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Except for the cube geek characters, this could easily be a snippet of dialogue from the excellent Science Fiction/Fantasy book Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith (better known for writing horror). At one point the main character compliments a nearby building's AI for altering its lighting and color patterns to complement the unique pattern his malfunctioning smart-fabric pants had settled on that morning.

A fun and utterly unique book. I have a review of it on my booklog.

'Would you like a drink first?' asked Colin. 'I've finished my pianocktail and we could try it out.'
 
'Does it really work?' asked Chick.
 
'Of course it does. I had a hard job perfecting it, but the finished result is beyond my wildest dreams. When I played the Black and Tan Fantasy I got a really fantastic concoction.'
 
'How does it work?' asked Chick.
 
'For each note,' said Colin, 'there's a corresponding drink - either a wine, spirit, liqueur or fruit juice. The loud pedal puts in egg flip and the soft pedal adds ice. For soda you play a cadenza in F sharp. The quantities depend on how long a note is held - you get the sixteenth of a measure for a hemidemisemiquaver; a whole measure for a black note; and four measures for a semibreve. When you play a slow tune, then tone comes into control too to prevent the amounts growing too large and the drink getting too big for a cocktail - but the alcoholic content remains unchanged. And, depending on the length of the tune, you can, if you like, vary the measures used, reducing them, say, to a hundredth in order to get a drink taking advantage of all the harmonics, by means of an adjustment on the side.'
 
'It's a bit complicated,' said Chick.
 
'The whole thing is controlled by electrical contacts and relays. I won't go into all the technicalities because you know all about them anyway. And, besides, the piano itself really works.'
 
'It's wonderful,' said Chick.
 
'Only one thing still worries me,' said Colin, 'and that's the loud pedal and the egg flip. I had to put in a special gear system because if you play something too hot, lumps of omelette fall into the glass, and they're rather hard to swallow. I've still got a little bit of modification to do there. But it's all right if you're careful. And for a dash of fresh cream, you add a chord in G major.'
 
'I'm going to try an improvisation on Loveless Love,' said Chick. 'That should be crazy.'
 
'It's still in the junk room that I use as my workshop,' said Colin, 'because the guard plates aren't screwed down yet. Come in there with me. I'll set it for two cocktails of about seventy-five milligallons each to start with.'
 
Chick sat at the piano. When he'd reached the end of the tune a section of the front panel came down with a sharp click and a row of glasses appeared. Two of them were brimming with an appetizing mixture.
 
'You scared me,' said Colin. 'You played a wrong note once. Luckily it was only in the harmonization.'
 
'You don't mean to say that that comes into it too?' said Chick.
 
'Not always,' said Colin. 'That would make it too elaborate. So we just give it a few passing acknowledgements. Now drink up-and we'll go and eat.'
 

I bought Boo Hoo, the book one of the founders wrote on their failure.

I have to say that it was great reading, despite the outcome.

D

If you want librarians to understand DRM, get them to read The Well of Lost Plots. As well as being entertaining fiction, it does a good job of placing DRM in the context of books. It's also worth reading for any geek, since it is packed full of oblique references to areas of the tech industry.

Compare the price of this DVD player
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000EG60Y U/ref=amb_asin-coop-1_53560491/026-7568354-9917245

compared to this DVD of Harry Potter's
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000EBOZY C/ref=br_lf_li_1_2/026-7568354-9917245

Now why should a DVD cost more than the player?

Compare the price of this DVD player
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000EG60Y U/ref=amb_asin-coop-1_53560491/026-7568354-9917245

compared to this DVD of Harry Potter's
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000EBOZY C/ref=br_lf_li_1_2/026-7568354-9917245

Now why should a DVD cost more than the player?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 EFXG1G/sr=8-2/qid=1145548065/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-0162 339-5039018?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance ...and in the UK...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007SV72 A/qid=1145547963/sr=8-2/ref=pd_ka_2/026-7513276-18 86055

Snort some Kahn. You'll love it. Might be a bit redundant if you've just read Singh, but when you get the urge to reread Singh, go Kahn instead.

Valuing peoples opinion and treating them like adults result in anarchy? As adults we vote, drive cars and have kids, but when it comes to the work environment we need to be told what to do and monitored every step of the way? Read the books by Richardo Semler and see how a system like this can result in tremendeous growth for a company even against the turmoil of Brazil's economy. How did this get modded as insightful?

Valuing peoples opinion and treating them like adults result in anarchy? As adults we vote, drive cars and have kids, but when it comes to the work environment we need to be told what to do and monitored every step of the way? Read the books by Richardo Semler and see how a system like this can result in tremendeous growth for a company even against the turmoil of Brazil's economy. How did this get modded as insightful?

If one can believe Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/stores/deta il/-/videogames/B00005NCEZ/pictures/ref%3Ddp_pics_ smp/202-8135606-0966225

It even has screenshots...

There are plenty of SD card readers that look like a usb memory stick and plenty of SD cards with built in usb ports... perhaps you should research what a PDA can do before saying it can't be done?

I've just finished reading Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star. This book (and the sequel) is set in an interstellar commonwealth founded by the inventor of the wormhole generator and his partner who turned it into a commercial venture. These two characters seem to have been based on the two Steves, with the Woz character (Ozzie) getting the more exciting story line.

Try and have a listen to the record 'Mario Piu - Communication', it that actually samples the phone interference!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004T43 L/qid=1144591269/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl/203- 1975359-1528719

I can't remember what it was called but there was another tune around the same time (98-99?) that sampled the 14.4k modem handshake.

I wasnt saying that they were explainations about the origin of sexual development. There were links there on speculations on how the sexes could have evolved. The simple answer is that we just dont really know exactly how it happened. We *might* one day know but we may never know clear and specific reason as to why certain things evolved for whatever reasons. All we seem to know is that the mechanisms of natural selection seem to apply within our ecosystem to evolve orgaisms in groups. When you say that evolution seem "obvious" I would ask you, if its so obvious why did it take so long to occur to anybody. You and I stand here with hindsight and much more knowledge of the universe than any other in the history of man.

What you seem to be after is the answer to the question Why? Why are there two sexes... why did this organism evolve this way. The answer is basically... because... thats how it happened. You could ask "Why does the general theory of relativity seem to describe reality". The answer is agai is again... just because. That seems to be the way reality is. Is evolution the Truth? No of course not. Its a model trying to reflect the reality of what we observe, just like everything else. Its just science.

Considerign your backgroud in psych Id recommend this book. It focuses on the evolutionary background on the human mind... and even touches on how evolutionary biology can explain the evolution of not just things like our eye(the simple bit of our visual system... just the camera) but how these changes are integrated into our mind.

...how things change. for BM's earlier position on free software see The Ethics of Free Software . For a decent eiffel compiler (last time i tried, ISE's sucked hard. funny that, for a company made by the number one authority on software engineering), try SmallEiffel. and don't take me wrong, i think Object-oriented Software Construction is one of the great classics of computer science. but there is a gap between theory and practice.

If anyone is really interested in the technical and mathematical side of this stuff, I definitely recommend Probabilistic Robotics by (among others) Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab and leader of the winning team in this race.

That was a different virus which infected humans. Based on genetic analysis done at the CDC using corpses dug out from the Arctic it looks like it has freshly jumped from birds, but it was a human flu strain. Not a bird flu strain.

By the way if you compare what the CDC did and "The First Horseman" [http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/00991840 28/qid=1143573179/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_3_8/203-3200871- 8807110] you will have shivers for a very very very long time.

According to both Amazon and Play that's actually less than the recommended retail price (RRP) for the DVD, which is £24.99 (nearly $50).

Needless to say, both are doing massive discounts resulting in £12.99 ($20).

The high street price in the UK is incredibly variable at the moment. I've seen some fresh titles up there at £17.99, whilst other just as fresh titles are £12.99 or less even.

All that said, I agree that the price is too high. I reckon I would consider paying rental prices (£3-3.50 for recent releases) for a download only version. Thing is, if I'm buying the DVD, how much more would I pay to be able to download it straight away before having to wait for it in the post? Probably no more than about 50p or £1 at a stretch.

The scary thing is, people are happy to pay about 75% of high street prices for music from iTunes, and you don't even get a copy of the CD in the post later with that!

Night Down trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton has possibly the best space combat description with near future tech. It is also has reasonably good plot and reasonably good characters.

I would highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/033034032 8/qid=1142634482/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_3_4/203-2662547-9 848710
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/033035143 5/qid=1142634382/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/203-2662547-9 848710
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/033035145 1/qid=1142634447/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/203-2662547-9 848710

Night Down trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton has possibly the best space combat description with near future tech. It is also has reasonably good plot and reasonably good characters.

I would highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/033034032 8/qid=1142634482/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_3_4/203-2662547-9 848710
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/033035143 5/qid=1142634382/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/203-2662547-9 848710
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/033035145 1/qid=1142634447/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/203-2662547-9 848710

Night Down trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton has possibly the best space combat description with near future tech. It is also has reasonably good plot and reasonably good characters.

I would highly recommend it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/033034032 8/qid=1142634482/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_3_4/203-2662547-9 848710
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/033035143 5/qid=1142634382/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/203-2662547-9 848710
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/033035145 1/qid=1142634447/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/203-2662547-9 848710

Be prepared!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/074758023 5/qid=1142460074/sr=8-3/ref=pd_ka_3/203-9759404-33 31145

James

Fortunately a Carnegie Mellon research scientist has written a handy guide named How to Survive a Robot Uprising. Might be a good reference.

More useful than the specification itself is Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment. This is my absolute favourite reference for UNIX programming. Not only does it cover the POSIX spec (and SUS and a few others), it also tells you which bits have been implemented, and with what limits, in Solaris, FreeBSD, Linux and Mac OS X. It's slightly out of date (obviously, since it wasn't published today); for example it says that OS X 10.3 doesn't support most SysV IPC mechanisms which, while true, is not particularly useful since 10.4 does support them. It's a useful base-line though.

Correction, now at number 12: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/stores/stat ic/-/books/amazon-bestsellers/ed_best_h__h/203-309 0677-3971925

There's quite a few books on choosing frameworks, here's one.

We are sarcastic, I'll give you that, but that's just part of the culture, sarcasm is humour, it's just part of daily life. We don't have the politeness thing in the UK. If somebody says "have a nice day" in the UK, we assume you're either trying to be ironic, which may or may not be funny. and/or you're "taking the piss" which again may or may not be funny depending on the mood and the day.

But malicious I think is the wrong word, larcenous, devious, even anarchistsic, yes. But we rarely do things to intentionly harm others. If we mean to hurt you we will acknowledge and revel in the fact that you feel agreived. Now admitedly most of the rest of the "English speaking" world dont understand the brits, becuase they're never sure when we're joking or not, most of the time we are, just as most people don't understand the joke.

I guess you would have to be a brit, or at least spend a few years in the UK, before you fully understood why we behave the way we do. We loathe (with a passion) people who try to be sincere, (whether real or not) people who try to speak from the moral high ground, (like our prime minister for example) public piety will be ridiculed. We know people are crap, so attempts to holier than thou, are frankly, "just asking for it"

The truth is, we don't like being mistaken for Americans, and we're very territorial about our language, it would be OK, if the rest of world understood that you speak American, which is not English. But by and large they don't. So much as with the hacker/cracker debate and the geek/nerd thing. We get annoyed and a little testy about it, especially in times of stress. Fellow brits will understand this. The correct way to deal with a pissed off brit is to be sarcastic. Because we can take it, just as well as we can dish it out. Most people however, are just not used to such robust banter. It's common in the UK, to address your best mates using the two worst swear words in the English language, (tw*t & c*nt) As in "hello you tw*t" This is not malicious, this is a fraternal greeting. I apprecite that you don't undertand this, but it is true.

I would urge you to try and get hold of some UK magazines, or even some UK books that deal with popular culture, this one is recent and a good place to start: http://eatsshootsandleaves.com/

Similarly, this one is also good: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/034081885 9

Having said that, my wife is "a foriegner" and having read the book, doesn't believe it, more I think because she doesn't understand it. But so it goes, you can lead a horse to water and all that.
Should you ever got bored of the Fiesta, try a VW Golf, they're good too.

You would be commenting here on the episode "Kitten Kong", which is a treasured episode indeed!
.

Well, in addition, I'm exiled in a French speaking country and enjoy all the French contributions to modern culture, such as:

useless public servants who stop their personal and professional development after they get employed by the government with virtually no chance of getting laid off.

The fantastic French trafic culture where no one uses turning indicators, they're obsessed with cutting in front of you no matter how fast you're going ,

and (hooray) their awful and sophisticated sour wine.

I mean, really, just look at Corinne Maier's book "Bonjour Paresse" ("Hello Laziness!: Why hard work doesn't pay"), which provides guidelines to how people survive in large corporations without actually working. Apparently, it's a bestseller.

I agree with you that in this case the phrase could be interperted as "think [of doing or being something] different". So it's maybe not the best example of adverb ignorance from our transpondian cousins.

However the vast majority of cases of bad grammar usage are not about bending the rules to create subtlety, they are just demonstrations of ignorance of what the rules are in the first place.

I have been reading an interesting book called "Language Myths" (yeah yeah, amazon are evil, whatever). They argue in one chapter that we shouldn't cling onto gramatical rules and spelling like they are somehow sacrosanct since languages evolve all the time and shouldn't be considered as static things to be preserved. I agree with this to an extent but I still think there is a difference between knowing what the rules are and bending them for effect, and just not knowing what the rules are in the first place. Getting the rules wrong might not make a huge difference to the conveyed meaning but it just looks ugly.

(btw - I was reading it wrongly ;-p)

I've just been reading "Big Bang" by Simon Singh, a compelling account of the history of astrophysics and in particular the history of the Big Bang theory. I'd never appreciated how much observational astronomy had contributed to this theory beyond Hubble's original work, and I'd strongly recommend it as a fascinating read. (I haven't attached my Amazon associate id to the above URL - in case anyone's wondering!)

There may also have been mention of some internet browser, but that hardly seems relevant...

Actually, if you read those links you'll find that they are rather interesting and well-presented articles, par for the course as far as The (Sunday) Times is concerned. No 'hot and exclusive' pictures or cheap puns like you'd expect in the tabloids, although the titles are somewhat of a red herring.

I encountered both the 'Brain or Bimbo' and 'Confessions...' pieces in the dead tree edition of The Sunday Times and found them to be good reads. I'd quite like to get my hands on a copy of Female Chauvinist Pigs (No Referral) by Ariel Levy. The observations of 'raunch culture' and how the modern young female is encouraged to be some kind of liberated sexual goddess with fake boobs, low inhibition and the ability to pole-dance are quite astute and very Brave New World.

"Truckers, Diggers and THIEVES"???

When I read them 10 - 15 years ago, it was Truckers, Diggers and Wings.

There was a televised series of Truckers

There are animated version of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters.

I have the "Soul Music" DVD and really like it (though I normally don't like the animation style that is used).
But the voices - especially Christopher Lee as DEATH - and the songs they composed are great; that's really "Music With Rocks In"
It's just sad that there is no sound track (IIRC Terry Pratchett says the same in the included interview).

btw: there also is a Soul Music Region 1 DVD and a Wyrd Sisters Region 0 DVD

There are animated version of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters.

I have the "Soul Music" DVD and really like it (though I normally don't like the animation style that is used).
But the voices - especially Christopher Lee as DEATH - and the songs they composed are great; that's really "Music With Rocks In"
It's just sad that there is no sound track (IIRC Terry Pratchett says the same in the included interview).

btw: there also is a Soul Music Region 1 DVD and a Wyrd Sisters Region 0 DVD

There are animated version of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters.

I have the "Soul Music" DVD and really like it (though I normally don't like the animation style that is used).
But the voices - especially Christopher Lee as DEATH - and the songs they composed are great; that's really "Music With Rocks In"
It's just sad that there is no sound track (IIRC Terry Pratchett says the same in the included interview).

btw: there also is a Soul Music Region 1 DVD and a Wyrd Sisters Region 0 DVD

There are animated version of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters.

I have the "Soul Music" DVD and really like it (though I normally don't like the animation style that is used).
But the voices - especially Christopher Lee as DEATH - and the songs they composed are great; that's really "Music With Rocks In"
It's just sad that there is no sound track (IIRC Terry Pratchett says the same in the included interview).

btw: there also is a Soul Music Region 1 DVD and a Wyrd Sisters Region 0 DVD

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/074346837 6/qid=1137543821/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl/202- 4708284-5091803

Provides a good background to how the internet came about, including a chapter on email.

For those who have NO idea what you are talking about.
1) What are you doing here
2) A sample by the author from this set

For me, the Tachicomas were nauseatingly cute, and the worst part of the series. Think the personality of a perky 12 year old japanese school girl (including voice) in the body of of spider-ish police tank.

Slightly off-topic, I just found you can buy the Babylon 5 Complete Universe box. All the series, all the films in a single, reasonably priced package. 41 DVDs in all. *drool*

I'm interested in watching much more Ghost in the Shell and getting caught up with it- I watched what I believe to be the first movie from 1995 a few months ago but I'm not sure if i've jumped in in the middle of the story.

Could someone in the know please tell the noobs here what we should watch to get everything in, and what order we should watch it in. I'm mildy offtopic but I think if this review has piqued anyone's interest, some info on how to catch up on what we've missed would be excellent.

Thanks!

The maths is also quite deep and elegant, although by the time it gets used by banks it ends up being pretty dirty. I would recommend you take a look at An Introduction to Derivative Pricing for a gentle introduction to the maths and Against The Gods for a non mathematical acount of why it is useful.

The maths is also quite deep and elegant, although by the time it gets used by banks it ends up being pretty dirty. I would recommend you take a look at An Introduction to Derivative Pricing for a gentle introduction to the maths and Against The Gods for a non mathematical acount of why it is useful.

Don't forget, the DVD series of the show is already out now, in the UK (Region 2, PAL). Comes in a monstrously big TARDIS-shaped box that opens diagonally, kind of awkward, but clever. If it takes up too much space on your shelf, you can store the discs in those black plastic DVD cases that AOL spam-mailed out a while ago :)

Use your favorite multiregion DVD player to view it, or rip it first. No need to wait until later in the year.

I BitTorrented the shows as they came out, but bought the DVD because I wanted to support the show (and get the episodes in better quality). Still find it ironic that they say it's "coming soon" to the USA, but is already sitting here on my table....

FYI the DVDs are available now.

e.g.
http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/780284 (Region 4)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00095L9E 2/qid=1137109160/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_11_2/203-1603533- 3369508 (Region 2)

Zap the soil lying there right on the surface and see what happens. Yes, loose hematite balls.

You don't know what your are talking about. Here is a picture of a Fulgerite. The lighting discharge gives the dendritic tubes cylindrical symetry. They are not spherical. Also the process of annealing does not fractionate hematite from the surrounding rocks. How would a lightning strike do that.

Incidentally, how do you imagine those "particulates flying around in the [wispy] atmosphere" get there -- thundering herds of wildebeest? Towering convection columns? The only plausible force available to loft the mass of those enormous dust storms is itself electrostatic.

Again, a crazy idea. If you are suggesting that dust is levitated into the atmosphere by electrostatic forces? Absurd. Dust enters the atmosphere through saltation. Sand size grains are picked up by wind and impact back to the ground kicking dust into the turbulent boundary layer and suspension. This is great reference on the process.

Amazon UK also sell select episodes from the first season for DVD players capable of playing region 2. The discs are reasonably cheap at £2.99 and £4.99 respectively.

Despite our much stronger data protection legislation, exactly the same trick works in the UK. Which just demonstrates that the whole data protection hoo hah is nonsense...