AngusThermopyle

In other words you have one of those useless degrees and couldn't do basic math to save your life. Lets not even talk Trig or Calculus.

Wow! You just don't get it do you? Its hard for me to believe that something so obvious has apparently flown right over your head, but there it is I suppose. What Cyber is telling you is that the link you provided presents evidence that directly refutes what you have previously stated to be the preferred new teaching methods. In simpler terms, just so you can understand, the link says that you are wrong when you state the new ways are better. Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you? What I personally find hilarious is the fact that you provided a link as evidence of your point and it actually plainly states that you are full of sh*t. You couldn't make that up. Its just too damned good to be true! And you say you're going to be a teacher...LOL.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this guy yet. Or am I the only one around here who loves the blues? He's kept company with the best of the best, plays a twelve string slide like nobodies business and really knows how to wear a hat. Just watch his finger work, it really is amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW08Rc802MQ

Saw the Who in Detroit back when I was a teen. It was a great concert but not my favourite one. What I miss is the fact that the days of the grand concerts appear to be done. Some will argue that the new bands are as good or better but I maintain that its pretty hard to top some of those old bands for the sheer spectacle and fantastic music they put up on stage.

It's new in the sense that the answer isn't the only thing that gets graded. Back in the day, we used to have kids memorize things and just regurgitate the answer. Really? When I was in school back in the seventies our work was graded not just on the final answer but on the process used to arrive at this answer. Therefore you could get the answer wrong yet still receive marks for the work done. You could not get every question wrong and still pass, however you could get some wrong and, based on the work done, still pass the test. There is nothing new about the reasoning process, its been used in schools for decades at the very least.

A basic ability to read can hardly be construed as being functionally literate. Functionality implies the ability to communicate clearly and accurately by either spoken or written word. The ability to read at a basic level does not necessarily automatically imply this ability.

I can believe it. This is a problem that I just don't see being solved in the short term, if ever. If anything I can see the problem accelerating and worsening with time. On an anecdotal note I can say that I encounter examples of this everyday. From poor speech to unintelligible written missives. A good example would be anything posted by Socialist himself. Personally however I do believe the prevalence of texting and netspeak only contribute to the problem and do nothing at all to mitigate it.

I think you misunderstood my point Cyber. What I was trying to explain is that many times in my life I've been in situations where I've been required to give answers on the fly right away. In these situations I haven't had access to electronic devices but have had to provide answers based solely on my knowledge at the time. estimates that must be accurate relating to cost, materials, production rates, etc. As I said, I can understand and appreciate your point about critical thinking, this was one area that I for one was well educated in and it has been a valuable skill. However without the ability to problem solve and formulate answers without outside assistance many times I would have been up the proverbial creek. It should also be added that the ability to communicate clearly, concisely and accurately are of paramount importance. More and more today it appears that functional illiteracy is becoming the norm and the rules of grammar and spelling are being regarded as the somewhat quaint and antiquated relics of a bygone age.

From what I've heard of it it does sound good, a return to the old power trio days. Its one album I wont buy though as the recording is horrible. They fell into the same trap that many musicians today fall prey to. When they recorded it they boosted the loudness at the expense of dynamic range, as a result it doesn't sound very good. Source material good, recording and engineering bad, that equals a fail. Unfortunately.

I can see and appreciate your point about analysing data Cyber. What must be kept in mind however is the fact that many jobs do not and will not allow or provide for instant access to the interwebs, both now and in the future. If you raise a generation to be dependant on electronic assistance you will be doing many of these people a disservice. It is still necessary for people to be able to problem solve for themselves without outside assistance or resources. For this to happen a thorough understanding of the basics is a must. In my life I have had many jobs where I have had to do immediate calculations and estimations on the fly, so to speak. This is unlikely to change soon given the nature of many jobs. In the future I can see people regarding the person who can answer questions without the use of a phone or tablet or some such thing with awe. How did he do that, and so quickly? Oooooh!

All I can say is wow! Seriously. It may be because I'm just a dinosaur or something but for me 3x4 has always been 12, not 11. I was unaware that such things were now negotiable. The more I see of Socialists posts the happier I am to have been educated in stone age fashion. Of course Socialist would claim that I am basically uneducated because of the methods used to educate me. However I can do sandbox type math quickly and effortlessly in my head, I can write and communicate in legible fashion and I also have a fairly good grasp of history and geography. From what this individual posts I've deduced that they are almost functionally illiterate, have not even the most basic grasp of Mathematics and are ignorant to the most basic facts of the world around them. All is not lost though, he can Tweet and use Facebook, whoopee!

Best concert? That's a hard one to answer since so many bands bring something special to the table when they perform. There are quite a few I put up there with the best I've seen. For sure Queen is one of them, saw them for their Jazz and News of the World tours, Freddy was mesmerizing on stage and the rest of the band were very tight and on the money. Jethro Tull for the Bursting Out and Stormwatch tours. Ian Anderson is truly a first class showman. Yes for the Tormato tour, once again a first class show. Peter Gabriel for the Shock the Monkey tour, always loved old Genesis and Peter is another amazing live performer. That's just some of them, there are others that belong on the list though. As I said, each band brought something special onto the stage.

Don't buy razors anymore, I got tired of constantly being fleeced. Instead I took the one time hit and bought a high end Braun electric. Although it doesn't shave as close as a blade it does do a good job. Faster, more convenient and no constant expense, I like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le-3MIBxQTw Alabama Shakes debut album Boys and Girls. Great first outing, a classic mix of blues and rock with a healthy dose of soul thrown in. These guys restore my faith in good new music. I liked it so much that I bought the album and CD. Of course the vinyl sounds better but even the CD sounds great. Good music and very good recording combined.

Who are you? You dont sound like Guyser.

The latest news is that Blue will be previewed to the public sometime in June . It will incorporate a start button but no associated menu, WTF. Really dont see the point of the button without the associated menu myself, it will also have something called Kiosk mode, this is for retailers to display Win 8 without locking the system down. Anyway, heres a link for those who may be interested. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/new_windows_8_blue_leak_confirms_additional_features123 Sorry, link function doesn't seem to be working today. Someone mentioned ealier that Apple uses premium hardware. Nonesense. Apple switched to an X86 architecture years ago. In other words they use the same hardware as a PC. They had to do this as even the best of their products fell woefully short of a well built PC performance wise. The downside is that they still use some proprietary parts so repairing or upgrading can still be a major pain with Apple. Just say no and dont drink the Apple flavoured Cool Aid. As for Open Office, used it for years and it is very good. Now however I've switched to Libre Office, still free but even better than Open Office.

Win 8 is slightly faster than 7 but benchmarks show that its a very minor speed increase, not something that will make much of a differance really, it is a bit snappier opening and closing programs though. It does boot and shut down faster as well. For gamers the difference is negligible. The Win 8 service pack is codenamed Windows blue it will address the problems Win 8 has, such as a search function that often times can't find what its searching for, kinda a big deal actually. Max PC actually say that its energy consumption could be much better, this is something blue will also address in an effort to compete with other mobile platforms. Of course the X86 architecture is more hungry than mobile chips, however it also trounces other mobile chips so soundly performance wise that you really can't compare them. When Haswell is released in several months the power issue should become a non issue. Not only will Haswell sip power but will offer a 15 to 20% increase in performance over current I7 procs, in some instances the performance gains will be even greater. Of note is the rumour that such extensive updates, or service packs if you will, are going to be annual events, like Apple. Unlike Apple Microsoft will not charge for them. Having said all that I personally do not like Win8. On the other hand I'll eventually have to re-install it, the first thing I'll do is install Classic Shell (www.classicshell.net) in order to banish that hideously craptacular Metro interface. In one fell swoop that will make it palatable to me. Honestly, I should have re-installed it already but I've been too busy lately.

Given time it may not be as black and white as it appears though.

And so they should. He could have used it to cause Panda monium if they hadn't. Clearly he lost his head over this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yDV0uN8e7GA Bought this a while ago when it came out and have been watching it every weekend since. These guys are still great, Jason is a worthy successor to his father. It amazes me that they are still so good. To be honest I thought it would be a case of former stars trying to recapture part of their former glory, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that was not the case at all. These guys still rock hard and exceed lesser musical mortals.

Why would you be proud of that?

My guy is always extolling the virtues of Gutwire power cords, telling me what a great deal they are at $280 a piece and how I should use them on all my gear. I just dont buy it (no pun intended). At that price three or four of these cords could buy me a nice CD Player or a new TT, maybe a new DAC. These would produce a much more noticeable improvement in sound than power cords, in my opinion anyway. Yep, there's a lot of snake oil being pedaled in high end audio. For instance special funky little supports to elevate speaker wires off the floor, at quite an expense mind you. Or cryo treating cables to align the atoms. Anyone remember the green magic markers they were selling for $35/45 each in the late eighties? If you used them to colour in the outer edges and inside of the CD they were said to dramatically improve the sound, pure bunk of course, still, people did buy them. All in all audio can be a lot of fun and provide great pleasure though. Yes, it can be very addicting as well. I'm fortunate in that my woman does not object to me spending on my hobbies.

Glad to hear you like your new cans, I looked at a selection of Grado's myself before buying the ones I use. After carefull consideration I bought the Shure SHR 840 Studio Monitors, at $240 they are'nt an expensive set but punch way above their price range as far as sound quality goes. For myself, headphones are a needed commodity. When the wife has to work and I dont then I need the cans so she can sleep. Of course I prefer to listen to my system as no cans made can come close to the sound quality of my system. Still, the shures do perform very well and I have come to appreciate them for their merits. There are plenty of revues out their about them for those who are interested. As for the Dr. Dre Beats, well I've listened to them and all I can say is what an apalling pile of garbage they are. Honestly they sound like crap, unless you think that coloured bass heavy sound is the ideal, not to mention terrible imaging and sound stage.Of course if the primary source is based on MP3 then a lot of the sound debate becomes moot anyway. As for high end wires, well I'm in the "they dont make any appreciable difference" camp. Having said that I will admit that my system is wired with good quality stuff. The reason being that my guy gives me a great price on it. I can get QED speaker wire from him for less than I'd pay for Monster crap. So why not? I also like my interconnects to have locking plugs, a feature generally not found on low end products Of course, in the end all that really matters is what sounds good to the individual. Oh yes, Audiophile? I dont know if I'd call myself that, but I have been into high end audio for about 32 or 33 years now and have listened to and owned quite a bit of good stuff over the years.

From what I've been seeing it appears there is a real bully situation going on here. It doesn't matter if some think this poster is some one else, refute the posts not whom you perceive the poster to be. Try growing up and dropping the school yard attitude, it may be hard but use some self control otherwise you just appear small and petty. If you disagree with Merlin then articulate that sentiment, it will raise the tone of discussion and eliminate the pettiness.

Agreed, I have'nt used onboard in so long that I don't remember the last time. Currently my old box has an X-FI Music card in it, that worked well enough with my Klipsch Pro Media comp speakers.This time around I'm thinking I'll run into my main system, NAD, Mirage etc. This system is considerably more sensitive than the Pro Media's so onboard isn't really appealing to me that much. The TEAC DAC has multiple inputs so it will acomodate the new comp and my NAD cd player. If my super special significant other wants to use the main system I have a really nice pair of Shure studio monitor headphones I can use (non of that Monster Dr Dre garbage for me) so that plan might be good. Having said that I think I will find a good card for the machine so as to avoid any of the problems you mentioned. Given that a good SC doesn't cost that much I'll probably go with one in the end. The really great part is that the wife told me to build what I want. As she put it if I'm building a new machine then I should put what I want into it (she really is super special). Right now I have a 22" monitor, Razer Lachesis mouse and Saiteck Mechanical KB. She told me I might as well buy a new 27" monitor and new KB and mouse to go with the new machine. She also mentioned that I could pick up Win 8 for it, at that point I told her that I really didn't want 8, for the reasons I've already mentioned. What really counts at the end of the day is just how much fun this hobby is, not just using the new machine but the fun of planning, buying the components and building the thing. As for my old box, well I was thinking it would make a very nice media center, its still far too nice to just shove in a closet or spare room.