Florida, as I understand things, requires absentee ballots to be/received/ prior to the closing of the polls, not just postmarked on election day. Don't fall into the same trap as some of the stupid newscasters that were cited this fact repeatedly and still refused to quit asking about what you just mentioned.
And I'm all for defection of the electors. It'd just even more strongly prove that we need electoral reform.
The electoral college is a holdover from a very long time ago, when it would have been impossible to keep track of the popular vote on a national scale, and the counting would have been completed sometime after the end of the president-elect's eighth term in office. Now, however, the media keeps such careful track of the popular vote that they actually influence elections. We have the technology at last to not only count all of our citizens and keep track of statistical data about them, but to keep track of how many voted which way. The electoral college is sadly unbalanced, unevenly distributing its electorate. It supposedly could still deal with a 'mass misjudgement' on the part of the voters, but it seems to me that we already have Bush and Gore running...
Since we're choosing between two evils (neither of which is really lesser than the other), we have to find something good about this election, and electoral reform is it. We need complete reform, not just of the electoral college system but of the process as a whole.
A multi-stage election system would probably work best. For example, you let all the people with nominations get votes. Then, you take the top 75% of the candidates, by vote. For example, if Bush got 49%, Gore got 49%, and Nader got the majority of the remaining 2%, we'd have an election between Bush and Gore. If Bush got 30%, Gore got 30%, Nader got 10%, and the remaining 30% were split among at least 7 candidates, then we'd have an election between Bush, Gore, and Nader. It would allow people to vote for whomever they want to be in office without any fear of wasting their vote. Maybe even have another level of the competition between exactly two candidates, so no votes get 'wasted'.
An interesting question would be what is the fastest single processor (including ASCI's speed divided by 8192) currently in existance. Is it still a Cray? Are the individual processors that make up the ASCI particularly impressive in themselves?
Define 'fastest'. Every processor is better at some things than it is at others. Even just Cray computers have come in two basic designs in the past few years, for example: Massively parallel, with three- and four-digit processor counts, and vector processing, usually with between 4 and 32 processors. Each has its own best applications, just like the G4, the Alpha, the Sparc, and the x86. (And, for that matter, the x87, which won't help you much with cracking RC5, but single-handedly brought us all these idiots asking how ASCI White runs Quake.;)
What would be certainly more interesting than bringing the thing back to life would be sequencing its DNA, completely, and finding what it is genetically most similar to, and then contrasting the differences. And besides, who's to say that no form of message is present in the DNA of this creature, just waiting to be read by whoever finds the thing and has the intelligence to decode it? We're talking about sending DNA-encoded messages out with our deep-space explorers, but nobody can patent the idea if we find prior art, and I believe that this counts as that. More importantly, though, the time scale involved and the slight possibility that it got to New Mexico from somewhere much farther away (not any more slight than mankind evolving from a similarly-introduced bacterium) means that it's possible, however unlikely, that there's a meaningful message hidden in its DNA. It may be incomprehensibly tiny odds, but then again, we're the ones looking for ancient lifeforms in salt crystals in Carlsbad Cavern.
The University of North Dakota's John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, the best in the nation at a public university and preferred by many students over any at a private university, actually requires laptops for all of its students.
However, they charge $1,000 per year and give students very nicely configured Gateway laptops which get updated throughout the students' undergraduate years. The laptops also include both Ethernet and wireless LAN hookups, so that students can access class-related material from the residence halls or, using the wireless card, from the state-of-the-art classrooms in the aviation school's buildings.
This is one place where such technology is nice for students to have. From accessing the real weather reports to viewing navigational charts to viewing PowerPoint slides that demonstrate the dynamics of flight, laptops are beneficial to the aviation students.
However, I can't see an entire university requiring laptops, especially without heavily subsidizing them. Some philosophy majors might even find it reason to protest. Many english majors are content with writing their papers on University computers and not having to deal with breakdowns. Maybe computer science majors could be required to have laptops, but they'd just use them to ssh to the university's servers to run their programs, anyhow.
It has come to our attention that you have made use of a patented and trademarked invention of our client. We hope that you find the information contained herein to be helpful in determining how best to discontinue your use of our client's patent and trademark.
Due to the confusion of the legal representation of Arthur C. Clarke, an application for a patent was filed rather than one for a trademark registration on several of the trademarks related to the production of the film "2001: A Space Odyssey", and, although no patents were intended to be granted, the numerical nature of '2001', being one of the trademarks for which registration was applied, caused it to be filed mistakenly and, thus, granted as a patent. Therefore, the number '2001' is protected by patent within the United States of America until the first day of January in the year two thousand seven (2007). Furthermore, a trademark was also granted for the number '2001', and will remain in effect until the termination of business by Arthur C. Clarke. Because of the aforementioned patent and aforementioned trademark, use of the number '2001' is forbidden except by express permission by Arthur C. Clarke.
As legal counsel for Arthur C. Clarke, we demand that you discontinue use of the number '2001'. The ways in which we are aware you have misused this number are enumerated as follows:
1. In denotation of the first year of the third millennium
2. As the integer following 2000 and preceding 2002
3. As the integral part of all numbers between 2002 and the next lowest integer
4. As a mis-representation of the number 2010
5. As a mis-representation of the number 2011
6. As a mis-representation of the number 2100
7. As a mis-representation of the number 2101
8. As a mis-representation of the number 2110
9. As a mis-representation of the number 2111
One really good idea is to have them program a "perfect match" program, that takes answers from surveys they can pass out and calculates the top 3 or top 10 closest opposite-sex matches for each person. This is certainly doable by people taking an AP CS course, and also has the advantage that you can sell the match lists to students or even sponsor a dance in conjunction with the exercise to raise money to cover AP exam costs. My AP Calculus class did this (as it wasn't AP CS, I got the pleasure of writing the program), and not a one of us paid for the AP exam. Another idea is the often-overlooked world of text-based gaming. Have students write some kind of text-based game...perhaps in groups or individually, or as an entire class, so they get a feel for programming in the large. Maybe even have them make it multiplayer, depending on time and skill restraints. Or perhaps have a competition for the best tic-tac-toe (or checkers if they need even more of a challenge) AI, pitting them against eachother in a class tournament.
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Florida, as I understand things, requires absentee ballots to be /received/ prior to the closing of the polls, not just postmarked on election day. Don't fall into the same trap as some of the stupid newscasters that were cited this fact repeatedly and still refused to quit asking about what you just mentioned.
And I'm all for defection of the electors. It'd just even more strongly prove that we need electoral reform.
The electoral college is a holdover from a very long time ago, when it would have been impossible to keep track of the popular vote on a national scale, and the counting would have been completed sometime after the end of the president-elect's eighth term in office. Now, however, the media keeps such careful track of the popular vote that they actually influence elections. We have the technology at last to not only count all of our citizens and keep track of statistical data about them, but to keep track of how many voted which way. The electoral college is sadly unbalanced, unevenly distributing its electorate. It supposedly could still deal with a 'mass misjudgement' on the part of the voters, but it seems to me that we already have Bush and Gore running...
Since we're choosing between two evils (neither of which is really lesser than the other), we have to find something good about this election, and electoral reform is it. We need complete reform, not just of the electoral college system but of the process as a whole. A multi-stage election system would probably work best. For example, you let all the people with nominations get votes. Then, you take the top 75% of the candidates, by vote. For example, if Bush got 49%, Gore got 49%, and Nader got the majority of the remaining 2%, we'd have an election between Bush and Gore. If Bush got 30%, Gore got 30%, Nader got 10%, and the remaining 30% were split among at least 7 candidates, then we'd have an election between Bush, Gore, and Nader. It would allow people to vote for whomever they want to be in office without any fear of wasting their vote. Maybe even have another level of the competition between exactly two candidates, so no votes get 'wasted'.
An interesting question would be what is the fastest single processor (including ASCI's speed divided by 8192) currently in existance. Is it still a Cray? Are the individual processors that make up the ASCI particularly impressive in themselves?
;)
Define 'fastest'. Every processor is better at some things than it is at others. Even just Cray computers have come in two basic designs in the past few years, for example: Massively parallel, with three- and four-digit processor counts, and vector processing, usually with between 4 and 32 processors. Each has its own best applications, just like the G4, the Alpha, the Sparc, and the x86. (And, for that matter, the x87, which won't help you much with cracking RC5, but single-handedly brought us all these idiots asking how ASCI White runs Quake.
What would be certainly more interesting than bringing the thing back to life would be sequencing its DNA, completely, and finding what it is genetically most similar to, and then contrasting the differences. And besides, who's to say that no form of message is present in the DNA of this creature, just waiting to be read by whoever finds the thing and has the intelligence to decode it? We're talking about sending DNA-encoded messages out with our deep-space explorers, but nobody can patent the idea if we find prior art, and I believe that this counts as that. More importantly, though, the time scale involved and the slight possibility that it got to New Mexico from somewhere much farther away (not any more slight than mankind evolving from a similarly-introduced bacterium) means that it's possible, however unlikely, that there's a meaningful message hidden in its DNA. It may be incomprehensibly tiny odds, but then again, we're the ones looking for ancient lifeforms in salt crystals in Carlsbad Cavern.
The University of North Dakota's John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, the best in the nation at a public university and preferred by many students over any at a private university, actually requires laptops for all of its students.
However, they charge $1,000 per year and give students very nicely configured Gateway laptops which get updated throughout the students' undergraduate years. The laptops also include both Ethernet and wireless LAN hookups, so that students can access class-related material from the residence halls or, using the wireless card, from the state-of-the-art classrooms in the aviation school's buildings.
This is one place where such technology is nice for students to have. From accessing the real weather reports to viewing navigational charts to viewing PowerPoint slides that demonstrate the dynamics of flight, laptops are beneficial to the aviation students.
However, I can't see an entire university requiring laptops, especially without heavily subsidizing them. Some philosophy majors might even find it reason to protest. Many english majors are content with writing their papers on University computers and not having to deal with breakdowns. Maybe computer science majors could be required to have laptops, but they'd just use them to ssh to the university's servers to run their programs, anyhow.
To whom it may concern:
It has come to our attention that you have made use of a patented and trademarked invention of our client. We hope that you find the information contained herein to be helpful in determining how best to discontinue your use of our client's patent and trademark.
Due to the confusion of the legal representation of Arthur C. Clarke, an application for a patent was filed rather than one for a trademark registration on several of the trademarks related to the production of the film "2001: A Space Odyssey", and, although no patents were intended to be granted, the numerical nature of '2001', being one of the trademarks for which registration was applied, caused it to be filed mistakenly and, thus, granted as a patent. Therefore, the number '2001' is protected by patent within the United States of America until the first day of January in the year two thousand seven (2007). Furthermore, a trademark was also granted for the number '2001', and will remain in effect until the termination of business by Arthur C. Clarke. Because of the aforementioned patent and aforementioned trademark, use of the number '2001' is forbidden except by express permission by Arthur C. Clarke.
As legal counsel for Arthur C. Clarke, we demand that you discontinue use of the number '2001'. The ways in which we are aware you have misused this number are enumerated as follows:
1. In denotation of the first year of the third millennium
2. As the integer following 2000 and preceding 2002
3. As the integral part of all numbers between 2002 and the next lowest integer
4. As a mis-representation of the number 2010
5. As a mis-representation of the number 2011
6. As a mis-representation of the number 2100
7. As a mis-representation of the number 2101
8. As a mis-representation of the number 2110
9. As a mis-representation of the number 2111
Sincerely,
<Legal Counsel of Arthur C. Clarke>
One really good idea is to have them program a "perfect match" program, that takes answers from surveys they can pass out and calculates the top 3 or top 10 closest opposite-sex matches for each person. This is certainly doable by people taking an AP CS course, and also has the advantage that you can sell the match lists to students or even sponsor a dance in conjunction with the exercise to raise money to cover AP exam costs. My AP Calculus class did this (as it wasn't AP CS, I got the pleasure of writing the program), and not a one of us paid for the AP exam. Another idea is the often-overlooked world of text-based gaming. Have students write some kind of text-based game...perhaps in groups or individually, or as an entire class, so they get a feel for programming in the large. Maybe even have them make it multiplayer, depending on time and skill restraints. Or perhaps have a competition for the best tic-tac-toe (or checkers if they need even more of a challenge) AI, pitting them against eachother in a class tournament.
I think they finally came up with the core dump, too.