Linking music tastes and intelligence is really, really, wrong. What kind of music you like depends on so many factors, mostly environmental but... anyway.
Let's take a look at the article:
Mr Cadwallader then held an online discussion involving 19 members of the academy, 17 of whom were heavy metal fans.
Translation: Some psychologist asked some kids what kind of music they liked and they answered heavy metal. Oh and they also weren't complete idiots.
Since the sample was so big (almost 20 people!), obviously all "gifted" (definition?) children must listen to heavy metal. But since most of heavy metal is crap, he couldn't help but wonder why did these kids listen to this kind of crap.
One student said: "It helps me with stress. It's the general thrashiness of it. You can't really jump your anger into the floor and listen to your music at the same time with other types of music."
Ah! That makes sense, because smart people worry about society and stuff. The psychologist thought that his findings were so great he had to share them with the rest of the world, but he needed some statistics, so on his way home he asked some more kids about what kind of music they liked so he can make useless statistics that help make a research look all that much more professional:
The researchers surveyed 1,057 members of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth - a body whose 120,000 student members are within the top five per cent academically in the 11-19 age range.
Asked for their favourite type of music, 39 per cent said rock, 18 per cent R&B and 14 per cent pop. Six per cent said heavy metal and a third rated it in their top five genres.
Okay so he found that from a group of supposedly smart kids (although I'm not sure that academia equals intelligence), SIX percent really likes bands like tool, slipknot and system of a down (which are very popular bands anyway) and about one third said "tool? they're cool, I used to listen to aenima a lot". Did that miniscule percentage surprise him that much that he had to go and tell the world?
The PEGI ratings are not really enforced here either, but usually a kid buys something with their parent, so it's their responsibility to check on the rating. Furthermore how many 12 year olds have enough allowance to buy a game on their own? Sure a 16 year old, can and will be able to buy a 18+ game, but.... big deal.
...but isn't there already a system that makes it so that minors can't play some games? I'm not sure how it's in the US but the eruopean PEGI system works just fine here.
If they are going to legalize piracy, I can see them putting "pirate taxes" to a lot more things...
"ADSL modems! They all know they are being used to download illegal mp3s (well, and porn)"
"Monitors! Everybody knows people use them to find songs to download illegally"
"Mice! Everyone knows that they are mainly used to download songs illegally"
"And don't even get me started on chairs, food and houses. They are only being used to maintain themselves so they can download more music!"
Actually I have no problem with paying a small extra "tax" with the purchase of an ipod. BUT only if that means I can then fill my ipod 100% with pirated music...
If I'm paying the "pirate tax" to help them recover the "losses" they have from piracy, there's no problem then, right? If they are still going to sue my guts if I have pirated mp3s on my ipod, then why I am paying extra money with the purchase of an ipod? I'm paying them protection money and they still come after me? If they are going to act like the mob, they should at least do it properly...
While passing the ACID2 test is a fine achievement browsers can brag about, does it have any real meaning? After all what it means is that it can render correctly some really convulted CSS that doesn't break any rules. I develop websites from time to time, and I never had any real problems with how firefox currently handles CSS.
Are there better browsers out there? Again, without question.
May I ask what are those other browsers you're talking about? I am aware of 4 major browsers other than Firefox. Let's have a look at them and how they compare with firefox.
IE7 - It finally got tabs and a search box but still has crappy html and css standards support. Actually it's a little worse than MyIE for IE6. I'll pass. Safari - Has a lot the basic features of a good browser and is very simple. Respects HTML and CSS standards. Has crappy PNG support (gamma correction) and for some reason scrolls slowly even on fast machines. It's a fine browser but I prefer Camino.
Konqueror - Although I have limited experience with this one, it looks like a good browser/file manager, but I am un-aware of any features (appart from passing that ACID2 test) that make it better than Firefox. Opera - The only browser that is at least feature-wise better than firefox. But for some people Open Source actually matters. Though even with that into the equation, I can't really say which one is the better browser.
So, while you can argue and I might accept that opera is better than firefox, what are the other browsers that I've been missing that are better than the "overrated" firefox? Oh, and preferably opensource.
It's not us that should make up our minds. It's Microsoft.
If you make a design decision and you have good reasons for it, then you should not change it despite all the whining from any party. And if that decision was right, people will get it eventually.
It's not a new word. Even though I never heard of it before, I happen to be Greek.
Paraskevi = Friday
Dekatria = Deka Tria = ten three = thirteen
Phobia well... You know that word, but what you probably didn't know is that it's the same in Greek
(please note, since the Greek alphabet is different than the latin one, the words are spelled in a way to 'sound' or 'look' okay in Greek. It's actually in a language called Greeklish, the internet language of greeks for communicating through applications that don't support the Greek alphabet)
Seatching for the origin of the word I found this :
Definition of Paraskevidekatriaphobia
Paraskevidekatriaphobia: Fear of Friday the 13th.
The word "paraskevidekatriaphobia" was devised by Dr. Donald Dossey who told his patients that "when you learn to pronounce it, you're cured!"
It wasn't my intention to imply that the European apple support is lacking in comparison to America or draw any other comparisons between countries. I just wanted to get the great customer service and hip/cool/trendy factors out of the way (which do not really apply here) and make a point that there are other reasons for which people like apple, at least here, but it could extend to worldwide up to a point.
I consider myself an apple fan. In the european country I live, the applestores are not fancier than the other stores. Actually they are pretty poor in comparison. The customer service is ok, but other stores offer better service. Apple products appart from the occasional ipod here and there are very rarely seen in places other than apple stores. So the 'hip' and 'cool' value of apple products is not valid here.
Also, while I was considering buying a macbook pro, I found out about the cpu whining noise problem which Apple hasn't even aknowledged yet.
But I still like apple and a lot of other people do too.
Well, a lot of people have a tendency rooting for the underdog, especially if it seems to have even slightly better morals than the main competitor (apple compared to microsoft).
I switched from IE to firefox/firebird/phoenix very early, at a time where IE was way more functional than firefox. I used thunderbird at 0.1 which was really buggy. I rooted for nvidia when 3dfx was the big name. Then I rooted for Ati when nvidia was the absolute king. (then I started rooting for matrox, but that was a mistake).
It's simple, a lot of people don't like monopolies and simply like rooting for the underdog.
And sometimes that means giving up certain freedoms and rights temporarily.
Temporarily is what? A month? A year? Two years? Do you think that terrorism is going to vanish in less than a couple of decades (if at all)? Until when is this acceptable? How long are you willing to give up your rights in the name of terrorism? One that accepts this would probably answer "as long as it takes".
So here is what happens. If people accept giving up their rights, soon they will forget how it was before they gave up said rights and accept this a nessecity for the greater good. People will be born with these rights "temporarily unavailable" to them and will not even know that they have the right to privacy.
But I made a mistake, I started replying to your post before reading it all.
But if you spend time tearing down the hard work of George W. Bush or associate with enemy combatants (yes even bloggers who hate Bush qualify in my book), then maybe you should be looking over your shoulder and re-evaluating your position.
So in your book spying on people who dislike Bush is completely justified and logical? Then according to the last elections in America almost half of the population in America should be spied on. Whatever happened to free speech?
To sum it up:
IE7 gets tabs and better security (supposedly) (wow, we already knew that for quite a while)
FF gets autoupdates that work (well, we all know that already)
and Opera gets a variety of new features (but they were unable to test them for the article)
The slashdot story is a little misleading... As you can see on this wiki here Lightning is an extension for thunderbird but very tightly integrated.
And I quote:
"Lightning" is simply a project code name to keep from having to type or say "Thunderbird extension for tightly-integrated calendar functionality" all the time.
I meant software packages.
I am mainly interested in 3D. There are a few applications with linux support, but unfortunately not the ones I'm using, or the alternates I'm considering. And also a lot of the stuff that accompanies 3d (compositing/video editing).
What I usually read on the internet, is not that linux is dying, but that it is growing and that it will conquer the desktop market (well I am not seeing that happening right now either).
And that is the point. It's not if it's going to be around for a long time (it will be, for all the reasons the parent posted), but if it will grow to compete with windows on the desktop market. What is really stopping me right now from switching to a linux desktop is software support... I don't want to set up a server here, and I think I have the skills to use linux and do what I want, but the software isn't there. And the software will come, only if linux somehow finds its way to more homes (hmm I sense a paradoxical loop here).
So "being around" is not the problem with linux, the real problem is that people that want to use it (I know I do) should be able to... In my case, software support is stopping me.
Yes, it is a clone of Microsoft Office (even if it is a little better in my opinion), but since we just established that it has the same functionality as MSOffice and it's free, why isn't everybody using it?
Anyway, it seems that someone is actually rethinking the UI design of an office application, and strangely enough it's Microsoft! (I have no idea if it's going to be any better though..)
Slashdot Mirror
Linking music tastes and intelligence is really, really, wrong. What kind of music you like depends on so many factors, mostly environmental but... anyway.
Let's take a look at the article: Translation: Some psychologist asked some kids what kind of music they liked and they answered heavy metal. Oh and they also weren't complete idiots.
Since the sample was so big (almost 20 people!), obviously all "gifted" (definition?) children must listen to heavy metal. But since most of heavy metal is crap, he couldn't help but wonder why did these kids listen to this kind of crap.Ah! That makes sense, because smart people worry about society and stuff. The psychologist thought that his findings were so great he had to share them with the rest of the world, but he needed some statistics, so on his way home he asked some more kids about what kind of music they liked so he can make useless statistics that help make a research look all that much more professional:Okay so he found that from a group of supposedly smart kids (although I'm not sure that academia equals intelligence), SIX percent really likes bands like tool, slipknot and system of a down (which are very popular bands anyway) and about one third said "tool? they're cool, I used to listen to aenima a lot". Did that miniscule percentage surprise him that much that he had to go and tell the world?
The PEGI ratings are not really enforced here either, but usually a kid buys something with their parent, so it's their responsibility to check on the rating. Furthermore how many 12 year olds have enough allowance to buy a game on their own? Sure a 16 year old, can and will be able to buy a 18+ game, but.... big deal.
...but isn't there already a system that makes it so that minors can't play some games? I'm not sure how it's in the US but the eruopean PEGI system works just fine here.
If they are going to legalize piracy, I can see them putting "pirate taxes" to a lot more things...
"ADSL modems! They all know they are being used to download illegal mp3s (well, and porn)"
"Monitors! Everybody knows people use them to find songs to download illegally"
"Mice! Everyone knows that they are mainly used to download songs illegally"
"And don't even get me started on chairs, food and houses. They are only being used to maintain themselves so they can download more music!"
Actually I have no problem with paying a small extra "tax" with the purchase of an ipod. BUT only if that means I can then fill my ipod 100% with pirated music...
If I'm paying the "pirate tax" to help them recover the "losses" they have from piracy, there's no problem then, right? If they are still going to sue my guts if I have pirated mp3s on my ipod, then why I am paying extra money with the purchase of an ipod? I'm paying them protection money and they still come after me? If they are going to act like the mob, they should at least do it properly...
While passing the ACID2 test is a fine achievement browsers can brag about, does it have any real meaning? After all what it means is that it can render correctly some really convulted CSS that doesn't break any rules. I develop websites from time to time, and I never had any real problems with how firefox currently handles CSS.
Are there better browsers out there? Again, without question.
May I ask what are those other browsers you're talking about? I am aware of 4 major browsers other than Firefox. Let's have a look at them and how they compare with firefox.
IE7 - It finally got tabs and a search box but still has crappy html and css standards support. Actually it's a little worse than MyIE for IE6. I'll pass.
Safari - Has a lot the basic features of a good browser and is very simple. Respects HTML and CSS standards. Has crappy PNG support (gamma correction) and for some reason scrolls slowly even on fast machines. It's a fine browser but I prefer Camino.
Konqueror - Although I have limited experience with this one, it looks like a good browser/file manager, but I am un-aware of any features (appart from passing that ACID2 test) that make it better than Firefox.
Opera - The only browser that is at least feature-wise better than firefox. But for some people Open Source actually matters. Though even with that into the equation, I can't really say which one is the better browser.
So, while you can argue and I might accept that opera is better than firefox, what are the other browsers that I've been missing that are better than the "overrated" firefox? Oh, and preferably opensource.
It's not us that should make up our minds. It's Microsoft.
If you make a design decision and you have good reasons for it, then you should not change it despite all the whining from any party. And if that decision was right, people will get it eventually.
Paraskevi = Friday
Dekatria = Deka Tria = ten three = thirteen
Phobia well... You know that word, but what you probably didn't know is that it's the same in Greek
(please note, since the Greek alphabet is different than the latin one, the words are spelled in a way to 'sound' or 'look' okay in Greek. It's actually in a language called Greeklish, the internet language of greeks for communicating through applications that don't support the Greek alphabet)
Seatching for the origin of the word I found this :
It wasn't my intention to imply that the European apple support is lacking in comparison to America or draw any other comparisons between countries. I just wanted to get the great customer service and hip/cool/trendy factors out of the way (which do not really apply here) and make a point that there are other reasons for which people like apple, at least here, but it could extend to worldwide up to a point.
Actually, that's only part of the story.
I consider myself an apple fan. In the european country I live, the applestores are not fancier than the other stores. Actually they are pretty poor in comparison. The customer service is ok, but other stores offer better service. Apple products appart from the occasional ipod here and there are very rarely seen in places other than apple stores. So the 'hip' and 'cool' value of apple products is not valid here.
Also, while I was considering buying a macbook pro, I found out about the cpu whining noise problem which Apple hasn't even aknowledged yet.
But I still like apple and a lot of other people do too.
Well, a lot of people have a tendency rooting for the underdog, especially if it seems to have even slightly better morals than the main competitor (apple compared to microsoft).
I switched from IE to firefox/firebird/phoenix very early, at a time where IE was way more functional than firefox. I used thunderbird at 0.1 which was really buggy. I rooted for nvidia when 3dfx was the big name. Then I rooted for Ati when nvidia was the absolute king. (then I started rooting for matrox, but that was a mistake).
It's simple, a lot of people don't like monopolies and simply like rooting for the underdog.
I guess this explains it...
And sometimes that means giving up certain freedoms and rights temporarily.
Temporarily is what? A month? A year? Two years? Do you think that terrorism is going to vanish in less than a couple of decades (if at all)? Until when is this acceptable? How long are you willing to give up your rights in the name of terrorism? One that accepts this would probably answer "as long as it takes".
So here is what happens. If people accept giving up their rights, soon they will forget how it was before they gave up said rights and accept this a nessecity for the greater good. People will be born with these rights "temporarily unavailable" to them and will not even know that they have the right to privacy.
But I made a mistake, I started replying to your post before reading it all.
But if you spend time tearing down the hard work of George W. Bush or associate with enemy combatants (yes even bloggers who hate Bush qualify in my book), then maybe you should be looking over your shoulder and re-evaluating your position.
So in your book spying on people who dislike Bush is completely justified and logical? Then according to the last elections in America almost half of the population in America should be spied on. Whatever happened to free speech?
I shouldn't reply to this. I apologize.
To sum it up: IE7 gets tabs and better security (supposedly) (wow, we already knew that for quite a while) FF gets autoupdates that work (well, we all know that already) and Opera gets a variety of new features (but they were unable to test them for the article)
The slashdot story is a little misleading... As you can see on this wiki here Lightning is an extension for thunderbird but very tightly integrated.
And I quote:
Actually, just read the faq I linked...I meant software packages. I am mainly interested in 3D. There are a few applications with linux support, but unfortunately not the ones I'm using, or the alternates I'm considering. And also a lot of the stuff that accompanies 3d (compositing/video editing).
What I usually read on the internet, is not that linux is dying, but that it is growing and that it will conquer the desktop market (well I am not seeing that happening right now either).
And that is the point. It's not if it's going to be around for a long time (it will be, for all the reasons the parent posted), but if it will grow to compete with windows on the desktop market. What is really stopping me right now from switching to a linux desktop is software support... I don't want to set up a server here, and I think I have the skills to use linux and do what I want, but the software isn't there. And the software will come, only if linux somehow finds its way to more homes (hmm I sense a paradoxical loop here).
So "being around" is not the problem with linux, the real problem is that people that want to use it (I know I do) should be able to... In my case, software support is stopping me.
Yes, it is a clone of Microsoft Office (even if it is a little better in my opinion), but since we just established that it has the same functionality as MSOffice and it's free, why isn't everybody using it?
Anyway, it seems that someone is actually rethinking the UI design of an office application, and strangely enough it's Microsoft! (I have no idea if it's going to be any better though..)