Everyone cannot be Einstein, nor can everyone be Crichton.
Wow. You had a chance to really make a statement, then blew it. You could have said [Emily] Dickenson, Poe, Emerson, Shakespeare, Keats, Dickens, or any number of others blessed to pen profound and prominent prose, but instead you picked a mediocre (but rich) author.
You could have picked political and religous leaders like Martin Luther, John Wycliff, Winston Churchill, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or even JFK and FDR.
I have to agree. After reading the linked articles (gasp!), I saw very little difference between the two lists. The author is creating "exclusive ors" where there aren't any. "Big" doesn't mean "not lean," "passionate" doesn't mean "not grade A," and "customer focus" does not exclude "shareholder focus."
When we're dealing with broad-brush ideas, comparing symantic differences is a bit silly.
The government already has your SSN, your mother's maiden name, and just about every piece of information someone would need to impersonate you.
Yup. But they still can't seem to run some data integrity checks to see how many addresses/salaries/drivers licenses/whatever are associated with each SSN, and take a closer look at those flagged as possible fraud. The list would be huge, but add enough parameters, and it gets more managable. Law enforcement is currently reactive, acting only following consumer complaints. From conversations with a former state CIO, it seems that while these databases exist, few, if any, are tied together in a useful way.
And a big thumbs down to the military for using SSN as its primary identifier, which means it's on just about every paper one signs in the military, and is effectively available to thousands of people.
Yuck. The main body text is in a sans-serif font. Hard to read.
'Tis one of those "usability" things.
For small-size text at high resolutions (e.g. printed pages), serifed fonts have been proven easier to read. At lower resolutions (e.g. most computer screens) research shows sans-serifed fonts are easier to read.
How many people have theft insurance on their laptop? How many want to spend the extra cash on it? Not I, and not many people I know of.
More people than you realize already have this type of coverage. Many types of homeowner's insurance cover property theft, whether or not it occurred at home. Renter's insurance is a good value at only $10 to $12 (USD) per month for $10K to $20K of coverage and may also cover this scenario; the cost is minimal, but the benefit is potentially significant. YMMV.
Not enough people understand the benefits of renter's unsurance (a lack of financial education in the general population); those same people go on to not understand their homowner policy either.
Minors should be able to view what they please, but parents should be the ones responsible for stopping them from viewing things they don't wish for their young ones to view.
I don't see how your rant is in conflict with commercial filters. A parent (or a minor!) can purchase the filter for use on home computers. Responsible parents may choose to employ such filters.
Despite the summary text, discussion of federal involvement isn't terribly relevant to the article. But since you brought it up... I support federal involvement in a non-censoring manner, such as adult-content domains (.xxx), HTTP headers, or meta tags. Even a voluntary community standard would be helpful. Solutions like these do not infringe on the free-speech rights of providers, but allow those wishing to prevent certain content (racism, sexuality, violence, etc.) the ability to more easily filter the content their children may see.
As a parent, I'm glad good tools exist. I can keep my kids out of adult video stores, but I can't prevent them (or me) from fat-fingering a URL.
Federal involvement won't solve the issue given the international scope of the internet, but it is a step in the right direction. Once a standard exists at a broad base, it may be easier to encourage voluntary compliance for international organizations.
An interesting solution might be to use third-party tagging (e.g. del.icio.us) in a filtering algorithm.
Yeah, but the point is, so far there isn't an anti-CAPTCHA tool that can automatically guess any CAPTCHA, ever.
Actually the first viable CAPTCHA "script" was not an image detection algorithm, but a distributed social engineering solution--using humans to solve CAPTCHAs under false pretenses. (e.g. entry to pr0n sites) That's about as effective as it gets.
If $75K sounds like a lot, understand the area has a high cost of living (about 20% higher than the national average), or compared to my area, about 35% more expensive.
The COL figures are lower than what I expected, however. Housing is extremely costly anywhere close to the Microsoft campus (less than 40-minute commute), with comparable houses in Bellevue/Redmond selling for more than twice what they do in my local area.
From the MS employees I spoke with (about 10 years ago, when I lived in the area), the real plus of working for MS was not the salary, which was average/below-average for the area, but the benefits (drinks, food, company store, activities, etc. in addition to what we often consider to be benefits, like 401K, options, health, etc.).
Now also consider that they work 10 Months out of the year for 10 hours a day. So that is close to $24 an hour average pay
Sorta kinda.
Every report of teacher salary numbers I have seen includes the employer-paid portion of health insurance, retirement benefits, etc., so the actual paycheck amount (pre-tax) is smaller than what is being reported.
In my area, the average is skewed high because of veteran teachers. Governments report the average because it makes them look better. The teachers' union reports the median (a lower number!) because it supports their claim of low wages.
In my local district, the average starting salary (incl benefits, BS/BA required) is 26k/year. One could make more as an assistant manager for a fast food chain. The hourly breakdown (assuming only an 8-hour day for 181 school days) is here (pdf). Looks like starting teachers make just over $17/hr of school time.
One of the reasons we struggle to find good math/science/technology teachers is that anyone with the technical skills can make at least $10 to $20/hour more in the private sector, and work year-round doing it.
I got a chuckle out of the security "fix" they recommend to non-MS browsers. From TFA (emphasis mine):
Internet Explorer 7 under Windows Vista runs in a special super-low user access mode that gives the browser very little access to the underlying OS, and ActiveX security has been tightened up significantly as well, with most ActiveX controls off by default and set to opt-in rather than opt-out. Hopefully other browsers will follow suit and operate in this least-privileged mode, too.
Gee, and I thought Firefox already had ActiveX "off by default," requiring a plug-in before ActiveX is even the least bit usable. It's a bit funny the late-comer to the browser security game is making suggestions that everyone else has already implemented.
As a member of the Utah State Board of Education, I have to say I'm relieved. Particularly as early versions of the bill would have mandated teaching "origins of life," something that isn't a specific part of the required curriculum.
Special thanks to House Minority Whip Steve Urquhart for recognizing it is the Board's job to direct curriculum, and not the Legislature's--as directed by the Utah Constitution--and for leading efforts to kill the bill in the House.
I got a free copy of this book from the publisher, well before the earlier Slashdot review. I had much the same impression as the parent: nice wrapping, not much substance. Also, nearly everything discussed is proprietary to MS, which made it that much less valuable.
There was some discussion regarding similar meshes with cell phones after many cell towers were destroyed in last year's hurricanes, blacking out both land line and cell coverage in metropolitan areas. The biggest obstacle is power consumption->battery life.
Most people (roughly 98%) include head, html, title and body elements. This is somewhat ironic, since three of those four elements are optional in HTML
Somewhat true. The HEAD tag is technically optional (per spec), but TITLE is required, and must be in the HEAD. Thus HEAD is required in practice.
It's a little thing, but indicative of a larger usability problem:
In the "Tabbed Browsing Settings" (from one of the screenshots), is the phrase: "Do not warn me when closing multiple tabs."
It's a check box--checked means "do", unchecked means "don't". Even the most cursory usability review would likely suggest the label be reworded to have the negative removed. It's simpler for the user, and it might make things clearer for the programmers too. (Avoid messy code like "!dontDoIt")
Like I said it's a little thing,... but one of many that when combined give the feeling of a poor product.
Japanese has only about 2,000 "daily use" kanji, those required to read the newspaper, or graduate from high school. Calling it an "alphabet" as one post did is rather inacurate, as "alphabet" denotes characters that make up parts of sounds, while Japanese is based on syllables (Only 40; or 80 is you include minor variations).
While in Japan I was able to learn some JSL at the hands of some of the top translators in the country (my failure to learn more was my fault, not theirs). I was surprised to find JSL actually shares many of the same gestures as ASL, with minor fingering differences depending one the characters in the word. Other signs in Japanses are actually based on their Kanji representations.
Advertisers had to come up with something similar before they were willing to broadcast soccer games in the U.S.
Of course, TV stations have been doing this for a few years to advertise upcoming shows. I've noticed this the most during "children's" programming.
As distracting as it is, I'd favor the transition if it meant fewer commercials, but I expect profit hungry networks will simply implement both models.
I'll listen to the radio for any drive less than ten minutes--it's not worth the hassle to (un)plug my iPod for such short trips. Besides the little news snippets I do get from NPR help keep me from being blind to the world outside of technology. Radio isn't completely dead.
As one post suggests, perhaps the move to radio is a precursor to ads in podcasts? To take this a half-step further, these ads could easily be targeted, or work on a per d/l model--the episode I download could have different ads from your copy of the same episode.
1. "Effortlessly" publish a) blog, b) photos, movies, etc. - I have a hosting account and my own URL for this. Mine is cheaper and offers more bandwidth too.
2. "Photocasting". Sounds like (1) with an RSS feed. - Don't care. If I did, I'd use flikr, so I still wouldn't care.
3. Exchange files from anywhere. - See (1)
4. Sync iCal, Safari bookmarks, etc. - Don't use Safari, have network drives for oft accessed files. Syncing iCal would be nice if I had more than one Mac, but I expect there is an OS solution for this somewhere.
5. Email, iChat, etc. - GMail, and others provide this for free.
6. Network backup. - Off site backup might be useful, but anything that's that important I have in multiple places already anyway. My other hosting account is backed-up regularly, and has a decent restore interface, so I'm not missing anything here.
7. "Bringing groups together" - Whatever this means. Besides, I'm a geek -> I don't like being social.
The short version?.Mac offers nothing I can't get much cheaper than offered by Apple--and often the alternative is free.
Do I want the cost of a service I won't use anyway rolled into my purchase price? No. Should Apple offer the service for free? I'm not sure they should offer the service at all, but as long as it stays profitable for them, who am I to argue?
I serve on our State Board of Education. At the middle-end of last year, the ID/evolution debate was raging in our state as ID proponents pushed to have ID included in science classes, or as a next-best alternative to require statements minimizing evolution. Two things happened during the discussion which I found intriguing: First a large number of science professors from a large, private, conservative, Christian university presented, opposing the introduction of ID in science class. Each of them stated something to the effect that their belief in God and Creation was not at odds with the evolution or science in general. The second was a statement from a professor from a state-sponsored university (forgive me for butchering his wording): "When we explain our world by invoking the supernatural, we explain nothing."
I agree with the pastor above. The idea of God in an ordered universe bound by natural laws is not a paradox. ("My house is a house of order," and all that.) To say ID is "The Way" because we are still learning about our world is just plain silly.
(To go off topic and rant slightly, I have little empathy for religionists who are unable to reconcile science and religion. The drawn-out nature of the ID/evolution argument stems from close-mindedness and an inability to explore the nature of one's beliefs. On both sides of the table. [End rant.])
Saying God exists does not condemn natural laws; in my mind it encourages them. Just because we don't understand all the laws of the universe doesn't mean we won't someday.
Altruism sounds nice, but is difficult to sustain. We spend those few hours daily (monthly?) away from our computer screens in honest-to-goodness real-life communities.
Do you work entirely for the public good? Or if in the off chance you do collect a salary to pay for little things like rent or a mortgage, do you give all of the remainder back? Few do, but our communities are successfull nevertheless.
A good community is able to provide balanced rewards for productive involvement--and that's what this discussion is about.
Slashdot Mirror
Wow. You had a chance to really make a statement, then blew it. You could have said [Emily] Dickenson, Poe, Emerson, Shakespeare, Keats, Dickens, or any number of others blessed to pen profound and prominent prose, but instead you picked a mediocre (but rich) author.
You could have picked political and religous leaders like Martin Luther, John Wycliff, Winston Churchill, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or even JFK and FDR.
At least you didn't say "Dan Brown."
Seems I don't have the new version of Firefox yet. That's "semantic," not "symantic."
I have to agree. After reading the linked articles (gasp!), I saw very little difference between the two lists. The author is creating "exclusive ors" where there aren't any. "Big" doesn't mean "not lean," "passionate" doesn't mean "not grade A," and "customer focus" does not exclude "shareholder focus."
When we're dealing with broad-brush ideas, comparing symantic differences is a bit silly.
Yup. But they still can't seem to run some data integrity checks to see how many addresses/salaries/drivers licenses/whatever are associated with each SSN, and take a closer look at those flagged as possible fraud. The list would be huge, but add enough parameters, and it gets more managable. Law enforcement is currently reactive, acting only following consumer complaints. From conversations with a former state CIO, it seems that while these databases exist, few, if any, are tied together in a useful way.
And a big thumbs down to the military for using SSN as its primary identifier, which means it's on just about every paper one signs in the military, and is effectively available to thousands of people.
'Tis one of those "usability" things.
For small-size text at high resolutions (e.g. printed pages), serifed fonts have been proven easier to read. At lower resolutions (e.g. most computer screens) research shows sans-serifed fonts are easier to read.
Except for
Sounds like there are many victims, and the original target is victimized several times over
And, yes. (Rice and wheat, actually, but the same idea.) Still isn't an excuse for theft.
More people than you realize already have this type of coverage. Many types of homeowner's insurance cover property theft, whether or not it occurred at home. Renter's insurance is a good value at only $10 to $12 (USD) per month for $10K to $20K of coverage and may also cover this scenario; the cost is minimal, but the benefit is potentially significant. YMMV.
Not enough people understand the benefits of renter's unsurance (a lack of financial education in the general population); those same people go on to not understand their homowner policy either.
I don't see how your rant is in conflict with commercial filters. A parent (or a minor!) can purchase the filter for use on home computers. Responsible parents may choose to employ such filters.
Despite the summary text, discussion of federal involvement isn't terribly relevant to the article. But since you brought it up... I support federal involvement in a non-censoring manner, such as adult-content domains (.xxx), HTTP headers, or meta tags. Even a voluntary community standard would be helpful. Solutions like these do not infringe on the free-speech rights of providers, but allow those wishing to prevent certain content (racism, sexuality, violence, etc.) the ability to more easily filter the content their children may see.
As a parent, I'm glad good tools exist. I can keep my kids out of adult video stores, but I can't prevent them (or me) from fat-fingering a URL.
Federal involvement won't solve the issue given the international scope of the internet, but it is a step in the right direction. Once a standard exists at a broad base, it may be easier to encourage voluntary compliance for international organizations.
An interesting solution might be to use third-party tagging (e.g. del.icio.us) in a filtering algorithm.
If $75K sounds like a lot, understand the area has a high cost of living (about 20% higher than the national average), or compared to my area, about 35% more expensive.
The COL figures are lower than what I expected, however. Housing is extremely costly anywhere close to the Microsoft campus (less than 40-minute commute), with comparable houses in Bellevue/Redmond selling for more than twice what they do in my local area.
From the MS employees I spoke with (about 10 years ago, when I lived in the area), the real plus of working for MS was not the salary, which was average/below-average for the area, but the benefits (drinks, food, company store, activities, etc. in addition to what we often consider to be benefits, like 401K, options, health, etc.).
Sorta kinda.
Every report of teacher salary numbers I have seen includes the employer-paid portion of health insurance, retirement benefits, etc., so the actual paycheck amount (pre-tax) is smaller than what is being reported.
In my area, the average is skewed high because of veteran teachers. Governments report the average because it makes them look better. The teachers' union reports the median (a lower number!) because it supports their claim of low wages.In my local district, the average starting salary (incl benefits, BS/BA required) is 26k/year. One could make more as an assistant manager for a fast food chain. The hourly breakdown (assuming only an 8-hour day for 181 school days) is here (pdf). Looks like starting teachers make just over $17/hr of school time.
One of the reasons we struggle to find good math/science/technology teachers is that anyone with the technical skills can make at least $10 to $20/hour more in the private sector, and work year-round doing it.
I got a chuckle out of the security "fix" they recommend to non-MS browsers. From TFA (emphasis mine):
Gee, and I thought Firefox already had ActiveX "off by default," requiring a plug-in before ActiveX is even the least bit usable. It's a bit funny the late-comer to the browser security game is making suggestions that everyone else has already implemented.
As a member of the Utah State Board of Education, I have to say I'm relieved. Particularly as early versions of the bill would have mandated teaching "origins of life," something that isn't a specific part of the required curriculum.
Special thanks to House Minority Whip Steve Urquhart for recognizing it is the Board's job to direct curriculum, and not the Legislature's--as directed by the Utah Constitution--and for leading efforts to kill the bill in the House.
Senator Buttars visited the State Board of Education last September, and wasn't as cordial as I might have preferred.
See also, the Board's position statement on teaching evolution. (pdf)
(For the record, the also Board officially opposes his bill targeting certain high school clubs.)
I got a free copy of this book from the publisher, well before the earlier Slashdot review. I had much the same impression as the parent: nice wrapping, not much substance. Also, nearly everything discussed is proprietary to MS, which made it that much less valuable.
There was some discussion regarding similar meshes with cell phones after many cell towers were destroyed in last year's hurricanes, blacking out both land line and cell coverage in metropolitan areas. The biggest obstacle is power consumption->battery life.
Somewhat true. The HEAD tag is technically optional (per spec), but TITLE is required, and must be in the HEAD. Thus HEAD is required in practice.
From the HTML 4.01 spec:
Though marked as "start tag optional"/"end tag optional", the BODY and HTML tags do provide useful symantec relevance.
It's a little thing, but indicative of a larger usability problem:
... but one of many that when combined give the feeling of a poor product.
In the "Tabbed Browsing Settings" (from one of the screenshots), is the phrase: "Do not warn me when closing multiple tabs."
It's a check box--checked means "do", unchecked means "don't". Even the most cursory usability review would likely suggest the label be reworded to have the negative removed. It's simpler for the user, and it might make things clearer for the programmers too. (Avoid messy code like "!dontDoIt")
Like I said it's a little thing,
I've seen/read about several Firefox extensions designed to allow something quite similar. A quick search turned up "Purple Bunny" ( https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php ?id=1098&application=firefox ), and I've seen others come and go.
I've not used any extensions of this type, and make no claim to their value. Be creative with Google, and you're bound to find more.
Japanese has only about 2,000 "daily use" kanji, those required to read the newspaper, or graduate from high school. Calling it an "alphabet" as one post did is rather inacurate, as "alphabet" denotes characters that make up parts of sounds, while Japanese is based on syllables (Only 40; or 80 is you include minor variations).
While in Japan I was able to learn some JSL at the hands of some of the top translators in the country (my failure to learn more was my fault, not theirs). I was surprised to find JSL actually shares many of the same gestures as ASL, with minor fingering differences depending one the characters in the word. Other signs in Japanses are actually based on their Kanji representations.
Advertisers had to come up with something similar before they were willing to broadcast soccer games in the U.S.
Of course, TV stations have been doing this for a few years to advertise upcoming shows. I've noticed this the most during "children's" programming.
As distracting as it is, I'd favor the transition if it meant fewer commercials, but I expect profit hungry networks will simply implement both models.
I'll listen to the radio for any drive less than ten minutes--it's not worth the hassle to (un)plug my iPod for such short trips. Besides the little news snippets I do get from NPR help keep me from being blind to the world outside of technology. Radio isn't completely dead.
As one post suggests, perhaps the move to radio is a precursor to ads in podcasts? To take this a half-step further, these ads could easily be targeted, or work on a per d/l model--the episode I download could have different ads from your copy of the same episode.
There is no way it is worth it to me. To take the features point-by-point ( http://www.apple.com/dotmac/ ):
.Mac offers nothing I can't get much cheaper than offered by Apple--and often the alternative is free.
1. "Effortlessly" publish a) blog, b) photos, movies, etc.
- I have a hosting account and my own URL for this. Mine is cheaper and offers more bandwidth too.
2. "Photocasting". Sounds like (1) with an RSS feed.
- Don't care. If I did, I'd use flikr, so I still wouldn't care.
3. Exchange files from anywhere.
- See (1)
4. Sync iCal, Safari bookmarks, etc.
- Don't use Safari, have network drives for oft accessed files. Syncing iCal would be nice if I had more than one Mac, but I expect there is an OS solution for this somewhere.
5. Email, iChat, etc.
- GMail, and others provide this for free.
6. Network backup.
- Off site backup might be useful, but anything that's that important I have in multiple places already anyway. My other hosting account is backed-up regularly, and has a decent restore interface, so I'm not missing anything here.
7. "Bringing groups together"
- Whatever this means. Besides, I'm a geek -> I don't like being social.
The short version?
Do I want the cost of a service I won't use anyway rolled into my purchase price? No. Should Apple offer the service for free? I'm not sure they should offer the service at all, but as long as it stays profitable for them, who am I to argue?
The proof that no one religion is correct, is that there are so many conflicting religions.
Just because you can't see the needle in the haystack doesn't mean it isn't there.
As I recall my philosophy courses, proving something doesn't exist isn't possible. It just means you've seen no evidence of it yet.
I serve on our State Board of Education. At the middle-end of last year, the ID/evolution debate was raging in our state as ID proponents pushed to have ID included in science classes, or as a next-best alternative to require statements minimizing evolution. Two things happened during the discussion which I found intriguing: First a large number of science professors from a large, private, conservative, Christian university presented, opposing the introduction of ID in science class. Each of them stated something to the effect that their belief in God and Creation was not at odds with the evolution or science in general. The second was a statement from a professor from a state-sponsored university (forgive me for butchering his wording): "When we explain our world by invoking the supernatural, we explain nothing."
I agree with the pastor above. The idea of God in an ordered universe bound by natural laws is not a paradox. ("My house is a house of order," and all that.) To say ID is "The Way" because we are still learning about our world is just plain silly.
(To go off topic and rant slightly, I have little empathy for religionists who are unable to reconcile science and religion. The drawn-out nature of the ID/evolution argument stems from close-mindedness and an inability to explore the nature of one's beliefs. On both sides of the table. [End rant.])
Saying God exists does not condemn natural laws; in my mind it encourages them. Just because we don't understand all the laws of the universe doesn't mean we won't someday.
Altruism sounds nice, but is difficult to sustain. We spend those few hours daily (monthly?) away from our computer screens in honest-to-goodness real-life communities.
Do you work entirely for the public good? Or if in the off chance you do collect a salary to pay for little things like rent or a mortgage, do you give all of the remainder back? Few do, but our communities are successfull nevertheless.
A good community is able to provide balanced rewards for productive involvement--and that's what this discussion is about.