I saw, many years ago, a program on maybe TLC, where the person wore a ring that activated the gun. I thought that was cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzoXQKumgCw

In the voice of Col. Tigh?
I've been watching too much Battlestar Galactica.

Enhance.

At my work, we have "unlimited sick days" -- however, we are encouraged to work from home those days if we are up to it. If we show up sick to the office, just about everyone tries to kick you out and go home. There is never the feeling or pressure of "I must work this day even though I'm sick." It is more the feeling of "I really want to get some code out today even though I'm sick." I know there is the sentiment on ./ that you should not go over and beyond for your work for they will not do that for you, but our work really does do a lot for its employees.

I've been developing on a System 76 for about a year and a half now (the then Serval model). I absolutely love it. I've become hooked on the finger print scanner for sudo commands. The only problem that I recall having was trying to upgrade from 10.04 to 12.04 for Ubuntu. A bunch-o-things got all fubar. Reinstalling 12.04 worked like a charm and my overall experience got even better than before. I ended up having to put a windows dual boot on it for some windows/mac only video conferencing software for work, and System 76 provided all the drivers to make the windows installation work as expected. The bizarre "windows experience index" gave me a seven point something which is apparently good. I highly recommend System 76, but I have yet to try the other vendors.

There is a missing R.

I figure Canada does not need much fixing -- not that I know of these things. I'm glad to see that Google is working on fixing California. Oh, wait. What?

On the note of forgetting about half of what you had learned, it reminds me of a pedagogy that I am a fan of: learn the underlying concepts and how to apply them, and you no longer have to "remember" because you "know." With your example, I cannot rattle off hardly any of the trig identities -- but I can derive all of them quite easily.

I think that this is a major issue with our education system when it comes to math: memorization. For example, in my daughter's math class, when going over exponent laws, the teacher said, "anything to the 0 power is 1. Why? Because that is the way it is; it is just one of those things we need to memorize." The same kids who learn this way find themselves in a math class a few years later and cant remember if it is 3^1 = 0 or 3^0 = 1. I wrote him showing how bloody easy it is to learn the correct way -- by looking at what exponents are (repeated multiplication) and that if we work backwards from 3^4, to 3^3, 3^2, we see that we are dividing by three each time, so it is easy to see why 3^0 has to be one. Better yet, this lets students understand why negative exponents are what they are. With this proper understanding, the student can re-derive the exponent laws anytime they may need them.

I completely agree with you that Khan is not a replacement. There is something to be said for us social beings being, you know, social when learning.

The system that I envision, at least as far as math is concerned, is something that I dub "modular math" -- though, that term should not be confused with modulus. I think the curriculum should be broken up from arithmetic to calculus in models (sets, pods, mods, levels, whatever).

A student meats the material at their level, and progresses through each model. This allows a student to quickly move through material that is easier for them and to have the time required for material that is more difficult. I imagine a system whereby students participate in a math curriculum whereby they progress on their own through CORRECT (yet to be defined) use of online lectures and quizzes and tests.

A teacher is ever present and provides the one on one work that the student requires when they hit a topic that they have trouble with, or need further or alternate explanation. The puts the teacher as a facilitator that needs to be familiar with all levels of math from basic arithmetic through calculus -- and by familiar, I mean able to actually teach the concepts. A teacher may have a student in model 4 and model 10 in the same room, and when each student has an issue, the teacher would need to be able to step in at that topic and work with the student.

I have begun development of the requisite online tools for this, but Khan has, by far, a lead on videos and lectures -- and even presence. I thought of this way before Khan was popular enough for me to have heard of him, but, with most things, it comes down to who implements it first. I think that it could be an exciting next step for the Khan Academy.

Bury a mattress in the ground -- "Quick Sand." Chainsaw sans chain. Pretend to be a decoration, {move|jump|scare} at people that happen by (note: may get punched in the face). Hang fishing line from the trees/eves (feels like cobwebs) Get a ghillie suit, pop out of bushes (again, may get punched) .... Meh.... Google is your friend.

I have the Serval laptop from System76. They vet the hardware and guarantee that everything works with Ubuntu (Ubuntu comes pre-installed and fully loaded with drivers). Awesome computer. The biggest issue is dual monitor support -- but this is an Ubuntu thing, not System76. Oh, and my System76 sticker came off the cover from sliding in and out of my backpack :(

Just because "F" sounds like "Ef" does not mean that you use "an." It should read "A FPS..." I don't care how dumb the game concept is, I just care that the headline is easily parsable. -- Today's Grammar Nazi

I can type between 70 and 80 wpm on a standard keyboard. But on this here HTC thunderbolt, I feel that my two thumb hunt and peck is getting me little more than thirty wpm at best. particularly painful is Tue autocorrect when the word or acronym that I want is jot in its database.