Even so, I think there is some merit to these discoveries. Certain aspects that our society considers flawed, damaged, or worthless, do have an impact on the quality of life for the person in question. Consider a person with an obesity gene. Obesity is a leading factor in heart disease and diabetes, thereby increasing risk of (earlier?) death. Eliminating or reducing obesity could therefore yield a measurable outcomes improvement for a society; e.g. how many people did/didn't die from obesity related diseases over the years. Now, eliminating a trait for a learning hindrance does not have the same clear-cut benefits that could be easily measured. Intuitively, if someone were smarter, they could obtain a better paying job or/and be more able to provide for their family/community. Overall, I don't think cherry picking traits is inherently evil (leading to an oppressive government state), despite all the Gattaca-esque movies we've seen.
I would like to provide the counter-point that pretty interfaces are in fact, the other half of good UI design (the first being a good, intuitive workflow). A pretty interface provides the user with an easy-to-interperet map that should lessen the learning curve and improve initial acceptance rates. An intuitive design is allows the user to guess their way through a program and provides long term satisfaction in its usage. From a designers perspective the everything is intuitive and the user should be able meander their way through in a matter of minutes. From a user perspective they need to complete a project under some deadline and have the application to do X, Y, and Z in one button push (even if such a button isn't practical). Therefore, the user needs to be able to learn AND use a robust program with relative ease. If users don't learn a complex tool easily enough, lazy or not, then they'll never use it. This makes UI design hard for complex systems/workflows.
But don't you see? That just means all the evil terrorists are busy training. Wait till they have to put down the controller for a Cheetoes binge, then they'll snap and all hell will break loose.
Ya, I just mentioned the Aptera as the OP was covering it. Most of my rant was based off of seeing electric cars first-hand and knowing that I wouldn't want to drive them for reasons of style, safety, cost, and practicality.
However, hybrids certainly look like a nice balance between the two. Just wished they were a tad cheaper.
I don't mean to be to be a downer, but I think there are other factors as well that will prevent this particular model from taking of. Namely does it look cool, is it safe, and how well does it hold up under extreme weather cases. Following the links, the Aptera looks fugly as hell, mostly because it's trying to damn hard to look futuristic. Why can't electric car developers go with a more conservative design to ease acceptance? Instead they have to try their damndest to make the car look like ass and dick. Safety is another issue. Most electric cars like they'd crumple if you stubbed your toe on them; again, it's a design issue. The next is versatility. All those evil gas guzzlers: minivans, trucks, and suvs, do have a functional use of carrying a lot of stuff somewhere through any weather conditions. I doubt electrics will have enough torque to go over rocky terrain or through mud. Though, I suppose this is fine. It will just relegate the electric car to a commute car.
In terms of acceptance, I guess I'd really like to see an affordable electric car that looks normal.
I'd say they have more to worry about from mythical beasts and aliens than silly natural disasters. Seriously, what are the chances of an errant asteroid versus a full on alien invasion.
I hope you know I was being sarcastic. While constant bombardment of advertisements probably won't make me go on on a violent killing spree, it would make me very short tempered and snappy at everyone around me.
I don't know if I would use the phrase "poor actor" (in a sympathetic tone), as he seems to be doing fairly well for himself: http://www.wilwheaton.net/. He's got two books published and is still an active actor http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000696/. All things considered, I think he's better off than the Startrek.com people.
I dunno about you, but I wouldn't have to be a paranoid schizophrenic to get violent over being marauded by advertisement. It's just something that would slowly eat away at my sanity, forcing me to kill the next person that walks by, hopefully an advertiser.
On another note, the more persistent and annoying the ad, the greater lengths I go to avoid that particular company. Hell, within 1 millisecond of hearing a familiar, but grinding jingle, I tend to change the channel of whatever I'm watching/hearing.
That's kinda lame. What if you have multiple computers on a wireless setup? Having a shared folder within a local network is so much more convenient than running around everywhere with the god damned CD. I think this particular case is foolish for the RIAA to go after because, even if there was some illegal distribution, it would be very limited compared to a torrent of some album. This is like watching hobos scramble after pennies.
Erm... My point was, in direct response to the article, that sites like Wikipedia are not creating 'intellectual laggards', but that they are enhancing a student's ability to find basic knowledge. If teachers want more out of their students than a search-retrieval-answer, then they should factor these sites in and ask questions that require a greater depth of knowledge. For instance, if you ask a class to write a Linked List, chances are some students will just grab some sourceforge code and slap their name on it. If you ask them to create a ticket application accessed by randomly generated people, then you're more inclined to get original work because the student cannot google a quick fix.
In response to your comment, I expect students to use google and wiki's and spellcheck and more. I just think it's something teachers will have to understand and anticipate if they want to challenge their students' minds.
Maybe if students are cheating off of Yahoo and Wikipedia, teachers aren't asking students challenging questions. In essence, they are asking 'fill in the blank', 'short answer', or 'multiple choice' questions that are easy to snag off an encyclopedic site. Instead of complaining about how such sites produce intellectual laggards, maybe we should think of how they can be used to enhance some complex thought process and their practical limitations. For instance, a teacher could ask a student to solve some physics question specialized for the class that involves more than one algorithm to solve. That would make it harder to google if the student doesn't understand the problem and know where to look. If they understand it, find a ready made solution, and apply it, then they should get some credit (more so if they cite their source).
It's not enough that we want children with critical thinking skills. It's also important to have teachers with critical think skills as well. Otherwise, it's kind of moot when the students are more resourceful than the teacher.
I agree with you. I haven't purchased a CD in a loooong time. Though I have listened to a lot of fantastic indie music (usually made for games). One thing that I wouldn't mind is having partial 1-2 min demo clips of all mp3s from an album. Since, in the past, I have purchased CDs based on that one demo song that I would have preferred not to:P.
That's why we're trying to get to Mars now. What with China going to space and Japan taking surveillance photos of the moon, this signals a whole new era of killing people in space. Before there was no incentive, but now that other nations are going into space, we can go about bleeding our economy to kill them. I can see the tabloids now, Saddam Hussein, ruling local meteorite has potential weapon of mass that could prove destructive. Let's bomb him.
Normally, it's best to err on the side of caution write original code. In this case the code was 200 lines long. Now, I know length shouldn't be an issue, but how many different ways can/will you write your for-loops or AJAX code. The OP mentioned that the code was 200 lines long, which isn't very much. Even if the OP's group were to rewrite the code, it might not look very different from the original code (not counting stupid things like variable or function name changes). It's at these gray areas, that I, personally, tend to not care as much. Now, if it were an entire library of code, that would be different.
Bah! you and your shiny monitors:P. I grew up during the Doom/C&C/Monkey Island games, so just about everything looks good enough. Given that, I probably wouldn't notice that extra pore on my character's face no matter how hard I try.
Just to comment, portal will probably run on your system if you have a decent budget card. Valve has been fairly lenient on what your computer specs should be. Now, bioshock on the other hand, I'd recommend buying a 360 not because the graphics are laggy (though they are), but because the pc version is just so damned buggy. My comp does a hard reboot every ~20 min playing that game:(. I don't have a beasty of a computer, but I expect some stability...
Buy the Orange Box, HL2, Portal, and TF2 are all fun.
Ya, his keynote as PAX was great. It was amazing how he just connected with all the gamers in the crowd:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEBu4RX-5N4
and dredged up some memories of my childhood to boot.
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Even so, I think there is some merit to these discoveries. Certain aspects that our society considers flawed, damaged, or worthless, do have an impact on the quality of life for the person in question. Consider a person with an obesity gene. Obesity is a leading factor in heart disease and diabetes, thereby increasing risk of (earlier?) death. Eliminating or reducing obesity could therefore yield a measurable outcomes improvement for a society; e.g. how many people did/didn't die from obesity related diseases over the years. Now, eliminating a trait for a learning hindrance does not have the same clear-cut benefits that could be easily measured. Intuitively, if someone were smarter, they could obtain a better paying job or/and be more able to provide for their family/community. Overall, I don't think cherry picking traits is inherently evil (leading to an oppressive government state), despite all the Gattaca-esque movies we've seen.
I would like to provide the counter-point that pretty interfaces are in fact, the other half of good UI design (the first being a good, intuitive workflow). A pretty interface provides the user with an easy-to-interperet map that should lessen the learning curve and improve initial acceptance rates. An intuitive design is allows the user to guess their way through a program and provides long term satisfaction in its usage. From a designers perspective the everything is intuitive and the user should be able meander their way through in a matter of minutes. From a user perspective they need to complete a project under some deadline and have the application to do X, Y, and Z in one button push (even if such a button isn't practical). Therefore, the user needs to be able to learn AND use a robust program with relative ease. If users don't learn a complex tool easily enough, lazy or not, then they'll never use it. This makes UI design hard for complex systems/workflows.
How else are we going to teach our children to use L O L and trendy emoticons in their academic papers?
But don't you see? That just means all the evil terrorists are busy training. Wait till they have to put down the controller for a Cheetoes binge, then they'll snap and all hell will break loose.
Imagine the possibilities. I could get first post without actually being the first poster! First Post! Now gimme cuts.
Ya, I just mentioned the Aptera as the OP was covering it. Most of my rant was based off of seeing electric cars first-hand and knowing that I wouldn't want to drive them for reasons of style, safety, cost, and practicality. However, hybrids certainly look like a nice balance between the two. Just wished they were a tad cheaper.
I don't mean to be to be a downer, but I think there are other factors as well that will prevent this particular model from taking of. Namely does it look cool, is it safe, and how well does it hold up under extreme weather cases. Following the links, the Aptera looks fugly as hell, mostly because it's trying to damn hard to look futuristic. Why can't electric car developers go with a more conservative design to ease acceptance? Instead they have to try their damndest to make the car look like ass and dick. Safety is another issue. Most electric cars like they'd crumple if you stubbed your toe on them; again, it's a design issue. The next is versatility. All those evil gas guzzlers: minivans, trucks, and suvs, do have a functional use of carrying a lot of stuff somewhere through any weather conditions. I doubt electrics will have enough torque to go over rocky terrain or through mud. Though, I suppose this is fine. It will just relegate the electric car to a commute car.
In terms of acceptance, I guess I'd really like to see an affordable electric car that looks normal.
Would Spore be the vim counterpart then?
They also get hit by the slitheen, daleks, cybermen, and sycorax, just to name a few.
Not to mention the Big Ben keeps on getting destroyed.
I'd say they have more to worry about from mythical beasts and aliens than silly natural disasters. Seriously, what are the chances of an errant asteroid versus a full on alien invasion.
It must've been silent but deadly.
I hope you know I was being sarcastic. While constant bombardment of advertisements probably won't make me go on on a violent killing spree, it would make me very short tempered and snappy at everyone around me.
I don't know if I would use the phrase "poor actor" (in a sympathetic tone), as he seems to be doing fairly well for himself: http://www.wilwheaton.net/. He's got two books published and is still an active actor http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000696/. All things considered, I think he's better off than the Startrek.com people.
I dunno about you, but I wouldn't have to be a paranoid schizophrenic to get violent over being marauded by advertisement. It's just something that would slowly eat away at my sanity, forcing me to kill the next person that walks by, hopefully an advertiser. On another note, the more persistent and annoying the ad, the greater lengths I go to avoid that particular company. Hell, within 1 millisecond of hearing a familiar, but grinding jingle, I tend to change the channel of whatever I'm watching/hearing.
And less importantly, can it run Vista?
Wow, I think you came up with a replacement for the Three Laws. With those 10 rules, no man will ever be harmed again.
That's kinda lame. What if you have multiple computers on a wireless setup? Having a shared folder within a local network is so much more convenient than running around everywhere with the god damned CD. I think this particular case is foolish for the RIAA to go after because, even if there was some illegal distribution, it would be very limited compared to a torrent of some album. This is like watching hobos scramble after pennies.
Erm... My point was, in direct response to the article, that sites like Wikipedia are not creating 'intellectual laggards', but that they are enhancing a student's ability to find basic knowledge. If teachers want more out of their students than a search-retrieval-answer, then they should factor these sites in and ask questions that require a greater depth of knowledge. For instance, if you ask a class to write a Linked List, chances are some students will just grab some sourceforge code and slap their name on it. If you ask them to create a ticket application accessed by randomly generated people, then you're more inclined to get original work because the student cannot google a quick fix.
In response to your comment, I expect students to use google and wiki's and spellcheck and more. I just think it's something teachers will have to understand and anticipate if they want to challenge their students' minds.
Maybe if students are cheating off of Yahoo and Wikipedia, teachers aren't asking students challenging questions. In essence, they are asking 'fill in the blank', 'short answer', or 'multiple choice' questions that are easy to snag off an encyclopedic site. Instead of complaining about how such sites produce intellectual laggards, maybe we should think of how they can be used to enhance some complex thought process and their practical limitations. For instance, a teacher could ask a student to solve some physics question specialized for the class that involves more than one algorithm to solve. That would make it harder to google if the student doesn't understand the problem and know where to look. If they understand it, find a ready made solution, and apply it, then they should get some credit (more so if they cite their source). It's not enough that we want children with critical thinking skills. It's also important to have teachers with critical think skills as well. Otherwise, it's kind of moot when the students are more resourceful than the teacher.
Apparently you haven't watched Grave of the Fireflies. If your heart doesn't shatter, you're not human.
I agree with you. I haven't purchased a CD in a loooong time. Though I have listened to a lot of fantastic indie music (usually made for games). One thing that I wouldn't mind is having partial 1-2 min demo clips of all mp3s from an album. Since, in the past, I have purchased CDs based on that one demo song that I would have preferred not to :P.
That's why we're trying to get to Mars now. What with China going to space and Japan taking surveillance photos of the moon, this signals a whole new era of killing people in space. Before there was no incentive, but now that other nations are going into space, we can go about bleeding our economy to kill them. I can see the tabloids now, Saddam Hussein, ruling local meteorite has potential weapon of mass that could prove destructive. Let's bomb him.
Normally, it's best to err on the side of caution write original code. In this case the code was 200 lines long. Now, I know length shouldn't be an issue, but how many different ways can/will you write your for-loops or AJAX code. The OP mentioned that the code was 200 lines long, which isn't very much. Even if the OP's group were to rewrite the code, it might not look very different from the original code (not counting stupid things like variable or function name changes). It's at these gray areas, that I, personally, tend to not care as much. Now, if it were an entire library of code, that would be different.
Bah! you and your shiny monitors :P. I grew up during the Doom/C&C/Monkey Island games, so just about everything looks good enough. Given that, I probably wouldn't notice that extra pore on my character's face no matter how hard I try.
Just to comment, portal will probably run on your system if you have a decent budget card. Valve has been fairly lenient on what your computer specs should be. Now, bioshock on the other hand, I'd recommend buying a 360 not because the graphics are laggy (though they are), but because the pc version is just so damned buggy. My comp does a hard reboot every ~20 min playing that game :(. I don't have a beasty of a computer, but I expect some stability...
Buy the Orange Box, HL2, Portal, and TF2 are all fun.
Ya, his keynote as PAX was great. It was amazing how he just connected with all the gamers in the crowd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEBu4RX-5N4 and dredged up some memories of my childhood to boot.