I guess genius here never tried to double click any of the messages. It opens it in a new minitab within the Y!mail main window/tab.
Oh, of course! Why would anyone be so silly as to think that single-clicking something on a web page would give you the desired result? Just because everything on the web is controlled by single-clicking, and you basically never double-click within a web browser (and sometimes if you do, things get sent twice), of course he should have thought to double-click when single-clicking didn't work!
Why didn't he also try dragging it somewhere, or highlighting it and hitting ctrl-C, or right-clicking? Those are all things that have meaning somewhere on a computer, so of course you should automatically try them when a web page doesn't do what you expect on a single click.
I agree. I've been using Yahoo mail for years. I like it. I tried GMail, but it was very slow and wouldn't even work when I was using Safari. Have these issues been fixed? Maybe, but they weren't when I tried it and now inertia has set in. I check my gmail account now and then, but it's not really giving me any reason to change from Yahoo.
However, if Yahoo decides that I need to use their new Outlook-type system, that might get me to change to GMail. It just might be more annoying than letting everyone on earth know that my email address has changed.
I don't think the Mini has been out quite long enough to make this kind of statement about it. Before the mini came along, I bought the cheapest Mac available - the eMac. I've had it for over four years now, and I have no intention of replacing it for probably another two years. I upgraded the RAM, and it has no problem doing everything I need it to do. I had to use DiskWarrior on it once when the hard drive went crazy, but DW salvaged all my data and I've had no problems in the year since. Overall, I think it's aging very nicely - you'd hardly know it was four years older than the nice Intel iMac I'm using here at work, except that it starts up a little slower.
In general, I think that Apple does a great job on the longevity of their computers. I don't know about iPods; I've heard a few stories of people still using their G1 or G2s, but more horror stories about needing replacement batteries. The computers, though, there are plenty of 5+ year old Macs out there chugging away with no problem. I don't think any Apple computer has ever been a "throw-away". They're generally built to last.
Just a few months ago, someone "broke into" my sister's PayPal account, and from there her bank account.
A couple of months after the fact, my mom let slip that not only was this actually because she fell for phishing, but my mom had fallen for the same email - luckily, they didn't get to her bank account. (Mainly b/c when my sister discovered what had happened, my mom ran to cover her ass.)
I wanted to whack them both upside the head. But trust me, they are far more representative of the average user than you or I.
Wal-Mart has that kind of leverage over just about any company BUT Disney. This is a clash of the titans kind of situation - when a new Disney DVD comes out, people will rush out to buy it. Parents, grandparents, Disneyphiles, nostalgics. And if they can't find it at Wal-Mart, they'll say "Gee, that's odd" and go buy it somewhere else. But they will buy it somewhere. And when there kids MUST HAVE an Incredibles birthday party, they will find the Incredibles party supplies somewhere. They won't settle for some other cartoon just because that's what Wal-Mart has in stock, not when they've already promised The Incredibles.
For most things Wal-Mart sells, this isn't the case. WM doesn't carry Glad trash bags anymore? Guess I'll get Hefty this week. No Sony TVs? Guess it'll be a Panasonic. Even most other movies and music, people will often just buy something similar if what they were looking for isn't available. But if you own every Disney DVD made so far, there's no replacement for the new Little Mermaid two-disc set.
Good to know that Henry Jenkins now speaks as the representative for all of MIT. Even when he posts something on his personal website, rather than on his MIT-hosted site.
He's awesome and all, but c'mon. Maybe President Hockfield has a totally different take on webcomic micropayments. Or maybe there was a vote at the last faculty meeting to not conduct this interview.
Probably only PeTA. The ASPCA is generally concerned with fish, and as they are an animal welfare organization, rather than an animal rights organization, generally have no problem with legitimate uses of animals for the overall good as long as there is no undue suffering. You won't find the ASPCA blanket-protesting animal research or eating meat. That's for PeTA, just like protesting fishing.
I actually have the option of downloading a textbook for a class this fall for free. I'm buying the book. Reading long text on a computer screen just doesn't work for me, and printing out 372 pages seems silly. Besides which, it's a class directly related to my field which means I'll likely want to keep the book for future reference - so I'll want a bound copy that will stay readable over time.
Of course, it helps that the bound copy of this particular book is under $20 at Amazon. If this were one of the $100 textbooks and weren't available used, I may actually say screw it, I'll use a ream of paper and a couple ink cartridges printing it out and get a nice binder for it.
Fix the fundamental problem rather than trying to limit the damage to the current teachers.
Deciding that all teachers shall learn three OSes is not "fixing the fundamental problem." It's ignoring the problem and thinking that if you proceed as if it's not there, it will go away. You need to fix the fundamental problems FIRST, then you can can focus on making sure all teachers are super-computer-literate. Because that's not one of the fundamental problems.
The fundamental problems are more things like teacher training programs on the college level that don't include any computer instruction at all, or even more fundamentally, teacher training programs that don't (successfully) encourage teachers to keep learning once they graduate. Lack of incentives to entice those who are more intrinsically motivated to learn into the profession. Crappy outdated tenure policies that make it impossible to fire bad teachers. Things like that. Teachers' ability to use different types of computers, and school districts' abilities to train them to, is another level up from those things.
You are absolutely right that we should have high enough quality teachers that this wouldn't be an issue. But unfortunately, we don't in most places, and you'd have to solve that problem first. And that gets into an ENTIRELY different discussion (such as how to make the profession of teaching more attractive to the most qualified people). You're talking about ideal situations, I'm talking about reality as it is right now. Having all schools on three OSes would be great, but it would not be practical or even possible the way things are right now. Yes, if we had nothing but great teachers who are themselves lifelong learners etc etc, it would probably work. But until you can make that happen, it's only possible in la-la land.
And I'm just talking about the situation in the US right now. I don't even know what it's like in India, which is what the article is talking about. I doubt that their average teacher quality is significantly higher than ours.
At our site we have a mixure of Windows, Linux and Macs and the only people who really have problems are the PA and secretarial types who really don't know anything about their computers and function by remembering where stuff is. Move anything and they panic.
And that's where a lot of teachers are. I've been through an MAEd program, and one at a halfway decent college. A lot of my classmates in that program would have needed a LOT of training to master three OSes. I took a class on technology in curriculum, and it was held in a Mac lab. Even in this class only being taken by people who are interested in tech and its applications in education, a good portion of the class had problems using the Macs. And we were really only using them for basic things like web browsing and a few educational apps.
Not all teachers are like this, of course, but enough are. Plus, they have enough to do already - schools have trouble fitting in the amount of professional development they need already, even fitting in a two-day seminar on a new operating system would be a challenge.
Although I agree with you in theory that kids should be exposed to all different OSes, this would be a logistical and financial nightmare for most US school districts, never mind poorer ones in India.
They'd have to train all their teachers and administrators in all three OSes. Many of these teachers and admins can barely manage working one type of computer and require heavy training to do that. If you're hoping they'll use these to enhance their curriculum, rather than simply teach kids how to use a computer, then that's ANOTHER whole round of training, on each OS. In fact, for effective technology use in the curriculum, both teachers and administrators need ongoing training - which is 3x as hard with 3 OSes.
Then there's the kids. With everything else they need to learn, now you have to put in 3x the computer classes. And in poorer areas, they probably don't have a computer at home to learn any of it on, it's all on the school. Yes, in the end it might increase their marketability so they can get a decent job, but how big an increase is it vs the increase from no computer skills to one OS?
It might be the ideal, but it's not very realistic. At most, having different OSes for a couple different purposes (for instance, Macs for graphic design etc) where only certain teachers need to know how to use them is probably the best most schools can do.
This was one of the things we were told by upperclassmen when I got to college - use your bed only for sleep and sex. If you do work on it, you'll have more trouble sleeping because your brain won't automatically associate "lay on bed" with "go to sleep". And you'll be getting little enough sleep as it is.
I've never figured out why you would want/need a teeny-tiny cel phone. But then, I don't know why you'd need a color screen or special ringtones either. My phone doesn't even flip or fold up or anything. My husband's does, but I find it less comfortable to talk on than mine. He was actually annoyed to find that the only free phones T-Mobile had available when we signed him up were fancy flip-phones with color displays, he likes mine better.
They work at the retail stores. Why on earth would Apple release free copies to every retail lackey, MONTHS before it's actually available to anyone but developers? I'm sure the people who need it for their jobs have their copies already - the cashier doesn't need it.
Really, when was the last time anybody around here listened to "Beat It" or "Like a Virgin"? Seriously, those don't get any more airplay than Al's versions do these days, how can you say his versions have less staying power?
True, some of his parodies are timely and don't hold up well over time... When I listen to "Headline News" now, I'm like, oh yeah, some kid got caned for chewing gum in... Singapore, was it? Was that really big enough news to write a song about? Huh. I honestly think his originals are overall better quality than the parodies and stand the test of time better (because you don't have to remember the song they're based on to enjoy them) - but unfortunately, they don't get radio play so many people don't even know they exist. But I'll be listening to "Melody" or "You Don't Love Me Anymore" or "Frank's 2000 Inch TV" decades from now.
Btw, do you think he doesn't tour? I've only gotten to see him once (Running w/ Scissors), but I plan to catch the SOL tour. He does tend to play in smaller venues, where even the cheap seats are only a few yards from the stage, and it's terrific.
When I was in high school a decade ago, I never had a curfew - I just had to call my mom at a certain time, or every X hours, or whatever, to let her know I was still alive and about when I'd be home (which was never a crazy hour on a school night anyhow, I had scholar bowl practice at 6am for pete's sake!). This was easy, because there were pay phones everywhere. If I needed a ride home from an afterschool activity or from just socializing, I called her on a pay phone. Etc etc etc.
The problem is, with the rise of cel phones, there are no more pay phones. At least, hardly any. I've tried to find one once or twice, and it's hard. As such, any teen who wants to contact their parents either has to have a cel phone or borrow a friend's. You can't even guarantee that if they're at a friend's house, there will be a landline for them to call on (or for you to call them on)! I'd definitely want my teen to have one, just because these days there is a serious lack of other options.
That said, I agree with other posters that until the kid is old enough to be doing this kind of stuff on their own, they probably don't need one. Although the ones people have mentioned that will only call parents or emergency #s sound like they might not be a bad idea, as long as the kid knows when and how to use it responsibly.
You seem to have an amazingly oversimplified view of how easy it is to keep kids safe. I'm not a parent yet, but even I know that every parent, even the best, is likely to have one or two panicky moments when Junior was right by their side a minute ago and now is nowhere to be seen. It only takes a few seconds, and if your kid can call you when they wind up "lost" three aisles down from you it can prevent a lot of panic on both ends.
Heck, I had a scary experience as a kid that shows you can't be too careful. We were at TG&Y (a now-defunct K-Martlike store), and I was walking a couple steps behind my mom. I was like 3-4 years old, it's one of my earliest really clear memories. I stopped to look at a purse or something else pretty on a display, got maybe 5-6 feet behind mom as a result - and a second later, someone had grabbed me from behind, with their hand over my mouth. Luckily, when the person swung me around I saw my cousin standing there - my "kidnapper" was my aunt, who happened to see us in the store and noticed that I was lagging behind. My mom walked maybe 10 feet or less before she noticed that I was no longer right behind her, but it was enough.
Some of your other reasons make more sense, but saying that a parent is a failure if they lose sight of their kids at some point is really unnecessarily harsh. Ask your parents if YOU ever got away from them for a few seconds in a crowd.
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Oh, of course! Why would anyone be so silly as to think that single-clicking something on a web page would give you the desired result? Just because everything on the web is controlled by single-clicking, and you basically never double-click within a web browser (and sometimes if you do, things get sent twice), of course he should have thought to double-click when single-clicking didn't work!
Why didn't he also try dragging it somewhere, or highlighting it and hitting ctrl-C, or right-clicking? Those are all things that have meaning somewhere on a computer, so of course you should automatically try them when a web page doesn't do what you expect on a single click.
However, if Yahoo decides that I need to use their new Outlook-type system, that might get me to change to GMail. It just might be more annoying than letting everyone on earth know that my email address has changed.
I don't think the Mini has been out quite long enough to make this kind of statement about it. Before the mini came along, I bought the cheapest Mac available - the eMac. I've had it for over four years now, and I have no intention of replacing it for probably another two years. I upgraded the RAM, and it has no problem doing everything I need it to do. I had to use DiskWarrior on it once when the hard drive went crazy, but DW salvaged all my data and I've had no problems in the year since. Overall, I think it's aging very nicely - you'd hardly know it was four years older than the nice Intel iMac I'm using here at work, except that it starts up a little slower.
In general, I think that Apple does a great job on the longevity of their computers. I don't know about iPods; I've heard a few stories of people still using their G1 or G2s, but more horror stories about needing replacement batteries. The computers, though, there are plenty of 5+ year old Macs out there chugging away with no problem. I don't think any Apple computer has ever been a "throw-away". They're generally built to last.
There are tons of things you can pay for online with just a routing # and account #, and the name on the account.
A couple of months after the fact, my mom let slip that not only was this actually because she fell for phishing, but my mom had fallen for the same email - luckily, they didn't get to her bank account. (Mainly b/c when my sister discovered what had happened, my mom ran to cover her ass.)
I wanted to whack them both upside the head. But trust me, they are far more representative of the average user than you or I.
For most things Wal-Mart sells, this isn't the case. WM doesn't carry Glad trash bags anymore? Guess I'll get Hefty this week. No Sony TVs? Guess it'll be a Panasonic. Even most other movies and music, people will often just buy something similar if what they were looking for isn't available. But if you own every Disney DVD made so far, there's no replacement for the new Little Mermaid two-disc set.
He's awesome and all, but c'mon. Maybe President Hockfield has a totally different take on webcomic micropayments. Or maybe there was a vote at the last faculty meeting to not conduct this interview.
Works on Macintel 10.4 FF for me.
Sorry, should read the ASPCA is generally less concerned with fish. Doh.
Probably only PeTA. The ASPCA is generally concerned with fish, and as they are an animal welfare organization, rather than an animal rights organization, generally have no problem with legitimate uses of animals for the overall good as long as there is no undue suffering. You won't find the ASPCA blanket-protesting animal research or eating meat. That's for PeTA, just like protesting fishing.
But it's not a chemical reaction at all, it's just a physical change of state.
Yes, I love iWork's spreadsheet program. Oh, wait.
When will NeoOffice (Mac-native OOo) stop sucking so hard?
Of course, it helps that the bound copy of this particular book is under $20 at Amazon. If this were one of the $100 textbooks and weren't available used, I may actually say screw it, I'll use a ream of paper and a couple ink cartridges printing it out and get a nice binder for it.
Deciding that all teachers shall learn three OSes is not "fixing the fundamental problem." It's ignoring the problem and thinking that if you proceed as if it's not there, it will go away. You need to fix the fundamental problems FIRST, then you can can focus on making sure all teachers are super-computer-literate. Because that's not one of the fundamental problems.
The fundamental problems are more things like teacher training programs on the college level that don't include any computer instruction at all, or even more fundamentally, teacher training programs that don't (successfully) encourage teachers to keep learning once they graduate. Lack of incentives to entice those who are more intrinsically motivated to learn into the profession. Crappy outdated tenure policies that make it impossible to fire bad teachers. Things like that. Teachers' ability to use different types of computers, and school districts' abilities to train them to, is another level up from those things.
And I'm just talking about the situation in the US right now. I don't even know what it's like in India, which is what the article is talking about. I doubt that their average teacher quality is significantly higher than ours.
And that's where a lot of teachers are. I've been through an MAEd program, and one at a halfway decent college. A lot of my classmates in that program would have needed a LOT of training to master three OSes. I took a class on technology in curriculum, and it was held in a Mac lab. Even in this class only being taken by people who are interested in tech and its applications in education, a good portion of the class had problems using the Macs. And we were really only using them for basic things like web browsing and a few educational apps.
Not all teachers are like this, of course, but enough are. Plus, they have enough to do already - schools have trouble fitting in the amount of professional development they need already, even fitting in a two-day seminar on a new operating system would be a challenge.
They'd have to train all their teachers and administrators in all three OSes. Many of these teachers and admins can barely manage working one type of computer and require heavy training to do that. If you're hoping they'll use these to enhance their curriculum, rather than simply teach kids how to use a computer, then that's ANOTHER whole round of training, on each OS. In fact, for effective technology use in the curriculum, both teachers and administrators need ongoing training - which is 3x as hard with 3 OSes.
Then there's the kids. With everything else they need to learn, now you have to put in 3x the computer classes. And in poorer areas, they probably don't have a computer at home to learn any of it on, it's all on the school. Yes, in the end it might increase their marketability so they can get a decent job, but how big an increase is it vs the increase from no computer skills to one OS?
It might be the ideal, but it's not very realistic. At most, having different OSes for a couple different purposes (for instance, Macs for graphic design etc) where only certain teachers need to know how to use them is probably the best most schools can do.
This was one of the things we were told by upperclassmen when I got to college - use your bed only for sleep and sex. If you do work on it, you'll have more trouble sleeping because your brain won't automatically associate "lay on bed" with "go to sleep". And you'll be getting little enough sleep as it is.
I've never figured out why you would want/need a teeny-tiny cel phone. But then, I don't know why you'd need a color screen or special ringtones either. My phone doesn't even flip or fold up or anything. My husband's does, but I find it less comfortable to talk on than mine. He was actually annoyed to find that the only free phones T-Mobile had available when we signed him up were fancy flip-phones with color displays, he likes mine better.
They work at the retail stores. Why on earth would Apple release free copies to every retail lackey, MONTHS before it's actually available to anyone but developers? I'm sure the people who need it for their jobs have their copies already - the cashier doesn't need it.
True, some of his parodies are timely and don't hold up well over time... When I listen to "Headline News" now, I'm like, oh yeah, some kid got caned for chewing gum in... Singapore, was it? Was that really big enough news to write a song about? Huh. I honestly think his originals are overall better quality than the parodies and stand the test of time better (because you don't have to remember the song they're based on to enjoy them) - but unfortunately, they don't get radio play so many people don't even know they exist. But I'll be listening to "Melody" or "You Don't Love Me Anymore" or "Frank's 2000 Inch TV" decades from now.
Btw, do you think he doesn't tour? I've only gotten to see him once (Running w/ Scissors), but I plan to catch the SOL tour. He does tend to play in smaller venues, where even the cheap seats are only a few yards from the stage, and it's terrific.
Graph from Alexa.com showing myspace traffic vs slashdot traffic over 6 months. I don't think they need to worry about us.
The problem is, with the rise of cel phones, there are no more pay phones. At least, hardly any. I've tried to find one once or twice, and it's hard. As such, any teen who wants to contact their parents either has to have a cel phone or borrow a friend's. You can't even guarantee that if they're at a friend's house, there will be a landline for them to call on (or for you to call them on)! I'd definitely want my teen to have one, just because these days there is a serious lack of other options.
That said, I agree with other posters that until the kid is old enough to be doing this kind of stuff on their own, they probably don't need one. Although the ones people have mentioned that will only call parents or emergency #s sound like they might not be a bad idea, as long as the kid knows when and how to use it responsibly.
Heck, I had a scary experience as a kid that shows you can't be too careful. We were at TG&Y (a now-defunct K-Martlike store), and I was walking a couple steps behind my mom. I was like 3-4 years old, it's one of my earliest really clear memories. I stopped to look at a purse or something else pretty on a display, got maybe 5-6 feet behind mom as a result - and a second later, someone had grabbed me from behind, with their hand over my mouth. Luckily, when the person swung me around I saw my cousin standing there - my "kidnapper" was my aunt, who happened to see us in the store and noticed that I was lagging behind. My mom walked maybe 10 feet or less before she noticed that I was no longer right behind her, but it was enough.
Some of your other reasons make more sense, but saying that a parent is a failure if they lose sight of their kids at some point is really unnecessarily harsh. Ask your parents if YOU ever got away from them for a few seconds in a crowd.