laz seeker (1 Viewer)

[Butterfly_Wings]

Man, will everyone either quit whinging, or quit sucking up?!

We now have to pay if we want to use it, and we now know why that is so...no biggie.
Personally, I found Lazseeker very helpful last year AFTER i got my marks (ie-the night before the UAI came out), but other than that I don't think it was much use (cos I had absolutely no idea what marks I was gonna get!) So yeah...I don't know if I would have paid 15 bucks, but looking back, it was a pretty useful tool to brace myself the night before the UAI...It meant I knew pretty much what sort of range to be expecting.

 

[BlackJack]

lol, so let's start debating the merits of a $15 Prozac/calming pill.

Our school estimates were a bit vague though. I mean, we didn't get a number, just an 'interview' with the principal.

"You're so smart, 98, 99 for sure..." lol.

But anyway, I thought it was fun to twiddle around with the numbers and compare the exact scalings, and that entertainment would've been worth $15 without the accuracy. Saved me a lot of time studying for either Japanese exams.

 

[McLake]

Originally posted by BlackJack
Our school estimates were a bit vague though. I mean, we didn't get a number, just an 'interview' with the principal.

"You're so smart, 98, 99 for sure..." lol.

Yeah, that was fuuny "So what rank do you think you'd be, come on ..... well I think your here, so you'll get this ..."

 

[sif not 99]

Bon, get real mate, as you might be as keen to provide educational resources so am I to help people save money on their mobile phone bills so get your hand off it....

interestingly enough I can definetly understand your reasoning as to why you signed over lazseeker to ozseek....obviously I can't tell you how to run your website, "business", educational resource or whatever label you might like to attatch to this site but instead of taking a proactive stance "Ok guys this is what happening, I cant provide lazseeker for free because of the above mentioned reasons etc..." you waited until it was questioned firstly by myself and others which COULD lead people to believe that there was a more "sinister" (for lack of a better word) motive behind doing so.

Please dont take this personally I believe that you guys certainly deserve heaps of credit for your own contributions to the education of others but BOS has always pushed the "free educational resource" "not for profit" envelope and some of your actions i.e. not explaining your actions tend to lead some people to the conclusion that it was for your own benefit, now that youve explained yourself and its out in the open then obviously people feel alot better about this issue.

 

[Lazarus]

Originally posted by sif not 99
instead of taking a proactive stance "Ok guys this is what happening, I cant provide lazseeker for free because of the above mentioned reasons etc..." you waited until it was questioned firstly by myself and others which COULD lead people to believe that there was a more "sinister" (for lack of a better word) motive behind doing so.

My doing, I'm afraid. I was reluctant to even hint at the possibility that we might be charging for something before the product was actually available and could be reviewed. I didn't really want to have to deal with the complaints and cries of outrage that I envisioned would come flooding in if we did so. I just don't have the time or energy right now; I'm flat out with uni work and I also have other responsibilities that need to be taken care of. Having said that, you're right, we should have released the statement and the new site simultaneously - it was actually my original plan - but I didn't find a chance to write it until Monday night, and by that stage the situation had unfortunately already flared up.

Originally posted by sif not 99
now that youve explained yourself and its out in the open then obviously people feel alot better about this issue.

That's comforting, at least... we really did think about the decision a lot, and the final goal that emerged was to ensure that it would actually be worthwhile for HSC students. I wrote most of the code for the program, and I know that was something I was continuously worrying about. We're not money hungry freaks.. we're not just going to take your money and run.. I can tell you that I personally (at the very least) will be brainstorming ways in which to improve the service and new functions that we can add to it, so that, eventually, the users might even get more than what they paid for. Whether or not they will see it as such is a different question, I guess, but that's certainly my goal for the year... the other guys have plans for the site itself too.

 

[Rahul]

wat happens wid the old lazseeker that could be downloaded b4?

 

[flyin']

Originally posted by Rahul
wat happens wid the old lazseeker that could be downloaded b4?

It believe they've removed it from the site. Although, a few sites *might* have the old version of it!

 

[Rahul]

no wat i meant was that what happens wid the lazseeker that ppl have on their comps downloaded from b4?

 

[flyin']

Oh ... they still work! However, they have a comparatively limited amount of statistics (does not include the 2002 HSC and UAI scaling information) and functions.

 

[Rahul]

ok cool! so u can still use it.
exxxxcellent

thnx

 

[Lazarus]

Originally posted by Rahul
wat happens wid the old lazseeker that could be downloaded b4?

Well, we're not circulating it anymore, although instances of it will still be out there somewhere. It's a bit out of date now (I stopped updating it when we started the online version) but I suppose some people will inevitably use it.

And the rest is as flyin' said.

 

[deyveed]

Downloadable Lazseeker

If the Lazseeker Program still works, why not just release a new "stats.xml" with all the latest scaling stats?
That way, people won't need to pay for the UAIseeker.

 

[Gregory]

Wouldn't it just be easier just to pay the $15 bucks for the uai seeker rather than wasting valuable study time trying to replicate the work that went into collating the statistics?

Come on peoples - get serious! I spend $15 bucks on Coke alone each week!

and if its contributing towards keeping this website running, I have no problem paying for the uai seeker - but thats just my opinion i guess.

 

[yr12]

Re: Downloadable Lazseeker

Originally posted by deyveed

That way, people won't need to pay for the UAIseeker.

I think you're missing the whole point of them charging to use it. THey need to pay for the site!!!

 

[deyveed]

Yeh. The site needs money to run but not $1000's.
I like the resources and all but charging hundreds of people $15 just to guess your UAI sounds a bit sneaky.
1 guess = $15?

so ill see what i can do to fix up the old lazseeker program to save my friends a couple of $100. Not everyone has $15 to spend like that.

Just providing alternatives.

 

[SoFTuaRiaL]

well, what one CAN do is for say abt 5 friends to chip in 3 bucks each to buy the uaiseeker ... share the password .... it would work out cheaper. even better if its 15 friends ....

 

[Lazarus]

Originally posted by deyveed
1 guess = $15?

so ill see what i can do to fix up the old lazseeker program to save my friends a couple of $100. Not everyone has $15 to spend like that.

Just providing alternatives.

Well, actually, unlimited guesses = $15.

If you must insist on 'providing alternatives', could you at least have the courtesy to do so elsewhere and not on our site? I don't mean to sound rude, but a public attempt to undermine our website (with my own program, heh) doesn't exactly sit well with me.

 

[InfiniteQ]

Originally posted by Da Monstar
well, what one CAN do is for say abt 5 friends to chip in 3 bucks each to buy the uaiseeker ... share the password .... it would work out cheaper. even better if its 15 friends ....

I don't think you can do that...

 

[SoFTuaRiaL]

Originally posted by InfiniteQ


I don't think you can do that...

oh well ..... :mad1: .....another brainstorm down the drain ... back to study ........

 

[InfiniteQ]

Originally posted by Da Monstar


oh well ..... :mad1: .....another brainstorm down the drain ... back to study ........

hehe... well I think I'm going to forget about guesstimating my UAI till closer to trials or something. What I would really like, more than a UAI estimator is something that will convert raw marks to scaled marks... it'd be handy for when I get my HY results back but we can't have one of those can we?