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Comment clickbait, be better slashdot (Score 1) 337

This is a ridiculous headline. They demonstrate proficiency by taking and passing lots of math, science and language arts classes as per the Oregon State HS Diploma requirements: https://www.oregon.gov/ode/students-and-family/OregonDiploma/Pages/Credit-Req.aspx Good lord isn't there enough in the world to get upset about without creating controversy from nothing.

Entertainment

The Great Tablet Gold Rush Is Over (mashable.com) 170

Earlier this month, Dell announced that it will no longer sell Android tablets. The company added that slate tablet market is "over-saturated" and is "experiencing declining demand from consumers." The company says it will focus more on 2-in-1 -- otherwise known as hybrid laptops -- devices moving forward. Dell is right. According to IDC, tablet sales have fallen greatly in the last few years. Mashable goes on to say that the "great tablet gold rush is over." From an article: Pretty much every major tablet maker's growth fell year-over-year. Apple's iPad and Samsung's Galaxy Tabs, the two most popular brands of tablets, were down 18.8% and 28.1%, respectively. [...] In the beginning, the pitch was: The tablet is the future of computing. It'll replace your phone and your laptop. Then it became: A small tablet will replace your smartphone. Today, the pitch: It's good enough to replace your laptop. But only for some people, and only if you're willing to get by with a mobile OS. Long story short: Tablets are a complete mess right now. We can't seem to decide if we want them to replace all of our devices or only a few of them.

Comment Re:Not Surprising (Score 2, Interesting) 249

This is a wonderful app. I push files around my home network using the ssh integration etc. Your comment motivated me to "go pro". I've been using the app for years and it never even occurred to me to buy it. For 2.99USD, it's really a pittance and the developers deserve a little compensation for a job well done. Thanks for motivating me.

Comment This is from the 99% Invisible Podcast. (Score 5, Informative) 183

It's not clear at all to me why the OP or the editors wouldn't at least mention that this information is taken nearly word-for-word from the really excellent weekly podcast 99% Invisible, so I'm making this comment to get it on the record. Also, here's a gratuitous link to the podcast: http://99percentinvisible.org/ and the episode: http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/structural-integrity/

Comment Re:Just algebra? (Score 2) 490

My stock response to this is that educators simply don't know what a person will end up doing in life. Hence the goal of educators is to provide a broad spectrum of ideas for the student to draw upon in their future endeavors--whatever they may be. It's certainly true that a student without calculus has fewer options in life than one with calculus. That doesn't mean I think every student should be required to take calculus, just that your argument for not requiring it is not sound.

Books

Submission + - Sell someone else's book on Lulu! (lulu.com)

Albert Schueller writes: Lulu is a place where authors can self-publish their books. It's a nice response to exorbitant college textbook prices. In an interesting twist, looks like you might be able to get away with selling other people's books on Lulu and reap a tidy profit. The Lulu offering Calculus Twirly Exponentials by Dave Stuart appears to be simply a high quality scan of the much more well-known, and expensive, Calculus: Early Transcendentals 6th ed. by James Stewart. Compare the preview images available for each at Lulu and Amazon respectively. Do it quickly though. I imagine Lulu will take it down once this story appears!

Comment It could be illegal. (Score 5, Interesting) 217

"Among its various tactics? It hires a team of interns to trawl iTunes and other community forums posing as real users, and has them write positive reviews for their client's applications."

Just so we're all clear, this is already illegal. If they are engaging in this kind of activity, then it's just a law enforcement issue.

Comment Slackware, 1994 or so. (Score 1) 739

To install it I used something like 60-80 1.44" floppy disks on a Packard-Bell which I created using the network connection and computers at school. I successfully installed it, but I never got the video past 800x600 (though I played with modelines til my eyes crossed). My only network connection was a modem. I can't remember if I had ppp at that point, but something makes me think I did because I was so excited to have multiple shells connected to the school machines.

The whole reason for even trying was to get a unix environment at home to run LaTeX. I was in graduate school in the math dept at the University of Kentucky. I've been running some flavor of linux at home ever since (slackware, redhat, debian, centos, ubuntu).

Comment Follow the money. (Score 1) 601

As with most things, follow the money. Without cell phones, the only way that a prisoner may communicate with loved ones outside is through collect phone calls. These collect phone calls are outrageously expensive--about $20 for 10 minutes. The reason is that the prisons sign exclusive contracts with phone providers and get a cut. It's wrong on a number of levels:

1) Usually the families of prisoners can ill afford such rates.

2) Families make reasonable economic choices to limit the calls that they take. This further isolates the prisoner from his family (and support system).

3) We all know that legitimate companies are able to make money charging only 2 or 3 cents per minute on long distance calls. The 10,000% mark up is unconscionable.

These anti-cell phone policies are really just an attempt to protect a lucrative revenue stream.

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