yaddayadda

I had a dream a few nights ago about a first-person version of 2048. I don't have time to code it, but would love it if someone did a first-person version!

This!

I applied for a position at a company a year ago and was a great fit (both from my perspective and a company rep) but my salary expectation was higher than their budget. That position remained open on their website until about a week ago. What happened a week ago? They sent an email to my almamater highlighting the position and included their current salary range. Guess what - the salary I was asking for last year fell smack in the middle of that range and they were inundated with applications!

edit: silly typos!

Since most online systems require a doc or pdf format, I've started combining my cover letter and resume into a single pdf. If there's room for both in an application then I'll submit two individual pdfs, but if there's only room for one attachment then I submit the concatenated pdf.

<personal opinion based on many conversations> Teachers and administrators think that such changes will lead to lower salaries or outright loss of jobs.</personal opinion>

As someone in the field, I can understand their concerns from a political perspective.

From a political perspective, if technological improvements can provide an education that is comparable to current standards then there will be politicians that argue we can drastically reduce our number of teachers and administrators and save taxpayers a lot of money.

From an educational perspective, even if we were to implement all of the technological solutions that we could there will still be plenty of need for teachers. Such implementations would change the role of teachers, but not eliminate the need for them. The closest cases of such changes are "flipped classrooms". Knewton has an infographic that covers the basics - http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/

It's interesting to ponder the fact that the South Korean education reform was led by United States researchers

"By the late 1960's America was again in crisis. Not only was the country involved in another war, but the nation's schools were unable to elicit the achievement from learners it anticipated. Grant Venn argued that since only 19% of first graders complete a bachelor or arts degree, that the current educational system is only serving the advantaged minority of schoolchildren. To counter this trend Robert Morgan proposed to conduct an experiment with an "organic curriculum" which would to incorporate into the educational system the best instructional practices identified through research. Accepted in 1967 the proposal by the US Office of Education, the project was dubbed "Educational Systems for the 1970's", or ES'70. Morgan engaged an array of experts in the field of learning, cognition, and instructional design to contribute to the project and carried out multiple experiments in a variety of settings. Of these was Leslie Briggs, who had demonstrated that an instructionally designed course could yield up to 2:1 increase over conventionally designed courses in terms of achievement, reduction in variance, and reduction of time-to-completion – this effect was four times that of the control group which received no training. In 1970, Morgan partnered with the Florida Research and Development Advisory Board to conduct a nation-wide educational reform project in South Korea. Faced with the task of increasing the achievement of learners while at the same time reducing the cost of schooling from $41.27 per student per year Morgan applied some of the same techniques as had been piloted in the ES'70 project and achieved striking results: an increase in student achievement, a more efficient organization of instructors and course content, an increased teacher to student ratio, a reduction in salary cost, and a reduction in yearly per student cost by $9.80." (http://edutech-05.blogspot.com/2008/03/brief-history-of-inst...)

As a result, many countries continue to send students to Florida State's Instructional Systems Design program.

It's sad that our bureaucracy prevents us from benefiting from our own research.

A collaborative attempt to do so has lead to the Common Core - http://www.corestandards.org/ - which "... define the rigorous skills and knowledge in English Language Arts and Mathematics that need to be effectively taught and learned for students to be ready to succeed academically in credit-bearing, college-entry courses and in workforce training programs." and ability to measure attainment was one of their internal requirements during the development process (http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Criteria.pdf).

Sunday at 2:45pm mountain and the follow message is prominently displayed:

We are currently conducting site maintenance.

The Amtrak.com reservation system is temporarily unavailable while we perform site maintenance. To make reservations during this time, use the Amtrak mobile app for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone or call 1-800-USA-RAIL and speak to a customer service representative. We appreciate your patience.

One of my favorite New Year's Eve parties was on an Amtrack over a decade ago. I was headed back up to college and because of my schedule had to overnight it on a Northboand Amtrack on New Year's Eve. I'm not sure if it was because it was New Year's Eve, or a particularly long route, or just a special train, but it's the only time I ever remember seeing a liquor bar on an Amtrak (the entire bar was smaller than any closet in my house). I had brought my own liquor, and did my best to keep it out of sight.

Several hours before midnight, the coach I was in started morphing. Normally people didn't really talk to each other. That night, seatmates started talking, impromptu cardgames were started, I was certainly not the only one with hidden alcohol, and the bar was providing plenty for those without. By midnight the car I was in, and the adjacent car with the bar, were in full party mode. It was simultaneously one of the most surreal and awesome trips I have ever taken.

---

As for the Amtrak writer program - very cool. As a young serviceman, I would frequently catch a Friday night Amtrack away from the military town I was stationed in, picking a random location that I could spend Saturday in, and then ride back Sunday afternoon. I didn't write about or photograph my travels (wish I had), but I can't image a writer worth their salt not being inspired by the scenery, events, or people met on such random jaunts.

Combined with something like Tactus [1] and the environment can be represented in a tactile 3d map [2].

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/10/new-tactus-case-concept-bri... [2] http://www.solidterrainmodeling.com/

Specs, please?

I was raised in the 70's and am FTM. I can't speak definitively for the movement at the time, but my mother was absolutely aware of MTFs and was fully supportive. She was aware of MTFs because of women's studies classes, and her definition of feminism came from those same classes. So there was at least a sizable feminist subset that subscribed to that definition. Frustratingly, FTMs still weren't widely acknowledged, and while she was supportive she chalked what I said about myself up to being a tom-boy, while trying to stay open to the possibility that there could be FTMs.

I'm disappointed that there's a "Men's Rights" movement. My mother raised me as a "feminist" and part of being a "feminist" was not discriminating against anyone because of their gender. For example, feminists support a boy who wants to play with dolls or a father wants to be a stay-at-home parent. I hate that the label itself is gendered and I wish it would be changed, but the principles of "feminism" include "Men's Rights". Breaking "Men's Rights" out as a separate topic only muddies the waters, dilutes the efforts for the same goals, and introduces a divide that shouldn't be there in the first place!

From the polygon article and the short video on the Birth of a Man's Kickstarter page, this seems like massive IP overreach. It's like an artist advertising their favorite paint by making a painting of the paint and then the paint company saying they can't use the paints in commercial ventures. For example, Devoe paint prohibiting Jackson Pollock from allowing museum showings of #5 (http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/painting5.shtm).

In my case, my father was intellectually absent and my mother convinced me that programming was too blue-collar. Her father had owned his own heating company and raised his kids to despise anything remotely blue-collar. My grandmother had been his administrative person, and we were raised thinking that being CPAs, lawyers, etc were 'respectable' jobs. Engineering was 'acceptable', if not 'respectable'; ironically we were discouraged from pursuing it because it would "take a lot of math" (wouldn't becoming a CPA require a lot of math also?). And we weren't allowed to take anything apart because "that would void the warranty!" (heaven forbid!). On the upshot, my mother is now an academic adviser and because I've chewed her out so many times about this subject, she advises all of her students to take every math class they can and she has no heartache recommending someone follow a blue-collar path, if that's what the student's interested in.

First, I applaud David Ball for doing this and sharing his results!

Second, one of the first web application projects that I was a part of I was assigned as the "accessibility expert". At some point during that project I was told that the reason it is termed "accessibility" is because it makes the resource (e.g., website, print page, whatever the resource) more accessible for everyone, not just for people with physical limitations. The development version of that application lived on an unmanaged, but live server for more than a decade before it disappeared; up until its disappearance the application was still functioning, and could even be used on a mobile phone. Most of the recommendations I made, all those years ago, went uncontested by my teammates, but every now and then I had to fight for some aspect and I would make the "accessibility benefits everyone" speech. The last teammember to visit our application before it disappeared admitted that it wouldn't have been able to run on the latest technology if I hadn't been so adamant about accessibility all those years ago.

I think you got your title and url swapped. This should be a clickable link - http://folkpress.com/

So how often does a broken cookie give the right fortune?

I'm an Android user who has had a problem with the google app market since I got my first Android phone 2.5 yrs ago. Since they transitioned to Google Play, I haven't even agreed to the new terms of service! Of course, this means I don't get apps through the play store.

Instead, I get apps through either F-Droid (https://f-droid.org/) or Aptoide (http://www.aptoide.com/). F-Droid is only for free and open source apps; although I have upgraded to paid versions from restricted apps I found via F-Droid, so don't completely rule it out. Frankly, I don't understand why more developers don't use services like Aptoide.

The only negative is that I also like knowing that an application is "the application" it claims to be (not a name-the-same app). So I will normally find a developer's page, then follow their provided link to their Aptoide or F-Droid entry.

So quit complaining about google's restrictions and post your apps where people like me can pay you good money for them! If enough developers and consumers go this route then the new g-men will have to adapt to market forces.

Another person thinking it was about MITM.

My very first "improvement" in my new house was "fixing" the order of light switches (before I had even moved into the house), so that they had some logical relationship to the physical layout of the space.

I love this, as well as the sister-site, 507 Mechanical Movements [1].

I'm surprised at how laborious the process is [2]. Is there not a way to automate this in a CAD program and export it (e.g. SolidWorks [3]); or is that limited to video, not a more interactive simulation? Are there any open source CAD programs that would support generation of such simulations?

[1] http://507movements.com/

[2] http://www.animatedengines.com/howto.html

[3] http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/3d-cad/cad-animation.h...

Mice are the most intelligent species on Earth. In fact, they are so smart that they are immune to placebo effects. However, they act like they aren't because our reactions provide them much entertainment - http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Mice

Edited to add: On a more serious note, I don't know if mice are susceptible to a Hawthorne-like effect http://psychology.about.com/od/hindex/g/def_hawthorn.htm Even physical science researchers have to deal with observer effects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_%28physics%29

Edited to clean up brain-drained errors.

You're correct. What saalweachter was describing are ways to minimize threats to reliability and validity.

- http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/relandval.php

- http://www.mathcs.duq.edu/~packer/Courses/Psy624/Validity.ht...

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_validity

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_validity

Making her bi-sexual makes it too easy!

What about a post-top-op, no-bottom-op, FTM that is only into lesbians or bi-women?

I used to have a less than 5min commute and it was perfect for "resetting" my mind. I now have about an hour commute; most nights it doesn't matter how much energy I had when I walked out of the office, by the time I get in the house I barely have enough energy to put something in the microwave and eat before passing out.

There's a big difference between (a) doing text or image analysis to find out what I drink and then providing advertisements to me for that drink and (b) telling anyone I have ever, in any way, digitally interacted with what I drink!

I have no problem with the first (and in fact prefer it to untargeted ads) and a huge, massive, deal-breaking problem with the second.

I don't disagree that people are responsible to a degree for their own data security. But this case highlights that there is a limit to an individuals ability to maintain their own data security. This woman intentionally shared one name with people associated with one account. If the allegation is true, google then shared a different name with people on that account.

Saying this woman is responsible is like saying I'm personally responsible for my credit card information being leaked by Target. Yes, I used a credit card at Target. Once Target has my information, they should be held accountable for their security and handling of that information. In the same way Google should be held accountable for their security and handling of this woman's information.

"Short of not sharing any information at all about anyone..." Agreed! And online services, like Google and Facebook, should NOT be sharing ANY information with ANYONE without EXPLICIT permission from the person who's information it is.

I may want to share a photo of a me at a party with a sub-set of my friends, that doesn't mean that I want that photo to be available to my mother or to a potential employee 50 years from now. When G+ started they introduced 'circles' which encapsulates this concept, and I was happy.

Since google combined all google services under single user name -without giving users a choice in the matter- they lost my support. With the exception of gmail, I've stopped using google services; and as soon as I find an alternative to gmail that meets my needs I'm dropping that. And I haven't used facebook in many years, for the same privacy control reasons.

During a transgender person's "transition" their name is also likely to "transition" hence, until a court order legally changes their name, they may use a preferred name in non-legal contexts. Forcing someone to use a legal name in a non-legal context (e.g., Facebook) is one problem. Allowing a user enter their desired name and then using surreptitiously gleaned information to change that name to their legal name is a different problem, but a problem none the less.

>It is theorized that at pressures somewhere between 1.55-5.62 terapascals ice will become metallic.

If that were his only reason, I'd agree, but his very next sentence is, "My wife is an English teacher which she enjoys and we have a great group of friends so it would be selfish to ask to move again." In other words, it isn't just the skiing. His wife also has a job in the area and they are socially established there. And from the sounds of it, they've moved a fair bit in the past.