Settle down and don't take everything so personally. I think that most people are talking about district administrators, not front-line management (principals). The beef here, and I whole-heartedly agree) is that there are essentially district ceos that basically do nothing yet get paid exorbinate amounts of money for just farting around. In my school district (not a student) the district staff got almost a 10% raise while funding for supplies was cut to compensate. I'm not joking when I say that the kids were each expected to bring their own toilet paper to school. The taxpayers are never going to pass a mil-levy for schools while crap like this is going on, so the cycle just keeps getting worse. But, at least the football stadium has a shiny new sign provided by Pepsico. Corruption all around. *sigh*
I seriously doubt the numbers in the times article. I'd say less than 5% of the people I know have HD TV's (half of whom are tech types). In fact, I seem to recall reading an article not too long ago (on slashdot maybe) which bemoaned the incredibly slow adoption rate of HD TV's. In general I'm probably an early adopter (I had an mp3 player back in 99 with, get this 32Mb of internal memory and a 32Mb expansion flash card), but there is no way I'm throwing away good money after either format. I just can't justify the expenses for such marginal improvement. I'll throw my hat with the poster who claimed that the new format would go the way of laserdisk, and I'd be happy to see sony go down with it; wishful thinking, I know.
As a side note, (shoulds have mentionned it earlier) if you arrive at 11:00, then you can usually steal a parkign spot up front because some have already left for lunch.
Its still that way. In some areas, its almost like there are two shifts... Those persons who get to work at 4 or 5 AM and then leave at 2 or 3 and then those who get to work at 3 and park up front like you said. Now that I think about it, the parking benefits of shift work are interesting (but only applicable if one shift leaves before the other arrives, which isn't normal).
"Excercise is demoralizing and exhausting: you feel miserable before, during, and after you drag yourself out to a workout"
I couldn't disagree more. Ever heard of endorfins(sp)? You know, the rush you get from exercise, or wait you wouldn't know. when does the time come for us to get out of the chair and do something? Its long... overdue.
Talk to anyone who is both active and a techie, they'll tell you they love it. The best co-workers and management are also the ones who run/bike/play sports.
Not only contractors, but consider interns as well. Lots of capable college kids are willing to sell their sould for an internship, so take advantage of the oppertunity. You get cheap disposable labor, and they get that all-valuable 'job-experience'. Plus, you never know when you might stumble upon a long-term fit for your company.
While the retoric regarding teh state of education is perhpas valid, I think you missed the point. Not everyone can breeze through stuff in the same manner as you or I might be able to. I feel that those students who are going to use classtime for recreational persuits should just not bother to show up. Those of us who have trouble concentrating really have a hard time focussing when someone else is doing something more interesting than Biology/Freceh lit./composition/...
Its not just the clickety clack of the typing, but the bright shiny colors and flashing lights. If I'm sitting behind someone with a laptop open, ADD wins and I learn nothing.
Personally, I did my undergrad at a school where every student was 'given' a laptop as a freshman and the laptops were supposed to be integrated into all the classes. With the exception of CAD class, the laptops were more a hinderance than a helpful tool.
About a year ago I was speaking to a nurse in Montana. She had been a nurse first in Hatch New Mexico, which is the Green chile (YUM!) capitol of the world, then Albuquerque, and finally up north in Billings. As anyone from New Mexico will tell you, green chile is amazingly tasty on all sorts of dishes.
Anyway, she told me that she had noticed that colon cancer rates were really low in hatch, slightly higher in Albuquerque, and significantly higher in Montana. Her suggestion was that the consumption of hte chiles might be partly responsible.
Its very interesting to hear a 'study' which confirms her intuition.
I have to agree, this whole business with the EU smells of stupidity, sour grapes, money-grabbing. Why don't we focus our attention on something that will benefit the populace?/Remembers something about govt supposed to be serving the people... yeah, right, thats it
Slashdot Mirror
Settle down and don't take everything so personally. I think that most people are talking about district administrators, not front-line management (principals). The beef here, and I whole-heartedly agree) is that there are essentially district ceos that basically do nothing yet get paid exorbinate amounts of money for just farting around. In my school district (not a student) the district staff got almost a 10% raise while funding for supplies was cut to compensate. I'm not joking when I say that the kids were each expected to bring their own toilet paper to school. The taxpayers are never going to pass a mil-levy for schools while crap like this is going on, so the cycle just keeps getting worse. But, at least the football stadium has a shiny new sign provided by Pepsico. Corruption all around. *sigh*
I seriously doubt the numbers in the times article. I'd say less than 5% of the people I know have HD TV's (half of whom are tech types). In fact, I seem to recall reading an article not too long ago (on slashdot maybe) which bemoaned the incredibly slow adoption rate of HD TV's. In general I'm probably an early adopter (I had an mp3 player back in 99 with, get this 32Mb of internal memory and a 32Mb expansion flash card), but there is no way I'm throwing away good money after either format. I just can't justify the expenses for such marginal improvement. I'll throw my hat with the poster who claimed that the new format would go the way of laserdisk, and I'd be happy to see sony go down with it; wishful thinking, I know.
Thank you, that made my morning so much brighter
As a side note, (shoulds have mentionned it earlier) if you arrive at 11:00, then you can usually steal a parkign spot up front because some have already left for lunch.
Its still that way. In some areas, its almost like there are two shifts... Those persons who get to work at 4 or 5 AM and then leave at 2 or 3 and then those who get to work at 3 and park up front like you said. Now that I think about it, the parking benefits of shift work are interesting (but only applicable if one shift leaves before the other arrives, which isn't normal).
"Excercise is demoralizing and exhausting: you feel miserable before, during, and after you drag yourself out to a workout"
I couldn't disagree more. Ever heard of endorfins(sp)? You know, the rush you get from exercise, or wait you wouldn't know. when does the time come for us to get out of the chair and do something? Its long... overdue.
Talk to anyone who is both active and a techie, they'll tell you they love it. The best co-workers and management are also the ones who run/bike/play sports.
Not only contractors, but consider interns as well. Lots of capable college kids are willing to sell their sould for an internship, so take advantage of the oppertunity. You get cheap disposable labor, and they get that all-valuable 'job-experience'. Plus, you never know when you might stumble upon a long-term fit for your company.
While the retoric regarding teh state of education is perhpas valid, I think you missed the point. Not everyone can breeze through stuff in the same manner as you or I might be able to. I feel that those students who are going to use classtime for recreational persuits should just not bother to show up. Those of us who have trouble concentrating really have a hard time focussing when someone else is doing something more interesting than Biology/Freceh lit./composition/...
(vi) Others are distracted by laptop use.
Its not just the clickety clack of the typing, but the bright shiny colors and flashing lights. If I'm sitting behind someone with a laptop open, ADD wins and I learn nothing.
Personally, I did my undergrad at a school where every student was 'given' a laptop as a freshman and the laptops were supposed to be integrated into all the classes. With the exception of CAD class, the laptops were more a hinderance than a helpful tool.
disclaimer: I'm a CS Grad Student
About a year ago I was speaking to a nurse in Montana. She had been a nurse first in Hatch New Mexico, which is the Green chile (YUM!) capitol of the world, then Albuquerque, and finally up north in Billings. As anyone from New Mexico will tell you, green chile is amazingly tasty on all sorts of dishes. Anyway, she told me that she had noticed that colon cancer rates were really low in hatch, slightly higher in Albuquerque, and significantly higher in Montana. Her suggestion was that the consumption of hte chiles might be partly responsible. Its very interesting to hear a 'study' which confirms her intuition.
I have to agree, this whole business with the EU smells of stupidity, sour grapes, money-grabbing. Why don't we focus our attention on something that will benefit the populace? /Remembers something about govt supposed to be serving the people... yeah, right, thats it