Slashdot Mirror

From what I understand, the console (Nintendo DS only I believe) is quite different from the PC/Mac version of Spore.

Yes, EA have done this before with the DS version of Sims 2, which appears to be quite a different game going under the same name as the "real" Sims 2.

Nothing wrong with them cutting down a game to fit the limitations of a console (up to a point), but if they genuinely can't manage it at all, or want to take a different approach (for possibly valid reasons) they shouldn't market it as if it were a conversion of the same game.

The UK Amazon ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/ ) store has one review, I have just written another.
Of note, does DRM apply to Mac installs?

Link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronic-Arts-Spore-Mac-DVD/dp/B000FN7K2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1220893313&sr=8-1

The UK Amazon ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/ ) store has one review, I have just written another.
Of note, does DRM apply to Mac installs?

Link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Electronic-Arts-Spore-Mac-DVD/dp/B000FN7K2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1220893313&sr=8-1

Exactly! It seems like so many of the problems in political and media debate about science are caused by a total lack of understanding about what a good method is, and what isn't a good method.

I've just finished reading the excellent Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, a book which really hammers down where all the misconceptions about science and medicine come from in a few specific British examples.

Basically, politicians and journalists want there to be two sides to every story, a "for" and an "against". Therefore the people promoting creationism, or the belief that homeopathy works, or whatever other example are printed in the same standing as people who are just talking basic sense.

Science is complicated to understand, and ordinary people (and doctors!) have to rely upon other people to collate and conclude on all available data. Our newspapers and governments should be providing a sensible properly worked-out conclusion on science stories, not taking the lazy option of equally weighted "he said, she said" stories that treat people who believe Vitamin C can cure HIV, or that special water cures cancer as legitimate.

All this just makes science seem confusing and casts doubt upon scientific method. While individual theories can be argued, doubted, tested, or whatever (that's the point) - the basic idea of "evidence based" science is undoubtedly the best way to do things. Seems sad we're still arguing about this after more than a hundred years of Darwinism, doesn't it?

It's good BTW.

And if you're trying to cover all the media, don't miss the game which was partly penned by the man himself.

...and also perhaps the state of literary genius

The theory that Neanderthals were not stupid but less aggressive is already acknowledged in popular culture, to the extent that a series of novels feature an intelligent, yet calm, Neanderthal character. Before anyone complains that fiction authors make stuff up, the novels acknowledge the theories.

The 'scientific consensus that has held for decades' is already well on the way out. If a popular (but not yet popular enough - everyone read Jasper Fforde!) author can use the more up-to-date view and achieve decent sales figures, it seems to me that popular culture has already caught up.

Among the 13,500 scanned pages are 1,500 different language versions of Genesis 1-3

I'm sure they picked bible passages because the translations were mostly done for them already but I'm a little embarassed that future generations are going to think how amazingly superstitious we were. I mean, Genesis 2 alone...

Whats wrong with Genesis 2? It's a perfectly good book, though I am getting the feeling that version 2.1 is due some day soon.

Read: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-Design-Applied-Generic-Patterns/dp/0201704315

It's a good introduction to modern C++. While the book itself is not really helpful, it gives you a nice overview of "modern" development techniques.

Malak Hifni Nassef, as quoted in A Very Short Introduction to Islam, in the chapter on women, pp96.

This is by way of agreement, I thought it was one of the most harrowing descriptions of polygamy I've read, though I haven't read many.

I seriously doubt that that book describes polygamy. I bet what it describes is polygyny.

Falcon

[Co-wife] is a terrible word-my pen almost halts in writing it-woman's mortal enemy...How many hearts has it broken, how many minds has it confused and homes destroyed, how much evil brought and innocents sacrificed...a terrible word laden with savagery and selfishness...Bear in mind that as you amuse yourself with your new bride you cause another's despair to flow in tears...

Malak Hifni Nassef, as quoted in A Very Short Introduction to Islam, in the chapter on women, pp96.

This is by way of agreement, I thought it was one of the most harrowing descriptions of polygamy I've read, though I haven't read many.

trifish: However, the materials were never destoyed.

I hope you realize I can prove the opposite just by showing you a single counter-example, right?

Here it is:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apollonius-Translation-Original-Mathematics-Physical/dp/0387972161

'nuff said.

Z.

No it doesn't, Atheism refers to the disbelief in god or gods of any description. Hence Buddhists, for example, are atheist.

While that is its truest sense, it is usually followed up with a disbelief of mystical, spiritual, religious or any of the labels people use to categorise 'knowledge' which has no evidence in its favour. Rare is the atheist who rejects god only to move on and accept 'spirituality' and I suspect the breed is confined to America where evolved camouflage is necessary to avoid predatory evangelicals. I would even argue that the initial presentation of atheism in its strictest sense is somewhat misleading.

Incidentally, as an atheist, I would recommend the book "A Very Short Introduction to Atheism" for those who are atheist, think they might be or, god forbid, might actually want to understand their neighbour. The same series, incidentally, has very good books on everything from particle physics to Islam.

To quote the book I am reading. "Percy Williams Bridgman once remarked, 'The Scientific Method is doing you damnedest, no holds barred'."

(And, how the hell do you do a recursive quote?)

usb floppy drive

Doesn't alter the system so won't void maintenance.

After being pretty fit up until I was 20, I have slowly declined in the last 9 years. However I have just started doing the exercises in The Abs Diet and I am starting to lose a lot of weight round my stomach (and as a nice bonus my arms are getting bigger!). Don't need much room, a couple of dumbells and jog on the spot/star jumps/whatever for 5 mins just to warm up. Would also recommend Men's Health Magazine for motivation, every month in the UK edition they feature a guy who has lost X amount of stone and how he did it.

There's an interesting book, written by Simon Baron Cohen, about male and female cognitive behvior, and it's relation to autism/Asperger's-syndrom

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-Difference-Women-Extreme-Science/dp/0713996714

I found it pretty fascinating, and the author himself was concerned about publishing the book in the face of cultural/political resistance against this type of theory. I find the theory pretty persuasive, and I don't think it necessarily precludes women from science/engineering. In fact, my experience working with competent women in the the software world, was that they were generally respected and had congenial relations with their male coworkers.

At the risk of sounding flamey, I kind of feel like general population of women (at least in this country) do not encourage other women to go into math/science/engineering. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that a lot of women are significantly intimidated by other women who DO have an aptitude (and in my mind, more importantly, inclination) for "systems-building", as put forth in Simon Baron Cohen's theory.

For the record, almost every woman I've dated in my life, has had at least some fundamental interest in what I do for work, despite not really being able to 100% grasp my somewhat rambling explanations. The notion that men are from mars, and women from venus, is pretty simplistic and overall, a pretty useless idea.

On a similar note, try The Book of Dave for an interesting read.

Stephenson! Big fan :)
I usually get his books in hardback, but do publishers still release first editions, or limited runs of books with special bindings. If so, how do you get hold of these?


PS That US cover is awful (again). UK one is slightly better

Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, 2nd Ed. is good clear guide to first and second year material.

Physics to a degree will get you thinking like a physicist - it covers most undergraduate topics in physics with tutorial style questions and answers.

I found Introduction to Modern Astrophysics an interesting read after I graduated. It covered most of the stuff we did at Birmingham and did so very well.

Our introductory book was Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics by Michael Zeilik, which was ok, and then Astrophysics: Stars Vol 1 by Richard Bowers and Terry Deeming, which was very good and Vol 2 similarly.

You don't mention what your course is going to cover or what its aim is - you are not going to cover the whole of astrophysics in 9 taught months. You also don't mention your interest in astrophysics - numerical simulation? So it is difficult to come up with any more specific recommendations.

Good luck anyhow. Post below with more info if you want any more detailed recommendations.

Physics to a degree will get you thinking like a physicist - it covers most undergraduate topics in physics with tutorial style questions and answers.

I found Introduction to Modern Astrophysics an interesting read after I graduated. It covered most of the stuff we did at Birmingham and did so very well.

Our introductory book was Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics by Michael Zeilik, which was ok, and then Astrophysics: Stars Vol 1 by Richard Bowers and Terry Deeming, which was very good and Vol 2 similarly.

You don't mention what your course is going to cover or what its aim is - you are not going to cover the whole of astrophysics in 9 taught months. You also don't mention your interest in astrophysics - numerical simulation? So it is difficult to come up with any more specific recommendations.

Good luck anyhow. Post below with more info if you want any more detailed recommendations.

Physics to a degree will get you thinking like a physicist - it covers most undergraduate topics in physics with tutorial style questions and answers.

I found Introduction to Modern Astrophysics an interesting read after I graduated. It covered most of the stuff we did at Birmingham and did so very well.

Our introductory book was Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics by Michael Zeilik, which was ok, and then Astrophysics: Stars Vol 1 by Richard Bowers and Terry Deeming, which was very good and Vol 2 similarly.

You don't mention what your course is going to cover or what its aim is - you are not going to cover the whole of astrophysics in 9 taught months. You also don't mention your interest in astrophysics - numerical simulation? So it is difficult to come up with any more specific recommendations.

Good luck anyhow. Post below with more info if you want any more detailed recommendations.

I second this. As far as a general intro to Physics these are by far the best set you can get. Here's the amazon link. There are audio copies of the lectures as well.

One caveat, many Physics & Astrophysics/Astronomy Departments are separated & have little overlap so take a careful look at your MSc course curriculum before leaping to the conclusion that you need to learn large amounts of general physics.

CJM

I second this. As far as a general intro to Physics these are by far the best set you can get. Here's the amazon link. There are audio copies of the lectures as well.

One caveat, many Physics & Astrophysics/Astronomy Departments are separated & have little overlap so take a careful look at your MSc course curriculum before leaping to the conclusion that you need to learn large amounts of general physics.

CJM

You see it every so often when people attempt to throw the fact that before we knew and understood how bad nuclear bombs were, because we used a couple to end a war,

Some people would assert, on very defensible grounds, that while American scientists (and others) who worked on the Manhatten Project have a lot of numbers about the effects of a nuclear bomb, the only people with a comprehensive understanding of what a nuclear bomb is are the Japanese.

I recall, as a child, reading a book by one of the first journalists into Hiroshima. Really quite horrifying stuff, and the sort of thing that simply doesn't get published these days. (I see from Amazon's UK page on it that there has been a new edition with an additional chapter published some time in the 1980s ; I might have to get that out of the library. Here's another review.) Arguably the people of Chernobyl could add a few relevant observations to the Japanese experience.

it somehow vilifies our attempts to stop the proliferations in rogue and hostile states.

What sticks in the craw of many aspirant nuclear nations is the way the the old, colonialist, paternalistic, white overseers (I use the language of slavery deliberately) are trying to deny the new, formerly colonised, developing, various shades of brown, freed nations from achieving tools to ensure that they'll never be enslaved again. (I wouldn't bother wasting electrons on protesting that this is a false description of the West's motivations ; what matters is the perception that people have and the rhetoric that politicians use to justify their actions.) By the way, I note that you use the term "hostile", which implies that you're concerned about countries with plans inimical to your own. This does not, of course imply that their actions are wrong on any "absolute" or disinterested scale, only that their actions are not in the interest of your country. While it's a perfectly defensible, pragmatic, position to take, be very careful because politicians often play with words to imply that this pragmatic position is in some sense absolutely, morally correct.

Don't get me wrong, thrashing on a country because of it's actions isn't a bad thing. But thrashing to bash simply because you think it might offer prestige and somehow elevate your comment is wrong.

More importantly, it's poor rhetoric, which any competent debater would be easily able to take apart. Not that TV politicians generally bother with debate these days, not when there's soundbites, rabble-rousing and compliant media to use to control the thoughts of the sheeple.

The truth of the matter is that our debt isn't near as bad as some other countries but

An argument from economics. Find someone who's interested in economics - like my Boss. My degree is in Geology and Mineralogy ; his is in Geology and Economics, which is probably why I look down a microscope on oil rigs and he's the Boss in the office. By the way - he would disagree with you. I'd give you his personal email address if I had it - it might be interesting to see what arguments came out. Hang on - did I just use the words "Economics" and "interesting" in the same sentence? I'd better go see the doctor, or take some of my schizophrenic friend's medication - I can't be a well man.

we also generally have a higher growth rate on average then those countries (which I probably should have pointed out too)

One of the things that I've never understood about economics is their concentration on growing economies. Given that all economies are, to some extent, linked into some "global" economy ; given that the Earth is a finite syste

Great explanation. Some words by Dorothy L. Sayers on the subject of reasonable doubt:

You may perhaps wish to hear from me exactly what is meant by the words "reasonable doubt". They mean, just so much doubt as you might have in everyday life about an ordinary matter of business. This is a case of murder, and it might be natural for you to think that, in such a case, the words mean more than this. But that is not so. They do not mean that you must cast about for fantastical solutions of what seems to you plain and simple. They do not mean those nightmare doubts which sometimes torment us at four o'clock in the morning when we have not slept very well. They mean that the proof must be such as you would accept about a plain matter of buying and selling, or some such commonplace transaction. You must not strain your belief in favour of the prisoner any more, of course, than you must accept proof of her guilt without the most careful scrutiny.

A large part of the Oxford English Dictionary was contributed by a murderer. I can't say it feels particularly morbid looking stuff up.

he is intelligent, and he does not seem tied too closely to the idiology of either party. In short, a competent guy who isn't a professional politician.

Intelligent? Mr Colin "oh noes, the CIA lied to me" Powell? Mr Colin "I don't have the balls to resign" Powell?

He's the perfect example of military incompetence, a yes man who was promoted to the point where he needed independent thinking and was unable to rise to the task.

I am sure Kuhn fully expected this since his book was critical of scientists. That does not make him wrong, though.
Exactly, because even being proven wrong doesn't mean you're wrong, if you're a philosopher.
nobody has a monopoly on opinions
And science is just another text, right?
For a bit of a laugh you should read this for instance

No matter which kind of software. A good software design needs a good previous analysis. Software "usually" has an objective. If it's soft to be used by human beings. A good point to start is asking what the user need, by figuring wich are his objectives. Once you have a good user-model to ask what he need, you'll need to figure the context in which the user is going to work. May be you'd like to read Cooper, Saffer, Weimberg,... a little recomendation list I found:

http://astore.amazon.co.uk/ricdevass-21/026-1329438-3042066?_encoding=UTF8&node=2

I was taught to ride in the 70's but to be honest some of what was taught back then was at best useless but often dangerous.

The idea that many people have that a bike should always be within two feet of the side of the road is dangerous, especially so on a busy street or when passing parked cars.

I think the problem is the number of people who have no cycle training or ignore it completely.

In general I try to ride as described in Cyclecraft, which is now the basis of the new (UK) national cycle training scheme, Bikeability

To be honest, most of the bad driving and most of the bad cycling that I see seems to come down to simple impatience. Cyclists who aren't prepared to wait a few seconds behind a car until there's adequate room to get past and vice versa. Cyclists and drivers who aren't prepared to wait at red signals.

KVM only works on systems that support hardware virtualisation. Xen will run unmodified operating systems on these platforms, but also supports paravirtualised guests on older systems (and paravirtualised guests are faster on any hardware). As far as I know, KVM is x86-only, while Xen runs on x86, PowerPC, Itanium and ARM (Samsung are doing some very cool things with Xen on ARM).

There are a few things that Xen supports that KVM doesn't, such as live migration. This is probably the right time for the obligatory plug for my book, if you want to learn more about how Xen works.

The most trouble I've had with installing graphics cards under Linux in years is Ubuntu popping up a nice little window and me having to click through that the drivers were not verified to work. I clicked 'OK Install Anyway' (or whatever it said, I can't remember) and pretty soon I had all the bells and whistles up and running. I never even had to go near xorg.conf, sudo or nano. YMMV with other distributions but, given the nature of open source, I doubt many places are using a system greatly dissimilar from Ubuntu's.

Also, how did you manage to cock up your machine so badly that your music sounded like chipmunks? Are you sure you hadn't rippled this into Banshee by accident?

Just go buy a Freeloader.

The racial makeup of Stalins henchmen changed over time - quite dramatically. The Cheka (the first incarnation of the KGB) was principally staffed by people of Latvian and Polish descent until the mid-1930s when it was purged for the first time. The next "generation" of operatives had a much more mixed ethnic background. The Politburo itself contained a veritable mix of nationalities from Russians like Molotov and Voroshilov to Ukrainians like Kruschev (even Beria was from a different ethnic group to Stalin, albeit one that is classed as a Georgian sub-group). This is to be expected, as the revolutionaries (at least during their slightly more idealistic phase) were internationalist in outlook. As for the Georgians in Stalins immediate circle, with the exception of Beria they were as likely to end up with a bullet in the back of the head or in a Gulag as anyone else. The assumption that "Soviet citizen" means "Russian" or that "Stalin henchman" means "Georgian" is a somewhat gross misconception.

A good book on this subject is Stalin and His Hangmen, which includes a fascinating account of how the heart condition of a former Stalin favourite was deliberately mistreated. This mistreatment was on Stalins orders, but ten years later it was used as "evidence" for the doctors purge that was mercifully cut short by Stalins death.

Pirate Bay is your friend. There is a torrent for it.

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3554440/Pretty.Baby._Brooke_Shields__Susan_Sarandon__(1978)

or buy it from amazon or some dvd store near you.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pretty-Baby-Keith-Carradine/dp/B000KQGX46/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1211065895&sr=1-1

1. Upload all of your data on a web host with SFTP support and lots of bandwidth.
2. Purge your hard drive.
3. Be politeness incarnate to the customs officer and get through fast.
4. Once inside, use any available network at your disposal to download all of your data back.

The downsides? You probably won't be able to work in the airplane, but is it worth it now that the Customs are being so much trouble?

An excellent starter is "The Art of Electronics By Paul Horowitz, Horowitz, Winfield Hill"

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957

You should also have a look at the classic:
"Foundations of Wireless and Electronics
by M.G. Scroggie "

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Foundations-Wireless-Electronics-M-G-Scroggie/dp/0750634308

Amazon has operations in other countries.

OK, I couldn't find a book called exactly "How to Program in Linux", but there are a few books here that might be of interest.

according to Larry Niven's Rainbow Mars, it's Yggdrasil which caused Mars to die.

Joking aside, an excellent book.

I was referring to this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/275738.stm when I was talking about Ocean Vents.

I'm sure he [Walt Brown] has some "unique" perspectives. Although without peer-review of his work; I imagine that his musings will not get into the scientific body of knowledge.

I recommend reading http://www.amazon.co.uk/Origin-Species-Charles-Darwin/dp/0517123207/ref=pd_sim_b_img_2 its a thoroughly good introduction to evolution.

Mathematicians are machines for turning caffeine into theorems. Looks like he may be proved right. Mind you, he also used a lot of speed as well. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Who-Loved-Only-Numbers/dp/1857028295/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207226895&sr=8-1

I typically write about topics that either interest me, or are being falsely portrayed by idiots in the corporate media.

What about your false portrayals of other companies on your travesty of a blog? Your article comparing Windows Home Server to AirPort Extreme was hilarious. Like many of your articles it's full of blatant lies, either that or you don't know what you're talking about. I particularly like the way you claim this doesn't exist.

Going even more off topic than I was before, I can't help wondering if Apple were aware of this when they named the AirPort:
"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, 'as pretty as an airport.' Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort."
Courtesy of Douglas Adams, something of an Apple fan himself. Perhaps if you read some of his writings in "The Salmon of Doubt" you would understand the difference between advocacy and zealotry.

And no, I'm not saying it's ugly, I just think it's funny. Having read your posts before I thought I'd better make it it clear. ;)

This has been an off topic personal attack. You may now mod me down.

``The Code of the Woosters''

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Woosters-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/014118597X/

What ho! Spiffing!

but I've had Consider Phlebas and Player of Games on order with Amazon waiting for their US (re)issues for the past few months

Not sure if anyone has mention this book (link : http://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Pi-Petr-Beckmann/dp/0312381859/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205526089&sr=8-1 )
I found it entertaining and easy to read while at the same being informative/interesting. I feel the book gives a very good presentation of the thought process behind how different civilizations reached their approximation of Pi and a good insight into how brilliant people of different times where able to calculate Pi. I bet a lot of "ordinary" people wouldn't have a clue about how to find a good number for Pi, without hitting their "Pi"-button on a calculator :)

A good read. Very nice addition to say, your toilet library (I've got one...)

So why pay extortionate sums of money to buy good music in a format that you cannot share with others after you have legally bought it?

Purchased downloads are for plastic throwaway crap, not for proper music that you will want to cherish for decades to come.