Professionalism? You're right, I admit it, I'm a hack. And my lack of credentials is exactly my point. In television, visibility equals credibility, regardless of actual expertise. I can say that because, at one time, I had a career in television and film production. Trust me, I know how the medium works. I have friends who work on "respectable" shows like Nova and the BBC documentaries, you know, David Attenborough's old gang. Same story there. Truly.
"Arrogant little man"? C'mon, is that really necessary? Do you really want to defend television as an educational medium? Where did you go to school?
Here's some more inside information about the medium: The secret to successful drama and comedy is simple conflict (easy to understand), and characters that people would like to have as friends.
The secret to successful documentaries *and game shows* is to make the audience *feel* as smart, or smarter than the people they're watching. It's all a big psych job.
I dunno about you, but I got a whole lot more out of the book than I ever did from the movie. I stand by my original statement. If you really want to learn something, read the book. If you want to be entertained, watch TV.
And for those people too lazy to read a book, I've found that by the next day, they've forgotten everything in the TV show anyway. It's really amusing and disgusting at the same time. One of my shows will come on, and the next day someone will stop me - "Hey! I saw your show!" then they proceed to retell the whole thing back to me, and they never, ever get it right. Usually, not even close.
Insult me all you wish. I'm made of tougher stuff than you know. And I won't respond again.
(P.S., the Gore Vidal quote was a joke, silly. And the girls I date would know that. And yes, I do mean girls, with an s, little man.)
And what makes you think I earn any part of my living from documentaries? Obviously, you've never worked for a documentary. There's no money in them. I do them because, as Gore Vidal said: "Never pass up an opportunity for sex or to be on TV."
Seriously, go read the book - The Elegant Universe, then watch the video again. You'll see the difference.
If you watch science/discover/history channels, I hate to break it to you, but there ain't no educational purpose to any of those shows. I know, because I've been cast as an "expert" on no less than eight of them. It's all about entertainment baby.
Want to really learn something, shut off the TV and read a book. Geez, for the price of cable TV these days, you can buy a new book every 3 days or so.
But if you want to be entertained with the illusion that you're learning something factual, when it's often just as made-up and sensationalized as any other made-for-tv drama, then carry on.
No matter what your profession, it seems that working with the hands improves anyone's problem solving skills. Boeing and NASA are now requiring R&D personnel to have experience working with the hands, no matter how strong their academic record is.
The research linking the hand to brain development is found in the book - The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture. By Frank R. Wilson.
Here's another article about handiwork and education (left sidebar - Why should a kid build a catapult) http://www.catapultkits.com/
In my work I regularly get feedback from teachers who say that nothing has inspired their kids to *want* to study math and physics more than the catapult project they did.
Considering the daunting issues we face as a culture, with Global Warming and the problems with fossil fuels, we need more and better problem solvers in the world than ever before.
If it was up to me, shop class would be mandatory in every high-school, and it's curriculum would be coordinated with the physics and math courses too.
Have you ever heard of the "sport" of pumpkin chucking? Many of those cannons can shoot pumpkins 3/4 of a mile at near supersonic speed. The problem is, the pumpkins keep disintegrating.
So, some of these guys have started shooting BBs, (Bowling Balls). Well over a mile, using only a few thousand dollars worth of standard plumbing supplies and compressed air. One of these cannons even sports the name "second ammendment".
Now just imagine what you could do with a real budget....
Yes, that's a possibility, but my SSN was exactly what was being asked for, along with birthday and some other stuff. Your name and address are easily available to just about anyone. Most of us who own property have our names, addresses and other "private" information on-line on county web sites, available to anyone who wants to search them.
I run a small business, and it's amazing how many of my customers have been able to look-up my home address, home phone number and such using public tax record, real estate and utility company data.
It's no wonder that identity theft is such an easy crime. Keeping your SSN private is like having a password that you can never change. Security by obscurity, but for your life and your financial reputation.
Phishing is only one point of vulnerability. I fear this problem is only going to get worse until we find a better way. Who's working on this anyway?
I got a letter in the mail (usps snailmail) from Bank of America asking for a lot of personal information that was missing from my account, and that if I didn't supply that information they'd have to report me to the IRS.
The letter was spelled correctly, had proper grammar and even had the BofA logo printed in full color. The return address was a PO box in Dallas. Nothing fishy at all.
Problem is, I don't have a BofA account. But I'm sure a LOT of other people do.
Here's a GREAT resource for a huge array of gears, axles, pulleys, and loads more - buy an old Canon copy machine. I have one. Ot cost $16,000 when new, but I picked up used one for a few hundred bucks. Most copy machine businesses will now where to find one. Mine still worked too - until I dismantled it. Just be sure you have a pickup truck and a forklift to move it.
Let's see, an electrical device that increases viscosity....
Is it a heater?
If you look up the way diesel engines are converted to run straight vegetable oil (SVO), one of the first things they do is put a heating element on the fuel line to make the SVO flow more freely. Also notice that the test vehicle was a diesel.
Patentable? Perhaps they've developed a new way to create focused heat via electrical currents, and decided to apply it to fuel lines for profit motives.
Any thoughts on this possibility from the experts?
Three people are in a helicopter, when a fog suddenly rolls in and makes visibility less than fifty feet. The pilot is lost, but after flying in ever widening circles, spots a building. He flies up to it, and motions for a person to open his window.
The pilot yells at the top of his lungs: "WHERE ARE WE?"
The man in the building replies: "YOU'RE IN A HELICOPTER!"
So the pilot turns due east, flies 1.5 miles and lands at the airport. After which, one of the passengers asks incredulously "How did you do that?"
The pilot replies: "Well, the response was perfectly true and accurate, and also completely useless, so I knew we had to be at the Microsoft headquarters."
The CAD program is a customized version of ArtCam that came bundled with our CNC machine. There's no license management on it.
Strangely, some functions ran just fine. But the most affected was the transform functions. When I clicked on the transform button, I could sit back and count the seconds - usually about 8 or 9, while the options pane was being displayed. Yeah, we transform vectors a lot. Imagine sitting back for eight seconds every time you hit the period (start a new sentence) in MS Word.
I'll be the first to agree that the software is buggy as hell, but MS did something to the network system between XP and Vista that caused this to be a problem. The software runs great on XP.
I downgraded my Vista machine to XP. A critical pice of software I use was dog slow on vista. Dead-dog slow. By accident, i found out how to speed it up considerably - I unplugged the network cable.
No, this was not a network app. It's a CAD program. It does absolutely nothing over the network. Whassup with that? Unfortunately, I need the network, and after much fiddling and tweaking the network settings (I am qualified...) There was no change.
But, every time I disabled the network, my CAD program sped up. Until I wiped out the HD and installed XP. Now it's always fast as ever on my vista-class hardware.
VIsta gave me absolutely no benefit over XP. What's the reason for this OS?
--
http://www.rlt.com/14100 See our newest perpetual motion machine (as designed by Leonardo DaVinci)
Exactly. I sell educational products, and at the risk of sounding like a shameless plug, the most common complement I get from teachers and parents is "it's amazing how this catapult project has inspired my kid(s) to study math and physics". I'm not making that up, and I'm not exaggerating.
Yeah, I'm proud of my products, but secretly I can't help but wonder if it was really the kit, or the parental involvement of doing something together with the kid that lit the sparks. Whichever, at least it's something. The future is going to have some big and complicated problems. We need more things to inspire the next generation to develop the skills and the attitudes to solve those problems.
"There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey." John Ruskin (1819 - 1900), (attributed)
All that is true, but he (Roosevelt) could not have gotten away with hiding his condition without the help and support of the mass media. ALL of the mass media.
Granted, the mass media was much smaller then, but there were ample photographs of Roosevelt in his wheelchair. The newspapers decided not to publish them. All the newspapers.
It wasn't a conspiracy, that's just the way things were. It would have been considered rude and disrespectful to point out a man's frailties. This same attitude contributed to the disqualification of the one-legged high jumper in the olympics. It was a blatant flaunting of a disability, regardless of the fact that he could still compete. It wasn't "humble" in a time when humility was more important than being "cool" is today.
There was a guy, back in the 1930s or so (i think) who was an amputee. He had only one leg, and without any prosthetics, he qualified for the olympics, competing against two-legged people and scoring well enough that he could have been a contender for the gold. His sport- the high jump. I'm not making this up.
Unfortunately, he was disqualified as well. His unfair advantage- less weight to get over the bar, and fewer muscles requiring oxygen.
Times and public sentiment were different then. I'd bet that today he'd be allowed to compete. Ironic that we had a "crippled" president, but a one-legged man wasn't allowed to be an olympian. But imagine a presidential candidate in a wheelchair today...
When I started in IT, my mentor confessed to me that all he wanted to do was quit and open an ice cream shop. At the time, I didn't understand. Now I do.
After 15 years in IT, I quit (actually, not by choice. The dot-com meltdown of 2000 left me unemployed.) I couldn't find another job either, and to be honest, I didn't really want to. I wasn't happy and I was ready to move on. So, I started a toy company. You can see some of it at http://www.rlt.com/
Now that the waves of destruction from the internet big boom have subsided, would I go back to IT? No way! I'm a toymaker now and loving it. So do my kids, and we have a LOT more fun together this way that I ever could as an IT professional.
As I've said before, programmers and sysadmins have some incredible advantages over most MBAs. You have LOGIC. You are CREATIVE. You have a propensity for PROBLEM SOLVING. You can think through and visualize a plan of action from beginning to end. You can change course and re-program the system
when requirements change. You know that very few, if any, projects are ever really finished. You're a hacker who knows how to shoot from the hip to get a job done on deadline, even if it isn't "elegant". You know that "Done" usually only means "it works at the moment and when it breaks, we'll fix it".
Guess what, these qualities plus a willingness to try and fail then try again (kind of like compiling) are what make entrepreneurs
successful. Another advantage you have is that you won't have to hire some expensive tech guy to do your programming/sysadmin/DBA stuff for you.
You can do it. Just remember- there are a million reasons why you'll fail, and everyone will be happy to remind you of them constantly. But there's only one reason why you will succede- because you make it happen. So, ignore the naysayers and the critics, trust your instincts and go start a business.
My neighbor bought some freezers and started making block ice. He takes most of the winter off, but in the summer time he makes more money than I ever did as a programmer! Just by making ICE!
I know someone else who quit a VP position at a tech company, to print t-shirts. Raking it in, having a great time.
Yet another friend opened a restaurant- but not wanting to eat into his family time, he's only open for breakfast and lunch. He closes at 3:00 every day to pick his kids up from school. If it's your business, you can make your own rules.
I have a cousin who dropped out of school and made a fortune with a tune-up and oil change shop (actually a small chain of them - opened one at a time over several years) Now he travels and goes fishing most of the time.
Don't be scared, be bold. Love your kids, and remember- whatever you do, it will also be an education to them. They'll learn how to deal with hard times as they watch you struggle through them, and conquer them. They'll learn how to relish the good times as you reap the rewards of your efforts. Just don't forget to include them, and don't underestimate them.
After reading all the comments herein, I was disappointed that no one mentioned the two experiments in physics which demonstrate that the future is equally fixed as the past. One is a quantum experiment, involving entangled particles and a time delay for one of them. I don't recall the details. The other is a relativistic scenario demonstrating that there's no universal "now" moment, and that a distant observer will see either our future or our past merely by changing his direction of travel. Again, the details elude me, but they are spelled out in a chapter of Brian Greene's book: The elegant universe.
In both cases, the implication is that since the future is pre-established (from our perspective). So then, where is "free will".
As for the religious/philosophical experience, I highly recommend a talk by Jill Taylor on TED.com. She's an intellectual, a neuroscientist who has a profound near-death experience. It's different than what you might expect.
So, what's this "life" thing all about if it's all pre-ordained? Consider this possibility: The universe could be an egg. God didn't create the universe, but rather, the universe is in the process of creating God (or something like that). Basically, what Ray Kurzweil says in his book: The Singularity is Near.
Reality is something you rise above - Liza Minnelli
I finally figured out that the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it. - Rita Mae Brown.
"that knowledge of real guns and their effects and consequences is the key to safety and using toy guns diminishes the reality of those consequences"
Yeah, I hear this a lot, being that I sell toy guns and such.
But it sounds a lot like the psychologists of the 60's who warned that Sesame Street would confuse and disturb children because they wouldn't be able to distinguish fantasy (big bird, kermiit) from reality (the human actors). Guess what, the children were smarter than that.
Should I not allow my kids to have toy riding cars, in fear that they might confuse the real car for a toy and take it out for a spin, or not buy my daughter a play kitchen set in fear that she might think the real oven is a toy, and burn down the house, or not let her have dolls, for fear that her little brother might try to rip the heads off of our neighbors?
Kids know what's real, and what's make believe. The toy guns give them an outlet for role play - cops and robbers, star wars - you know, basic social skills like establishing their own rules, getting physical, conflict resolution, etc. And when they start using the toy guns for target practice all on their own, and discover the joys of action at a distance, rudimentary aerodynamics (in the case of the flying projectiles) and the magic of how gravity behaves, well, I see something happening there that just doesn't happen with "action figure" dolls and a plastic play house.
Go hang out at a paintball arena for a while. Talk to the eight year olds and see how "confused" they are about toy guns, paintball markers and real guns. More importantly, watch the amazing interactions between the kids and their parents. I see more mutual inter-generational respect there than just about anywhere.
But, after all that, it's not my intention to change anyone's attitudes or behavior. We're all different, and we all react to situations in our own way, according to our own prejudices and sensitivities. I just want the freedom to be able to raise my kids and provide an environment for them that I think helps them achieve their best potential. And the same for you too. Where our philosophies clash, I hope we can agree to stay out of each other's way rather than try to curtail anyone's freedoms. Don't buy my products - that's fine. But don't tell me we need to ban toy guns or they'll warp our kid's judgement, Or we'll have to ban TV, product packaging (cereal boxes, I'm looking at you!) hell, most toys and books too.
As for the realistic looking toy guns, I agree that as long as there are cops who'd sooner take out a kid than risk the possibility of taking a shot in his flack jacket, then realistic toy guns should be kept out of public play areas. We only use them in our backyard, and as soon as I sell out of my current inventory of realistic-looking toy guns, I plan to discontinue them and only offer the truly, unmistakably *toy* versions. Not because I fear a kid will be confused by them, but because I fear a cop - someone who is trained to use a gun and well practiced at it, might be confused.
I remember vividly when I was 5 years old and my parents took me out and taught me to shoot a pistol. It scared the crap out of me! But, I learned to do it and for my whole life (and of my siblings) there have been loaded guns in nightstand drawers and other places. We all knew where they were. We also knew WHAT they were.
Ok, so what. Well, when I was about 8 years old, playing (unsupervised) at a friend's house, he snuck into his parent's room and brought out a handgun for us to play with. I could tell he didn't even know how to hold it. I forget the exact details of what happened next, but I convinced him to put it away and we left the house until a grown-up came home. I'm pretty sure I averted a probable catastrophe that day - all because my parents had taught me how to shoot.
Put away your gut reactions and look at the statistics. Boats are more likely to kill your kids than handguns are. Swimming pools are MUCH more likely to kill a neighborhood kid than a loaded, unlocked handgun in the same house. You wouldn't have a pool in the backyard and not teach your kids how to swim, would you?
I forget the quote- something about freedom and limiting the freedoms of all of us based on the failings of the least of us. It's a good quote if someone can find it.
And, just in case you're wondering, I do not own any handguns or other guns. My kids DO play with toy guns (as do I, with the kids). Why don't I own a (real) gun? Because I don't like cleaning them mostly. I'd have one if I had a friend who enjoyed target shooting, but I don't (at least not in this state).
But I do LIKE it that some of my neighbors have handguns in their houses, for the same reason that lo-jack works to reduce all the car thefts in a city. If thieves don't know which house has it, they have to assume there's a risk that any house could have it, and that's a significant deterrent. Again with the statistics, look at the violent crime rates in states with tight gun controls, vs. those with liberal gun ownership. No significant difference.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, English has exactly 7 vowel letters. I learned this in first grade, why didn't everyone else?
A, E, I, O, U, sometimes Y, and sometimes W.
For example, Crwth, and Cwm. Look them up!
The same effect, via trebuchet.
Somewhere deep in the California desert, at a super secret test site.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sMIO15gCQI
C'mon, don't stop when you're already halfway there...
it is not = it's not = it isn't = it'sn't = i'n't (from the lazy tongue axiom)
therefore, "and it is not" = a'i'n't
simplifying, a'i'n't = "aint"
And so, "She aint pretty" is incorrect (She and is not pretty!).
The correct usage is "Aint she pretty" (And is she not pretty?).
QED.
Aw geez. Looks like I've struck a nerve.
Professionalism? You're right, I admit it, I'm a hack. And my lack of credentials is exactly my point. In television, visibility equals credibility, regardless of actual expertise. I can say that because, at one time, I had a career in television and film production. Trust me, I know how the medium works. I have friends who work on "respectable" shows like Nova and the BBC documentaries, you know, David Attenborough's old gang. Same story there. Truly.
"Arrogant little man"? C'mon, is that really necessary? Do you really want to defend television as an educational medium? Where did you go to school?
Here's some more inside information about the medium:
The secret to successful drama and comedy is simple conflict (easy to understand), and characters that people would like to have as friends.
The secret to successful documentaries *and game shows* is to make the audience *feel* as smart, or smarter than the people they're watching. It's all a big psych job.
I dunno about you, but I got a whole lot more out of the book than I ever did from the movie. I stand by my original statement. If you really want to learn something, read the book. If you want to be entertained, watch TV.
And for those people too lazy to read a book, I've found that by the next day, they've forgotten everything in the TV show anyway. It's really amusing and disgusting at the same time. One of my shows will come on, and the next day someone will stop me - "Hey! I saw your show!" then they proceed to retell the whole thing back to me, and they never, ever get it right. Usually, not even close.
Insult me all you wish. I'm made of tougher stuff than you know. And I won't respond again.
(P.S., the Gore Vidal quote was a joke, silly. And the girls I date would know that. And yes, I do mean girls, with an s, little man.)
And what makes you think I earn any part of my living from documentaries? Obviously, you've never worked for a documentary. There's no money in them. I do them because, as Gore Vidal said: "Never pass up an opportunity for sex or to be on TV."
Seriously, go read the book - The Elegant Universe, then watch the video again. You'll see the difference.
Good luck!
Yo,
If you watch science/discover/history channels, I hate to break it to you, but there ain't no educational purpose to any of those shows. I know, because I've been cast as an "expert" on no less than eight of them. It's all about entertainment baby.
Want to really learn something, shut off the TV and read a book. Geez, for the price of cable TV these days, you can buy a new book every 3 days or so.
But if you want to be entertained with the illusion that you're learning something factual, when it's often just as made-up and sensationalized as any other made-for-tv drama, then carry on.
No matter what your profession, it seems that working with the hands improves anyone's problem solving skills. Boeing and NASA are now requiring R&D personnel to have experience working with the hands, no matter how strong their academic record is.
Watch this video - http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital.html
(20 minutes)
The research linking the hand to brain development is found in the book - The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain, Language, and Human Culture. By Frank R. Wilson.
Here's another article about handiwork and education (left sidebar - Why should a kid build a catapult) http://www.catapultkits.com/
In my work I regularly get feedback from teachers who say that nothing has inspired their kids to *want* to study math and physics more than the catapult project they did.
Considering the daunting issues we face as a culture, with Global Warming and the problems with fossil fuels, we need more and better problem solvers in the world than ever before.
If it was up to me, shop class would be mandatory in every high-school, and it's curriculum would be coordinated with the physics and math courses too.
Have you ever heard of the "sport" of pumpkin chucking? Many of those cannons can shoot pumpkins 3/4 of a mile at near supersonic speed. The problem is, the pumpkins keep disintegrating.
So, some of these guys have started shooting BBs, (Bowling Balls). Well over a mile, using only a few thousand dollars worth of standard plumbing supplies and compressed air. One of these cannons even sports the name "second ammendment".
Now just imagine what you could do with a real budget....
Yes, that's a possibility, but my SSN was exactly what was being asked for, along with birthday and some other stuff. Your name and address are easily available to just about anyone. Most of us who own property have our names, addresses and other "private" information on-line on county web sites, available to anyone who wants to search them.
I run a small business, and it's amazing how many of my customers have been able to look-up my home address, home phone number and such using public tax record, real estate and utility company data.
It's no wonder that identity theft is such an easy crime. Keeping your SSN private is like having a password that you can never change. Security by obscurity, but for your life and your financial reputation.
Phishing is only one point of vulnerability. I fear this problem is only going to get worse until we find a better way. Who's working on this anyway?
How about this one-
I got a letter in the mail (usps snailmail) from Bank of America asking for a lot of personal information that was missing from my account, and that if I didn't supply that information they'd have to report me to the IRS.
The letter was spelled correctly, had proper grammar and even had the BofA logo printed in full color. The return address was a PO box in Dallas. Nothing fishy at all.
Problem is, I don't have a BofA account. But I'm sure a LOT of other people do.
Phishing - it's not just an on-line phenomenon.
Absolutely, McMaster is the, uh, master...
But, McMaster is expensive.
Here's a GREAT resource for a huge array of gears, axles, pulleys, and loads more - buy an old Canon copy machine. I have one. Ot cost $16,000 when new, but I picked up used one for a few hundred bucks. Most copy machine businesses will now where to find one. Mine still worked too - until I dismantled it. Just be sure you have a pickup truck and a forklift to move it.
Let's see, an electrical device that increases viscosity....
Is it a heater?
If you look up the way diesel engines are converted to run straight vegetable oil (SVO), one of the first things they do is put a heating element on the fuel line to make the SVO flow more freely. Also notice that the test vehicle was a diesel.
Patentable? Perhaps they've developed a new way to create focused heat via electrical currents, and decided to apply it to fuel lines for profit motives.
Any thoughts on this possibility from the experts?
Three people are in a helicopter, when a fog suddenly rolls in and makes visibility less than fifty feet. The pilot is lost, but after flying in ever widening circles, spots a building. He flies up to it, and motions for a person to open his window.
The pilot yells at the top of his lungs: "WHERE ARE WE?"
The man in the building replies: "YOU'RE IN A HELICOPTER!"
So the pilot turns due east, flies 1.5 miles and lands at the airport. After which, one of the passengers asks incredulously "How did you do that?"
The pilot replies: "Well, the response was perfectly true and accurate, and also completely useless, so I knew we had to be at the Microsoft headquarters."
The CAD program is a customized version of ArtCam that came bundled with our CNC machine. There's no license management on it.
Strangely, some functions ran just fine. But the most affected was the transform functions. When I clicked on the transform button, I could sit back and count the seconds - usually about 8 or 9, while the options pane was being displayed. Yeah, we transform vectors a lot. Imagine sitting back for eight seconds every time you hit the period (start a new sentence) in MS Word.
I'll be the first to agree that the software is buggy as hell, but MS did something to the network system between XP and Vista that caused this to be a problem. The software runs great on XP.
--
All products on
http://www.bridgesandtowers.com/
and
http://www.leversandgears.com/
were made without Vista and are entirely Vista free.
I downgraded my Vista machine to XP. A critical pice of software I use was dog slow on vista. Dead-dog slow. By accident, i found out how to speed it up considerably - I unplugged the network cable.
No, this was not a network app. It's a CAD program. It does absolutely nothing over the network. Whassup with that? Unfortunately, I need the network, and after much fiddling and tweaking the network settings (I am qualified...) There was no change.
But, every time I disabled the network, my CAD program sped up. Until I wiped out the HD and installed XP. Now it's always fast as ever on my vista-class hardware.
VIsta gave me absolutely no benefit over XP. What's the reason for this OS?
--
http://www.rlt.com/14100 See our newest perpetual motion machine (as designed by Leonardo DaVinci)
Here's a unrelated question I've always wanted to ask a language expert.
Ever since I was a little kid (about 40 years ago) I was taught that "Oklahoma" is a native American word for "Red Man". Okla = red, Homa = man.
Now, isn't "Ochre Homo" Greek (or sort-of greek) for "red man"?
Whence the similarity from languages seemingly so far apart?
Oh, oh, oh! I have an idea. Let's combine this idea with a stirling engine and see what kind of synergies come out.
Polymer on each end of the engine, alternating current synchronized with the displacer, etc. etc. etc.
Whaddya think?
Exactly. I sell educational products, and at the risk of sounding like a shameless plug, the most common complement I get from teachers and parents is "it's amazing how this catapult project has inspired my kid(s) to study math and physics". I'm not making that up, and I'm not exaggerating.
Yeah, I'm proud of my products, but secretly I can't help but wonder if it was really the kit, or the parental involvement of doing something together with the kid that lit the sparks. Whichever, at least it's something. The future is going to have some big and complicated problems. We need more things to inspire the next generation to develop the skills and the attitudes to solve those problems.
You can see these kits, if you're curious, at http://www.catapultkits.com/ and my new Leonardo DaVinci self-supporting arch bridge at http://www.bridgesandtowers.com/
Same point, more succinct:
"There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey."
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900), (attributed)
Damn true, and I concur with your post 100%.
All that is true, but he (Roosevelt) could not have gotten away with hiding his condition without the help and support of the mass media. ALL of the mass media.
Granted, the mass media was much smaller then, but there were ample photographs of Roosevelt in his wheelchair. The newspapers decided not to publish them. All the newspapers.
It wasn't a conspiracy, that's just the way things were. It would have been considered rude and disrespectful to point out a man's frailties. This same attitude contributed to the disqualification of the one-legged high jumper in the olympics. It was a blatant flaunting of a disability, regardless of the fact that he could still compete. It wasn't "humble" in a time when humility was more important than being "cool" is today.
There was a guy, back in the 1930s or so (i think) who was an amputee. He had only one leg, and without any prosthetics, he qualified for the olympics, competing against two-legged people and scoring well enough that he could have been a contender for the gold. His sport- the high jump. I'm not making this up.
Unfortunately, he was disqualified as well. His unfair advantage- less weight to get over the bar, and fewer muscles requiring oxygen.
Times and public sentiment were different then. I'd bet that today he'd be allowed to compete. Ironic that we had a "crippled" president, but a one-legged man wasn't allowed to be an olympian. But imagine a presidential candidate in a wheelchair today...
After 15 years in IT, I quit (actually, not by choice. The dot-com meltdown of 2000 left me unemployed.) I couldn't find another job either, and to be honest, I didn't really want to. I wasn't happy and I was ready to move on. So, I started a toy company. You can see some of it at http://www.rlt.com/
Now that the waves of destruction from the internet big boom have subsided, would I go back to IT? No way! I'm a toymaker now and loving it. So do my kids, and we have a LOT more fun together this way that I ever could as an IT professional.
As I've said before, programmers and sysadmins have some incredible advantages over most MBAs. You have LOGIC. You are CREATIVE. You have a propensity for PROBLEM SOLVING. You can think through and visualize a plan of action from beginning to end. You can change course and re-program the system when requirements change. You know that very few, if any, projects are ever really finished. You're a hacker who knows how to shoot from the hip to get a job done on deadline, even if it isn't "elegant". You know that "Done" usually only means "it works at the moment and when it breaks, we'll fix it".
Guess what, these qualities plus a willingness to try and fail then try again (kind of like compiling) are what make entrepreneurs successful. Another advantage you have is that you won't have to hire some expensive tech guy to do your programming/sysadmin/DBA stuff for you.
You can do it. Just remember- there are a million reasons why you'll fail, and everyone will be happy to remind you of them constantly. But there's only one reason why you will succede- because you make it happen. So, ignore the naysayers and the critics, trust your instincts and go start a business.
My neighbor bought some freezers and started making block ice. He takes most of the winter off, but in the summer time he makes more money than I ever did as a programmer! Just by making ICE!
I know someone else who quit a VP position at a tech company, to print t-shirts. Raking it in, having a great time.
Yet another friend opened a restaurant- but not wanting to eat into his family time, he's only open for breakfast and lunch. He closes at 3:00 every day to pick his kids up from school. If it's your business, you can make your own rules.
I have a cousin who dropped out of school and made a fortune with a tune-up and oil change shop (actually a small chain of them - opened one at a time over several years) Now he travels and goes fishing most of the time.
Don't be scared, be bold. Love your kids, and remember- whatever you do, it will also be an education to them. They'll learn how to deal with hard times as they watch you struggle through them, and conquer them. They'll learn how to relish the good times as you reap the rewards of your efforts. Just don't forget to include them, and don't underestimate them.
Help fed my family and teach your kids some physics at the same time - http://www.catapultkits.com/
In both cases, the implication is that since the future is pre-established (from our perspective). So then, where is "free will".
As for the religious/philosophical experience, I highly recommend a talk by Jill Taylor on TED.com. She's an intellectual, a neuroscientist who has a profound near-death experience. It's different than what you might expect.
So, what's this "life" thing all about if it's all pre-ordained? Consider this possibility: The universe could be an egg. God didn't create the universe, but rather, the universe is in the process of creating God (or something like that). Basically, what Ray Kurzweil says in his book: The Singularity is Near.
Reality is something you rise above - Liza Minnelli
I finally figured out that the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it. - Rita Mae Brown.
"that knowledge of real guns and their effects and consequences is the key to safety and using toy guns diminishes the reality of those consequences"
Yeah, I hear this a lot, being that I sell toy guns and such.
But it sounds a lot like the psychologists of the 60's who warned that Sesame Street would confuse and disturb children because they wouldn't be able to distinguish fantasy (big bird, kermiit) from reality (the human actors). Guess what, the children were smarter than that.
Should I not allow my kids to have toy riding cars, in fear that they might confuse the real car for a toy and take it out for a spin, or not buy my daughter a play kitchen set in fear that she might think the real oven is a toy, and burn down the house, or not let her have dolls, for fear that her little brother might try to rip the heads off of our neighbors?
Kids know what's real, and what's make believe. The toy guns give them an outlet for role play - cops and robbers, star wars - you know, basic social skills like establishing their own rules, getting physical, conflict resolution, etc. And when they start using the toy guns for target practice all on their own, and discover the joys of action at a distance, rudimentary aerodynamics (in the case of the flying projectiles) and the magic of how gravity behaves, well, I see something happening there that just doesn't happen with "action figure" dolls and a plastic play house.
Go hang out at a paintball arena for a while. Talk to the eight year olds and see how "confused" they are about toy guns, paintball markers and real guns. More importantly, watch the amazing interactions between the kids and their parents. I see more mutual inter-generational respect there than just about anywhere.
But, after all that, it's not my intention to change anyone's attitudes or behavior. We're all different, and we all react to situations in our own way, according to our own prejudices and sensitivities. I just want the freedom to be able to raise my kids and provide an environment for them that I think helps them achieve their best potential. And the same for you too. Where our philosophies clash, I hope we can agree to stay out of each other's way rather than try to curtail anyone's freedoms. Don't buy my products - that's fine. But don't tell me we need to ban toy guns or they'll warp our kid's judgement, Or we'll have to ban TV, product packaging (cereal boxes, I'm looking at you!) hell, most toys and books too.
As for the realistic looking toy guns, I agree that as long as there are cops who'd sooner take out a kid than risk the possibility of taking a shot in his flack jacket, then realistic toy guns should be kept out of public play areas. We only use them in our backyard, and as soon as I sell out of my current inventory of realistic-looking toy guns, I plan to discontinue them and only offer the truly, unmistakably *toy* versions. Not because I fear a kid will be confused by them, but because I fear a cop - someone who is trained to use a gun and well practiced at it, might be confused.
Here's some more fun stuff - http://www.ballistictoys.com/
Hear hear!
I remember vividly when I was 5 years old and my parents took me out and taught me to shoot a pistol. It scared the crap out of me! But, I learned to do it and for my whole life (and of my siblings) there have been loaded guns in nightstand drawers and other places. We all knew where they were. We also knew WHAT they were.
Ok, so what. Well, when I was about 8 years old, playing (unsupervised) at a friend's house, he snuck into his parent's room and brought out a handgun for us to play with. I could tell he didn't even know how to hold it. I forget the exact details of what happened next, but I convinced him to put it away and we left the house until a grown-up came home. I'm pretty sure I averted a probable catastrophe that day - all because my parents had taught me how to shoot.
Put away your gut reactions and look at the statistics. Boats are more likely to kill your kids than handguns are. Swimming pools are MUCH more likely to kill a neighborhood kid than a loaded, unlocked handgun in the same house. You wouldn't have a pool in the backyard and not teach your kids how to swim, would you?
I forget the quote- something about freedom and limiting the freedoms of all of us based on the failings of the least of us. It's a good quote if someone can find it.
And, just in case you're wondering, I do not own any handguns or other guns. My kids DO play with toy guns (as do I, with the kids).
Why don't I own a (real) gun? Because I don't like cleaning them mostly. I'd have one if I had a friend who enjoyed target shooting, but I don't (at least not in this state).
But I do LIKE it that some of my neighbors have handguns in their houses, for the same reason that lo-jack works to reduce all the car thefts in a city. If thieves don't know which house has it, they have to assume there's a risk that any house could have it, and that's a significant deterrent. Again with the statistics, look at the violent crime rates in states with tight gun controls, vs. those with liberal gun ownership. No significant difference.
Buy a toy gun for your kids at http://www.backyardartillery.com/
Or get a catapult at http://www.catapultkits.com/
And teach them the science of ballistic motion while you're at it.
We need more people with an understanding of basic physics.