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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.

To Rise from Earth is an account of the basic physics of space travel. A few years since I've read it, but as I recall it goes over the basic concepts and destinations quite well.

Robert Zubrin has written two books which would be worth a look - The Case for Mars about a practical scheme for mounting expeditions to Mars in the near term, and Entering Space which takes a wider view within our solar system. Finally, John S Lewis' Mining the Sky gives the rationale and practicalities for mining asteroids - how you might do it, and what sorts of materials you would profitably extract from them.

There are any number of other books out there, but these should get you started. Good luck!

I suggest you read the novel A Lion on Tharthee by Grant Callin. It discusses the engineering challenges of making a self-sufficient environment to support human life far away from repair shops and spare parts. (It's just plain a fun novel too, worth reading for its own sake; you might want to start with the novel that came before it to get the full story in the correct sequence.)

Out of print, but you can get it used through Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lion-Tharthee-Grant-Callin/dp/0671653571

For non-fact, you should probably read the book Halfway to Anywhere by G. Harry Stine. I say "probably" because I haven't read it yet, but everything I have heard about it is good.

We managed to go to Earth's moon by the quick-and-dirty method, with a single rocket launch; it makes much more sense though to build out some infrastructure. A spacecraft for a Mars trip should be built in Earth orbit. There should be some way to cheaply send up things like fuel that are tough and expendable; maybe a linear accelerator on the Equator or something. I think Halfway to Anywhere talks about such stuff.

I believe the title of that book refers to a comment by Robert A. Heinlein: Once you have escaped Earth gravity, you are halfway to anywhere in the Solar System.

Michael Flynn wrote a series about a serious plan to get into space by private industry in the near future. I think the first novel in the series is called Firestar. IIRC they used a super-cannon to send fuel canister into orbit; someone called the cannon "God's Own Shotgun".

steveha

    And I can see by your high UID that you are fairly new to the Internet.

    Let me introduce you to the wonders of online shopping. You too can buy a $5 wrench.

    Actually, $4.65.

    You may want to look at local pawn shops, yard sales, and flea markets. Just like prostitutes, if you look in the seeder areas, you can get something much bigger, for less money.

This is the start of UMG's war against cats doing funny things

> If they can stop mine before, say, 6am, I might change my mind on this whole thing ...

Buy a pellet gun...

They do now make ONE gun I've seen close to that one of old...Benjamin rifle....those things are quite powerful.

The article should offer alternatives. My kid has had the Diggin JumpSmart Trampoline since he was 2 and we have bought 3 for our friends since. They're not that expensive and they all love it. It doesn't tip over easily and it appears safer than any other trampoline. Here is where to buy it on Amazon: Diggin JumpSmart Trampoline.

It's freaking $42. I just bought one for $60 for my nephew 2 weeks ago. :/

Most people care about how food tastes, not how it looks (I recommend you give this book a read if you disagree). As smell advertisements are limited to scratch and sniff, and nobody has invented taste-o-vision yet, the visual advertisement of food is mostly orthogonal to the actual experience of eating it.

With makeup, the whole point is how it looks. So altering its appearance with Photoshop or airbrushing is by definition deceptive.

You mean like this? And what isn't included in that kit you can mostly find at your hardware store (acids) or here or here, etc.

The problem isn't that we "got rid" of chemistry sets -- we didn't -- it's that nerds these days are more interested in playing WoW (full time job) and setting up websites to track their WoW status in their free time. Ok, that's hyperbole, but the information tech industries and their associated pastimes are definitely getting the majority of attention these days, not to mention money.

Yeah, thank God, otherwise where would you find a Jarts in this day and age?!? (Jarts are to lawn darts what Nerf guns are to real guns).

For example if you isolate to $2000+ laptops Apple's share is much larger

Yeah. Denon's share is much higher when you isolate to $399+ ethernet cables.

+1 for this answer. Kanban is a great way to generate actually useful metrics for a team, project, or department. You'll be able to calculate things like how long it takes the average ticket to work its way through your processes, where tickets tend to get stuck (cumulative flow diagram), and where the sources of waste are in your processes.

In addition to the book mentioned above, I also like this one by David Anderson: http://www.amazon.com/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-Technology-Business/dp/0984521402/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324000945&sr=1-1

I've led several teams using Kanban as a way to visualize our workflows and measured the cycle times for each work item through our processes. By driving out common causes of variance between work items, its possible to arrive at a consistent cycle time per item. You can then use any process improvement technique you like to show tangible improvements in cycle time.

-- bab

Erm, are you serious?

How are they raising kids these days in the USA? Perpetually strapped into a car seat? I don't see any other way in which you could prevent them from "maiming" themselves with such murderous toys as those. I mean, they could get the hang of climbing stairs!!!11!!11!eleven

In this case, no one cared enough at the stations to actually do it, the government gave up waiting for the free market to do something that's generating tons of complaints, and acted on it.

Except lots of TV's and amps come with a compressor/limiter built in. You can buy a box for $25 that will do it for other gear. I've got one for PulseAudio that I'm just waiting for upstream to accept some patches for.

Free market solutions are available. In fact, the government is likely to put some of them out of business with their new rules.

The quote above is from Jerry Weinberg, and it is true.

There's an entire brilliant, short book about this problem: Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations by Robert Austin (1996). It's actually a fairly rigorous, somewhat philosophical work, but it is pretty unrelenting to documenting that, indeed, trying to manage by metrics almost always introduces distortions, which in turn are almost always counter-productive. The problem isn't just with IT, it's with any type of effort that seeks to reward or punish based on metrics.

The only metrics that I've found actually useful in IT are those that are predictive -- for example, aiding to estimate the actual delivery date of a project under development. The metrics that seek to somehow measure "accomplishments to date" solely for the purpose of reward or punishment are always gamed and are almost always useless. ..bruce..

basically, though a lot of people are willing to pay for something out of goodwill, there'll always be arseholes that have no good will and will take anything they can because they can.

people steal from charity shops you know... even though the prices are insanely low and the store itself is not for profit, and in many cases the store is affiliated with a charity that will give the same items to poor people, some cunt will actually take stuff for free.

arseholes are why we can't have nice things.

Let's stop calling these people by body parts ("arsehole", "cunt") and use the appropriate label:

Sociopath

Sociopaths are, literally, the source of all the evil in the world.
The sooner everybody knows what they are, the sooner we can build a machine to identify them.
The sooner we can build a machine to identify them, the sooner we can quarantine them.

I tried "find a dealer", but all the dealers were in Hong Kong. Then I realized I was on Samsung's Hong Kong site. I clicked over to Samsung's United States site, searched for the same product name (galaxy s wi-fi 5.0), and got a bunch of 7", 9", and 10" Galaxy Tab models. Did Apple's patent lawyers strike again?

You could buy it off of Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-5-0-Android-Player/dp/B005P1VNDW/ref=pd_cp_e_1

  by Richard C. Clarke

While it's popular to focus on code metrics (defect count, test-based metrics, etc.), when it comes to how to improve software quality, don't forget that it's strongly related to organizational characteristics. Whether you look at it via Conway's Law, via Fred Brooks's analysis, or via recent empirical research [pdf], it's pretty clear that software developed in an organization isn't independent of the organization itself, and sometimes the way the company is structured/managed is the problem.

An extract review from Randy Rice for this book:

The authors maintain that the real economic value of high quality software is not the cost to fix defects, but rather:

* the reduced likelihood of canceled projects
* the reduced risk of litigation
* shortened development schedules
* lower development costs
* reduced warranty costs
* increased customer satisfaction

This book addresses:

* What is software quality and how do we define its value?
* How can we estimate and measure software quality?
* How can software defects be prevented?
* How can we find and remove defects before testing?
* What are effective ways to test software and measure its effectiveness?
* What is the current state of post-delivery software defects?
* How do projects of various characteristics (low, average and high-quality) compare?
* How can technical debt be addressed from a business value perspective?

You will find a multitude of data from projects in a variety of industries, at various levels of quality, and at various levels of practice maturity. You will see by the numbers which project approaches work and which ones don't work very well.

hahahha! *cough* You could at least link to some nutters blog for a funny citation.

Oh, you showed a little too much of your hand there. You've just admitted that you plan to use the logical fallacy: Poisoning the Well on any evidence I provide. You've admitted that you're much too biased to even consider it. I'm afraid you lose this one.

If you ever grow up, here are a couple of sources:
http://www.consad.com/content/reports/Gender%20Wage%20Gap%20Final%20Report.pdf

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/0814472109/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1323874642&sr=8-4

Since you probably won't read either of those, here's a summary of a report, presented in a youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwogDPh-Sow

"There isn't any external volume control!"

Was there an external volume control when you bought it? Does it have external volume control amongst its feature list?

All in all, I've said it before and I'll say it again: brand names aside (both Amazon and Apple are major brands), you get what you pay for. Who in their right mind things that a cheap tablet ($199) will perform as good as a more expensive one ($525)? Quality tablets cost hundreds of dollars for a reason.

"There isn't any external volume control!"

Was there an external volume control when you bought it? Does it have external volume control amongst its feature list?

All in all, I've said it before and I'll say it again: brand names aside (both Amazon and Apple are major brands), you get what you pay for. Who in their right mind things that a cheap tablet ($199) will perform as good as a more expensive one ($525)? Quality tablets cost hundreds of dollars for a reason.

I disagree with both of you. As can be seen here Amazon is very much describing it as part of the Kindle family. It does appear in the tablet category too, but so do a lot of devices that have never been described as "iPad killers".

The Fire is a media player. It's a platform for Amazon to sell some types of books, movies, music, and games. It is not intended to be a general computing device, an "iPad killer", or any other baloney. At the very least, if Amazon intended it to be, they'd have added a camera.

http://www.amazon.com/Darkening-Welding-Helmet-Torch-Welders/dp/B000HKZ73I

"But that isnt the cause of the divide. The culture inside public schools is almost as immobile as governments, because the younger children adopt the values of the older ones to try to fit in, be cool, and seem more mature. The effect of peers on kids growing up has more profound effects than any specific media they are consuming - it is more a product of their behavior around one another than it is from what they watch on tv" A good book to read is Unlocking the Clubhouse. While the book is about Computer Science and not Math in general, it has a lot of insight into why the culture continues.

Yes, it's definitely far more than a mere substitution of appearance.

For an interesting report of the effects of transition on a bright male-to-female writer (and anecdotes on how various world cultures handle someone straddling the boundary of gender presentation), Conundrum is an interesting read (at least so far---I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book: the writing style is a bit old-fashioned, and not all of the topics interest me; so, I haven't been reading it very quickly). I don't think the writer lost any of her brilliance or ability through transition, but her interests shifted, along with the ways she perceived her environment. Transition won't rob someone of their abilities, but for some professions (e.g. writing, public speaking, adjudication, and other fields where communication is critical), there will likely be an effect due to changes in perspective and interests. Professions that revolve around competitiveness or cooperation would likely be affected, as well. I'm not going to say the effects are positive or negative in terms of overall performance, because I don't think a clear-cut case can be made either way---just that things often become a little different. A common remark among friends of those transitioning is, "After I adjusted to it, I realized I was talking to the same person as before," which would tend to imply there is no universal rule-of-thumb saying that someone transitioning becomes drastically different.

I'm not offering an argument or a refutation of one, just presenting what I know, from my own* research. This sort of topic appears in threads on slashdot from time to time, and it is always interesting to me to see what posters have to say.

* (arprffvgngrq, naq yvxryl gb arire raq)

It seems that Amazon is sometimes sending the Fire in an outer box (like the one you linked to, but note that in the same package there was a "carrying case included, that's kinda nice") and sometimes directly in the very well designed "frustration free" packaging that unfortunately is clearly labeled as "Kindle Fire". I guess it depends on the shipping method.

One example of the bare-bones packaging is here ("this is how it's delivered to your doorstep"), another here ("this thing just arrived at my doorstep"). Most unboxing reviews don't show the external packaging, but since they don't explicitly say that that's how it arrived it is unclear if they simply took the "frustration free" packaging out of it before they started recording (though that partially defeats the purpose of an "unboxing").

There are also several product reviews on Amazon complaining about the label on the packaging. One example here, another here. It seems that if you click "This is a gift" your package obviously will not say Kindle on the outside, but the problem is usually not spoiled surprises but thieves, and most people normally don't click that option unless the item is... you know... a gift!

It seems that Amazon is sometimes sending the Fire in an outer box (like the one you linked to, but note that in the same package there was a "carrying case included, that's kinda nice") and sometimes directly in the very well designed "frustration free" packaging that unfortunately is clearly labeled as "Kindle Fire". I guess it depends on the shipping method.

One example of the bare-bones packaging is here ("this is how it's delivered to your doorstep"), another here ("this thing just arrived at my doorstep"). Most unboxing reviews don't show the external packaging, but since they don't explicitly say that that's how it arrived it is unclear if they simply took the "frustration free" packaging out of it before they started recording (though that partially defeats the purpose of an "unboxing").

There are also several product reviews on Amazon complaining about the label on the packaging. One example here, another here. It seems that if you click "This is a gift" your package obviously will not say Kindle on the outside, but the problem is usually not spoiled surprises but thieves, and most people normally don't click that option unless the item is... you know... a gift!

The difference is whether you have a workable, sustainable, working system or a broken, exploitable system.

Yahoo Answers's system is pretty clearly exploitable. Want to get someone banned? 6 dummy accounts will do the trick - their "ban process" automatically bans someone after 6 complaints. Amazon has some funny reviews, some funnier ones, but more importantly, they actually have humans check on complaints if there's an indication that stuff indicated here is going on.

The uglier truth is that for many sites - slashdot included - the real exploit is held by people who can do precisely what TFA's authors describe: running hundreds of accounts, commanding click-up or click-down votes through them or (in the case of Slashdot) farming for mod points. Evolving Slashdot policy has actually made this worse, not better, for three reasons I'll crib from an earlier thread:

#1 - The best posters never moderate. They're involved in discussions, and you can never moderate AND post in the same thread.
#2 - It's too easy for the modpoint-harvesters to attack someone's karma; you can go into people's posting history as far as you want, and downmod weeks-old posts for no reason other than to bury karma.
#3 - The hidden gem: Slashdot implemented something akin to Yahoo's completely retarded "auto ban" function. To wit: "Also, if a single user is moderated down several times in a short time frame, a temporary ban will be imposed on that user... a cooling off period if you will. It lasts for 72 hours, or more for users who have posted a ton." The end result here is that the modpoint harvesters have been given a weapon - they control a "ban button" with which to attack not only the karma of their targets, but the posting rights of their targets.

The worst part? You can't ever see who downmodded. Sometimes you can see the reasons, but the modpoint harvesters get wise to the tricks - currently, you'll see the majority of modpoint harvesters downmodding as "Offtopic" and "Overrated" because those didn't go through the metamod system. Although, come to think of it, I don't think I've seen a metamod nag in 3 months... do they even have that system any more?

I tend to think the second solution is the only realistic way to put an end it. If you think otherwise, perhaps you'd suggest a realistic solution.

Here's my solution (aligned with yours): 535 * $15 = $8,035. For under ten grand, we can educate every member of congress and the senate. And we can do it publicly, I'd like to see this be an ACLU or EFF funded activity.

I find it very frustrating that many of his books are not either free or reasonably priced. Example: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_2_8?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=isaac+asimov&x=0&y=0&sprefix=isaac+as the cost for ebooks of his writting from at least bloody 40 years ago should be a little cheaper by now. They are 8 dollars for kindle edition. I guess I am mostly venting. If anyone has any legal places to get his ebooks, I am most interested.

"The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior." http://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594032556

Yeah. Whoda thunk cattle rustling was against the law?

I've always wondered what would happen if someone countersued for false advertisement or something. Like this cover says "Bach, six suites for cello", not "Bach, six suites for cello, arranged by so-and-so."

Then they shouldn't market it as a general tablet. Don't blame people for measuring it against the same yardstick that they market the device to in their ads.

Movies, apps, games, music, reading and more, plus Amazon's revolutionary, cloud-accelerated web browser
18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books
Thousands of popular apps and games, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, and more
Ultra-fast web browsing - Amazon Silk
Free cloud storage for all your Amazon content
Vibrant color touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle - same as an iPad
Fast, powerful dual-core processor
Favorite children's books, graphic novels, and magazines in rich color

The link for it is right not he main Amazon page, and the ad above is pretty clearly being marketed as a tablet.

http://www.amazon.com/

"The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior." http://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594032556

No kidding. Consider patent law:

35 U.S.C. 271 Infringement of patent.

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this title, whoever without authority makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention, within the United States, or imports into the United States any patented invention during the term of the patent therefor, infringes the patent.

I hope you all have Proof of Authorization to Use documents for your cell phones, mp3 players, computers, etc.

"The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior."
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594032556

The point I'm making is that whatever they paid for the tablet could be applied to a laptop purchase. A purchase that's compulsory anyway.

I don't believe anyone's getting $199 IPads. I went with the retail price. An IPad 2 Wifi on Amazon is $540+tax. If I'm far off it's an honest mistake.

But even if the tablets are $400 in bulk somehow. Don't you believe the students would be better served by free $400 Laptops instead ( also purchased in bulk )?

Before the Fed (which was instigated by the business community who wanted the regulation), the economy was extremely volatile and risky (which business hated). We didn't have recessions and expansions - we had booms and busts where people were filthy rich one month and then begging for food the next.

Once government starts 'regulating business', it means it's there to steal power and sell it and the business that is closest to the trough (the Fed) becomes the government. Since it becomes a part of government that is not beholden to the voters, it can steal without any impunity.

That's overstating it a bit. Before the Fed you still had very powerful people controlling the economy - see any Bio of JP Morgan.The Fed was also created to remove power from people like that.

I like Ron Paul. He brings up some very interesting points and I agree the Fed system needs to be tweeked. But when I read what Ron Paul and the things you have written, there's an obvious lack of knowledge of pre-Fed economic history.

If you haven't read this yet, read Lords of Finance. It's about the Post WWI World Economic collapse and has a wonderful explanation of why we can't be on the gold standard, btw.

I would honestly like to see your take on it. - you're a sharp person who just needs to take a break from the Ron Paul Kool-Aid.

Was there not a time when Slashdot used to recognize and auto-link URL's? Gahhhh! Annoying. Anyway, here's the links;

Motorola Atrix
Motorola Atrix Lapdockx
Webtop2SD
Ubuntu on Webtop
Atrix Multimedia Dock
BMW Performance Center Delivery

As an aside; Moto is just about to release the Atrix 2 which does apparently make it faster with more memory, thus fixing the couple of issues I do have with the Atrix. However, I don't know how long it'll be before all these hacks are available... I figure not long given XDA-Developers turnaround time on this stuff :)

Excellent ideas (that are already being implemented to a degree, see below) but again I'd rather see it on a 3rd party device not something integrated that's under the control of the manufacturer with all the no doubt extremely inflated costs that would come along with it.

http://www.devtoaster.com/products/rev/
http://www.amazon.com/goPoint-Technology-OBD-II-Accessory-iPhone/dp/B00336S7KS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1323603011&sr=8-2

People learn gun safety. There's nothing stopping them from learning car gadget safety. Failing that I guess they're removing themselves from the gene pool.

This made me instantly think of "The windup girl" a novel about Thailand and Malaysia in the future after sea level rise and plagues of crop killing diseases. The Malays cleaned up Malaysia and got rid of the Chinese and Indians. http://www.amazon.com/Windup-Girl-Paolo-Bacigalupi/dp/1597801577

Yes.
How to breath new life in an old laptop when you cannot find IDE SSDs but only SATA SSDs ? Get a ZIF to IDE adapter and a ZIF SSD. With some chewing gum you are all set: my 7 year old HP laptop now boots in under 10 seconds with Kubuntu.

Yes.
How to breath new life in an old laptop when you cannot find IDE SSDs but only SATA SSDs ? Get a ZIF to IDE adapter and a ZIF SSD. With some chewing gum you are all set: my 7 year old HP laptop now boots in under 10 seconds with Kubuntu.

The most progress toward this end was made when I agreed to come aboard HP's eSpeak project (which didn't make any sense to me) so long as they let me pursue this vision for "Internet Chapter 2". This is as far as we got:

Bit-String Physics: A Finite and Discrete Approach to Natural Philosophy [Hardcover] H. Pierre Noyes (Author), J. C. Van Den Berg (Author, Editor), J.C. van den Berg (Author), is the concluding book of the 27 volume "Series on Knots and Everything" and it, in turn, concludes with "Reflections on PSQM" which contains, on page 548:

"... Relation Arithmetic Revived , was written at Hewlett-Packard as part of the theoretical work that Jim Bowery and I were doing on the design of transactional languages for the Internet. It went much further in developing another idea briefly introduced in Structure Theory, which is that the theory of relations, and indeed the whole of mathematics, can be formulated in a language whose only primitive predicates are identity relations. This new work appears to have good long-range prospects for putting link theory on a deeper logical foundation, but that is outside the scope of the present paper."

This work was cut short when I insisted on retaining Dr. Etter for his mathematical specialty rather than "hiring all the H-1b's from India you want".

Well, people just need to be taught to think logically; and since math and statistics are, fundamentally, exercises in logic, learning them should help students think logically. Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that students are being taught how to think logically and THAT affects their ability to learn math(s). I think requiring people to take formal classes in logic would do more for an educated populous than focusing specifically on math scores. A good read is the book Innumeracy: http://www.amazon.com/Innumeracy-Mathematical-Illiteracy-Consequences-Vintage/dp/0679726012

Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe
I found the chapter on plate tectonics very informative.

Bah, no way, he should try MINE! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005F7XZ82

It has all those problems, but it also has a bunch of footnotes making fun of it the whole way through!

FYI - egoless programming is talked about in the book Code Complete (Amazon link). This is a great book for beginning programmers (and heck, even those whose neck beards are getting longer...) I read it early on in my career and it left quite an impression, the concept of egoless programming being one of the more lasting ones.

http://www.amazon.com/Year-Rat-Clinton-Compromised-Security/dp/0895263335/