Speaking as someone who works with a lot of very smart people focused in very narrow fields: the kid's going to be a lot happier if he has at least some general background.
If the kid's as smart as the summary suggests then just give him access to information and he'll do that all by himself.
OTOH, who's going to judge what his happiness is? You? Eight years old is a bit too young for that sort of call...
He's eight years old. The best thing you can do right now is leave him the fuck alone. The very last thing he needs is a bunch of meddling do-gooders trying to make him play football.
If you feel like you ought to be doing something:
* Give him unlimited access to information, make sure all his questions are answered (this part is easy these days with Internet/Google). * If you can manage it, arrange for him to spend some time with other really smart people. * Arrange visits to places if he shows interest in them. * Buy him a set of bongo drums.
We've got 7 billion other people on the planet for that sort of thing. This person could be curing diseases while you're busy trying to make him play football.
energy prices are climbing precisely when Americans are suffering through the toughest economic times since the 1920s?
I don't see too many of them buying more economical cars, smaller houses or switching off their "security lighting" as a result of this crisis. The USA still has some of the cheapest fuel in the world, how can they not manage?
I know it's tough to believe in global warming in the USA because most of the time GW Bush was in power there were governmental campaigns to obfuscate it (in pretty much the same way the creationists use "teach the controversy" to pretend evolution is still 'unproven') but even they're starting to admit there might be something going on now.
The model isn't perfect yet, but the science behind the greenhouse effect has been well understood for over a century.
Are we supposed to ignore the basic chemistry, all the obvious physical signs (melting glaciers, early springtimes, etc) until we have a 100% perfect model of a massive, fairly chaotic system? Just so somebody can make a quick buck?
On a related note, is there anything which can replace Acronis, period. Acronis jumped the shark years ago...
Here's the scenario.
a) Client buys a USB hard disk. b) Client installs some software on their machine and configures it, marking the USB disk as a 'backup disk' in some way. c) Every time the client connects the USB disk to their computer a window pops up saying: "Backup your machine? Y/N" d) If they click "yes" the software backs up their machine, administering disk space, etc. automatically.
To me it seems the most obvious need for backup software imaginable but neither Norton nor Acronis seem to be able to get their head around the concept of removable backup disks or not wanting to answer twenty questions every time you want to make a backup. Or a dozen other things that make me shake my head sadly whenever I have to use them. Don't even get me started on what happens when Windows randomly decides to change the drive letter for the USB drive.
Target users use Windows XP and 7. They're office users who use Office and accounting software. They typically only have about 40Gb of files to back up so they're quite happy with non-incremental backups. I live in Spain so Spanish versions are a big plus (though not essential).
Has he never heard of CO2? Why would any sane person want to burn all that and turn it into CO2?
Oh, yeah, profit. Fuck the Earth and all future generations, there's profit to be made! I can own sixteen mansions instead of twelve and have a bigger yacht.
Slashdot groupthink at its best in this thread. The tone are personal attacks. "Patents are evil! Burn pro-patent people! UN is stupid!". How sad. Nobody saw the video, or tried to understand the argument he was trying to make.
He made the point that IP are useful because patents document an invention, information otherwise lost.
Yeah, all those RFCs are a complete waste of time.
All open standards should be written up in patent-speak (which nobody but patent lawyers can decipher) and never discussed in public beforehand (because that would make them unpatentable).
I'd prefer a pretty picture. It would be just as useful but have more aesthetic value.
The 'reviews' just draw your eyes over and you waste time reading them even though you know they're complete fabrications and aren't going to help in the slightest.
When I first installed Windows 7 it took up 13Gb, I only have a couple of gigs of apps so 40Gb should have been plenty.
How it's grown from 15Gb to over 30Gb is something that only Windows knows (and it ain't tellin'). I suspect Google has a hand with Chrome updates and whatnot, but it still doesn't add up to 30-something gigs. ON XP you could always open up the Windows folder and delete all the blue folders but they're not there any more (anybody know where they went?)
Of course I could go out and spend money to build a dream PC but that's beside the point. Windows is broken when it comes to machines with more than one disk in them.
Does it fit on the SSD? I've been thinking of putting it on my 901 because the memory management is so much better than XP but it would cost a lot to upgrade the internal SSD.
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Collage sound like a better option for people in this situation.
Why is assembling different forms to create new wholes the best option for him?
The only aspect of his education that should not be sacrificed is social interaction.
But make sure he interacts with people he chooses.
Sending him out onto a football field is probably the worst thing you could do to him.
Spending time with people like Carl Sagan or Richard Feynman would be ideal. Let him go to places where the other smart people hang out.
Speaking as someone who works with a lot of very smart people focused in very narrow fields: the kid's going to be a lot happier if he has at least some general background.
If the kid's as smart as the summary suggests then just give him access to information and he'll do that all by himself.
OTOH, who's going to judge what his happiness is? You? Eight years old is a bit too young for that sort of call...
This got modded "5 insightful".
I despair for the human race...
Wish I had mod points.
He's eight years old. The best thing you can do right now is leave him the fuck alone. The very last thing he needs is a bunch of meddling do-gooders trying to make him play football.
If you feel like you ought to be doing something:
* Give him unlimited access to information, make sure all his questions are answered (this part is easy these days with Internet/Google).
* If you can manage it, arrange for him to spend some time with other really smart people.
* Arrange visits to places if he shows interest in them.
* Buy him a set of bongo drums.
Hell, even a church.
I really hope you regret posting that.
For someone like this, social development is key.
Why? Why MUST he develop socially?
We've got 7 billion other people on the planet for that sort of thing. This person could be curing diseases while you're busy trying to make him play football.
Yep. Scrollbars become unusable when one scrollbar pixel equals several pages of what's being scrolled.
Plus...ummm, doesn't "search" work on folders too? Ooops!
There is also nothing wrong with turning a profit while providing people with a much needed product.
You mean doing stuff like fishing Atlantic cod into near extinction?
Is that OK so long as consumers get a few years of fish fingers out of it?
The "price of gas" is almost all due to wall street speculation/manipulation - ie. people fiddling the books to get rich.
It's got almost nothing to do with supply and demand or any physical limitation.
Whoah. You think people care more about their "karma" than being right?
PS: Even anonymous cowards can provide citations.
You want to see an economy that's really "down in the dumps"? Just ignore this issue and wait a few years...
I note that there's still plenty of money to pay for defense and bailouts.
energy prices are climbing precisely when Americans are suffering through the toughest economic times since the 1920s?
I don't see too many of them buying more economical cars, smaller houses or switching off their "security lighting" as a result of this crisis. The USA still has some of the cheapest fuel in the world, how can they not manage?
I know it's tough to believe in global warming in the USA because most of the time GW Bush was in power there were governmental campaigns to obfuscate it (in pretty much the same way the creationists use "teach the controversy" to pretend evolution is still 'unproven') but even they're starting to admit there might be something going on now.
Short version here.
The model isn't perfect yet, but the science behind the greenhouse effect has been well understood for over a century.
Are we supposed to ignore the basic chemistry, all the obvious physical signs (melting glaciers, early springtimes, etc) until we have a 100% perfect model of a massive, fairly chaotic system? Just so somebody can make a quick buck?
On a related note, is there anything which can replace Acronis, period. Acronis jumped the shark years ago...
Here's the scenario.
a) Client buys a USB hard disk.
b) Client installs some software on their machine and configures it, marking the USB disk as a 'backup disk' in some way.
c) Every time the client connects the USB disk to their computer a window pops up saying: "Backup your machine? Y/N"
d) If they click "yes" the software backs up their machine, administering disk space, etc. automatically.
To me it seems the most obvious need for backup software imaginable but neither Norton nor Acronis seem to be able to get their head around the concept of removable backup disks or not wanting to answer twenty questions every time you want to make a backup. Or a dozen other things that make me shake my head sadly whenever I have to use them. Don't even get me started on what happens when Windows randomly decides to change the drive letter for the USB drive.
Target users use Windows XP and 7. They're office users who use Office and accounting software. They typically only have about 40Gb of files to back up so they're quite happy with non-incremental backups. I live in Spain so Spanish versions are a big plus (though not essential).
Any ideas? There must be something out there...
Has he never heard of CO2? Why would any sane person want to burn all that and turn it into CO2?
Oh, yeah, profit. Fuck the Earth and all future generations, there's profit to be made! I can own sixteen mansions instead of twelve and have a bigger yacht.
Slashdot groupthink at its best in this thread. The tone are personal attacks. "Patents are evil! Burn pro-patent people! UN is stupid!". How sad. Nobody saw the video, or tried to understand the argument he was trying to make.
He made the point that IP are useful because patents document an invention, information otherwise lost.
Yeah, all those RFCs are a complete waste of time.
All open standards should be written up in patent-speak (which nobody but patent lawyers can decipher) and never discussed in public beforehand (because that would make them unpatentable).
I'd prefer a pretty picture. It would be just as useful but have more aesthetic value.
The 'reviews' just draw your eyes over and you waste time reading them even though you know they're complete fabrications and aren't going to help in the slightest.
When I first installed Windows 7 it took up 13Gb, I only have a couple of gigs of apps so 40Gb should have been plenty.
How it's grown from 15Gb to over 30Gb is something that only Windows knows (and it ain't tellin'). I suspect Google has a hand with Chrome updates and whatnot, but it still doesn't add up to 30-something gigs. ON XP you could always open up the Windows folder and delete all the blue folders but they're not there any more (anybody know where they went?)
Of course I could go out and spend money to build a dream PC but that's beside the point. Windows is broken when it comes to machines with more than one disk in them.
Does it fit on the SSD? I've been thinking of putting it on my 901 because the memory management is so much better than XP but it would cost a lot to upgrade the internal SSD.
Because your disk space is at a massive premium, yes?
My boot drive is a 40Gb Intel SSD and Windows is incapable of using any of the other disks for anything.
40Gb sounded like plenty for OS+apps. In practice it just about fits, there's nothing to spare.
The only plugins I've got are adblock, noscript and https everywhere.
Slashdot shows text. How can a page of text take up 150Mb (being generous) of RAM?
The Lord Of The Rings is three books...
Wasn't Harry Potter (the first one) written in a month?
Exactly. Have you been in a book shop lately? There's way too many books.
They all have glowing reviews* on the back cover. Sorting the wheat from the chaff is now impossible.
(*) Machine-generated?