My friend, please re-read my comment carefully. At no point do I criticize the US system; at most, I pointed out that we have no federal DofE in Canada.
And, while you're quite correct in assessing my ignorance of the US system, if there are no national tests of achievement, who are these "National Merit Scholars" that the Buffalo news channels are always boasting of? There's certainly no Canadian equivalent.
with it's own standards and how they enforce these. & the local school board
I'm thrilled to see your state is breaking new ground in punctuation.
I probably don't have your experience as a meta-mod, so I'll say I found your comments interesting. However, I totally agree that GNAA, FP, and that douche that keeps sending the same post about finding someone's turd in a toilet are just a total waste of time, and I wish the system would just flush those posts right away.
You know, my UID was actually much lower than this, as I used to read/. in the late 90's, but forgot my username/password, and had to create a new identity. Things really were much better here back then.
At $1.25 for a 24 oz, it is cheaper for me to buy a 2 liter for $1.25 - $1.50 and throw away the unused portion if I don't get around to it before it gets flat.
Same thing has happened at restaurants that have upped their drinks to $2.25. OK, I could grin-n-bear it for $1.95, but once you crossed the $2 barrier for ICED TEA, water please.
Same with candy bars. $0.69 even at a grocery store? I used to (as a kid in the late 70s) get them for free with a $0.25 off coupon. $0.50 was bearable if I wanted a treat. Now, F' no.
On the plus side, can we assume you've dropped a few pant sizes?
From the very first line of the Wikipedia entry for "Ugly American":
Ugly American is an epithet used to refer to perceptions of arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless behaviors of Americans at home or abroad. The term originated as the title of a 1958 book by authors William Lederer and Eugene Burdick, The Ugly American.
From the Washington Post, July 13, 2004, regarding Michael Moore:
In the international online media, the pudgy filmmaker from Flint, Michigan, is often seen as all too American. He is more than occasionally described as a stereotypical "ugly American" -- overbearing to people of different cultures, oblivious to nuance, unsophisticated in politics and arrogant in temperament.
There are numerous other examples of my usage extant; you could look them up if you can get a small child to help.
So, to put it in your terms, fuckwad, language changes, and the term has been adopted and changed from its original meaning. If you had the two cents to buy a clue, you'd be aware of this. But since you are doubtless pursuing onanistic activity in some glittering metropolis like Albany or Des Moines, you probably haven't figured it out.
Congratulations for reinforcing the "ignorant" and "arrogant" parts of the term. Fucking coward.
Secondly, who wants to leave the US? I spend my vacation dollars right here. Deserts, beaches, mountains, forests, arctic, we've got it all.
Well, of course, with your incredibly shrinking small-dicked dollar, you probably can't afford to go anywhere else.
Any why would anyone want to visit Vienna, and sit through Mass at St. Stephen's, built over 1,000 years ago? Or visit Rome, look at the ruins of the Colosseum, and wonder how the hell that was built without any power tools at all? Eat sardines quay-side in Portimao? Enjoy the joie de vivre on the Rive Gauche in Paris? Spend a Sunday afternoon on the Charles Bridge in Prague?
I know that most Americans don't think like you (thank God!), but you, Mr. AC, are the epitome of the boorish, ignorant, quasi-thug that the rest of the world thinks of as "the Ugly American".
Why the emphasis on uniformity of education? The fact that the public schools try to force all kids into the same mold is the single biggest problem with the current system, IMO.
Mod parent up! My earliest memory from Grade 1 was being given my Dick & Jane type reader, which I (having an older sister and a librarian mother, I learned to read at 4) read through in about 2 minutes. (IIRC, the book contained less than 60 words.) When the teacher asked me about the boy on the first page, I eagerly ratted out the contents of the entire book. To my surprise, I wasn't praised for my ability; I was hauled out of my chair in front of the class, and was spanked. It didn't take me long to realize that public schools aren't at all interested in you achieving your potential, and very much interested in ensuring you don't rock the boat in any way, shape, or form.
Years later, I went to a private school in Toronto. There, while my teachers expected me not to disrupt class, it was pretty clear that they thought it was an issue of respect for them and the other students, and not trying to keep me in check. In certain classes, like math and science, where it was clear I had mastered all the material, I was given extra stuff to try (like old Sir Isaac Newton tests, an-all Canadian high school competition in physics), so that I still had a chance to grow without hindering the progress of others.
That said, I have to say my current experience with the Catholic school system in Ontario (which, despite UN protestations, is publicly funded) is more promising. Both my daughters are in the gifted program, and their teachers offer them lots of choices to explore their interests, and expand in areas where they are strong. So, I'd have to admit that there has been some shift in the public system, and the truly gifted do get a chance to move ahead faster.
However, in Canada, there is no federal Dept. of Education that looks after public schools. This is purely a provincial (US friends, read "state") responsibility, and even there, while the province usually sets overall standards, individual regional school boards are given the actual responsibility to set up their own implementations. To track how well they were doing, about a decade ago, the right-wing gov't of Mike Harris set up standardized tests (quite rightly, IMHO) for students in grades 3 and 6 in reading and math, so that parents could see how their school in particular, and their board in general, were doing compared to other schools and boards. The results have been quite remarkable; not only has there been a general improvement in scores over the last ten years, parental involvement has escalated. When a school shows up in the bottom 10%, the principal is sure to be besieged by angry calls asking "what's being done?".
Many of the old excuses are wearing thin. In one celebrated case in Toronto, a run-down school where most children were from a public housing project (and where many had the additional handicap of English as a second language), the energetic principal engaged students, faculty, parents, and the community, and produced spectacular results. This kind of embarrassed public schools in the same board where the students came mostly from $1 million+ homes. The tests provide both motivation and measurement.
And, of course, this being/., I have to ask who would be in favour of the Central Scrutinizeer (DofE) vs. distributed processing (regional school boards)?
E.g., the shift from the pound to the dollar as a world currency standard. Of course, the Brits set the stage for this by bankrupting their Treasury in the belief that they could simply tax the colonies as they liked.
Er, what revisionist idiocy is this? The pound was the world currency standard from after the Napoleonic Wars until the end of WWI, when an exhausted England, unable to collect reparations from Germany, had to cede supremacy to the US.
Interestingly enough, the same scenario is playing out today, as the US is exhausting itself in the Asian wars, while China sits back and watches. The RMB will be the currency of the 21st century.
Have to agree, somewhat. I worked on the first Xerox Star system in Canada in 1980, about four years before the Mac was introduced (I also worked with the Lisa, Mac's mom). Personally, I think Xerox was incredibly stupid to walk away from the technology, but the Star had everything the first Mac UI did - icons, mouse, WYSIWYG word processing, etc. Jobs freely admits he toured Xerox's PARC facility in the early 80's, and that he saw the Star while there. In his defense, I think this was before this nonsense of broad software patents had emerged (as opposed to specific software patents, covering a particular program implementation, like Lotus 1-2-3; you could build a spreadsheet if you wanted to, but you couldn't copy Lotus's code. Note that Lotus was not the first spreadsheet, either; VisiCalc was.)
Apple was more successful because they worked with others to develop better applications. I still think Lotus Jazz was years before its time. But for anyone to claim that M$ stole the graphical UI concept from Apple, well, they're just plain wrong.
I worked for a distributor of VMX voicemail systems in the early 90's (they were later acquired by Octel). They had a working "visual voicemail" application at the time. You could open up a window on your PC, see a list of all the messages in your voicemail box, including (if the Caller ID was available) the number, the time and date the message was left, message length, whether the caller had flagged it urgent, and for older messages, whether you had returned it (available only on networked systems). If you had opted for our fax-mail system, the system would also show all your incoming fax messages.
So when does this Klausner dude claim to have patented this? TFA didn't say.
Sincerely, I thank all of you. There are so many times here when responses make me laugh out loud, but I don't have any mod points. Like all would-be comedians, my goal is to make people laugh; if that worked, I'm happy.
voter turnout would be a lot higher if you were voting for a name but a party similar to many European countries. Many people are turned off by the fact that three is corruption in politics
I'm sure you have some interesting ideas. Please, return, and share them with us after you've learned to express them coherently.
It's sad how slashdot has degenerated into a indymedia, rabid anti-authority site. This used to be news for nerds. Now it's left-wing rabble rousing for like-minded wackjobs.
It's no wonder you post as an AC. Don't you see how many people here are stumping for Ron Paul for President (even Canadians like me)? I'm as libertarian as you can get, which is completely opposed to left-wing rabble-rousing. (I shudder at the idea of Hillary or Edwards or Obama as prez!)
So, here are my suggestions for you:
1 - Reread Nineteeneightyfour. Pay particular attention to the part where O'Brien explains to Winston that the purpose of having so many laws isn't to improve safety or security, but to make everyone a criminal so they'll be frightened, scared, and controlled. Objecting to that isn't left or right wing; it's objecting to totalitarianism, which has never been an attractive political philosophy, whether it was right-wing (Spain under Franco, Italy under Mussolini), or left-wing (Russia, China, Cuba, etc.).
2 - Go listen to the Star-spangled Banner again. Pay particular attention to the last line, which asks if your flag still waves "o'er the land of the free". With the government literally demanding the right to do random anal probes just because you want to get on an airplane, do you still think you live up to your anthem?
Note that I'm not saying Canada is any better, but we don't hold ourselves up to the world as "the shining city on the hill". If you're going to claim you're better than every other country in the world, then for God's sake, live up to it. Otherwise, shut your sanctimonious, anonymous, cowardly trap.
You should know better, too. Heightened requirements will be extended from air travel to land and sea crossings, effective early 2008. From the US Customs and Border Protection site:
Beginning January 31, 2008, U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 19 and over will need to present a government-issued photo ID such as a driver's license, and proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, naturalization certificate or passport to enter the U.S. by land or sea.
A passport or NEXUS, SENTRI or FAST card will be accepted as ID and citizenship requirements. Border Crossing Cards will continue to be accepted documents for Mexican citizens to meet both requirements.
As early as summer 2008, all travelers who enter or depart the U.S. by any means (land, sea or air) will be required to have a valid passport, NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST, Border Crossing Card or other acceptable document.
From what I understand, some states are creating an "Enhanced Driver's License" that will be considered an acceptable document on its own, but I have no idea when those will be available. So, pack your passport or birth certificate if you're coming north.
I'm a bit of a fan of punishing those who have been duly convicted and leaving everyone else to go about their business.
Er, how many times do you want to punish people? I had a DUI conviction over 7 years ago in Canada; my license was suspended for 15 months, I paid a large fine (and legal fees), and my insurance rates tripled when I got my license back. I had to take a remedial course on DUI, at my own expense.
So if I want to go skiing in western NY later this year, should I be "punished" again by being denied entry? Even if my wife is driving? Even if I have zero BAC? I thought the deal was you served your time, and then you weren't punished for that particular crime again. Now you're telling me that any border guard can deny me entry for the next 40 years because I have a "criminal record"? Thanks.
Ha, I love the ringing endorsement from 11-year old girls. That's the worst compliment you could have given the Wii for the average Slashdotter gamer.
I know what you mean and I wish someone had modded you up "Funny", but seriously.. my girls have other PC-based games, and while they enjoy them, those games NEVER elicited the shrieks and "my turn, gimme, gimme" that the Wii does. There were 5 girls at the party, and all 5 were jumping up and down like maniacs although only one was playing. Again, as a geezer parent, I want my girls playing games that aren't about death, destruction, and blood. I think the Wii gives me greater options there than Xbox or PS3.
This kid created malware. He is obviously (at 10??) bright enough to understand what malware can do. He didn't choose to notify banks, credit card firms, etc., that they were subject to his attacks; instead, if I RTFA correctly, he chose to sell this method to criminals.
I have two daughters, 10 and 13, who seem to have no compunctions about releasing all their personal data on Facebook and Myspace. I keep telling them security is important, and they shouldn't be releasing their full names, school, pets, etc., as those are usually part of passwords. I'm not sure they listen. I'm also sure that's because they have no idea of the stakes involved. We keep the value of their trust funds secret, but the two are worth over $300k today, and we are budgeting $500k for their education in the future. If this NZ kid's exploits prevented either one of my daughters from attending the school of their choose, I'd want to make him pretty pay dearly.
My suggestion: put him in jail for a few months (not years); then he might realize his freedom is worth more to him than other people's money.
Very well may be true. I don't go into HMV stores (no one close, and not much music I'm interested in buying), and while there's an EB Games store just south of me on Yonge Street, I have to admit I've never stepped into the store. So I'll concede that some of the smaller retailers may have stock, but the "big box" retailers are consistently sold out. I'd further suggest that most Canadians, if asked where to get a Wii, would say Zellers, Wal-Mart, Can Tire, Future Shop, maybe Sears; until you mentioned it, I would never have considered EB or HMV. If they actually have Wii units sitting on their shelves, I'd say they've done a pretty crappy job of marketing. Nearly zero share of mind.
Slashdot Mirror
And, while you're quite correct in assessing my ignorance of the US system, if there are no national tests of achievement, who are these "National Merit Scholars" that the Buffalo news channels are always boasting of? There's certainly no Canadian equivalent.
with it's own standards and how they enforce these. & the local school board
I'm thrilled to see your state is breaking new ground in punctuation.
You know, my UID was actually much lower than this, as I used to read /. in the late 90's, but forgot my username/password, and had to create a new identity. Things really were much better here back then.
Oh, crap. Now everyone knows I'm a geezer..
Same thing has happened at restaurants that have upped their drinks to $2.25. OK, I could grin-n-bear it for $1.95, but once you crossed the $2 barrier for ICED TEA, water please.
Same with candy bars. $0.69 even at a grocery store? I used to (as a kid in the late 70s) get them for free with a $0.25 off coupon. $0.50 was bearable if I wanted a treat. Now, F' no.
On the plus side, can we assume you've dropped a few pant sizes?
Ugly American is an epithet used to refer to perceptions of arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless behaviors of Americans at home or abroad. The term originated as the title of a 1958 book by authors William Lederer and Eugene Burdick, The Ugly American.
From the Washington Post, July 13, 2004, regarding Michael Moore:
In the international online media, the pudgy filmmaker from Flint, Michigan, is often seen as all too American. He is more than occasionally described as a stereotypical "ugly American" -- overbearing to people of different cultures, oblivious to nuance, unsophisticated in politics and arrogant in temperament.
There are numerous other examples of my usage extant; you could look them up if you can get a small child to help.
So, to put it in your terms, fuckwad, language changes, and the term has been adopted and changed from its original meaning. If you had the two cents to buy a clue, you'd be aware of this. But since you are doubtless pursuing onanistic activity in some glittering metropolis like Albany or Des Moines, you probably haven't figured it out.
Congratulations for reinforcing the "ignorant" and "arrogant" parts of the term. Fucking coward.
Well, of course, with your incredibly shrinking small-dicked dollar, you probably can't afford to go anywhere else.
Any why would anyone want to visit Vienna, and sit through Mass at St. Stephen's, built over 1,000 years ago? Or visit Rome, look at the ruins of the Colosseum, and wonder how the hell that was built without any power tools at all? Eat sardines quay-side in Portimao? Enjoy the joie de vivre on the Rive Gauche in Paris? Spend a Sunday afternoon on the Charles Bridge in Prague?
I know that most Americans don't think like you (thank God!), but you, Mr. AC, are the epitome of the boorish, ignorant, quasi-thug that the rest of the world thinks of as "the Ugly American".
Isn't that what meta-moderating is all about? You must have burr up your ass about something..
Excellent! When I quote this in the future, can I call it "Oxfam's Razor"?
Er, at least I hope it is..
Mod parent up! My earliest memory from Grade 1 was being given my Dick & Jane type reader, which I (having an older sister and a librarian mother, I learned to read at 4) read through in about 2 minutes. (IIRC, the book contained less than 60 words.) When the teacher asked me about the boy on the first page, I eagerly ratted out the contents of the entire book. To my surprise, I wasn't praised for my ability; I was hauled out of my chair in front of the class, and was spanked. It didn't take me long to realize that public schools aren't at all interested in you achieving your potential, and very much interested in ensuring you don't rock the boat in any way, shape, or form.
Years later, I went to a private school in Toronto. There, while my teachers expected me not to disrupt class, it was pretty clear that they thought it was an issue of respect for them and the other students, and not trying to keep me in check. In certain classes, like math and science, where it was clear I had mastered all the material, I was given extra stuff to try (like old Sir Isaac Newton tests, an-all Canadian high school competition in physics), so that I still had a chance to grow without hindering the progress of others.
That said, I have to say my current experience with the Catholic school system in Ontario (which, despite UN protestations, is publicly funded) is more promising. Both my daughters are in the gifted program, and their teachers offer them lots of choices to explore their interests, and expand in areas where they are strong. So, I'd have to admit that there has been some shift in the public system, and the truly gifted do get a chance to move ahead faster.
However, in Canada, there is no federal Dept. of Education that looks after public schools. This is purely a provincial (US friends, read "state") responsibility, and even there, while the province usually sets overall standards, individual regional school boards are given the actual responsibility to set up their own implementations. To track how well they were doing, about a decade ago, the right-wing gov't of Mike Harris set up standardized tests (quite rightly, IMHO) for students in grades 3 and 6 in reading and math, so that parents could see how their school in particular, and their board in general, were doing compared to other schools and boards. The results have been quite remarkable; not only has there been a general improvement in scores over the last ten years, parental involvement has escalated. When a school shows up in the bottom 10%, the principal is sure to be besieged by angry calls asking "what's being done?".
Many of the old excuses are wearing thin. In one celebrated case in Toronto, a run-down school where most children were from a public housing project (and where many had the additional handicap of English as a second language), the energetic principal engaged students, faculty, parents, and the community, and produced spectacular results. This kind of embarrassed public schools in the same board where the students came mostly from $1 million+ homes. The tests provide both motivation and measurement.
And, of course, this being /., I have to ask who would be in favour of the Central Scrutinizeer (DofE) vs. distributed processing (regional school boards)?
Er, what revisionist idiocy is this? The pound was the world currency standard from after the Napoleonic Wars until the end of WWI, when an exhausted England, unable to collect reparations from Germany, had to cede supremacy to the US.
Interestingly enough, the same scenario is playing out today, as the US is exhausting itself in the Asian wars, while China sits back and watches. The RMB will be the currency of the 21st century.
Have to agree, somewhat. I worked on the first Xerox Star system in Canada in 1980, about four years before the Mac was introduced (I also worked with the Lisa, Mac's mom). Personally, I think Xerox was incredibly stupid to walk away from the technology, but the Star had everything the first Mac UI did - icons, mouse, WYSIWYG word processing, etc. Jobs freely admits he toured Xerox's PARC facility in the early 80's, and that he saw the Star while there. In his defense, I think this was before this nonsense of broad software patents had emerged (as opposed to specific software patents, covering a particular program implementation, like Lotus 1-2-3; you could build a spreadsheet if you wanted to, but you couldn't copy Lotus's code. Note that Lotus was not the first spreadsheet, either; VisiCalc was.) Apple was more successful because they worked with others to develop better applications. I still think Lotus Jazz was years before its time. But for anyone to claim that M$ stole the graphical UI concept from Apple, well, they're just plain wrong.
Gee, what happened to OneFish, and the RedFish and BlueFish?
You must be new here.
I worked for a distributor of VMX voicemail systems in the early 90's (they were later acquired by Octel). They had a working "visual voicemail" application at the time. You could open up a window on your PC, see a list of all the messages in your voicemail box, including (if the Caller ID was available) the number, the time and date the message was left, message length, whether the caller had flagged it urgent, and for older messages, whether you had returned it (available only on networked systems). If you had opted for our fax-mail system, the system would also show all your incoming fax messages.
So when does this Klausner dude claim to have patented this? TFA didn't say.
Sincerely, I thank all of you. There are so many times here when responses make me laugh out loud, but I don't have any mod points. Like all would-be comedians, my goal is to make people laugh; if that worked, I'm happy.
I'm sure you have some interesting ideas. Please, return, and share them with us after you've learned to express them coherently.
It's no wonder you post as an AC. Don't you see how many people here are stumping for Ron Paul for President (even Canadians like me)? I'm as libertarian as you can get, which is completely opposed to left-wing rabble-rousing. (I shudder at the idea of Hillary or Edwards or Obama as prez!)
So, here are my suggestions for you:
1 - Reread Nineteeneightyfour. Pay particular attention to the part where O'Brien explains to Winston that the purpose of having so many laws isn't to improve safety or security, but to make everyone a criminal so they'll be frightened, scared, and controlled. Objecting to that isn't left or right wing; it's objecting to totalitarianism, which has never been an attractive political philosophy, whether it was right-wing (Spain under Franco, Italy under Mussolini), or left-wing (Russia, China, Cuba, etc.).
2 - Go listen to the Star-spangled Banner again. Pay particular attention to the last line, which asks if your flag still waves "o'er the land of the free". With the government literally demanding the right to do random anal probes just because you want to get on an airplane, do you still think you live up to your anthem?
Note that I'm not saying Canada is any better, but we don't hold ourselves up to the world as "the shining city on the hill". If you're going to claim you're better than every other country in the world, then for God's sake, live up to it. Otherwise, shut your sanctimonious, anonymous, cowardly trap.
I have to ask: are those insensitive clods?
Beginning January 31, 2008, U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 19 and over will need to present a government-issued photo ID such as a driver's license, and proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, naturalization certificate or passport to enter the U.S. by land or sea.
A passport or NEXUS, SENTRI or FAST card will be accepted as ID and citizenship requirements. Border Crossing Cards will continue to be accepted documents for Mexican citizens to meet both requirements.
As early as summer 2008, all travelers who enter or depart the U.S. by any means (land, sea or air) will be required to have a valid passport, NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST, Border Crossing Card or other acceptable document.
From what I understand, some states are creating an "Enhanced Driver's License" that will be considered an acceptable document on its own, but I have no idea when those will be available. So, pack your passport or birth certificate if you're coming north.
And bring me a carton of Lucky's, will ya?
Er, how many times do you want to punish people? I had a DUI conviction over 7 years ago in Canada; my license was suspended for 15 months, I paid a large fine (and legal fees), and my insurance rates tripled when I got my license back. I had to take a remedial course on DUI, at my own expense.
So if I want to go skiing in western NY later this year, should I be "punished" again by being denied entry? Even if my wife is driving? Even if I have zero BAC? I thought the deal was you served your time, and then you weren't punished for that particular crime again. Now you're telling me that any border guard can deny me entry for the next 40 years because I have a "criminal record"? Thanks.
I know what you mean and I wish someone had modded you up "Funny", but seriously .. my girls have other PC-based games, and while they enjoy them, those games NEVER elicited the shrieks and "my turn, gimme, gimme" that the Wii does. There were 5 girls at the party, and all 5 were jumping up and down like maniacs although only one was playing. Again, as a geezer parent, I want my girls playing games that aren't about death, destruction, and blood. I think the Wii gives me greater options there than Xbox or PS3.
I think you mean La Nina.
I have two daughters, 10 and 13, who seem to have no compunctions about releasing all their personal data on Facebook and Myspace. I keep telling them security is important, and they shouldn't be releasing their full names, school, pets, etc., as those are usually part of passwords. I'm not sure they listen. I'm also sure that's because they have no idea of the stakes involved. We keep the value of their trust funds secret, but the two are worth over $300k today, and we are budgeting $500k for their education in the future. If this NZ kid's exploits prevented either one of my daughters from attending the school of their choose, I'd want to make him pretty pay dearly.
My suggestion: put him in jail for a few months (not years); then he might realize his freedom is worth more to him than other people's money.
Very well may be true. I don't go into HMV stores (no one close, and not much music I'm interested in buying), and while there's an EB Games store just south of me on Yonge Street, I have to admit I've never stepped into the store. So I'll concede that some of the smaller retailers may have stock, but the "big box" retailers are consistently sold out. I'd further suggest that most Canadians, if asked where to get a Wii, would say Zellers, Wal-Mart, Can Tire, Future Shop, maybe Sears; until you mentioned it, I would never have considered EB or HMV. If they actually have Wii units sitting on their shelves, I'd say they've done a pretty crappy job of marketing. Nearly zero share of mind.
Yes, the worst ten years of my life were the four years I spent in Ottawa. (apologies to Mark Twain)