I agree on that note. Even here in the schools I attend, you can see the gradual evolution and advancement of these calls for help. Generally a girl will slash her wrists, giving them at the beginning, minor red lines. She then wears a long sleeve top to create the illusion she's covering it up, but in fact rolls up her sleeve most of the day, reaching its peak when she rolls up her sleeve during class and sticks her hand in the air to answer a question. That day, for once, she answers a lot of questions.
Immediately after class, she gets mobbed by classmates going, "OHMIGAWD! UR ARM!"which she then feebly tries to cover up for more attention, before the group is treated to a five minute solo.
This then gets old and common, and no one cares all that much, so she pushes futher, and draws blood, causing a scab, and this gets old over time and time again. Eventually, she'll reach the full suicide "attempt" and get all the attention that comes with it. How nice.
I'd love to sympathise with these people, but what gets me about the people in my school who do this, is that their problems are extremely petty, along the lines of, "Oooh Anna stole Jason before I could catch him and I really liked him!" meaning that, they don't really have problems, these girls just crave attention.
``Ragnarok (SIDENOTE: I know there are males who do the same, but generally, a vast, vast majority of the people that do this, in my experience, are female.)
But I choose solitude. Is it not the geeky thing to do? I don't mean, fortifying myself in my room, switching off the lights, and avoiding outside contact with the universe, I mean, generally keeping away from the "ordinary populace".
I'll be honest, normal people annoy me. Perhaps it is elitism, or maybe I just see myself as "different", although that seems to come straight from a book on politically correct speech. I don't like normal people. I don't like interacting with them, not because I fear them, but because they're just SO boring. I don't care about football, or "like, how totally scandalous Sarah's new hairdo" is. Normal people seem shortsighted and keep nothing below the surface, and have an interest in whatever the media and pack mentality pushes on them.
I go to a school for "gifted" children, or supposedly the top ten percent in any case, an English Grammar School, and I was bullied, I really was, but it taught me so much about humans and how society operates. I saw how countless "leaders" of packs coerced and forced others, who I could see did not want to bully me, get pushed into it, and happily tried to apply pain to me, simply to save their own skin, stay popular and not stand up for their own opinions. Over time, I could see them get intoxicated with the power over me and happily coerce others into it. Some people are such simple creatures, that socialising with them would just be boring. The bullying stopped once I just stood up for myself, because, hey, no bully has any real courage when confronted, they enjoy picking on the weakest in the largest possible pack, which they're always attempting to increase in size, after all.
I have friends, but I choose a few good, non-normal friends over the armies of "friends" everyone else has, who are nice to each other simply to save face and not be socially outcast, the worst possible punishment of all.
I would be seen as socially outcast, and perhaps with a "social phobia", but this is all by choice, to avoid people I just don't care about, and I'm not the only one, there are more than a handful in my school. For example, one of my female friends and I were discussing something geeky, along the lines of whether stargates were physically possible, when some girl swanned up to her (because she was female and OBVIOUSLY part of a pack, by standard) and said,
"OOhmigawd, did you see what Gwen Stephanie wore at the MTV awards? I mean, totally disasterous!"
"....I didn't watch it."
"Oh, poor YOU, don't worry, I think it's like, repeating on sunday or something."
"No, I just really don't care about it."
*Girl stands there for a minute, with a half puzzled, half offended look, before spying someone else to go and verbally assualt and rushes off*
Perhaps I'm an extreme, and very pessimistic, but why is avoiding branches of society always seen as an illness? Us geeks and nerds, we tend to make up a large proportion of the excellent minds of humanity, the open minded sector, why is it that they try to "treat" us? We affect humanity more with our research and interests, more than the guy who's going to lay bricks for a living, but is socially accepted ever will? Why not try it the other way around? Why arn't THEY at fault?
I guess for several reasons. People don't like to think they're wrong, and when most people don't want to be wrong, groupthink makes sure they're right, and their society is best. Management likes us to comply. Different thinking people only cause problems, whereas cattlepeople are easy to manage and handle. This works on every level, even some parents would prefer their children to be non geeks and normal, so the punishment of "go to your room, and you're not going out for three days" would actually work. Society also doesn't like splinter cells, they are scary, and different. If they can be forced to comply, the threat is gone, and obviously the status quo. was therefore correct.
I have geeky interests. I have a few close true friends. I like so
Like a fellow/. here who posted earlier, I attend a grammar school. These are specifically designed to harbour the most intelligent and train them to their potential. If what is available in my year is the cream of our province, then we have serious issues, especially since my school is highly selective.
I cannot imagine how other provinces ("Counties" here in the UK) manage. Grammar schooling was abolished in every other county, and there is a serious movement to abolish them here. Why? Through some twisted use political correctness and an attitude of, "All are equal in ability, thus, it is unfair to split staffing between schools, where the grammar school may take the better staff due to a more prestigious position." Luckily the Labour party has recently begun motions to keep and enhance selective schooling in the country, which I think is a good thing.
However, back to my experience. Technical and applied sciences are sorely, sorely lacking. I had a girl in my economics class a few weeks ago requiring explanation and a little time for the mathematical cogs to grind to work out the total sum of 50 - 40 = 10.
I am not joking.
I believe I know the problem, and it purely is our society, and the crap we are force-fed, and most of use ingest. Who to blame for this, I'm not sure. Maybe corporations aiming to control our habits from birth, maybe lazy parenting, maybe government attitude, likely a combination of these things and more. I am however certain of the society in my school.
I attend a sixth form at the top grammar school in my area, and I find it fairly boring, but I love to learn. Most likely like a lot of the/. crowd, they were in the "geeky" social group. I'm a geek, that's where I like to be. Where we DO talk about maths, we DO talk about computers, we DO talk about more than "Lost" and, "OHMIGAWD DID YOU SEE WHAT SHE WAS WEARIN'?!" . None of us are dysfunctional geeks, we have lives, but our lifestyles are different enough to realise what we lack and have that the others don't have. What the others, who don't care how things work and have fun in free periods bundling each other on the floor work.
+ Major point: None of us watch TV. We do grow a liking to a certain series here or there and we watch (Much which is popular here, too. Futurama, Firefly, BS:G and so forth), but none of use sit in front of that square box and just sit there mindlessly because we don't have anything else to do.
+ We learn where we can in school. Let me explain this. I have slowly and methodically found out school grades are in no way whatsoever a representation of intelligence in any way. They are simply a test of memory, this is how ninety-five percent of the school treat it, and that is how it is taught. You never have to think at any point, you are told some bare facts, and you need to memorise them. This is why some truly idiotic people can get good marks. I think a further factor why science and maths is worst hit is that is requires minimal amounts of though, we have to memorise equations, sure, but then we have to APPLY them. Oh that scares them. They didn't memorise that one. We as a group want to truly learn. I aced triple physics with an A* at GCSE with barely any revision, it being the toughest physics test open to me at the time, simply because I've always been interested in physics, and how the world works.
+ Peer pressure of hatred of science and learning. Being a geek, I do of course have geek attire, such as the exceptionally cool, "Shroedinger's Cat is dead" T-shirt from ThinkGeek.com. Ninety-eight percent just don't care, ask, and as I'm always willing to teach, start off with the phrase, "It's about physics..." knowing it'll scare them off. They don't care. They don't want to stay and listen. Their social position may fall! However, people have complimented me on this T-shirt, in private. Girls especially, I'm assuming because they have a greater "pack" society. We don't do t
I get about two to three hours sleep per day cycle, and I'm perfectly fine.
Apart from the odd hand convulsions. Plus the inability to concentrate. Slurred speech. Lack of spatial awareness. Irritability.
Yeah, I think I should really get more sleep, on the other hand I can still maintain top positions in all my classes with this amount of rest. However the fact I rest *in* school doesn't help either.
I'm more than certain I have problems, but at what age does one normally lose the ability to function without a solid six hours sleep a night rest?
I think I should also google at what point sleep deprivation turns into clinical insomnia. Oh well, no way that I'll have time to sleep now!
In a perfect universe, I wouldn't now be going to bed with a scenario like this in my head...
*At Mac world the audience goes silent as Jobs finishes the petty part of his announcements, the lights dim, there is excitement and tense static. A heavy baseline is heard in the background before Steve spins in a dance towards the crowd where he rips off his shirt in passion and the beginning tune of "The Full Monty" begins to play. Jobs' elaborate dance continues until he's down to an iPod hiding his valuables (shuffle, to nano, to video iPod, depending on how much you like the man) which he flings releasingly into the crowd to reveal his third leg tattoo, to the awe of the audience.*
Meanwhile, the video takes a prestige place next to wonders save as the "Steve Ballmer monkey dance" and "All your base are belong to us.", and a slashpoll vigorously rates his man-meat out of ten, where one of the options is, "CowboyNeal", raising concerns for everyone.
But in the UK, I can't name one friend, or their family, or friends' of friends, or anyone I personally know that actually HAS a HD compatible TV. Furthermore, I know fifty percent of the adults (read: 30+) still mostly use video to play their movies. Us young'ins use DVDs. Now, maybe it's a different culture thing, the middle classes here are very cautious about what to buy, and what benefit it will give them, and at the moment, a HD or Blue-Ray player will give them what? A headache? A placebo of better entertainment?
We can also look at the adoption of formats over time: Film reels -> Video Film reels were expensive to produce, difficult to set up, difficult to get working properly, difficult to display well in the home, had to be stored in certain conditions, etc. Video makes it simple, put it in the box, press play. When you're done with it, put it in the other plastic box and keep it on a shelf. Video player linked straight to the TV with minimum fuss, AND could record shows for future enjoyment.
Video -> DVD Less obvious advantages, but there were still key points. Picture quality got a significant jump. Videos wore after plays and became faint, developed static. My little brother managed to watch Toy Story enough times to make it difficult to see anything on that tape. With DVDs, our little to wide screens were filled with wondrous bold colour and crisp images. The cases were thinner, could be more easily handled, didn't cost much more, and one of the great banes of video...nothing needed WINDING. In any direction.
DVD -> HD/BR If you happen to own an absolutely MASSIVE television, which is also new you'll get a clearer picture, on the downside there's guaranteed "paranoid" grade DRM, and your Blue-Ray player might explode if a previous story was correct, if it thinks your copy isn't genuine. There'll be adverts I doubt you can skip in any way, and who knows what other crazy restrictions they'll impose. The only up side is, once we get burners for these formats at affordable prices, backing up will be a breeze, although, I'm sure there'll be some catch because an evil pirate might try to burn a movie onto one, and in turn make Bruce Willis a poor beggar, desperately trying to find a movie studio with enough money left to take more actors. Meanwhile, the US is devastated in nuclear attacks because the DVD tells me, explicitly, "Piracy funds terrorism."
I know fairly high tech people, I'm a geek, I hang around with a lot of other geeks, it's what I do. We all own fairly old TV sets, because we don't need anything new. The normal population also owns fairly old TVs, or new but yet not too extravagant TVs. The odd widescreen here and there, but they're happy watching their picture now, DVDs are still clear and crisp.
What will we, as the/. crowd do? DRM is very much hated, and much self loathing, and possibly attempted suicides, would occur if we gave in, but if we MUST, we'd download it. Why not? Connections are getting faster and faster, and in a few years, downloading a movie won't take too long, it could be a continuous background operation. All that's needed, is a good provider, the iTunes for video. This could easily spread beyond us with the pushing of "media centre" PCs, which are in turn connected to the internet.
But you know, most people, will still go out, and buy their occasional video...
Basically, they need to sell something no one I know needs. I'm sure marketting will find a way.
After all, DRM is a feature, ``Marcel (It's 3:30 in the morning, and I blame all grammar/spelling/rant inconsistencies and mistakes on that.)
I mean, I was at a primary school this morning, dropping my brother off, and I saw a similar spectacle.
Child 1: *Sticks tongue out at child two* Child 2: *Look of shock and horror* My MUMMY say's that's RUDE, I hate you, give me back all my toys, you're NOT my friend AND (said in a strong definitive tone of ultimate punishment) you're NOT coming to my party!
I was thinking that's immature even for eight year olds, but I thought, nah, he'd grow out of it. How is this any different?
Student: Well, the professor's a cockmaster Professor: *Look of shock and horror* My MUMMY say's that's RUDE, I hate you, give me back your scholarship, you're NOT my student, you need counselling AND (said in a strong definitive tone of ultimate punishment) you're NOT coming to this school!
Both are immature over-reactions of easily hurt and control dependent people. Sure, calling the Professor a "cockmaster" wasn't the highest rating of style and elegance, but it's an opinion, and he's entitled to it. Was it the idea that it was a negative review of the teacher that annoyed him, or that he used, your God forbid, "rude words"?
For those who are not native to the British education system, a GCSE is a set of courses and exams to graduate from secondary school, from where you can choose to persue higher education, or simply search for work.
I'm currently doing my A Levels, meaning I'm a year above my parent post. I did the same exam.
I got a D in the coursework. I got a B in the written exam.
However, let us put this into context. One of the aforementioned coursework tasks is to make a simple website. I wrote mine in Java, HTML, and a little bit of PHP, mostly in notepad due to school reliance on Windows. Nearly every other of my peers did theirs in PowerPoint.
Yes, I frowned too.
I wasn't too worried about that though, I know expecting others to know code and be worthless if they didn't is simply elitist, but my site got a far worse mark than any of the PowerPoint ones.
Keep in mind these are tacky clip art buttoned word art PowerPoints, and my site design isn't terrible, I run a business off it in my spare time.
When I asked, "Why?" they courteously replied with that I copied the website as there was no evidence of working, which almost drove me mental. "Working" is designed to be shown by screenshot after screenshot in excessive amounts. I'm not kidding about excessive, the A* students took a screenshot when they moved their mouse onto the "File" button and another one when they actually opened the menu, to demonstrate "left click".
Since I wrote my code and didn't have a click and drag affair of PowerPoint I could not show each and every step with such boring stupidity, which was great for me, I thought. I took lots of pictures of the site being built in its phases, going from one page, to two, to three, to alpha, to beta, and so forth. I even sent copies of the stepped code, and made a site to their exact specifications.
Yet I copied it. There was no requirement to use PowerPoint, we were supposed to use what we wanted, and I wanted to hand code it. Turns out, they hired untrained (in any educational form) markers to mark our coursework for this very important grade to signify our departure from secondary school. I followed this procedure up, and apparently this happened a lot when the marker didn't see PowerPoint, nor slides, and apparently since it "magically" opened when s/he clicked on my.htm it was simply copied.
This may be why we have serious issues with "qualified" IT sector applicants.
The exam was similar. There were questions which we all agreed I answered correctly, but answered "too correctly" and when it was fed through the marker-trons since it didn't match the simplistic and often technically incorrect answer in their mark book, it was wrong.
In fact, all the smartest computer capable people I know, got below a C. I run a company devoted to various IT tasks, from web design to penetration testing. I have coded professionally in C++, C, a variety of web languages, including my personal favourite, perl, as well as built machines ranging from portable LAN systems to servers. I've administered Linux and Windows servers, as well as set them up, set up networks, wireless and wired for small and medium companies as well as once taking a very small job in teaching staff how to use new equipment and programs. I even got our entire school server set to jump to linux.
I realise I must be very lucky to have gotten all these opportunities at my age to work, especially with the current IT situation, but the main point remains, I'm pretty good with computers( trying so hard not to sound egotistical), a lot of the people I know are too, some even better, but...
I got a C.
How much is that exam really worth?
(Oh, and one of the A* students did, in fact, not even have a computer at home and was staunchly opposed to using the school system where he could)
Slashdot Mirror
I agree on that note. Even here in the schools I attend, you can see the gradual evolution and advancement of these calls for help. Generally a girl will slash her wrists, giving them at the beginning, minor red lines. She then wears a long sleeve top to create the illusion she's covering it up, but in fact rolls up her sleeve most of the day, reaching its peak when she rolls up her sleeve during class and sticks her hand in the air to answer a question. That day, for once, she answers a lot of questions.
Immediately after class, she gets mobbed by classmates going, "OHMIGAWD! UR ARM!"which she then feebly tries to cover up for more attention, before the group is treated to a five minute solo.
This then gets old and common, and no one cares all that much, so she pushes futher, and draws blood, causing a scab, and this gets old over time and time again. Eventually, she'll reach the full suicide "attempt" and get all the attention that comes with it. How nice.
I'd love to sympathise with these people, but what gets me about the people in my school who do this, is that their problems are extremely petty, along the lines of, "Oooh Anna stole Jason before I could catch him and I really liked him!" meaning that, they don't really have problems, these girls just crave attention.
``Ragnarok
(SIDENOTE: I know there are males who do the same, but generally, a vast, vast majority of the people that do this, in my experience, are female.)
But I choose solitude. Is it not the geeky thing to do? I don't mean, fortifying myself in my room, switching off the lights, and avoiding outside contact with the universe, I mean, generally keeping away from the "ordinary populace".
I'll be honest, normal people annoy me. Perhaps it is elitism, or maybe I just see myself as "different", although that seems to come straight from a book on politically correct speech. I don't like normal people. I don't like interacting with them, not because I fear them, but because they're just SO boring. I don't care about football, or "like, how totally scandalous Sarah's new hairdo" is. Normal people seem shortsighted and keep nothing below the surface, and have an interest in whatever the media and pack mentality pushes on them.
I go to a school for "gifted" children, or supposedly the top ten percent in any case, an English Grammar School, and I was bullied, I really was, but it taught me so much about humans and how society operates. I saw how countless "leaders" of packs coerced and forced others, who I could see did not want to bully me, get pushed into it, and happily tried to apply pain to me, simply to save their own skin, stay popular and not stand up for their own opinions. Over time, I could see them get intoxicated with the power over me and happily coerce others into it. Some people are such simple creatures, that socialising with them would just be boring. The bullying stopped once I just stood up for myself, because, hey, no bully has any real courage when confronted, they enjoy picking on the weakest in the largest possible pack, which they're always attempting to increase in size, after all.
I have friends, but I choose a few good, non-normal friends over the armies of "friends" everyone else has, who are nice to each other simply to save face and not be socially outcast, the worst possible punishment of all.
I would be seen as socially outcast, and perhaps with a "social phobia", but this is all by choice, to avoid people I just don't care about, and I'm not the only one, there are more than a handful in my school. For example, one of my female friends and I were discussing something geeky, along the lines of whether stargates were physically possible, when some girl swanned up to her (because she was female and OBVIOUSLY part of a pack, by standard) and said,
"OOhmigawd, did you see what Gwen Stephanie wore at the MTV awards? I mean, totally disasterous!"
"....I didn't watch it."
"Oh, poor YOU, don't worry, I think it's like, repeating on sunday or something."
"No, I just really don't care about it."
*Girl stands there for a minute, with a half puzzled, half offended look, before spying someone else to go and verbally assualt and rushes off*
Perhaps I'm an extreme, and very pessimistic, but why is avoiding branches of society always seen as an illness? Us geeks and nerds, we tend to make up a large proportion of the excellent minds of humanity, the open minded sector, why is it that they try to "treat" us? We affect humanity more with our research and interests, more than the guy who's going to lay bricks for a living, but is socially accepted ever will? Why not try it the other way around? Why arn't THEY at fault?
I guess for several reasons. People don't like to think they're wrong, and when most people don't want to be wrong, groupthink makes sure they're right, and their society is best. Management likes us to comply. Different thinking people only cause problems, whereas cattlepeople are easy to manage and handle. This works on every level, even some parents would prefer their children to be non geeks and normal, so the punishment of "go to your room, and you're not going out for three days" would actually work. Society also doesn't like splinter cells, they are scary, and different. If they can be forced to comply, the threat is gone, and obviously the status quo. was therefore correct.
I have geeky interests. I have a few close true friends. I like so
I wonder what it feels like for most us, knowing we'd be valued far less than said cartoon character...
``Ragnarok
Why the US DoJ doesn't hurry up and name itself "Ministry of Profit" already. The pretence is tiresome.
``Ragnarok
This UK youth is not an elitist asshole.
/. here who posted earlier, I attend a grammar school. These are specifically designed to harbour the most intelligent and train them to their potential. If what is available in my year is the cream of our province, then we have serious issues, especially since my school is highly selective.
/. crowd, they were in the "geeky" social group. I'm a geek, that's where I like to be. Where we DO talk about maths, we DO talk about computers, we DO talk about more than "Lost" and, "OHMIGAWD DID YOU SEE WHAT SHE WAS WEARIN'?!" . None of us are dysfunctional geeks, we have lives, but our lifestyles are different enough to realise what we lack and have that the others don't have. What the others, who don't care how things work and have fun in free periods bundling each other on the floor work.
Like a fellow
I cannot imagine how other provinces ("Counties" here in the UK) manage. Grammar schooling was abolished in every other county, and there is a serious movement to abolish them here. Why? Through some twisted use political correctness and an attitude of, "All are equal in ability, thus, it is unfair to split staffing between schools, where the grammar school may take the better staff due to a more prestigious position." Luckily the Labour party has recently begun motions to keep and enhance selective schooling in the country, which I think is a good thing.
However, back to my experience. Technical and applied sciences are sorely, sorely lacking. I had a girl in my economics class a few weeks ago requiring explanation and a little time for the mathematical cogs to grind to work out the total sum of 50 - 40 = 10.
I am not joking.
I believe I know the problem, and it purely is our society, and the crap we are force-fed, and most of use ingest. Who to blame for this, I'm not sure. Maybe corporations aiming to control our habits from birth, maybe lazy parenting, maybe government attitude, likely a combination of these things and more. I am however certain of the society in my school.
I attend a sixth form at the top grammar school in my area, and I find it fairly boring, but I love to learn. Most likely like a lot of the
+ Major point: None of us watch TV. We do grow a liking to a certain series here or there and we watch (Much which is popular here, too. Futurama, Firefly, BS:G and so forth), but none of use sit in front of that square box and just sit there mindlessly because we don't have anything else to do.
+ We learn where we can in school. Let me explain this. I have slowly and methodically found out school grades are in no way whatsoever a representation of intelligence in any way. They are simply a test of memory, this is how ninety-five percent of the school treat it, and that is how it is taught. You never have to think at any point, you are told some bare facts, and you need to memorise them. This is why some truly idiotic people can get good marks. I think a further factor why science and maths is worst hit is that is requires minimal amounts of though, we have to memorise equations, sure, but then we have to APPLY them. Oh that scares them. They didn't memorise that one. We as a group want to truly learn. I aced triple physics with an A* at GCSE with barely any revision, it being the toughest physics test open to me at the time, simply because I've always been interested in physics, and how the world works.
+ Peer pressure of hatred of science and learning. Being a geek, I do of course have geek attire, such as the exceptionally cool, "Shroedinger's Cat is dead" T-shirt from ThinkGeek.com. Ninety-eight percent just don't care, ask, and as I'm always willing to teach, start off with the phrase, "It's about physics..." knowing it'll scare them off. They don't care. They don't want to stay and listen. Their social position may fall! However, people have complimented me on this T-shirt, in private. Girls especially, I'm assuming because they have a greater "pack" society. We don't do t
I get about two to three hours sleep per day cycle, and I'm perfectly fine.
Apart from the odd hand convulsions.
Plus the inability to concentrate.
Slurred speech.
Lack of spatial awareness.
Irritability.
Yeah, I think I should really get more sleep, on the other hand I can still maintain top positions in all my classes with this amount of rest. However the fact I rest *in* school doesn't help either.
I'm more than certain I have problems, but at what age does one normally lose the ability to function without a solid six hours sleep a night rest?
I think I should also google at what point sleep deprivation turns into clinical insomnia. Oh well, no way that I'll have time to sleep now!
``Marcel
In a perfect universe, I wouldn't now be going to bed with a scenario like this in my head...
*At Mac world the audience goes silent as Jobs finishes the petty part of his announcements, the lights dim, there is excitement and tense static. A heavy baseline is heard in the background before Steve spins in a dance towards the crowd where he rips off his shirt in passion and the beginning tune of "The Full Monty" begins to play. Jobs' elaborate dance continues until he's down to an iPod hiding his valuables (shuffle, to nano, to video iPod, depending on how much you like the man) which he flings releasingly into the crowd to reveal his third leg tattoo, to the awe of the audience.*
Meanwhile, the video takes a prestige place next to wonders save as the "Steve Ballmer monkey dance" and "All your base are belong to us.", and a slashpoll vigorously rates his man-meat out of ten, where one of the options is, "CowboyNeal", raising concerns for everyone.
So......yeah..
Uhm..
Goodnight,
``Marcel
So last year. He has a "leap ahead" one on his leg instead.
``Marcel
But I like machines to be machines. I like them to be constant, and to do what I tell them to do, no ifs or buts or "have a tissue"s.
``Ragnarok
But in the UK, I can't name one friend, or their family, or friends' of friends, or anyone I personally know that actually HAS a HD compatible TV. Furthermore, I know fifty percent of the adults (read: 30+) still mostly use video to play their movies. Us young'ins use DVDs. Now, maybe it's a different culture thing, the middle classes here are very cautious about what to buy, and what benefit it will give them, and at the moment, a HD or Blue-Ray player will give them what? A headache? A placebo of better entertainment?
/. crowd do? DRM is very much hated, and much self loathing, and possibly attempted suicides, would occur if we gave in, but if we MUST, we'd download it. Why not? Connections are getting faster and faster, and in a few years, downloading a movie won't take too long, it could be a continuous background operation. All that's needed, is a good provider, the iTunes for video. This could easily spread beyond us with the pushing of "media centre" PCs, which are in turn connected to the internet.
We can also look at the adoption of formats over time:
Film reels -> Video
Film reels were expensive to produce, difficult to set up, difficult to get working properly, difficult to display well in the home, had to be stored in certain conditions, etc. Video makes it simple, put it in the box, press play. When you're done with it, put it in the other plastic box and keep it on a shelf. Video player linked straight to the TV with minimum fuss, AND could record shows for future enjoyment.
Video -> DVD
Less obvious advantages, but there were still key points. Picture quality got a significant jump. Videos wore after plays and became faint, developed static. My little brother managed to watch Toy Story enough times to make it difficult to see anything on that tape. With DVDs, our little to wide screens were filled with wondrous bold colour and crisp images. The cases were thinner, could be more easily handled, didn't cost much more, and one of the great banes of video...nothing needed WINDING. In any direction.
DVD -> HD/BR
If you happen to own an absolutely MASSIVE television, which is also new you'll get a clearer picture, on the downside there's guaranteed "paranoid" grade DRM, and your Blue-Ray player might explode if a previous story was correct, if it thinks your copy isn't genuine. There'll be adverts I doubt you can skip in any way, and who knows what other crazy restrictions they'll impose. The only up side is, once we get burners for these formats at affordable prices, backing up will be a breeze, although, I'm sure there'll be some catch because an evil pirate might try to burn a movie onto one, and in turn make Bruce Willis a poor beggar, desperately trying to find a movie studio with enough money left to take more actors. Meanwhile, the US is devastated in nuclear attacks because the DVD tells me, explicitly, "Piracy funds terrorism."
I know fairly high tech people, I'm a geek, I hang around with a lot of other geeks, it's what I do. We all own fairly old TV sets, because we don't need anything new. The normal population also owns fairly old TVs, or new but yet not too extravagant TVs. The odd widescreen here and there, but they're happy watching their picture now, DVDs are still clear and crisp.
What will we, as the
But you know, most people, will still go out, and buy their occasional video...
Basically, they need to sell something no one I know needs. I'm sure marketting will find a way.
After all, DRM is a feature,
``Marcel
(It's 3:30 in the morning, and I blame all grammar/spelling/rant inconsistencies and mistakes on that.)
Childish?
I mean, I was at a primary school this morning, dropping my brother off, and I saw a similar spectacle.
Child 1: *Sticks tongue out at child two*
Child 2: *Look of shock and horror* My MUMMY say's that's RUDE, I hate you, give me back all my toys, you're NOT my friend AND (said in a strong definitive tone of ultimate punishment) you're NOT coming to my party!
I was thinking that's immature even for eight year olds, but I thought, nah, he'd grow out of it. How is this any different?
Student: Well, the professor's a cockmaster
Professor: *Look of shock and horror* My MUMMY say's that's RUDE, I hate you, give me back your scholarship, you're NOT my student, you need counselling AND (said in a strong definitive tone of ultimate punishment) you're NOT coming to this school!
Both are immature over-reactions of easily hurt and control dependent people. Sure, calling the Professor a "cockmaster" wasn't the highest rating of style and elegance, but it's an opinion, and he's entitled to it. Was it the idea that it was a negative review of the teacher that annoyed him, or that he used, your God forbid, "rude words"?
It all seems so petty.
Funny you should mention that...
.htm it was simply copied.
For those who are not native to the British education system, a GCSE is a set of courses and exams to graduate from secondary school, from where you can choose to persue higher education, or simply search for work.
I'm currently doing my A Levels, meaning I'm a year above my parent post. I did the same exam.
I got a D in the coursework.
I got a B in the written exam.
However, let us put this into context. One of the aforementioned coursework tasks is to make a simple website. I wrote mine in Java, HTML, and a little bit of PHP, mostly in notepad due to school reliance on Windows. Nearly every other of my peers did theirs in PowerPoint.
Yes, I frowned too.
I wasn't too worried about that though, I know expecting others to know code and be worthless if they didn't is simply elitist, but my site got a far worse mark than any of the PowerPoint ones.
Keep in mind these are tacky clip art buttoned word art PowerPoints, and my site design isn't terrible, I run a business off it in my spare time.
When I asked, "Why?" they courteously replied with that I copied the website as there was no evidence of working, which almost drove me mental. "Working" is designed to be shown by screenshot after screenshot in excessive amounts. I'm not kidding about excessive, the A* students took a screenshot when they moved their mouse onto the "File" button and another one when they actually opened the menu, to demonstrate "left click".
Since I wrote my code and didn't have a click and drag affair of PowerPoint I could not show each and every step with such boring stupidity, which was great for me, I thought. I took lots of pictures of the site being built in its phases, going from one page, to two, to three, to alpha, to beta, and so forth. I even sent copies of the stepped code, and made a site to their exact specifications.
Yet I copied it. There was no requirement to use PowerPoint, we were supposed to use what we wanted, and I wanted to hand code it. Turns out, they hired untrained (in any educational form) markers to mark our coursework for this very important grade to signify our departure from secondary school. I followed this procedure up, and apparently this happened a lot when the marker didn't see PowerPoint, nor slides, and apparently since it "magically" opened when s/he clicked on my
This may be why we have serious issues with "qualified" IT sector applicants.
The exam was similar. There were questions which we all agreed I answered correctly, but answered "too correctly" and when it was fed through the marker-trons since it didn't match the simplistic and often technically incorrect answer in their mark book, it was wrong.
In fact, all the smartest computer capable people I know, got below a C. I run a company devoted to various IT tasks, from web design to penetration testing. I have coded professionally in C++, C, a variety of web languages, including my personal favourite, perl, as well as built machines ranging from portable LAN systems to servers. I've administered Linux and Windows servers, as well as set them up, set up networks, wireless and wired for small and medium companies as well as once taking a very small job in teaching staff how to use new equipment and programs. I even got our entire school server set to jump to linux.
I realise I must be very lucky to have gotten all these opportunities at my age to work, especially with the current IT situation, but the main point remains, I'm pretty good with computers( trying so hard not to sound egotistical), a lot of the people I know are too, some even better, but...
I got a C.
How much is that exam really worth?
(Oh, and one of the A* students did, in fact, not even have a computer at home and was staunchly opposed to using the school system where he could)
``Ragnarok