I think one aspect of this that people seem to be over-reacting to is that many of these cameras are not government cameras out to spy on people, they are cameras attached to the outsides of warehouses in industrial estates. The number of cameras attached to the outside of private buildings, purely with the intention of catching a thief in the act, is very high. I would propose that a huge proportion of cameras in Britain are such cameras, and as such cannot be used nefariously very easily by anybody as they are not networked together.
"An anonymous professor writes that last year about half of the seniors at his US university were suspected of cheating, mostly due to the Internet and community sites such as Wikipedia."
How does he know that people aren't putting their own work up onto Wikipedia? I know I've searched for information on Wikipedia for essays and projects. On occasion I have found Wikipedia lacking the information I have wanted, so after finding it elsewhere I have copied parts from my essay onto Wikipedia. He seems to be missing that Wikipedia can be added to by his students as well as copied from. Where I study I know that "academic misconduct" is so heavily penalised that the risks are not worth taking for the majority of students, so perhaps my view of it is slightly skewed, and cheating at my institution is less widespread than the norm.
To me it seems that people are missing the point. Many children can code, possibly more than previously (even taking into account for population increases). The thing is, they are lost amongst the huge numbers that can't. I don't understand why every child needs to learn to program. People do learn to code, most don't. Previously there were so few children wanting computers that only those who interested in the computer per se were motivated to do anything with them. These people still exist today, there are just a lot of people using computers to check their email and download music from itunes onto their ipods.
Whilst I agree with you partially, I submit that at least part of the reason why Hollywood doesn't tap the resource of many good books is that a good book does not necessarily beget a good film. They are after all two separate mediums and should be regarded as such.
A lot of companies (at least here in the UK) give you a free upgrade after 12 months of a contract. Obviously, they want to tie you into another 12months on your contract, but it means that get a new phone and call sell your old one (or do as I sometimes do, and sell the brand new phone for a significant profit).
"the most staunchly democratic and freedom loving country in the world"
Being non-American, and fearing this will be marked as flame-bait, I would like to ask a serious question. Is this a view held by many American's? Even here in the UK there are many who would argue with America being 'staunchly democratic' (in a meaningful way) and also with being a 'freedom loving country'.
I am not trying to start a flame war here, but ask a genuine question.
You're forgetting something. It is actually quite hard to do what you say, and not because you need to not leave a trace of yourself at the scene of the crime as well as leave a trace of someone else. You need to pick someone who was able to commit the crime (i.e. no alibi), and preferably if the crime is one such as assault or murder, someone with a motive. You also need to have no witnesses etc.
Even if objective evidence is regarded as not being able to lie (and I would question this statement), it is still not as simple as you suggest to manufacture it to your own purposes as there needs to be, at the very least, lack of contradictory evidence.
Apologies for this being my first post etc, but:
"Well, even my British friends say putting the period outside the quotations is wrong. So, I don't see how this debate even started. In fact, other than wikipedia, I could not find another source that says to put the period outside the quote. Since wikipedia is done by anyone who feels like it, I tend to trust my friends over some silly website."
A simple google spewed out the following useful discussions upon this topic:
http://www.betterwritingskills.com/articles/quotat ion-marks.txthttp://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pun1.htmhttp://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/doc/punctuation/node30. html (this is from a British the website of a British university, and contains a useful example at the end of the page with a well known Shakespeare quote).
Detailed discussions on this point are not hard to discover.
Also, I should point out that a lot of people enjoy grammar, and accordingly are not acting in a "Nazi" role when the point out minor errors to others. Personally, I did not think the original post in discussion was particularly offensive, but found your subsequent attack uneedlessly vitriolic to the extent that I registered on slashdot and posted my response.
"Other then game studios tied to official developer licenses, we'd like to see various individuals participate in content creation for the PS3."
That should be "other than".
The attitude that everyone on the net should use American English as opposed British English (where both are equally understandable to the speakers/readers of either) is pretty arrogant in my opinion.
Slashdot Mirror
I think one aspect of this that people seem to be over-reacting to is that many of these cameras are not government cameras out to spy on people, they are cameras attached to the outsides of warehouses in industrial estates. The number of cameras attached to the outside of private buildings, purely with the intention of catching a thief in the act, is very high. I would propose that a huge proportion of cameras in Britain are such cameras, and as such cannot be used nefariously very easily by anybody as they are not networked together.
"An anonymous professor writes that last year about half of the seniors at his US university were suspected of cheating, mostly due to the Internet and community sites such as Wikipedia."
How does he know that people aren't putting their own work up onto Wikipedia? I know I've searched for information on Wikipedia for essays and projects. On occasion I have found Wikipedia lacking the information I have wanted, so after finding it elsewhere I have copied parts from my essay onto Wikipedia. He seems to be missing that Wikipedia can be added to by his students as well as copied from. Where I study I know that "academic misconduct" is so heavily penalised that the risks are not worth taking for the majority of students, so perhaps my view of it is slightly skewed, and cheating at my institution is less widespread than the norm.
To me it seems that people are missing the point. Many children can code, possibly more than previously (even taking into account for population increases). The thing is, they are lost amongst the huge numbers that can't. I don't understand why every child needs to learn to program. People do learn to code, most don't. Previously there were so few children wanting computers that only those who interested in the computer per se were motivated to do anything with them. These people still exist today, there are just a lot of people using computers to check their email and download music from itunes onto their ipods.
Whilst I agree with you partially, I submit that at least part of the reason why Hollywood doesn't tap the resource of many good books is that a good book does not necessarily beget a good film. They are after all two separate mediums and should be regarded as such.
...and there's not many films set in the future I guess...
A lot of companies (at least here in the UK) give you a free upgrade after 12 months of a contract. Obviously, they want to tie you into another 12months on your contract, but it means that get a new phone and call sell your old one (or do as I sometimes do, and sell the brand new phone for a significant profit).
What you say about thalidomide is very true - it's currently being used to treat leprosy, and some cancers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide
"the most staunchly democratic and freedom loving country in the world"
Being non-American, and fearing this will be marked as flame-bait, I would like to ask a serious question. Is this a view held by many American's? Even here in the UK there are many who would argue with America being 'staunchly democratic' (in a meaningful way) and also with being a 'freedom loving country'.
I am not trying to start a flame war here, but ask a genuine question.
You're forgetting something. It is actually quite hard to do what you say, and not because you need to not leave a trace of yourself at the scene of the crime as well as leave a trace of someone else. You need to pick someone who was able to commit the crime (i.e. no alibi), and preferably if the crime is one such as assault or murder, someone with a motive. You also need to have no witnesses etc. Even if objective evidence is regarded as not being able to lie (and I would question this statement), it is still not as simple as you suggest to manufacture it to your own purposes as there needs to be, at the very least, lack of contradictory evidence.
Fingerprints grow back though, so you'd have to do it regularly.
Apologies for this being my first post etc, but: "Well, even my British friends say putting the period outside the quotations is wrong. So, I don't see how this debate even started. In fact, other than wikipedia, I could not find another source that says to put the period outside the quote. Since wikipedia is done by anyone who feels like it, I tend to trust my friends over some silly website." A simple google spewed out the following useful discussions upon this topic: http://www.betterwritingskills.com/articles/quotat ion-marks.txt
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pun1.htm
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/doc/punctuation/node30. html (this is from a British the website of a British university, and contains a useful example at the end of the page with a well known Shakespeare quote).
Detailed discussions on this point are not hard to discover.
Also, I should point out that a lot of people enjoy grammar, and accordingly are not acting in a "Nazi" role when the point out minor errors to others. Personally, I did not think the original post in discussion was particularly offensive, but found your subsequent attack uneedlessly vitriolic to the extent that I registered on slashdot and posted my response.
"Other then game studios tied to official developer licenses, we'd like to see various individuals participate in content creation for the PS3."
That should be "other than".
The attitude that everyone on the net should use American English as opposed British English (where both are equally understandable to the speakers/readers of either) is pretty arrogant in my opinion.