Part of Germany's problem in bringing weapons from the drawing board to full production was that Hitler didn't trust having large numbers of scientists collaborating together and sharing ideas...fear of conspiracies and all. That meant that you had many small teams of scientists who were competing for funds and, in some cases, unintentionally reinventing each other's work.
Personal rivalries and dwindling resources had a hand in that as well.
The end result is that there were a lot of intriguing and sometimes brilliant design ideas in WWII Germany--long range jet bombers, jet fighters, even what we today would call a spaceplane--but very few of them actually saw production, let alone combat.
There was a fascinating program on the History Channel that speculated on what might have happened had Germany been able to stay in the war for two more years. The program raised the question of the Horten flying wing design coupled with jet engine technology to deliver a fission bomb to NYC.
Hopefully this file format change will bring about the end of ever-changing file formats from one version of an app to the next. Who among us doesn't have files saved in an old version of, say, Word, which can no longer be read correctly in a newer version of Word?
There is almost a direct one-to-one correlation between doing homework and excelling in classes.
I believe that getting good grades has a correlation with doing homework, but I also think that it's a good deal more complex than the equation:
more homework=better grades
and the results of this study would seem to agree.
I think you have to distinguish between different types of homework. Some homework is important for learning. Other homework assignments, beyond a certain point, do become just so much busywork--either the student gets it, and doesn't need to do additional work, or the student doesn't get it, and would benefit more from additional instruction or tutoring before continuing with the assignment.
I hesitate to specify what types of homework are or aren't useful, as people learn in different ways. What I'm trying to suggest is that perhaps shorter, but more frequent* assignments linked with frequent teacher feedback might be better for students.
* This is probably better explained with creative writing tasks--short weekly or biweekly assignments that build up towards a semester project, rather than one or two 20 page reports for a high school class, for example.
Look, I was trying to be funny. That's all. I admit that my message wasn't that funny, which is why I chose not to use my karma bonus.
If you are a subscriber, you can check my comment history and you will find that I've written quite extensively on my switch from Windows to Macs. I don't particularly care what platform other people use. I simply find that Macs suit my needs. Other people have other needs, and that's OK.
And yes, I do realize that this comment is offtopic.
If you must know, this comment has been typed on a 1.25 MHz G4 iMac.
The Library of Congress has a webpage that details how to preserve all sorts of collections. Many of us have extensive collections not of just music but also books, photographs, etc., and preservation can be just as important as duplication.
I should probably mention that I've never tried Memorex discs. I currently use Fuji 48x blanks.
People don't seem to have mentioned the importance of taking care of your backup CD-Rs. Perhaps it's obvious, but CD-Rs should be protected from heat, humidity and light--the chemicals used in CD-Rs are somewhat light sensitive even after the disc burn is finished. Sunlight is especially bad.
Burn speed can potentially affect how successfully you copy your data, as different CD-Rs react differently to the choice of laser write strategy.
In short, cyanine discs (often bluish-greenish in color) are reputed to handle slower burn speeds better, whereas pthalocyanine discs (often yellow or clear) are supposedly better at higher burn speeds.
I realize that I've used lots of qualifiers in my comment, because frankly I don't have as much experience burning CD-Rs as many others, and your particular combination of recorder/CD-R media/player may give you different results.
Memorex (no personal connection) has a detailed 1.8 MB pdf about digital media.
Thanks for the info. I might just try ShapeShifter one of these days. It's not that I dislike the default look, just that some variety is nice too.
There are a couple of things I would like to change with the Mac interface, which are more involved than just cosmetic themes:
1) make all corners of a window resizeable rather than just the bottom right one
2) put double scroll arrows at both ends of the scroll bar
I'm sure that the changes are possible...just not without installing additional software or fiddling with system files. Again, it's not a high priority for me.
I do think that Apple made a mistake in having only one window resize control. Did pre-OS X Macs have the same limitation?
I've been pleased overall with my switch from Windows to OS X, but sometimes I miss the ease with which the "look" of Windows could be modified. Changing the scrollbar, the menu fonts, that sort of thing.
OS 10.3 (and I assume, 10.4) really limits the amount of customization that can be done to the interface. I know that the interface can be changed with a little work, but it's admittedly very low on my list of priorities. My point is that out of the box, Apple doesn't let you change the "look" of OS X to any major extent by just pointing and clicking, unlike Windows.
I get the impression that this was a deliberate choice by Apple, in order to maintain a uniform user interface. I can understand that decision, even if I don't fully agree with it.
Thanks for that explanation of what exactly remastering is. If I could mod that up for being informative, I would. It's a lot more informative than my original message.
I don't know about visual media, but claims of remastering are already occurring with digital audio recordings. I've seen a number of classical music titles which were originally recorded as fully DDD in the early '80s, but which are now being rereleased with the claim of being remastered for better sound quality.
How can you get 24 bit sound resolution out of 16 bit source material?
Wasn't Baby Pac-Man a strange hybrid where the bottom part of the game was a conventional pinball machine, but if you got the ball into a certain spot, you could play a video game which was at the top (headboard?) next to the score counter?
I think that if you got caught in the video part, the ball would be ejected back into the pinball portion of the game.
I haven't thought about that game for years.
I also remember a more 3-D version of Pac-Man, which might have been the Super Pac-Man that you mention.
There was also a short-lived cartoon version of Pac-Man, but I don't remember much about it.
In my rush to get a topical first post (I think I actually did it), I left out comments which I would have included otherwise.
Ms. Pac Man, unlike its predecessor, had a series of animated interludes when you completed a number of levels. I think it was complete 4 levels, see a short cartoon, complete another 8 levels, see another cartoon and so on. It's been years since I've played the game.
Ms. Pac Man also had a variety of mazes, which made the game a little more interesting...it also helped avoid (or delay) the screen burn-in that a lot of arcade games were prone to back then.
Even so, I salute Pac Man for being included in the Guinness Book of World Records, and for its appetite of my quarters.
The sixth Trek TV series is Star Trek: The Animated Series. I never heard of it until reading reference it on USENET some years back, and its existence is confirmed on the Star Trek official site. I've never seen ST:TAS, and I don't know anyone who has.
Of course, the entire film itself was made on a computer. (OK, two computers)
You've all heard how George Lucas delayed production on the prequels because technology couldn't adequately produce the special effects he wanted.
The real reason for the decades-long gap in films is that Lucasfilm had been using computers since the early 1980s for the digital effects, and the computers only finished rendering frames fairly recently. Digital rendering takes time on a bunch of 4.77 MHz machines.
During World War II, a more concentrated version of H2O2 was used in the German Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket powered fighter. This plane was developed as an interceptor to shoot down enemy bombers. It was used for a brief period before the war ended in Europe.
The sad thing is that when Microsoft does it, sooo many people will think that it's something entirely new to web browsers.
It's funny that they had decided against tabbed browsing for IE 6 (and IE 5) because Microsoft didn't think that tabs were too confusing for the different options panels in (I think) Windows 95.
The biggest problem with your premise is that currently, there is no real pressure which would favor mental multitasking.
As things stand right now, people who can multitask better than others (gamers, I guess) aren't more likely than others to reproduce based solely on that trait.
By the same token, people who can't multitask well aren't really hurt by that in either survival or reproduction.
Slashdot Mirror
Part of Germany's problem in bringing weapons from the drawing board to full production was that Hitler didn't trust having large numbers of scientists collaborating together and sharing ideas...fear of conspiracies and all. That meant that you had many small teams of scientists who were competing for funds and, in some cases, unintentionally reinventing each other's work.
Personal rivalries and dwindling resources had a hand in that as well.
The end result is that there were a lot of intriguing and sometimes brilliant design ideas in WWII Germany--long range jet bombers, jet fighters, even what we today would call a spaceplane--but very few of them actually saw production, let alone combat.
There was a fascinating program on the History Channel that speculated on what might have happened had Germany been able to stay in the war for two more years. The program raised the question of the Horten flying wing design coupled with jet engine technology to deliver a fission bomb to NYC.
Hopefully this file format change will bring about the end of ever-changing file formats from one version of an app to the next. Who among us doesn't have files saved in an old version of, say, Word, which can no longer be read correctly in a newer version of Word?
There is almost a direct one-to-one correlation between doing homework and excelling in classes.
I believe that getting good grades has a correlation with doing homework, but I also think that it's a good deal more complex than the equation:
more homework=better grades
and the results of this study would seem to agree.
I think you have to distinguish between different types of homework. Some homework is important for learning. Other homework assignments, beyond a certain point, do become just so much busywork--either the student gets it, and doesn't need to do additional work, or the student doesn't get it, and would benefit more from additional instruction or tutoring before continuing with the assignment.
I hesitate to specify what types of homework are or aren't useful, as people learn in different ways. What I'm trying to suggest is that perhaps shorter, but more frequent* assignments linked with frequent teacher feedback might be better for students.
* This is probably better explained with creative writing tasks--short weekly or biweekly assignments that build up towards a semester project, rather than one or two 20 page reports for a high school class, for example.
Look, I was trying to be funny. That's all. I admit that my message wasn't that funny, which is why I chose not to use my karma bonus.
If you are a subscriber, you can check my comment history and you will find that I've written quite extensively on my switch from Windows to Macs. I don't particularly care what platform other people use. I simply find that Macs suit my needs. Other people have other needs, and that's OK.
And yes, I do realize that this comment is offtopic.
If you must know, this comment has been typed on a 1.25 MHz G4 iMac.
...until the mouse has only one button.
I kid, I kid. I own a Mac myself.
The Library of Congress has a webpage that details how to preserve all sorts of collections. Many of us have extensive collections not of just music but also books, photographs, etc., and preservation can be just as important as duplication.
Hint: don't look back.
I should probably mention that I've never tried Memorex discs. I currently use Fuji 48x blanks.
People don't seem to have mentioned the importance of taking care of your backup CD-Rs. Perhaps it's obvious, but CD-Rs should be protected from heat, humidity and light--the chemicals used in CD-Rs are somewhat light sensitive even after the disc burn is finished. Sunlight is especially bad.
Oh, and microwaving your CD-R backups is not recommended either.
Burn speed can potentially affect how successfully you copy your data, as different CD-Rs react differently to the choice of laser write strategy.
In short, cyanine discs (often bluish-greenish in color) are reputed to handle slower burn speeds better, whereas pthalocyanine discs (often yellow or clear) are supposedly better at higher burn speeds.
I realize that I've used lots of qualifiers in my comment, because frankly I don't have as much experience burning CD-Rs as many others, and your particular combination of recorder/CD-R media/player may give you different results.
Memorex (no personal connection) has a detailed 1.8 MB pdf about digital media.
Thanks for the info. I might just try ShapeShifter one of these days. It's not that I dislike the default look, just that some variety is nice too.
There are a couple of things I would like to change with the Mac interface, which are more involved than just cosmetic themes:
1) make all corners of a window resizeable rather than just the bottom right one
2) put double scroll arrows at both ends of the scroll bar
I'm sure that the changes are possible...just not without installing additional software or fiddling with system files. Again, it's not a high priority for me.
I do think that Apple made a mistake in having only one window resize control. Did pre-OS X Macs have the same limitation?
I've been pleased overall with my switch from Windows to OS X, but sometimes I miss the ease with which the "look" of Windows could be modified. Changing the scrollbar, the menu fonts, that sort of thing.
OS 10.3 (and I assume, 10.4) really limits the amount of customization that can be done to the interface. I know that the interface can be changed with a little work, but it's admittedly very low on my list of priorities. My point is that out of the box, Apple doesn't let you change the "look" of OS X to any major extent by just pointing and clicking, unlike Windows.
I get the impression that this was a deliberate choice by Apple, in order to maintain a uniform user interface. I can understand that decision, even if I don't fully agree with it.
Thanks for that explanation of what exactly remastering is. If I could mod that up for being informative, I would. It's a lot more informative than my original message.
I don't know about visual media, but claims of remastering are already occurring with digital audio recordings. I've seen a number of classical music titles which were originally recorded as fully DDD in the early '80s, but which are now being rereleased with the claim of being remastered for better sound quality.
How can you get 24 bit sound resolution out of 16 bit source material?
After a little more time they will repackage the first version again as 'classic cut version, the original footing'
Shhh! You don't want to give George Lucas any more ideas!
An example of a second person chewer:
In Soviet Russia, Pac-Man eats you!
I'm not even going to ask what Munchman leaves a trail of...
Wasn't Baby Pac-Man a strange hybrid where the bottom part of the game was a conventional pinball machine, but if you got the ball into a certain spot, you could play a video game which was at the top (headboard?) next to the score counter?
I think that if you got caught in the video part, the ball would be ejected back into the pinball portion of the game.
I haven't thought about that game for years.
I also remember a more 3-D version of Pac-Man, which might have been the Super Pac-Man that you mention.
There was also a short-lived cartoon version of Pac-Man, but I don't remember much about it.
In my rush to get a topical first post (I think I actually did it), I left out comments which I would have included otherwise.
Ms. Pac Man, unlike its predecessor, had a series of animated interludes when you completed a number of levels. I think it was complete 4 levels, see a short cartoon, complete another 8 levels, see another cartoon and so on. It's been years since I've played the game.
Ms. Pac Man also had a variety of mazes, which made the game a little more interesting...it also helped avoid (or delay) the screen burn-in that a lot of arcade games were prone to back then.
Even so, I salute Pac Man for being included in the Guinness Book of World Records, and for its appetite of my quarters.
I always preferred Ms. PacMan myself. Better graphics and music.
Personally, I find my being modded "Informative" funnier than my original post.
The sixth Trek TV series is Star Trek: The Animated Series. I never heard of it until reading reference it on USENET some years back, and its existence is confirmed on the Star Trek official site. I've never seen ST:TAS, and I don't know anyone who has.
Of course, the entire film itself was made on a computer. (OK, two computers)
You've all heard how George Lucas delayed production on the prequels because technology couldn't adequately produce the special effects he wanted.
The real reason for the decades-long gap in films is that Lucasfilm had been using computers since the early 1980s for the digital effects, and the computers only finished rendering frames fairly recently. Digital rendering takes time on a bunch of 4.77 MHz machines.
During World War II, a more concentrated version of H2O2 was used in the German Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket powered fighter. This plane was developed as an interceptor to shoot down enemy bombers. It was used for a brief period before the war ended in Europe.
The sad thing is that when Microsoft does it, sooo many people will think that it's something entirely new to web browsers.
It's funny that they had decided against tabbed browsing for IE 6 (and IE 5) because Microsoft didn't think that tabs were too confusing for the different options panels in (I think) Windows 95.
The biggest problem with your premise is that currently, there is no real pressure which would favor mental multitasking.
As things stand right now, people who can multitask better than others (gamers, I guess) aren't more likely than others to reproduce based solely on that trait.
By the same token, people who can't multitask well aren't really hurt by that in either survival or reproduction.