Lots of Americans would like to change (including Ich), but most are just used to the old system. BTW, we have to learn the conversion factor: 2.54 cm per inch (.3937 inches per cm). Just get used to it. We have to. And adding with odd bases (i.e. 12, 16ths) is kind of hard, compared to the metric system.
Since when did the "Bill" from the old School House Rock become the "Bit"? That has got to be one of the unintentionally funniest things I've seen. It reminds me of Jurassic Park when the tour video introduces "Mr. DNA" or whatever, that explains the process of cloning dinosaurs.
Not to mention a Catholic or even more generally Christian significance. People do want to be sppon fed entertainment. A friend of mine actually had the nerve to say that they needed more fighting in the second and third movies. And the worst part is that a College Professor I know who is a good friend of mine also disliked the second and third movies because of the philosophy. Until we watched the special features together, he did not understand the second or third movies. Perhaps due to my math ("your life is the sum of the remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix..." - this actually makes sense:-D) or perhaps the religion (I am a Lutheran) or perhaps just the philosophy (choice, causality, transcendentalism, metaphysics) really appealed to me, probably the most in the second movie but throughout the entire series. The problems I had with the Matrix series were the unexplained stuff, like how Neo could "see" the machines outside of the Matrix or how he randomly "jacked in" in that trainman part. But that's technocrap. I can even forgive the stuff about the use of humans for power. Morpheus does say "combined with a form of fusion." Very interesting, because some companies are pursuing the use of solar power combined with fuel cells to generate power in the future. I think the Wachowski brothers are artistic geniuses, and their movies were great. I actually have new depth and understanding of what I believe, and what others believe. I have a deeper understanding of being human. It has caused me to be not afraid of change. I am a more powerful and more self-controlled person because of the movies. Not much, apart from my Religious beliefs, can claim that.
Apparently your data-collecting skills are comparable with those of the 1920's...and you have a vast internet in front of you! Today's education and societal problems are NO DIFFERENT from societal problems in history.
Education is a smorgasbord of extremes. 30 years ago, emphasis was being placed on being together. Open classrooms (the ones with no walls) and things like that were concieved to "be in touch with everyone." It was a miserable failure. Noise was excessive, and soon false walls were added to maintain some semblence of order. In the early 1980s, the US Government published "A Nation At Risk," a document describing "inadequacies" of the education system. This led to the standards movement that we are (unfortunately) locked into today. It no longer matters that one learns *how* a mathematical problem is derived, but it is only important that sin^2(x) + cos^2(x) = 1.
Also, the job market has significantly changed in the last 40 years. In 1960, 20% of men dropped out of high school to work in manual labor, and they could get a good job. Today, no one can get that kind of job if they drop out. Granted, the education system is short-sighted by promoting college for *all* students, but service jobs do require more skills than manual labor. One must read, write, do basic arithmetic, not to mention speak correctly.
Today the system is flawed because of a) the public school system, and b) the lack of parental responsibility. School isn't meant to teach discipline/people skills/responsibility. My parents taught me those things (and to the misinformed reader who said that BS about being under 16, I am 16. You are more ignorant than brats whom you were talking about). My mother is a teacher and she deals with parents who absolutely refuse to accept that their children have discipline problems with responses such as "my baby would never do that!" Why are parents allowed to do this? Because stupid legislation like No Child Left Behind is allowed to pass. Teachers unaffectionately call it "no teacher left unscrewed." Among other insane provisions in the law, students who are for all intents and purposes vegetables must pass a test, even if they cannot coherently speak or read. Parents can move their children if the schools don't pass the accreditation ratings, yet the unaccredited schools happen to pull from poor and minority neighborhoods. How "coincidental"::cough cough::.
I am tired of the crap that they feed us at school. I am in all honors, "gifted", and AP classes. Our classes sometimes break the 30 students mark, far more than is conducive to successful education. Yet, to pass the tests, students who acheive lower on tests are put into classes with AVERAGE sizes of about 12. Is this right at all? Who will be more productive in society? That sounds harsh, but in all honesty, which group has more potential for growth? Part of the problem is that we think that "all people can acheive if they work hard." To a degree this American ideal is correct, but acheiving academically is not the goal. Academia should NOT be an end to itself. Someone mentioned that they have not used the algebra or trig they learned in high school. Being a student who enjoys math immensely, I can determine what it is used for. But it frustates me to no end how teachers teach it. "OK, the standard formula for a parabola is Ax^2 + By + C = 0," as if Sir Isaac Newton just looked in a book when he invented Calculus. What's the purpose of learning math? Learning logical thinking skills! But in many respects, standards is killing that. Classes such as algebra, trig, and geometry are simply excercises in wasting time. Science should be about satisfying curiousity. Instead most science stifles curiousity because of the "dry" subject matter.
All of these things considered, I think the biggest problem is that the *parents* are apathetic about school. I think the children who do poorly in school have parents who do not encourage it. They have this "I didn't do well in school so you don't have to" idea. They may say "do as I say, not as I do,
They'll try, and these chicken entrails indicate they'll fail.
Ah, my boy Will, sixteenth century pimp. Of course, if you're talking about the actual Romans, well "quid haruspex dixit?" Very clever, my boy. The "entrails from an offering forth" happened to be correct in that case. Just a few questions. Who's Brutus in this case? Marcus Antonius? Cassius? "Et tu, Kai-Fu(e)?! Then fall Microshaft."
This sounds a bit weird to me. Cell phones with GPS was bad enough. Especially since most users don't even know how to access it or disable it. But this is just 1984. I'm thinking maybe the NSA has something to do with this. Since no one knows what goes on there anyway (and the ones who do don't say anything), what keeps them from talking to fellow buddies at the FCC to come up with a bullshit reason to track things? If they do this, I will hack and disable it.
Yes, you're very correct in the statement about "no taxation without representation" in America's history. That was one of the complaints against Britain offered in "Common Sense" by Thomas Payne. We are very particular about our taxes, and we have always been. I do agree with you that Bush is an idiot, but it would be a mistake to impeach him. We would be no better than those who impeached Clinton.
Maybe because I'm from the US, I don't understand the Canadian system or whatever. But how can a court impose a tax on goods? In America, only the legislative bodies can impose taxes and only the executive bodies can enforce them. The courts decide if they have merit or not. I'm a bit confused as to who should be paying whom. Sounds to me like the Canadian government or perhaps this radical IP group should be paying the buyers back.
Contrary to other Google or Yahoo loyalists, this is a good move in the search engine market. This is capitalism at it's finest and computer using at its finest. We, the consumers, benefit because of innovations and improvments by the producers. Competition has caused this. Yahoo came up with that home page thing, and at least at this point, it is the best. But Google rapidly offered one, and MSN now does as well (because MS does not compete or innovate, they copy). I'm pleased to see these companies following *real* capitalism and not using scare tactics, as the bastards from Microshaft do.
--Drew
I personally think that if they offered it freely as a community thing, the service would be crap. That's how cable is, and you have to pay for that. As long as we have to buy the tools to set up networks, WiFi and successive technologies will get cheaper and more reliable. This is the history of our country and our economy. This is the fundamental belief in capitalism. Look at USPS now. They fail compared to UPS or FedEx. Look at the roads in your area. Or I should say, feel them when you ride. They're crap. Our infrastructure is falling apart. I read something recently about how infrastructure in the US needs overhaul. How about the citizens collectively controling the means of production for public wifi, and not some guy in an expensive office downtown?
That is the dumbest thing I've heard so far in this age of "war on terror." The governments of the world do some dumb things to be "safe" or "secure," but this is just inane. I thought the block over the White House and Dept. of Treasury were stupid, as the pixelation of the US Capitol. But a nuclear plant? Hell, I did a search and found a frigging AIR TRAFFIC map that focused attention on a local nuclear plant in my area. At some point (a point that we've crossed, IMHO), we need to get over the possibility of terrorism and come up with real strategies that will combat them. We have to go through all sorts of ordeals in the airports and there is the God-forsaken "Patriot Act". I think this falls into "your rights online" and "your rights (period)".
How about we come up with a new strategy. We (the US) provides significant trade and other economic incentives to governments who publicly condemn terrorist acts or radical ideologies. Maybe the countries who hate us would change their minds a little. Call it the Marhall Plan 2.0.1.
Australia, however, has some of the harshest censoring in the world. I always find that a little weird, anyway. If it is too dangerous for us mere citizens to view, why can the government view it and say it's too dangerous?
I did a little experiment: searched google for information about this power plant before looking at the original article. I found information about the plant in Australia (which is not a power plant, just a research facility), at the World Nuclear Association's website, http://world-nuclear.org/info/printable_infomation _papers/inf64print.htm. Terrorists could come by information with any means. The tactic must be stopped, not the ability to practice the tactic. If we're so scared about terrorism that we block images from being viewed on websites, doesn't that mean that we have succumbed to their scare tactics?
--Drew
It really depends. Being a student deeply interested in physics (although I enjoy all school subjects), I really have a unique opinion. It irritates me sometimes how Hollywood can screw up science for the sake of film. Star Wars Episode III, for example. I loved the movie, but that crash scene at the beginning was just stupid. There is no way that the water from the fire ships would have even touched the crashing ship: it was going too fast. Of course then there's the fact that Ion cannons and repulsorlifts aren't real.
Glamourizing science could have a considerably positive affect or a negative affect. The bottom line is that kids will not learn chemistry or physics or whatever as long as they think they can get by without it. I choose to learn as much as I can because I have no idea what I will and will not need in my life. 40 years ago if someone told students to learn how to use a computer because it would help them in life, they would have laughed at such a folly. But look at us today. I like the idea, but I think education needs some creative ideas. Of course, that's a discussion for another time...
Does this guy give any reasons why he doesn't like Linux? Does he give any concrete reasons why he doesn't like Mac OS? He says prices, but look at the Mac Mini. I'd be hard pressed to find PCs that cheap. And MM comes with Tiger and iLife 05.
2 guidelines with software: the best things in life are free; better software generally costs more. It seems like an oxymoron, but guaranteed it is a paradox. Microsoft doesn't deserve our love because obviously it doesn't love us. It loves the corporate guys. But even then, it still has the same security problems. And I don't buy that bullshit about "95 % of the market is Windows." It happens to be very easy to write a virus for windows. First of all, the monolithic approach to software just sucks. If one thing goes wrong, the whole system goes kaput. And the shoddy code just makes more security holes. Yes, I'm sure there are holes in Mac OS and we already know about the ones in Linux. But the Windows holes are so easy to exploit. And there are just a lot of them. Anyway, that's my rant.
I was going to look through the javascript to see how much they straight copied from google. Google's search engine is better anyways. Heil Gates, Microshaftfuhrer!
Slashdot Mirror
Lots of Americans would like to change (including Ich), but most are just used to the old system. BTW, we have to learn the conversion factor: 2.54 cm per inch (.3937 inches per cm). Just get used to it. We have to. And adding with odd bases (i.e. 12, 16ths) is kind of hard, compared to the metric system.
Since when did the "Bill" from the old School House Rock become the "Bit"? That has got to be one of the unintentionally funniest things I've seen. It reminds me of Jurassic Park when the tour video introduces "Mr. DNA" or whatever, that explains the process of cloning dinosaurs.
Not to mention a Catholic or even more generally Christian significance. People do want to be sppon fed entertainment. A friend of mine actually had the nerve to say that they needed more fighting in the second and third movies. And the worst part is that a College Professor I know who is a good friend of mine also disliked the second and third movies because of the philosophy. Until we watched the special features together, he did not understand the second or third movies. Perhaps due to my math ("your life is the sum of the remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix..." - this actually makes sense :-D) or perhaps the religion (I am a Lutheran) or perhaps just the philosophy (choice, causality, transcendentalism, metaphysics) really appealed to me, probably the most in the second movie but throughout the entire series. The problems I had with the Matrix series were the unexplained stuff, like how Neo could "see" the machines outside of the Matrix or how he randomly "jacked in" in that trainman part. But that's technocrap. I can even forgive the stuff about the use of humans for power. Morpheus does say "combined with a form of fusion." Very interesting, because some companies are pursuing the use of solar power combined with fuel cells to generate power in the future. I think the Wachowski brothers are artistic geniuses, and their movies were great. I actually have new depth and understanding of what I believe, and what others believe. I have a deeper understanding of being human. It has caused me to be not afraid of change. I am a more powerful and more self-controlled person because of the movies. Not much, apart from my Religious beliefs, can claim that.
Apparently your data-collecting skills are comparable with those of the 1920's...and you have a vast internet in front of you! Today's education and societal problems are NO DIFFERENT from societal problems in history. Education is a smorgasbord of extremes. 30 years ago, emphasis was being placed on being together. Open classrooms (the ones with no walls) and things like that were concieved to "be in touch with everyone." It was a miserable failure. Noise was excessive, and soon false walls were added to maintain some semblence of order. In the early 1980s, the US Government published "A Nation At Risk," a document describing "inadequacies" of the education system. This led to the standards movement that we are (unfortunately) locked into today. It no longer matters that one learns *how* a mathematical problem is derived, but it is only important that sin^2(x) + cos^2(x) = 1. Also, the job market has significantly changed in the last 40 years. In 1960, 20% of men dropped out of high school to work in manual labor, and they could get a good job. Today, no one can get that kind of job if they drop out. Granted, the education system is short-sighted by promoting college for *all* students, but service jobs do require more skills than manual labor. One must read, write, do basic arithmetic, not to mention speak correctly. Today the system is flawed because of a) the public school system, and b) the lack of parental responsibility. School isn't meant to teach discipline/people skills/responsibility. My parents taught me those things (and to the misinformed reader who said that BS about being under 16, I am 16. You are more ignorant than brats whom you were talking about). My mother is a teacher and she deals with parents who absolutely refuse to accept that their children have discipline problems with responses such as "my baby would never do that!" Why are parents allowed to do this? Because stupid legislation like No Child Left Behind is allowed to pass. Teachers unaffectionately call it "no teacher left unscrewed." Among other insane provisions in the law, students who are for all intents and purposes vegetables must pass a test, even if they cannot coherently speak or read. Parents can move their children if the schools don't pass the accreditation ratings, yet the unaccredited schools happen to pull from poor and minority neighborhoods. How "coincidental" ::cough cough::.
I am tired of the crap that they feed us at school. I am in all honors, "gifted", and AP classes. Our classes sometimes break the 30 students mark, far more than is conducive to successful education. Yet, to pass the tests, students who acheive lower on tests are put into classes with AVERAGE sizes of about 12. Is this right at all? Who will be more productive in society? That sounds harsh, but in all honesty, which group has more potential for growth? Part of the problem is that we think that "all people can acheive if they work hard." To a degree this American ideal is correct, but acheiving academically is not the goal. Academia should NOT be an end to itself. Someone mentioned that they have not used the algebra or trig they learned in high school. Being a student who enjoys math immensely, I can determine what it is used for. But it frustates me to no end how teachers teach it. "OK, the standard formula for a parabola is Ax^2 + By + C = 0," as if Sir Isaac Newton just looked in a book when he invented Calculus. What's the purpose of learning math? Learning logical thinking skills! But in many respects, standards is killing that. Classes such as algebra, trig, and geometry are simply excercises in wasting time. Science should be about satisfying curiousity. Instead most science stifles curiousity because of the "dry" subject matter.
All of these things considered, I think the biggest problem is that the *parents* are apathetic about school. I think the children who do poorly in school have parents who do not encourage it. They have this "I didn't do well in school so you don't have to" idea. They may say "do as I say, not as I do,
They'll try, and these chicken entrails indicate they'll fail. Ah, my boy Will, sixteenth century pimp. Of course, if you're talking about the actual Romans, well "quid haruspex dixit?" Very clever, my boy. The "entrails from an offering forth" happened to be correct in that case. Just a few questions. Who's Brutus in this case? Marcus Antonius? Cassius? "Et tu, Kai-Fu(e)?! Then fall Microshaft."
This sounds a bit weird to me. Cell phones with GPS was bad enough. Especially since most users don't even know how to access it or disable it. But this is just 1984. I'm thinking maybe the NSA has something to do with this. Since no one knows what goes on there anyway (and the ones who do don't say anything), what keeps them from talking to fellow buddies at the FCC to come up with a bullshit reason to track things? If they do this, I will hack and disable it.
Yes, you're very correct in the statement about "no taxation without representation" in America's history. That was one of the complaints against Britain offered in "Common Sense" by Thomas Payne. We are very particular about our taxes, and we have always been. I do agree with you that Bush is an idiot, but it would be a mistake to impeach him. We would be no better than those who impeached Clinton.
Maybe because I'm from the US, I don't understand the Canadian system or whatever. But how can a court impose a tax on goods? In America, only the legislative bodies can impose taxes and only the executive bodies can enforce them. The courts decide if they have merit or not. I'm a bit confused as to who should be paying whom. Sounds to me like the Canadian government or perhaps this radical IP group should be paying the buyers back.
Contrary to other Google or Yahoo loyalists, this is a good move in the search engine market. This is capitalism at it's finest and computer using at its finest. We, the consumers, benefit because of innovations and improvments by the producers. Competition has caused this. Yahoo came up with that home page thing, and at least at this point, it is the best. But Google rapidly offered one, and MSN now does as well (because MS does not compete or innovate, they copy). I'm pleased to see these companies following *real* capitalism and not using scare tactics, as the bastards from Microshaft do. --Drew
"Monopoly's just a game, Senator. I'm trying to control the f*ckin world!" --Robin Williams
I personally think that if they offered it freely as a community thing, the service would be crap. That's how cable is, and you have to pay for that. As long as we have to buy the tools to set up networks, WiFi and successive technologies will get cheaper and more reliable. This is the history of our country and our economy. This is the fundamental belief in capitalism. Look at USPS now. They fail compared to UPS or FedEx. Look at the roads in your area. Or I should say, feel them when you ride. They're crap. Our infrastructure is falling apart. I read something recently about how infrastructure in the US needs overhaul. How about the citizens collectively controling the means of production for public wifi, and not some guy in an expensive office downtown?
That is the dumbest thing I've heard so far in this age of "war on terror." The governments of the world do some dumb things to be "safe" or "secure," but this is just inane. I thought the block over the White House and Dept. of Treasury were stupid, as the pixelation of the US Capitol. But a nuclear plant? Hell, I did a search and found a frigging AIR TRAFFIC map that focused attention on a local nuclear plant in my area. At some point (a point that we've crossed, IMHO), we need to get over the possibility of terrorism and come up with real strategies that will combat them. We have to go through all sorts of ordeals in the airports and there is the God-forsaken "Patriot Act". I think this falls into "your rights online" and "your rights (period)". How about we come up with a new strategy. We (the US) provides significant trade and other economic incentives to governments who publicly condemn terrorist acts or radical ideologies. Maybe the countries who hate us would change their minds a little. Call it the Marhall Plan 2.0.1. Australia, however, has some of the harshest censoring in the world. I always find that a little weird, anyway. If it is too dangerous for us mere citizens to view, why can the government view it and say it's too dangerous? I did a little experiment: searched google for information about this power plant before looking at the original article. I found information about the plant in Australia (which is not a power plant, just a research facility), at the World Nuclear Association's website, http://world-nuclear.org/info/printable_infomation _papers/inf64print.htm. Terrorists could come by information with any means. The tactic must be stopped, not the ability to practice the tactic. If we're so scared about terrorism that we block images from being viewed on websites, doesn't that mean that we have succumbed to their scare tactics?
--Drew
It really depends. Being a student deeply interested in physics (although I enjoy all school subjects), I really have a unique opinion. It irritates me sometimes how Hollywood can screw up science for the sake of film. Star Wars Episode III, for example. I loved the movie, but that crash scene at the beginning was just stupid. There is no way that the water from the fire ships would have even touched the crashing ship: it was going too fast. Of course then there's the fact that Ion cannons and repulsorlifts aren't real. Glamourizing science could have a considerably positive affect or a negative affect. The bottom line is that kids will not learn chemistry or physics or whatever as long as they think they can get by without it. I choose to learn as much as I can because I have no idea what I will and will not need in my life. 40 years ago if someone told students to learn how to use a computer because it would help them in life, they would have laughed at such a folly. But look at us today. I like the idea, but I think education needs some creative ideas. Of course, that's a discussion for another time...
I like the way you think. You are correct. However, Microshaft also has another connotation...
Does this guy give any reasons why he doesn't like Linux? Does he give any concrete reasons why he doesn't like Mac OS? He says prices, but look at the Mac Mini. I'd be hard pressed to find PCs that cheap. And MM comes with Tiger and iLife 05. 2 guidelines with software: the best things in life are free; better software generally costs more. It seems like an oxymoron, but guaranteed it is a paradox. Microsoft doesn't deserve our love because obviously it doesn't love us. It loves the corporate guys. But even then, it still has the same security problems. And I don't buy that bullshit about "95 % of the market is Windows." It happens to be very easy to write a virus for windows. First of all, the monolithic approach to software just sucks. If one thing goes wrong, the whole system goes kaput. And the shoddy code just makes more security holes. Yes, I'm sure there are holes in Mac OS and we already know about the ones in Linux. But the Windows holes are so easy to exploit. And there are just a lot of them. Anyway, that's my rant.
I was going to look through the javascript to see how much they straight copied from google. Google's search engine is better anyways. Heil Gates, Microshaftfuhrer!
Only 360 spyware programs? You are a very very kind person...