Slashdot Mirror

Cat6 is used in gigabit networking, so using it now is a good idea. When prices of cat7 come down, I will suggest the same thing for that. Even if you aren't running gigabit, network installs tend to stay in place for a long time, so getting the best that is affordable is worthwhile.

The benefits of STP over UTP is that STP when done right receives no interference. When you are running multiple cables in a wall to a jack, they can actually receive interference from each other, so even if you don't see the impact, it can be there. Also, with different radio sources in close confines, you will pick up more interference there too (microwave, TV, wireless phones/network, even the relays in your AC unit can cause problems). Even the power in your house can cause interference from the cycling of the voltage inherent in AC.

Price difference isn't so much anymore:

STP: http://www.amazon.com/Shielded-Waterproof-Direct-Ethernet-Cable/dp/B0056K1IIM $214/1000 foot
UTP: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058TZDGY/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_d0_g147_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=02FX2XMFDF5QNSKEG1F2&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846 $164.99/1000 foot

These are the same manufacturer and quality. The main difference will be in the endpoints if you properly terminate, the patch panels and ends are about double the price, and take longer to terminate.

As far as unshielded coax, I didn't think that was possible, you use the core for signal, and the shield is the ground, it is built into the cable. I didn't think you could get unshielded coax. For the most part, the network card and switch will deal with interference, and often well enough that you don't notice, but it can cause jitter, retransmits, and an overall increase in latency.

Cat6 is used in gigabit networking, so using it now is a good idea. When prices of cat7 come down, I will suggest the same thing for that. Even if you aren't running gigabit, network installs tend to stay in place for a long time, so getting the best that is affordable is worthwhile.

The benefits of STP over UTP is that STP when done right receives no interference. When you are running multiple cables in a wall to a jack, they can actually receive interference from each other, so even if you don't see the impact, it can be there. Also, with different radio sources in close confines, you will pick up more interference there too (microwave, TV, wireless phones/network, even the relays in your AC unit can cause problems). Even the power in your house can cause interference from the cycling of the voltage inherent in AC.

Price difference isn't so much anymore:

STP: http://www.amazon.com/Shielded-Waterproof-Direct-Ethernet-Cable/dp/B0056K1IIM $214/1000 foot
UTP: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058TZDGY/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_d0_g147_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=02FX2XMFDF5QNSKEG1F2&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846 $164.99/1000 foot

These are the same manufacturer and quality. The main difference will be in the endpoints if you properly terminate, the patch panels and ends are about double the price, and take longer to terminate.

As far as unshielded coax, I didn't think that was possible, you use the core for signal, and the shield is the ground, it is built into the cable. I didn't think you could get unshielded coax. For the most part, the network card and switch will deal with interference, and often well enough that you don't notice, but it can cause jitter, retransmits, and an overall increase in latency.

The incentive to fake results is always present in academia, as is the incentive to believe faked results. I recommend reading "Plastic Fantastic: How the Biggest Fraud in Physics Shook the Scientific World" by Eugenie Samuel Reich, which details the case of Heinrich Schon. Reading this book, it isn't hard to see how so many people could fall into the trap of trying to get the numbers you think you should see as well as the academic prestige that comes with the cooked numbers.

Amazon link to the book

Isn't the figure that 1 in 10 people is LGBorT?

No, only about 1 in 40 in the US. See "Sex in America, a Definitive Survey" 2.8% of men, 1.4% of women. 1 in 10 in the largest 5 cities, much lower in more sparsely populated areas. Data based on detailed interviews with 3400 people randomly selected, not self-selected.

I believe homosexual acts are a sin. I believe homosexuality should not be promoted. I oppose gay marriage.

Does this make me anti-gay? No way. Hate the sin and love the sinner. We are all children of God.

By denying gay people respect and what they want - yes you are anti-gay
 
BTW being gay is natural. If not then why did God create all those gay animals? See Biological Exuberance:Homosexuality and Natural Diversity which lists the gay and bisexual nature of over 300 species as seen in the wild.

Funny how those "top rated" don't show up amongst best selling.

Except that statistics say that roughly 80% of Americans live within 16 miles of work http://askville.amazon.com/average-commuting-distance-americans/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=2554434. And the expected range is 40, not 30.

Though a quick glance around Amazon will also show the top rated phones are mostly windows phones and not those low end Android phones, so maybe this is a new level of value for customers.

Or applesauce. The TSA had a conniption about a fucking tub of cinnamon apple sauce, because it was 3.9 ounces, which is .9 magical ounces over the amount of applesauce real Americans feed their kids.

The Way Things Work was written by David Macaulay , NOT Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle .

And if you're caching books in your septic tank for the benefit of future generations, you really should be including a copy of the Motel of Mysteries.

That's bullshit, as demonstrated by ample evidence - there are precious few human societies in existence or in history that had not, at some point, engaged in warfare with other societies.

Sorry, but your claim about warlike human societies is controversial, as has been amply documented by Ryan and Jetha in "Sex at Dawn." I don't have my copy at hand, but this ancient warlike humans meme is a myth they dissected and disposed of in the book. See Ch. 13, "The Never-Ending Battle over Prehistoric War." For one thing, the earth was sparsely populated in antiquity. Most human communities simply did not interact with humans from other communities. Hard to start a war without an enemy. A large part of the book ("The Way We Weren't") concerns itself with showing some accepted anthropological wisdom is just plain wrong.

That wasn't out of his ass: http://aws.amazon.com/s3/ will tell you, and I quote:

"Designed to provide 99.999999999% durability and 99.99% availability of objects over a given year"

Which basically means, in practical terms, they're allowing for up to 9 hours per year where you can't access the data, but they promise to basically never lose the data. It's not about 1ms in 317 years, it's about how many of your bytes could go corrupt or missing out of the total, in the space of a year.

And I quoted, from his own post, more 9s that that.

1 bit every 11.642 GB? Pretty shitty.

Letwin was OS/2's chief architect and one of Gates' most trusted employees at the time. He wrote the book that introduced the operating system to applications developers (now available for a bargain price!).

Here is a Usenet post Letwin wrote in 1995, after it was obvious that OS/2 had lost out to Windows 95 (and eventually NT/2000) in the marketplace.

BTW I also found Letwin in an early group photo of Microsoft (Letwin is second from the right in the middle row). By comparison, here is the photo for Mitt Romney and Bain Capital

I used to have a TRS-80 Model 100. I've moved on.

I think you are lowballing the endurance; instead of 8 hours, I think it was something like 25. Crazy good battery life! But I can easily fill 24KB of RAM, and then what? You quoted 3 pounds, but I never went anywhere without the cassette recorder, the special cable, and more batteries for the cassette recorder... more like 4 or 5 pounds.

Hardware hack: people used to get a bag of those little rubber bands used on braces, and pry off the keycaps on the keyboard; put one around the stalk of the key and put the keycap back on. The rubber bands would render the keyboard nearly silent, and better for note-taking.

If you want something with a keyboard, why not an Android device plus a Bluetooth keyboard? I've been carrying a 7" tablet and I love the size and weight (400 grams, under a pound).

My tablet is a Nook Tablet so I have a limited selection of apps and Bluetooth is not enabled; but it works great for many purposes, and I want any replacement to be about the same size and weight. As soon as the cheap Tegra 3 devices with Android 4.x and a 7" screen come out, I'm buying one... and a Bluetooth keyboard.

If you really want to go old-school, I'd suggest an AlphaSmart Dana. Lighter than the old TRS-80 slabs, and you can save your data on an SD card rather than a cassette recorder.

http://www.amazon.com/AlphaSmart-Dana-Handheld-Palm-4-1/dp/B00007FV2Z

steveha

It's called a run-on sentence composed of multiple comma-splices, and it's incorrect. Learn about it.

Strange. No one seems to read The Elements of Style anymore.

It can be had for free online or you can buy a copy.

I somehow doubt Amazon is going out of business anytime soon... http://www.amazon.com/UNCHARTED-Among-Thieves-Edition-Playstation-3/dp/B002I0F5I2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333237439&sr=8-1

To be fertile, soil also needs micronutrients held by the clay and organic matter; see:
"Towards Holistic Agriculture: A Scientific Approach" by R.W. Widdowson
http://www.amazon.com/Towards-Holistic-Agriculture-Scientific-Approach/dp/0080342116

You can also see ideas about high nutrient gardening here:
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

See also, for the natural way to get such soil:
http://www.kidsgeo.com/geology-for-kids/0052-volcanoes-and-plant-life.php
"While it is true that the immediate effect of volcanoes on plant life is death, the long term effect is very positive. Magma from the Earth’s core contains a rich source of nutrients that plants need to survive. Each time a volcano erupts, it brings these nutrients with it. When volcanoes explode, spreading ash around a large area, this ash acts as a fertilizer, enriching the soil. It is no surprise that the soil near volcanoes is among the richest and most fertile on Earth."

We can reproduce that effect by simply grinding up appropriate rocks:
http://www.remineralize.org/
"Remineralize the Earth is a nonprofit organization assisting the worldwide movement of remineralizing soils with finely ground rock dust, sea minerals and other natural and sustainable means to increase the growth, health, and nutrient value of all plant life. Adding minerals and trace elements is vital to the creation of fertile soils, healthy crops and forests, and is a key strategy to stabilize the climate."

See the pictures there for what vegetables are supposed to look like when raised on truly fertile soil.

I agree with you though that much energy that could go into solving problems gets ironically dissipated in fighting -- often just over the problems that energy otherwise could solve if applied imaginatively. See also the section on "What Are The Limits on Food Production?" In "The Ultimate Resource II: People, Materials, and Environment" by Julian Simon:
http://www.juliansimon.com/writings/Ultimate_Resource/

An important reason Africa is such a mess politically is from the legacy of European colonization though (although that is not the only reason):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonisation_of_Africa

or maybe they just could implement finland's education system.... http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/ http://www.amazon.com/Finnish-Lessons-Educational-Change-Finland/dp/0807752576

Realistically, if you ever want a cure for cancer

Realistically, we have a cure for cancer.

I recommend you read this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594032556

Even the smartest law abiding people commit hacking some times. Many who go to jail under computer fraud and abuse act of 1986 are probably innocent, and the law will be repealed under a libertarian president.

I am all for embellishing your resume to fill the gap with superfluous achievements. The best way to negate the effect of criminal record is obviously get an advanced degree such as a PhD. Bill Ayers is an excellent example.

We need to give a second chance to these innocent people to earn their buck, honestly or otherwise.

A perfect society is a society without any laws.

Even if "who to collaborate with" is your boss, or the head of the department, or whatever (yes, they want to be the final name, but they may "suggest" names to get other collaborators happy)? It happens. I'm not saying it the norm, but the competition is too fierce and some people will go the extra mile to get that. And that is indeed a problem of the publishing papers hysteria. The whole debacle is IMO highglighted well by this book (notice it covers also a lot of unrelated topics to publish or perish).

The liberal anti-science movement is much more pernicious, since they inhabit the academic departments in the social sciences, psychology, feminism, and the humanities. Pick up Sokal's Beyond the Hoax" from the library to see liberal anti-science mania in action. You can also read Steven Pinker's "The Blank Slate", which is full of liberal anti-science fuzzy-thinking nonsense.

Some results of all of this are myths like: rape is about power on not sex, violent media causes violent behaviour, god was once a woman, nuclear power is polluting and unsafe (which is a relative statement), GMOs are inherently bad (a homologue to stem-cell research), there is no biological basis for gendered behaviour,... really the list is quite long, and there are some serious consequences.

It looks to me like disk is not that much more expensive than tape. A 1.5TB LTO-5 blank tape is $52.58, or $35/TB. A 4TB USB drive is $229.00, or $57/TB. For backing up 8TB of fileservers at my job, I prefer USB drives. I can just bring them over from the server room and plug them into my laptop if I need to look back in time.

Waiting for approval is a valid point, but anyone who spent time using MFC probably has their own list of things that drive them bonkers, and most likely know where the fix needs to be. Screw approval, fix it in your code and ship the result linked statically.

No joke, even the C/C++ headers in MSVC 6 are broken, and due to licensing issues Microsoft can't release a patch for it. People just fix it locally and it's done. Of course, this is mostly STL, so it's not in the runtime DLL files so you could still dynamically link these updates.

http://www.dinkumware.com/vc_fixes.html

If you choose you can install the source code to the MFC library, and step through it like your own code. Just like you can go through the C/C++ runtimes. You're not supposed to fix and re-build it, they did not release the build/project files, only the code so the PDB files could tell the debugger where to look.

If you have spent time in MFC, you quickly learn that every other line of code is likely to have some quirk that you didn't expect. Adding simple overrides requires hacks on top of hacks. And you learn how it works, even if you don't install the code.

I left MFC a long time ago, but I guarantee I could find and fix one bug a day for the next week, maybe two, just based on working with it for maybe 5 years. On top of my normal workload, not just hacking away on bugs for 16 hours. Entire websites are dedicated to working around how MFC doesn't work like it should.

The Petzold equivalent book for MFC starts out with making an MFC app in notepad, no wizards or GUI. If you understand what you are writing, and what the wizard does for you, you can make your own workarounds. All it takes is having the code to see where it is screwing up what you did to it. "The time it takes to find the bug in a program you didn't write" is negligible compared to working around it every time you write a program that works around the same problem.

http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Windows-MFC-Second-Edition/dp/1572316950

Here's one.

Thanks for the reply. Glad you liked the links.

"The horror of them, though -- consider the amount of money our citizens have spent on inferior medical treatments, which have negative side-effects up to and including death, when if we had not passed unconstitutional laws and enforced them as if they were constitutional (i.e., that is conspiracy), we would be more healthy as a society and thus would be better able to out-compete other countries."

Sadly all too true... I probably posted this before, but its worth reposting:
"A Decade Of Vitamin D Supplementation Would Save $4.4 Trillion Over A Decade; Would Save $1346 Per Person Per Annum"
http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi111.html

Thanks for the recommendation of "The Diamond Cutter". One thing the Dali Lama says, when US Christian-raised people say they want to become Buddhist is that there are a lot of bad Buddhists out there, and they should think hard about growing within their own religious roots. The thing about reason is it is so useful for justifying what we want to do anyway. :-) So, there is a very wealthy Buddhist who presumably justifies the great wealth desparitiy somehow?
http://www.amazon.com/The-Diamond-Cutter-Strategies-Managing/dp/0385497903

What you outline about seeing the other person's perspective a good strategy for developing empathy. I've heard people say that empathy is like a muscle; the more you use it, the more you develop that ability. You might like Dale Carnegie stuff that develops that theme, if you haven't seen it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People

I've been trying that with thankfulness, trying before I go to sleep each night to make a list of all the things I'm thankful for (like things I'd still want to be there in the morning). An "attitude of gratitude" helps in having a healthier life.

Yeah, I think you are right about the "inverse rat park" thing from prohibition laws; interesting point. Kind of like a "positive feedback" loop making society worse and worse... Hard to break out of those...

A while ago (sorry, no link) I read an essay about someone going on about environmental destruction, nuclear waste, the depletion of fish stocks, maybe mass unemployment, and so on, and saying, if space aliens were doing this to the Earth, what would we be doing? It was a good metaphorical question, even if I did not agree with his proposed solution.

Yeah, I love all those RSA animate talks. TED seems to have started something similar, but without a political edge:
http://education.ted.com/

I like a lot of what Ron Paul says, but I think he misses the big picture on ongoing socio-economic changes that are making many paid jobs go away (bringing us back to the robotics theme). But that's all a very complex issue, how to get the most people safely from where we are now to a prosperous healthy future for all (or at least almost all)... None of the major candidates are even in the ballpark on any of that... The ones closest to that in some ways (some Greens and a basic income?) often come encumbered with a very anti-technology and even anti-people bias or (like Ron Paul might suggest) too much overt big unaccountable government in people's daily lives to be healthy (a point many conservatives make that has some truth to it). We need both good social policy and good technical policy IMHO (or "good government" regardless of the size). Realistically, it seems like we are still many years away from mainstream politics being about such themes. I just hope we can survive everything to come before then with a culture of denial. Clearly the failed drug war (lasting decades) shows how bad policies can get entrenched and last for a very long time in all denial of t

Dropping $30 on one of these for my girlfriend has more than paid itself off in saved time searching. For myself, yes I use the "put it in the same place" method. The remote on the other hand is left in the hands of teens and got lost to the point of replacement - Even after we moved...

Stewardesses with bouffant hairdos, heavy makeup, nice skirts, go-go boots... but then that was back when they served meals on airplanes. Now it is like transports in third world countries where you pack your own food (unless in first class).

In the book TWA: The Howard Hughes Airline by Robert Serling, 1983 ( http://www.amazon.com/Howard-Hughes-Airline-Informal-History/dp/0312396317/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332786396&sr=8-1 ), mentions in the early days with DC-3 some airlines would have co-pilot serve coffee and food (which many pilots didn't want to be bothered with someone in the right seat). However, these airlines lost travelers to other airlines as businessmen preferred being served by attractive ladies.

Also from the 20th century, "Look, you used to be able to sleep in a bed on an aeroplane. Of course that was back when they also served food and changed the cabin air supply regularly." at http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r319/jej_wkrp/Picture12-1.png

The rest of your description is likewise meaningless. At 12 feet from the TV on a 50" screen, you CAN NOT physically tell the difference. It is impossible, your eyes don't have the resolution to handle it, and telling yourself otherwise is like telling yourself you need some $10,000 ethernet cables for your home network too.

This is not true. The acuity numbers you base this on (from the article linked earlier) are related to vision tests like you might undergo at an optometrist, where the measure is the smallest size text you are able to read at a given distance. "Nominal" vision in this case is 20/20, which means that the subject can resolve letters 20mm high at a distance of 20 feet - this is where the 1 arc-minute of visual acuity your linked article mentions appears to come from (and never mind that people have been measured with vision down to 20/8, which would reduce this significantly - about 0.4 arc-minutes).

This is useful information, but it doesn't actually mean what you seem to be claiming - that we can see no difference in features smaller than this, and any greater resolution is wasted. In tests where subjects are assessing whether two lines line up, acuity down to about 8 arc-seconds has been observed, which is actually better resolution than the physical receptors on the retina. Similarly, a single dark line against an evenly illuminated background can be observed down to a limit of about 0.5 arc-seconds, much finer than the physical detectors in the eye.

This isn't to say that we need displays capable of sub-1 arc-second resolution, but human vision is far more complicated than you make it out to be. Saying that there is no difference between a 720p display and a 1080p display at x distance and size because the pixels are too small to be individually resolved (based on results from a test for resolving letters) is simply not true. Most people probably can detect a difference, even if the difference is too small for them to really notice in moving pictures (or are just not bothered by it). Claiming that no one can see any difference and therefore anyone who doesn't follow that simplistic chart is an idiot is, simply, false.

it's about the amount of sensory information being displayed and the fact that it is moving. A pimple may show up in the 1080p source but not in the 720p source.

I'm fine with not seeing the pimple, really.

Seriously though, a pimple may not show up in one frame but as you said, the images are moving, which means in aggregate, the pimple WILL be shown and visible, and if it's so small that it's disappearing from some frames, then it's on a face so far back from the zero plane that I really don't give a rat's ass about one guy in a long shot having a pimple or not.

The rest of your description is likewise meaningless. At 12 feet from the TV on a 50" screen, you CAN NOT physically tell the difference. It is impossible, your eyes don't have the resolution to handle it, and telling yourself otherwise is like telling yourself you need some $10,000 ethernet cables for your home network too.

It would suggest getting from amazon, it goes for $18. If are willing to spend a bit more then Bilsom T3 is more sound proof, and lasts longer. It goes for about 5-6 dollars more than the 3M.

I've actually had a flight attendant tell me to remove my headphones, so I could hear the safety briefing (that I've heard close to a hundred times before). Nevermind that I could hear everything better than she could...

The best noise cancelling under $100, period, end of discussion: http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/mc5.html

http://www.amazon.com/Etymotic-Research-Isolating-In-Ear-Earphones/dp/B003S3RFIQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1332724721&sr=8-2

I have my ipad in a leather case that folds over for holding it upright, and it works well as a triangle surface to grip it with one hand too.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/32gb-microsd-card/

weight of a micro sd card :~ .5 grams

capacity of a micro sd card:~ 64 gb
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Mobile-MicroSDXC-Memory-Adapter/dp/B005V7WIA2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332714352&sr=8-1

MATH:~ 1000/64 = 15.6 or 16 cards
https://www.google.com/search?q=1000%2F64&btnG=Search

16 cards weighs 8 grams grams

Capacity of a pigeon:~ 38 grams
http://interbug.com/pigeon/technology/homing_pigeon_with_gps.pdf
"Thirty-eight grams total is still a lot for a pigeon to carry, representing about ten percent of its body weight."

My fileserver uses RAID and makes a separate (encrypted) backup to an external USB hard drive (fortunately, my data hasn't grown faster than hard drive sizes so I can fit it all on a single 2TB drive, to ensure file integrity, periodically I have rsync verify file checksums,)

As a secondary backup, I use a 1TB notebook drive locked in a USB enabled fire safe:

http://www.amazon.com/SentrySafe-QA0121-Fire-Safe-Waterproof-Storage/dp/B00166187Q/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I used metal straps to tie it down and lock it to my computer desk in the hope that if someone comes in to steal the computer, they'll just grab it and run without prying off the data safe. The safe is only rated for 30 minutes @ 1500 degrees so it's not a perfect solution, but better than nothing.

For my really important data (old tax returns, scanned in records and receipts, etc) I back them up to the cloud. For photos, I keep the full-size image locally (some TIFFs, mostly JPG's), but keep a lower res lower quality image in the cloud. All of this is less than 20GB.

Most of my big data is DVD's that I've ripped and I'll count on insurance to replace them if they are lost - I don't even back them up to the drive in the fire safe.

I seem to remember reading that the driving public loved numerical displays, but car reviewers hated them. Having driven an old GMC Jimmy with a digital dashboard I thought it was a good idea.

It may have been in The Design of Everyday Things but maybe not. Maybe Stewart Brand's "The Media Lab" but again, maybe not.

"It doesn't really go to my point. It's not that some people can't find something to work for on their own, it's that most people can't."

Maybe then you might like this refutation better? :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error
"In social psychology, the fundamental attribution error (also known as correspondence bias or attribution effect) describes the tendency to over-value dispositional or personality-based explanations for the observed behaviors of others while under-valuing situational explanations for those behaviors. The fundamental attribution error is most visible when people explain the behavior of others. It does not explain interpretations of one's own behavior -- where situational factors are often taken into consideration. This discrepancy is called the actor-observer bias. As a simple example, if Alice saw Bob trip over a rock and fall, Alice might consider Bob to be clumsy or careless (dispositional). If Alice tripped over the same rock herself, she would be more likely to blame the placement of the rock (situational)."

So, according to the fundamental attribution error, it is only natural to feel that you (and rich folk) work hard because you are virtuous. Other people whose will has been broken by the schooling system or by boring jobs don't work because they are lazy and uncreative as an innate personality defect.

Again, being a good parent can take about as much time as anyone can put into it, especially in today's problematical society that is very anti-child, anti-health, and anti-community. Ask a few people who are actively raising young children if they need more make-work activities added to their day? :-)

"Most people will need to be given some artificial challange. And the success of MMOs shows that artificial challanges fill the void, at least for a time, but I'm not sure where that leads us."

I'd certainly agree that some people are good at making worlds others want to spend time exploring. It's a good question how we should feel about this. What aspects of that come from creating pleasure traps unhealthily full of supernormal stimuli irresistible to abnormally distressed people?
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/article16.aspx
http://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Stimuli-Overran-Evolutionary-Purpose/dp/039306848X
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park

Still, see for more support that mindless schooling and mindless work reduce people in their potentials to set their own directions:
"Human Resources 3/9"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-4Hv9pDicA

I feel that most people don't need to be "given" challenges when they are healthy and raised in a healthy community; I feel they will in that case be able to find or invent their own meaningful activities. (I'm not saying the USA approaches that though in many places...) It would be a good question how to prove that to your skeptical satisfaction (which is not an unreasonable demand).

To my mind, the fact that we generally only see fairly good people as very successful doesn't really tell us what we can conclude about the rest of humanity's aspirations and proclivities in a different setting that is less "winner takes all". Generally, the biggest material success is also not the very best in a field, who may languish as mavericks, but people of some substantial talent who were lucky enough to have substantial financial backing and good social networks and who were willing to make the right compromises for material success. Bill Gates is an example of that -- someone of substantial talent (but not the very best say compared to Dan Ingalls), born to wealth, and in the right place at the righ

I can also recommend Wings & Things. I usually make the "Blackboard Bomber" design from there.

http://www.amazon.com/Great-International-Paper-Airplane-Book/dp/0671211293

The Great International Paper Airplane Book, from 1971.

Another very good book on the Enigma history is David Kahn's
"Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-boat Codes".

You should look into taking "Sarcasm 101". Or try this: http://www.amazon.com/The-Official-Dictionary-Sarcasm-Lexicon/dp/1402769520/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332514814&sr=1-1

Criminy. Your post is a textbook example of why we need better evolution teaching in the schools.

Where did the whales' DNA come from? Why would they have genes to "turn on" to produce pelvic bones in the first place?

Read Relics of Eden by Dan Fairbanks if you want to understand how and why DNA changes as it gets passed down the generations, and why the markers left behind in the DNA are solid evidence for evolution. They paint a picture of a tree of descent that almost exactly matches the fossil record. Why would that be the case if the species didn't evolve?

What's all this about GCC being slow? It's one of the fastest (in terms of compile time) compilers I work with regularly. You need to try out some highly optimizing compilers for embedded processors sometime to reset your expectations.

Some real numbers: I just recompiled (with all the optimization bucky bits turned out) my Intellivision emulator and SDK. That's just over 100K lines of code. Took 3.75 seconds with make -j6. "But that's a parallel make!" Fine, I'll do it again tying three of my computer's CPUs behind its back: 13.54 seconds. (Only 8.6 CPU seconds.) At work, it can take 5 seconds just for RVCT (ARM's compiler) just to contact the friggin' license server. Or maybe it's our NFS servers. Hard to say.

Ok, now to be fair, that's nearly all C code. C++ is a whole 'nuther animal. But much of that is C++'s fault, or more correctly the modern C++ libraries. The template processor is a Turing complete functional programming language, if you sneak up on it sideways and catch it off guard. The STL and Boost folks have perfected that snipe hunt and made an industry out of it. That means that C++ code can compile a bit more slowly. (Fine: "a bit" is an understatement. More like a quadword.) BTW, my comment on STL and Boost is not meant to be a flame of their work. It's incredibly useful stuff. But, I consider a bunch of what they're doing something of an abuse of C++'s limited mechanisms. If C++'s metaprogramming facilities were more deliberately designed for this level of use, I think compile times would come down and we'd avoid the "thirty pages of spaghetti because you forgot a comma" error message experience.

The book "C++ Template Metaprogramming" has a rather enlightening chapter (Appendix C) on compiler-time performance for various C++ features. (Get a glimpse here. Just search for Appendix C.) Unfortunately, it's not terribly up to date--my copy says (C)2005--so it measures GCC 2.95.3 and GCC 3.3. GCC definitely was not a performance leader in that era, but most of the compilers were pretty bad. I'd love to see an updated version of it for the latest crop of compilers. I seem to recall finding a website a couple years ago with updated data that showed GCC fixed some of the quadratic algorithms in this space, but I could be dreaming it. If anyone actually has pointers to some data on this, that'd be great.

And no one mentions The Eudaemonic Pie?

This was a very interesting reply, thanks. It points out a few important issues.

As when people leave conventional schooling for "unschooling" or "homeschooling", it may take some time to decompress. A rule of thumb there is somewhere between one month to one year of decompression for every year of compulsory schooling.

Also, humans naturally are lazy to conserve energy. It's a good thing to be lazy because it prevents wasting resources on things that don't help survival. That is weighed in the mind against the fact that it is also a good thing to do certain things (things that contribute towards survival). The mind is in tension between those two things. Or, in other words, necessity is the mother of invention, but laziness is the father. :-)

Also, in our society, with "supernormal stimuli", it is indeed easy to get caught in "pleasure traps" whether you have to work 9-5 or not:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/article16.aspx
http://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Stimuli-Overran-Evolutionary-Purpose/dp/039306848X
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park

Also, people in industrialized societies have become so vitamin D deficient (from lack of sunlight), so phytonutrient deficient (from lack of vegetables), so omega 3 deficient (from lack of vegetables and fish), and so on from modern processed food, that their brains are affected in a bad way, which makes it harder to be self-directing.

Please get your vitamin D level checked if you are indoors so much... Vitamin D is an occupational hazard of indoors workers like most electrical engineers.

More health tips here:
http://www.changemakers.com/discussions/discussion-493#comment-38823

Anyway, put those all together, and yes, it can be really hard for a mainstream person to suddenly become self-directing and healthy and connected to a health community. It can be a big challenge. Good luck with it. Part of that is to get into the right environment that stimulates us in healthy ways. See for example:
http://www.bluezones.com/

BTW, and to address some of the other points you made too, have you thought about a career in agricultural robotics? :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_robot

As our technology improves (like with better agricultural robotics, 3D printing, mining robotics, LENR cheap energy, etc.), it will only take the 1% who enjoy stuff like that to provide enough of the basics for everyone (whether lurker or shirker), same as with GNU/Linux, Wikipedia, blogging, slashdot, etc. provide lots of information for us all through the efforts of a relatively few percent of the population. So, that is how there can be cell phones and such even if few people work to make them. Already we see a continuing drop in manufacturing employment while still producing just as much, just like agriculture before that. We'll probably increasingly see that in services, too. Here is an example for sharing free 3D designs for stuff you can print in 3D printers:
http://www.thingiverse.com/

Also, Bob Black, in The Abolition of Work (the first article I think you're referring to), talks about making work into play. You are playing "games" at home. What if making stuff or providing services felt pretty much just as much fun, with a sense of flow?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

Maybe you could even invent yourself a job as a "job designer"? :-)

Anyway, there are no easy answers for individuals, even if collectively the USA could with a stro

So if you want a Laptop that is Light, and Fast. For PC's you have a bunch of options many without too many extras. For Apple you have only a couple of models if that to choose from.

I just happened to be looking for a thin laptop, so let's compare the 13" MacBook Air and the Dell xps 13 ultrabook (the basic model for both).

- MBA has a bit higher resolution (1440x900 vs 1366x768)
- MBA has SD card reader (but you can get a tiny usb reader for $10)
- XPS is smaller (less width/depth, same height/weight)
- XPS has USB 3.0 (MBA has Thunderbolt)
- XPS includes 1 year on site repairs

MBA: $1299
XPS: $999

So I'd say Apple charges 30% more for (at most) equal value (I personally find on site repairs a big plus).

PS. To be fair, the XPS just came out, MBA is 7-8 months old.

So I'm not a physicist (software guy) but I've taken a few physics classes. At an early age I found a tattered copy of George Gamow's One Two Three . . . Infinity which, although incorrect in some parts (I guess that's why they revised it and that's why 'speculations' was in the title), was perfectly written for my then fifth grade mind. It set me on a path toward science and a few weeks ago I saw the same 1960s Viking Press edition and flipped through it noticing what was slightly off and remembering it. I've since grown to love other obvious books like Hawking, Penrose, Hofstadter, etc.

So, quite simply, what are your favorite books for all minds young and old? Also, can you annotate which are written for the layman's entry into the given field and which are written to encompass the field for the researcher? I find that some books start off with the jargon so strong and the references and footnotes so thick that you start to have to reread every paragraph as they're clearly condensing entire historic papers into lengthy sentences. Any fiction books worthy of influencing your work and desires?

HOW THE FUCK DO YOU BUY ANYTHING ON AMAZON WITH CASH???

buying on amazon isn't anonymous because it's mail order - you still have to provide name, address and phone for your amazon account and shipping ... but you CAN buy amazon gift cards with cash and then use them to pay for your amazon purchases.

there are numerous methods of buying the gift cards with cash, available at 10s of thousands of locations across the country.

http://www.amazon.com/2-page-Corp-GC/b?ie=UTF8&node=1292847011

There's always Pride and Prejudice and Zombies