My first computer was an Apple II purchased in 1981. Armed with VisiCalc, I was a a spreadsheet warrior.
After using CP/M and MP/M in '82 and '83, I got my first MS-Dos PC in 1982.
For ten years, I loved MS-DOS, and my personal computing world included WordStar, VisiCalc, dBase, Q&A, BASIC, Forth, and 1802 Assembler.
In 1992, I transitioned to MS Windows, MS Office, Access, Oracle, and never looked back.
In 2012, I joined a company where part of my job was to support executives who were struggling to use MS Excel on MacBooks. In 2013, I bought an 11" MacBook Air not because I wanted to, but because I couldn't convince those executives that using Windows devices did not make them look old and "out of touch."
While I had to special order it, my MacBook Air has an i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB SSD. (That size RAM and disk were not available in Apple stores at that time.) It cost almost three times more than if I had bought a Dell or HP laptop with similar specs.
For my own computing needs, I run Windows under Parallels on that MacBook Air and switch back to the Mac environment only when absolutely necessary.
So here we are in 2017. My MacBook air still looks like it is brand new. It still runs 100% of the software I need to do my job (especially Visio and MS Project). Even 3+ years later, the hardware specs are not antiquated. While I have a brand new Windows desktop at home, the Apple is in my hands the entire work day.
From a ruggedness and reliability perspective, my MacBook Air has been phenomenal.
While my next laptop will probably be a Yoga, (I bought one for my youngest son and he loves it), who knows ow many more years my 2013 MacBook Air will continue to be the machine with which I earn my living.
The very fact that Lyft's app allows for post-ride tipping shows they are less insensitive than Uber when it comes to their drivers. (As of the last time I used the Uber app, no provision for post-ride tipping existed.) While I have both apps on my phone, I use Uber only if I am in a city where Lyft is not available. If Uber ever runs out of money and leverage to artificially keep fares low, Lyft should be able to raise the fares by a couple of bucks and allow drivers to make a living wage. Until then, ethical riders should consider overly generous tipping as a way to help drivers of both services make ends meet.
In 1790, more than 90% of the population in the US was involved in agriculture.
Then came 150 years of relentless automation and today, 2% of the population is engaged in agriculture while today there is 5% unemployment and less than 2% unemployment among the college educated.
In the early 1900s, the automobile industry started putting horse-drawn carriages out of business, destroying 99% of that industry, while today there is 5% unemployment and less than 2% unemployment among the college educated.
In the 1980s, the adoption of email enabled corporate America to "flatten" organizations and lay off a great portion of middle management, while today there is 5% unemployment and less than 2% unemployment among the college educated.
Now, some well meaning idiot who has never read a book on capitalist economics wants to scare us about robots causing mass unemployment.
Today, the US employs, more than 2.5 million people in Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation," and 6.2 million people employed as scientists and engineers. We still have not conquered cancer, heart disease, genetic defect, spinal injuries, or figured out how to cost-effectively deal with global warming.
Only by automating more jobs can we free more people to pursue science, medicine, and engineering.
I've been hiring both interns and recent grads from engineering and programming positions since 1981 when I first hired a dozen interns out of Drexel.
While MIT and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute interns and grads have impressed me as hands-down the most brilliant, Drexel students are usually the most prepared for the challenges of every-day work life with Rowan University (formerly Glassboro State) coming in somewhat behind Drexel. (Based on my experiences, Drexel's 5-year program that includes 4 six-month internships should be adopted EVERYWHERE).
Mind you, I usually see applicants only from North Eastern colleges, but over the years it means I've probably hired more than 200 of these individuals.
[Unfortunately, I've never even gotten a resume from anyone from my alma mater, the University of Bridgeport, in response to a want-ad, so I can't say good or ill of UB products.]
1. Go into debt to obtain college degree 2.... 3. Profit!
So, all this time, step (2) was "figure out a way to do it"!
Time to revise:
1. Identify a career that pays well and that you would enjoy spending your waking hours being devoted to. (Until you are certain, live at home, work at some crap jobs, and save money while you figure these things out. Take at least one community college or cheap online course year-round and at all times to maintain your study skills and knowledge base. "Undeclared" full-time college majors should be reserved for children of millionaires.)
2. Identify the lowest cost educational providers that provide quality training and education. (Starting at 2 years of community college followed by 2 years of state college should work just fine for 80% of us. Living at home while attending college should be an option if you live close to good inexpensive colleges.)
3. Work while you are in college to pay what you can and minimize borrowings. (College students who are also working can also often apply classroom lessons to their real-world experience. By not living in an "ivory tower," the lessons are integrated and retained instead of being forgotten after an all-night cram session before the final.)
4. Graduate with reasonable debt and start on a great career and great life.
>> The world is basically starting to overflow with way more people than positions
Not even remotely accurate. Check out the chart at http://tipstrategies.com/blog/... and you will see that while manufacturing employment is on the decline, that Professional Services (including tech), Health Services, Leisure & Hospitality, Financial Services, Government, Trade, Transport, and Utilities have relentlessly grown over the last 40 years.
At the height of the Great Recession (2007-2012), the unemployment rate for people with technical and professional degrees in the US never exceeded 4.5%!
One problem in the US is that our policies discourage risk taking and entrepreneurship. (Single payer college education and healthcare would go a long way toward helping gin this area.) Another problem in the US is that our tax policies insure the biggest corporations hoard cash instead of investing in growing jobs FASTER. A third problem in the US is that we do not treat immigrants with the respect and dignity that future taxpayers deserve.
All are fixable problems. I don't know if we actually fix them. But the solutions are right in front of us.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 32,885 people died in traffic crashes in 2010 in the United States (latest figures available), including an estimated 10,228 people who died in drunk driving crashes, accounting for 31% of all traffic deaths that year. (http://www.centurycouncil.org/drunk-driving/drunk-driving-fatalities-national-statistics).
Depending on whose statistics you use, the number of innocent people maimed or otherwise permanently disabled by drunk drivers may exceed 100,000 victims per year.
Taking blood is ridiculous, But breathalyzers save lives. That many of the 10,000 people who die in drunk driving crashes are innocent people who are driving other cars, or are pedestrians, or are passengers, warrants road blocks and breathalyzers, especially on weekend evenings.
Yes, there should be a "red line" defining "reasonable" limits on police searches. But in America, the cost in deaths, pain, and suffering mean that to reduce the odds of some moron injuring me or my loved ones, I'll give up a reasonable degree of freedom and support politicians who promote breathalyzer roadblocks.
" Kosher locusts are varieties of locusts that are deemed premissible for consumption under the laws of kashrut (Jewish dietary law). While the consumption of most insects is considered to be forbidden under the laws of kashrut, the rabbis of the Talmud identified eight kosher species of locusts. However, the identity of those species is in dispute
The Torah states in Parshat Shemini:
"Every flying insect that uses four legs for walking shall be avoided by you. The only flying insects with four walking legs you may eat are those with knees extending above their feet, [using these longer legs] to hop on the ground. Among these you may only eat members of the red locust family, the yellow locust family, the spotted gray locust family and the white locust family. All other flying insects with four feet [for walking] must be avoided by you."[2] "
There are a lot of truly good lists in this thread. To keep my posting brief, I Iimited my response to ten items I use but did not see on the other postings.
1. A cabinet with a combination lock big enough to hold your tool box so your tools are actually there when you need them.
2. Duct tape and electrical tape. - Seriously. In multiple colors.
3. Cable ties and scissors to cut old ones. (No, not a razor knife. You also need one of those.)
4. A label-making machine (like the Brother P-touch to label every device and cable)
5. Gauze, medical tape, and band-aids. Small wounds should not slow down large repairs.
6. A telescoping magnet. Screws will fall!
7. Extra multi-outlet strips and extension cords to hold you over until the electrician shows up a week from now.
8. Fine point sharpies in multiple colors.
9. Wrist-wrapped grounding wires
10. A magnifying glass to read service tags mounted far away with tiny serial numbers. (Although there are now phone apps that sort of work ok.)
... , because the one thing you really want when buying a shelf of useless books is even more useless books to litter your coffee table.
I really cannot think of any occasion where the two-paragraph overview from a printed encyclopedia ever helped me accomplish anything. If I needed to study something specific, I went to the library and borrowed a few books on the topic. Encyclopedias are what you read when you don't really care all that much about the subject.
I pity anyone whose knowledge of the pre-web role of encyclopedias is limited to the poster's comment.
In 1968, my parents acquired a set of Enclopaedia Britannica ( == Yes that is the correct spelling). This was just prior to my experiencing a soccer injury that would confine me to bed for most of the next two years. I spent most of that time reading EB. (Yes, I also went to the library every week.) My time with EB did more to prepare me for college than any other single aspect of my high school education.
(And I came from a household that housed more than a thousand books and multiple sets of competing encyclopedias as well.)
Your "two paragraph" assertion is misleading. I still remember reading a biography of Rene Descarte that went on for pages. The article on World War II was even longer. Also, encyclopedias were never meant to be one's only source of information. Just a "jumping off" point in case the reader needed a starting point. This is the same way Wikipedia is used today. Need basic information? Use Wiki. Need more? That is what the iPad, Kindle, Nook, and the library are for.
Many years later, EB became one of my clients. It was during that experience that I learned that almost every article was written by a college professor likely to be an authority on the subject and proofread by another prior to publication. That many articles were also written by experts in their field (i.e. Albert Einstein authored an article on Physics in one edition) is also overlooked by the poster.
When my own daughters needed a resource in the early eighties, I did buy the Encarta, Grolier, and much later, the Britannica discs. In the internet age, my sons have no need for any of these.
But just to rant because one did not sit still, read, and appreciate this wonderful resource for what it was, is more a reflection on the poster and less a reflection on the value of such tools prior to the internet.
In November of 2011, I visited a large physicians' practice located on the first floor of a major hospital in Center City, Philadelphia. They had chairs with bendable arms on one wall. On each arm, an iPad was securely mounted and permanently plugged into power. I think the power cables were securely wired to the chairs, arms, and iPads. Each iPad was securely affixed to the bendable arm. With regard to the cabling, I'm pretty sure the setup was compliant with OSHA rules. The iPads were used (among other things) for patients to fill out "New Patient Forms" and "Medical History." There may have been some other disclosures for some patients to read.
Most of the users were elderly. Many of the people using the devices had never touched an iPad (and for some, I'm sure they had never touched a computer before). As this office seemed to be pretty much focused on people requiring drugs and/or surgery for severe spinal and joint conditions, more than a few of these users were in pain and/or medications and reduction of user confusion may a priority.
With more than 50 people in the rest of the waiting room and about a dozen of the iPad chairs, there always seemed to be a physician's assistant close by to insure the iPad was only being used as intended. I can understand their desire to prevent unauthorized uses of the iPad as very personal information is being entered through these devices and potential for installation of monitoring software would make some people uncomfortable.
Even without the paranoia factor, I can understand the desire keep these iPads locked down to a few icons just to reduce end-user support and related confusion.
While marketed as a "platform," BBx combines an old version of Basic (Business Basic from the 1980's) that runs on a pseudo PICK O/S environment which in turn runs under Solaris, Linux, and Windows.
Basis International developed BBj as the "next generation" of BBx that would move from Basic to Java back in the days when everyone thought Java would take over the world.
To the dismay of Basis, thousands of older customers have been perfectly happy not to migrate their commercial legacy apps off of BBx.
In other words, they WISH they had put BBx to "sleep" years ago, but have been unsuccessful. (Sounds like a lot of COBOL shops.)
What RIM has done is to use a trademark that among BBx customers means old, creaky language who vendor doesn't even like it much any more.
On the undergraduate level, college is around 40 opportunities to increase skills at every level. This includes reading, critical thinking, social interactive skills including active listening, and exposure to individuals with different backgrounds, cultures, and differing points-of-view.
If you are looking for narrowly defined technical training or need to satisfy your employer's requirement for credits or a diploma, then online options abound.
Every other option robs you of one or more learning aspects noted above. You may still have good reasons to pursue online schooling. Your budget may be limited; your work schedule hellish; you may be disabled and without transportation or heck, maybe you hate sitting in a room with other people. But don't be fooled.
I've pursued both routes and learned a lot in both online and classroom environments. (I have multiple of the above excuses.). But don't be fooled into thinking that your learning experience without a classroom is as good (at least on the undergraduate level) as the traditional method.
And don't be fooled into thinking that I won't k ow that when I interview you for your first job out of college.
Users of noscript have long benefitted from fast loading of web pages as distracting ads pulled from other domains were suppressed.
If entire web pages are "constructed in the cloud" and then presented to users, the additional overhead of ads, including annoying animation, would once again turn perfectly readable pages into aggravating distractions that eventually drive readers away. Anyone remember answer.com? AskJeeves? Or cnn.com before noscript?
Over any 5-year period, I hire an average of 1 to 3 IT professionals a month. The performance of each directly reflects on my ability to provide my clients with individuals whose judgement is sound, and who can accept that"at will" employment means they can be laid off at any time without a reason.
With this "little" lapse in judgement, I can assure you that he is not likely to get past HR and background checks, and even less likely to get past me.
If he left with drama elsewhere, he is probably a risk to leave with drama in a future job as well.
I want the best people I can find, and part of that is to figure out the extent to which each individual is likely to suppress personal and professional issues when it makes sense to do so.
I do my best to leave every client and employer on a positive note, regardless of what frustrating shortcomings on their part I discovered along the way.
If you can't do so, just hope you don't want your resume to be embraced by me or anyone in any company who thinks like me,
You don't have to agree with all of my positions on the issue. But if you can't disagree without being disagreeable, I really don't want you on my team.
Every morning. 180 mornings a year. For 13 years. (Year 1 = Kindergarten).
My teacher had us stand at attention, face the flag, a recite the pledge of allegiance as approved as law by the US congress.
That is 2,340 recitations where I swore "I pledge my allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the REPUBLIC, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Note that the congress did not ask me to pledge my allegiance to a democracy. In a democracy, each citizen gets an equal vote. Had we been a democracy, Al Gore, not George Bush would have been elected in the year 2000. In a republic, our state "electors" get to override the popular vote if they so choose. (And in 2000, for the 4th time in US history, that is just what happened.)
No matter what the conspiracy theorists say, GW did not "steal" the election. He played by the rules. The rules of our REPUBLIC.
That is the way things are and I don't expect either party to amend the constitution to make us a democracy in my lifetime.
The upper chamber of congress is little better with voters in small states having up to 17 times the power of voters in big states. (I.e. little Utah and big California each get 2 and only two votes.)
However, as I love my country, this is where I'll stay and exercise my right to be a curmudgeon.
I am a Goldman Sachs Broker in the United States of America. We have been fortunate enough to aquire many millions of dollars in private Facebook stock, but because of govt. red tape, we cannot sell it here. If you would be kind enough to put 25000 in a foreign account and give us that info, we can make sure you get in on this once in a lifetime opportunity!
Your American counterparts, Goldman Sachs
To arrive at the comment above is exactly why reading/. is worth every prior moment of drivel. Irony! Humor! jkyrlach, I am now your fan!
For modern web-based applications, you are correct that there is little or no reason for the Caps Lock key.
But for the MILLIONS of people whose job requires them to use antiquated legacy systems, it is often essential.
The largely character-based systems used for accounting, order entry, invoicing, and other core functions are often accessed through terminal emulation software or first generation client-server software. These systems often have a great number of "lookup" codes for everything from SKU to client numbers that fail when using lower case. Those still using first generation client-server software are especially inconvenienced as some of these programs have no option to remap the keyboard.
The sheer volume and costs of re-engineering these systems mean that they will be with us for years to come, no matter how ugly and inefficient when compared to modern systems.
I use OO as a file-conversion utility (but never for anything else), and was originally dismissive of the amount of attention this thread generated. Over the years, I have supported companies large and small. If you include my direct reports, I have supported thousands of users. Maybe twice in that time have I run into (or heard of) anyone who disclosed that they use OO at home or work.
So I did a little Googling and was amazed to find that multiple sources ". . . estimated that market share of Open Office amounts to 7% for office use and 20% for home use."
If accurate, this makes OO a larger threat to Microsoft than Google as each copy of OO represents a bigger threat to one of Microsoft's three significant streams of profitable revenue (Office, Windows, and Xbox) than anything offered up thus far by Google.
That this "underground" success has happened despite distro companies from Redhat to Ubuntu failing to develop marketing campaigns to bring OO to greater public attention means the opportunity for greater success for OO may still lay before us.
Right now, iPad and Android users are adopting non-MS office apps by the thousands. Perhaps forks like Libre Office will rejuvenate efforts to finally bring a cross-platform (Windows, MAC OS, MAC IOS, Android, and Linux) office that will simplify support efforts.
If the course in question incorporates this level of discussion in the classes and homework and enable the students to improve their critical thinking and related analytical skills, it really doesn't matter if the "hook" to get students to take the course was the subject of Zombies, slasher flicks, or even a "critical" analysis of the Police Academy movies.
I have one off-spring currently in college studying to be an electrical engineer and can only hope that sometime in the next few years he can take a course that provides that type of "cross subject" context.
Why do ISPs not have the right to run their networks however they want?
If an ISP built their business without special advantages over their competition, your point would be valid. However, in the U.S., most high-speed ISP's successfully lobbied for monopoly or duopoly positions as utilities where competitors were prohibited from stringing their own wires on utility poles and tunnels. In return for this advantage, they agreed to operate as regulated entities.
Perhaps as 4G and other high-speed wireless companies come to market, there will be more competition and those original companies can then lobby for removal of the regulatory environment. Until then, we will hear a lot of screaming from both sides.
Slashdot Mirror
My first computer was an Apple II purchased in 1981. Armed with VisiCalc, I was a a spreadsheet warrior.
After using CP/M and MP/M in '82 and '83, I got my first MS-Dos PC in 1982.
For ten years, I loved MS-DOS, and my personal computing world included WordStar, VisiCalc, dBase, Q&A, BASIC, Forth, and 1802 Assembler.
In 1992, I transitioned to MS Windows, MS Office, Access, Oracle, and never looked back.
In 2012, I joined a company where part of my job was to support executives who were struggling to use MS Excel on MacBooks.
In 2013, I bought an 11" MacBook Air not because I wanted to, but because I couldn't convince those executives that using Windows devices did not make them look old and "out of touch."
While I had to special order it, my MacBook Air has an i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB SSD. (That size RAM and disk were not available in Apple stores at that time.) It cost almost three times more than if I had bought a Dell or HP laptop with similar specs.
For my own computing needs, I run Windows under Parallels on that MacBook Air and switch back to the Mac environment only when absolutely necessary.
So here we are in 2017. My MacBook air still looks like it is brand new. It still runs 100% of the software I need to do my job (especially Visio and MS Project). Even 3+ years later, the hardware specs are not antiquated. While I have a brand new Windows desktop at home, the Apple is in my hands the entire work day.
From a ruggedness and reliability perspective, my MacBook Air has been phenomenal.
While my next laptop will probably be a Yoga, (I bought one for my youngest son and he loves it), who knows ow many more years my 2013 MacBook Air will continue to be the machine with which I earn my living.
Obligatory XKCD Mac vs. Windows comic: https://xkcd.com/934/
The very fact that Lyft's app allows for post-ride tipping shows they are less insensitive than Uber when it comes to their drivers. (As of the last time I used the Uber app, no provision for post-ride tipping existed.) While I have both apps on my phone, I use Uber only if I am in a city where Lyft is not available. If Uber ever runs out of money and leverage to artificially keep fares low, Lyft should be able to raise the fares by a couple of bucks and allow drivers to make a living wage. Until then, ethical riders should consider overly generous tipping as a way to help drivers of both services make ends meet.
AI 'Could Leave Half Of World Unemployed'?
In 1790, more than 90% of the population in the US was involved in agriculture.
Then came 150 years of relentless automation and today, 2% of the population is engaged in agriculture while today there is 5% unemployment and less than 2% unemployment among the college educated.
In the early 1900s, the automobile industry started putting horse-drawn carriages out of business, destroying 99% of that industry, while today there is 5% unemployment and less than 2% unemployment among the college educated.
In the 1980s, the adoption of email enabled corporate America to "flatten" organizations and lay off a great portion of middle management, while today there is 5% unemployment and less than 2% unemployment among the college educated.
Now, some well meaning idiot who has never read a book on capitalist economics wants to scare us about robots causing mass unemployment.
Today, the US employs, more than 2.5 million people in Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation," and 6.2 million people employed as scientists and engineers. We still have not conquered cancer, heart disease, genetic defect, spinal injuries, or figured out how to cost-effectively deal with global warming.
Only by automating more jobs can we free more people to pursue science, medicine, and engineering.
Bring on the robots!
I've been hiring both interns and recent grads from engineering and programming positions since 1981 when I first hired a dozen interns out of Drexel.
While MIT and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute interns and grads have impressed me as hands-down the most brilliant, Drexel students are usually the most prepared for the challenges of every-day work life with Rowan University (formerly Glassboro State) coming in somewhat behind Drexel. (Based on my experiences, Drexel's 5-year program that includes 4 six-month internships should be adopted EVERYWHERE).
Mind you, I usually see applicants only from North Eastern colleges, but over the years it means I've probably hired more than 200 of these individuals.
[Unfortunately, I've never even gotten a resume from anyone from my alma mater, the University of Bridgeport, in response to a want-ad, so I can't say good or ill of UB products.]
1. Go into debt to obtain college degree ...
2.
3. Profit!
So, all this time, step (2) was "figure out a way to do it"!
Time to revise:
1. Identify a career that pays well and that you would enjoy spending your waking hours being devoted to. (Until you are certain, live at home, work at some crap jobs, and save money while you figure these things out. Take at least one community college or cheap online course year-round and at all times to maintain your study skills and knowledge base. "Undeclared" full-time college majors should be reserved for children of millionaires.)
2. Identify the lowest cost educational providers that provide quality training and education. (Starting at 2 years of community college followed by 2 years of state college should work just fine for 80% of us. Living at home while attending college should be an option if you live close to good inexpensive colleges.)
3. Work while you are in college to pay what you can and minimize borrowings. (College students who are also working can also often apply classroom lessons to their real-world experience. By not living in an "ivory tower," the lessons are integrated and retained instead of being forgotten after an all-night cram session before the final.)
4. Graduate with reasonable debt and start on a great career and great life.
5. PROFIT!
>> The world is basically starting to overflow with way more people than positions
Not even remotely accurate. Check out the chart at http://tipstrategies.com/blog/... and you will see that while manufacturing employment is on the decline, that Professional Services (including tech), Health Services, Leisure & Hospitality, Financial Services, Government, Trade, Transport, and Utilities have relentlessly grown over the last 40 years.
At the height of the Great Recession (2007-2012), the unemployment rate for people with technical and professional degrees in the US never exceeded 4.5%!
One problem in the US is that our policies discourage risk taking and entrepreneurship. (Single payer college education and healthcare would go a long way toward helping gin this area.) Another problem in the US is that our tax policies insure the biggest corporations hoard cash instead of investing in growing jobs FASTER. A third problem in the US is that we do not treat immigrants with the respect and dignity that future taxpayers deserve.
All are fixable problems. I don't know if we actually fix them. But the solutions are right in front of us.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 32,885 people died in traffic crashes in 2010 in the United States (latest figures available), including an estimated 10,228 people who died in drunk driving crashes, accounting for 31% of all traffic deaths that year. (http://www.centurycouncil.org/drunk-driving/drunk-driving-fatalities-national-statistics).
Depending on whose statistics you use, the number of innocent people maimed or otherwise permanently disabled by drunk drivers may exceed 100,000 victims per year.
Taking blood is ridiculous, But breathalyzers save lives. That many of the 10,000 people who die in drunk driving crashes are innocent people who are driving other cars, or are pedestrians, or are passengers, warrants road blocks and breathalyzers, especially on weekend evenings.
Yes, there should be a "red line" defining "reasonable" limits on police searches. But in America, the cost in deaths, pain, and suffering mean that to reduce the odds of some moron injuring me or my loved ones, I'll give up a reasonable degree of freedom and support politicians who promote breathalyzer roadblocks.
I'm sure nobody here's interested, but here goes.
In Islam, insects are prohibited as food. Locusts are an exception (the only one AFAIK), so they may be eaten.
What about the other major religions?
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_locust
"
Kosher locusts are varieties of locusts that are deemed premissible for consumption under the laws of kashrut (Jewish dietary law). While the consumption of most insects is considered to be forbidden under the laws of kashrut, the rabbis of the Talmud identified eight kosher species of locusts. However, the identity of those species is in dispute
The Torah states in Parshat Shemini:
"Every flying insect that uses four legs for walking shall be avoided by you. The only flying insects with four walking legs you may eat are those with knees extending above their feet, [using these longer legs] to hop on the ground. Among these you may only eat members of the red locust family, the yellow locust family, the spotted gray locust family and the white locust family. All other flying insects with four feet [for walking] must be avoided by you."[2]
"
Israel doesn't have pizza delivery.
Sure it does. When I was in Israel 4 years ago, I saw Domino's Pizza delivery via scooter in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and in Haifa.
There are a lot of truly good lists in this thread. To keep my posting brief, I Iimited my response to ten items I use but did not see on the other postings.
1. A cabinet with a combination lock big enough to hold your tool box so your tools are actually there when you need them.
2. Duct tape and electrical tape. - Seriously. In multiple colors.
3. Cable ties and scissors to cut old ones. (No, not a razor knife. You also need one of those.)
4. A label-making machine (like the Brother P-touch to label every device and cable)
5. Gauze, medical tape, and band-aids. Small wounds should not slow down large repairs.
6. A telescoping magnet. Screws will fall!
7. Extra multi-outlet strips and extension cords to hold you over until the electrician shows up a week from now.
8. Fine point sharpies in multiple colors.
9. Wrist-wrapped grounding wires
10. A magnifying glass to read service tags mounted far away with tiny serial numbers. (Although there are now phone apps that sort of work ok.)
... , because the one thing you really want when buying a shelf of useless books is even more useless books to litter your coffee table.
I really cannot think of any occasion where the two-paragraph overview from a printed encyclopedia ever helped me accomplish anything. If I needed to study something specific, I went to the library and borrowed a few books on the topic. Encyclopedias are what you read when you don't really care all that much about the subject.
I pity anyone whose knowledge of the pre-web role of encyclopedias is limited to the poster's comment.
In 1968, my parents acquired a set of Enclopaedia Britannica ( == Yes that is the correct spelling). This was just prior to my experiencing a soccer injury that would confine me to bed for most of the next two years. I spent most of that time reading EB. (Yes, I also went to the library every week.) My time with EB did more to prepare me for college than any other single aspect of my high school education.
(And I came from a household that housed more than a thousand books and multiple sets of competing encyclopedias as well.)
Your "two paragraph" assertion is misleading. I still remember reading a biography of Rene Descarte that went on for pages. The article on World War II was even longer. Also, encyclopedias were never meant to be one's only source of information. Just a "jumping off" point in case the reader needed a starting point. This is the same way Wikipedia is used today. Need basic information? Use Wiki. Need more? That is what the iPad, Kindle, Nook, and the library are for.
Many years later, EB became one of my clients. It was during that experience that I learned that almost every article was written by a college professor likely to be an authority on the subject and proofread by another prior to publication. That many articles were also written by experts in their field (i.e. Albert Einstein authored an article on Physics in one edition) is also overlooked by the poster.
When my own daughters needed a resource in the early eighties, I did buy the Encarta, Grolier, and much later, the Britannica discs. In the internet age, my sons have no need for any of these.
But just to rant because one did not sit still, read, and appreciate this wonderful resource for what it was, is more a reflection on the poster and less a reflection on the value of such tools prior to the internet.
'nuff said.
In November of 2011, I visited a large physicians' practice located on the first floor of a major hospital in Center City, Philadelphia. They had chairs with bendable arms on one wall. On each arm, an iPad was securely mounted and permanently plugged into power. I think the power cables were securely wired to the chairs, arms, and iPads. Each iPad was securely affixed to the bendable arm. With regard to the cabling, I'm pretty sure the setup was compliant with OSHA rules. The iPads were used (among other things) for patients to fill out "New Patient Forms" and "Medical History." There may have been some other disclosures for some patients to read.
Most of the users were elderly. Many of the people using the devices had never touched an iPad (and for some, I'm sure they had never touched a computer before). As this office seemed to be pretty much focused on people requiring drugs and/or surgery for severe spinal and joint conditions, more than a few of these users were in pain and/or medications and reduction of user confusion may a priority.
With more than 50 people in the rest of the waiting room and about a dozen of the iPad chairs, there always seemed to be a physician's assistant close by to insure the iPad was only being used as intended. I can understand their desire to prevent unauthorized uses of the iPad as very personal information is being entered through these devices and potential for installation of monitoring software would make some people uncomfortable.
Even without the paranoia factor, I can understand the desire keep these iPads locked down to a few icons just to reduce end-user support and related confusion.
While marketed as a "platform," BBx combines an old version of Basic (Business Basic from the 1980's) that runs on a pseudo PICK O/S environment which in turn runs under Solaris, Linux, and Windows.
Basis International developed BBj as the "next generation" of BBx that would move from Basic to Java back in the days when everyone thought Java would take over the world.
To the dismay of Basis, thousands of older customers have been perfectly happy not to migrate their commercial legacy apps off of BBx.
In other words, they WISH they had put BBx to "sleep" years ago, but have been unsuccessful. (Sounds like a lot of COBOL shops.)
What RIM has done is to use a trademark that among BBx customers means old, creaky language who vendor doesn't even like it much any more.
On the undergraduate level, college is around 40 opportunities to increase skills at every level. This includes reading, critical thinking, social interactive skills including active listening, and exposure to individuals with different backgrounds, cultures, and differing points-of-view.
If you are looking for narrowly defined technical training or need to satisfy your employer's requirement for credits or a diploma, then online options abound.
Every other option robs you of one or more learning aspects noted above. You may still have good reasons to pursue online schooling. Your budget may be limited; your work schedule hellish; you may be disabled and without transportation or heck, maybe you hate sitting in a room with other people. But don't be fooled.
I've pursued both routes and learned a lot in both online and classroom environments. (I have multiple of the above excuses.). But don't be fooled into thinking that your learning experience without a classroom is as good (at least on the undergraduate level) as the traditional method.
And don't be fooled into thinking that I won't k ow that when I interview you for your first job out of college.
Defeat! Sorry for the typo.
Users of noscript have long benefitted from fast loading of web pages as distracting ads pulled from other domains were suppressed.
If entire web pages are "constructed in the cloud" and then presented to users, the additional overhead of ads,
including annoying animation, would once again turn perfectly readable pages into aggravating distractions that
eventually drive readers away. Anyone remember answer.com? AskJeeves? Or cnn.com before noscript?
Bah humbug to this "improvement" in technology.
Dude, paste-without-formatting is essential for anyone who spends a lot of time cutting and pasting between applications into compound documents.
There are so many whiney paste-related comments in this chain that it is time for one of my rarer than Haley's Comet posts to /.
Immediately (if not sooner), get thy focus to CNET.com, click on the downloads tab, and search on Pure Text.
Both Pure Text and Pure Text Plus are free and legal programs that turn your Windows-Key-V combination into a paste-without-format key.
(Be sure to decline the offer to install the Bing toolbar upon installation.)
I use Pure Text so much, it is one of the few programs I run in my start-up group.
My work here is done.
Over any 5-year period, I hire an average of 1 to 3 IT professionals a month. The performance of each directly reflects on my ability to provide my clients with individuals whose judgement is sound, and who can accept that"at will" employment means they can be laid off at any time without a reason.
With this "little" lapse in judgement, I can assure you that he is not likely to get past HR and background checks, and even less likely to get past me.
If he left with drama elsewhere, he is probably a risk to leave with drama in a future job as well.
I want the best people I can find, and part of that is to figure out the extent to which each individual is likely to suppress personal and professional issues when it makes sense to do so.
I do my best to leave every client and employer on a positive note, regardless of what frustrating shortcomings on their part I discovered along the way.
If you can't do so, just hope you don't want your resume to be embraced by me or anyone in any company who thinks like me,
You don't have to agree with all of my positions on the issue. But if you can't disagree without being disagreeable, I really don't want you on my team.
Every morning. 180 mornings a year. For 13 years. (Year 1 = Kindergarten).
My teacher had us stand at attention, face the flag, a recite the pledge of allegiance as approved as law by the US congress.
That is 2,340 recitations where I swore "I pledge my allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the REPUBLIC, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Note that the congress did not ask me to pledge my allegiance to a democracy. In a democracy, each citizen gets an equal vote. Had we been a democracy, Al Gore, not George Bush would have been elected in the year 2000. In a republic, our state "electors" get to override the popular vote if they so choose. (And in 2000, for the 4th time in US history, that is just what happened.)
No matter what the conspiracy theorists say, GW did not "steal" the election. He played by the rules. The rules of our REPUBLIC.
That is the way things are and I don't expect either party to amend the constitution to make us a democracy in my lifetime.
The upper chamber of congress is little better with voters in small states having up to 17 times the power of voters in big states. (I.e. little Utah and big California each get 2 and only two votes.)
However, as I love my country, this is where I'll stay and exercise my right to be a curmudgeon.
To: Ugandan Upper-class houshold
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am a Goldman Sachs Broker in the United States of America. We have been fortunate enough to aquire many millions of dollars in private Facebook stock, but because of govt. red tape, we cannot sell it here. If you would be kind enough to put 25000 in a foreign account and give us that info, we can make sure you get in on this once in a lifetime opportunity!
Your American counterparts,
Goldman Sachs
To arrive at the comment above is exactly why reading /. is worth every prior moment of drivel. Irony! Humor! jkyrlach, I am now your fan!
For modern web-based applications, you are correct that there is little or no reason for the Caps Lock key.
But for the MILLIONS of people whose job requires them to use antiquated legacy systems, it is often essential.
The largely character-based systems used for accounting, order entry, invoicing, and other core functions are often accessed through terminal emulation software or first generation client-server software. These systems often have a great number of "lookup" codes for everything from SKU to client numbers that fail when using lower case. Those still using first generation client-server software are especially inconvenienced as some of these programs have no option to remap the keyboard.
The sheer volume and costs of re-engineering these systems mean that they will be with us for years to come, no matter how ugly and inefficient when compared to modern systems.
(Well, you did ask.)
I use OO as a file-conversion utility (but never for anything else), and was originally dismissive of the amount of attention this thread generated. Over the years, I have supported companies large and small. If you include my direct reports, I have supported thousands of users. Maybe twice in that time have I run into (or heard of) anyone who disclosed that they use OO at home or work.
So I did a little Googling and was amazed to find that multiple sources ". . . estimated that market share of Open Office amounts to 7% for office use and 20% for home use."
"http://books.google.com/books?id=B2Wcn_Io9B8C&pg=PA169&lpg=PA169&dq=%22market+share+of+open+office%22&source=bl&ots=GU9-1psXXG&sig=K50OV3lD3ot-PPJYa_gv2S6P6dk&hl=en&ei=hw-7TLXUE8H-8AaHntjsBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCMQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22market%20share%20of%20open%20office%22&f=false"
If accurate, this makes OO a larger threat to Microsoft than Google as each copy of OO represents a bigger threat to one of Microsoft's three significant streams of profitable revenue (Office, Windows, and Xbox) than anything offered up thus far by Google.
That this "underground" success has happened despite distro companies from Redhat to Ubuntu failing to develop marketing campaigns to bring OO to greater public attention means the opportunity for greater success for OO may still lay before us.
Right now, iPad and Android users are adopting non-MS office apps by the thousands. Perhaps forks like Libre Office will rejuvenate efforts to finally bring a cross-platform (Windows, MAC OS, MAC IOS, Android, and Linux) office that will simplify support efforts.
Stanford University's "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP)" ( http://plato.stanford.edu/index.html ) has an analysis of how literature of Western Civilization has treated the subject of Zombies beginning with Descartes at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/zombies/.
If the course in question incorporates this level of discussion in the classes and homework and enable the students to improve their critical thinking and related analytical skills, it really doesn't matter if the "hook" to get students to take the course was the subject of Zombies, slasher flicks, or even a "critical" analysis of the Police Academy movies.
I have one off-spring currently in college studying to be an electrical engineer and can only hope that sometime in the next few years he can take a course that provides that type of "cross subject" context.
Why do ISPs not have the right to run their networks however they want?
If an ISP built their business without special advantages over their competition, your point would be valid. However, in the U.S., most high-speed ISP's successfully lobbied for monopoly or duopoly positions as utilities where competitors were prohibited from stringing their own wires on utility poles and tunnels. In return for this advantage, they agreed to operate as regulated entities.
Perhaps as 4G and other high-speed wireless companies come to market, there will be more competition and those original companies can then lobby for removal of the regulatory environment. Until then, we will hear a lot of screaming from both sides.
If your microwave is wrecking your Wi-Fi connection, don't grumble about it. Get a newer microwave oven.
This problem is not limited to "old" equipment.
My less-than-two-years-old top-of-the-line Panasonic microwave stops all wireless communications in the house when operating.