That's OK. When I first read Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH, I thought it had something to do with lutefisk. I don't think lutefisk can fly. At least I hope not. The idea of helium-filled, lye-soaked, dried cod flying about isn't one I relish.
There's maybe nothing worse than a bad pun except explaining a bad pun. In for a penny, in for a pound:
In Britain, "pram" is another word for stroller, pushchair, baby carriage, etc. It's short for "perambulator".
A "double-pram" is one of those side-by-side (or front-back) strollers suitable for pushing two children. In this case it's "turbo-charged" (presumably for today's go-faster children).
I'm sure it is heresy to ask, but am I the only one who's confused by the Mono and DotGNU difference? I read the internetnews article, and the controversy is still pretty opaque. I don't use.NET, and don't have any imminent plans to do so, but if I did, why should I prefer one implementation over the other? Is it purely a religious issue?
To paraphrase Life of Brian: The only people we hate more than Microsoft are the f*ing Mono developers. Or the f*ing DotGNU developers. Take your pick.
So, doesn't that make you an even bigger dick for correcting someone when you are in fact wrong and the one you corrected had stated he might be wrong alerting one to the fact you shouldn't be verifying the text purely for anything but informational means:-)
Indeed it does! And I also learned something new, today, which is always nice. Seriously: thank you!
It all forces the student to find the mistakes and not make them the next time.
[...]
the software had a human agreeance of around 62%
[...]
My post is not indicative of my writing skills outside of a conversational and informal setting, sans spell checker and proof reading,[...]
You make several good points (which means I'm a dick for saying this), but unless agreeance is a technical term in this context, the preferred choice would be agreement.
Astronomer Clifford Stoll similarly makes compelling arguments against computers in the classroom (libraries as well) in his books Silicon Snake Oil and High-Tech Heretic.
Several years ago, after reading Silicon Snake Oil, I bought a couple of other books on the theme of Perilous Technology. I enjoyed Silicon Snake Oil but I couldn't get through these other two -- a bit too much doom and gloom for me. Still, if you can find cheap used copies they might be interesting:
The Future Does Not Compute: Transcending the Machines in our Midst by Stephen L. Talbott, 1995 (ISBN 1-56592-085-6). From the book jacket:
"Why do computers frustrate instead of satisfy? What do we lose when we sign onto the net? How come the Internet doesn't deliver the goods? With a careful eye to detail, Stephen Talbott looks over the culture of computing, finding both aggravation and comfort; hope and despair." --Cliff Stoll, author of
Silicon Snake Oil
The Age of Missing Information by Bill McKibben, 1992 (ISBN 0-394-57601-2). From the book jacket:
"On May 3, 1990, I collected two thousand hours of videotape -- nearly every minute of television that came across Fairfax, Virginia, cable television -- and then watched it all. On another day that summer, a conventional twenty-four-hour day, I camped on a mountaintop by a small pond, I awoke, took a hike up a neighboring peak, returned to the pond for a swim, made supper, and watched the stars until I fell asleep. This book is about the information each day imparted." --from
The Age of Missing Information
But you can actually structure your essays better when you can first type out ideas and chunks of sentences, and then restructure until they form a coherent, logical progression.
I agree with you; however, when I read the teacher's comment, I thought it was in the wider context of the preceding paragraph, namely:
...how computers either make formerly easy things harder (like classroom discussion), and hard things avoidable (students who know how to copy-paste don't have to construct sentences).
I think the teacher's point is it's easy to tell when a student's paper has been "copy-paste[d]" from other sources, rather than assembled from that student's own thoughts. Maybe I'm reading too much into it.
I still sometimes miss the thrill of the hunt, as it were, flipping through cards organized by subject, title, and author, searching for just the right book.
This will sound strange, but I also miss the feel and smell of the hunt. Those cards in their drawers were tactile and aromatic in a way that no computer can match. Also, I'll agree with anyone who says that computers are better at doing the required task of searching, but I miss serendipitous discoveries from nearby cards in the catalog.
Even if the bills were printed on paper (or something else) you'd still get the little blue and red fibers or something similar. They're embedded as an anticounterfeit measure. PBS ran an interesting NOVA program about money that talked about this and a bunch of other good stuff.
The phrase my nipples explode with delight is from a Monty Python sketch. I thought the full works of Monty Python were a required part of the Slashdot cannon.
Yes. A dual 2.0 GHz G5 system beats a dual 3.0 (or was it 3.2? I forget) Xeon system in any reasonable test you'd care to throw at it.
But the original post didn't say "dual G5", it said "that much power in a small package", and I assume that the laptop won't have two G5s in it (or a G5, at all, for that matter).
It'd make me feel guilty, having that much power in a small package while other people can't even get it in a PC tower.
So one of those G5s is more powerful than the dual 2.8GHz Xeon machine in this non-current PC tower, here? Truly, I'm curious (and only tangentially trying to stir up trouble).
I don't want to assert who was influenced by whom, but some significant elements of Neverwhere -- London as a setting, the critical presence of rats, a malevolent, almost-unkillable foe...
I assert they were all influenced by Michael de Larrabeiti's The Borribles, which was published in 1976. I'm probably wrong -- it's been years since I read this, and I was quite young when I did -- but I vividly remember London and rats. The Borribles was the first of a trilogy, all of which have been out of print for a long while; however, while Googling for the link, above, I made the happy discovery that they have been reissued (ISBN: 0330490850).
Re:Gaiman...
on
King Rat
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Good Omens was wonderful, easily topping much of Pratchett's solo work.
I'd say it was better than some of Pratchett's earlier work, and not as good as most of Pratchett's later work. I like Good Omens a lot (I've read it a couple of times), but Pratchett's books about the city watch are more consistently interesting and better written. Night Watch is a fine example of this, as is the recently reprinted (in the US) Guards! Guards!.
Slashdot Mirror
Not just British, which I am, but a UK resident, which I'm not. Bugger.
I enjoyed Terry Farell and late Nichole Deboer as well.
I assume you mean " later Nicole deBoer". IMDB certainly seems to think she's still alive.
That's OK. When I first read Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH, I thought it had something to do with lutefisk. I don't think lutefisk can fly. At least I hope not. The idea of helium-filled, lye-soaked, dried cod flying about isn't one I relish.
There's maybe nothing worse than a bad pun except explaining a bad pun. In for a penny, in for a pound:
In Britain, "pram" is another word for stroller, pushchair, baby carriage, etc. It's short for "perambulator".
A "double-pram" is one of those side-by-side (or front-back) strollers suitable for pushing two children. In this case it's "turbo-charged" (presumably for today's go-faster children).
<humor style="british">
Yes. But only for turbo-charged babies; preferably twins.
</humor>
I'm sure it is heresy to ask, but am I the only one who's confused by the Mono and DotGNU difference? I read the internetnews article, and the controversy is still pretty opaque. I don't use .NET, and don't have any imminent plans to do so, but if I did, why should I prefer one implementation over the other? Is it purely a religious issue?
To paraphrase Life of Brian: The only people we hate more than Microsoft are the f*ing Mono developers. Or the f*ing DotGNU developers. Take your pick.
Splitters!
AC: Comcast IS proposing... Damn illiterate fuck.
saforrest: Maybe ey's British.
The AC IS provincial and ignorant.
As you (saforrest) point out, collective nouns in British English are usually treated as plurals.
Coffee is God Pee?
Oops. Sorry. That's a smiley.
So, doesn't that make you an even bigger dick for correcting someone when you are in fact wrong and the one you corrected had stated he might be wrong alerting one to the fact you shouldn't be verifying the text purely for anything but informational means :-)
Indeed it does! And I also learned something new, today, which is always nice. Seriously: thank you!
It all forces the student to find the mistakes and not make them the next time.
[...]
the software had a human agreeance of around 62%
[...]
My post is not indicative of my writing skills outside of a conversational and informal setting, sans spell checker and proof reading,[...]
You make several good points (which means I'm a dick for saying this), but unless agreeance is a technical term in this context, the preferred choice would be agreement.
Let's not forget the serendipity of the card catalog.
You're absolutely right, which is why I wrote: I miss serendipitous discoveries from nearby cards in the catalog.
Your observation about physical dictionaries is also an excellent one!
Astronomer Clifford Stoll similarly makes compelling arguments against computers in the classroom (libraries as well) in his books Silicon Snake Oil and High-Tech Heretic.
Several years ago, after reading Silicon Snake Oil, I bought a couple of other books on the theme of Perilous Technology. I enjoyed Silicon Snake Oil but I couldn't get through these other two -- a bit too much doom and gloom for me. Still, if you can find cheap used copies they might be interesting:
The Future Does Not Compute: Transcending the Machines in our Midst by Stephen L. Talbott, 1995 (ISBN 1-56592-085-6). From the book jacket:
The Age of Missing Information by Bill McKibben, 1992 (ISBN 0-394-57601-2). From the book jacket:
But you can actually structure your essays better when you can first type out ideas and chunks of sentences, and then restructure until they form a coherent, logical progression.
I agree with you; however, when I read the teacher's comment, I thought it was in the wider context of the preceding paragraph, namely:
I think the teacher's point is it's easy to tell when a student's paper has been "copy-paste[d]" from other sources, rather than assembled from that student's own thoughts. Maybe I'm reading too much into it.
I still sometimes miss the thrill of the hunt, as it were, flipping through cards organized by subject, title, and author, searching for just the right book.
This will sound strange, but I also miss the feel and smell of the hunt. Those cards in their drawers were tactile and aromatic in a way that no computer can match. Also, I'll agree with anyone who says that computers are better at doing the required task of searching, but I miss serendipitous discoveries from nearby cards in the catalog.
Even if the bills were printed on paper (or something else) you'd still get the little blue and red fibers or something similar. They're embedded as an anticounterfeit measure. PBS ran an interesting NOVA program about money that talked about this and a bunch of other good stuff.
The phrase my nipples explode with delight is from a Monty Python sketch. I thought the full works of Monty Python were a required part of the Slashdot cannon.
My hovercraft is full of eels!
Yes. A dual 2.0 GHz G5 system beats a dual 3.0 (or was it 3.2? I forget) Xeon system in any reasonable test you'd care to throw at it.
But the original post didn't say "dual G5", it said "that much power in a small package", and I assume that the laptop won't have two G5s in it (or a G5, at all, for that matter).
It'd make me feel guilty, having that much power in a small package while other people can't even get it in a PC tower.
So one of those G5s is more powerful than the dual 2.8GHz Xeon machine in this non-current PC tower, here? Truly, I'm curious (and only tangentially trying to stir up trouble).
How can you go from Terry Pratchett to Neil Gaiman?
By knowing that they collaborated on the novel Good Omens, I expect.
I hear rates in London aren't as bad as they once were, although they may be going up as the economy turns around.
I don't want to assert who was influenced by whom, but some significant elements of Neverwhere -- London as a setting, the critical presence of rats, a malevolent, almost-unkillable foe...
I assert they were all influenced by Michael de Larrabeiti's The Borribles , which was published in 1976. I'm probably wrong -- it's been years since I read this, and I was quite young when I did -- but I vividly remember London and rats. The Borribles was the first of a trilogy, all of which have been out of print for a long while; however, while Googling for the link, above, I made the happy discovery that they have been reissued (ISBN: 0330490850).
Good Omens was wonderful, easily topping much of Pratchett's solo work.
I'd say it was better than some of Pratchett's earlier work, and not as good as most of Pratchett's later work. I like Good Omens a lot (I've read it a couple of times), but Pratchett's books about the city watch are more consistently interesting and better written. Night Watch is a fine example of this, as is the recently reprinted (in the US) Guards! Guards!.
I thought exactly the same thing. RollingThunder said it better than I could, though.
Mod parent up!
But he must have known that we were not stupid, either
Inconceivable!
using IANANE like it's an established acronym just makes you look stupid.
Or inane.