I don't know... I don't think keyboards will be replaced any time soon. Voice interfaces are right out; I will never ever get used to talking to a computer. I don't even leave voicemail messages.
Mind interfaces are still rudimentary, and will take a while until they can reliably accept input at the speed I type, and I'm not all that fast (60-ish WPM). Faster input is even less possible right now.
Not to mention people would have to learn how to use their brains for those, and that's more difficult than learning how to type. Thinking seems to be the hardest skill anyone can ever learn.
Agreed. Though I also agreed above that touch typing should in fact be taught in schools.
Let me elaborate.
Touch typing is about as essential as handwriting these days, and therefore it should be taught.
It should not, however, be graded. Or introduced as a separate course. Instead, learning how to write should include the basics of touch typing, and every essay you hand in, if not handwritten, would also serve as touch typing practice.
We do not learn how to write just to practice writing. We learn it so we could write. Some of us get out of school with nice, legible handwriting; others become doctors and other illegible professions. Typing styles should be no different: not an abstract skill in an abstract universe, but a useful skill students use every day. Teach them the basics; if they learn to type without staring at the keyboard all the time, they've learned enough.
When I think about it, all we'd have to do is replace all the keyboard caps with blank ones. That would force the world to learn how to touch type.
Pity it can't be done.
Though if I do manage to start a private school one day, all the school keyboards will have blank keycaps.
Touch-typing is a drop in the bucket.
First, we'd have to begin to get rid of the lecture method with all it's crotchety old proponents who over-emphasize the main learning stream while under-emphasizing the alternatives.
Then we'd have to rebuild education metholodogy to suit the 21st century. I'd say we're a few generations behind.
Agreed.
When you take a better look at it, our education system has just been adding more of the same. My grandmother took four years of obligatory education (this was in Yugoslavia, now Croatia; YGMMMV). My parents and I took eight years of primary school. The current government, may it burn in seven hells, wants to make the first twelve years of education obligatory.
The worst part is that the second four years of education are rather alike the first four, albeit with several new subjects, i.e. some old subjects diverging into several new ones. To top it all, the four years of current secondary education are just a rehash of the second four years of primary education.
The system's efficiency is dropping steadily and steeply; teachers are out of touch with current technologies, and those who train teachers are even worse. The school system has increasingly less connection to both the real world and to its basic purpose, i.e. teaching. Instead, schools' primary purpose is becoming something quite different: keep the children trapped in the system, and keep young people at children's level for as long as possible.
Touch typing would be a giant step forward in any education system since a primary skill would be taught. However, I abhor the idea of such a skill being graded, as it usually happens with anything taught in schools.
BTW curious tidbit just crossed my mind: instead of teaching touch typing, Croatian schools recently reintroduced calligraphy. Instead of learning normal cursive script (joined-up writing), first-graders are taught old-style calligraphy. The fact that practically no-one uses a pen these days seems to have escaped the 19th century educators.
Bloody morons.
At any rate, does anyone think Microsoft is giving Linux too much publicity? There's people out there that wouldn't dream of running linux, and when they're asking questions wouldn't it be easier to say "I don't know, never heard of it" then have some tech person jump all over them with a barrage of answers?
They tried that.
First they ignored Linux. Kept saying it wasn't a threat.
Then they ridiculed it.
Now they are fighting it.
You know what the next step is, right? (It's not PROFIT!, but it's not far either.)
If only this were true. Children unfortunately die every year because parents rely on faith healing instead of actual medicine- and in some states in the US, are protected by law when they do so.
Another Con: while you can eat what you want without getting fat, your arteries still get clogged from all the stuff you eat to sustain your metabolism. In the long run, it's not worth it.
Good lord, that would make for the most boring home videos ever. "And here I am, driving to work for the 857th time..."
Actually, I was thinking more in the direction of "And here I am, banging my super-hot ex-girlfriend for the 1st time...when we were 18."
Oh, great.
"Oh, you're wearing contacts? Yeah, they'll have to come off before you see me naked. Yes, every time. I don't want my boobs all over the internet, thank you very much. And we're screwing in the dark, just in case."
This kind of technology could lead to people actually having sex, but never ever properly seeing their partner naked.
There are several organs (tonsils, appendix, etc.) that people don't necessarily need (or where keeping them leads to more harm than good), but that doesn't mean doctors pre-emptively yank them out.
iTunes was there first. And it seems only a minority of users had problems with iTunes' DRM, so they had no reason to switch and re-purchase all their music.
The RIAA is not dumb. Its members are making a ton of money, despite pushing lousy products. They also know that if they can get people to accept lousy products, lock people in, and convince easily-bought elected officials that they need protection, then they will be able to make amounts of money in the future that would not be possible by simply competing on product quality.
So you're saying they are kind of like a drug cartel?
And people wonder why Linux's desktop share is as small as it is....
Thank fuck the Ubuntu community forums aren't full of arseholes like you. Maybe that's why its market share of Linux pisses over other distros.
Well, I've always found Gentoo forums very helpful indeed. But there is the ease of use Gentoo was not really meant for.;)
In fact, I seem to recall a study claiming that 6.5 hours of sleep per day is considered optimal, at least with respect to longevity.
I do just fine with some 6 hours of sleep on average, and have done so for the best part of my life. Even my parents say I've always slept less than normal kids, and much less than my sister, who on one occasion slept for 23 hours, got up for an hour, then went back to sleep.
BTW she's doing just fine, too, though now that she has a daughter, she does not tend to sleep much.
My only annoyance is that I tend to drop off somewhere between 11 pm and 1 am, then sleep until around 6 am, while my girlfriend goes to sleep around 4 am and then sleeps till noon.
Also, while we still lack the complete picture, it's proven that at least one type of memory isn't updated without REM.
And I can attest to that.
Yesterday I participated in a Chinese language competition, as a 1st year student. Of course I did badly; I am a total beginner, after all.
Anyway, a part of the competition was the speech we all had to make. We first year students had our speeches translated by our teachers and were told to try to learn them by heart.
The first day, I'd remembered most of the first paragraph and bits of the second. Try as I might, I could not remember any more.
Next morning, I could remember some parts I had not been able to remember when I was studying them; apparently, sleep updated my memory, just as you say.
Well, that is only to be expected from a nation founded by fundamentalists.
Puritans: people so uptight that the British kicked them out.
I wonder, though, how long will America be able to retain its supremacy with what seems to me a rapidly increasing ratio of fundies vs. evolutionists? And what happens if fundies get their hands on nucular weaponry?
Keep in mind that the people you're arguing with are the same people who, despite countless examples that sex can lead to pregnancy, and zero examples of virgins getting pregnant, still believe Mary was a virgin.
It's quite clear that these are not people who believe in evidence supporting hypotheses.
Actually, there have been examples of virgins getting pregnant, but not without exposure to sperm.
KDE is repeating the CDE mistake: instead of focusing on what people need right now and doing a really good job at it, KDE is trying to realize some long term pie-in-the-sky technical visions of its developers that no user asked for.
Since CDE's greatest mistake was charging premium for it, I'd say KDE is not doing anything wrong.
I used to be a Gnome fan myself, but nowadays KDE appeals to me much more.
It will not take five minutes before the experienced KDE users stop using the widget because they are being bugged by people.
Love or hate forums they are a better way to collate helpful information than using a disparate bunch of people all over the place.
Not... necessarily.
Imagine it as a kind of torrent, i.e. p2p education. As you explain something to someone, he may in turn explain it to someone else, and even reinforce his own knowledge.
It could prove to be useful and educational, not just in relation to KDE.
Most heterosexual females I know would not like to see that.
Not even most of the homosexual men I know would like that.
Almost everyone I know finds the sight gross. And I concur with the groupthink on that one.
Even though I do not get such amounts of exposure, I got more than a fair share. And I've seen them in all shapes and sizes, including all the grandmothers in the nudist camp where we used to spend our summers when I was a kid.
They are like toy trains - made for kids, but we adults hog all the fun.
There is nothing better than boobs for resting my eyes. Or hands.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know... I don't think keyboards will be replaced any time soon. Voice interfaces are right out; I will never ever get used to talking to a computer. I don't even leave voicemail messages.
Mind interfaces are still rudimentary, and will take a while until they can reliably accept input at the speed I type, and I'm not all that fast (60-ish WPM). Faster input is even less possible right now.
Not to mention people would have to learn how to use their brains for those, and that's more difficult than learning how to type. Thinking seems to be the hardest skill anyone can ever learn.
Agreed. Though I also agreed above that touch typing should in fact be taught in schools.
Let me elaborate.
Touch typing is about as essential as handwriting these days, and therefore it should be taught.
It should not, however, be graded. Or introduced as a separate course. Instead, learning how to write should include the basics of touch typing, and every essay you hand in, if not handwritten, would also serve as touch typing practice.
We do not learn how to write just to practice writing. We learn it so we could write. Some of us get out of school with nice, legible handwriting; others become doctors and other illegible professions. Typing styles should be no different: not an abstract skill in an abstract universe, but a useful skill students use every day. Teach them the basics; if they learn to type without staring at the keyboard all the time, they've learned enough.
When I think about it, all we'd have to do is replace all the keyboard caps with blank ones. That would force the world to learn how to touch type.
Pity it can't be done.
Though if I do manage to start a private school one day, all the school keyboards will have blank keycaps.
Touch-typing is a drop in the bucket. First, we'd have to begin to get rid of the lecture method with all it's crotchety old proponents who over-emphasize the main learning stream while under-emphasizing the alternatives. Then we'd have to rebuild education metholodogy to suit the 21st century. I'd say we're a few generations behind.
Agreed.
When you take a better look at it, our education system has just been adding more of the same. My grandmother took four years of obligatory education (this was in Yugoslavia, now Croatia; YGMMMV). My parents and I took eight years of primary school. The current government, may it burn in seven hells, wants to make the first twelve years of education obligatory.
The worst part is that the second four years of education are rather alike the first four, albeit with several new subjects, i.e. some old subjects diverging into several new ones. To top it all, the four years of current secondary education are just a rehash of the second four years of primary education.
The system's efficiency is dropping steadily and steeply; teachers are out of touch with current technologies, and those who train teachers are even worse. The school system has increasingly less connection to both the real world and to its basic purpose, i.e. teaching. Instead, schools' primary purpose is becoming something quite different: keep the children trapped in the system, and keep young people at children's level for as long as possible.
Touch typing would be a giant step forward in any education system since a primary skill would be taught. However, I abhor the idea of such a skill being graded, as it usually happens with anything taught in schools.
BTW curious tidbit just crossed my mind: instead of teaching touch typing, Croatian schools recently reintroduced calligraphy. Instead of learning normal cursive script (joined-up writing), first-graders are taught old-style calligraphy. The fact that practically no-one uses a pen these days seems to have escaped the 19th century educators.
Bloody morons.
At any rate, does anyone think Microsoft is giving Linux too much publicity? There's people out there that wouldn't dream of running linux, and when they're asking questions wouldn't it be easier to say "I don't know, never heard of it" then have some tech person jump all over them with a barrage of answers?
They tried that.
First they ignored Linux. Kept saying it wasn't a threat.
Then they ridiculed it.
Now they are fighting it.
You know what the next step is, right? (It's not PROFIT!, but it's not far either.)
this is evolution in action.
More precisely, natural selection. Gotta love it.
Another Con: while you can eat what you want without getting fat, your arteries still get clogged from all the stuff you eat to sustain your metabolism. In the long run, it's not worth it.
Actually, I was thinking more in the direction of "And here I am, banging my super-hot ex-girlfriend for the 1st time...when we were 18."
Oh, great.
"Oh, you're wearing contacts? Yeah, they'll have to come off before you see me naked. Yes, every time. I don't want my boobs all over the internet, thank you very much. And we're screwing in the dark, just in case."
This kind of technology could lead to people actually having sex, but never ever properly seeing their partner naked.
OTOH, it could reduce shyness, I suppose...
There are several organs (tonsils, appendix, etc.) that people don't necessarily need (or where keeping them leads to more harm than good), but that doesn't mean doctors pre-emptively yank them out.
Well, apart from the foreskin, maybe.
Electrical-silicon computers are *not* efficient. They're *not* smart. They're extremely stupid extremely quickly, and that's all.
They are neither "smart" or stupid. They are just machines that blithely follow instructions.
... i.e. they are stupid.
There is one on /.
You forgot sex.
Well, I guess that's nothing unusual on /.
iTunes was there first. And it seems only a minority of users had problems with iTunes' DRM, so they had no reason to switch and re-purchase all their music.
The RIAA is not dumb. Its members are making a ton of money, despite pushing lousy products. They also know that if they can get people to accept lousy products, lock people in, and convince easily-bought elected officials that they need protection, then they will be able to make amounts of money in the future that would not be possible by simply competing on product quality.
So you're saying they are kind of like a drug cartel?
And people wonder why Linux's desktop share is as small as it is.... Thank fuck the Ubuntu community forums aren't full of arseholes like you. Maybe that's why its market share of Linux pisses over other distros.
Well, I've always found Gentoo forums very helpful indeed. But there is the ease of use Gentoo was not really meant for. ;)
I believe you will find that that study is out of date and has been superseded by studies showing that between 8 and 9 hours is best for most people.
Unless you provide me with a link, I will not. I am way too lazy to seek it myself.
But fair enough.
In fact, I seem to recall a study claiming that 6.5 hours of sleep per day is considered optimal, at least with respect to longevity.
I do just fine with some 6 hours of sleep on average, and have done so for the best part of my life. Even my parents say I've always slept less than normal kids, and much less than my sister, who on one occasion slept for 23 hours, got up for an hour, then went back to sleep.
BTW she's doing just fine, too, though now that she has a daughter, she does not tend to sleep much.
My only annoyance is that I tend to drop off somewhere between 11 pm and 1 am, then sleep until around 6 am, while my girlfriend goes to sleep around 4 am and then sleeps till noon.
Also, while we still lack the complete picture, it's proven that at least one type of memory isn't updated without REM.
And I can attest to that.
Yesterday I participated in a Chinese language competition, as a 1st year student. Of course I did badly; I am a total beginner, after all.
Anyway, a part of the competition was the speech we all had to make. We first year students had our speeches translated by our teachers and were told to try to learn them by heart.
The first day, I'd remembered most of the first paragraph and bits of the second. Try as I might, I could not remember any more.
Next morning, I could remember some parts I had not been able to remember when I was studying them; apparently, sleep updated my memory, just as you say.
Well, that is only to be expected from a nation founded by fundamentalists.
Puritans: people so uptight that the British kicked them out.
I wonder, though, how long will America be able to retain its supremacy with what seems to me a rapidly increasing ratio of fundies vs. evolutionists? And what happens if fundies get their hands on nucular weaponry?
But don't mind me; I'm paranoid.
Keep in mind that the people you're arguing with are the same people who, despite countless examples that sex can lead to pregnancy, and zero examples of virgins getting pregnant, still believe Mary was a virgin.
It's quite clear that these are not people who believe in evidence supporting hypotheses.
Actually, there have been examples of virgins getting pregnant, but not without exposure to sperm.
</nitpick>
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
KDE is repeating the CDE mistake: instead of focusing on what people need right now and doing a really good job at it, KDE is trying to realize some long term pie-in-the-sky technical visions of its developers that no user asked for.
Since CDE's greatest mistake was charging premium for it, I'd say KDE is not doing anything wrong.
I used to be a Gnome fan myself, but nowadays KDE appeals to me much more.
It will not take five minutes before the experienced KDE users stop using the widget because they are being bugged by people.
Love or hate forums they are a better way to collate helpful information than using a disparate bunch of people all over the place.
Not... necessarily.
Imagine it as a kind of torrent, i.e. p2p education. As you explain something to someone, he may in turn explain it to someone else, and even reinforce his own knowledge.
It could prove to be useful and educational, not just in relation to KDE.
Most heterosexual females I know would not like to see that.
Not even most of the homosexual men I know would like that.
Almost everyone I know finds the sight gross. And I concur with the groupthink on that one.
Even though I do not get such amounts of exposure, I got more than a fair share. And I've seen them in all shapes and sizes, including all the grandmothers in the nudist camp where we used to spend our summers when I was a kid.
They are like toy trains - made for kids, but we adults hog all the fun.
There is nothing better than boobs for resting my eyes. Or hands.
Waterboarding is hard, let's go gadget shopping.