So let's say they solve the problem of it looking like some kid made it in shop class, you still have the really big problem of all the space needed behind the desk for the projecting. Granted the picture with the article might not be drawn to scale, but it looks like it would take about 1/2 the floor space in my cubicle and that I would also lose two of my wall shelves, definitely not a trade I would consider making...
You can see the original presentation the article is based on here (so you are looking at the original not a summary of a summary):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLqjQ55tz-U
The section with this data starts at 6:18 and ends around 7:50.
The higher break up period was actually during summer break not spring break - so college students not managing to keep long distance relationships going over the summer seems like a reasonable supposition...
There was also a peak around April Fools Day - wonder if that was from bad jokes causing break ups or if the break up was the bad joke?
I think that you couldn't be more wrong - at least at the point where kids get taught physics as a separate class (generally at the high school level). Especially since you seem to think all computers can do is simulations. There are three main types of learners - folks who need to see stuff, folks who need to hear stuff, and folks that need to do stuff in order to really grasp a topic. Having computers in your classrooms can really help visual and kinesthetic learners.
I have a hard time visualizing 3D math based problems. I think that if some of the SAS software that is available today had been available when I was taking calculus I wouldn't have had nearly the problems imaging rotating formulas around an axis. About the only physics I was able to grasp were ones where we had done real life experiments like putting together race cars as a team and then using computers with peripherals that tracked velocity and speed and such. Even in less math based classes like chemistry we used temperature probes that plugged into computers and then we did all sorts of manipulation of the data. I got then when an exothermic reaction was. I might not have been using exactly the same equipment I would a year or two later in college but I have to say I was still ahead of the curve and wasn't at all intimidated by the equipment we did use. Then a couple of years later on the job the same was true again. (And some of the equipment hasn't changed that much, for instance pH meters and DO probes are still fairly similar to how they were 15 years ago or so when I used them in class.) When it came time to looking at an excel spread with thousands of data points that needed to be manipulated, I was finishing early and helping classmates in my physics labs. Granted I was lucky enough to be at a great high school (shout out here to all the Roanoke Valley Govenerds - I know there must be some of you on here) where the computers were truly integrated into the lessons for data gathering, manipulations, etc., but learning theory through experience can be really important for some types of learners - like me.
With how the fields of science and math are now, what you are saying is analogous to telling computer and programming teachers that they should teach theory only until programmers try to get jobs because the in vogue programming language of the day changes so quickly and those pesky computers are just going to get in the way of learning the theory. I'm not a programmer but even so I can only imagine what my boss would have said if I told him I hadn't used any of the software before coming to work here (I suspect I wouldn't have gotten hired and that he wouldn't be my boss right now).
If you read the summary - it doesn't say per song SHARED - it says per a song DOWNLOADED. In other words, if I downloaded a song and then didn't share it with anyone else, we are still talking $750.
Since when was a posting on/. considered to to be "formal style?" I think internet discussion boards are pretty much generally considered "nonstandard speech or casual writing."
As much as the editor in me hates to say it, correcting someone on a site like this about grammar or spelling pretty much just makes you look like an ass who can't come up with a good argument against their idea and has to resort to attacking how they stated the idea instead. This rule, of course, does not apply if the person is pretentious (for example trying to use too many big words they don't exactly understand or can't spell) on top of being wrong. Then slamming grammar mistakes after smacking his/her argument down is just icing on the cake.:)
I really, really wish I had mod points to give you. What you said is ever so true. You can't expect to get a good idea of all the facets of any issue from just one source anymore. If nothing else, it is interesting to keep an eye on which groups are pushing what ideas. For example, I am always fascinated by the differences between what CNN thinks are the top US stories versus the BBC...
That was my first thought too - I was trying to figure out if the table top could be raised along one long edge like one of those artist's boards. (Additionally it would be neat if they could switch what side was up - which it maybe does, didn't watch the whole video to behonest...) That would be really cool!
Just some random thought but it has always been interesting to me that we worry about protecting ourselves from the environment we go to but we don't worry about protecting that environment from ourselves. People worry about touching rock formations in a cave but we think nothing of leaving footsteps on the moon (well at least urban legend claims are still there). Also - do we worry about an exchange of "germs," for lack of a better word? Germs say from the outside of a space suit or equipment? I know it sounds like bad sci-fi but history has shown us repeatedly that when two diverse environments interact the exchanges aren't always positive. I would hate for the first astronaut to mars to bring back the viral equivalent of the bubonic plague for instance...
Actually - I don't think they have the right to just reject certain types of businesses. It is called discrimination. What if they were basing who they rejected on something like the personal characteristics of the owner of the company - for example what if they decide they won't work with people who are homosexual, Jewish, Muslim, or have their hair dyed or have body piercings? I don't agree with them, but some people think that being homosexual is immoral... How is imposing you own personal opinions about that any different than those against essay writing companies? There is a huge difference between what is legal and what is moral. Upholding laws is one thing, discriminating based on your own opinions is another. It would be interesting to see what happened if the essay writing companies tried suing Google for discrimination over this.
Now - if you can prove to me that Peterson knew this and was trying to get around it, then I might consider it "stealing." However, that information was not supplied in the article. For all we know, he was connecting to something called freewifi and didn't even know which business/building was providing it or why. Lots of areas have wifi provided free just for being in a specific area (usually provided by municipalities) how was he to know that this wasn't the case here?
To throw out another analogy - a lot of grocery stores have free samples sitting out. They don't say free samples only if you are going to buy something. Businesses do things like give away balloons, hot dogs, cookies, raffling off cars - whatever - to try and get people to just come to their place of business. In many cases - these things are not provided to only paying customers. Unless when he connected to the wifi it said "This is for paying customers of store X only. Please come get some coffee." I have problems with claiming he stole this or even that he should have known that it was for paying customers of the store.
It doesn't say they pay or get disconneced for getting a letter but for failing to respond to it. It doesn't even say that you couldn't respond by telling them to kiss you ass... That said, the school probably wouldn't appreciate that and I can see a student having to spend way too much time trying to deal with an avalanche of these letters (what if they start sending you a letter for each song/movie they think you illegally downloaded?).
By that argument we wouldn't ever be able to test scientifically! IE Well we can't use this medication, we have only tested it people from one planet. But we don't say that - we look at the data for what we are trying to fix, whether it is the people on the planet or the planet itself. It makes perfect sense to do the same thing with climate change. Also, have you EVER played with a climate model? You feed it data and it does a prediction which means that you can actually retroactively test it out... Feed it data up to a certain point, say 2006 and see how well it predicts 2007... we have data already for long periods of time - ice cores, petrified trees, fossils. Do you want us to "tests lots of cases... over long periods of time" just so that we can study it longer and not have to do anything? That is such a politicians way out so they don't have to do anything about an issue. "We need to study it more." I don't see why it is so hard to say: "Carbon inputted into the atmosphere affects the entire atmospheric system. We might not understand all of the processes exactly but we should try not to fuck up a natural system that is working and allowing us to live. It also makes sense because oil is so expensive, maybe we should look into alternatives." Why is that such an impossible thing for us to do?
The article didn't say that the judge was incapable of understanding an explanation of what a website was -- which would imply stupidity. It said that he admitted he didn't understand terms that they were using and taking for granted that he understood. His admitting a lack of knowledge shows only ignorance and the common sense to own up to it. Ignorance can be remedied (and from the sounds of the article the judge was working on it even if he wasn't getting it quickly) while stupidity cannot be.
My father is a lawyer and I am always amazed at the esoteric crap that he knows because of the cases he ends up with. There is no way that a judge could possibly be an expert in every area that comes to trial. It is part of the lawyers job to bring in expert witnesses to educate the judge and the jury to the extent needed to make sure that they understand enough to rule on the case. I personally have no problem with a judge admitting to a lack of understanding of a topic that is full of highly technical jargon. I vastly prefer it to him or her making an uneducated decision.
I don't disagree with what you say, it SHOULD be illegal to do that but I also think that people should think about what they are doing. If it is a FREE credit report why are you asked to supply billing information like a CREDIT CARD NUMBER? That should make you stop to think - hmm if this is free why are they asking for information to charge me? As you say, laws regarding this are a joke and this kind of thing is rampant. People should therefore be on the lookout for it. You always have to read the fine print to make sure that your money saving strategy doesn't end up costing you. As the old saying goes, if a deal seems to good to be true then it probably is.
Well - all I have to say is that every two and three year old I have watched required at least 80% of my attention 100% of the time they were awake just to make sure that they didn't kill themselves. (Kids that age are walking suicide machines - they haven't yet learned fear. They love to jump on and off things and are very tactile and orally fixated which leads to jumping off steps, fingers in electrical sockets, or the wrong thing in their mouth, etc. In addition, they are extremely curious and have short attention spans.) Even after they grow out of this stage, it isn't just a matter of keeping them safe. It is also about raising them to have good morals, teaching them how to think critically, how to be a good friend - relate to others - have social skills, how to read - ride a bike - drive a car - have good hygiene. All of the million things they need to know not to be one of the obnoxious members of society that we meet everyday.
So - not only do you have to keep your kids safe and teach them all of the skills they will need in life but you have to do it without going insane because they ask you "Why?" a million times, have fights with each other, occasionally seem like ungrateful brats, you are bored and can't get out to do something for yourself, or because you are just dying for some adult conversation that doesn't revolve around Barney/teletubies/winkies/whatever the heck obnoxious show your kid fell in love with. You have to deal with putting your professional life on hold and putting them first while having people with attitudes like yours stating that what you are doing isn't hard. On top of this - you can't quit, there are no sick days, your hours are 24/7, the pay non-existent, and the "other jobs as required" portion of the job tends to include tasks that no one else wants to do (changing diapers, cleaning up all sorts of bodily fluids, cleaning, cooking, chauffeuring, etc.), that you might not feel qualified for (professional organizer, group leader, counselor/therapist, teacher, security specialist, doctor, etc.) and that you will likely receive little to no recognition for unless they are left undone.
If all of that isn't a full time job, then I don't know what is. I am also far more terrified by the prospect of not going a good job raising the next generation well than I am by anything I have ever encountered at work. There is no doubt in my mind that parenting is one of the hardest jobs there is to do well.
Actually, my understanding is that most companies won't let you telecommute if your main reason for doing it is to stay home with your kids. They think that you then spend a lot of your caring for your kids instead of actually working. From past experience I can state that taking care of kids is a full time job - don't know that I could work also...
Read all previous comments before posting insults like this - several people asked what could be done to help and someone else posted contact information so that/.ers could let the school board know what they think.
You know, my science teacher used to always say that a correlation does not necessarily mean cause and effect. That thought applies here. For all we know, maybe people who are more likely to be violent just also happen to like simulated video game violence... that doesn't mean that video games actually cause violence...
My family used to live in Virginia and my younger brother got suspended from high school, and somehow also got a police record, for recreating a scene from counterstrike in his computer animation class- all because he drew a picture of a bomb. He had finished his classwork and was just playing around working on a project of his own. What kills me is that his teacher and the school DARE officer - who was also my brother's cross country coach - both knew my brother pretty well and knew he was a good kid. There was no rule against him drawing a bomb and he still got suspended. My Dad is a lawyer and knew all the right things to do and it didn't help any. Both my parents were super pissed about the situation. I can't believe that shit like this happens.
For gods sake it isn't that big of a deal!! It is called recycling! Every state I have lived in or visited family in has had this (FL, VA, SC, NC, MD, and NY) And not only in homes, heck they even have it at schools, offices, and in some public places. At home, you put paper/magazines/newspapers in one bin that you keep next to your desk. Then instead of one big trash can in the kitchen you have two smaller ones - glass/metal/plastic goes in one and everything else not hazardous in the other. Then you have one pickup day for recycling and one for trash. You have to carry one more bin out on one of the days but since neither weighs too much it isn't a big deal. Even in the communities where there wasn't curb pickup there was always a place you could take you recyclables yourself.
And yes, in business settings - you can get payed for your recycling. Different items get different rates and you can also get a reduction in how much you pay total for your trash being taken away.
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So let's say they solve the problem of it looking like some kid made it in shop class, you still have the really big problem of all the space needed behind the desk for the projecting. Granted the picture with the article might not be drawn to scale, but it looks like it would take about 1/2 the floor space in my cubicle and that I would also lose two of my wall shelves, definitely not a trade I would consider making...
You can see the original presentation the article is based on here (so you are looking at the original not a summary of a summary): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLqjQ55tz-U
The section with this data starts at 6:18 and ends around 7:50.
The higher break up period was actually during summer break not spring break - so college students not managing to keep long distance relationships going over the summer seems like a reasonable supposition...
There was also a peak around April Fools Day - wonder if that was from bad jokes causing break ups or if the break up was the bad joke?
I think that you couldn't be more wrong - at least at the point where kids get taught physics as a separate class (generally at the high school level). Especially since you seem to think all computers can do is simulations. There are three main types of learners - folks who need to see stuff, folks who need to hear stuff, and folks that need to do stuff in order to really grasp a topic. Having computers in your classrooms can really help visual and kinesthetic learners.
I have a hard time visualizing 3D math based problems. I think that if some of the SAS software that is available today had been available when I was taking calculus I wouldn't have had nearly the problems imaging rotating formulas around an axis. About the only physics I was able to grasp were ones where we had done real life experiments like putting together race cars as a team and then using computers with peripherals that tracked velocity and speed and such. Even in less math based classes like chemistry we used temperature probes that plugged into computers and then we did all sorts of manipulation of the data. I got then when an exothermic reaction was. I might not have been using exactly the same equipment I would a year or two later in college but I have to say I was still ahead of the curve and wasn't at all intimidated by the equipment we did use. Then a couple of years later on the job the same was true again. (And some of the equipment hasn't changed that much, for instance pH meters and DO probes are still fairly similar to how they were 15 years ago or so when I used them in class.) When it came time to looking at an excel spread with thousands of data points that needed to be manipulated, I was finishing early and helping classmates in my physics labs. Granted I was lucky enough to be at a great high school (shout out here to all the Roanoke Valley Govenerds - I know there must be some of you on here) where the computers were truly integrated into the lessons for data gathering, manipulations, etc., but learning theory through experience can be really important for some types of learners - like me.
With how the fields of science and math are now, what you are saying is analogous to telling computer and programming teachers that they should teach theory only until programmers try to get jobs because the in vogue programming language of the day changes so quickly and those pesky computers are just going to get in the way of learning the theory. I'm not a programmer but even so I can only imagine what my boss would have said if I told him I hadn't used any of the software before coming to work here (I suspect I wouldn't have gotten hired and that he wouldn't be my boss right now).
If you read the summary - it doesn't say per song SHARED - it says per a song DOWNLOADED. In other words, if I downloaded a song and then didn't share it with anyone else, we are still talking $750.
Since when was a posting on /. considered to to be "formal style?" I think internet discussion boards are pretty much generally considered "nonstandard speech or casual writing."
:)
As much as the editor in me hates to say it, correcting someone on a site like this about grammar or spelling pretty much just makes you look like an ass who can't come up with a good argument against their idea and has to resort to attacking how they stated the idea instead. This rule, of course, does not apply if the person is pretentious (for example trying to use too many big words they don't exactly understand or can't spell) on top of being wrong. Then slamming grammar mistakes after smacking his/her argument down is just icing on the cake.
I really, really wish I had mod points to give you. What you said is ever so true. You can't expect to get a good idea of all the facets of any issue from just one source anymore. If nothing else, it is interesting to keep an eye on which groups are pushing what ideas. For example, I am always fascinated by the differences between what CNN thinks are the top US stories versus the BBC...
That was my first thought too - I was trying to figure out if the table top could be raised along one long edge like one of those artist's boards. (Additionally it would be neat if they could switch what side was up - which it maybe does, didn't watch the whole video to behonest...) That would be really cool!
Thanks for for the information. That is pretty cool. Glad to know that they thought of it!
Just some random thought but it has always been interesting to me that we worry about protecting ourselves from the environment we go to but we don't worry about protecting that environment from ourselves. People worry about touching rock formations in a cave but we think nothing of leaving footsteps on the moon (well at least urban legend claims are still there). Also - do we worry about an exchange of "germs," for lack of a better word? Germs say from the outside of a space suit or equipment? I know it sounds like bad sci-fi but history has shown us repeatedly that when two diverse environments interact the exchanges aren't always positive. I would hate for the first astronaut to mars to bring back the viral equivalent of the bubonic plague for instance...
Actually - I don't think they have the right to just reject certain types of businesses. It is called discrimination. What if they were basing who they rejected on something like the personal characteristics of the owner of the company - for example what if they decide they won't work with people who are homosexual, Jewish, Muslim, or have their hair dyed or have body piercings? I don't agree with them, but some people think that being homosexual is immoral... How is imposing you own personal opinions about that any different than those against essay writing companies? There is a huge difference between what is legal and what is moral. Upholding laws is one thing, discriminating based on your own opinions is another. It would be interesting to see what happened if the essay writing companies tried suing Google for discrimination over this.
Now - if you can prove to me that Peterson knew this and was trying to get around it, then I might consider it "stealing." However, that information was not supplied in the article. For all we know, he was connecting to something called freewifi and didn't even know which business/building was providing it or why. Lots of areas have wifi provided free just for being in a specific area (usually provided by municipalities) how was he to know that this wasn't the case here?
To throw out another analogy - a lot of grocery stores have free samples sitting out. They don't say free samples only if you are going to buy something. Businesses do things like give away balloons, hot dogs, cookies, raffling off cars - whatever - to try and get people to just come to their place of business. In many cases - these things are not provided to only paying customers. Unless when he connected to the wifi it said "This is for paying customers of store X only. Please come get some coffee." I have problems with claiming he stole this or even that he should have known that it was for paying customers of the store.
Too bad for him his last name wasn't Hilton - then he could have gotten his sentence reduced just for showing up in court!
It doesn't say they pay or get disconneced for getting a letter but for failing to respond to it. It doesn't even say that you couldn't respond by telling them to kiss you ass... That said, the school probably wouldn't appreciate that and I can see a student having to spend way too much time trying to deal with an avalanche of these letters (what if they start sending you a letter for each song/movie they think you illegally downloaded?).
They do - when you get a drug test done it also generally tests alcohol levels.
By that argument we wouldn't ever be able to test scientifically! IE Well we can't use this medication, we have only tested it people from one planet. But we don't say that - we look at the data for what we are trying to fix, whether it is the people on the planet or the planet itself. It makes perfect sense to do the same thing with climate change. Also, have you EVER played with a climate model? You feed it data and it does a prediction which means that you can actually retroactively test it out... Feed it data up to a certain point, say 2006 and see how well it predicts 2007... we have data already for long periods of time - ice cores, petrified trees, fossils. Do you want us to "tests lots of cases ... over long periods of time" just so that we can study it longer and not have to do anything? That is such a politicians way out so they don't have to do anything about an issue. "We need to study it more." I don't see why it is so hard to say: "Carbon inputted into the atmosphere affects the entire atmospheric system. We might not understand all of the processes exactly but we should try not to fuck up a natural system that is working and allowing us to live. It also makes sense because oil is so expensive, maybe we should look into alternatives." Why is that such an impossible thing for us to do?
That is what expert witnesses are for. They are experts that are paid to explain facts to the judges and the jury as part of the court case.
The article didn't say that the judge was incapable of understanding an explanation of what a website was -- which would imply stupidity. It said that he admitted he didn't understand terms that they were using and taking for granted that he understood. His admitting a lack of knowledge shows only ignorance and the common sense to own up to it. Ignorance can be remedied (and from the sounds of the article the judge was working on it even if he wasn't getting it quickly) while stupidity cannot be.
My father is a lawyer and I am always amazed at the esoteric crap that he knows because of the cases he ends up with. There is no way that a judge could possibly be an expert in every area that comes to trial. It is part of the lawyers job to bring in expert witnesses to educate the judge and the jury to the extent needed to make sure that they understand enough to rule on the case. I personally have no problem with a judge admitting to a lack of understanding of a topic that is full of highly technical jargon. I vastly prefer it to him or her making an uneducated decision.
I don't disagree with what you say, it SHOULD be illegal to do that but I also think that people should think about what they are doing. If it is a FREE credit report why are you asked to supply billing information like a CREDIT CARD NUMBER? That should make you stop to think - hmm if this is free why are they asking for information to charge me? As you say, laws regarding this are a joke and this kind of thing is rampant. People should therefore be on the lookout for it. You always have to read the fine print to make sure that your money saving strategy doesn't end up costing you. As the old saying goes, if a deal seems to good to be true then it probably is.
Well - all I have to say is that every two and three year old I have watched required at least 80% of my attention 100% of the time they were awake just to make sure that they didn't kill themselves. (Kids that age are walking suicide machines - they haven't yet learned fear. They love to jump on and off things and are very tactile and orally fixated which leads to jumping off steps, fingers in electrical sockets, or the wrong thing in their mouth, etc. In addition, they are extremely curious and have short attention spans.) Even after they grow out of this stage, it isn't just a matter of keeping them safe. It is also about raising them to have good morals, teaching them how to think critically, how to be a good friend - relate to others - have social skills, how to read - ride a bike - drive a car - have good hygiene. All of the million things they need to know not to be one of the obnoxious members of society that we meet everyday.
So - not only do you have to keep your kids safe and teach them all of the skills they will need in life but you have to do it without going insane because they ask you "Why?" a million times, have fights with each other, occasionally seem like ungrateful brats, you are bored and can't get out to do something for yourself, or because you are just dying for some adult conversation that doesn't revolve around Barney/teletubies/winkies/whatever the heck obnoxious show your kid fell in love with. You have to deal with putting your professional life on hold and putting them first while having people with attitudes like yours stating that what you are doing isn't hard. On top of this - you can't quit, there are no sick days, your hours are 24/7, the pay non-existent, and the "other jobs as required" portion of the job tends to include tasks that no one else wants to do (changing diapers, cleaning up all sorts of bodily fluids, cleaning, cooking, chauffeuring, etc.), that you might not feel qualified for (professional organizer, group leader, counselor/therapist, teacher, security specialist, doctor, etc.) and that you will likely receive little to no recognition for unless they are left undone.
If all of that isn't a full time job, then I don't know what is. I am also far more terrified by the prospect of not going a good job raising the next generation well than I am by anything I have ever encountered at work. There is no doubt in my mind that parenting is one of the hardest jobs there is to do well.
Actually, my understanding is that most companies won't let you telecommute if your main reason for doing it is to stay home with your kids. They think that you then spend a lot of your caring for your kids instead of actually working. From past experience I can state that taking care of kids is a full time job - don't know that I could work also...
Read all previous comments before posting insults like this - several people asked what could be done to help and someone else posted contact information so that /.ers could let the school board know what they think.
We did archery at my high school. :)
You know, my science teacher used to always say that a correlation does not necessarily mean cause and effect. That thought applies here. For all we know, maybe people who are more likely to be violent just also happen to like simulated video game violence... that doesn't mean that video games actually cause violence...
My family used to live in Virginia and my younger brother got suspended from high school, and somehow also got a police record, for recreating a scene from counterstrike in his computer animation class- all because he drew a picture of a bomb. He had finished his classwork and was just playing around working on a project of his own. What kills me is that his teacher and the school DARE officer - who was also my brother's cross country coach - both knew my brother pretty well and knew he was a good kid. There was no rule against him drawing a bomb and he still got suspended. My Dad is a lawyer and knew all the right things to do and it didn't help any. Both my parents were super pissed about the situation. I can't believe that shit like this happens.
For gods sake it isn't that big of a deal!! It is called recycling! Every state I have lived in or visited family in has had this (FL, VA, SC, NC, MD, and NY) And not only in homes, heck they even have it at schools, offices, and in some public places.
At home, you put paper/magazines/newspapers in one bin that you keep next to your desk. Then instead of one big trash can in the kitchen you have two smaller ones - glass/metal/plastic goes in one and everything else not hazardous in the other. Then you have one pickup day for recycling and one for trash. You have to carry one more bin out on one of the days but since neither weighs too much it isn't a big deal. Even in the communities where there wasn't curb pickup there was always a place you could take you recyclables yourself.
And yes, in business settings - you can get payed for your recycling. Different items get different rates and you can also get a reduction in how much you pay total for your trash being taken away.