Comment Re:Anti-US Government, Maybe (Score 1) 1018
Thank you – I agree whole-heartedly! We're so self-referential sometimes it's nauseating.
Comment I suspect many of you are hypocrites (Score 1) 290
Yes, yes, yes. Copyrighted material should be respected. Yada Yada Yada. It's all a very sad (and somewhat humorous) story.
I can't help but wonder how many of you ripping the woman from Cooks Source (as wrong as she was) have songs you did not purchase on your iPods, copied and submitted without proper citation someone else's text in your research papers, etc.
Bunch of hypocrites. Really.
Submission + - Retro Video/DOS Games For The Weekend (smashingmagazine.com)
sertsa writes: Always on the lookout for new ways for grad students to waste time I submit this article from Smashing Magazine for your approval. Wolf 3D here I come (again)!
Comment Re:Quote: (Score 2, Insightful) 569
The problem with your argument is many clients (new / small businesses) don't know the value of working WITH a designer. This is kinda like when a person walks into Wal-Mart to buy a socket set. It looks shiny in their toolbox, and they don't know any better until it strips out / twists / breaks when they need to put some real pressure on it.
Wal-Mart has driven countless small local businesses into bankruptcy while making a mint selling this crap.
Personally, I think this means that as design becomes just another commodity you are going to see serious downward pressure on the fees that all but the largest firms can command (think of Dell, HP, etc as the commodity side of that equation and Apple (ironically) as the high end). After all, I read an article about companies outsourcing design to India (I'm looking for the article - I'll post later).
Submission + - School Accused of Using Webcam to Photograph Stude (nytimes.com)
sertsa writes: "In a lawsuit filed in federal court, a school district in suburban Philadelphia has been accused of using a Webcam embedded in a school-issued laptop to covertly photograph a 15-year-old student in his home."
Comment Re:Really? (Score 2, Interesting) 1324
I second inviolet's post.
My wife and I homeschool precisely because we were disgusted with both the quality and the direction of the public school in our district. Before making that decision we attended school board meetings, met with our children's teachers, and had private meetings with both the past and present superintendent. While not too surprised what we found was indifference at just about all levels. Both my wife and I are college grads - I majored in the humanities and my wife in the sciences - and neither of us are religious.
Evolution was too controversial, but letting a community church onto school grounds so they could proselytize and pass out bibles to our kids as they got off the bus and walked into the school building was no big deal. Our children were at the top of their classes, but gifted programming was eschewed for individualized learning plans -- a nice idea except all it meant to the teacher was letting our kids finish their work then tutor the other kids. Classrooms of 25 - 30+ kids in 1st grade were not an issue to be concerned about.
What really surprised us were the supportive phone calls we got from teachers after we pulled our kids out. Teachers know things aren't right, but when their job depends upon keeping their mouth shut during these tough times what's a teacher to do?
Now in our second year of homeschooling things are going great. Science and math are an integral part of our homeschooling, our kids have been exploring another language thanks to some decent support materials on DVD and the web, history is as accurate as we can make it, and we don't have to worry about some other parent complaining that the dictionaries in the library define oral sex. As for extra curricular activities our kids are involved in at least one sport every season through the YMCA and YWCA (in our area they're merged). They have friends who they occasionally spend the night with and vice versa. Their bright, inquisitive, social and aren't afraid of science and math (ok - I'm a proud parent too
Mars Images Reveal Evidence of Ancient Lakes 128
Matt_dk writes "Spectacular satellite images suggest that Mars was warm enough to sustain lakes three billion years ago, a period that was previously thought to be too cold and arid to sustain water on the surface, according to research published today in the journal Geology. Earlier research had suggested that Mars had a warm and wet early history but that between 4 billion and 3.8 billion years ago, before the Hesperian Epoch, the planet lost most of its atmosphere and became cold and dry. In the new study, the researchers analysed detailed images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is currently circling the red planet, and concluded that there were later episodes where Mars experienced warm and wet periods."
Comment Re:Stop scaremongering (Score 1) 179
I wouldn't characterize us as Luddites. Rather, I would say understanding the technology we have a healthy respect and even enthusiasm for its potential but well-informed concern for its liabilities.
Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."
Submission + - High Tech Recovery Attempt Of Lost Da Vinci (nytimes.com)
sertsa writes: If you believe . . that Leonardo da Vinciâ(TM)s greatest painting is hidden inside a wall in Florenceâ(TM)s city hall, then there are two essential techniques for finding it. As usual, Leonardo anticipated both of them.
Submission + - All your secrets are belong to us (again) (nytimes.com)
sertsa writes: "Earlier this year a group of researchers at the University of Washington came up with a scheme to use peer-to-peer networks to store and ultimately forget the keys for encrypted messages causing them to "Vanish". Now a group from researchers from the University of Michigan has come up with a way to break this approach.
In our experiments with Unvanish, we have shown that it is possible to make Vanish messages reappear long after they should have disappeared nearly 100 percent of the time . . ."
In our experiments with Unvanish, we have shown that it is possible to make Vanish messages reappear long after they should have disappeared nearly 100 percent of the time . . ."
Submission + - Digital Karnak Uses Tech to Explore Archaeology (ucla.edu)
sertsa writes: FTO
. . . Accompanied by ETC's (UCLA's Experiential Technologies Center) most ambitious web interface to date, Digital Karnak shows the site at any point in time between 1951 B.C. and 31 B.C., allowing users to fast-forward from a single temple occupying a two-acre site to a sprawling complex covering 69 acres with eight temples, 10 small chapels, 10 monumental gateways, 15 obelisks, 100 sphinxes and even a ceremonial lake.
. . . Accompanied by ETC's (UCLA's Experiential Technologies Center) most ambitious web interface to date, Digital Karnak shows the site at any point in time between 1951 B.C. and 31 B.C., allowing users to fast-forward from a single temple occupying a two-acre site to a sprawling complex covering 69 acres with eight temples, 10 small chapels, 10 monumental gateways, 15 obelisks, 100 sphinxes and even a ceremonial lake.
Submission + - Geek Squad Caught (michaeltbarrett.com)
sertsa writes: A woman goes into Best Buy to return a defective camera. Best Buy blames her for breaking it until her son-in-law discovers pictures left on the camera by a member of the Geek Squad. Time for an apology?
Submission + - Cosmic Hologram? (newscientist.com) 1
sertsa writes: I kept thinking someone else would submit this article from the New Scientist last week, but they didn't. So, here it is.
For many months, the GEO600 team-members had been scratching their heads over inexplicable noise that is plaguing their giant detector. Then, out of the blue, a researcher approached them with an explanation. In fact, he had even predicted the noise before he knew they were detecting it. According to Craig Hogan, a physicist at the Fermilab particle physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, GEO600 has stumbled upon the fundamental limit of space-time . . . "If the GEO600 result is what I suspect it is, then we are all living in a giant cosmic hologram."
For many months, the GEO600 team-members had been scratching their heads over inexplicable noise that is plaguing their giant detector. Then, out of the blue, a researcher approached them with an explanation. In fact, he had even predicted the noise before he knew they were detecting it. According to Craig Hogan, a physicist at the Fermilab particle physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, GEO600 has stumbled upon the fundamental limit of space-time . . . "If the GEO600 result is what I suspect it is, then we are all living in a giant cosmic hologram."
Comment Disney & Jobs (Score 5, Interesting) 399
This whole thing reminds me of how Walt Disney's passing affected his company.
Basically Disney lost direction, stopped making new animated movies, and hoped that revenues from merchandise and attendance at Disneyland kept the bills paid.
All of this changed of course with Michael Eisner's taking the reins. How did he do it? Aside from his business savvy (something that shouldn't be minimized) he looked back at the way Walt ran the show and continually asked himself what would Walt do.
It didn't last forever, but as everyone mac fan knows the cult of personality around Steve has a basis in the fact that Steve has vision and ruthlessly pursues that vision until it is achieved.
Apple is going to either need someone with a vision and business acuity equal to Jobs, or someone who is able to channel Jobs like Eisner did Disney.
I'm not seeing that in any of the people listed in the article.
BTW - isn't Steve on Disney's board?
