You are correct, since the class was taught in English, but "Macedon" is from Greek, and the word was imported into Latin as the Roman province "Macedonia". Following standard Latin pronunciation, that would be pronounced "Mack-e-Don-ee-ah" (sorry, don't know IPA). So, your teacher was sort-of right too, but whatever.
Well, it's kind of hard for me to tell you how that'd compare with the best U.S. high school graduates without knowing statistics about how students score on that test. What's the minimum score on those to get into IIT most of the time? 50%? 70%? 90%?
Some background: I'm a college student in an honors computer science undergraduate program at a U.S. university with a top 10 computer science program.
Looking over the questions, they're not trivial at least. I didn't look too hard at the chemistry one because I didn't take AP Chem in high school, so it would be pointless. I was able to understand some of the questions on it just from Chem I back in 10th grade, though.
I did take AP Calculus and AP Physics, so I looked over the "maths" and physics exams. The "maths" exam had very little calculus on it, so that didn't help me. I was able to understand all of the questions, and if I printed it out and sat down I could probably work most of them using knowledge from the logic and discrete math classes I took during my freshman year here. If I was able to dig up my notes from high school (if I still have them), and study and take practice tests for a day or so, I'd probably get about 80% on the "maths", 90% on the physics, and 50% on the chemistry (since I have no background). If I took practice tests, researched the web for further practice material, and generally spent the next three weeks doing nothing but preparing for those three tests like the rest of my life depended on it (which it might for Indian students), I'd get in the 90-100% range on maths and physics and about 70% on chemistry. One thing that struck me as significantly easier about the "maths" test compared to the counterpart AP test in the United States is that all the questions were multiple choice. This wasn't the case for the physics and chemistry tests you linked to, and I'm curious why the decision was made to go with multiple choice for the maths one.
The curriculum between U.S. and Indian schools does not match, so my performance will be lower on those tests even if the schools were of the same quality. This would also be the case for an Indian taking U.S. AP tests; you need to have learned the same material to do well on a test!
Even for the physics test, which was the only one I should theoretically have been prepared for, there were mismatches in the curriculum. There were many questions on optics, which was only covered briefly in my first physics class and not even touched on in the AP physics class. Conversely, the IIT-JEE test you linked to asked no questions at all on rotational inertia, which was a major component of my AP Physics class. We reached into multivariable calculus to integrate over various objects like cylinders, cones, and other shapes to find their rotational inertia. It was very difficult, and but the challenge was rewarding for some of us in the class.
If you want to look at the "comparable" tests in the U.S. yourself, I wish I could give you links to practice AP tests, but we have this big evil company called the College Board that won't let the exams be redistributed online, so I can't. If you register at http://www.collegeboard.com/ you might be able to get practice tests, but I don't know.
As far as examples of why Visual Basic is an inferior language... well, Visual Basic is Turing complete so I'm not going to get into an argument about this with you, because technically you'd be right in saying that any example I gave you could be done in Visual Basic. I could try to argue that certain things are "inelegant" in Visual Basic, but that's a matter of taste. If you know both Python and Visual Basic and still think Visual Basic is better, then I guess go ahead and use it. Most people seem to abandon Visual Basic once they learn another language, and I just don't like seeing someone use a Tinker toy to do any sort of real work because they don't know that the alternatives are better. It makes feel sad for them, meaning I have empathy. If you knew the definition of sociopath, which you do not, you would know that this means I am not one.
> I work in a Biology department and the programs we use run solely on Linux. I do know that, in order to use many of the features Linux offers, you have to know quite a few console commands and their proper syntaxes. Pretty much anyone can take advantage of Windows an even OSX without having to know those commands.
If you're running a command-line program you must know its syntax. This is true regardless of operating system. If you're talking about basic file or system management or something like that, check out GNOME or KDE as they both offer GUI file managers similar to Windows Explorer.
By the way, to take advantage of Windows Explorer or Mac Finder, you also need to know the commands and their proper syntaxes. The only difference is that rather than typing the commands, you're clicking and dragging them. You could make an argument that it is easier to learn the commands for a GUI (and I would agree that it is probably slightly easier), but it's definitely not trivial, and you're still learning commands, just commands of a different kind.
Your use of the phrase "even OSX" implies that you find Windows more user-friendly. OS X is widely regarded as much more user-friendly than Windows, so I think you may not be evaluating user-friendliness incorrectly. Many people have become familiar with Windows and so find it easier to use. To accurately evaluate a software system's usability, you would have to find someone who had no or at most very little experience with computers. Otherwise, the user already has a "command set" that he knows and will attempt to use when interacting with the machine, and this will taint your evaluation. For example, I can guarantee you that someone whose only previous computing experience had been 20 years of working on Solaris would find the usability of Linux much higher than that of Windows or OS X.
> Secondly, Slashdot is living proof that many avid Linux users are condescending towards Windows users. Have you been here long?
Yeah, I've been here quite some time. My UID is only slightly higher than yours. In my time here I've seen far more examples of people who appear to be condescending Windows users (many were probably trolls) than people appearing to be condescending Linux users.
By the way, I'm sorry if your experience with Linux in the biology department you work in has not been a good one. I don't know how your local IT set up the machines; I have seen many cases where the setup was not as user-friendly as it could have been. KDE or GNOME is probably installed, even if it's not running by default, and you might be able to customize it to be more user friendly by customizing your.xinitrc or.xsession file to start GNOME or KDE. Google will probably give you all the information you need to do this if you're already somewhat familiar with how to use the command-line tools.
heh... I don't really think you'll ever be able to get accurate statistics on that. Between UA spoofing and the fact that Linux users probably tend to systematically visit non-tech sites less than other people, it's pretty much a hopeless cause.
hmmm... I don't know why you feel the need to call people sociopaths just because they disagree with your choice of language. By the way, they're right. Visual Basic does suck, and just because it can suck on Linux too now doesn't change that. The people telling you not to use it were probably just trying to help.
Calls people retards... check. Makes assumptions about things he apparently doesn't know about (you must have an "inordinate" amount of knowledge to use Linux versus Windows)... check. Stereotypes others ("a lot of people who do are very condescending")... check.
Yup, you're the arrogant, condescending twit alright.
Linux usability is not a problem. The masses once had to learn DOS, and they did. People with sufficiently low ability will be incompetent with computers no matter what OS they use, so will you please stop using the idiotic example of the idiotically named "Aunt Tilly"?
I'm sick of having to read through this sort of crap post made by uninformed, arrogant twits like you.
From this article, Linux passed Apple in 2004. I read an article somewhere where IDC was quoted saying Linux passed Apple in 2002. I think Linux was ahead of Apple for about a year and a half, but Apple rebounded because of the iPod halo effect and pulled back ahead of Linux in 2005.
In any case, Linux certainly hasn't gone/down/ in desktop market share, so it's got more than Apple had in 2003 at least, which is really pretty good.
> And developers who want some food on their table better know something about Win32,.NET, and other Windows technologies.
That's just false. Not all developers develop boring desktop applications; there are ample opportunities for server applications, which either don't run on Windows or have their dependence masked behind an internal API. There is also web development, where PHP and other OSS technologies are far more popular than ASP.NET.
Software patents make all software development dangerous and should be abolished. If we forked Mono now and M$ decided to assert some random claims, the fork would still be considered dangerous. Micro$oft, for all its faults, does not have a history of being a particularly litigious company, so it's not likely that they have a team of lawyers working on how to destroy Mono, Linux, or ReactOS. I suspect part of the reason M$ is not litigious is because it tends to scare customers and because it attracts antitrust attention.
ReactOS and WINE have both been around for about 10 years now, making very slow progress every day. M$ hasn't once tried to shut down that project, so I think the scenario you describe, while possible, is not likely to happen.
The problem of software patents is independent of whether a program is closed or open source. It is also not true that "patents trump copyright"; I can't tell whether there is something substantive you are trying to say there,
You say that the GPL will not protect the continued use of GPL software if it is patented. That is true, but it is independent of the cross-licensing deal with Novell. Also, the licenses of proprietary software will also not protect the use of proprietary software if said software is patented.
The Novell deal doesn't mean much of anything. If Microsoft starts going after Linux users or developers, they will be in antitrust hell, and everyone clueful knows it. The percentage of Linux users who bought licenses from SCO indicates that IT buyers are generally pretty clueful.
> All that means is that 54% of offices romances led to the man being fired and having his life ruined.
Are you asserting that 2% (only, which is absurd) end with amicable breakup, or are you just an idiot who can't add?
Wait... don't tell me... just an idiot?
In any case your post doesn't deserve any more of my time than what it has taken me just now to post these words. If you reply to me with the same quality post I will probably ignore you.
> Then why do doctors drill me about family history of heart disease, diabetes and cancer during a health check up?
This has nothing to do with evolution; it has to do with finding out what your current genes are. Evolution deals with the change of genes over time; the reason doctors care about your parents genes is because they _aren't very different_ from yours.
> That may be, but only in cases a guy actually dares to ask someone out. Given the risks, he is likely to be more determined than when asking a girl out elsewhere.
Your previous post implied that evolution selected against asking coworkers out. I said this can't be true since it leads to marriage 44% of the time, which has a causal relationship with the likelihood of reproduction and therefore evolutionary success. With odds this good, evolution could only select against office romance if it caused someone to be 45% less likely to reproduce, which is absurd. You mention "risks", so I'll mention that despite the frequent, kookish Slashdot assertions, asking a coworker out is not sexual harassment, nor is it considered as such.
> "...If you ask someone out at work you are fired and sued..."
Okay, leaving aside the (big, possibly invalid) assumption that this and the rest of the behaviors you've mentioned are even partly related to testosterone, and leaving aside the fact that evolution doesn't work over the incredibly small timescale of 3 generations anyway, let's focus on your office romance claim. I'm picking on this one because the bizarre, untrue Slashdot view that office romance between coworkers inevitably ends with the male being fired really grates on me sometimes, such as now...
There ya go. Marriage, in case you didn't know, quite often leads to children. As in, you know, evolutionary success.
Ouch... cold hard statistics don't support your cynical worldview, where aggression is the only way to success, Libertarianism is the One True Way, and evolution works over a Lamarckian timescale!
What are you going to do now, Slashbot? Explode??
--- P.S. sorry for the flames but your post just really got under my skin off for some reason. I don't know if it was the ignorance, cynicism, or something else, but we're both pseudonymous Slashdot posters so I figure it's cool to just respond like I did...
I think you'd have a hard time convincing a court that running a general-purpose PatchGuard disabling mechanism violates the DMCA, which is the only law I can think of that might apply to this. Since the rest of your post depends on the assumption that "cracking" a machine you own is illegal, I don't think your predictions are valid.
Finally ONE person, HALFWAY DOWN THE FIRST COMMENTS PAGE, realizes that the Slashdot editors were on WEED or something when they accepted that submission.
The study DOES NOT say that people who are good with math are less happy. It DOES say that people who are happy IN MATH CLASS are LESS likely to be good at math.
...or they could just ignore the court? After all, they're not under U.S. jurisdiction, and changing their name to spamhaus.org.uk doesn't sound like that big a deal to me.
You seem to be taking a very short-sighted view of this issue. Spmahaus is not subject to U.S. jurisdiction, so if they failed to adequately respond to a U.S. court order, it's no big deal. Since the judge is threatening to do something very unfair, spiteful, and political - to pull their domain name, - and since this issue can be resolved by drawing enough political attention to the matter, sending out shrill press releases to draw attention to what this spiteful judge is doing is a completely valid strategy.
Very interesting. What about OS stats? We can get Linux has at least.4% because of Konqueror, but I'd guess it's more than triple that. Also, I'm somewhat surprised there were no Safari users, although since the site is probably for non-Mac computers, that may have skewed the statistics some.
Slashdot Mirror
Cedega runs Everquest. And World of Warcraft.
http://www.transgaming.com/
Hope this helps.
You are correct, since the class was taught in English, but "Macedon" is from Greek, and the word was imported into Latin as the Roman province "Macedonia". Following standard Latin pronunciation, that would be pronounced "Mack-e-Don-ee-ah" (sorry, don't know IPA). So, your teacher was sort-of right too, but whatever.
Well, it's kind of hard for me to tell you how that'd compare with the best U.S. high school graduates without knowing statistics about how students score on that test. What's the minimum score on those to get into IIT most of the time? 50%? 70%? 90%?
Some background: I'm a college student in an honors computer science undergraduate program at a U.S. university with a top 10 computer science program.
Looking over the questions, they're not trivial at least. I didn't look too hard at the chemistry one because I didn't take AP Chem in high school, so it would be pointless. I was able to understand some of the questions on it just from Chem I back in 10th grade, though.
I did take AP Calculus and AP Physics, so I looked over the "maths" and physics exams. The "maths" exam had very little calculus on it, so that didn't help me. I was able to understand all of the questions, and if I printed it out and sat down I could probably work most of them using knowledge from the logic and discrete math classes I took during my freshman year here. If I was able to dig up my notes from high school (if I still have them), and study and take practice tests for a day or so, I'd probably get about 80% on the "maths", 90% on the physics, and 50% on the chemistry (since I have no background). If I took practice tests, researched the web for further practice material, and generally spent the next three weeks doing nothing but preparing for those three tests like the rest of my life depended on it (which it might for Indian students), I'd get in the 90-100% range on maths and physics and about 70% on chemistry. One thing that struck me as significantly easier about the "maths" test compared to the counterpart AP test in the United States is that all the questions were multiple choice. This wasn't the case for the physics and chemistry tests you linked to, and I'm curious why the decision was made to go with multiple choice for the maths one.
The curriculum between U.S. and Indian schools does not match, so my performance will be lower on those tests even if the schools were of the same quality. This would also be the case for an Indian taking U.S. AP tests; you need to have learned the same material to do well on a test!
Even for the physics test, which was the only one I should theoretically have been prepared for, there were mismatches in the curriculum. There were many questions on optics, which was only covered briefly in my first physics class and not even touched on in the AP physics class. Conversely, the IIT-JEE test you linked to asked no questions at all on rotational inertia, which was a major component of my AP Physics class. We reached into multivariable calculus to integrate over various objects like cylinders, cones, and other shapes to find their rotational inertia. It was very difficult, and but the challenge was rewarding for some of us in the class.
If you want to look at the "comparable" tests in the U.S. yourself, I wish I could give you links to practice AP tests, but we have this big evil company called the College Board that won't let the exams be redistributed online, so I can't. If you register at http://www.collegeboard.com/ you might be able to get practice tests, but I don't know.
Two problems with this:
1. Climatologists aren't necessarily disinterested: scientists tend to be lefties.
2. Climatologists are almost always wrong.
As far as examples of why Visual Basic is an inferior language ... well, Visual Basic is Turing complete so I'm not going to get into an argument about this with you, because technically you'd be right in saying that any example I gave you could be done in Visual Basic. I could try to argue that certain things are "inelegant" in Visual Basic, but that's a matter of taste. If you know both Python and Visual Basic and still think Visual Basic is better, then I guess go ahead and use it. Most people seem to abandon Visual Basic once they learn another language, and I just don't like seeing someone use a Tinker toy to do any sort of real work because they don't know that the alternatives are better. It makes feel sad for them, meaning I have empathy. If you knew the definition of sociopath, which you do not, you would know that this means I am not one.
> I work in a Biology department and the programs we use run solely on Linux. I do know that, in order to use many of the features Linux offers, you have to know quite a few console commands and their proper syntaxes. Pretty much anyone can take advantage of Windows an even OSX without having to know those commands.
.xinitrc or .xsession file to start GNOME or KDE. Google will probably give you all the information you need to do this if you're already somewhat familiar with how to use the command-line tools.
If you're running a command-line program you must know its syntax. This is true regardless of operating system. If you're talking about basic file or system management or something like that, check out GNOME or KDE as they both offer GUI file managers similar to Windows Explorer.
By the way, to take advantage of Windows Explorer or Mac Finder, you also need to know the commands and their proper syntaxes. The only difference is that rather than typing the commands, you're clicking and dragging them. You could make an argument that it is easier to learn the commands for a GUI (and I would agree that it is probably slightly easier), but it's definitely not trivial, and you're still learning commands, just commands of a different kind.
Your use of the phrase "even OSX" implies that you find Windows more user-friendly. OS X is widely regarded as much more user-friendly than Windows, so I think you may not be evaluating user-friendliness incorrectly. Many people have become familiar with Windows and so find it easier to use. To accurately evaluate a software system's usability, you would have to find someone who had no or at most very little experience with computers. Otherwise, the user already has a "command set" that he knows and will attempt to use when interacting with the machine, and this will taint your evaluation. For example, I can guarantee you that someone whose only previous computing experience had been 20 years of working on Solaris would find the usability of Linux much higher than that of Windows or OS X.
> Secondly, Slashdot is living proof that many avid Linux users are condescending towards Windows users. Have you been here long?
Yeah, I've been here quite some time. My UID is only slightly higher than yours. In my time here I've seen far more examples of people who appear to be condescending Windows users (many were probably trolls) than people appearing to be condescending Linux users.
By the way, I'm sorry if your experience with Linux in the biology department you work in has not been a good one. I don't know how your local IT set up the machines; I have seen many cases where the setup was not as user-friendly as it could have been. KDE or GNOME is probably installed, even if it's not running by default, and you might be able to customize it to be more user friendly by customizing your
heh ... I don't really think you'll ever be able to get accurate statistics on that. Between UA spoofing and the fact that Linux users probably tend to systematically visit non-tech sites less than other people, it's pretty much a hopeless cause.
hmmm ... I don't know why you feel the need to call people sociopaths just because they disagree with your choice of language. By the way, they're right. Visual Basic does suck, and just because it can suck on Linux too now doesn't change that. The people telling you not to use it were probably just trying to help.
Hmmm ... let's see.
... check. ... check. ... check.
Calls people retards
Makes assumptions about things he apparently doesn't know about (you must have an "inordinate" amount of knowledge to use Linux versus Windows)
Stereotypes others ("a lot of people who do are very condescending")
Yup, you're the arrogant, condescending twit alright.
*sigh*
Linux usability is not a problem. The masses once had to learn DOS, and they did. People with sufficiently low ability will be incompetent with computers no matter what OS they use, so will you please stop using the idiotic example of the idiotically named "Aunt Tilly"?
I'm sick of having to read through this sort of crap post made by uninformed, arrogant twits like you.
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx? id=13757&ch=infotech
/down/ in desktop market share, so it's got more than Apple had in 2003 at least, which is really pretty good.
From this article, Linux passed Apple in 2004. I read an article somewhere where IDC was quoted saying Linux passed Apple in 2002. I think Linux was ahead of Apple for about a year and a half, but Apple rebounded because of the iPod halo effect and pulled back ahead of Linux in 2005.
In any case, Linux certainly hasn't gone
> And developers who want some food on their table better know something about Win32, .NET, and other Windows technologies.
That's just false. Not all developers develop boring desktop applications; there are ample opportunities for server applications, which either don't run on Windows or have their dependence masked behind an internal API. There is also web development, where PHP and other OSS technologies are far more popular than ASP.NET.
> Look at CEO's, company founder etc VS. Scientist and Engineers....
Look at scientists and engineers vs. secretaries, receptionists, and librarians.
The income of the scientists and engineers is much greater.
But don't mind me. Have fun with your pseudoscientific drivel.
Software patents make all software development dangerous and should be abolished. If we forked Mono now and M$ decided to assert some random claims, the fork would still be considered dangerous. Micro$oft, for all its faults, does not have a history of being a particularly litigious company, so it's not likely that they have a team of lawyers working on how to destroy Mono, Linux, or ReactOS. I suspect part of the reason M$ is not litigious is because it tends to scare customers and because it attracts antitrust attention.
ReactOS and WINE have both been around for about 10 years now, making very slow progress every day. M$ hasn't once tried to shut down that project, so I think the scenario you describe, while possible, is not likely to happen.
The problem of software patents is independent of whether a program is closed or open source. It is also not true that "patents trump copyright"; I can't tell whether there is something substantive you are trying to say there,
You say that the GPL will not protect the continued use of GPL software if it is patented. That is true, but it is independent of the cross-licensing deal with Novell. Also, the licenses of proprietary software will also not protect the use of proprietary software if said software is patented.
The Novell deal doesn't mean much of anything. If Microsoft starts going after Linux users or developers, they will be in antitrust hell, and everyone clueful knows it. The percentage of Linux users who bought licenses from SCO indicates that IT buyers are generally pretty clueful.
> All that means is that 54% of offices romances led to the man being fired and having his life ruined.
... don't tell me ... just an idiot?
Are you asserting that 2% (only, which is absurd) end with amicable breakup, or are you just an idiot who can't add?
Wait
In any case your post doesn't deserve any more of my time than what it has taken me just now to post these words. If you reply to me with the same quality post I will probably ignore you.
> Then why do doctors drill me about family history of heart disease, diabetes and cancer during a health check up?
This has nothing to do with evolution; it has to do with finding out what your current genes are. Evolution deals with the change of genes over time; the reason doctors care about your parents genes is because they _aren't very different_ from yours.
> That may be, but only in cases a guy actually dares to ask someone out. Given the risks, he is likely to be more determined than when asking a girl out elsewhere.
Your previous post implied that evolution selected against asking coworkers out. I said this can't be true since it leads to marriage 44% of the time, which has a causal relationship with the likelihood of reproduction and therefore evolutionary success. With odds this good, evolution could only select against office romance if it caused someone to be 45% less likely to reproduce, which is absurd. You mention "risks", so I'll mention that despite the frequent, kookish Slashdot assertions, asking a coworker out is not sexual harassment, nor is it considered as such.
> "...If you ask someone out at work you are fired and sued..."
i ng.htm
... cold hard statistics don't support your cynical worldview, where aggression is the only way to success, Libertarianism is the One True Way, and evolution works over a Lamarckian timescale!
Okay, leaving aside the (big, possibly invalid) assumption that this and the rest of the behaviors you've mentioned are even partly related to testosterone, and leaving aside the fact that evolution doesn't work over the incredibly small timescale of 3 generations anyway, let's focus on your office romance claim. I'm picking on this one because the bizarre, untrue Slashdot view that office romance between coworkers inevitably ends with the male being fired really grates on me sometimes, such as now...
"44% of office romances lead to marriage"
http://www.amanet.org/press/amanews/workplace_dat
There ya go. Marriage, in case you didn't know, quite often leads to children. As in, you know, evolutionary success.
Ouch
What are you going to do now, Slashbot? Explode??
---
P.S. sorry for the flames but your post just really got under my skin off for some reason. I don't know if it was the ignorance, cynicism, or something else, but we're both pseudonymous Slashdot posters so I figure it's cool to just respond like I did...
I think you'd have a hard time convincing a court that running a general-purpose PatchGuard disabling mechanism violates the DMCA, which is the only law I can think of that might apply to this. Since the rest of your post depends on the assumption that "cracking" a machine you own is illegal, I don't think your predictions are valid.
THANK YOU!
Finally ONE person, HALFWAY DOWN THE FIRST COMMENTS PAGE, realizes that the Slashdot editors were on WEED or something when they accepted that submission.
The study DOES NOT say that people who are good with math are less happy. It DOES say that people who are happy IN MATH CLASS are LESS likely to be good at math.
This is very interesting and I hadn't heard it before. Do you have a link for that?
> Correct, but if you operate a buisness in another country, you have to follow that countries laws. Ask Google about the Belgium case.
Spamhaus is not operating a business in the U.S. The rest of your post is therefore irrelevant.
...or they could just ignore the court? After all, they're not under U.S. jurisdiction, and changing their name to spamhaus.org.uk doesn't sound like that big a deal to me.
You seem to be taking a very short-sighted view of this issue. Spmahaus is not subject to U.S. jurisdiction, so if they failed to adequately respond to a U.S. court order, it's no big deal. Since the judge is threatening to do something very unfair, spiteful, and political - to pull their domain name, - and since this issue can be resolved by drawing enough political attention to the matter, sending out shrill press releases to draw attention to what this spiteful judge is doing is a completely valid strategy.
Very interesting. What about OS stats? We can get Linux has at least .4% because of Konqueror, but I'd guess it's more than triple that. Also, I'm somewhat surprised there were no Safari users, although since the site is probably for non-Mac computers, that may have skewed the statistics some.
Works for me on Linux/Sparc. It does complain about not having Java, though. Perhaps that's it.