Yes, but people were "borrowing" music from Bach even when he was still alive - back then, sheet music was closely guarded to stop the unauthorized spread of a composer's music. Of course, musical geniuses like Mozart could listen to a piece being performed and then write down all the sheet music, anyway...
What I mean to say here is that this problem is not even remotely new. Composers and songwriters have been stealing music from their peers since the dawn of "recorded" music (that's recorded as in "written down").
So, ditch all the high-tech, and make driving a car dangerous.
Sounds like a great idea - my hour-long commute still had a tiny bit of enjoyment to it.
If there was a reasonable alternative to driving to work, I'd do it, but right now, there are no other options (public transportation, carpooling, move closer to work, etc.) open to me, unless I want to change "1 hour each way" into "3 hours each way". My choices are to drive to work, or to have no life outside of work. Unfortunately, there are too many people in the country in my situation - public transportation is either not available, or doesn't take them where they need to go.
That's only true if you're moderately short-sighted, and can still manage to read the words on the screen without correction.
If you're as severely short-sighted as I am, you'll end up hunched over the keyboard with your nose an inch away from the monitor. That can't possibly be good for you.
I'm not bitter - in fact, I enjoyed my last year and a half of college much more than the earlier years, because I switched to computer science for that last year and a half. I ran into very little discrimination or unwanted attention, but I was very intimidated by my classmates who ate, slept, and breathed computers and the "geeky" lifestyle. I was (and still am) angry at the girls who played up the "dumb chick" angle to get guys to do their work for them, but I guess that will happen in any male-dominated field.
A little of my bitterness comes from the real world after college, where many people automatically assume that my husband knows more than I do, even though we have the same degree. But if someone asks him a question that's in my field of knowledge, he directs them over to me, self-deprecatingly (he tells them I'm smarter than he is).
I am so grateful to my parents, for constantly reinforcing that I could do anything I put my mind to, and encouraging me to go as far as I could in math and science. Most of my highschool friends did not get the same encouragement, for whatever reason.
I urge anyone reading this thread to buy and read Unlocking the Clubhouse, which containes analysis of a study done through several hundred interviews with Carnegie-Mellon CS undergrads.
Lots of women drop out of CS because they feel like they need to be "perfect" to compete with the guys - even if they're already getting better scores than the guys. Most women in CS also don't have the same background with computers coming in to college that their male counterparts do. They probably had access to a computer, but most male CS majors already had their own PC for years before starting college.
The "socialization" (if you can call it that) in the CS world also discourages women. Even if they're not being drooled on or ignored by the guys, they're often looked down on, as if they were stupid. (Because every guy knows that having a vagina means you can't understand electronics.) They also feel that they have to be geeks and talk about nothing but computers - they see that kind of passion in the guys and figure that they have to be just as single-minded if they're going to succeed. Some simply give up and slip back into the "expected" role of women: "I don't understand these 'computer' things, they're so complicated. Can you help me?"
When I read this book, I kept saying, "That's me! I thought I was the only one!" In talking to the (few) other female CS majors I knew, I found that they felt the same way.
In a perfect world, I imagine that there would still be more men than women in CS, but it would be a much closer gap (maybe 60/40 or so). I don't pretend that this field is interesting to everyone, but there are so many girls out there who would love to try it if they could do it without becoming a "nerd". It's not that the field intentionally pushes women out, it's just that they're wired differently, and express their interest in computers differently; and because there are so many men in the field, these views are in the minority.
Yeah, it sucks a lot. They give a bad name to the ones who actually do the work.
When I was just starting in CS, I was having trouble with an assignment, and my boyfriend offered to do it for me. Hell no! I had to explain to him that I was struggling through this because I wanted to understand it. I didn't want to simply pass the class.. if I just wanted to pass classes and get some random degree, I would have gone into a liberal arts field.
1) It's not just state schools, and it does depend heavily on the program. My alma mater, an private engineering school, has many people that we call "super seniors" (5th year) or "super-duper seniors" (6th year). This usually happens because they failed a few classes - once you fail more than 2 or 3, you are beginning to fall behind in your requirements. A few (like me) didn't fail anything, but switched majors late in their academic career. And with yearly tuition over $30,000 (not including room & board), those extra classes add up really quickly.
2) It's not the lack of direction that's holding you back... well, it is, but it's your own fault. I realized (too late) that your assigned academic advisor is a suggestion. If their advice isn't useful to you, ignore it. Find a professor who you respect and ask their advice instead. And you can't be afraid of doing real research to figure out what you need to do to meet your goals. They're your own goals, not anyone else's (or at least they should be)!
Good Project Managers hear from the developer 5 days, assume delivery in 4 days and promise it to the customers in 3 days.
No, that's a bad project manager... or possibly a bad salesperson.
Good project managers are the other way around: If they hear "5 days" from the developer, they promise it to the customer in 6. This allows a little time for QA testing if the developer gets it done within his 5 days... and allows for a small buffer if the developer doesn't get it done on time.
The parent comment encapsulates my feeling about female avatars. I don't mind that they are disproportional; most people like to pretend that they are attractive when playing a game. What I mind is when all of a character's clothing and movement emphasize their unreal physical "assets".
Years ago, I stumbled across a whole cache of audiobook-tapes that were dramatizations of short stories by Ray Bradbury. I'm not a big fan of Bradbury's writing - I think he has good ideas, but poor execution. In radio drama, however, that was completely turned around. His sci-fi horror/suspense makes for great radio. I wish I could remember the name or publisher, but it was great stuff.
If you can dig up any of the old radio-dramas (The Shadow, War of the Worlds, Dimension X, etc.), it's well worth it. Poking around, I found this site, which seems to have quite a bit of classic radio drama at a decent price... I think some of these CDs will be going onto my Christmas wish-list:)
Audio books are excellent time-fillers for long car trips, where reading a traditional book would give me motion-sickness. It's also a good way to "share" a book with other people; much like watching a movie together with your friends.
My personal favorites are audiobooks that are staged like radio drama, with multiple voice-actors and sound effects. Listening to these encourages me to use my imagination as if I was reading the book - what do the characters look like? What are they doing now? What was that "thump" just now?
Futurismic - a monthly e-magazine (focused on futuristic stories and articles about future technology), also donation-supported.
I've been reading both of these for a few months now, and the stories are great! I'm planning to donate in their fund drives, because I think the quality is superb.
You make excellent points. I have just one nitpick:
any manual transmission cars now lack a tachometer, electing to have two lights: Shift Up, and "Shift Down."
Most of the ones I've seen recently (such as my 2002 Ford Focus) only have one light: "Shift Up". I guess they figure that you'll know when to shift down yourself.
Did you even read what CmdrTaco wrote? They have a reason NOT to go to XHTML, at least for now. But he leaves the possibility open.
We're not going to XHTML for the same reasons as above- we control almost all of our HTML, but some of it (like the ads, and imports from other sites) just isn't ours to muck about with. We could go to XHTML, and someday we might...
There are several browsers (and other tools, like XML parsers) out there that will break if an XHTML format doesn't validate as perfect XML. Since Slashdot does not control all of the code they pull in (especially ads, but also comments - neither of which are guaranteed to be valid XHTML), they want to play it safe.
Ever since the November 2003 article on A List Apart, I've been wondering if this day would come. Almost two years later, it looks like it's finally here!
Having worked on smaller sites, I can imagine how difficult this change was. I took a quick peek at the code; it's so much cleaner now, and it loads so much faster! Congratulations, guys.
There's a difference between a game/console/website/magazine/etc being "pitched to" children and "appropriate for" children. Ever see something touted as a "family" game? That means (or should mean) it is appropriate for children, but adults will like it too. Some examples of this include: Pikmin, DDR, Katamari Damacy...
Games like this have the parents saying to their kids "Just let me play for a few more minutes, then it will be your turn." That's exactly why these games are so popular. Since when did a game have to be "mature" to be good?
I worked at Toys R Us about 5 years ago, and we had to type in a phone # before we could even start scanning items at the register.
It was fine - we simply entered the store phone number or 555-555-5555 when someone said "no" (or if they had 3 screaming kids, etc.). Then some manager noticed how often this was happening, and cracked down on the cashiers - "We MUST have a phone number!" At this point, most cashiers began simply entering their home phones instead.
I still think it's a stupid policy in general - they're trying to put you on a mailing list by reverse-matching your phone number to an address. Thankfully, my husband and I have cell-phones and no landline, so we tell that to any cashier who asks. I think I've only had one place ask again for the number once I've told them that.
I support a family of five on less then $46,752 per year. That's good money.
Good for you. Remember, this is the average - across ALL ages of teachers and ALL regions of the U.S.
Where do you live? - If you're on the East Coast (north of D.C.) or in California, I applaud you. You must have a fantastic budget to make it work.
Does your spouse work? Is their income included in that number above? If they couldn't work, would you still be able to support your family?
Do you have student loans to pay off? - This is the big one for my husband and me. Our student loan debt roughly equals our combined income for one full year. It will take roughly 7 years to pay them off if we are able to keep paying at the same rate we are now. This assumes that both of us will be working and we will not have children during that time period. If anything changes to lower our income, we will be in debt for a much longer period of time, and we may not even be able to make our minimum payments. This does not take into account car loans or a mortgage.
Funny, I'm almost the opposite way (for nearly the same reason). My parents (and, to a lesser extent, my teachers) encouraged my voracious reading as a young'un, and all I ever read was fiction. As an adult, I find it extremely hard to keep the vigilance to read through any piece of non-fiction, no matter how well written, because my brain says "This isn't fun! Go read a story!" I wish someone would have tailored those reading-award programs (like Book-it) to acknowledge the fact that reading fiction was fun and easy for me, and instead require me to read stuff that wasn't as fun or easy.
I think kids should be encouraged to read whatever they like, but I also think they forced to read at least some fiction and some non-fiction.
I agree with everything you said, but I have to comment on 2 of your points:
more emphasis on (mathematics) basics. Get rid of the calculators, at least until after the fundamentals are assuredly learned. Make students learn how to use slide rules, for the sake and feel of what is really happening during calculations (addition of log tables... illustrates nice short cuts for coming up with fast and accurate estimates for seemingly complex "problems")
Yes and no. I thought I was absolutely horrible at math, until I got to algebra (in 7th or 8th grade). Turns out, I grasped the fundamentals just fine, but drilling me on them didn't help. Once I used arithmetic in more complex problems, I began to be able to do multiplication and division in my head - simply because I was now getting practice instead of rote repetition. Slide rules and other shortcuts are fine, but I'd add interesting math & algebra problems to elementary education instead of spending the first 5-6 years of math focusing solely on recitation of arithmetic facts.
stop moving kids onto the next grade if they really didn't perform at the level necessary. It's become an "everybody gets a trophy" society, and that's not consistent with the real world. Kids more than ever need to understand rewards and accountability.
I agree with this sentiment totally. Unfortunately, No Child Left Behind makes this nearly impossible. It's supposed to help with this problem, but really it means that every teacher is pressured to teach towards the assessment test, because every child that is held back decreases the school's funding.
I actually always thought that the "TV license" model made a lot of sense. Better than how PBS/NPR is funded in the U.S. Public TV and radio stations get a certain percentage of their funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (which is in turn funded from tax dollars), with the rest of their funding coming from viewers/listeners who care enough to pay the stations to keep their programming on the air. Ever heard of a "fund drive"? Most proponents of public broadcasting put up with these drives 4 times a year, because they know it's the only way their local station can make enough money to stay on the air.
But then again, there is plenty of controversy now over how much money the CPB should get and whether or not NPR/PBS programs have an innate "liberal bias". (I'm pretty conservative, and the programs that I hear/see are always very balanced. If it looks like they have a liberal bias, it's only because the corporate media have a very conservative bent.)
Funny, I went to a fairly good, middle-class public school in the suburbs in upstate NY, but there were recruiters in the cafeteria pretty often.
Once, one of them started up a conversation with me, trying to convince me to enlist in the Navy. He was somewhat put-off when I told him that I was planning to go to college immediately after highschool, and the only way I might join would be through ROTC.
The only reason people I know would enlist was if they weren't ready for college (or couldn't get accepted to college). ROTC makes more sense for anyone planning to get post-secondary education.
This definitely affects me, too. As a cousin to this post said - I've been known for a super attention-span - I can get into a book or a piece of code and tune out everything else. But that's getting a lot harder to do; I'm noticing a tendency to skim more and more of the information I get (books, emails, conversations).
This becomes an issue at work when I miss important details, and it can also become an issue when talking with my husband - I go off on a tangent ("multiplexing") and he's confused, because we haven't finished talking about the first topic yet! Then again, without him to keep me focused, the problem would probably be a lot worse.
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Yes, but people were "borrowing" music from Bach even when he was still alive - back then, sheet music was closely guarded to stop the unauthorized spread of a composer's music. Of course, musical geniuses like Mozart could listen to a piece being performed and then write down all the sheet music, anyway...
What I mean to say here is that this problem is not even remotely new. Composers and songwriters have been stealing music from their peers since the dawn of "recorded" music (that's recorded as in "written down").
So, ditch all the high-tech, and make driving a car dangerous.
Sounds like a great idea - my hour-long commute still had a tiny bit of enjoyment to it.
If there was a reasonable alternative to driving to work, I'd do it, but right now, there are no other options (public transportation, carpooling, move closer to work, etc.) open to me, unless I want to change "1 hour each way" into "3 hours each way". My choices are to drive to work, or to have no life outside of work. Unfortunately, there are too many people in the country in my situation - public transportation is either not available, or doesn't take them where they need to go.
That's only true if you're moderately short-sighted, and can still manage to read the words on the screen without correction.
If you're as severely short-sighted as I am, you'll end up hunched over the keyboard with your nose an inch away from the monitor. That can't possibly be good for you.
I'm not bitter - in fact, I enjoyed my last year and a half of college much more than the earlier years, because I switched to computer science for that last year and a half. I ran into very little discrimination or unwanted attention, but I was very intimidated by my classmates who ate, slept, and breathed computers and the "geeky" lifestyle. I was (and still am) angry at the girls who played up the "dumb chick" angle to get guys to do their work for them, but I guess that will happen in any male-dominated field.
A little of my bitterness comes from the real world after college, where many people automatically assume that my husband knows more than I do, even though we have the same degree. But if someone asks him a question that's in my field of knowledge, he directs them over to me, self-deprecatingly (he tells them I'm smarter than he is).
I am so grateful to my parents, for constantly reinforcing that I could do anything I put my mind to, and encouraging me to go as far as I could in math and science. Most of my highschool friends did not get the same encouragement, for whatever reason.
I urge anyone reading this thread to buy and read Unlocking the Clubhouse, which containes analysis of a study done through several hundred interviews with Carnegie-Mellon CS undergrads.
Lots of women drop out of CS because they feel like they need to be "perfect" to compete with the guys - even if they're already getting better scores than the guys. Most women in CS also don't have the same background with computers coming in to college that their male counterparts do. They probably had access to a computer, but most male CS majors already had their own PC for years before starting college.
The "socialization" (if you can call it that) in the CS world also discourages women. Even if they're not being drooled on or ignored by the guys, they're often looked down on, as if they were stupid. (Because every guy knows that having a vagina means you can't understand electronics.) They also feel that they have to be geeks and talk about nothing but computers - they see that kind of passion in the guys and figure that they have to be just as single-minded if they're going to succeed. Some simply give up and slip back into the "expected" role of women: "I don't understand these 'computer' things, they're so complicated. Can you help me?"
When I read this book, I kept saying, "That's me! I thought I was the only one!" In talking to the (few) other female CS majors I knew, I found that they felt the same way.
In a perfect world, I imagine that there would still be more men than women in CS, but it would be a much closer gap (maybe 60/40 or so). I don't pretend that this field is interesting to everyone, but there are so many girls out there who would love to try it if they could do it without becoming a "nerd". It's not that the field intentionally pushes women out, it's just that they're wired differently, and express their interest in computers differently; and because there are so many men in the field, these views are in the minority.
Yeah, it sucks a lot. They give a bad name to the ones who actually do the work.
When I was just starting in CS, I was having trouble with an assignment, and my boyfriend offered to do it for me. Hell no! I had to explain to him that I was struggling through this because I wanted to understand it. I didn't want to simply pass the class.. if I just wanted to pass classes and get some random degree, I would have gone into a liberal arts field.
There are a few flaws in your statement.
1) It's not just state schools, and it does depend heavily on the program. My alma mater, an private engineering school, has many people that we call "super seniors" (5th year) or "super-duper seniors" (6th year). This usually happens because they failed a few classes - once you fail more than 2 or 3, you are beginning to fall behind in your requirements. A few (like me) didn't fail anything, but switched majors late in their academic career. And with yearly tuition over $30,000 (not including room & board), those extra classes add up really quickly.
2) It's not the lack of direction that's holding you back... well, it is, but it's your own fault. I realized (too late) that your assigned academic advisor is a suggestion. If their advice isn't useful to you, ignore it. Find a professor who you respect and ask their advice instead. And you can't be afraid of doing real research to figure out what you need to do to meet your goals. They're your own goals, not anyone else's (or at least they should be)!
Good Project Managers hear from the developer 5 days, assume delivery in 4 days and promise it to the customers in 3 days.
No, that's a bad project manager... or possibly a bad salesperson.
Good project managers are the other way around: If they hear "5 days" from the developer, they promise it to the customer in 6. This allows a little time for QA testing if the developer gets it done within his 5 days... and allows for a small buffer if the developer doesn't get it done on time.
The parent comment encapsulates my feeling about female avatars. I don't mind that they are disproportional; most people like to pretend that they are attractive when playing a game. What I mind is when all of a character's clothing and movement emphasize their unreal physical "assets".
Years ago, I stumbled across a whole cache of audiobook-tapes that were dramatizations of short stories by Ray Bradbury. I'm not a big fan of Bradbury's writing - I think he has good ideas, but poor execution. In radio drama, however, that was completely turned around. His sci-fi horror/suspense makes for great radio. I wish I could remember the name or publisher, but it was great stuff.
:)
If you can dig up any of the old radio-dramas (The Shadow, War of the Worlds, Dimension X, etc.), it's well worth it. Poking around, I found this site, which seems to have quite a bit of classic radio drama at a decent price... I think some of these CDs will be going onto my Christmas wish-list
Audio books are excellent time-fillers for long car trips, where reading a traditional book would give me motion-sickness. It's also a good way to "share" a book with other people; much like watching a movie together with your friends.
My personal favorites are audiobooks that are staged like radio drama, with multiple voice-actors and sound effects. Listening to these encourages me to use my imagination as if I was reading the book - what do the characters look like? What are they doing now? What was that "thump" just now?
Want to read more free/cheap sci-fi and fantasy?
Strange Horizons - a weekly e-magazine, donation-supported.
Futurismic - a monthly e-magazine (focused on futuristic stories and articles about future technology), also donation-supported.
I've been reading both of these for a few months now, and the stories are great! I'm planning to donate in their fund drives, because I think the quality is superb.
Glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought that...
But then again, isn't the SkyCar as much a work of fiction as Brooks' Kingdom of Landover?
You make excellent points. I have just one nitpick:
any manual transmission cars now lack a tachometer, electing to have two lights: Shift Up, and "Shift Down."
Most of the ones I've seen recently (such as my 2002 Ford Focus) only have one light: "Shift Up". I guess they figure that you'll know when to shift down yourself.
There are several browsers (and other tools, like XML parsers) out there that will break if an XHTML format doesn't validate as perfect XML. Since Slashdot does not control all of the code they pull in (especially ads, but also comments - neither of which are guaranteed to be valid XHTML), they want to play it safe.
Ever since the November 2003 article on A List Apart, I've been wondering if this day would come. Almost two years later, it looks like it's finally here!
Having worked on smaller sites, I can imagine how difficult this change was. I took a quick peek at the code; it's so much cleaner now, and it loads so much faster! Congratulations, guys.
There's a difference between a game/console/website/magazine/etc being "pitched to" children and "appropriate for" children. Ever see something touted as a "family" game? That means (or should mean) it is appropriate for children, but adults will like it too. Some examples of this include: Pikmin, DDR, Katamari Damacy...
Games like this have the parents saying to their kids "Just let me play for a few more minutes, then it will be your turn." That's exactly why these games are so popular. Since when did a game have to be "mature" to be good?
I worked at Toys R Us about 5 years ago, and we had to type in a phone # before we could even start scanning items at the register.
It was fine - we simply entered the store phone number or 555-555-5555 when someone said "no" (or if they had 3 screaming kids, etc.). Then some manager noticed how often this was happening, and cracked down on the cashiers - "We MUST have a phone number!" At this point, most cashiers began simply entering their home phones instead.
I still think it's a stupid policy in general - they're trying to put you on a mailing list by reverse-matching your phone number to an address. Thankfully, my husband and I have cell-phones and no landline, so we tell that to any cashier who asks. I think I've only had one place ask again for the number once I've told them that.
I support a family of five on less then $46,752 per year. That's good money.
Good for you. Remember, this is the average - across ALL ages of teachers and ALL regions of the U.S.
Where do you live?
- If you're on the East Coast (north of D.C.) or in California, I applaud you. You must have a fantastic budget to make it work.
Does your spouse work? Is their income included in that number above? If they couldn't work, would you still be able to support your family?
Do you have student loans to pay off?
- This is the big one for my husband and me. Our student loan debt roughly equals our combined income for one full year. It will take roughly 7 years to pay them off if we are able to keep paying at the same rate we are now. This assumes that both of us will be working and we will not have children during that time period. If anything changes to lower our income, we will be in debt for a much longer period of time, and we may not even be able to make our minimum payments. This does not take into account car loans or a mortgage.
Funny, I'm almost the opposite way (for nearly the same reason). My parents (and, to a lesser extent, my teachers) encouraged my voracious reading as a young'un, and all I ever read was fiction. As an adult, I find it extremely hard to keep the vigilance to read through any piece of non-fiction, no matter how well written, because my brain says "This isn't fun! Go read a story!" I wish someone would have tailored those reading-award programs (like Book-it) to acknowledge the fact that reading fiction was fun and easy for me, and instead require me to read stuff that wasn't as fun or easy.
I think kids should be encouraged to read whatever they like, but I also think they forced to read at least some fiction and some non-fiction.
I'm 23, and I diagrammed sentences a few times in (private) elementary school. I don't think we ever got past adjectives & adverbs, though.
I agree with this sentiment totally. Unfortunately, No Child Left Behind makes this nearly impossible. It's supposed to help with this problem, but really it means that every teacher is pressured to teach towards the assessment test, because every child that is held back decreases the school's funding.
I actually always thought that the "TV license" model made a lot of sense. Better than how PBS/NPR is funded in the U.S. Public TV and radio stations get a certain percentage of their funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (which is in turn funded from tax dollars), with the rest of their funding coming from viewers/listeners who care enough to pay the stations to keep their programming on the air. Ever heard of a "fund drive"? Most proponents of public broadcasting put up with these drives 4 times a year, because they know it's the only way their local station can make enough money to stay on the air.
But then again, there is plenty of controversy now over how much money the CPB should get and whether or not NPR/PBS programs have an innate "liberal bias". (I'm pretty conservative, and the programs that I hear/see are always very balanced. If it looks like they have a liberal bias, it's only because the corporate media have a very conservative bent.)
Funny, I went to a fairly good, middle-class public school in the suburbs in upstate NY, but there were recruiters in the cafeteria pretty often.
Once, one of them started up a conversation with me, trying to convince me to enlist in the Navy. He was somewhat put-off when I told him that I was planning to go to college immediately after highschool, and the only way I might join would be through ROTC.
The only reason people I know would enlist was if they weren't ready for college (or couldn't get accepted to college). ROTC makes more sense for anyone planning to get post-secondary education.
This definitely affects me, too. As a cousin to this post said - I've been known for a super attention-span - I can get into a book or a piece of code and tune out everything else. But that's getting a lot harder to do; I'm noticing a tendency to skim more and more of the information I get (books, emails, conversations).
This becomes an issue at work when I miss important details, and it can also become an issue when talking with my husband - I go off on a tangent ("multiplexing") and he's confused, because we haven't finished talking about the first topic yet! Then again, without him to keep me focused, the problem would probably be a lot worse.