The academic journals are expensive intermedaries. The subscriptions are costly. Contributors receive no compensation, often pay page charges, and surrender the copyright on their work to the publishers. Editors are not paid.
While the cost of typesetting technical documents has plummeted, subscription prices remain stratospheric. This is a rich vein of high profits for publishers.
It is time for this outmoded and expensive system to change. Peer reviewed documents should be distributed electronically. Taxpayer-financed research results should be publicly and freely available.
Print distribution and publication of research results is cumbersome, delay-ridden and expensive. The current system impedes the spread of knowledge with expensive copyright trollery, instead of accelerating and enhancing it. Let's all upgrade this enterprise to the 21st century world.
I observe cel phone drivers who are totally oblivious. Driving is a highly dangerous activity. It demands all of the efforts of your cortex. You need to be aware of the road ahead, and where drivers are around you, especially on urban multilane roads laden with traffic. When you are distracted, EVERYONE is in mortal danger. Pay attention.
It's a Mickey Rooney situation. Scientists pay publishers of journals to "take my copyright."
The current system of scientific journals is unjustifiably wasteful and expensive. Papers take far too long to come to light; much of this delay occurs after the refereeing process.
That academia is still mired in this unfair system in which the publishers are the sole beneficiaries is a measure of its short-sightedness and inertia.
The referees and editors of journals serve without any compensation. Authors pay to publish in journals. The internet provides a forum for the rapid publication and dissemination of new ideas. In all this, something just doesn't add up.
The whole process is gumming up the exchange of ideas it is ostensibly promoting.
Hoo-goddamn-ray!
Scientific journals charge huge page charges to author and gigantic subscription fees. This outmoded system is inefficient and the lag between discovery and publication is years. It is pointless and stupid!
It's about tiime we didn't have to pay these expensive intermediaries (who pay zilch to editors and authors) for the privelege of overcharging us.
Never buy computer equipment with anything but a credit card. Let the card company resolve the dispute. Since you didn't receive the merchandise, you are not obliged to pay for it.
JMM
I have been Ubuntuing on my stinkpad for over a year. I got rid of my doze partition a while back. Did you know the T43 is actually a very nice and very fast machine? You will never find this out running 'doze on it.
I might also mention I function 100% in an environment of colleagues who use doze.
This floating point problem is an old chestnut. Now that you are among the floating-point sapent, I'd recommend this book
Acton, Forman, Real Computing Made Real, Princton Univeristy Press.
This humorous, informative book will chasten and remind the casual user of floating point numbers! The losss of significant digits can be truly tragic....
The backdating of options dilutes stock value. This IS an expense and it results in an overstatement of earnings. Some people out there just don't realize that a fraction has a numerator and a denominator. The number of shares is the denominator. The company's equity/market value is the numerator. Give away shares to management at a low price and the denominator goes up a lot whilst the numerator doesn't. Bang. Lowered per-share value.
I don't see it as a witch hunt, I see it as a raid on the CEO class that is systematically sifting money from pockets of its employees and shareholders and showering it on itself. It constitutes a steathful and unthical raid on the cash drawer. It also circumvents the IRS rules on the cap for salary deductibilty for execs and cheats the taxpayer.
It's time to put it to these SOBs who are puttin' it to the rest of us.
I don't root for it but stupidity and incompetence
seem to be the ultimate victors in history much of the
time.
At the rate we're going humainity will self-immolate
by the end of the century in a theocratic war.
Our great technologies will simply speed the process.
It is such an evil thing! And I thought techies were supposed to passively allow their salaries to free fall...... They all know how valuable and indispensible management is. Those poor managers need outsized salaries so they can withstand the miseries of such things as private jets and country club memberships.
Google is at the bottom of a mostrous conspiracy. Actually trying to hire great employees, keep them and treat them well?? Beezlebub!!! What a nasty ugly dasrdly trick. These people rally oughtta be boiled in oil.
Harry Truman had the most awful burden dropped on any president's shoulders since those which befell Lincoln. I have never had any doubt he did the right thing. It avoided a protracted military conquest of the Japanese homeland that would have cost on the order of a million lives.
Sunday morning quarterbacks can sit in their convenient comfortable cicumstances today and hurl their brickbats and drone their self-righteous bromides. However, American and the allies were locked in a terrible struggle. Given what was known at the time it was the right decision. I don't think that all we know subsequently changes that one iota. In the end, this terrible decison saved thousands of lives, both Allied and Japanese. It also probably prevented a Soviet occupation of Japan. That would have been a truly terrible denoument to contemplate.
America is one of the leading industrial powers in the world. That it is content ot accept a medicore education system and rationalize it away by saying "... USA's not much more special than the rest of the world"
That just does not add up. China is making education a priority in its culture and society. That is the reason they are going to leave us in th competitive dust as the 21st century evolves. We better change our attitude and fast, or we can face the consequences.
Ah, it's the perennial bitchfest on American education. Why don't our schools work like they should? Here's a view from the inside (I teach in a public magnet school).
1. American culture is deeply anti-intellectual. Americans do not value teaching and learning. Look at the behaviour of our largest universities. Americans are interested in their children being credentialed; they for the most part don't give a fig if their children become sentient, civilized adults.
2. Education has a second-rate image as a profession. Americans think that teachers should work "for the love of it". These same people think that a tepid middle relief pitcher should get 3 megabux a year 'cause its important for the home team. There is no star system for teachers. All are yoked in syzygy into rigid pay scales that do not reward performance. Well, Americans are getting what they pay for.
3. Education starts in the home. Are you sending your child to school properly socialized so he can function effectively? Do you read to your chyldren? Does junior know his colors and shapes, or is he educated by the television?? This is probably the biggest source of the achievement gap in schools, tho' it ain't PC to talk about it.
4. Schools STILL function in the industrial revolution model. Your average edhead says "Gee, don't one size fit all....?" Schools are, more often than not, tighly and centrally controlled like factories. Schools push values such as lockstep conformity. "Dont be different! That's bad!" Then their administrations sit and wonder why every kid is doing drugs as a teen. In the 21st century, people need to learn to think for themselves to be effective citizens. (this is a heretical and incendiary idea)
5. It's OK in america to neglect gifted kids. "They will take care of themselves anyway" Uh, wrong. Tragically wrong. This is a topic for a lengthy disquisition. I have been a specialist in the field of gifted education for many years. The misconceptions held by the public on this issue are legion.
It is not a pretty picture. And given our yahooish culture (highest cultural value in America: tits wiggling on a video screen) and the loutishness and selfishness of our business and political establishments, change isn't in the cards any time soon. Remember, it's always fat'n'sassy right until the very moment the roof cafes in. Hello Bejing.......
Ever higher climbing salaries for "top managers" Do a little research and see how the "indispensible talent" of top management has managed to fatten its paychecks at a rate far faster than that of your typical professional
As we outsource everything, the current account deficit will continue to soar. Sooner or later, the rest of the world will tire of buying our debt and the dollar will plunge to new lows, even more humiliating than those now occuring under the tutelage of the Shrub. When the euro buys 10 bucks or so, the US will be so cheap that foreigners will snap up the family jewels for 10 cents on the dollar.
Businessmen are stupid. They will smilingly sell you the rope you will later hang them with.
Slashdot Mirror
The academic journals are expensive intermedaries. The subscriptions are costly. Contributors receive no compensation, often pay page charges, and surrender the copyright on their work to the publishers. Editors are not paid.
While the cost of typesetting technical documents has plummeted, subscription prices remain stratospheric. This is a rich vein of high profits for publishers.
It is time for this outmoded and expensive system to change. Peer reviewed documents should be distributed electronically. Taxpayer-financed research results should be publicly and freely available.
Print distribution and publication of research results is cumbersome, delay-ridden and expensive. The current system impedes the spread of knowledge with expensive copyright trollery, instead of accelerating and enhancing it. Let's all upgrade this enterprise to the 21st century world.
How about North Carolina, where corporate welfare reigns king?
I observe cel phone drivers who are totally oblivious. Driving is a highly dangerous activity. It demands all of the efforts of your cortex. You need to be aware of the road ahead, and where drivers are around you, especially on urban multilane roads laden with traffic. When you are distracted, EVERYONE is in mortal danger. Pay attention.
It's a Mickey Rooney situation. Scientists pay publishers of journals to "take my copyright." The current system of scientific journals is unjustifiably wasteful and expensive. Papers take far too long to come to light; much of this delay occurs after the refereeing process. That academia is still mired in this unfair system in which the publishers are the sole beneficiaries is a measure of its short-sightedness and inertia. The referees and editors of journals serve without any compensation. Authors pay to publish in journals. The internet provides a forum for the rapid publication and dissemination of new ideas. In all this, something just doesn't add up. The whole process is gumming up the exchange of ideas it is ostensibly promoting.
Hoo-goddamn-ray! Scientific journals charge huge page charges to author and gigantic subscription fees. This outmoded system is inefficient and the lag between discovery and publication is years. It is pointless and stupid! It's about tiime we didn't have to pay these expensive intermediaries (who pay zilch to editors and authors) for the privelege of overcharging us.
Never buy computer equipment with anything but a credit card. Let the card company resolve the dispute. Since you didn't receive the merchandise, you are not obliged to pay for it. JMM
I have been Ubuntuing on my stinkpad for over a year. I got rid of my doze partition a while back. Did you know the T43 is actually a very nice and very fast machine? You will never find this out running 'doze on it. I might also mention I function 100% in an environment of colleagues who use doze.
NO SHIT!
Acton, Forman, Real Computing Made Real, Princton Univeristy Press.
This humorous, informative book will chasten and remind the casual user of floating point numbers! The losss of significant digits can be truly tragic....
The backdating of options dilutes stock value. This IS an expense and it results in an overstatement of earnings. Some people out there just don't realize that a fraction has a numerator and a denominator. The number of shares is the denominator. The company's equity/market value is the numerator. Give away shares to management at a low price and the denominator goes up a lot whilst the numerator doesn't. Bang. Lowered per-share value. I don't see it as a witch hunt, I see it as a raid on the CEO class that is systematically sifting money from pockets of its employees and shareholders and showering it on itself. It constitutes a steathful and unthical raid on the cash drawer. It also circumvents the IRS rules on the cap for salary deductibilty for execs and cheats the taxpayer. It's time to put it to these SOBs who are puttin' it to the rest of us.
Don't like 'doze and its endless machine-slowing disservice packs? I have a one word answer: Linux.
I don't root for it but stupidity and incompetence seem to be the ultimate victors in history much of the time. At the rate we're going humainity will self-immolate by the end of the century in a theocratic war. Our great technologies will simply speed the process.
It is such an evil thing! And I thought techies were supposed to passively allow their salaries to free fall...... They all know how valuable and indispensible management is. Those poor managers need outsized salaries so they can withstand the miseries of such things as private jets and country club memberships. Google is at the bottom of a mostrous conspiracy. Actually trying to hire great employees, keep them and treat them well?? Beezlebub!!! What a nasty ugly dasrdly trick. These people rally oughtta be boiled in oil.
Harry Truman had the most awful burden dropped on any president's shoulders since those which befell Lincoln. I have never had any doubt he did the right thing. It avoided a protracted military conquest of the Japanese homeland that would have cost on the order of a million lives.
Sunday morning quarterbacks can sit in their convenient comfortable cicumstances today and hurl their brickbats and drone their self-righteous bromides. However, American and the allies were locked in a terrible struggle. Given what was known at the time it was the right decision. I don't think that all we know subsequently changes that one iota. In the end, this terrible decison saved thousands of lives, both Allied and Japanese. It also probably prevented a Soviet occupation of Japan. That would have been a truly terrible denoument to contemplate.
Hmmmm.... Microsoft..... If Bill Gates were ever to shave with Occam's razor, it'd slit his throat. Bloat. Bloat. Bloat.
Godot.
America is one of the leading industrial powers in the world. That it is content ot accept a medicore education system and rationalize it away by saying "... USA's not much more special than the rest of the world"
That just does not add up. China is making education a priority in its culture and society. That is the reason they are going to leave us in th competitive dust as the 21st century evolves. We better change our attitude and fast, or we can face the consequences.
Ah, it's the perennial bitchfest on American education. Why don't our schools work like they should? Here's a view from the inside (I teach in a public magnet school).
1. American culture is deeply anti-intellectual. Americans do not value teaching and learning. Look at the behaviour of our largest universities. Americans are interested in their children being credentialed; they for the most part don't give a fig if their children become sentient, civilized adults.
2. Education has a second-rate image as a profession. Americans think that teachers should work "for the love of it". These same people think that a tepid middle relief pitcher should get 3 megabux a year 'cause its important for the home team. There is no star system for teachers. All are yoked in syzygy into rigid pay scales that do not reward performance. Well, Americans are getting what they pay for.
3. Education starts in the home. Are you sending your child to school properly socialized so he can function effectively? Do you read to your chyldren? Does junior know his colors and shapes, or is he educated by the television?? This is probably the biggest source of the achievement gap in schools, tho' it ain't PC to talk about it.
4. Schools STILL function in the industrial revolution model. Your average edhead says "Gee, don't one size fit all....?" Schools are, more often than not, tighly and centrally controlled like factories. Schools push values such as lockstep conformity. "Dont be different! That's bad!" Then their administrations sit and wonder why every kid is doing drugs as a teen. In the 21st century, people need to learn to think for themselves to be effective citizens. (this is a heretical and incendiary idea)
5. It's OK in america to neglect gifted kids. "They will take care of themselves anyway" Uh, wrong. Tragically wrong. This is a topic for a lengthy disquisition. I have been a specialist in the field of gifted education for many years. The misconceptions held by the public on this issue are legion.
It is not a pretty picture. And given our yahooish culture (highest cultural value in America: tits wiggling on a video screen) and the loutishness and selfishness of our business and political establishments, change isn't in the cards any time soon. Remember, it's always fat'n'sassy right until the very moment the roof cafes in. Hello Bejing.......
Ever higher climbing salaries for "top managers" Do a little research and see how the "indispensible talent" of top management has managed to fatten its paychecks at a rate far faster than that of your typical professional
while(true) { IQ = sqrt(IQ); }
Nah, they'll ship this guy out onto the street with millions in his pocket. Remember, companies are run for the care and feeding of their managements.
As we outsource everything, the current account deficit will continue to soar. Sooner or later, the rest of the world will tire of buying our debt and the dollar will plunge to new lows, even more humiliating than those now occuring under the tutelage of the Shrub. When the euro buys 10 bucks or so, the US will be so cheap that foreigners will snap up the family jewels for 10 cents on the dollar. Businessmen are stupid. They will smilingly sell you the rope you will later hang them with.