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I generally agree with the sentiment of your post, I just wanted to add something here.
When I was in the same situation as the parent (single, employed, money in the bank) and decided to invest, I read The Motley Fool as a beginner's guide.
There's a sentence in that book which stuck with me (paraphrased from memory): "You'll almost always get much better return doing actual work than investing in the stock market.
However, if you adopt a long-term investment strategy, only checking from time to time if your companies are doing fine, you'll be hard-pressed to find any other activity which gives you as much return for such a low time investment."

I think this also applies to the difference between the GP's strategy of keeping MSFT and reaping the dividends vs your suggestion that better returns could've been had.
While that's true, it'd also have required that the parent invest a lot more time keeping up with the market, and probably also assume more risk.

Those who naturally "speed read" or have learned the skill know that this is rule #1 of learning to read quickly. It's discussed in this book, and, of course, here.

I'll copy it here:

By the way, here are some key useful health related links, and these are some of the issues I'd like to use such a system to discuss, refine, rebut, or promote.

On healthy diet:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/foodpyramid.aspx
http://drfuhrman.com/library/article16.aspx
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Revolution-Your-Diet-World/dp/1573244872
http://www.amazon.com/Diet-New-America-John-Robbins/dp/0915811812

Knife and blender skills for eating better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RhfAE6McrM
http://greensmoothierevolution.com/

On medically supervised fasting (both water and juice) and health:
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/healthy-food-dr-fuhrman-on-fasting....
http://www.healthpromoting.com/why-water-fasting
http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

And on getting enough vitamin D (in decreasing levels of recommended supplements):
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/about-vitamin-d/how-to-get-your-vitamin-d...
http://www.grassrootshealth.net/recommendation
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/vitamin_D_recommendations.aspx

On vitamin D and pregnancy:
http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20100504/high-doses-of-vitamin-d-may-cut-...
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/neurological-conditions...

On autism and health care in general:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/autism-research-discovery_b_...

Understanding about good and bad fats:
http://peakperformance.runnersworld.com/2011/05/may-9-the-great-fat-deba...
http://nutsci.org/2011/05/04/the-great-fat-debate/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21515108

Mental health:
http://books.google.com/books?id=bCuC2H-6k_8C
http://books.google.com/books?id=RKZreNYKNHQC
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/...
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200912/dobbs-orchid-gene

Treadmill workstations for computer users (but be sure to get vitamin D being indoors so much):
http://www.engadget.com/2005/06/08/the-treadmill-workstation/
http://www.squidoo.com/wal

I'll copy it here:

By the way, here are some key useful health related links, and these are some of the issues I'd like to use such a system to discuss, refine, rebut, or promote.

On healthy diet:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/foodpyramid.aspx
http://drfuhrman.com/library/article16.aspx
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Revolution-Your-Diet-World/dp/1573244872
http://www.amazon.com/Diet-New-America-John-Robbins/dp/0915811812

Knife and blender skills for eating better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RhfAE6McrM
http://greensmoothierevolution.com/

On medically supervised fasting (both water and juice) and health:
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/healthy-food-dr-fuhrman-on-fasting....
http://www.healthpromoting.com/why-water-fasting
http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

And on getting enough vitamin D (in decreasing levels of recommended supplements):
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/about-vitamin-d/how-to-get-your-vitamin-d...
http://www.grassrootshealth.net/recommendation
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/vitamin_D_recommendations.aspx

On vitamin D and pregnancy:
http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20100504/high-doses-of-vitamin-d-may-cut-...
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/neurological-conditions...

On autism and health care in general:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/autism-research-discovery_b_...

Understanding about good and bad fats:
http://peakperformance.runnersworld.com/2011/05/may-9-the-great-fat-deba...
http://nutsci.org/2011/05/04/the-great-fat-debate/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21515108

Mental health:
http://books.google.com/books?id=bCuC2H-6k_8C
http://books.google.com/books?id=RKZreNYKNHQC
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/...
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200912/dobbs-orchid-gene

Treadmill workstations for computer users (but be sure to get vitamin D being indoors so much):
http://www.engadget.com/2005/06/08/the-treadmill-workstation/
http://www.squidoo.com/wal

I recently tested several note-taking apps for the purpose of taking notes during meetings.

I tested several apps looking for an app that supports handwriting and keyboard text entry, offline synchronization (dropbox), and pdf import and markup for adding notes to handouts or diagrams. Based on this criteria, I would recommend Noteability and NoteTaker HD. NoteTaker HD is the more full featured app, but Noteability is a little more user friendly and still has all the key features I was looking for. Noteability is only $.99 and NoteTaker HD is $4.99. NotesPlus also has some potential, but could use some polishing. I imagine after the next major upgrade it will probably move to the top of my list since it was missing features like dropbox and pdf markup.

As for a stylus, I got a Kensington stylus from Amazon that also has a pen on the other side. Compared to some of the other ones my coworkers have, this one has been the best. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004BSF1I8/ref=asc_df_B004BSF1I81783797

I have thought about the winter issue and having done a fair amount of winter camping in Minnesota it isn't that difficult to make due for an extended period of time. I just finished my deer camp vacation where I was out in the woods for 10 days, overnight lows were in the low to mid 20s F and day time highs were mid 30s F up to mid 40s F with winds between 25 mph and 35 mph. This was one of the more pleasant deer camps, other years we have gotten 10 inches of snow while hunting, freezing rain or drizzle, been out in sub 0F temps over night with single digit temps in the day. The keys to staying warm is:
1. layers
2. staying up off the cold ground while sleeping
3. staying dry (don't over dress so you sweat)
4. keeping moving while awake
5. drink plenty of water
6. eat right
Surviving a New York winter wouldn't be that difficult if they are prepared. They are probably already half way there since most sleeping bags are 40F or 20F bags and they probably have a number of sweatshirts, just go and get a mummy bag that is good down to 0F or 10F and stuff it in your existing sleeping bag. You will be warm when sleeping unless you are trying to occupy Fairbanks or Barrow and in that case buy a mummy bag that is good down to -40 and stuff that in your other sleeping bag and you have a fighting chance. Also a pair of insulated bib overalls, and a duck coat will keep you warm with only modest amounts of cloths on underneath. I don't own a duck coat or insulated bib overalls, but my cousin and uncle who I go hunting with do and we all manage to stay plenty warm, I wear 3 sweatshirts and do long johns, sweatpants, jeans, and camo sweatpants and can stay plenty warm while sitting in a tree from 4am until about 5:30pm.

A look on Apple's discussion forums revealed a lot of people really liked Wacom's bamboo stylus for the iPad or iPad 2:

http://www.amazon.com/Bamboo-Stylus-for-iPad-CS100K/dp/B004VM0SE6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321380108&sr=8-1

As long as it feels enough like writing with a real pen and doesn't fall apart, I think this could work great combined with software like Note Taker HD:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/note-taker-hd/id366572045?mt=8

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-io-Personal-Digital-Pen/dp/B00006JP23Logitech IO pen will allow to have notes, digital notes and some sort of text recognition at the same time. I used it long ago with some satisfaction. Note that technology has evolved since, and I cannot refine my statement with today's standards... Anyone?

I like the Zagg case that has a keyboard in it.

For taking notes, I like notability, because you can type and draw with a stylus. Also, if you record audio, it can sync up with the drawing/notes you took. This feature is great if you want to listen to the context of the lecture based on your notes.

Why don't you stick one of these http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_24?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ipad+stylus&x=0&y=0 up your fap-inducing ass? As dickhead as you want to be about it, a stylus works just fine with an iPad or any other touchscreen.

Wanking hateboi.

I have an EyeClops, basically a toy microscope that hooks up to a TV. This is cheap but would let you get as close as you want to anything. Amazon Link

I went ahead and ordered one of these. While it doesn't solve the primary need as elegantly as what I'm looking for, at $40, it could be useful in a pinch. Thanks!

Just curious, but which brand did you use? I've had pretty good luck with the ATI USB cards myself and my customers like the fact they can leave their cable screwed in and just plug the RCA breakout box into the side when they want to convert their family DVDs or older camcorder vids.I'm always looking for models that work well in WMC though so if you know the make/model I'd be grateful.

Oh and if she hasn't gotten a good remote or is just using a wireless keyboard mouse combo you might want to look into the Lenovo mini keyboard remote. It has a trackball and trigger buttons and if she is even halfway decent at texting the keyboard is just the perfect size for two handed texting as well as one handed remote control. I've picked up several for customers and they just love the thing.

It currently consists of an index of 5 billion web pages, their page rank, their link graphs and other metadata, all hosted on Amazon EC2.

The crawl is collated using a MapReduce process, compressed into 100Mbyte ARC files which are then uploaded to S3 storage buckets for you to access. Currently there are between 40,000 and 50,000 filled buckets waiting for you to search.

Each S3 storage bucket is 5TB.

5TB * 40,000 / 5 billion = 42MB/web page

Either they made a typo, my math is wrong, or they started crawling the HD porn sites first. I really hope it's not the latter because 200 petabytes of porn will be the death of so many geeks that the year of Linux on the desktop might never come.

I have an EyeClops, basically a toy microscope that hooks up to a TV. This is cheap but would let you get as close as you want to anything. Amazon Link

For the do-it-yourself-er, you can always use this this.

Sounds like you're looking for a Roku.

What these things really need, all readers that is, is a means of holding it up over the bed so I can read with my hands under the covers.

Here you go. Or this.

What these things really need, all readers that is, is a means of holding it up over the bed so I can read with my hands under the covers.

Here you go. Or this.

We've got an e-ink Kindle, my SO uses it constantly, and I wasn't unusually impressed by the battery life, so I went and looked it up: The battery life of the e-ink Kindle is, according to Amazon, 30 days with 1/2 hour of reading every day, or a total of 15 hours, with the radios off. My iPad hits 15 hours no problem at all with the radios (both 3G and wifi) off when I'm reading. Static text display with occasional page turns aren't very tough on the hardware. Of course the iPad has much more battery capacity in order to accomplish this. We have ordered the Fire, and it'll be very interesting to see how long it holds up, reading. Since it's smaller than an iPad, the foregone conclusion is that the battery capacity is less. The question is, what's the power consumption of that smaller backlight? Proportionally less, enough to keep it in that 15 hour range, or... ???

As for the usability of an LCD display for reading, it's very high indeed. I don't even use our e-ink Kindle, because mostly, I read in bed. I laugh every time I see people dissing LCDs for reading. It's either confirmation bias or outright nonsense. Both e-ink and LCD are fine for many hours of reading. There's no flicker on an LCD screen, they can be turned down to extremely dim for comfortable use in darkness, they're *way* faster than e-ink, and they're usable in situations where the e-ink fails, such as in the bedroom with someone who is trying to sleep -- and while e-ink is indeed readable in full sunlight, if I actually try to read in full sunlight, I suffer some serious eyestrain in very short order, so that's of little use to me.

Because you can power off the graphics card and still do 1080p HD video decoding, or play some lower-end games. That'll shave a good 300w off of your total power usage. Not to be scoffed at.

Damn, if you just buy a $300 nettop, the whole system only consumes 30w while doing 1080p HD video decoding.

Last time I had a graphics card that consumed 300W was... well, never. Live 2 years behind the curve and you can save a lot of CO2 emissions.

By the way, there is a great book out there that talks about the problem of light pollution: The turtle and the Stars
In addition, it's a good fun read for anyone with an interest in astronomy.

Get a pack of these things. I believe that I found mine at home and garden show--and it's just a damned nice little invention.

That's "Lick/Kiss Me"

i.e. Mozart used that in one of his titles ... "Lick me in the ass"

Canon in 6 parts in B flat major ("Leck mich im Arsch"), K. 231 (K. 382c)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lick_Me_in_the_Ass
http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Time-Karl-Ditters-Dittersdorf/dp/B00000E6S8

Your reaction is pretty standard. You're like a kid that has first heard the words "Santa Claus isn't Real."

But, seriously, read what judges and legal scholars are writing about the law. Start with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.'s The Path of the Law and then go on to Richard Posner's How Judges Think.

This is based on the assumption that the reviewers knew what was supposed to happen. Sometimes they have an idea, but the most interesting advancements of science come from results that are surprising or counter intuitive. Try reading Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in Science for some good examples of why this is not a good metric for detecting fabrication.

a cultural difference where American black culture has a much lower opinion on average of nerdy endeavors as opposed to American white culture.

Do you have a citation (preferably multiple citations) to back this up? Certainly there's Ogbu's oppositional culture hypothesis, but there is also a whole body of work (most recently this but I can point you several other works with consistent findings) that indicate a low opinion of nerds isn't isn't anymore prevalent among blacks than in American culture in general.

I'm developing features for software defined radio. Higher end radios, for those of you who don't know, tend to have a lot of controls. Bandwidths, IF shift, notch filter(s) with frequency and Q settings, AGC decay, intercept and knee, frequency, band, memories, panadaptor controls, waterfall controls, demodulator type, demodulator settings... it really goes on for quite a while.

Initially, I mapped a whole bunch of functions to keys, but eventually ran out of keys. Sure, there are on-screen controls, but they're not as nice as physical knobs. Essentially similar to the problem the submitter faces, at least in some respects.

So, my solution? First, a Griffin Tech Powermate knob for tuning -- because that's what you do most of with a radio. Big knob, very precise, easy to use. Then, a Behringer BCR2000 B-control rotary control deck. Cost was about $156 from Amazon. This is a MIDI device that can map any of 32 knobs and 24 buttons to arbitrary functions. Coding to the device was relatively simple; implement a MIDI learn function, then map whatever seemed fun to a physical knob or button. The board will remember several scenes, too, so you can set up a bunch of controls all at once. Works great. There's another version of the board with a somewhat similar price but a different complement of controls, works similarly, though I think it's a bit more biased towards audio concepts (faders, specifically.)

There are other physical control solutions that utilize MIDI out there as well, but I have found none as economical as the BCR2000. BTW, I don't have anything to do with Behringer other than as a satisfied customer.

I'm developing features for software defined radio. Higher end radios, for those of you who don't know, tend to have a lot of controls. Bandwidths, IF shift, notch filter(s) with frequency and Q settings, AGC decay, intercept and knee, frequency, band, memories, panadaptor controls, waterfall controls, demodulator type, demodulator settings... it really goes on for quite a while.

Initially, I mapped a whole bunch of functions to keys, but eventually ran out of keys. Sure, there are on-screen controls, but they're not as nice as physical knobs. Essentially similar to the problem the submitter faces, at least in some respects.

So, my solution? First, a Griffin Tech Powermate knob for tuning -- because that's what you do most of with a radio. Big knob, very precise, easy to use. Then, a Behringer BCR2000 B-control rotary control deck. Cost was about $156 from Amazon. This is a MIDI device that can map any of 32 knobs and 24 buttons to arbitrary functions. Coding to the device was relatively simple; implement a MIDI learn function, then map whatever seemed fun to a physical knob or button. The board will remember several scenes, too, so you can set up a bunch of controls all at once. Works great. There's another version of the board with a somewhat similar price but a different complement of controls, works similarly, though I think it's a bit more biased towards audio concepts (faders, specifically.)

There are other physical control solutions that utilize MIDI out there as well, but I have found none as economical as the BCR2000. BTW, I don't have anything to do with Behringer other than as a satisfied customer.

I'm developing features for software defined radio. Higher end radios, for those of you who don't know, tend to have a lot of controls. Bandwidths, IF shift, notch filter(s) with frequency and Q settings, AGC decay, intercept and knee, frequency, band, memories, panadaptor controls, waterfall controls, demodulator type, demodulator settings... it really goes on for quite a while.

Initially, I mapped a whole bunch of functions to keys, but eventually ran out of keys. Sure, there are on-screen controls, but they're not as nice as physical knobs. Essentially similar to the problem the submitter faces, at least in some respects.

So, my solution? First, a Griffin Tech Powermate knob for tuning -- because that's what you do most of with a radio. Big knob, very precise, easy to use. Then, a Behringer BCR2000 B-control rotary control deck. Cost was about $156 from Amazon. This is a MIDI device that can map any of 32 knobs and 24 buttons to arbitrary functions. Coding to the device was relatively simple; implement a MIDI learn function, then map whatever seemed fun to a physical knob or button. The board will remember several scenes, too, so you can set up a bunch of controls all at once. Works great. There's another version of the board with a somewhat similar price but a different complement of controls, works similarly, though I think it's a bit more biased towards audio concepts (faders, specifically.)

There are other physical control solutions that utilize MIDI out there as well, but I have found none as economical as the BCR2000. BTW, I don't have anything to do with Behringer other than as a satisfied customer.

In that vein, Archos is selling what's essentially a smartphone sans cell radio for $80; makes me wonder both why I can't get a similar non-contract phone from the mobile carriers for less than $500, and how DOJ hasn't launched a price-fixing investigation against same.

Are you serious? Did you look at the specs of that Archos? It has only 4GB capacity, 320X240 2.8" display and only 16 hours of audio, 4 hours of video, or 6 hours Web browsing through WIFI on a single charge. The iPhone 3GS 8GB is 375.00 USD unlocked and it offers not only a cellular phone radio but GPS, Digital compass,Bluetooth 2.1, Wifi, a back facing camera capable of SD video and 3MP photos, 480X320 3.5" display,with battery specs of 300 hours standby,
up to 5 hours on 3G, up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi web browsing, 10 hours of video and 30 hours audio playback. You can also get it for "free" with a contract.

If you don't want a cellphone, you can get an iPod touch starting at 199.00 USD for 8 GB capacity with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, 3.5" 960-by-640-pixel resolution display, 720p back facing video camera, battery life of 40 hours audio and 7 hours of video.

Apple is able to sell their iPod Touch so cheap because of the economies of scale that they now have with regard to flash memory and other components which smaller manufacturers based on Android cannot match.

Android handsets are expensive because they are fragmented between many companies who cannot negotiate the same prices on components that Apple can.

In that vein, Archos is selling what's essentially a smartphone sans cell radio for $80; makes me wonder both why I can't get a similar non-contract phone from the mobile carriers for less than $500, and how DOJ hasn't launched a price-fixing investigation against same.

Okay, $10 or $15 bucks more for a http://www.amazon.com/Sanford-Corporation-12965-Embossing-Labelmaker/dp/B001D708H4

I can use it for days without charging.

You can do the same thing with an iPad. The Kindle's actual *on* time is about 15 hours , while the iPad's on time with the Kindle app is also about 15 hours with wifi and 3G off (I do read for that long at a stretch at times.) You can't *read* your Kindle for days. You read it an hour here, a half hour there... but you can do the same thing with an iPad. Why? Because the iPad has a hell of a lot more battery capacity to account for that backlight power draw.

From Amazon, taken from the Kindle page:

A single charge lasts up to one month with wireless off based upon a half-hour of daily reading time

That's 30 x .5, or 15 hours of operation, total.

This is clearly wrong.

From TFA, the small minority of employees asked to return the stocks are executives, not engineers, architects or the creative folk.... Most executives don't deserve what they get paid in USA. Most of them just lunch off of the productivity and manipulate for their personal gain. There's a term for that in the nature. It is called a parasite.

He is doing the right thing. So let's not be quick in judging him. ok ?

I think this is a case where we can make a judgment, because this is an abuse situation. These employees were promised these shares, given them, and now the company wants to renege and take them back, presumably without equally compensating those same employees for their true worth and threatening to fire them if they don't, which makes this situation clearly illegal and would represent false termination if they were to do so, which the company can clearly (and is very likely to be) be sued for.

Also, keep in mind that some managers and other executives came up from engineering or similar fields. I think you're considering managers and executives parasites mainly because you don't understand the work that they do, and how difficult the work is. A good manager (or other executives) is actually a benefit to employees, and is not a parasite. The transition from engineering or a "doer" field to one of management is painful and uses a totally different skill set, to the point that the transition can literally be a life-changing decision. If you want to learn more about it, I recommend this book, which is relatively cheap ($14 new): http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Manager-Managers-Challenges-Leadership/dp/1591391822

This was one of two textbooks used for a masters level class in Engineering Management that I recently completed. [The other book was "Ethics 101" http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-101-Every-Leader-Needs/dp/0446578096 which I could also easily recommend.]

I'm not a manager, nor have I ever been one -- but after taking this class I have a lot more respect for what they do. And I've worked for at least one or two good managers, but unfortunately also many bad ones that didn't care (some of whom should have been sued for the psychological damage they caused employees). So I have understanding (and empathy) for your point of view, but I also know there are a few respectable managers and executives out there, and I'm hoping to be able to work for one again if I can find one. [And I suppose I'm also willing to become one, but only if I find the right people to help mentor me to make sure I don't become one of the "dark side" managers.]

This is clearly wrong.

From TFA, the small minority of employees asked to return the stocks are executives, not engineers, architects or the creative folk.... Most executives don't deserve what they get paid in USA. Most of them just lunch off of the productivity and manipulate for their personal gain. There's a term for that in the nature. It is called a parasite.

He is doing the right thing. So let's not be quick in judging him. ok ?

I think this is a case where we can make a judgment, because this is an abuse situation. These employees were promised these shares, given them, and now the company wants to renege and take them back, presumably without equally compensating those same employees for their true worth and threatening to fire them if they don't, which makes this situation clearly illegal and would represent false termination if they were to do so, which the company can clearly (and is very likely to be) be sued for.

Also, keep in mind that some managers and other executives came up from engineering or similar fields. I think you're considering managers and executives parasites mainly because you don't understand the work that they do, and how difficult the work is. A good manager (or other executives) is actually a benefit to employees, and is not a parasite. The transition from engineering or a "doer" field to one of management is painful and uses a totally different skill set, to the point that the transition can literally be a life-changing decision. If you want to learn more about it, I recommend this book, which is relatively cheap ($14 new): http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Manager-Managers-Challenges-Leadership/dp/1591391822

This was one of two textbooks used for a masters level class in Engineering Management that I recently completed. [The other book was "Ethics 101" http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-101-Every-Leader-Needs/dp/0446578096 which I could also easily recommend.]

I'm not a manager, nor have I ever been one -- but after taking this class I have a lot more respect for what they do. And I've worked for at least one or two good managers, but unfortunately also many bad ones that didn't care (some of whom should have been sued for the psychological damage they caused employees). So I have understanding (and empathy) for your point of view, but I also know there are a few respectable managers and executives out there, and I'm hoping to be able to work for one again if I can find one. [And I suppose I'm also willing to become one, but only if I find the right people to help mentor me to make sure I don't become one of the "dark side" managers.]

http://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun-at-Work-Livingston/dp/0937063053
http://www.amazon.com/Friends-High-Places-W-Livingston/dp/0937063061

From a review:
http://infohost.nmt.edu/~shipman/org/hfaw.html
"Have fun at work (Engineering Empowerment) It is dangerous, and often fruitless, to try and solve problems without considering the underlying social system. This is the message of William L. Livingston, a mechanical engineer with over 100 patents and decades of industrial experience. ... This book discusses chronic patterns of organizational malfunction that I have observed personally many times while working for computer firms (4 years at Hewlett-Packard and 6 years at Tandem, among others). Man is not well-adapted for solving complex problems, he argues. Our brains and bodies and, to a large extent, our social systems evolved for the lives of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Faced with truly complex problems, our managers generally fall back on instinct. This can produce legendary debacles like the original baggage handling system at Denver International. The book sketches a different social structure that is better equipped to cope with complexity: the Skunkworks. The term comes from a legendary aircraft development shop that produced the U-2 and Blackbird aircraft. In general, a Skunkworks is a small (3--5) team of battle-hardened, generalist engineers equipped with the latest in software tools for simulating the behavior of all the involved systems (mechanical, electrical, software, and social). On a purely practical level, this book is an excellent survival manual for results-oriented engineers who have developed attitude problems about the structural barriers to success in their work environments. Livingston discusses how to evaluate your social structure's potential for success, ways to get working projects out the door in spite of these barriers, and how to tell when you're wasting your time even working there. "

The tangential links there are rotted, but try also in general:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010401000446/http://www.thefrontend.org/
http://web.archive.org/web/20010405020550/http://www.cascadepolicy.org/dee_hock.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun-at-Work-Livingston/dp/0937063053
http://www.amazon.com/Friends-High-Places-W-Livingston/dp/0937063061

From a review:
http://infohost.nmt.edu/~shipman/org/hfaw.html
"Have fun at work (Engineering Empowerment) It is dangerous, and often fruitless, to try and solve problems without considering the underlying social system. This is the message of William L. Livingston, a mechanical engineer with over 100 patents and decades of industrial experience. ... This book discusses chronic patterns of organizational malfunction that I have observed personally many times while working for computer firms (4 years at Hewlett-Packard and 6 years at Tandem, among others). Man is not well-adapted for solving complex problems, he argues. Our brains and bodies and, to a large extent, our social systems evolved for the lives of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Faced with truly complex problems, our managers generally fall back on instinct. This can produce legendary debacles like the original baggage handling system at Denver International. The book sketches a different social structure that is better equipped to cope with complexity: the Skunkworks. The term comes from a legendary aircraft development shop that produced the U-2 and Blackbird aircraft. In general, a Skunkworks is a small (3--5) team of battle-hardened, generalist engineers equipped with the latest in software tools for simulating the behavior of all the involved systems (mechanical, electrical, software, and social). On a purely practical level, this book is an excellent survival manual for results-oriented engineers who have developed attitude problems about the structural barriers to success in their work environments. Livingston discusses how to evaluate your social structure's potential for success, ways to get working projects out the door in spite of these barriers, and how to tell when you're wasting your time even working there. "

The tangential links there are rotted, but try also in general:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010401000446/http://www.thefrontend.org/
http://web.archive.org/web/20010405020550/http://www.cascadepolicy.org/dee_hock.htm

I wonder if it's a tribute to the anime?

Saber Marionette J2X

Funny series, by the way. :)

aside from apple juice

I have no troubles finding a "Made in USA" apple juice in my local Safeway so far - e.g. this. Am I missing something?

The little label that says 'Concentrate from China' perhaps? At least that's what the one in my fridge says on the neck.

aside from apple juice

I have no troubles finding a "Made in USA" apple juice in my local Safeway so far - e.g. this. Am I missing something?

methinks they need to get the price of the original Transformer plus the dock down to the iPad price of $499 rather than trying to sell on specs.

They're pretty much there - 16Gb version costs $389 on Amazon, and the dock goes for $119, so it's only $10 more expensive than iPad 2.

What more, the 32Gb version costs $448 - whereas for iPad the same jump is +$100 - so a 32Gb Transformer with a dock is cheaper than a 32Gb iPad 2 without one...

methinks they need to get the price of the original Transformer plus the dock down to the iPad price of $499 rather than trying to sell on specs.

They're pretty much there - 16Gb version costs $389 on Amazon, and the dock goes for $119, so it's only $10 more expensive than iPad 2.

What more, the 32Gb version costs $448 - whereas for iPad the same jump is +$100 - so a 32Gb Transformer with a dock is cheaper than a 32Gb iPad 2 without one...

Some time ago I determined that the Constitution could not be an ambiguous document to be interpreted any way any reader likes. I have been involved in relatively high-level contract negotiations in the private sector and my experience is that ambiguous anything in legal documents just doesn't happen, and the same would have been true for the Constitution. There was a considerable amount of national attention on this legal document, and I just can't see anyone agreeing to a document that doesn't provide crystal-clear meanings and rock-solid guarantees.

It is with this that I have endeavored to find what the original ratifiers of the Constitution intended it to mean. Ratifiers are more important than framers because the Constitution is a grant of powers by the ratifiers; meaning that they are the ones with the final say-so on what the Constitution means, and on most things they left a very clear paper trail describing what they want to accomplish with the Constitution. The best book I have found with this line of thinking is The Original Constitution by Robert G. Natelson.

With regards to Article One, Section 8, the Constitution states "To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." Natelson states that this is something legally known as a 'special limitation':

A special limitation is a restriction that, whatever its actual wording, can be expressed by the phrase “so long as.” For example, Congress could “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts”—by [so long as it was done by] “securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

There is no "mandate to provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure liberty." The General Welfare Clause states: "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States." This is also a special limitation, as it can be read that having the power to lay and collect taxes is only used so long as it is for the common defense and general welfare. This is a limitation, not a grant of powers. If we were to read the General Welfare clause as meaning that Congress can do whatever it wishes as long as it deems these things to be for general welfare or common defense, then why follow such a statement with a list of enumerated powers? During the ratification, the people were most concerned with an out of control centralized government. To say that they would have given such a government unlimited powers is to completely misunderstand their single biggest goal.

Just be "weird".

There's a book that will show you how to do that (just finished reading it at lunch).

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Does-He-That-Controlling/dp/0425191656

usually power oriented abusers have to hit "rock bottom" before they turn around. Sometimes that means jail in a "pound me in the ass" prison, according to Dr Bancroft.

power oriented abusers are literally drunk on power. They need it to feel normal. They would trade anything to feel normal. only they, themselves can give up the addiction to power.

having said that, I wouldn't beat him up. I'd like to see him jailed. Maybe "Bubba" teach him that violence is not the answer.

I don't suppose I'll run out and buy one, since I have no use for prints anyways. Actually I agree they should be able to do a $100 camera if the printer is only $39. But even so the prices don't seem unreasonable, if somebody wanted the capability.

I don't suppose I'll run out and buy one, since I have no use for prints anyways. Actually I agree they should be able to do a $100 camera if the printer is only $39. But even so the prices don't seem unreasonable, if somebody wanted the capability.

I don't suppose I'll run out and buy one, since I have no use for prints anyways. Actually I agree they should be able to do a $100 camera if the printer is only $39. But even so the prices don't seem unreasonable, if somebody wanted the capability.

Right here.

Everything I've read indicates that pure oxygen begins to cause brain damage within a few minutes.

Just because I have nothing to do today:

"CNS oxygen toxicity does not occur when the partial pressure of inspired oxygen is less than 2 atmospheres (203 kPa); its occurrence is thus limited to a small number of hyperbaric applications" Goodman and Gilman's "The Pharmacological basis of Therapeutics", 9th edition, page 353. Yeah my edition is a little old, but I've been a doctor for a while. Although everyone makes mistakes, usually when I wear my "doctor hat" I make sure what I say is accurate if it involves medicine. I certainly trust my medical texts more than any website, especially on something absolutely not cutting edge at all like this. The patient will die from pulmonary edema long before you see CNS toxicity. Except of course if you're cheating in a lab and doing things to tissue in a petri dish.