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The Panama Canal is an interesting story. Both the Americans and the french discussed where the canal should go and if it should be a lock or sea level canal.

the french pushed for panama, and attempted to dig a sea level canal, untill they changed their minds just before the money ran out and decided to build locks. The soil conditions were such that the amount of material then needed to be excavated ended up being many times greater then the largest estimatates. the French were informed by their success at suez, and tried to replicate that in very different conditions. they also didn't control disease.

the american experts initially pushed for a Nicaraguan route - though longer, it would be a technically easier build with better soil conditions. the french went with panama, and a sealevel canal, and ran out of money when they needed to dig more and more.
when the americans took over, they sent the expert in tropical diseases, and a bunch of railway engineers. they brought in bigger equipment, and were able to excavate more, more quickly.

David McCullough wrote an excellent history of the project The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914

Just get a rear-view mirror. Third Eye makes a really nice one that's cheap and beautifully. Why you want some radar with some crap that may or may not work, when you can have a mirror and see *everything* behind you and in front of you.

http://www.amazon.ca/s/?ie=UTF...

So, do you put the keyfile in your Dropbox folder, or no? If so, how is that more secure than using a password? Otherwise, do you just manually move it to different devices with a thumb drive or email, or what?

I don't, but opinions vary on this. For me it's no big deal to transfer the keyfile offline to any device that I would want to use, but 90% of the time it's one of two devices (phone, laptop). I always have my phone with me, so I always have my keyfile with me too if I need access from a different device...I suppose if I accidentally dropped both of them off a mountain somewhere, then I'd be hooped until I could get home again and grab the keyfile from my secure backups :)

AS to the how, well bluetooth works *sometimes* for small file transfers, and if the bluetooth is wonky, I break out my connection cable. I also have a slick little cable that lets me plug a USB thumb drive into my android phone, so it's easy to push a file to a thumb drive, then use the thumb drive to put it wherever you like...also works great for photos / music / etc.

Required reading when I was taking Sociology as an undergrad:
http://www.amazon.ca/The-Cockt...

Not to be confused with the crime novel.

Whenever I hear about the Jade Rabbit I am more inclined to think about something like this little buzzing thing [NSFW] than the Chinese probe

Well in this case I mean since about roughly 1994 when Mike Frost had Michel Gratton write the book on the topic, Spyworld.

This doesn't excuse the activity, it's just news thats 20 years old or so.

There' a really good foreign film about his life.

To the more knowledgeable: this movie is almost completely wrong on almost everything. I cannot understand how people with reading ability were able to produce such a movie and call the central person D. K. 99.9% of all "facts" provided are wrong. Asade from that, it's a nice fairytale where the people bear names from early mongol histroy.

There is not a single movie who deals with D.K. in a bearable way. Good book: J. Curtain, The Mongols: A History, Foreword from T. Roosevelt (1905), and other books mentioned in the thread

This is as good a place as any to recommend Rocket Surgery Made Easy. As someone with absolutely no knowledge of usability testing, this was a great introduction to the art.

I just started reading the Skunk Works book by Ben Rich. He took over SW after Kelly Johnson stepped down in the 70s. So far it's a good read, enjoyable for any engineer...

This gem was written about Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science":

Why you are reading this review

I can only imagine how fortunate you must feel to be reading my review. This review is the product of my lifetime of experience in meeting important people and thinking deep thoughts. This is a new kind of review, and will no doubt influence the way you
think about the world around you and the way you think of yourself.

Bigger than infinity

Although my review deserves thousands of pages to articulate, I am limiting many of my deeper thoughts to only single characters. I encourage readers of my review to dedicate the many years required to fully absorb the significance of what I am writing here. Fortunately, we live in exactly the time when my review can be widely disseminated by "internet" technology and stored on "digital media", allowing current and future scholars to delve more deeply into my original and insightful use of commas, numbers, and letters.

My place in history

My review allows, for the first time, a complete and total understanding not only of this but *every single*
book ever written. I call this "the principle of book equivalence." Future generations will decide the relative merits of this review compared with, for example, the works of Shakespeare. This effort will open new realms of scholarship.

I am the author of all things

It is staggering to contemplate that all the great works of literature can be derived from the letters I use in writing this review. I am pleased to have shared them with you, and hereby grant you the liberty to use up to twenty (20) of them consecutively without attribution. Any use of additional characters in print must acknowledge this review as source material since it contains, implicitly or explicitly, all future written documents.

Siva! http://www.amazon.ca/Siva-Lewis-Richmond/dp/0441768369/ Uses the pyramids to harness the energy.

Yes, it's always the physicists and mathematicians for some reason who hold these ideas.

No, not always. If I recall correctly, engineers are most likely to believe in God, but I would think that all scientific disciplines are represented. Here are just a few.

Francis Collins - Physician - director of the Human Genome Project
John Polkinghorne, KBE, FRS - Physicist, author of From Physicist to Priest
Donald Knuth - Computer Scientist - Creator of TeX, and author of:
                                The Art of Computer Programming Availble on Amazon
                                Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About Available on Amazon
                                3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated Available on Amazon

There are many more.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that smart people can't be stupid.

Spending much time on Slashdot will disabuse you of that notion. What is smart and stupid can be an elusive quality, and you may find as you go through life that they will rearrange themselves at times. The phrase, "It seemed like a good idea at the time." exists for a reason. "Stupid" people can show up in surprising places, like the mirror. Everyone should check there, from time to time.

The reading level is closer to elementary school, but some of the math is fascinating to high school and above. It certainly could be used for an interesting math extra project. A great gift for kids:

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure [Paperback]
Hans Magnus Enzensberger (Author), Rotraut Susanne Berner (Illustrator), Michael Henry Heim (Translator)

ISBN: 0805062998

various Amazon links:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805062998/jbenterprises/
http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805062998/johannsbookst-20/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805062998/johansbooksparto/

So this is a complete lie? You can purchase the previous seasons from Amazon (package includes Blu-Ray, DVD, AND digital copy) and you can pay to watch it tonight at the same time as Americans do. Now you're bitching because you can't have instant delivery, too?

Canada's current private copying levies are as follows: $0.24 per unit for Audio Cassette tape (40min or longer), and $0.29 per unit for CD-R

Let me be optimistic here and suggest that you purchased a spindle of 100 CD-Rs.

That would be $29.00 in levies.

But wait a minute... sources (tigerdirect.ca, amazon.ca tell me the price need only be somewhere around $15.

So what you're saying is, not only should you not be able to be sued for any hypothetical (right? right.) TV series and movies you have downloaded and most certainly (right? right.) wouldn't be burning to those CD-Rs... but, really, the copyright holders owe you $14.

I do agree that levies should be dropped, mind you. I'm also not a fan of lawsuits, however. Then again, if you're just making copies for yourself - I really don't think anybody should give a damn. If you start distributing - and that includes uploading - I say you're fair game.

Genuine gluten allergies are quite rare but people claiming to have a problem with gluten is quite fashionable lately for reasons that I don't really understand.

Gluten Free is a recent celebrity fad diet. Pushed by people like Alicia Silverstone, it has entered the public conscious. You can go to B&N and find at least a few books pushing it.

http://www.google.ca/search?q=how+to+disappear
http://www.amazon.ca/How-Disappear-Digital-Footprint-without/dp/1599219778
thats how i'd start.

Lots of existing phones manage to use the microUSB ports to do HDMI video with the appropriate adaptor.

I have the 10.1"Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet*.

Not the beefiest out there, but the pointy stylus is...sweet! And the ICS update is officially out, OTA update is painless (although unfortunately you lose root if you had rooted it, haven't seen the ICS root update come out yet). It even has a full-sized SD card slot, so want to show friends pics from your camera? No problem, just pop in the card...it also has a SIM card slot, but the model I bought doesn't have the modem installed. Apparently it's a pretty easy mod to pop it open and add one, though, and they sell the modems on Amazon for about $125 CAD...it's on my 'to try once it's out of warranty' list :)

I think they might be discontinuing them, though, since they're going on and off sale like crazy at online e-tailers in Canada.

*(Sorry about the canadian link, couldn't seem to find an american link to one on sale...weird, usually it's the other way round.)

There is no evidence to support the idea of a divine creator. There is a growing body of evidence that the Universe could have been created from nothing (aka a quantum vacuum).

"Amazon goes to extremes to make the customer have a better experience."

What extremes? How about the triple-core athlon X2 processor I ordered from them back in December... then returned to them when it turned out to be a dual-core. I bought the last one, returned it because it was an incorrect item, and since then they've have exactly one in stock again...

Now at least the description says dual-core, but the title is triple-core. I've called/emailed them a few times to fix it, and nada. Still the wrong item, until some other sucker buys it.

See this "Triple core" CPU. It's actually a dual-core

Awhile after Xmas, I ordered the last unit they had. I returned it as soon as I got it and found it to be a dual-core. After my return, their stock went back up to 1. I believe the description has now changed a bit to indicate "Multi-Core: Dual-core", but the short description still says "triple core"

I called to report that they were still selling a dual-core as a triple-core, but it's STILL got a header calling it triple-core.

I'd be very wary of buying anything from amazon.

By. Neal Stephenson. Nuff Sed - excellent, and at 1000+ pages, will gobble up a fair bit fo your flight in a very entertaining fashion. http://www.amazon.ca/Reamde-Novel-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0061977969 As well, William Gibson has new non-fiction collection out which I expect will be dandy. http://www.amazon.ca/Distrust-Particular-Flavor-William-Gibson/dp/039915843X

By. Neal Stephenson. Nuff Sed - excellent, and at 1000+ pages, will gobble up a fair bit fo your flight in a very entertaining fashion. http://www.amazon.ca/Reamde-Novel-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0061977969 As well, William Gibson has new non-fiction collection out which I expect will be dandy. http://www.amazon.ca/Distrust-Particular-Flavor-William-Gibson/dp/039915843X

I moded in this thread so I'm posting anonymously.

iTunes? Great for music and apps but utterly horrible for movies and TV. Most of the visual media on iTunes is either the same cost or slightly less than the cost of the physical media it would normally come on. Take for example the excellent nerdy show The Big Bang Theory:

On the Canadian iTunes store the Hi-Def version of The Big Bang Theory costs 55.99.
On Amazon.ca the Blu-Ray version of The Big Bang Theory costs 44.99

So not only would I get free shipping and save eleven bucks, I'm protected from a potential hard drive failure too. Now if Apple decided to ship me the purchase on Blu-Ray as well I'd consider the eleven bucks a convenience charge, who wants to spend all that time transcoding files, and go for it, but they don't so they get no sale from me.

"Perhaps no segment of the security industry has evolved more in the last decade than the discipline of software security"

The only thing that's evolved is the amount of money lost to the `software security' sector and I stooped reading after seeing Microsoft in the same sentence as `Secure Code':

`We've also published books like "Writing Secure Code," by Michael Howard and David LeBlanc, which gives all developers the tools they need to build secure software from the ground up' - Bill Gates Jan 15 2002

`Microsoft won an industry award for innovation, for its book "Writing Secure Code", by Michael Howard and David LeBlanc, which forms the basis for the company's own efforts to make its products trustworthy' Apr 2003 link

Review ..

As opposed to the Halo gaming community which is scratching their heads wondering why another one is even necessary.

Well considering the cliff-hanger ending from Halo 3, unless you consider the lead protagonist being cryogenically frozen in the middle of nowhere to not be a giant "to be continued", many Halo fans, myself included, are probably going to be quite jazzed to see how the the next chapter in the chief's story plays out.

If anything this fan, and probably others, is wondering why Bungie decided to use its two last forays into the Halo universe by creating an unnecessary pseudo-sequel to Halo 3 and an equally unnecessary prequel to Halo 1, really people just go read Eric Nyland's book "Fall Of Reach" if you really want that backstory, when they could have used that creative talent by continuing the story we'd grown to love from the first three games.

As opposed to the Halo gaming community which is scratching their heads wondering why another one is even necessary.

Well considering the cliff-hanger ending from Halo 3, unless you consider the lead protagonist being cryogenically frozen in the middle of nowhere to not be a giant "to be continued", many Halo fans, myself included, are probably going to be quite jazzed to see how the the next chapter in the chief's story plays out.

If anything this fan, and probably others, is wondering why Bungie decided to use its two last forays into the Halo universe by creating an unnecessary pseudo-sequel to Halo 3 and an equally unnecessary prequel to Halo 1, really people just go read Eric Nyland's book "Fall Of Reach" if you really want that backstory, when they could have used that creative talent by continuing the story we'd grown to love from the first three games.

According to Amazon it's $65

They already are in Canada - http://www.amazon.ca/

but tax will still be charged when the goods enter the US. You will not have to pay the Ca. tax though.

It's not news if it's decades old. The author admits in his article that the codes have well and truly been superseded. What it's clear to me is that he's trying to publicise his book (he does link to the free PDF version - so I doubt his only motivation is money). He has reviewed his own book on Amazon twice: "Brings theory to life" and "An exciting and up-to-date text"

http://www.amazon.ca/product-reviews/0521642981/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

Customer reviews are not as glowing as his own. "Good book - but few arguments need revision from theorists" and "A reservoir of information - Yet few problems"

Certainly as a leftie I've never once had a problem or felt disadvantaged when using any kind of computing device, ever...

Apparently you've never tried to use one of these...
http://www.ink2print.com/gbu0-prodshow/ergo_500.html
or these...
http://www.expansys.com/zoompic.aspx?i=160630
or these...
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=224053
or these...
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/mice-pointers/mice/devices/5845
or these...
http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_US/pd/productID.169418900/categoryId.35208800

Try using any of those left-handed ranges from impossible to an exercise in discomfort and frustration. The two keypads are completely unusable. The joystick is uncomfortable, and most of the buttons are awkward to reach. The mice are also uncomfortable and all the 'thumb' buttons are effectively impossible to use well.

There are some ok left-handed friendly options available...
I use a Fang keypad, which is ambidextrous
http://www.amazon.ca/ZGP-1000-Fang-USB-Gamepad-Keypad/dp/B000FRW8KS

Cheap ambi-mice are plentiful, but getting a good gaming/laser mouse is hard. Ambidextrous options are pretty limited and have fewer features, and ergo-left are non-existent. I enjoyed my ambidextrous razer copperhead, but after it died I haven't found a good replacement yet. I see razer has a left-handed ergo deathadder...that must be fairly new... I'll definitely be looking into it.

As for joysticks... Saitek used to make a pretty decent ambi/convertible flightstick... but I'm currently looking for a new stick, and can't find anything that looks decent right now. Flightsims are out of fashion for the last decade and there isn't much available that isn't either super cheap and basic or super ergo-right-only.

Well, I am not sure that this is the right approach but there seems to be plenty of jamming devices around that you could use during exams. Just put some signs near your exam room like "jamming devices at work" so everybody know that they have to go a little farther away in order to get connectivity and calibrate your jamming device appropriately so you do not jam the whole campus .. ;-)

http://www.netline.co.il/page/cell_phone_jammer.aspx

http://www.jammer-store.com/

http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/wifi-bluetooth-wireless-video-jammer-portable-wireless-block/

http://www.amazon.ca/Power-Portable-Signal-Jammer-Phone/dp/B003YFSKUU

Art: Julia Child [amazon.ca]

Science: The Joy of Cooking. [amazon.ca]

Sex: 9 1/2 Weeks

Art: Julia Child

Science: The Joy of Cooking.

All you need.

Art: Julia Child

Science: The Joy of Cooking.

All you need.

Most of the time, when such a project is undertaken, technical and technological factors get the first, and often the only, priority. What is left out is the human factor–how people with interact with, and use, the environment. There has now been considerable work done on this by human factors engineers. So before doing anything else for your control room, read Kim Vincente's book, "The Human Factor", especially the parts where he deals specifically with control rooms. Making the correct human factors decisions can reduce accidents and deaths resulting from poor design choices.

Reference: Vincente, K. (2003). The Human Factor. Revolutionizing the way people live with technology. Canada: Alfred A. Knopf. Amazon: http://www.amazon.ca/Human-Factor-Revolutionizing-Live-Technology/dp/0676974902/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283779722&sr=1-1

Nothing screams "there is no hope!" like running around with a video camera filming someone's daily routine (you probably have enough footage by now, anyway). The medical system may not have anything else to offer for someone with stage 4 cancer, but that doesn't mean there's nothing you can do. You should check out the following, and focus on improving your wife's chances of survival instead of assuming she's going to die:

• Foods that fight cancer [article]
• Foods That Fight Cancer: Preventing Cancer through Diet [Paperback]
• Anticancer: A New Way Of Life [Paperback]

Nothing screams "there is no hope!" like running around with a video camera filming someone's daily routine (you probably have enough footage by now, anyway). The medical system may not have anything else to offer for someone with stage 4 cancer, but that doesn't mean there's nothing you can do. You should check out the following, and focus on improving your wife's chances of survival instead of assuming she's going to die:

• Foods that fight cancer [article]
• Foods That Fight Cancer: Preventing Cancer through Diet [Paperback]
• Anticancer: A New Way Of Life [Paperback]

Information Modeling and Relational Databases

It's not just another database modelling book. It discusses in depth the object-role modelling (ORM) method of taking human ways of talking about data and turning it into a really well-modelled database.

I stumbled across this book when looking for new data modelling books, and I was deeply impressed with the method.

'Duinos rock, especially if you have some computer background!!

The other place that might be of interest is this course from MIT's open courseware...it's also available through the iTunes U if that floats your boat! It is likely a little more theory than you are after at the moment, but it might be helpful/useful after getting your feet wet.

I personally have dove in and am only slightly ahead of you by picking up things online (case modding taught me a bit), and now that I consider myself a maker, there have been numerous times I have had a problem I wished to solve electronically and a few well placed google searches later I had enough of an answer to get something working.

Oh yeah, with the arduino's there are a tonne of resources available out there...I have gotten started with info from Lady Ada and this book

The same thing happened to me at Expo 1986 in Vancouver for a 3D IMAX clip at the Canadian Pavillion with polarized lenses. I can see it at will for short periods of time during 3D movies but develop a headache trying to maintain it. Check out Sue Barry's "Fixing My Gaze" at http://www.amazon.ca/Fixing-My-Gaze-Scientists-Dimensions/dp/0465009131/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271086409&sr=8-1

I did not say that, it doesn't look like I said that, and I don't believe you actually think I said that.

The four points I made about vaccines were not directed at you or anything you wrote, but you did mention that autism gets diagnosed around the age a child gets vaccinated. Vaccines in children are so frequent now that (I think) this statement does not make much sense. Children where I live are scheduled for an average of two or more vaccines per year.

There is a difference between chemical 'crap'(as I called it earlier) in a vaccine and substances that are benign. If I order food from a restaurant I will request "No MSG" but "extra salt"(my BP is fine). Both make the food taste better.

I think kittens are the sole cause of autism. I don't know why, but I do. No matter how much research you collect to the contrary, I will consider it all to be insufficiently impartial for me, despite having no research that backs up my own opinions.

There are people who don't believe that smoking is harmful, some of those are smokers who will die of lung cancer. It's not my job to change their mind. We know that there are cases of children who have never received any vaccines but developed autism. There also are people who have "life-threatening" reactions to pet dander. If consistent contact with an allergen creates an auto-immune reaction that contributes to autism, then maybe you are right about kittens. There is the risk of toxoplasmosis in pregnancy, who's to say that something cats carry might not be the cause of other problems. Not long ago it was thought that stress caused most stomach ulcers.

But you have made me more suspicious of Cats.

Seriously? You never have done any real development in Java on the desktop then right?

http://www.amazon.ca/Filthy-Rich-Clients-Developing-Applications/dp/0132413930

BTW Java comes out of the box on Mac and looks perfect on that platform. It also looks just like other Windows applications by setting 1 line of code.

(Unlike QT applications which look like shit).

Clark Blaise's biography of Fleming explains the idea.

The metaphorical clock at the centre of the earth would be equally related to all places, not unlinked from all places.

You'd probably get a lot of good from reading about Berentain Bears Learn About Strangers. Sure kids are vulnerable. Bad things could and may happen to them. But there's such a thing of being too scared and too cautious. Basic moral of the story is this: You should wary and careful around strangers, but most people aren't all that bad, and you shouldn't go around living your life in fear. I'm not sure how something like this wouldn't be used as a leash. If you really have to know the exact pinpointed location of your kids every second of the day, then you have too much fear.

You have an awfully pessimistic world view if you equate the maximization of your own success with the downfall of all others.

Or you're the CEO of Oracle?

The roots of this go right down to the core of: The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the equivalent legal tracts in other countries.
vs
The corporate charter that companies such as Facebook are granted.

Corporate charters historically were granted very rarely and can be revoked (still). The legal prop that gives so many ball-busting industrial monoliths the power to trample governments, and citizens is that an incorporated company has become a weird person/non-person hybrid. This relentless legal craftwork is an intentional product designed to protect the corporate entity. People were afraid of Artificial Intelligence taking over, but the real threat is the mindless, ruthless, psychopathic corporate hive and the lawyer/accountant fraternity that Buckminister Fuller described very well in "Critical Path" in chapter 3 "Legally Piggily".

Actually mabey his original quote should have been 640g.
From here,http://www.amazon.ca/Kingston-2gb-Ddr2-800mhz-Module/dp/B0014G4RS0 you can see that a 2G DDR2 ram module weighs 23g.
Since at any time in the last 20 years, most personal computers have rarely needed more then two to four memory sticks, and they all weigh about the same, actually on average you would only need about 100G of RAM, at most. ( ie 4 sticks). so 640g would be a healthy 6.4x margin! Since ram continues to increase in memory/mass, this is likely to hold true or the indefinite future.

While Joel's got a point that it's possible to over-abstract something, it's interesting to note that Napster is now gone, and it has been replaced by ITunes (which also serves video), multiple other less popular proprietary music/video services, and... generic Bittorrent tracker/search engines. But I think the whole over-abstraction/architecture astronaut is just a special case of the second system effect described in Fred Brooks' Mythical Man-Month. Worth repeating of course, but not an amazing new insight.