I don't know what it is, but I know its not a cell phone. The lady in question appears to be the same age as my mother. She lives in the era of cell phones and has trouble because there is no rotary thing, just buttons; ergo, this old lady can not be using a cell phone or a time travel device. (unless the buttons were really big)
Today we live in an A' La Carte society. The gov't has deemed us smart enough to know what kind of insurance and service we need and want. And we pay for each and everyone of them. For the smart people, they will assess their situation and purchase appropriate coverage's and service. Many of us would deem fire protection a necessity . Along with things like health ins. (which seems like a waste until you are sick) or even auto insurance. But the reality is that "stuff happens", and unfortunately this A' La Carte society allows people to make the choice between health coverage or a new mustang. Smart people, will look at the shiny mustang and start saving. Darwin's proof population will look at the insurance bill and post in the "pay later" spike only to bury the other 10 "optional" bills that were delayed for the large screen TV and Pay Per View WWE event. Unfortunately, these people are hazardous not only to themselves but the rest of society. See the pets and neighbor in the article. Government serves to serve the general population, and I for one would like them to mandate payment through taxes for things like healthcare, fire, police, roads, all of the basic services that ensure society runs (albeit to my standards). The payment for these services should be in the form of Taxes. They are as optional as death, but it is also what keeps our society functioning.
Well, if 50 is young in your book, then I guess I am a young gun. And I disagree with your bargaining power statement.
There once was a company with a great machine that borked. Consultant after consultant was brought in to unbork the great machine. After a couple of years, management finally called in the high priced expert. The expert walked in, looked around for 5 min and pressed a button. The machine roared to life. Upon presenting his $150k bill management asked, isnt that a little excessive for 5 min of work? All of these other consultants didnt charge that much and they worked for months! The expert then commented that its not the time, its the knowledge and knowing which button to press.
In the above scenario, two people made serious money. The agent of all the consultants (head hunter or union) as 2 years worth of fees were collected. And the expert. You can either be the union boss or the expert if you want to make serious cash. The consultants are still looking for their next project as the union boss and expert sip single malts together looking for the next borked machine/process.
My greatest card when bargaining is my history of successful projects, knowledge, and presentation that raises me above the "large labor force". I try to represent myself as something worth more than the average worker. Thus I have had an extremely successful career so far.
As far as Dad goes. He ran his company as like this:
Workers were required to work hard. Sometimes overtime, which he paid OT rates for (dont forget tinbashers are trade) For this hard work, he bought every worker and their wife a trip to hawaii. Another year, they all went to vegas. Each year he would try and do something like this. Staff took the company trucks home instead of driving their own vehicles. In becoming a Union shop, the biggest factor was the "stability" a union shop provided. However, this gave some of the guys the "I will report it to the union" card. So in trade for the stability, the trips disappeared, the trucks stayed in the yard, breaks became regulation 15 min, ie work to rule. Dad was 62 years old and said, Mexico sounds real good, and I have a buyer... Why not retire a couple of years early? (I hope to retire in 5 years)
I worked as a prof in a local college that had a "Professional Association" (read expensive union)
When I stated that I would prefer not to join, I was told it was a requirement. But they asked why. I told them, I would rather negotiate my employment conditions as I could do a more effective job representing my skills and their value than a simple grid that listed years of experience and years of education. As an example. I earned the same salary teaching Advanced C Programming (yes this was a while ago) and earned the same salary as the prof teaching a high school math upgrader. My marking alone took many more hours than the multiple choice exams my office mate had.
In 1996 the college went through a downsizing. Since I was the last man hired, I was the first man to be released. The students actually demonstrated to keep me. ( I was the only prof who had actually done real development work in C, the others that they kept actually sat in my lecture in the morning and attempted to reteach in their afternoon block )
At one point, I thought I would try and work with the system. I booked a meeting with my union rep and made a proposal for a 3rd dimension on the salary grid. Course difficulty. I actually had it mapped out quite well with research from the colleges own industry reports where salary would now be based on length of employment, education, and teaching load. Where the classes were ranked on load. This would then become the 3rd dimension to the grid. I even volunteered to present it at the next meeting.
The answer I got was, "This looks nice, but you elected me as a representative, it is my job to decide what should be put in collective agreements. You then vote on what your union officials decree". My proposal never got a second meeting, nor acknowledgment anywhere.
When the downsizing happened, students complained (in numbers) to the dean, I even suggested to some that they try the union. The information I got back from the union was that they agreed with the college about downsizing so that they could maintain the current salary grid for those remaining. Now if you look at this politically. If you want to maintain your rep seat, keep the people that are staying happy. To bad for those released, but they wont be paying dues next year.
Another example of a real union was the Transit Union. When I was going through school, I drove a bus at night to pay for my college. If a driver called in sick, dispatch could force you to drive a double shift, and once I drove a triple shift. However, because money was important, you were allowed to drive a shift for another driver and he would pay you. The only difference was, if you drove more than 48 hrs that week you were not allowed to pick up another shift. Here is the catch, Say you traded your Tuesday night shift to study and picked up someones shift on the weekend, and then on Wed, dispatch forced to drive an extra shift, you would not be allowed to drive the shift you traded for on the weekend because the time system said you had too many hours.
Off I went to the union meeting, asking that this be looked into. The membership in attendance voted almost unanimously, a couple of abstainers, in favor of discussing this with management and looking at it during the contract negotiations. This was the last I heard of the proposal. When I asked about it, I was told more important issues came up. Some of the items that did get negotiated were absurd at best. "Seat covers for the drivers seat" for example.
In the end any union or prof association I have ever belonged to has only managed to lower my salary to what I have been able to negotiate myself, collect fees from me, and not carry forward any of my concerns. Most were more interested in keeping their own rep posting.
Last example. My father owned a tin smith shop. He employed approximately 30ish tradesmen. One day a few of them got together and decided that it was time that the shop become a union shop. Sometimes you have t
This was the guy that Roland chased across the world, in the end, he didn't even know that he met his end. References were dragged in about him being flagg from the stand. The build up of the character was huge. In the end, he provided no insight or satisfaction to the hero. It made no difference really. I just showed how the whole story was a running creation with no overall story arc thought out. Walter simply became a loose end (like many others) that were simply dropped.
I also couldn't figure out the dialog shift. I read these a while ago so can't remember which book it was, but, they went from speaking normal to that strange farm dialect for the rest of the series. He explains that Roland picks up dialects, I can understand that. But then he should also loose that dialect in the next book.
There are lots of positives, here is one that says "dont waste your time"/* Spoilers */
It is some of Kings best and worst work. Where as most great works start of shaky and gain strength. Kings hits hard and strong in the first half, then crashes and burns. There are plot disconnects. Deux et Machina are a plenty even as the books themselves discount it as a cheap writers trick.
I personally am disappointed with myself for paying money for the last couple of books, but I kept thinking, it has to get better, the start was so strong, this is just a build up to a fantastic finish. And then the cork fell out of the gun...
We never see a stand off between Flag the ultimate bad guy, and Roland. In fact Flag is killed "out of hand" a long with a myriad of other characters. As a reader I want to be rewarded for investing my emotion into hating the bad guy. He deserves to die at the hands of hero in an epic confrontation.
I probably just dont understand the ending, and maybe he even did it first, but the whole, "it was a dream" didnt work for me. The fact that there was nothing in the dark tower, except memories could have been quite powerful, but to cause a reset because he didnt pickup the bugle? just lame. In the end the 7 books to get to the dark tower didnt mean anything. I think because King didnt know what it was either.
I predict that this will turn into another Lost ending (if it survives)
I have never read anything that had so much potential at the start and went down hill so far and so fast. My hope is that this new format will retain the "theme" of books. Loose the SK reference entirely and rewrite a decent ending. I also hope they treat the antagonists with a little more respect than SK did. to have an ultra antagonist for 6 books only to have him die in a random encounter with another antagonist, with confrontation with the protagonist is flawed just a little bit. Unless the other antagonist turns out to be the real mega. but alas the spider turns out to be trivial as well.
Sorry for the rant
I am excited by the format, howard, and initial concept. But this is one that I hope they deviate DRASTICALLY from the latter half of the books.
My view of the initial space race was that it was more of a political statement of "look how advanced we are! we can fly to the moon!" disguised as science. Sure it was exciting, but the real gain was in politics. Today, its just doesnt carry the political "wow" factor. Who cares when the average small country has the bomb. Robots were always better than sending people anyhow. As for mining, there are mines on the earth that are much more profitable to mine. You think we have issues with some miners down in a hole for 2 months, how are we ever going to lift that much into space and then get it back down without it burning up? We cant even mine the ocean floor effectively... Why head to space?
Yes it might be able to identify a "potential" terrorist by identifying them. However, if I remember correctly, you are innocent until proven guilty. So we have identified a potential terrorist, legitimately visiting his sick grandma in denver. He is flying with his toothbrush and shorts. So what. What we need to do is identify that the toothpaste is really an explosive. And if he is a good terrorist, he isn't going to carry the stuff on the plane with him, someone else will or it will be planted. We need to identify the potential weapons, as well as the people.
Do we bar a convicted criminal from flying after he has served his "20" year sentence and been released?
Not to mention all of the X-Ray/radiation issues and already suggested methods of potentially beating the system.
He did know how to use "in a classroom setting". But was one of the commercial pilots putting in time teaching. His instructors all used the multi function displays prevalent on new aircraft. (lots of discussions on information overload) It is a different skill, that needs practice. Like the poster above stated. Sometimes its nice to just do VFR flight, just make sure you can get there. None of his instructors were anal about location and heading like Dave was with me (he would go out of his way to see if I could get lost, said he lost lots of friends not being able to find their way back home).
It is like diving. Now that you mention it, it probably has a LOT to do with what you were taught. I only got certified as a diver 4 years ago, as such, we learned the dive tables as required, but I use an Atom 2 DC. Love the thing. BUT I still do a dive plan, I drive my daughter nuts with my "planning", even if we are just at a resort and doing a cattle boat dive. She thinks Im crazy with everything I carry "just in case" and calls me GI Joe.(no I'm not a tech diver, just recreational)
Its not that he couldn't, its just that he felt he depended too much on the GPS and that the focus of his training was very "tech" oriented. Mine was more about, well flying by the seat of your pants (if you have ever flown the old fleet canuck, it was fun simple aircraft. but simple is the operative word) We could use each others methods, just were at opposite ends of the proficiency scales. I credit him with spotting something he wanted to learn better. There are a lot of instructors that "know it all", then there are the good ones that learn from each student. (I still like my knee board though)
I like to think of an emergency as something you haven't planned for... You may never need the plan, but if you do, it just might save yours or someone else's life.
I admit to being a bit old fashioned and cautious. My nickname is "Safety Bob" because I am always the one with the first aid kit, rope, knife etc (basic kit).
That being said, I have rescued my fair share of distressed adventurer at the cost of my own excursion. I am that guy on the dive boat that brings a little bag and lends you the screw or fin strap that you never noticed was broken. The fact that I am posting on \. might tell you that I have something to do with IT. (Been a developer for while now, see the age posted above). I like my techy geeky nerding things. But I also like to disconnect. Where some people will use the GPS as primary navigation, I will pack it as backup in case things turn bad. We purposely have a cabin that has no phone or TV using solar power only.
I joke with my children, that they do it in their head and check with the calculator, I prefer to do on the calculator and check with my head, or at least have some form of verification. Every instrument in the cockpit can be verified by using one or two of the other instruments.
But you are correct, there are the real idiots out there that will press a panic button because its easy and their "right". Sometimes Darwin helps us out though and casts its net...
I am 50ish and pilot. I learned to fly when I was 17 flew for a bit (10 years ish), then had a family. I then decided to return to flying. I went back for some more training. The differences.
1st time: My instructor was an OLD WWII vet. A mean cuss that ALWAYS was trying to get me lost. I live in Central Alberta where land marks are few, its flat, and water lines can vary greatly from the charts. We used a map covered in wax paper, a pencil with 1" marks cut in to it and a watch. I never did get lost.
2nd time (25 yrs later): Modern aircraft, Cessna 172 instead of the 1947 fleet canuck. GPS as well as compass. Instruct must have been all of 6 or 7 (really about 25ish). Nice young kid, good skilled pilot. We went up for a refresher check out flight. Did a stall, spin, slow flight etc. (Oh yeah, he did smile at my knee board with the wax paper and pencil). At the end of the flight he said lets head for home and I banked the aircraft while he punched in the coords on the GPS. By the time he was done, I was already on the heading. He was mildly impressed.
We went for coffee and discussed the differences in our training. We both admitted that I could use some more training using the GPS. However he offered his time in trade get some more experience with my flight computer (plastic slide rule for headings and wind for the non pilots) and knee board. He recognized that if he ever did loose his GPS for what ever reason, a manual system might be good to know.
I look at all of the technology available to today's hikers, boaters (I have my skippers papers too), and pilots that forget about the mark I computer sitting on our shoulders. It provides a false sense of security. Everything is fine in the perfect scenario, but for many of these adventures, emergencies arise, not because of a real act of god but a lack of planning. When diving we say "Plan the dive, dive the plan". This should be applied to all "adventures" but we live in a society where the quick adventure is what we are after and fewer a learning how to plan and be prepared. We are quick to pass on the responsibility to technology or experts, knowing that we can sue if they fail.
The only answer I can see is passing on the expenses of rescues to the rescuees. Legit or otherwise. Might be a good thing to take out adventure insurance... The more training you have, the less the insurance would be...
I agree, but I deal with rainfall and watershed data. The engineers talk in 20, 50 and 100 year events and these are no where nailed down to any sort of accuracy. even the full 400 year measuring period is looking at is still 8.7e-7% of the lifespan of the sun we have looked at such a small window and drawn an assumption over that window. We are definitely going to be wrong. heck we cant even predict tomorrows weather accurately, let alone something we measuring at a distance, where we are still only theorizing about how it actually works. "slight" variances on a cosmic scale may not be measured in years.
The sun is 4.6 BILLION years old and we are concerned with a couple of years difference in the Solar Cycle? How many of our empirical evidence cycles have we measured in this sort of accuracy? The whole cycle measures within 2.3e-8% of its lifespan and we are surprised that we haven't got the accuracy narrowed down? What other natural phenomenon have we measured to this accuracy cause I would really like to see the ruler that was used...
To protect minors when accused of a crime. Yet the public has NO understanding of a charge and a conviction. This all too easy to accomplish. And what is worse is that it is so easy. At least with drugs, the "planter" still has to purchase and carry them. With the internet "Doing it with Goats" will provide lots of ammo for the would be planter. With the way people guard their passwords the planter doesn't even have to hack in or carry the material at all, nearly 0 risk. With Remote desktops, you don't event need to physically be at the computer.
So now when someone is accused, they are plastered all over the news without being convicted. The public paints them as guilty, and the accused, innocent or not, is ostracized.
It makes me wonder if we should protect the names of accused in cases like this until a conviction. Then again, a lot of the people charge are often in a position where I would really like to limit their access to our youth. A tough call either way.
It would be hard to even go after the guy alerting the police to the charge. It could simply be the IT admin doing a routine audit finding something that was "planted" by the janitor.
I think the only real defense is not to p!ss people off enough to go to these lengths.
They are cheap and generic, called, "IP Camera". Do a search on ebay, there is a guy in Hong Kong selling them I think. They link to each other so they can all be viewed from the same webpage. I wanted something cheap enough that if they got stolen I wouldn't be freaked out. They are easy enough to steal by breaking the mount. I drilled out the screws, but the mount is still breakable.
I like the gmailed picture because even if the thieves rip off the computer, I still have photos. Not fool proof by any stretch, but makes my place look less attractive than the other places on the block.
The only real protection from a determined thief is insurance with documentation.
When we signed up for $240/yr monitoring, I left specific instructions. "If the alarm goes off, call the police directly, not us or any contact. I will pay any false alarm fine. I live 2 min from the police station, so there is a chance of actually catching someone. Is this OK?" The answer was "You are the customer"
So, we went on holidays, game my mom the code, and a passcode if she tripped the alarm. Warned her that if she did expect the boys in blue. She is 81, was nervous and sure enough she tripped the alarm. So instead of cops, the security company called the house. My mom was flustered, couldnt answer the security question, but the monitoring agency figured she was too old to be a crook and told her how to reset the alarm. They couldn't understand why I was furious and canceled, after all they saved my mom an embarrassment.
so now, I purchased a couple of IP cameras that motion sense and an email to my gmail with a picture. As long as I have my phone, I see who is entering within a few minutes or less (typically 20s). Also makes it very hard for your kids to lie about what time they came home. The 4 cameras cost me $80 each on ebay, and I connected them to my wireless network. I can also at anytime now log into a web page and monitor the surroundings. So even in bed, I grab my iPhone, and have a look outside if I hear a noise.
We also did the 2 big black dogs. They are now part of the family and a great deterrent.
The problem I encountered was that the teachers themselves are often unable to obtain any other job. I have over 12 years of teaching experience. 2 at the local college. The rest as an Independent Consultant to the local colleges.
The problem starts with a salary issue. I could earn the same salary at the local college teaching first year electrical apprentices basic math as an advanced programming course. My salary was based on education * years of experience. The Union (er Teachers Association ensured that). Any decent developer, got a job developing for twice the salary. Those that couldnt get a job applied to the college. Admin complained about the quality of people, were constrained by the Union. I applied because my wife is a school teacher and we thought it would be good for us both to have similar holiday schedules. I lasted exactly 2 years.
I was hired at a time when windows 3.1 was just released and none of the staff new anything about windows programming. I spent my first year developing content. The 2nd year was spent teaching where, and I kid you not, I taught the course in the mornings where 2 of my "students" were teachers who repeat my lesson to different classes in the afternoon. When I got radical and suggested we teach an Assembler course so that the students would actually learn about CPU's, registers, memory, IO etc. I was told by a veteran teacher, "I have been teaching here for the last 17 years and all of our students seem to be doing well, what makes you think you can come in here and suggest curriculum changes?" (my assembler course would have replaced one of the COBOL courses that he taught. I further fell out of sync with the rest of the staff when I proposed a 4 for 5 program where staff was required to work 1 year out of 5 in the industry to gain some relative knowledge of what was really going on out there.
Today, when I look at my nephew wanting to do what uncle does, I looked at the course I used to teach. They still teach flow charting, there is still a COBOL course, a course in project management. A network management course, where the students actually follow the numbers to create AD groups and users with no actual explanation of what a domain is. (one of my staff is taking this course so that he can upgrade his status at work)
Graduates are having a hard time finding work with increased expectations. My own nephew is under the impression that he will earn 50k out of school. However, he is not interested in the local college because of the course content.
To get students interested, we need to entice quality teachers, not the unemployed. There truly are some great teachers/profs, but in my experience they are the exception, teaching as a lifestyle choice instead of a career. In order to do that, salaries need follow industry to some extent. We also need to remove things like teachers associations or at least structure them to create industry comparable practices and policies.
Once an enticing environment is provided, the students will come.
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I don't know what it is, but I know its not a cell phone. The lady in question appears to be the same age as my mother. She lives in the era of cell phones and has trouble because there is no rotary thing, just buttons; ergo, this old lady can not be using a cell phone or a time travel device. (unless the buttons were really big)
The leafs have not lost in regular time (1 OTL) and are in first place. Satan is buying winter coats and the Apocalypse is nigh.
Today we live in an A' La Carte society. The gov't has deemed us smart enough to know what kind of insurance and service we need and want. And we pay for each and everyone of them. For the smart people, they will assess their situation and purchase appropriate coverage's and service. Many of us would deem fire protection a necessity . Along with things like health ins. (which seems like a waste until you are sick) or even auto insurance.
But the reality is that "stuff happens", and unfortunately this A' La Carte society allows people to make the choice between health coverage or a new mustang. Smart people, will look at the shiny mustang and start saving. Darwin's proof population will look at the insurance bill and post in the "pay later" spike only to bury the other 10 "optional" bills that were delayed for the large screen TV and Pay Per View WWE event.
Unfortunately, these people are hazardous not only to themselves but the rest of society. See the pets and neighbor in the article. Government serves to serve the general population, and I for one would like them to mandate payment through taxes for things like healthcare, fire, police, roads, all of the basic services that ensure society runs (albeit to my standards). The payment for these services should be in the form of Taxes. They are as optional as death, but it is also what keeps our society functioning.
Well, if 50 is young in your book, then I guess I am a young gun. And I disagree with your bargaining power statement.
There once was a company with a great machine that borked. Consultant after consultant was brought in to unbork the great machine. After a couple of years, management finally called in the high priced expert. The expert walked in, looked around for 5 min and pressed a button. The machine roared to life. Upon presenting his $150k bill management asked, isnt that a little excessive for 5 min of work? All of these other consultants didnt charge that much and they worked for months! The expert then commented that its not the time, its the knowledge and knowing which button to press.
In the above scenario, two people made serious money. The agent of all the consultants (head hunter or union) as 2 years worth of fees were collected. And the expert. You can either be the union boss or the expert if you want to make serious cash. The consultants are still looking for their next project as the union boss and expert sip single malts together looking for the next borked machine/process.
My greatest card when bargaining is my history of successful projects, knowledge, and presentation that raises me above the "large labor force". I try to represent myself as something worth more than the average worker. Thus I have had an extremely successful career so far.
As far as Dad goes. He ran his company as like this:
Workers were required to work hard. Sometimes overtime, which he paid OT rates for (dont forget tinbashers are trade) For this hard work, he bought every worker and their wife a trip to hawaii. Another year, they all went to vegas. Each year he would try and do something like this. Staff took the company trucks home instead of driving their own vehicles. In becoming a Union shop, the biggest factor was the "stability" a union shop provided. However, this gave some of the guys the "I will report it to the union" card. So in trade for the stability, the trips disappeared, the trucks stayed in the yard, breaks became regulation 15 min, ie work to rule. Dad was 62 years old and said, Mexico sounds real good, and I have a buyer... Why not retire a couple of years early? (I hope to retire in 5 years)
I can
I worked as a prof in a local college that had a "Professional Association" (read expensive union)
When I stated that I would prefer not to join, I was told it was a requirement. But they asked why. I told them, I would rather negotiate my employment conditions as I could do a more effective job representing my skills and their value than a simple grid that listed years of experience and years of education. As an example. I earned the same salary teaching Advanced C Programming (yes this was a while ago) and earned the same salary as the prof teaching a high school math upgrader. My marking alone took many more hours than the multiple choice exams my office mate had.
In 1996 the college went through a downsizing. Since I was the last man hired, I was the first man to be released. The students actually demonstrated to keep me. ( I was the only prof who had actually done real development work in C, the others that they kept actually sat in my lecture in the morning and attempted to reteach in their afternoon block )
At one point, I thought I would try and work with the system. I booked a meeting with my union rep and made a proposal for a 3rd dimension on the salary grid. Course difficulty. I actually had it mapped out quite well with research from the colleges own industry reports where salary would now be based on length of employment, education, and teaching load. Where the classes were ranked on load. This would then become the 3rd dimension to the grid. I even volunteered to present it at the next meeting.
The answer I got was, "This looks nice, but you elected me as a representative, it is my job to decide what should be put in collective agreements. You then vote on what your union officials decree". My proposal never got a second meeting, nor acknowledgment anywhere.
When the downsizing happened, students complained (in numbers) to the dean, I even suggested to some that they try the union. The information I got back from the union was that they agreed with the college about downsizing so that they could maintain the current salary grid for those remaining. Now if you look at this politically. If you want to maintain your rep seat, keep the people that are staying happy. To bad for those released, but they wont be paying dues next year.
Another example of a real union was the Transit Union. When I was going through school, I drove a bus at night to pay for my college. If a driver called in sick, dispatch could force you to drive a double shift, and once I drove a triple shift. However, because money was important, you were allowed to drive a shift for another driver and he would pay you. The only difference was, if you drove more than 48 hrs that week you were not allowed to pick up another shift. Here is the catch, Say you traded your Tuesday night shift to study and picked up someones shift on the weekend, and then on Wed, dispatch forced to drive an extra shift, you would not be allowed to drive the shift you traded for on the weekend because the time system said you had too many hours.
Off I went to the union meeting, asking that this be looked into. The membership in attendance voted almost unanimously, a couple of abstainers, in favor of discussing this with management and looking at it during the contract negotiations. This was the last I heard of the proposal. When I asked about it, I was told more important issues came up. Some of the items that did get negotiated were absurd at best. "Seat covers for the drivers seat" for example.
In the end any union or prof association I have ever belonged to has only managed to lower my salary to what I have been able to negotiate myself, collect fees from me, and not carry forward any of my concerns. Most were more interested in keeping their own rep posting.
Last example. My father owned a tin smith shop. He employed approximately 30ish tradesmen. One day a few of them got together and decided that it was time that the shop become a union shop. Sometimes you have t
cut out a slice of their potential audience right from the start. But this is better left alone...
This was the guy that Roland chased across the world, in the end, he didn't even know that he met his end. References were dragged in about him being flagg from the stand. The build up of the character was huge. In the end, he provided no insight or satisfaction to the hero. It made no difference really. I just showed how the whole story was a running creation with no overall story arc thought out. Walter simply became a loose end (like many others) that were simply dropped. I also couldn't figure out the dialog shift. I read these a while ago so can't remember which book it was, but, they went from speaking normal to that strange farm dialect for the rest of the series. He explains that Roland picks up dialects, I can understand that. But then he should also loose that dialect in the next book.
There are lots of positives, here is one that says "dont waste your time" /* Spoilers */
It is some of Kings best and worst work. Where as most great works start of shaky and gain strength. Kings hits hard and strong in the first half, then crashes and burns. There are plot disconnects. Deux et Machina are a plenty even as the books themselves discount it as a cheap writers trick.
I personally am disappointed with myself for paying money for the last couple of books, but I kept thinking, it has to get better, the start was so strong, this is just a build up to a fantastic finish. And then the cork fell out of the gun...
We never see a stand off between Flag the ultimate bad guy, and Roland. In fact Flag is killed "out of hand" a long with a myriad of other characters. As a reader I want to be rewarded for investing my emotion into hating the bad guy. He deserves to die at the hands of hero in an epic confrontation.
I probably just dont understand the ending, and maybe he even did it first, but the whole, "it was a dream" didnt work for me. The fact that there was nothing in the dark tower, except memories could have been quite powerful, but to cause a reset because he didnt pickup the bugle? just lame. In the end the 7 books to get to the dark tower didnt mean anything. I think because King didnt know what it was either.
I predict that this will turn into another Lost ending (if it survives)
I read about King enough in the books to ruin what started off as very promising. I don't need his self egotistical therapy on screen as well.
I have never read anything that had so much potential at the start and went down hill so far and so fast. My hope is that this new format will retain the "theme" of books. Loose the SK reference entirely and rewrite a decent ending. I also hope they treat the antagonists with a little more respect than SK did. to have an ultra antagonist for 6 books only to have him die in a random encounter with another antagonist, with confrontation with the protagonist is flawed just a little bit. Unless the other antagonist turns out to be the real mega. but alas the spider turns out to be trivial as well.
Sorry for the rant
I am excited by the format, howard, and initial concept. But this is one that I hope they deviate DRASTICALLY from the latter half of the books.
Im not sure BP would agree with you.
My view of the initial space race was that it was more of a political statement of "look how advanced we are! we can fly to the moon!" disguised as science. Sure it was exciting, but the real gain was in politics. Today, its just doesnt carry the political "wow" factor. Who cares when the average small country has the bomb. Robots were always better than sending people anyhow. As for mining, there are mines on the earth that are much more profitable to mine. You think we have issues with some miners down in a hole for 2 months, how are we ever going to lift that much into space and then get it back down without it burning up? We cant even mine the ocean floor effectively... Why head to space?
Yes it might be able to identify a "potential" terrorist by identifying them. However, if I remember correctly, you are innocent until proven guilty. So we have identified a potential terrorist, legitimately visiting his sick grandma in denver. He is flying with his toothbrush and shorts. So what. What we need to do is identify that the toothpaste is really an explosive. And if he is a good terrorist, he isn't going to carry the stuff on the plane with him, someone else will or it will be planted. We need to identify the potential weapons, as well as the people.
Do we bar a convicted criminal from flying after he has served his "20" year sentence and been released?
Not to mention all of the X-Ray/radiation issues and already suggested methods of potentially beating the system.
He did know how to use "in a classroom setting". But was one of the commercial pilots putting in time teaching. His instructors all used the multi function displays prevalent on new aircraft. (lots of discussions on information overload) It is a different skill, that needs practice. Like the poster above stated. Sometimes its nice to just do VFR flight, just make sure you can get there. None of his instructors were anal about location and heading like Dave was with me (he would go out of his way to see if I could get lost, said he lost lots of friends not being able to find their way back home).
It is like diving. Now that you mention it, it probably has a LOT to do with what you were taught. I only got certified as a diver 4 years ago, as such, we learned the dive tables as required, but I use an Atom 2 DC. Love the thing. BUT I still do a dive plan, I drive my daughter nuts with my "planning", even if we are just at a resort and doing a cattle boat dive. She thinks Im crazy with everything I carry "just in case" and calls me GI Joe.(no I'm not a tech diver, just recreational)
Its not that he couldn't, its just that he felt he depended too much on the GPS and that the focus of his training was very "tech" oriented. Mine was more about, well flying by the seat of your pants (if you have ever flown the old fleet canuck, it was fun simple aircraft. but simple is the operative word) We could use each others methods, just were at opposite ends of the proficiency scales. I credit him with spotting something he wanted to learn better. There are a lot of instructors that "know it all", then there are the good ones that learn from each student. (I still like my knee board though)
I like to think of an emergency as something you haven't planned for... You may never need the plan, but if you do, it just might save yours or someone else's life.
I admit to being a bit old fashioned and cautious. My nickname is "Safety Bob" because I am always the one with the first aid kit, rope, knife etc (basic kit).
That being said, I have rescued my fair share of distressed adventurer at the cost of my own excursion. I am that guy on the dive boat that brings a little bag and lends you the screw or fin strap that you never noticed was broken. The fact that I am posting on \. might tell you that I have something to do with IT. (Been a developer for while now, see the age posted above). I like my techy geeky nerding things. But I also like to disconnect. Where some people will use the GPS as primary navigation, I will pack it as backup in case things turn bad. We purposely have a cabin that has no phone or TV using solar power only.
I joke with my children, that they do it in their head and check with the calculator, I prefer to do on the calculator and check with my head, or at least have some form of verification. Every instrument in the cockpit can be verified by using one or two of the other instruments.
But you are correct, there are the real idiots out there that will press a panic button because its easy and their "right". Sometimes Darwin helps us out though and casts its net...
I am 50ish and pilot. I learned to fly when I was 17 flew for a bit (10 years ish), then had a family. I then decided to return to flying. I went back for some more training. The differences.
1st time: My instructor was an OLD WWII vet. A mean cuss that ALWAYS was trying to get me lost. I live in Central Alberta where land marks are few, its flat, and water lines can vary greatly from the charts. We used a map covered in wax paper, a pencil with 1" marks cut in to it and a watch. I never did get lost.
2nd time (25 yrs later): Modern aircraft, Cessna 172 instead of the 1947 fleet canuck. GPS as well as compass. Instruct must have been all of 6 or 7 (really about 25ish). Nice young kid, good skilled pilot. We went up for a refresher check out flight. Did a stall, spin, slow flight etc. (Oh yeah, he did smile at my knee board with the wax paper and pencil). At the end of the flight he said lets head for home and I banked the aircraft while he punched in the coords on the GPS. By the time he was done, I was already on the heading. He was mildly impressed.
We went for coffee and discussed the differences in our training. We both admitted that I could use some more training using the GPS. However he offered his time in trade get some more experience with my flight computer (plastic slide rule for headings and wind for the non pilots) and knee board. He recognized that if he ever did loose his GPS for what ever reason, a manual system might be good to know.
I look at all of the technology available to today's hikers, boaters (I have my skippers papers too), and pilots that forget about the mark I computer sitting on our shoulders. It provides a false sense of security. Everything is fine in the perfect scenario, but for many of these adventures, emergencies arise, not because of a real act of god but a lack of planning. When diving we say "Plan the dive, dive the plan". This should be applied to all "adventures" but we live in a society where the quick adventure is what we are after and fewer a learning how to plan and be prepared. We are quick to pass on the responsibility to technology or experts, knowing that we can sue if they fail.
The only answer I can see is passing on the expenses of rescues to the rescuees. Legit or otherwise. Might be a good thing to take out adventure insurance... The more training you have, the less the insurance would be...
I agree, but I deal with rainfall and watershed data. The engineers talk in 20, 50 and 100 year events and these are no where nailed down to any sort of accuracy. even the full 400 year measuring period is looking at is still 8.7e-7% of the lifespan of the sun we have looked at such a small window and drawn an assumption over that window. We are definitely going to be wrong. heck we cant even predict tomorrows weather accurately, let alone something we measuring at a distance, where we are still only theorizing about how it actually works. "slight" variances on a cosmic scale may not be measured in years.
The sun is 4.6 BILLION years old and we are concerned with a couple of years difference in the Solar Cycle? How many of our empirical evidence cycles have we measured in this sort of accuracy? The whole cycle measures within 2.3e-8% of its lifespan and we are surprised that we haven't got the accuracy narrowed down? What other natural phenomenon have we measured to this accuracy cause I would really like to see the ruler that was used...
To protect minors when accused of a crime. Yet the public has NO understanding of a charge and a conviction. This all too easy to accomplish. And what is worse is that it is so easy. At least with drugs, the "planter" still has to purchase and carry them. With the internet "Doing it with Goats" will provide lots of ammo for the would be planter. With the way people guard their passwords the planter doesn't even have to hack in or carry the material at all, nearly 0 risk. With Remote desktops, you don't event need to physically be at the computer.
So now when someone is accused, they are plastered all over the news without being convicted. The public paints them as guilty, and the accused, innocent or not, is ostracized.
It makes me wonder if we should protect the names of accused in cases like this until a conviction. Then again, a lot of the people charge are often in a position where I would really like to limit their access to our youth. A tough call either way.
It would be hard to even go after the guy alerting the police to the charge. It could simply be the IT admin doing a routine audit finding something that was "planted" by the janitor.
I think the only real defense is not to p!ss people off enough to go to these lengths.
They are cheap and generic, called, "IP Camera". Do a search on ebay, there is a guy in Hong Kong selling them I think. They link to each other so they can all be viewed from the same webpage. I wanted something cheap enough that if they got stolen I wouldn't be freaked out. They are easy enough to steal by breaking the mount. I drilled out the screws, but the mount is still breakable. I like the gmailed picture because even if the thieves rip off the computer, I still have photos. Not fool proof by any stretch, but makes my place look less attractive than the other places on the block. The only real protection from a determined thief is insurance with documentation.
When we signed up for $240/yr monitoring, I left specific instructions. "If the alarm goes off, call the police directly, not us or any contact. I will pay any false alarm fine. I live 2 min from the police station, so there is a chance of actually catching someone. Is this OK?" The answer was "You are the customer"
So, we went on holidays, game my mom the code, and a passcode if she tripped the alarm. Warned her that if she did expect the boys in blue. She is 81, was nervous and sure enough she tripped the alarm. So instead of cops, the security company called the house. My mom was flustered, couldnt answer the security question, but the monitoring agency figured she was too old to be a crook and told her how to reset the alarm. They couldn't understand why I was furious and canceled, after all they saved my mom an embarrassment.
so now, I purchased a couple of IP cameras that motion sense and an email to my gmail with a picture. As long as I have my phone, I see who is entering within a few minutes or less (typically 20s). Also makes it very hard for your kids to lie about what time they came home. The 4 cameras cost me $80 each on ebay, and I connected them to my wireless network. I can also at anytime now log into a web page and monitor the surroundings. So even in bed, I grab my iPhone, and have a look outside if I hear a noise.
We also did the 2 big black dogs. They are now part of the family and a great deterrent.
The problem I encountered was that the teachers themselves are often unable to obtain any other job. I have over 12 years of teaching experience. 2 at the local college. The rest as an Independent Consultant to the local colleges.
The problem starts with a salary issue. I could earn the same salary at the local college teaching first year electrical apprentices basic math as an advanced programming course. My salary was based on education * years of experience. The Union (er Teachers Association ensured that). Any decent developer, got a job developing for twice the salary. Those that couldnt get a job applied to the college. Admin complained about the quality of people, were constrained by the Union. I applied because my wife is a school teacher and we thought it would be good for us both to have similar holiday schedules. I lasted exactly 2 years.
I was hired at a time when windows 3.1 was just released and none of the staff new anything about windows programming. I spent my first year developing content. The 2nd year was spent teaching where, and I kid you not, I taught the course in the mornings where 2 of my "students" were teachers who repeat my lesson to different classes in the afternoon. When I got radical and suggested we teach an Assembler course so that the students would actually learn about CPU's, registers, memory, IO etc. I was told by a veteran teacher, "I have been teaching here for the last 17 years and all of our students seem to be doing well, what makes you think you can come in here and suggest curriculum changes?" (my assembler course would have replaced one of the COBOL courses that he taught. I further fell out of sync with the rest of the staff when I proposed a 4 for 5 program where staff was required to work 1 year out of 5 in the industry to gain some relative knowledge of what was really going on out there.
Today, when I look at my nephew wanting to do what uncle does, I looked at the course I used to teach. They still teach flow charting, there is still a COBOL course, a course in project management. A network management course, where the students actually follow the numbers to create AD groups and users with no actual explanation of what a domain is. (one of my staff is taking this course so that he can upgrade his status at work)
Graduates are having a hard time finding work with increased expectations. My own nephew is under the impression that he will earn 50k out of school. However, he is not interested in the local college because of the course content.
To get students interested, we need to entice quality teachers, not the unemployed. There truly are some great teachers/profs, but in my experience they are the exception, teaching as a lifestyle choice instead of a career. In order to do that, salaries need follow industry to some extent. We also need to remove things like teachers associations or at least structure them to create industry comparable practices and policies.
Once an enticing environment is provided, the students will come.
To validate this study...
Which sites did they "study"?