So apparently they learned nothing from the their last PR emergency, unless their strategy is to do what they want and respond (acting surprised) only if there's a big enough 'uproar.' Why can't these companies understand that putting the customer first pays off in the long term more than any other strategy.
Is it unfortunate that they cost a lot? Yes, it is
Have you stopped to think why they cost so much? Supply and Demand? Scarcity of authors? Production and distribution costs? No. Textbooks prices are artificially high because prices they are set by a cartel (textbook publishers) and students are left with no alternative options (it's like buying a computer and getting Windows with it). Plus there's a tendency to bite the bullet in the name of 'education.'
The reason for an opening in an enclosure is to provide an in/out mechanism. However creating the opening weakens the enclosure, therefore establishing the need for a door: a mechanism to preserve the enclosure and provide an in/out mechanism. Thus the door and the opening are functionally equivalent.
The primary purpose of a door is to provide an in/out mechanism. A bolt or lock would be the component used to deny access. Therefore having a door would be analogous to broadcasting the signal and using a bolt to enabling WPA or WEP.
You've got the right idea. But oddly enough it is hard to find the kids who are really in need. Someone mentioned in another post taking the laptops to teachers in schools, but that isn't always practical. The bottom line is that there's some work (or value add) needed between the laptop sitting on your shelf and being ready to use by a kid, the biggest part being finding the kid.
I think there are groups/organizations already in place that could do the "kid finding" (for example Dave Egger's tutoring centers). They just need another group to pair with them that will handle the receiving and processing of the donated laptops and clean and linux them up. After which they can go directly to a child that really needs it. I imagine this could be done in a distributed fashion with volunteers all over.
I see the real issue here not I.D. vs. evolution, but the manner in which the scientific community has behaved towards I.D. proponents-- nervously and aggressively.
Why does science feel threatened? Let the ideas stand on their own. If a scientist lets his faith influence his ideas and methods, then let his work go as far as it'll go, don't destroy his career.
I would say this does raise another valid point, though: as systems and media age, it's actually quite an interesting question how all of this data that isn't transferred to modern day systems will be dealt with...
Yea, interesting indeed... I was just reading about that in Kurzweil's "The Singularity is Near." He says, "Ironically the ease of approaching this information is inversely proportional to the level of advancement of the technology used to create it" (page 327) referring to the boxes of old media he has stashed away.
I can definitely relate, as I have some old documents in floppy disks from a high school English class that I can't get Word to open.
Taking loan to save your own money was stupid. Loans must be paid back with interest. You'd been better off living out of your own money and only borrowing money if you actually needed it.
I disagree-- junior year of college is a great time to be risky. I say take all that money and put it in an online
brokerage account and play with it for a year. At graduation, if you made more than 5% or 6% you've done well plus
you've gained great investing experience for when you have some real capital. If you lost money, oh well, that's why
you're getting that college degree.
There are commercials that I rewind to watch, especially if it's something I'm interested in buying. When I was in the market for a new car, I payed attention to nearly every car commercial I saw.
Dude, if you rely on commercials for information you automatically forfeit your Tivo priviledges-- ever heard of the Internet?
Maybe J.C from Dallas alone isn't of much guidance, but it is ususally the case that if a product has a particular strength or weakness, that will come across several reviews-- you'll hear it from Steve in Tulsa, Margaret in Houston and Debbie in Des Moines... At least in Amazon which is the only customer feedback system I'm familiar with.
I do a lot of online shopping and customer reviews are a significant factor in my buying decisions. You just have to learn how to read them. You should look for comments referring to specific information about the product, and consistency across reviews. And of course the number of reviews for a product is important-- I don't know what a statistically significant threshold would be, but my personal rule of thumb is 8 to 10.
The Blackberry is huge and quickly becoming a commodity with pretty much every corporate client I've worked with. And not to take anything away from the Treo 650, it may be great, I just haven't seen one.
Slashdot Mirror
So apparently they learned nothing from the their last PR emergency, unless their strategy is to do what they want and respond (acting surprised) only if there's a big enough 'uproar.' Why can't these companies understand that putting the customer first pays off in the long term more than any other strategy.
In case anyone needs the context, here.
Is it unfortunate that they cost a lot? Yes, it is
Have you stopped to think why they cost so much? Supply and Demand? Scarcity of authors? Production and distribution costs? No. Textbooks prices are artificially high because prices they are set by a cartel (textbook publishers) and students are left with no alternative options (it's like buying a computer and getting Windows with it). Plus there's a tendency to bite the bullet in the name of 'education.'
The reason for an opening in an enclosure is to provide an in/out mechanism. However creating the opening weakens the enclosure, therefore establishing the need for a door: a mechanism to preserve the enclosure and provide an in/out mechanism. Thus the door and the opening are functionally equivalent.
nah, you'd go to a minimun-security joint for that. I hear they have conjugal visits.
I think there are groups/organizations already in place that could do the "kid finding" (for example Dave Egger's tutoring centers). They just need another group to pair with them that will handle the receiving and processing of the donated laptops and clean and linux them up. After which they can go directly to a child that really needs it. I imagine this could be done in a distributed fashion with volunteers all over.
Maybe this a candidate for another TED prize.
Why does science feel threatened? Let the ideas stand on their own. If a scientist lets his faith influence his ideas and methods, then let his work go as far as it'll go, don't destroy his career.
And who hired the class B people to begin with???
Yea, interesting indeed... I was just reading about that in Kurzweil's "The Singularity is Near." He says, "Ironically the ease of approaching this information is inversely proportional to the level of advancement of the technology used to create it" (page 327) referring to the boxes of old media he has stashed away.
I can definitely relate, as I have some old documents in floppy disks from a high school English class that I can't get Word to open.
I disagree-- junior year of college is a great time to be risky. I say take all that money and put it in an online brokerage account and play with it for a year. At graduation, if you made more than 5% or 6% you've done well plus you've gained great investing experience for when you have some real capital. If you lost money, oh well, that's why you're getting that college degree.
Dude, if you rely on commercials for information you automatically forfeit your Tivo priviledges-- ever heard of the Internet?
But what I fear is malice sufficiently advanced enough to disguise itself as incompetence.
Plain ol' malice is already by default logically equivalent (as far as distinguishability goes) to advanced incompetence.
I do a lot of online shopping and customer reviews are a significant factor in my buying decisions. You just have to learn how to read them. You should look for comments referring to specific information about the product, and consistency across reviews. And of course the number of reviews for a product is important-- I don't know what a statistically significant threshold would be, but my personal rule of thumb is 8 to 10.
Not in the corporate demographic at least..
The Blackberry is huge and quickly becoming a commodity with pretty much every corporate client I've worked with. And not to take anything away from the Treo 650, it may be great, I just haven't seen one.