S. 786 has been introduced and sponsored by Sen. R. Santorum. While the wording of this bill leaves much to be desired if you puzzle with it a while you will see that it is trying to limit the ability of the National Weather Service ( seriously cool sight if your a weather nut ) to post its weather information online for general access by the public in order that it not compete with private enterprises such as Accuweather and The Weather Channel. It seems concerned about repetitious work by a government agency that the private sector is willing and able to provide.
I suppose on the surface of it this may seem reasonable enough but if you dig a bit deeper you find something interesting. Quite a bit of the information provided by Accuweather and The Weather Channel consist largely of repackaged National Weather Service information. This information is paid for out of the federal budget... IE your tax dollars. So everyone that pays federal taxes has partially footed the bill for this information. Private businesses of course want to make money for providing their services.
So just to spell it out.
Accuweather (primary instigator) has basically been crusading to get this legislation in action for a while now. They have managed to sway one of the Senators in their home state to sponsor and introduce S.786 to stop the National Weather Service from providing public access to the tax payer funded information that they repackage in their service. So in other words they want people to have to pay them (and other weather services) for access to the information collected and paid for already with their tax dollars.
This is wrong on so many levels it isn't even funny. That a company is trying to protect a business model that does not provide added value over what is already provided by a needed federally funded process is bad enough. That a Senator has bought off on it and is actively sponsoring a bill to make it law just isn't right. The whole thing puts me in mind of the RIAA and its whining that digital file trading is killing its means of making money. Well tough shit says I. There is no right to a specific business model. Horse Carriage makers had all the same arguments when the Model T came along and that Car thing actually took off.
Write your congress critters, or drop 'em an E-mail and say that this simply isn't acceptable. If they only people they hear from are the businesses like Accuweather then they might just be blinded enough by the BS to actually let a turd piece of legislation like this slip through.... By all rights it shouldn't even have gotten this far. But that is our Congress at work for ya. It is right depressing at time.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Technology in the Classroom
Last year Duke greeted Students with something interesting. They handed out an apple I-pod. Since then debate has absolutely raged about whether it was a frivolous popularity gimmick or an inspired new move to incorporate technology into the educational environment. I say it is more towards the inspired end of the spectrum because it embraces a very fundamental aspect of technology used for educational purposes. It MUST MUST MUST be universal. Since every student has one then teachers can expect them to be available to all of their students. Since every student has them you have the maximum possibility that they will figure out some new way to make them usefull tools for study.
Currently there is no end to the debate regarding computer use in the classroom at all levels of education. All I can say is that they will continue to be marginal tools at best till they are universal and their use is on par with that of paper. IE everyone has it and knows how to use it. Until then they are unevenly distributed tools and becasue they lack a universal nature teachers will continue to be at odds regarding how to properly harness them.
Now that said, I am not sure what the ultimate value of an Ipod in an educational setting is at this particular point in time but its power to be an effective tool is there as 20gb+ is an awful lot of information. Even with its limitations it has gotten enough use and the practice has spread to enough schools that they are slowly finding their niche. This article covers the positives and negatives and at the end raises an issue that makes my blood boil. It is a discussion of the right of students to share the material captured by their ipods... such as lectures and interviews. I simply find it appalling that there is even any question about the rights of a student to record and share the information they gain in class. Be that with their fellow classmates or the world at large. Technology has now brought a level of educational material dessimination to the realm of possibility that was utterly impractical not all that long ago. Consider it this way. After College one could have an IPOD filled with thousands of hours of lectures and full sets of the asociated texts and refference materials... and someone else could have them in the time it takes to copy the information. For 600 dollars worth of gear I could share the materials of my college education with a friend, my child or a complete stranger. This is simply STAGGERING. We should be dancing about singing hallelujia and striving to make the perfect envrionment for collecting all of this information into a manageable system for accessing it and pushing it out to anyone who wants it.
I wish I had my College classes and texts on Ipod or simply in any digital format... especially if I could index that information via something like Google's desktop search. Instead I have barely legible, incomplete notebooks, fading memories and some of the texts. I wish that when the time comes and my children are learning they could have access to all of that information, and more, easy access to that level of information in ANY field of intrest. This idea that it may be right to create limitations for sharing educational information needs to be stopped in its tracks.
Instead we seem more interested in protecting the prestiege factor of attending college and limiting the dessimination of the learning available only to those both finacially and physcially able to atend the classes at the various universities. With free sharing of this sort of information in place, top lectures by the best in the field could be used to supplement course material at ALL classes EVERYWHERE or used by a motivated individual to learn on their own.
Currently there is no end to the debate regarding computer use in the classroom at all levels of education. All I can say is that they will continue to be marginal tools at best till they are universal and their use is on par with that of paper. IE everyone has it and knows how to use it. Until then they are unevenly distributed tools and becasue they lack a universal nature teachers will continue to be at odds regarding how to properly harness them.
Now that said, I am not sure what the ultimate value of an Ipod in an educational setting is at this particular point in time but its power to be an effective tool is there as 20gb+ is an awful lot of information. Even with its limitations it has gotten enough use and the practice has spread to enough schools that they are slowly finding their niche. This article covers the positives and negatives and at the end raises an issue that makes my blood boil. It is a discussion of the right of students to share the material captured by their ipods... such as lectures and interviews. I simply find it appalling that there is even any question about the rights of a student to record and share the information they gain in class. Be that with their fellow classmates or the world at large. Technology has now brought a level of educational material dessimination to the realm of possibility that was utterly impractical not all that long ago. Consider it this way. After College one could have an IPOD filled with thousands of hours of lectures and full sets of the asociated texts and refference materials... and someone else could have them in the time it takes to copy the information. For 600 dollars worth of gear I could share the materials of my college education with a friend, my child or a complete stranger. This is simply STAGGERING. We should be dancing about singing hallelujia and striving to make the perfect envrionment for collecting all of this information into a manageable system for accessing it and pushing it out to anyone who wants it.
I wish I had my College classes and texts on Ipod or simply in any digital format... especially if I could index that information via something like Google's desktop search. Instead I have barely legible, incomplete notebooks, fading memories and some of the texts. I wish that when the time comes and my children are learning they could have access to all of that information, and more, easy access to that level of information in ANY field of intrest. This idea that it may be right to create limitations for sharing educational information needs to be stopped in its tracks.
Instead we seem more interested in protecting the prestiege factor of attending college and limiting the dessimination of the learning available only to those both finacially and physcially able to atend the classes at the various universities. With free sharing of this sort of information in place, top lectures by the best in the field could be used to supplement course material at ALL classes EVERYWHERE or used by a motivated individual to learn on their own.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Braves Baseball
Time for some Baseball.
Alot of fans are worried about the Braves right now. The offense is quesitonable, and the new Closer Kolb is off to a horriffic start. However I can't say I am worried. For one, barring something unusual, starts like Kolbs are like 10/10 hitting streaks, they just don't last. Thus far in his career the guy has all the marks of a serviceable closer. Unless he goes Wholers on us he is going to rack up 30+ saves.... and he may well blow 10+. The way the Braves are built there are going to be save opps GALORE. Granted we need to see some quality efforts soon but two apperances do not a bust make. About the worst thing the Braves could do right now is push the panic button cause if the guy isn't toast yet, pulling the carpet out from under him will finish him off. He keeps blowing up and the time will come for a change and its still early and there is a Looooong season ahead.
As for the bats I really can't say I am too worried about them just yet either. This offense reminds me a great deal of the ones we had in the early 90's at the start of this incredible run. They have some pop but mostly they are going to scrap. From top to bottom we have guys that know how to get the job done and who are willing to do what needs to be done to win. Even Raul Mondessi though he is no favorit of mine. Once Furky, and Giles get their act going the offense will click and we will start scoring more. At that point the starters efforts will net more wins... and the Pen will get a chance to catch its breath here and there rather than facing nail biters night after night after night. At that point the Braves are going to look tough.... very very very tough.
There is always the good luck and bad luck fairy pot luck surprises... a bum elbow for smoltz...a ressurgence from Brian Jordan. In the end the breaks cancel out more often than they beat you down or lift you up over the course of the season (post season is a bit different) and the Braves organization is one that deals with the breaks better than any in history.
So when will it be time to worry? If 4 weeks from now we are 5+ games off the pace still faced with an aneamic offense, and have Canned Kolb with no viable replacement comming to the fore, then I will be worried.
In order to be in position to take home a 14th division title we must have these 3 things.
1) A top 3 in the leauge performance from the starters, best in the NL East
2) At least Career average years for Chipper, AJ, Giles and Furky
3) Estrada was not over performing last year
The things that will put us over the top in conjunction with the above...
1) A Comeback year from either Jordan or Mondessi
2) Another dominating Ragtag Pen
I think the Braves take it again this year barring a major setback or a 105+ win effort from another team in the division... I just don't think we have the Hosses to get to that level without way to much luck. However,The Marlins and Philles both have the pieces if everything gels. I would love to see a Pennat race between Cox and Mekeeon.
My call of the year
Hampton will show the form that landed him that outrageous contract. He is comfortably in the shadow of Smoltz and Hudson. With an average offense and Solid Pen 20 wins is not out of the question.
Past calls of the year.
Last year I called the Braves having a top 3 Pitching Staff... I think the ended 2nd if not 1st overall.
Year before I also made a call regarding Hampton saying he would take the first half to find himself and then he would dominate in the second half.
Alot of fans are worried about the Braves right now. The offense is quesitonable, and the new Closer Kolb is off to a horriffic start. However I can't say I am worried. For one, barring something unusual, starts like Kolbs are like 10/10 hitting streaks, they just don't last. Thus far in his career the guy has all the marks of a serviceable closer. Unless he goes Wholers on us he is going to rack up 30+ saves.... and he may well blow 10+. The way the Braves are built there are going to be save opps GALORE. Granted we need to see some quality efforts soon but two apperances do not a bust make. About the worst thing the Braves could do right now is push the panic button cause if the guy isn't toast yet, pulling the carpet out from under him will finish him off. He keeps blowing up and the time will come for a change and its still early and there is a Looooong season ahead.
As for the bats I really can't say I am too worried about them just yet either. This offense reminds me a great deal of the ones we had in the early 90's at the start of this incredible run. They have some pop but mostly they are going to scrap. From top to bottom we have guys that know how to get the job done and who are willing to do what needs to be done to win. Even Raul Mondessi though he is no favorit of mine. Once Furky, and Giles get their act going the offense will click and we will start scoring more. At that point the starters efforts will net more wins... and the Pen will get a chance to catch its breath here and there rather than facing nail biters night after night after night. At that point the Braves are going to look tough.... very very very tough.
There is always the good luck and bad luck fairy pot luck surprises... a bum elbow for smoltz...a ressurgence from Brian Jordan. In the end the breaks cancel out more often than they beat you down or lift you up over the course of the season (post season is a bit different) and the Braves organization is one that deals with the breaks better than any in history.
So when will it be time to worry? If 4 weeks from now we are 5+ games off the pace still faced with an aneamic offense, and have Canned Kolb with no viable replacement comming to the fore, then I will be worried.
In order to be in position to take home a 14th division title we must have these 3 things.
1) A top 3 in the leauge performance from the starters, best in the NL East
2) At least Career average years for Chipper, AJ, Giles and Furky
3) Estrada was not over performing last year
The things that will put us over the top in conjunction with the above...
1) A Comeback year from either Jordan or Mondessi
2) Another dominating Ragtag Pen
I think the Braves take it again this year barring a major setback or a 105+ win effort from another team in the division... I just don't think we have the Hosses to get to that level without way to much luck. However,The Marlins and Philles both have the pieces if everything gels. I would love to see a Pennat race between Cox and Mekeeon.
My call of the year
Hampton will show the form that landed him that outrageous contract. He is comfortably in the shadow of Smoltz and Hudson. With an average offense and Solid Pen 20 wins is not out of the question.
Past calls of the year.
Last year I called the Braves having a top 3 Pitching Staff... I think the ended 2nd if not 1st overall.
Year before I also made a call regarding Hampton saying he would take the first half to find himself and then he would dominate in the second half.
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