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OriginalGriff wrote: do something. Improve it.
We need to undo all that concrete they used in the 50s and 60s. What do you suggest, dynamite? 
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That would be good. Crawley council were hoping to sell off all council offices and pedestrianise the area and sell it to John Lewis for development. They thought of building a major department store but the word got out that Crawley didn't lend itself to the brand image they want to promote. For those that don't know them, John Lewis is the UK's best store chain. The council didn't help and thought that John Lewis would buy the land from them so they could build a luxury office block for themselves. John Lewis said that the town centre needs major refurbishment and the council agreed in principal but wouldn't commit beyond that. Eventually, John Lewis turned their back in Crawley and are looking to build something in Horsham but nothing's been decided. The short of it, is the council here have a hard time convincing everyone that John Lewis would be right for the town.
There's a lot of ugly concrete in the town centre. The old Crawley College and police station and library represent everything that concrete does bad. Thrown up in the 50s and 60s Crawley was one of the first to be zoned under the New Towns Commission, a legacy it has never been able to discard. The old police station and library is edged by an equally ugly multi-story car park. Unless your penchant is for all things concrete, pebble-dashed, and pre-fabricated slabs it's fair to say that Crawley's town centre is architecturally bankrupt. It would take more than a few sticks of dynamite to fix it's town centre image. Ask John Lewis. 
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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That counts as terrorism, unless you move all the residents out first...
And I'd suggest demolition experts - I've seen amateur attempts on Top Gear! 
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OriginalGriff wrote: If you live in a crap town, be proud do something. Improve it.
You can't, because there's no budget left for further improvements -- i.e. it's all been spent on gold plating the roads where councillors live, paying for councillors' cars and drivers, building high-security parking for councillors' cars, and on the flowers, plants, and paintings that adorn the council buildings.
But that's only right, isn't it? What more improvements could a town need?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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That's true enough. The small garden areas around the council offices are well kept, better than anywhere else. Again, many councillors do a lot for themselves.
We're not connected to them, but Paul Carter who is head of Kent council takes a six-figure salary which I've no problem with but he also can claim £5,000 a month in expenses. He took leave last year to take part or follow the Paris-Dakar rally. He took four week's leave and was asked if he would be claiming his £5,000 expenses for that period which he had already submitted in advance, bless him for his forward planning.
When word got out he said he would be donating to charity which he did; two charities received £500. It was the wording that was subtle, he didn't say he was "donating it all to charity", he said he would be "donating to charity". Most concillors are probably decent folk but I'm sure they all know how to "play the game".
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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but its got that great magic roundabout thing[^]
I was once there for a job interview - asked the Cab driver "whats Hemel Hampstead famous for" he said "this" as we went around it/them
Bryce
MCAD
---
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You could be forgiven for being seasick if you drove around those.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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Hello all,
This morning I've asked for help on how to set up the connection between the DLNA TV and the W7 computer with Media player 12.
All started working after connecting for a momento the TV to the computer directly and connecting it back to the router as at the beginning... 
Now I've updated all the libraries in the WMP12 and it showed me all the music, pictures and films.
With the films I've got some kind of problem: when shown in the library some of them show a length of 0 seconds. I can play them without problems, but the given length is wrong...
Note: I was not capable of playing them before installing the MATROSKA CODEC PACK.
But now, even I can play them on my computer I can't send them to the TV...
Anyone here has found such this behaviour? If you've found it, how have you solved it?
Thank you in advance!
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Does your TV support MKV files?
Mine does - but not all do...
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Please note that in some areas noughts are always replaced with zeros by law, and many facilities cannot recycle zeroes - in this case, please bury them in your back garden and water frequently.
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It plays them, till today I've been able to see them in the TV without issue... 
funny day...
Oh, and you were right, after shutting down the router it has stopped working...
It seems that my router is not capable to UPNP... therefore, if I plug the TV directly to the computer it Works and then, I can replug it to the router that it will continue working... straaaaange...
Anyway, this is something that is not bothering me a lot because I can solve it by changing the router, putting an extra Ethernet card into the computer or putting a switch in between of the TV and PC.
But the issue regarding film lengths seem to be something in the WMP12... it can play those files without problems, so it is not a codec issue...
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Joan Murt wrote: Oh, and you were right, after shutting down the router it has stopped working...
That's why I suggested it - if it fails now while all this is fresh in your mind, that's not a problem. If it fails in 3 months time after a 2AM power cut it gets more difficult to work out!
This message is manufactured from fully recyclable noughts and ones. To recycle this message, please separate into two tidy piles, and take them to your nearest local recycling centre.
Please note that in some areas noughts are always replaced with zeros by law, and many facilities cannot recycle zeroes - in this case, please bury them in your back garden and water frequently.
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1. Open window
2. Throw everything out the window.
3. Go to buy new gadgets.
4. Enjoy.
Now if only those gadgets would not be so expensive...
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I know what you mean - it would be so nice if all these bits worked together.
I have to be very careful what gadgets I introduce - if Herself doesn't understand it then there is a good chance I won't be allowed to use it, so it has to be as transparent as possible. That's (partly) why I have a media player with a HDD hooked to the TV via USB rather than the two other ways it can be hooked - she doesn't understand the menu system! (I have to admit it's a bit cr@p and unfriendly)
This message is manufactured from fully recyclable noughts and ones. To recycle this message, please separate into two tidy piles, and take them to your nearest local recycling centre.
Please note that in some areas noughts are always replaced with zeros by law, and many facilities cannot recycle zeroes - in this case, please bury them in your back garden and water frequently.
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Believe it or not, but after installing Serviio everything started working again, with that ugly router and the same files...
And it's free, little footprint, ultra-easy to set up...
Droool!
And thank you for your posts!
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I have seen the zero length things before. It was because the path to the media was too long. 
brisingr_aerowing@Gryphon-PC $ rake in_the_dough
Raking in the dough
brisingr_aerowing@Gryphon-PC $ make lots_of_money
Making lots_of_money
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Not in that case, all videos are in the same folder and one that is failing name has only 3 chars length so... This shouldn't be the reason here...
Thank you for posting!
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Weird. Try VLC and see what it does. It may be that the media metadata is corrupted.
brisingr_aerowing@Gryphon-PC $ rake in_the_dough
Raking in the dough
brisingr_aerowing@Gryphon-PC $ make lots_of_money
Making lots_of_money
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VLC makes everything perfect... even mediaplayer 12 plays those files well, the problem I had was that having a 0 seconds length media player could not play to my TV the files whose length was not bigger than 0...
Now it is already solved using another approach: I'm using serviio to stream those films to my tv and it works like charm!
Thank you for posting your thoughts!
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MIT's EE 6.002x is "the edX version of MIT’s introduction to electrical engineering class," offered on-line to thousands.
With the guidance of an idealistic young Stanford Ph.D. student, Tony Kim, who traveled to Ulan Bator on a shoe-string budget to work with young Mongolian students [^], a high-school student, Buttushig: "got a 100% on the final: one of 340 6.002x students out of 150,000 in the world to do that."
Buttushig had: "never received any special education abroad."
Tony Kim's blog is here: [^]."
The New York Times has (a now four-part) series, titled "Virtual U," covering developments in on-line education, and this article, today, reported Buttushig's remarkable achievement: [^].
Sometimes, in spite of this life's experience, I feel, for a moment, there is hope for the future of this savage world; I feel (without thinking of the modern dystopian Aldous Huxley connotation) what Miranda may have been feeling in "The Tempest," when she says:
"O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!"
For Tony Kim, and Buttushig: Godspeed !
~
“This isn't right; this isn't even wrong." Wolfgang Pauli, commenting on a physics paper submitted for a journal
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I'd like to add Sal Khan[^] to the list of goodly creatures.
/ravi
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Indeed Ravi, I'd put the Khan Academy "up in lights," also.
I think it's wonderful that John Resig, the inventor of jQuery, joined the Khan Academy.
yours, Bill
~
“This isn't right; this isn't even wrong." Wolfgang Pauli, commenting on a physics paper submitted for a journal
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Agree 100%. His website is superb.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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You know that she has to be on commission too. How else could she evade immigration authorities for so long, hopping and bopping across the countryside, assuming multiple identities holding multiple addresses under false social security information scrivenings ... and afford to look like that.
All that mascara, the blush caked on thicker than powdered sugar a jelly donut, yellow gold around her neck, etc. And that grey cashmir sweater getup!
If you ask me, that cellphone in her hand was held there by tetanus.
Mortified she was, especially when she went to take a step forward after Jeeves closed the front doors.
Bill, what's your point?
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Maybe you could help me because I'm uncertain what makes you feel this is such a remarkable event. Is it because the student in question is from Mongolia? If you are like me the first association that comes to mind when you think of Mongolia is a semi-literate, nomadic, horse people living in yurts. Of course, if I actually stop to think about it I realize this is a ridiculous characterization based on outdated ideas.
If the student were from London, England or Seoul, South Korea do you think you would have found the story less remarkable?Quote: Buttushig had: "never received any special education abroad."
This quote seems to suggest that it is impossible to receive a decent education within Mongolia. The insinuation being a child educated in Mongolia can not be on par with a western educated child. Is Mongolia really that far behind, especially the capital? I don't know. But, given this child had internet access and, from what I can tell from the pictures, a decent electronics lab in which to work my sense is that my view of Mongolia is much further behind than Mongolia actually is. Hans Rosling does a good job exploring and exploding this type of bias in his Ted talk "The Best Stats You've Ever Seen" [^].
Maybe the piece of this story that really elevates it to the status of remarkable is the fact that the student in question is 15. But how are we to rate the performance of a 15 year old? For this to be remarkable it has to be different from what we expect for a such a person.
At first glance, this does appear to be a performance beyond that of an average 15 year old. But, how are we determining what to expect on average?. It seems we are basing it upon an average child who has received an average education. However, this raises the question, does an average education raise a child anywhere near their true potential? In his talk, "How Schools Kill Creativity" [^], Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and strong argument that they don't.
Is it really surprising or remarkable in any way that a student who has a natural and strong interest in electronics and who is given access to an intelligent, dedicated teacher actually masters the basics of the subject? Wouldn't it be much more surprising if he didn't?
So maybe what is remarkable isn't that the student in question is 15 or that he is Mongolian but that someone, anyone achieved a perfect score on an MIT exam. 150,000 thousand students took the class and only 340 got a perfect score on the final, that's less than 1 in 441. Maybe that is approaching the level of remarkable but the problem is those numbers tell a false narrative.
Here are the official numbers for the course as reported by MIT News [^]Quote: In the end, almost 155,000 people registered for 6.002x. Of those, roughly 23,000 tried the first problem set, 9,000 passed the midterm, and 7,157 passed the course as a whole.
We don't know from this how many people actually attempted the final but of those that passed slightly less than 1 in 21 aced it. This puts Buttushig's performance in the 95th percentile, which is admirable, but I'm not sure it warrants a global day of celebration.
Look, I am in agreement with you that Buttushig deserves praise and encouragement for following his passions. Tony Kim is also to be commended for sharing his time and knowledge so unselfishly. However, I see a great danger in heaping praise on one student for getting a perfect score on the final.
First, what kind of message does it send to the 16 year old that got one question wrong? You're just, an old, dumb sloth that is never going to amount to anything? We don't care about you?
Second, most people seem to enjoy and seek praise, children especially so. By celebrating the 100% score we send the wrong message. We tell children you will get praise and adoration if you do well on the test. However, the point of learning isn't to pass a test. The point, and the joy, of learning is to be able to do something you couldn't before. I don't care if Buttushig got 100% or 0% all I care about is that he can build anything he imagines. If he is excited to continue learning and expanding his bounds he is a success.
By focusing on the prefect performance we are unfairly burdening Buttushig with the expectation of perfection in the future. Even if he is reassured many times this type of attention will likely cultivate a fear of failure that will eventually drain all the fun out of learning.
Now, besides any possible negative effects this type of praise might have on Buttushig, and children in general, I felt compelled to write because I suspected your characterization of the event as remarkable was largely based on misinformation. The conclusion that this is an extraordinary occurrence seems to rest on the confluence of three biases, which crudely stated are, Mongolians are backward, children are stupid, and the course is from MIT so it must be hard.
The bias that the course is hard was largely reinforced by the way the New York Times reported the story and the way the dsruption article emphasized that the course is typically taken by sophomores. I mean, my god, this isn't just some freshman drivel it is a second year course.
Unfortunately, you might interpret things differently if you knew all students at MIT have a series of courses they are required to take including physics and calculus. Many students spend a good portion of their first year just getting these required courses out of the way. Even a course like, 6.001, introduction to computer science, might mostly be taken by sophomores even though it doesn't have any prerequisites.
I actually took the electronics course in question and despite the claims in the official course description it required no more than a high school level of algebra to successfully pass.
What I find truly remarkable in all of this is that the New York Times and MIT are so highly regarded. Either through incompetence or deliberate deception they combined to tell a story that is misleading by anything but politician standards.
By only reporting the number of people that initially enrolled for the artificial intelligence course the Times implied an impact that is an order of magnitude too high. Was this because the Times reporter didn't do any fact checking, did they just blindly trust the information because it was coming from an infallible, academic institution? Did the university representative providing the information only offer the numbers which matched the story they wanted told?
I ask you to go back and read the second paragraph of the Times article [^]. Within that paragraph they highlight the two extremes, the highest number of people ever to sign up for a single online course anywhere at anytime, and a single boy from a foreign country that passed a course. Together, they imply that online learning is creating super geniuses at an industrial pace.
Neither fact is representative of online classes. If you knew that only 10% of people who sign up for a pilot online course even attempt to complete it or that the boy in question had the help of a private electronics tutor throughout the duration of the course you might have a very different opinion about what the impact of online learning really is.
In this case, the Times strongly favored sensationalism over journalism. But it is hard to cast too much blame. The truth doesn't sell as many newspapers for the Times or get as many donations for MIT as stories like this do.
Stone casting aside, the main thing I am left wondering is why we are so attracted to stories like this in the first place? Why do we want the internet to be fueling a revolution? Why do we feel the need to elevate a boy to hero status? I don't think it is for the boys sake.
My guess is these desires stem from a recognition that things are not as good as they could be, perhaps by a considerable margin. We want some powerful force or some powerful person to come and magically fix everything for us because that would be a lot easier than having to do the work ourselves. Anyway, I better stop now. I only meant to rain on your parade not drown you.
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