Yep,
If it isn't signed by a certified source your going to be on the wrong end of the stick. Guilty until proved innocent. Hopefully it's a criminal case in which case you will get an appointed lawyer, versus a civil case where you have to pay for your own defense no matter how poor you are.
You can rip very, very, very few movies legally. The DMCA made sure of that. What do you think CSS was invented for if not to give MPAA members the right to protected the media forever, even though the case may be that copyright lasts forever anyway.
Although, I suppose there might be a case for ripping the video/audio stream after an authorized player has decrypted it; however, I'm pretty sure you couldn't raise enough money to fight it in court versus the criminal act of circumventing copy protection. Remember that you will likely sit in jail while any court case happens, since it is criminal not civil court. It doesn't matter what your reasons are for circumventing the copy protection are, even if the product isn't under copyright you still are in violation of the DMCA.
Heh,
Surprised you haven't been called on this yet. Turing complete is a computer that can perform as a universal computer, i.e. it can branch code and change memory. The simplest Turing complete computer and the most complicated whiz-bang computer are the same as to what they can accomplish it's just a matter of speed. Turing completeness is not related to AI.
I think the term you are looking for here is passing the Turing test, which is basically a test where a person cannot tell whether or not they are talking to a computer or another human being over a network connection.
The problem here is that you can fool some of the people some of the time. You don't actually have to have AI to pass the Turing test, not "real" honest to goodness AI that is where the computer actually thinks and comes up with real ideas. That's still a long way off. I don't know if a computer that's passed the Turing test would be able to actually monitor files on the system for copyright violations. Copyright violators are still going to be far smarter than a computer for many years to come.
One of the things that the computer can do if it has control of your system is to screen scrape and whatever the equivalent of doing so to your sound system in order to look for hash matches to copyrighted works. Over on Justin.tv channels are sometimes bumped offline according to the disclaimer because automated software matched a stream playing to a work under copy right. Imagine what would happen if they could run your processor at 60% of capacity all the time just looking for matches.
Remember, they don't care about false positives as long as they can sue and people just roll over and pay them off. Who cares if they phone home about granny stealing the latest issue of this old house if she can't afford to fight them in court.
Anyway, to sum up, computers are Turing complete already, it doesn't have a thing to do with AI, a computer that passes the Turing test still isn't going to be able to stop piracy, but they already have computer programs that can scan what's being transferred over a stream and occasionally catch copyright violations and all they need are a few hits percentage wise to "prove" their system works.
I think your using a poor choice in words. Your saying that go has a simpler rule base than checkers, ie it's easier to determine whether a rule is valid or not, correct? Not the actual strategy and hence wining of the game.
Considering that checkers is a solved game with 10^31 moves. Chess being 10^50 and Go an estimated 10^80 if I recall correctly.
So figuring out a valid move may be easier in Go than in checkers; however, it's the gameplay/strategy that really counts.
The author posted a message earlier in the thread see http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1407545&cid=29773247 where he claims that he was misrepresented and he's redirecting the link. The comments from the google cache seem to indicate this is not true.
Not sure why this person thinks that T1 lines are still expensive. True they do cost more than DSL lines, but I would just like to point out that my T1 line in 2000 cost 1495/mth vs 1750 in 97 or 98 and that nowdays you can get a T1 for around 500/mth which to me seems to be significantly cheaper.
This is in Atlanta, Georgia. Not sure what prices are running in other regions of the country.
Strange that the author seems to think that this is an all or nothing proposition. I've worked with technical managers and non-technical managers in the past and the biggest problem I have found is when non-technical managers try to make technical decisions. The biggest problem seems to be getting managers that know how to manage properly, not whether or not they are technically skilled.
There are different types of managers. A personel manager should be primarily focused on making sure that the technical people under him/her have what they require in order to do their jobs properly. There is also a place for a technical manager to be consulted on technical matters. I believe Cisco uses a form of management that provides two managers one for the business aspect and one for a technical aspect.
I really don't understand that question about being able to pull the wool over the eyes of a manager. Maybe if your working in a job that you hate and don't really like what you are doing this might be acceptable, but personally, hopefully this shouldn't be the norm for anyone, especially technical employees.
There are a number of reasons that many companies try to combine technical and non-technical managers into one person. Cost is one factor, but there are other reasons. Having a straight forward chain of command definately has its points, so that people only have one person to contact means that there will be no crossed wires where one manager is aware of something and the other isn't. Another reason to have just one managers is to provide opportunity for technical employees to move into management. The problem is that while a non-technical manager can go to his/her staff to find out what is required, for a technical manager without non-technical skills going to your technical employees to learn how to manage isn't the greatest idea in the world. After all, they likely don't have any more management skill than the said manager.
For my money, I would rather have a non-technical manager that knows how to set up a 401k and insurance forms for the people under him than to have a technical manager that because of his/her knowledge, thinks that they know better than I do how to get things done. While having a technically superior manager is nice, without the knowledge on how to properly manage they tend to be worthless. I'd rather have a manager that focuses on making sure I have the tools I need to do my job properly, thank you very much.
Basically, it comes down to whether a manager should be facilitating getting the job done or in the case of a technical manager doing the job themselves. As an employee, I would rather have a manager that is focused on spending their time making sure things are running smoothly and running interference with upper management so that I can get my job done. I don't think that they should be spending the majority of their time trying to keep up with technology to the point where they are better than I am at the job, that's the job of a technical lead, not a manager. I don't mind having a manager that is technical, so long as they are doing their management job first and not spending all their time trying to micromanage my technical skills. It's more important for the manager to ask how long and what I need to accomplish my task rather than to have someone tell me what I need and when I will have it done.
It sounds as if you are looking for tricks to make GUI programming easier rather than software engineering practices to build GUI interfaces. It's my opinion that as you program you can come up with your own methods to do that; however, you might want to check out the book "Professional Java user Interfaces" by Mauro Marinilli, Wiley Publishing. It doesn't seem to have many tricks, but does seem to focus on the software engineering aspect of GUI programming.
Make sure to look through the book before purchasing though as I am not certain that this is what you are looking for.
You appear to be a bit off on this. Since glibc is not used in the kernel itself I don't see how glibc is critical to the kernel not to mention the fact that it is under the LGPL and not GPL. As I understand it, the big issue with GPL 3 is the patent protection built into the project and if Novell distributes GPL 3 they are giving their rubberstamping that the software is not patented and is available for distribution. Theoretically, this means that if Microsoft does not prosecute and continues to allow Novell to distribute software under GPL 3, that everyone is granted access to those same patents. The only way for Novell to avoid this will be to use GPL 2 code which means that they will not be able to make use of new software and they also will not be able to backport new code written under GPL 3 to their GPL 2 base. The issue with the FSF is not gcc or even glibc but the fact that a majority of the basic utilities available for linux are owned by FSF. Linux is just the kernel there is a lot of other software that is needed to make a complete operating system.
Just to be clear. Using gcc and glibc does not force you to use a specific license just because you are compiling with gcc. This is specifically stated on the gnu.org website the last time I looked. It's not the compiler that is at issue but the bulk of FSF software packages that are needed in order to provide functionality beyond the kernel.
Re:Does any major site use pure CSS?
on
CSS Cookbook
·
· Score: 1
Nevermind, apparently it takes several minutes for the css to process and come up. Either than or loading external files are taking a long amount of time.
Re:Does any major site use pure CSS?
on
CSS Cookbook
·
· Score: 1
I don't see anyone else mentioning it, but the csszendarden does not render for me. I'm using the latest Foxfire on Linux x86_64. Any clues as to what the problem might be?
Not really commenting on your comments, but wanted to put in a couple of thoughts on the subject.
I wonder, I don't have to have anything illegal in order for me to not want the police to search my vehicle. I have been stopped in the past and had the vehicle searched even when I did not give persmission. I had nothing illegal. I just don't feel that a police state is a good thing. Another thing that pisses me off is the fact that in the name of fighting drunk drivers many police departments set up check points and ask each person passing to give their drivers license and registration. To me this seems to be an illegal search. It's also funny how these checkpoints mainly seem to be near poor housing. I detest it, but I don't see any means of fixing the problem.
As for not detaining you forever, they can take you in for questioning and hold your for 48 hours. Theoretically you have to be given a phone call within 24 hours, but if they transfer you to another facility they figure you can make the phone call from there, even if it takes more than 24 hours for them to transfer you. Meanwhile, a car park alongside the road is a "hazzard" and is towed. Towing fees are typically at least $75 for the tow and $50 a day. Once you are realsed and find out where your car is you owe 3 days rent and the tow $225 dollars. And unless you pay it immediately that number keeps rising. I have lost 2 cars in this manner even though I was able to clear my name. Being poor means that even if you don't do anything wrong, the police can ruin your world.
Nothing really just making a comment. YouTube relies on proprietary code which means that it won't be supported over all versions of Linux.
As to your points. I run 64 bit linux and though I suppose I could drop back to 32 bit browser in order to use false, the fact is that 64 bit browsers have been around since 2003. Flash is proprietary once flash is available I suppose I would have to stick to 32 bit until all plugins were updated to 64 bit. Extending that concept, I might as well be running windows since there are more plugins on Microsoft windows than on linux. Furthermore, what happens if I am not using intel/amd hardware that still leaves a problem.
None-the-less. I am unfamiliar with any method to run 32 bit browser plugins within a 64 bit browser, if you can point me to where I can find that information I would appreciate it. I haven't seen Flash 9 available for 64bit linux but I'll drop by and check it out. Thanks.
Just a brief note. Flash does not work in a 64 bit elf environment last time I checked. Youtube requires flash to view videos or at least it complains that I don't have a modern version of flash and refuses to run video. So I'd have to say that youtube does not run fine on linux.
Thanks for the reply, however section 2 is the one that I am worried about. From the site:
2. How and When You May Use the Passport Network.
We will provide you with credentials on the Passport Network to use with the Passport Network. We provide the Passport Network for your personal use. You may not use the Passport Network for commercial purposes or in a way that is against the law. You may not use any software or hardware that reduces the number of users directly accessing or using the Passport Network (sometimes called "multiplexing" or "pooling" software or hardware). You also may not use it in a way that harms us or our affiliates, resellers, distributors, service providers and/or suppliers (collectively, the "Microsoft Parties"), or any customer of a Microsoft Party. We may tell you about certain specific harmful uses in a code of conduct or other notice available through the Passport Network. We have, however, no duty to do so. You will obey any codes of conduct or other notices we provide.
If you wish to offer the Passport Network to users of your own application, Web site, or Web service, then you must enter into a different contract with Microsoft.
From this statement, if I look at the way their code works and I use that knowledge anywhere else, then I may be "harming" Microsoft or it's affiliates. I don't know what they would consider harm.
Doesn't appear to be a way to get a copy to look at unless you have Passport which seems to require a hotmail account. I don't have time to read a couple of dozen licensing agreements atm and it looks like if I register I'm basically signing a non-compete license with Microsoft. Not really a term that I am willing to agree to. Has anyone gone through the contracts?
The school I currently attend has a 40% graduation rate. However, I find that though the education is okay, a lot of the teachers in the science fields don't know the subjects they are supposed to be teaching.. and failures there have to do more with poor teaching than the quality of the students... I had to take an entry level computer science course and was marked wrong several times due to my answering questions correctly. The ACM/IEEE is the standard I go by, however, the book said things that were completely false at times and it took me a while to understand that no matter what the correct answer was, I had to give the answer the book had.
Note: I brought in "proof" that my answers were correct and the instructor said that ACM and IEEE have nothing to do with computers??? and that my answers were not what the book said and thus were wrong. Thank god the majority of the information in the book was correct...
Note: I think that this is an inconsistant rant.... I'm not able to organize my thoughts on it at the moment.
Ya know, I was just thinking... Currently the school I am attending is going to a new grading system, eg a, a-, b+, b, etc The thing is, in order to maintain a 4.0 gpa you have to be nearly perfect. The pointspread from 4.0 to 3.7 isn't matched by an A+ and will drop the number of students that are able to get 4.0 averages drastically. I generally squeak by with a 90-93% in difficult classes, but it's now highly doubtful that I will get an A in these courses now since the 33% reduction in A range means I will probably have to work 50% more in these classes.
I have to maintain a 3.3 in my classes in order to get into the classes I want. So I have to consider the following...
Taking "easy" courses to boost my gpa to compensate for the A- grades I will now receive... instead of needing 1 A to counteract 2 B's it's now a 1 to 1 ratio.
I can no longer take "hard" courses outside of my field... Why take any non-core classes that are not extremely simple. The reason I don't have a 4.0 at the moment is the fact that I have been taking Chinese, Japanese and Arabic, classes that I do not need, but was taking in order to expand my education. I'm not that great with memorization. Basically, there is no need for me to ever consider taking these courses now since they will hurt my GPA.
Anyway, the whole thing is that the school system forces GPA down the student's throats. For me, since I have "retired" this isn't as bas as it is for new students... I don't have to work anymore and thus have the luxury of taking a minimum of courses when I need to have extra time on a course, however, for students that have to work and are trying to carry more than the minimum number of classes per semester, I don't see where the GPA system is working to further their education.
I know of several schools that allow you to retake the courses until you get an acceptable grade, because the focus is on education and knowledge of the material... However, most schools nowdays seem to focus on GPA to the exclusion of everything else which forces gaming of the system to keep your grades up rather than aquisition of an education. Maybe this is one of the reasons the sciences are failing in this country.... most public schools are focused on grades rather than education...
Slashdot Mirror
http://techdirt.com/articles/20100521/1529489535.shtml
Has a couple of interesting tidbits.
Didn't he already make tenure? They don't take it away once granted do they? Isn't that the point of tenure?
Strange, 3.6.3 here and it finds a history.
Just because something can be misused is not a valid reason for removal. Gotos are useful at times and can make code easier to read.
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1241524
Yep,
If it isn't signed by a certified source your going to be on the wrong end of the stick. Guilty until proved innocent. Hopefully it's a criminal case in which case you will get an appointed lawyer, versus a civil case where you have to pay for your own defense no matter how poor you are.
You can rip very, very, very few movies legally. The DMCA made sure of that. What do you think CSS was invented for if not to give MPAA members the right to protected the media forever, even though the case may be that copyright lasts forever anyway.
Although, I suppose there might be a case for ripping the video/audio stream after an authorized player has decrypted it; however, I'm pretty sure you couldn't raise enough money to fight it in court versus the criminal act of circumventing copy protection. Remember that you will likely sit in jail while any court case happens, since it is criminal not civil court. It doesn't matter what your reasons are for circumventing the copy protection are, even if the product isn't under copyright you still are in violation of the DMCA.
Heh,
Surprised you haven't been called on this yet. Turing complete is a computer that can perform as a universal computer, i.e. it can branch code and change memory. The simplest Turing complete computer and the most complicated whiz-bang computer are the same as to what they can accomplish it's just a matter of speed. Turing completeness is not related to AI.
I think the term you are looking for here is passing the Turing test, which is basically a test where a person cannot tell whether or not they are talking to a computer or another human being over a network connection.
The problem here is that you can fool some of the people some of the time. You don't actually have to have AI to pass the Turing test, not "real" honest to goodness AI that is where the computer actually thinks and comes up with real ideas. That's still a long way off. I don't know if a computer that's passed the Turing test would be able to actually monitor files on the system for copyright violations. Copyright violators are still going to be far smarter than a computer for many years to come.
One of the things that the computer can do if it has control of your system is to screen scrape and whatever the equivalent of doing so to your sound system in order to look for hash matches to copyrighted works. Over on Justin.tv channels are sometimes bumped offline according to the disclaimer because automated software matched a stream playing to a work under copy right. Imagine what would happen if they could run your processor at 60% of capacity all the time just looking for matches.
Remember, they don't care about false positives as long as they can sue and people just roll over and pay them off. Who cares if they phone home about granny stealing the latest issue of this old house if she can't afford to fight them in court.
Anyway, to sum up, computers are Turing complete already, it doesn't have a thing to do with AI, a computer that passes the Turing test still isn't going to be able to stop piracy, but they already have computer programs that can scan what's being transferred over a stream and occasionally catch copyright violations and all they need are a few hits percentage wise to "prove" their system works.
According to the article they don't actually take any money. What happens is they take the credit card information and sell that.
I think your using a poor choice in words. Your saying that go has a simpler rule base than checkers, ie it's easier to determine whether a rule is valid or not, correct? Not the actual strategy and hence wining of the game.
Considering that checkers is a solved game with 10^31 moves. Chess being 10^50 and Go an estimated 10^80 if I recall correctly.
So figuring out a valid move may be easier in Go than in checkers; however, it's the gameplay/strategy that really counts.
How's that?
Website outlook gives a value of around 62k USD http://www.websiteoutlook.com/www.sex.com
The author posted a message earlier in the thread see http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1407545&cid=29773247 where he claims that he was misrepresented and he's redirecting the link. The comments from the google cache seem to indicate this is not true.
Not sure why this person thinks that T1 lines are still expensive. True they do cost more than DSL lines, but I would just like to point out that my T1 line in 2000 cost 1495/mth vs 1750 in 97 or 98 and that nowdays you can get a T1 for around 500/mth which to me seems to be significantly cheaper.
This is in Atlanta, Georgia. Not sure what prices are running in other regions of the country.
Strange that the author seems to think that this is an all or nothing proposition. I've worked with technical managers and non-technical managers in the past and the biggest problem I have found is when non-technical managers try to make technical decisions. The biggest problem seems to be getting managers that know how to manage properly, not whether or not they are technically skilled.
There are different types of managers. A personel manager should be primarily focused on making sure that the technical people under him/her have what they require in order to do their jobs properly. There is also a place for a technical manager to be consulted on technical matters. I believe Cisco uses a form of management that provides two managers one for the business aspect and one for a technical aspect.
I really don't understand that question about being able to pull the wool over the eyes of a manager. Maybe if your working in a job that you hate and don't really like what you are doing this might be acceptable, but personally, hopefully this shouldn't be the norm for anyone, especially technical employees.
There are a number of reasons that many companies try to combine technical and non-technical managers into one person. Cost is one factor, but there are other reasons. Having a straight forward chain of command definately has its points, so that people only have one person to contact means that there will be no crossed wires where one manager is aware of something and the other isn't. Another reason to have just one managers is to provide opportunity for technical employees to move into management. The problem is that while a non-technical manager can go to his/her staff to find out what is required, for a technical manager without non-technical skills going to your technical employees to learn how to manage isn't the greatest idea in the world. After all, they likely don't have any more management skill than the said manager.
For my money, I would rather have a non-technical manager that knows how to set up a 401k and insurance forms for the people under him than to have a technical manager that because of his/her knowledge, thinks that they know better than I do how to get things done. While having a technically superior manager is nice, without the knowledge on how to properly manage they tend to be worthless. I'd rather have a manager that focuses on making sure I have the tools I need to do my job properly, thank you very much.
Basically, it comes down to whether a manager should be facilitating getting the job done or in the case of a technical manager doing the job themselves. As an employee, I would rather have a manager that is focused on spending their time making sure things are running smoothly and running interference with upper management so that I can get my job done. I don't think that they should be spending the majority of their time trying to keep up with technology to the point where they are better than I am at the job, that's the job of a technical lead, not a manager. I don't mind having a manager that is technical, so long as they are doing their management job first and not spending all their time trying to micromanage my technical skills. It's more important for the manager to ask how long and what I need to accomplish my task rather than to have someone tell me what I need and when I will have it done.
Just my two cents,
Lando
It sounds as if you are looking for tricks to make GUI programming easier rather than software engineering practices to build GUI interfaces. It's my opinion that as you program you can come up with your own methods to do that; however, you might want to check out the book "Professional Java user Interfaces" by Mauro Marinilli, Wiley Publishing. It doesn't seem to have many tricks, but does seem to focus on the software engineering aspect of GUI programming.
Make sure to look through the book before purchasing though as I am not certain that this is what you are looking for.
Lando
You appear to be a bit off on this. Since glibc is not used in the kernel itself I don't see how glibc is critical to the kernel not to mention the fact that it is under the LGPL and not GPL. As I understand it, the big issue with GPL 3 is the patent protection built into the project and if Novell distributes GPL 3 they are giving their rubberstamping that the software is not patented and is available for distribution. Theoretically, this means that if Microsoft does not prosecute and continues to allow Novell to distribute software under GPL 3, that everyone is granted access to those same patents. The only way for Novell to avoid this will be to use GPL 2 code which means that they will not be able to make use of new software and they also will not be able to backport new code written under GPL 3 to their GPL 2 base. The issue with the FSF is not gcc or even glibc but the fact that a majority of the basic utilities available for linux are owned by FSF. Linux is just the kernel there is a lot of other software that is needed to make a complete operating system.
Just to be clear. Using gcc and glibc does not force you to use a specific license just because you are compiling with gcc. This is specifically stated on the gnu.org website the last time I looked. It's not the compiler that is at issue but the bulk of FSF software packages that are needed in order to provide functionality beyond the kernel.
Nevermind, apparently it takes several minutes for the css to process and come up. Either than or loading external files are taking a long amount of time.
I don't see anyone else mentioning it, but the csszendarden does not render for me. I'm using the latest Foxfire on Linux x86_64. Any clues as to what the problem might be?
Not really commenting on your comments, but wanted to put in a couple of thoughts on the subject.
I wonder, I don't have to have anything illegal in order for me to not want the police to search my vehicle. I have been stopped in the past and had the vehicle searched even when I did not give persmission. I had nothing illegal. I just don't feel that a police state is a good thing. Another thing that pisses me off is the fact that in the name of fighting drunk drivers many police departments set up check points and ask each person passing to give their drivers license and registration. To me this seems to be an illegal search. It's also funny how these checkpoints mainly seem to be near poor housing. I detest it, but I don't see any means of fixing the problem.
As for not detaining you forever, they can take you in for questioning and hold your for 48 hours. Theoretically you have to be given a phone call within 24 hours, but if they transfer you to another facility they figure you can make the phone call from there, even if it takes more than 24 hours for them to transfer you. Meanwhile, a car park alongside the road is a "hazzard" and is towed. Towing fees are typically at least $75 for the tow and $50 a day. Once you are realsed and find out where your car is you owe 3 days rent and the tow $225 dollars. And unless you pay it immediately that number keeps rising. I have lost 2 cars in this manner even though I was able to clear my name. Being poor means that even if you don't do anything wrong, the police can ruin your world.
Nothing really just making a comment. YouTube relies on proprietary code which means that it won't be supported over all versions of Linux.
As to your points. I run 64 bit linux and though I suppose I could drop back to 32 bit browser in order to use false, the fact is that 64 bit browsers have been around since 2003. Flash is proprietary once flash is available I suppose I would have to stick to 32 bit until all plugins were updated to 64 bit. Extending that concept, I might as well be running windows since there are more plugins on Microsoft windows than on linux. Furthermore, what happens if I am not using intel/amd hardware that still leaves a problem.
None-the-less. I am unfamiliar with any method to run 32 bit browser plugins within a 64 bit browser, if you can point me to where I can find that information I would appreciate it. I haven't seen Flash 9 available for 64bit linux but I'll drop by and check it out. Thanks.
Just a brief note. Flash does not work in a 64 bit elf environment last time I checked. Youtube requires flash to view videos or at least it complains that I don't have a modern version of flash and refuses to run video. So I'd have to say that youtube does not run fine on linux.
From this statement, if I look at the way their code works and I use that knowledge anywhere else, then I may be "harming" Microsoft or it's affiliates. I don't know what they would consider harm.
Doesn't appear to be a way to get a copy to look at unless you have Passport which seems to require a hotmail account. I don't have time to read a couple of dozen licensing agreements atm and it looks like if I register I'm basically signing a non-compete license with Microsoft. Not really a term that I am willing to agree to. Has anyone gone through the contracts?
The school I currently attend has a 40% graduation rate. However, I find that though the education is okay, a lot of the teachers in the science fields don't know the subjects they are supposed to be teaching.. and failures there have to do more with poor teaching than the quality of the students... I had to take an entry level computer science course and was marked wrong several times due to my answering questions correctly. The ACM/IEEE is the standard I go by, however, the book said things that were completely false at times and it took me a while to understand that no matter what the correct answer was, I had to give the answer the book had.
Note: I brought in "proof" that my answers were correct and the instructor said that ACM and IEEE have nothing to do with computers??? and that my answers were not what the book said and thus were wrong. Thank god the majority of the information in the book was correct...
Note: I think that this is an inconsistant rant.... I'm not able to organize my thoughts on it at the moment.
Ya know, I was just thinking... Currently the school I am attending is going to a new grading system, eg a, a-, b+, b, etc
The thing is, in order to maintain a 4.0 gpa you have to be nearly perfect. The pointspread from 4.0 to 3.7 isn't matched by an A+ and will drop the number of students that are able to get 4.0 averages drastically. I generally squeak by with a 90-93% in difficult classes, but it's now highly doubtful that I will get an A in these courses now since the 33% reduction in A range means I will probably have to work 50% more in these classes.
I have to maintain a 3.3 in my classes in order to get into the classes I want.
So I have to consider the following...
Taking "easy" courses to boost my gpa to compensate for the A- grades I will now receive... instead of needing 1 A to counteract 2 B's it's now a 1 to 1 ratio.
I can no longer take "hard" courses outside of my field... Why take any non-core classes that are not extremely simple. The reason I don't have a 4.0 at the moment is the fact that I have been taking Chinese, Japanese and Arabic, classes that I do not need, but was taking in order to expand my education. I'm not that great with memorization. Basically, there is no need for me to ever consider taking these courses now since they will hurt my GPA.
Anyway, the whole thing is that the school system forces GPA down the student's throats. For me, since I have "retired" this isn't as bas as it is for new students... I don't have to work anymore and thus have the luxury of taking a minimum of courses when I need to have extra time on a course, however, for students that have to work and are trying to carry more than the minimum number of classes per semester, I don't see where the GPA system is working to further their education.
I know of several schools that allow you to retake the courses until you get an acceptable grade, because the focus is on education and knowledge of the material... However, most schools nowdays seem to focus on GPA to the exclusion of everything else which forces gaming of the system to keep your grades up rather than aquisition of an education. Maybe this is one of the reasons the sciences are failing in this country.... most public schools are focused on grades rather than education...
I don't know, just ranting a bit I guess.
Lando