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I purchased this product 4.47 Billion Years ago and when I opened it today, it was half empty.

Must have been uranium-238 but it doesn't say so on the box.

Thank you for that, good sir. In case you have missed it, I present, in return, this product review for a gallon of milk in the form of a parody of Poe's The Raven.

How to Avoid Huge Ships

Uh, not really.

Fascinating reading: http://www.amazon.com/Worldwide-Gun-Owners-Guide/dp/B004QXMFNM

Disclaimer: The only Amazon review of that book is mine.

Skip the funniess, what is uranium yellowcake flavor?
http://www.amazon.com/Harcos-Labratory-Nuclear-Uranium-Yellowcake/dp/B00380OEV0/ref=pd_sbs_indust_31

http://www.amazon.com/Omas-Limited-Phoenix-Fountain-Diamonds/dp/B002K6QB78/ref=sr_1_1?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1324933715&sr=1-1

This fountain pen is $47,000, and only because it's ON SALE.

The normal retail price is $60000. Because I'd like to point this out in all caps, I'll type out the price: SIXTY-THOUSAND DOLLARS.

FOR A PEN.

(I was looking for fountain pens a little while back and discovered this.)

Audiophiles are crazy, but there are apparently crazier people still. You can buy a nice BMW for that money. Or, y'know, pay someone's salary for a year. :/

When this analysis is applied to whole civilizations you get this wonderfully reassuring treatise.

It pales in comparison to the reviews for this product:

Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable

What Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

Accoutrements Horse Head Mask

??????

I can't believe I didn't see a link in this thread to the mother of all absurd cable review threads.

http://www.amazon.com/Images-SI-Inc-Uranium-Ore/dp/B000796XXM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1324918463&sr=8-3

the reviews for uranium ore cannot be beat in funniness

...defending the abundance of whales.
http://www.pdfernhout.net/recognizing-irony-is-a-key-to-transcending-militarism.html

You know an idea has percolated through a society when there are toys about it:
"SB94 DRONE * UNITED ALLIANCE * Die-Cast MATCHBOX Sky Busters Missions Series"
http://www.amazon.com/ALLIANCE-Die-Cast-MATCHBOX-Busters-Missions/dp/B005314CEG

I got one from "Sandy Claws" that I'm going to keep unopened as a collector's item, if we all survive the next twenty years of this level of unrecognized irony.

That, and amazon also sells them for a equally idiotic price.

Denon makes the AKDL1 link cable a Cable that's listed for $10,000; a RJ45/8P8C patch cable, and there are reviewers who swear it's faster, really...

So I guess no... a $1000 cable isn't really any better; to get the real goods you need $10,000 for a cable.

Nothing beats Amazons 3 wolves T-shirt reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Three-Short-Sleeve-Black/dp/B000NZW3KC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324914078&sr=8-1

Amazon is selling it for $1.24 cheaper! Whoo!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003CT08E4

It may look like a bargain, but check your setup first. I was about to order one, but unfortunately at 3.28 ft it was slightly too short for connecting my HD-DVD player, which is 3.29 ft away from my TV (I've found I get perceptible jitter if I place it any closer, probably due to an excess of events in the 124-126 GeV range). Luckily Amazon sells a longer cable that is already getting good reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Digital-Audio-Ethernet-Connection/dp/B003CT2A6I

At $2,694.75 it's a little on the pricey side, but I'm viewing this as a long-term investment like the player itself.

Amazon is selling it for $1.24 cheaper! Whoo!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003CT08E4

It may look like a bargain, but check your setup first. I was about to order one, but unfortunately at 3.28 ft it was slightly too short for connecting my HD-DVD player, which is 3.29 ft away from my TV (I've found I get perceptible jitter if I place it any closer, probably due to an excess of events in the 124-126 GeV range). Luckily Amazon sells a longer cable that is already getting good reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Digital-Audio-Ethernet-Connection/dp/B003CT2A6I

At $2,694.75 it's a little on the pricey side, but I'm viewing this as a long-term investment like the player itself.

The 5-meter cable is $2700 at Amazon. WTF????????

It pales in comparison to the reviews for this product:

Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable

I think not,
@ amazon they have this cable for $1.24 less.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003CT08E4?linkCode=xm2&tag=invihand-20/
and some more expensive ones too.

Best Buy are punters. Here's a REAL cable:
http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B000I1X6PM/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

There are some black-and-white cases of what constitutes "cheating" in online games, but a lot of gray-area ones as well, especially when it comes to when players will accuse other players of cheating (this book is an interesting study). Sometimes it's violating technical mechanisms, like installing a modified video driver or aimbot, but there are a lot of social rules of what constitutes cheating as well, and some mixed cases like using technical features in the "wrong" way. Some tournaments even have to very precisely specify what constitutes "cheating" with legalistic rules, like some of the Starcraft 1 tournaments' rules about which edge cases of unit behavior (mutalisk stacking, etc.) were cheating (banned) versus just edge-case behavior (ok to use).

The original post asked, "What can we do when the internet mob is wrong?" Forget it; most people don't care. Thi8s discussion about the kid who got killed over new Nike shoes came up at work last night. some of the talkers were so outraged that they ranted for over half an hour. When I tell them today that it was a hoax, they will just go, "oops" and continue on as if they didn't waste their time and emotional energy for nothing. Five years from now they will be saying, "Do your remember that time the kid got killed...?" and will have forgotten that it wasn't true.

In the long term it will mean nothing. What matters is when there are consequences in the short term. Crowds have beaten and killed people when they mistakenly thought a person ran over a little kid, or was a molester, or robbed someplace etc., etc,.. Some sociologists are claiming that Obama go elected on the basis of crowd think and internet mob-ism. (This is not scientific, but I've asked lots of people over the years why they voted for Obama, and NOT ONE of them could tell me anything about his voting record in Illinois or Washington.) Cultural biases are affecting our lives. Friends tell me it was very uncomfortable being a middle eastern person in the USA after 9/11. This type of bias may fade, but when? And how much harm does it do in the meantime?

Bryan Caplan, and Economist, wrote a book called, "The Myth of the Rational Voter" http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Rational-Voter-Democracies-Policies/dp/0691129428 , in which he points out that cultural biases against free markets and foreigners, and toward make-work and pessimism are exploited by politicians everywhere.

I doubt that there is anything we can do to offset the influence of sensationalism and propaganda except expose the facts as well as we can. (Ooops! Pessimism, right?)

Free for micro for a year if you're new.

http://aws.amazon.com/free/

disclaimer: I work there.

I thought the free Micro instance was "less" than a paid one? As in, the "free usage tier" mentioned on the site is a lower tier of priority for CPU and I/O. Any truth to that or is it the same thing you'd otherwise be paying $9 a month for?

Free for micro for a year if you're new.

http://aws.amazon.com/free/

disclaimer: I work there.

Amazon micro EC2 instances are reasonably priced and I use one for my personal sandbox and mail server. Average price is $14.60 /month ($0.02/h * 24h * 365d / 12) for a no commitment a la carte and drops to an average of $8.82/mo or $6.43/mo with 1 or 3 year reservations https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/#pricing . They also have a free for the first year program at http://aws.amazon.com/free/ to get you started.

You won't get KVM access for OS install but there are startup images for all the common free linux distros (Centos, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, etc.), Amazon Linux (a custom distro for EC2), and non-free OS's like RHEL and MS Windows (they cost more per hour). Every distro I've used on there gives you either direct root login or `sudo su -l` capability. You have full control over the incoming firewall rules so you can allow specific ports by IP or CIDR range without chewing up CPU or I/O in iptables. You can add additional storage on the fly (including via automated script within your VPS if you can program) and take live snapshots of running disks (including the OS disk) for backups.

I use Amazon for my work systems and much prefer them to managing an on site rack or letting some other host charge us for the impediment to administration that is managed hosting.

Amazon micro EC2 instances are reasonably priced and I use one for my personal sandbox and mail server. Average price is $14.60 /month ($0.02/h * 24h * 365d / 12) for a no commitment a la carte and drops to an average of $8.82/mo or $6.43/mo with 1 or 3 year reservations https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/#pricing . They also have a free for the first year program at http://aws.amazon.com/free/ to get you started.

You won't get KVM access for OS install but there are startup images for all the common free linux distros (Centos, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, etc.), Amazon Linux (a custom distro for EC2), and non-free OS's like RHEL and MS Windows (they cost more per hour). Every distro I've used on there gives you either direct root login or `sudo su -l` capability. You have full control over the incoming firewall rules so you can allow specific ports by IP or CIDR range without chewing up CPU or I/O in iptables. You can add additional storage on the fly (including via automated script within your VPS if you can program) and take live snapshots of running disks (including the OS disk) for backups.

I use Amazon for my work systems and much prefer them to managing an on site rack or letting some other host charge us for the impediment to administration that is managed hosting.

$9 pr month for a Micro server if you reserve it for 1 year.

Micro Instance 613 MB of memory, up to 2 ECUs (for short periodic bursts), EBS storage only, 32-bit or 64-bit platform
http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/#pricing

Amazon!

http://wireless.amazon.com/dp/B0061R2A1S

I was referred to "What if Cannabis Cured Cancer?" here, some time ago, and bought the DVD at Amazon. The DVD has references, and shows the scientists discussing their findings; it also discusses the history, both usage and prohibition, and the reasons for prohibition (biggest reason? It competed with trees, and William Randolph Hearst had just invested in a forest for his newspaper business, and wanted to eliminate "competition"). Here's a link; right now it's $15. Enjoy!

She'll probably hate you once she realizes every movie & videoclip is going to be full of stutter.

http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=Tx2504DXQRXEAQ3

A parent that leaves these ultra powerful magnets in reach of an infant is the failure. And ATMAvatar was explaining the ACs point, wishing him to never procreate is rather counter intuitive, you are blaming the messenger...

These magnets always have warning labels, this is not a new thing that they can do this.

Read the technical details of this product:

http://www.amazon.com/Bucky-Balls-Amazing-Magnetic-Desktoy/dp/B003Y3101S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324567908&sr=8-1

It is quite clear that these items are dangerous, so it makes you wonder who allows a kid that is still in the swallowing phase be around these items.

Luckily it's not Ankit Fadia either. Whenever I see a book about "hacking" I think of him. Don't ever buy his books, because you can learn more about "hacking" by watching Swordfish. But if you want a good laugh, do borrow one. The only thing his books are missing is an MST3K commentary.

I saw an interesting notion along those lines in a book called Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures. The point was about asymmetry rather than anthropoid morphology, but it gives a plausible path toward bipedalism. It starts with an anemone-like creature, which is basically an alimentary canal with mouth palps at one end and basal pods at the other end. This "linear" creature transitions into a "planar" one which lays on the sea floor, using palps and pods for locomotion. This new critter can now differentiate in two new dimensions, left/right and dorsal/ventral. From here, the possibilities are vast, but quadrupedalism is an easy path to follow since it minimizes the costly duplication of features (eg: limbs). The transition from quadrupedal to bipedal adds a further dimension of specialization, putting locomotion on one pair of limbs and freeing the other pair for other uses.

Obviously this is not the only path of evolution, but it seems to be a fairly successful one.

[taiwanjohn: posting as AC because I already modded a comment on this story]

It is most enjoyable book I've read for a long time, and it fits the bill perferctly for you. It's short (240 pages); is broken into 12 easily digestible chapters; is stimulating, but you can doze off between chapters. Then, when you've finished you'll know a lot of eye-opening stuff about something you probably know nothing about now, but have many preconceptions. If you have any interest in history, it's a must.

It will take you mind off computers, completely!

I'm currently reading 1Q84 and, like all the rest of his books, it is fantastic.

He didn't take them to the moon

Homer Hickam (of Rocket Boys / October Sky fame) wrote a now somewhat-dated yet still fun novel about a trip to the moon via the orbiter:

http://www.amazon.com/Back-Moon-Novel-Homer-Hickam/dp/0385334222

The true report is even funnier, that he died from mental and physical exhaustion from his dedication to improving the country. Can't make that stuff up.

And North Koreans believe it. There's a book anyone concerned with North Korea should read: The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters.

We keep thinking that all people desire democracy and western style freedom. But that's not always the case. Decades of brainwashing works. Norks adored that guy, and his father before him, because the whole system in NK was designed to ensure that.

" the ones who don't understand why you're making decisions that to them, seem stupid."

It should never get to that point. A key component of managing knowledge workers is communication. You must communicate the why of your decisions or the people you are supposed to lead will resent those decisions and cut you out of the loop. Not a problem if you are managing people who do not want to know (laborers), but knowledge workers must be a part of the loop.

Study evidence based management. This is a must read for anyone concerned with performing well as a leader in a modern workplace.

http://www.amazon.com/Facts-Dangerous-Half-Truths-Total-Nonsense/dp/1591398622/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324319839&sr=1-1

One of the first things you have to realize is that you're making a transition out of your comfort zone, and that some of your strong suits as a developer (and certainly many of the tasks and initiatives) with which you've been successful need to be left behind. Take a look at The Leadership Pipeline for some ideas on the changes you may need to make.

I highly recommend Being Geek by Michael Lopp. He went through a similar transition and has some very good insight and practices to follow for effective leadership. A lot of it comes from the low-level programmer perspective, but he talks a lot as well about managing developers.

If you haven't already, read Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams which will teach you that, as a manager, the most important thing to you is your people and your respect of said people. The book is a must-read. Seriously.

One key thing to understand is that right now you are great with technology, but management isn't about technology. It's about people. The people you manage, your peers and leaders in other areas of the organization. People can be a lot harder to figure out than technology.

My advice is this.

1. Read "Behind Closed Doors". Probably the best book I read as a new manager. Wish I had read it before I made the leap. http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Closed-Doors-Management-Programmers/dp/0976694026/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324299173&sr=1-3

2. The best part of my day was working with the techies I managed. Listen to them, make time for them, and stay as closed to what they are building as possible. But also remember you are their boss. You will have to force them to make bad technical choices to meet a deadline, and will have to ask them to work nights and weekends. Make sure it is mutual respect, but at the end of the day your word has to be final.

3. Understand how the company makes money. Not just selling a product or service, but really learn this. Because at the end of the day, if a company doesn't make money it will cease to be. This is valuable to learn because the more you can translate how your team fits into the revenue stream, the better leverage you will have. For example, there are two ways to look at how a team "adds value". You will either directly participate in the revenue stream, being on a product team, e-commerce, etc. Or you will be involved with "cost avoidance", meaning the company is spending less because of your efforts. This can be either time savings or accuracy improvements. The later is not too hard to quantify. If you know how many hours are saved in a process you write, add up the salaries of those who did that process, subtracting the salaries of your team. For example, if you save 100 people an hour a day with your process, with each person making minimum wage ($7.25). There are an average of 260 work days per year. This translates into 100 * 260 * 7.25 = $185,000 in savings per year. If you have one full time employee supporting the app, at 80k per year, your application is saving the company ~ 100k per year. Now of course this does not include hardware, software, training, donut expenses. It's not intended to. It is intended to get people's attention, justify funding for your team, and facilitate you getting more in next year's budget.

4. Keep good notes. You may become an Outlook operator in your new line of work. Be sure to keep important emails that record decisions. Send out your understanding of a meeting after the meeting to make sure everyone heard the same thing as you. Keep a notebook or tablet and take tons of notes in meetings. If you are in several meetings per day it can be very easy to forget who said what when. This can be important when decisions are questioned later on. Or if things go bad, accountability can be shared among the entire executive team and not focused as the new manager.

5. Hire really good people. Know that interviews are about finding the right fit for a team as well as their technical abilities. If you do this right, the rest of your work-live is exponentially easier. Ask good questions, do quizes and tech screenings. Listen to the questions a candidate asks. But trust your gut instincts.

Bottom line is remember to keep your sense of humor and humility. This can be one of the most challenging and rewarding things you will ever do, managing others. You are their boss, responsible for their work lives, and a major influencer of their personal lives and financial futures.

I don't read a lot of management books but there are two I would recommend:

1. It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by D. Michael Abrashoff (Captain, U.S. Navy, retired)
2. The Book of Five Rings by Miyomoto Musashi

That latter is literally a book on sword fighting and military tactics from c.1640, but I understand modern Japanese businessmen study it. Read broadly it contains insights into leadership and adapting to ever-changing events. I've seen it in the management section of book stores even in the U.S.

I don't read a lot of management books but there are two I would recommend:

1. It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by D. Michael Abrashoff (Captain, U.S. Navy, retired)
2. The Book of Five Rings by Miyomoto Musashi

That latter is literally a book on sword fighting and military tactics from c.1640, but I understand modern Japanese businessmen study it. Read broadly it contains insights into leadership and adapting to ever-changing events. I've seen it in the management section of book stores even in the U.S.

Well I can tell you that while it of course isn't gonna compete with my 6 core with an HD4850 it is a pretty damned nice mobile unit IMHO and frankly I'd say it beats Atom+ION as far as battery life + performance goes.

For $350 I got a EEE with an 8gb of RAM upgrade and 320gb of HDD space that has full VM capabilities, is powerful enough i use it as a mini music studio (thanks to Audacity, Acid, and hydrogen) and even under load it barely gets warm to the touch and I get around 6 hours of watching HD video or music creation out of it, what's not to like?

I'd say the reason the Dells bombed is they stuck with the lower end Atom chips and without ION frankly those things are just painful to use. while i'm sure they make Intel money simply because they are so damned cheap to make they really aren't nice to use either on Linux or Windows. The E-350 units on the other hand are quite pleasant, so much so that after trying a couple of them i had picked up for customers I sold my Athlon dual for the EEE and frankly haven't regretted it for a second.

So I think netbooks still have plenty of sales left, just not with shitty Intel Atom chips. Although it may simply be the fact that Dell just can't score the chips to compete and chose to bail instead. its pretty well known that Bobcat and bulldozer are proving to be so popular for AMD they haven't been able to keep up with demand and according to The Reg they quit making AM3 chips so they could use that capacity for Bobcat and Bulldozer. I wouldn't be surprised if Asus and HP already had contracts in place that got them first shot at the chips and Dell which has been typically an Intel only shop simply couldn't score any Bobcats.

But if you haven't tried one of the E-350 units i heartily recommend them. I mean where else you gonna get a sub $400 machine that only weighs 3 pounds, gets 6 hours on a battery, easily takes 8Gb of RAM, has full VT support, and even does 1080p over HDMI?

I haven't seen any laptop close to those specs without shelling out more money or dealing with a bigger clunkier unit. All the Dell units I looked at were Atom units which after trying several customer's netbooks (which they always brought me asking "Can you make it faster?") frankly I wouldn't take Atom on a bet. With the EEE I can surf, watch a video and have a chat window open and its still snappy, with the Atom units they always felt like they were struggling. So if all Dell could come with was the Atom goodbye Inspiron, I doubt you'll be missed.

With so many manufacturers setting their sites on mobile devices, ultra-light/portable laptops/netbooks are going the way of dodo. Yet, Google is still trying to expand its Chromebook line of netbook which are, in essence, overpriced netbooks that only run Google Chrome.

Simon Ramo doesn't appear to have any problem with the use of military robots from the title of his new book, "Let Robots do the Dying" (The Coming Partnership of Men and Robots in the US Military) ...

http://www.amazon.com/Let-Robots-Dying-Simon-Ramo/dp/193280093X/ref=sr_1_36?ie=UTF8&qid=1324241286&sr=8-36

I suggest reading this book before making any donations:

The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity (Michael Maren)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684828006/ref=oh_o00_s01_i00_details

From the amazon review: "Before you mail another check to Save the Children or join the Peace Corps, read this book. Michael Maren shows that the international aid industry is a big business more concerned with winning its next big government contract than helping needy people."

You're sure that those are modems, and not Winmodems?

http://www.amazon.com/New-56K-External-Serial-Modem-30490000DG/dp/B005DAZ4UI (note that the price is rather high there - that was just the first in a long line of hits from Google)

Most, but not all, of those internal modems were specially designed to run with Windows, and used your computer's system resources to operate.

Do a quick search on Amazon for magnetic toys. You will find quite a few that are held together with rare earth magnets. These toys are purchased at any toy store so are easily accessible to children. There is one class of toys that is basically a bunch of round rare earth magnets that can be put into interesting formations; Buckeyballs There are many construction toys like this. I bet if you looked at any home today with geek parents or older children there would be at least one toy that has rare earth magnets in them.