, what've you got? game console? tivo? roku? blueray player? laptop? "
If they're everywhere, then they'll be the first thing someone thinks of when they want streaming, digital entertainment.
I've seen some people furiously shake their iPhone, on purpose. When asked what they're doing, they say that shaking makes the App do a "refresh", only it doesn't always register the command, so they have to do it again. You know what I do to make an app refresh it's content? I hit the refresh button with my finger, which has benefits including, but not limited to: not looking like a fool, not accidentally launching my phone across the room, not requiring an order of magnitude more energy to perform, and oh, did I mention not looking like a fool?
Considering the state of the world, I don't think some people would mind trying having temporarily having a king to kick the asshats out of government. Some days I think we should just give absolute power to one man temporarily so he can get fire and get rid of people who are not doing their jobs.
They tried that once. His name was Julius Caesar. They had to assassinate him to get him to give up the power.
...and give 3rd party consumables a try...
This is advice worth taking. I've got a 10-year old Epson inkjet that I pray never dies, because I can get a 6 pack (3 b&w, 3 color) off EBay for less than $20.
Usually it seems like the newer the model, the less 3rd-party options there are, but if you can manage to hang onto (or find) an older model printer, the ink starts to drop in price quite substantially.
The teacher's union of Toledo, Ohio has for years had a "peer review" policy where they would meet annually to discuss & potentially dismiss teachers that have been deemed "incompetent". This isn't the school board firing teachers... it's the teacher's union itself.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91327130
This, I think, is an example of a union doing exactly what it should be doing: Protecting it's valued members and getting rid of the dead weight. With a system in place (which is largely supported by the union members) to keep a shared level of quality among members, I would think that their bargaining power when it comes to discussing benefits & pay could be largely deserved.
If more unions took it upon themselves to actively resist providing shelter to the incompetent, I think the general impression of unions wouldn't be nearly as negative.
but every year he would take leave from work and go down to the tag office and wait in line for 2-3 hours to renew his tag on the very last day you could do it. He wouldn't do it through the mail, which was an option, because that would cost money for postage AND the state charged you 1 dollar extra for renewing it by mail
And he was actually *losing* money by waiting in line to do it in person. Cost to renew by mail: ~$1.37, whereas 2 hours of his time cost (I have no idea what his rate would have been, but let's assume $50/hr) $100 in lost income. So he's not only cheap, but stupid.
"I _wish_ CS degrees actually taught people different programming languages these days"
.NET, PHP, etc class?
Personally, I'm glad they don't. I see nothing wrong with an Intro to C/C++/Java class way at the beginning, but that's about as far as it should go. Once you have the foundation to understand how languages work, classes should focus on higher-level concepts which apply to nearly all programming languages, rather than showing you how to do specific things in a specific language.
Once you know one procedural/object oriented language, you basically know them all. They all have closely overlapping abilities, with the only large hurdle being syntax, which can be overcome by having a language reference handy the first few days of coding. I can understand a seperate class to delve into the complexities of, say, functional programming (LISP) and another for logic programming (ProLog), and maybe even low-level Assembly coding, but again, with those, once you get the "style" down, you are set. Do you really need a seperate C, Java,
Personally, I don't care what color of ink is in my pen, it only matters that I know how to write.
I've been using my Palm PDA as an MP3 player for some time now. I only have a 256 MB SD card for it, but I find that I can fit more music on it than the battery can last anyway. I'm okay with swapping out music every couple of days. I understand how music lovers might want a dedicated device such as an iPod, however for the person who just wants some music occasionally, and could make use of a PDA, then it's a great option.
The only real limiting factor is the short battery life compared to other standalone MP3 players. I can get about 5 hours out of my Palm when I keep the screen off while it is playing. More than enough for my needs, and it charges back up very fast if need be.
And of course the big benefit to relying on a PDA with swappable memory cards, is that the price of flash-based memory is constantly falling. I'm eyeing the 1 Gig SD cards presently. Cheapest I've seen is a rebate offer bringing them down to ~$50. Next time I spot one of those deals, I'll most likely pick it up so that I won't need to manage the music on my card nearly as often.