Suburban Death Metal
3
Homework has never been so terrifying.
Suburban Death Metal
Comment Potential solution. (Score 1) 784
Assumption: the 'product' of a news channel is the education of their viewers.
Schools are given scores based on how they educate students.
Seems a similar grading scheme could be applied to news organizations based on surveys of their 'regular' viewers (students).
It would be valuable for [news channel] to be able to say "our viewers are smarter, and better informed than the other guys when it comes to facts."
Leading to the slogan: don't be dumb, watch [our channel]. Our viewers scored 75% smarter than the other guys.
Seriously - we should be able to grade news channels based on the job they do, or rather *should* do.
This grading could even be segmented further into topics revolving science, elections, politics, religion, etc. Hopefully this would lead to less time being spent on analysis, or at least more fact checking on pundits and their outrageous claims.
On a personal note: I'm normally a CNN viewer. I agreed to watch Fox for a day because my parents told me "how much better it was".
The first story of the day was about the LHC and it was titled "Doomsday machine starts tomorrow" after that I turned off the TV. I booted up world of warcraft and ignored the news for the rest of the day! it was fun.. I should do that more often.
Google Shows Off Ad-Supported Cell Phone 290
taoman1 writes "Today Google showed off a ad-supported cellphone that the company plans to offer for free to interested parties. The product could reach the marketplace within a year, and will offer Google search, email, and a web browser. 'The move would echo another recent product launched by a phone industry outsider, Apple Inc.'s iPhone. But Google's product would draw its revenue from a sharply different source, relying on commercial advertising dollars instead of the sticker price of at least US$499 for an iPhone and $60 per month for the AT&T Inc. service plan. Negotiating the fairest way to split those advertising revenues with service providers could be a big hurdle for Google, one analyst said. Another problem is the potential that consumers could be scared off by the prospect of listening to advertisements before being able to make phone calls, said Jeff Kagan, a wireless and telecommunications industry analyst in Atlanta.'"
New Theory Explains Periodic Mass Extinctions 383
i_like_spam writes "The theory that the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid impact, the K-T extinction, is well known and supported by fossil and geological evidence. Asteroid impact theory does not apply to the other fluctuations in biodiversity, however, which follow an approximate 62 million-year cycle. As reported in Science, a new theory seems to explain periodic mass extinctions. The new theory found that oscillations in the Sun relative to the plane of the Milky Way correlate with changes in biodiversity on Earth. The researchers suggest that an increase in the exposure of Earth to extragalactic cosmic rays causes mass extinctions. The original paper describing the findings is available online."
Web 2.0 Bubble May Be Worst Burst Yet 417
athloi writes with a link to an editorial by John Dvorak over at the PC Magazine site. Rather than his usual tilting at windmills, Dvorak turns his attention to possibility of another big internet economy 'pop': "Every single person working in the media today who experienced the dot-com bubble in 1999 to 2000 believes that we are going through the exact same process and can expect the exact same results — a bust. It's déjà vu all over again. Each succeeding bubble has been worse than its predecessor. Thus nobody is actually able to spot the cycle, since it just looks like a continuum. I can assure you that after this next collapse, nobody will think of the dot-com bubble as anything other than a prelude." It certainly seems like another burst is imminent; will this one be worse than the original, or have less of an impact?
eBay Bans Google Payments 591
whoever57 writes "eBay has added Google Checkout to the list of payment options banned on eBay. A recent update to the Accepted Payments Policy includes Google Checkout (click on 'Show' next to 'Some Examples' to reveal the list).
More comments on this action can be found at the eBay Strategies Blog."
Cutting Off an Over-Demanding End-User? 466
SpaceNeeded asks: "Numbers of you will probably recognize the start of the situation. Because I work with systems, I perform occasional builds. This occasionally crosses over to support (especially where it's my kit I'm asked to support). This isn't a problem, nor is it a problem when I get the occasional support query from someone I haven't supplied a system to, but who needs assistance. This is all well and good, but I've had pretty poor year personally. I've lost two relatives and a third is in a pretty bad way in hospital. An eleven year relationship ended a couple of months back, and I'm now having to perform _all_ the domestic tasks that used to be shared. Between these few things and my regular job I'm finding I have a whole lot less time to allow to support calls. What methods do you know of for gently cutting off someone, support-wise?"
Code Monkey Like Fritos 196
Greyjack writes "Jonathan Coulton's latest song in his thing-a-week series, Code Monkey, is an anthem for under-appreciated developers everywhere. From the song: 'Code Monkey get up get coffee / Code Monkey go to job / Code monkey have boring meeting, with boring manager Rob / Rob say Code Monkey very diligent / But his output stink / His code not functional or elegant / What do Code Monkey think?' Like virtually everything he does, he's released it under a Creative Commons license -- go forth, download, and share the goodness!" Update: 04/23 19:23 GMT by SM: Several users have also provided a torrent.
Mozilla Lightning 0.1 Released 198
Mini-Geek writes "MozillaZine is reporting that Lightning 0.1 is released. Lightning is a new Mozilla-made calendar extension for Mozilla Thunderbird that will eventually (once it becomes more mature and stable) be built into Thunderbird. From the article: 'The Lightning Project is a redesign of the Calendar component. Its goal is to tightly integrate calendar functionality (scheduling, tasks, etc.) into Mozilla Thunderbird.'"
Journal Journal: Hmm.. moderation = power
Wow.. i've noticed that since I got me some moderator points, i've become a power hungry crack fiend who's only mission in life is to start troll wars.
So how bad is it?? well I've also felt the strange need to post references to goatse.cx lately.
Yipes!
Journal Journal: jeezus.. these $%^& people on slashdot.
Today I learned that there are two types of people in the world - those who enjoy their jobs, and those who have jobs.
I hope I never have to work with the latter - they annoy me.
