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As far as intro to programming goes, when I took High School Computer Science, our textbook was the Dietel & Dietel C++ How to Program. It was definitely aimed at the beginner to intermediate level programmers and did a pretty good job at explaining fundamentals of programming to a bunch of high school sophomores and making it understandable.

I really liked the Dietel & Dietel books, also. At SUNY New Paltz, engineering students that take C are using the Kernigham and Ritchie book, the authors of C, and that seems to be working out very well. This is where you'll find out what a "K & R block" is. Had I the opportunity to start all over again, I would have started with the K&R book, and then gone on to Dietel & Dietel.

Link to the 2nd edition: http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-2nd-Brian-Kernighan/dp/0131103628

The reason I mention this is that C is a subset of C++, so if you want to start with the basics of non-OOP C++, it might make sense to start with C, depending on your end goals. For instance, the Linux kernel is C and Assembly, not C++. C is also common in embedded systems. The other reason to start with C would be to gain understanding of pointers. These can be very useful in C++ also.

My book in AP was C++ for You++ http://www.amazon.com/You-Introduction-Programming-Computer-Science/dp/0965485390

TITLE FAIL. NOT RECOMMENDED.

As far as intro to programming goes, when I took High School Computer Science, our textbook was the Dietel & Dietel C++ How to Program. It was definitely aimed at the beginner to intermediate level programmers and did a pretty good job at explaining fundamentals of programming to a bunch of high school sophomores and making it understandable. As I recall, you can probably go through several chapters per class because it's not so dense and impenetrable that you need bash your way through.

Here's a link to the 7th edition: http://www.amazon.com/How-Program-7th-Paul-Deitel/dp/0136117260
However, there are plenty of copies of 6th editions floating around for pretty cheap. If I recall correctly, copies of the 5th edition are even available for download for free, which makes the curriculum that much more cost-effective.

Anyway, best of luck, hope that helps.

Right, we need to check mental sanity of people that activate the option to install software from outside the market

As they are explicitly told to do by Amazon?

It's a design feature of the platform than any mainstream alternate application stores must have you disable this block, and then any random link can install something for you. Do you really not expect a significant number of users will be getting things from Amazon given the marketing clout they have?

If I get the chance I'll grab some items from Code Complete http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670 which has some good entries for using comments not to explain each line of code but the overall operation a group of lines is written to perform.

Only guy I know/worked with who has a CISSP comes across as a security noob - someone who poked at it long enough to earn a bunch of credentials.. He wrote a book too:

http://www.amazon.com/Botnets-Killer-Web-Craig-Schiller/dp/1597491357/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1306865119&sr=8-1

But, this does give us a chance to recommend the excellent biography of Alan Turing which explains his role in the evolution of computer science and his role in breaking the German cyphers:

"Alan Turing: The Enigma" by Andrew Hodges

You may want to check out "Seizing the Enigma" as well. The cipher was already broken by the Poles before the war broke up. Bletchley Park "simply" helped automate the process to it was useful.

http://tinyurl.com/3zgwdbh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biuro_Szyfrów
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biuro_Szyfr%F3w (for the sometimes locale challenge /. code)

But, this does give us a chance to recommend the excellent biography of Alan Turing which explains his role in the evolution of computer science and his role in breaking the German cyphers:

"Alan Turing: The Enigma" by Andrew Hodges

For those who want to do a bit more reading on the subject (of the Bombe machines, Colossus, etc.), there's Colussus: Bletchley Park's Greatest Secret by P. Gannon.

"I don't even know how an effect like the one you describe could be produced. "

Well, at least I'm glad you are a bit curious about what you don't know yet.

Plants of a given leaf area have a fixed amount of energy from the sun and nutrients from the soil (including water). They can either invest that in plant defense compounds or they can invest that in producing filling-to-humans but unhealthy-to-humans-in-excess starch and sugar. Some of these plant defense compunds seem essential to human health as antioxidants as we have adapted to use them to our benefit, plants without them are less nutritious to eat, but this is not obvious in the short term usually, just when you get cancer etc... Plants have been altered to have less investment in plant defense compounds, which the pesticides substitute for, and invest more in starch and/or sugar which sells well in the (ignorant-by-design-and-schooling) market. Such plants may also have weaker root systems as they expect to be drenched in synthetic fertilizer. So, take away the pesticides and fertilizer from modern GMO plants (or even many no GMO hybrids) and they do much worse that heirloom varieties (even as they may outproduce them in starch and sugar under the right circumstances).

See also:
    "Towards Holistic Agriculture: A Scientific Approach" by R.W. Widdowson
    http://www.amazon.com/Towards-Holistic-Agriculture-Scientific-Approach/dp/0080342116

By the way, grinding up rock for fetilizer works well and produces healthy big plants:
    http://remineralize.org/

but it is reasonably available in the commercial marketplace. at least as far as NES, SNES, and the sega genesis. http://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Gaming-System-Not-Machine-Specific/dp/B001LVH80M

The biggest problem with digital I&C is the “software common cause failure issue"

Imagine modern nuclear plant with multiple-channel redundancy in instrument and control systems, if one instrument fails, there are others. Same applies to whole cooling systems, if one cooling system fails, there are other completely independent systems that continue to work. Typically redundant systems use instruments from different manufacturers or instruments that are implemented with different technology.

This is not possible for digital systems because they are too costly to implement multiple times. What this means is that redundant digital control systems use same software. If one system fails because of software error, others may follow. This has already happened in German nuclear plant that had new digital system installed. Only the old analog system that was still operational saved the reactor.

This is why Finnish radiation and nuclear safety authority required changes in Areva's plans for the most modern nuclear reactor being build, Olkiluoto 3. They added analog safety requirements. Reactor must be able to shout down even when digital I&C has total failure. Relying for all digital systems compromises redundancy.

More info:

http://www.neimagazine.com/story.asp?storyCode=2053091

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Instrumentation-Control-Systems-Nuclear/dp/0309057329

You mean this Tiny Town?

Oh gee, didn't see that one coming. No one's ever accused me of being an industry apologist. /sarcasm So, have you ever worked with GMOs? I have. Have you ever been in a molecular biology lab? I have. Have you ever even talked with a plant biologist? I have, quite frequently. Or are you just playing the same tired canard that every quack, crank, and denialist plays when they have no evidence to back their unscientific point yet refuse to consider that maybe they're wrong? Have you ever considered that maybe the reason I'm handwaving is because all the science is only on one side, and all the other side has is sloppy studies, non falsifiable musing, and a conspiracy, which you so nicely demonstrate with your shill gambit. Everything I've said is basic information that just about any plant biologist will tell you, not controversial at all among relevant experts. I hardly went into the details. And if you'd actually read what I wrote you'd see I covered that several times. Funny thing about stupid conspiracies is, they always attack some big company or something with over the top misinformation, so whenever you correct those lies for the sake of accuracy, you are then accused of working for them and dismissed. A great strategy for appealing to the scientifically illiterate.

But hey, if actually knowing what you're talking about makes one a manipulator, no wonder the world is in the state it's in. It's people like you who assume anyone who actually has education and experience is part of teh ebil conspiracy. Am I condescending? Maybe a little, and you know why? Because education won't work, people like you won't read the easily available texts on the subject, you won't listen to petty little things like facts and reason, or even basic logic. Cracking a damn science book is so hard for some people that I don't see many other options besides mockery. It worked for science based medicine, maybe it will work for science based agriculture, and speaking of which, people like you are the reason kids still die of measles.

Oh gee, didn't see that one coming. No one's ever accused me of being an industry apologist. /sarcasm So, have you ever worked with GMOs? I have. Have you ever been in a molecular biology lab? I have. Have you ever even talked with a plant biologist? I have, quite frequently. Or are you just playing the same tired canard that every quack, crank, and denialist plays when they have no evidence to back their unscientific point yet refuse to consider that maybe they're wrong? Have you ever considered that maybe the reason I'm handwaving is because all the science is only on one side, and all the other side has is sloppy studies, non falsifiable musing, and a conspiracy, which you so nicely demonstrate with your shill gambit. Everything I've said is basic information that just about any plant biologist will tell you, not controversial at all among relevant experts. I hardly went into the details. And if you'd actually read what I wrote you'd see I covered that several times. Funny thing about stupid conspiracies is, they always attack some big company or something with over the top misinformation, so whenever you correct those lies for the sake of accuracy, you are then accused of working for them and dismissed. A great strategy for appealing to the scientifically illiterate.

But hey, if actually knowing what you're talking about makes one a manipulator, no wonder the world is in the state it's in. It's people like you who assume anyone who actually has education and experience is part of teh ebil conspiracy. Am I condescending? Maybe a little, and you know why? Because education won't work, people like you won't read the easily available texts on the subject, you won't listen to petty little things like facts and reason, or even basic logic. Cracking a damn science book is so hard for some people that I don't see many other options besides mockery. It worked for science based medicine, maybe it will work for science based agriculture, and speaking of which, people like you are the reason kids still die of measles.

Oh gee, didn't see that one coming. No one's ever accused me of being an industry apologist. /sarcasm So, have you ever worked with GMOs? I have. Have you ever been in a molecular biology lab? I have. Have you ever even talked with a plant biologist? I have, quite frequently. Or are you just playing the same tired canard that every quack, crank, and denialist plays when they have no evidence to back their unscientific point yet refuse to consider that maybe they're wrong? Have you ever considered that maybe the reason I'm handwaving is because all the science is only on one side, and all the other side has is sloppy studies, non falsifiable musing, and a conspiracy, which you so nicely demonstrate with your shill gambit. Everything I've said is basic information that just about any plant biologist will tell you, not controversial at all among relevant experts. I hardly went into the details. And if you'd actually read what I wrote you'd see I covered that several times. Funny thing about stupid conspiracies is, they always attack some big company or something with over the top misinformation, so whenever you correct those lies for the sake of accuracy, you are then accused of working for them and dismissed. A great strategy for appealing to the scientifically illiterate.

But hey, if actually knowing what you're talking about makes one a manipulator, no wonder the world is in the state it's in. It's people like you who assume anyone who actually has education and experience is part of teh ebil conspiracy. Am I condescending? Maybe a little, and you know why? Because education won't work, people like you won't read the easily available texts on the subject, you won't listen to petty little things like facts and reason, or even basic logic. Cracking a damn science book is so hard for some people that I don't see many other options besides mockery. It worked for science based medicine, maybe it will work for science based agriculture, and speaking of which, people like you are the reason kids still die of measles.

They ripped it off, it's well known. Apparently not by everyone though.

The problem with common knowledge is that it does not prove that something is correct. If a fact is "well known" then you should probably spend a bit more time checking to ensure that this is true.

The idea that the XBox 360 ripped off the Cell comes from the cover notes for David Shippy's book. However, in this interview with him, the details don't seem to match the blurb. Regarding Microsoft choosing IBM to design their chip::

Shippy doesn't believe that Microsoft yet knew that Sony had the PlayStation 3 in the works -- but liked what it saw in the PowerPC technology that was now possible thanks to design principles partly researched for Cell.

The article says that all the companies involved had the right to use the technology developed for the Cell for other projects and other customers. This is standard practice. The article goes on:

Does that mean Microsoft got a look at the Cell itself? "No, we didn't show them the Cell chip," Shippy clarifies. "The Cell itself and the fundamental architecture that went into that, actually not -- that was all proprietary for PS3. What was shown to Microsoft was just a technology road map that said, 'hey, we can go do these high-performance PowerPC cores at very high frequency and low power'."

In wanting to sell his book, the author made it seem that there was something underhanded going on with Microsoft. And yet:

So despite some higher-level conceptual ideas in common, Shippy stresses that both consoles' processors are very different, from architecture to software models. "They differentiated themselves in their own unique ways," says Shippy. "What's interesting is that they did that with this common building block that was designed initially for the PS3."

The Xenon processor was not a ripoff of the Cell, IBM just used some of the technology that they developed with the other processor.

The PPC of the 360 and near identical to the primary processing unit of the cell.
All written up in this book here, from one of the engineers of the cell processor at ibm: http://www.amazon.com/Race-New-Game-Machine-Playstation/dp/0806531010

It makes no sense to me. You have by far the strongest military in the world. The USSR is gone. Ok, so there's China, but so far they have not made any seriously threatening moves. Who is left that is any threat?

I know 9/11 left some big scars on the collective psyche but seriously, it's been 10 years, you invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, killed Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Surely there's been enough restitution?

I worry that one day the rest of the world is going to have to unite against the US as you decide to pacify or nuke us all since we are deemed a threat to national security.

The answer to your question is explained in a book I am currently reading called Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell. It's geared towards a religious audience, so if you aren't interested in that sort of thing, then you'll have to wade through a lot of writing that's off-topic for you. The gist of the answer is this: 1) America has more than enough. 2) When you have more than enough, you start building ways to protect what you have, lest someone else take it from you. 3) When you start fearing that others might take away what you have, you begin to divide the world into an "Us" and "Them." 4) You then begin to fear all of the "Thems" and begin oppressing them. FWIW, I think Bell is right, and it deeply disturbs me. I just don't know how much I can do to stop it. And, you are exactly on target about the fear we have in this nation, and how illogical it is. I wish I could get the rest of the U.S. to understand that.

http://www.amazon.com/Take-Fourth-Jeffrey-Walton/dp/1452089280/

Neuroscience will not be kind to all possible states of permissiveness.

The rhetorical trick is closing off the idea that "we know better than you." I have no doubt that 99% of the time it's hot air being blown up an asshole because of our animal dominance instincts. Note that when saying "by force," presumably you don't include the idea that someone might use it against you, because, hey, you're permitting stuff to happen.

This problem has been solved long ago: get a color calibrator and generate profiles for each of you printer + ink set + paper combination. Then you'll get reliable prints. Now let's get onto the real problem: why did my printer stop working with Ubuntu 11.04 ?

The FBI has been doing this for decades. That notorious threat to public safety, Lucille Ball, had an extensive FBI file.

Maybe they had a reason for looking?

America may have loved Lucy but she made the FBI suspicious when she registered with the Communist Party in 1936 at the insistence of her grandfather. Although the House Committee on Un-American Activities began their investigation in 1953, no evidence was ever shown that she had supported the Communist Party and her registration appeared to be only for the sake of pleasing her grandfather. --- Lucille Ball

-----

Things I didn't know about American Communism: -- David Bernstein

I'm reviewing Martin Redish's book, The Logic of Persecution, for the Northwestern Law Review. The book is an interesting look at the so-called "McCarthy era" (which both pre and post-dated McCarthy) from a First Amendment perspective. I'll post a link to the review soon.......

Here are some of the facts I learned from doing research for my review, some of which are just "fun facts," and others of which affected my view of the era in question (if you want footnotes, you will have to wait until I circulate the paper):

(1) The first chairman of the House committee that was the predecessor to HUAC, Samuel Dickstein, was probably a Soviet agent.

(2) Hollywood scriptwriters who were members of the Communist Party (CPUSA) were expected to use their positions to promote Communist doctrine and the Party's agenda, or, if that was not possible, at least to work to exclude anti-Soviet sentiment. (And I already knew, but you might not have, that each of the Hollywood Ten was a member of the CPUSA.)

(3) The first federal prosecution under the Smith Act (later used to prosecute CPUSA leaders) was the prosecution of eighteen leaders of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party 1941. The CPUSA not only applauded this action; Party leaders assisted in the prosecution.

(4) The Smith Act prosecutions of CPUSA leaders were largely a result of the fact that top government officials had recently learned from decoded "Venona cables" between the Soviet Union and its agents and affiliates abroad that the Soviet Union used American Communists to engage in wide scale espionage against the United States. The CPUSA leaders were not prosecuted for espionage and related charges (conspiracy) because that would have involved revealing that the U.S. had deciphered the Soviets' code, and also much of the additional evidence the government had was obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Instead, the government resurrected the Smith Act, and proceeded with prosecutions of highly dubious constitutionality (though upheld by the Supreme Court, which implicitly recognized that these prosecutions were "special").

(5) Not only did the CPUSA recruit spies for the Soviet Union through its "secret apparatus," it was prepared to engage in violence on behalf of the Soviet Union.

(6) The Smith Act prosecutions and other government and private anti-Communist activity destroyed the usefulness of the CPUSA to the Soviet Union for espionage.

(7) Many of the questionable tactics used by the government against domestic Communists in the late 1940s and 1950s, including Smith Act prosecutions, were previously used by the government against domestic Nazis and fascists in the late 1930s and early 1940s by the Roosevelt Administration.

(8) Alger Hiss was not prosecuted for spying because the statute of limitations had expired.

(9) During the "Red Decade" of the 1930s, Hollywood Communists ran their own blacklist againist their polit

Don't buy an overpriced spray-and-pray blotter printer. Get a real laser printer.

It is indeed possible to buy a color laser for only $229.99 new (or $309.99 if you want reasonably priced consumables), but the colors are not as brilliant as an inkjet's. The brilliancy of color laser tonor works for almost all applications, but there are some applications where you want the extra oomph of brilliancy from an inkjet.

Dye sublimation is almost as brilliant as inkjet and of course much better resolution, but is expensive for full 8.5"x11" (although it's very cheap for photo size, evidently due to mass production; I still don't know why dye sub hasn't caught on enough for mass production after 20 years for 8.5"x11").

See his book Emperor's New Mind. Most AI people viewed this skeptically back then, too.

http://www.amazon.com/Emperors-New-Mind-Concerning-Computers/dp/0192861980/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306449679&sr=8-1

There's always Amazon. This guy is an intermediary, sure, but a good portion of Amazon's product is now handled through 3rd parties too, so it's really not a big deal.

The real thing that will make BitCoin take off is increasing market capitalization of the currency, which is already happening. I mean, over $50 million dollars of Bitcoins in circulation, with $135,000.00 worth of BitCoins exchanged per hour? Shit man, that's an economy already.

I'm not a futurist, and there are certainly threats to BitCoin from other established internet exchangers, but I think it's got potential, especially for anyone who'd like to see the internet really achieve its true potential as a free medium.

IWhat, do you want an oversized knife switch with electricity arcing all around it so you can shout "IT'S ALIVE! ALIVE!!! AAAAH HA HA HA!" whenever you need to flip it? Because... well, okay, I want that, too, come to think of it...

Although that would be cool, I have my heart set on something like this, I think.

Yup. I have a cheap iOne Scorpius M10 at the office ($60 IIRC), and a Unicomp SpaceSaver M ($80?) at home. (I also spent the extra $5 or so to get keys labeled "Command" and "Option" to replace the Windows and Alt keys, at home.) They're pretty widely available and so, so worth it. A coworker just picked one up to replace the awful flat mushy keyboard that shipped with her HP TouchSmart 600. There's tons of information on the web about currently produced mechanical keyboards (google for "Cherry MX" switches), and they're not preposterously expensive (about what you'd spend for a nice pen or a reasonably nice low-end (e.g., an Invicta with an automatic Miyota movement) watch), and for something you use, a lot, (almost?) every day... http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=%22cherry+mx%22&x=0&y=0 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=mechanical+keyboard&x=0&y=0 ...

Yup. I have a cheap iOne Scorpius M10 at the office ($60 IIRC), and a Unicomp SpaceSaver M ($80?) at home. (I also spent the extra $5 or so to get keys labeled "Command" and "Option" to replace the Windows and Alt keys, at home.) They're pretty widely available and so, so worth it. A coworker just picked one up to replace the awful flat mushy keyboard that shipped with her HP TouchSmart 600. There's tons of information on the web about currently produced mechanical keyboards (google for "Cherry MX" switches), and they're not preposterously expensive (about what you'd spend for a nice pen or a reasonably nice low-end (e.g., an Invicta with an automatic Miyota movement) watch), and for something you use, a lot, (almost?) every day... http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=%22cherry+mx%22&x=0&y=0 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=mechanical+keyboard&x=0&y=0 ...

check out _Lady El_ by Jim Starlin and Dana Graziunas

http://www.amazon.com/Lady-El-Jim-Starlin/dp/0451451619

It is more than a publicity stunt. I skipped college. That did not mean I skipped a continuing education. I leaned electronics as a hobby. I went into the Navy out of high school into the advanced electronics program and continued my education. I took and passed the Apprentice and Journeyman ISCET exams.
http://www.iscet.org/

I leaned refrigeration while working cryptology as we avoided bringing in outside contractors into classified spaces (huge shutdown of operations to do so). Again lots of book learning, mostly from Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning book. This is pretty much the Bible on the subject.
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Refrigeration-Air-Conditioning-18th/dp/B003R243YW

Not paying for a student loan made the lower starting wages quite livable. I now work in research and development. Employers do want to know your education. They also want to know your experience.

Listing pro audio, broadcast TV and radio transmitter studio and transmitter service, ISCET certification, Navy advanced electronics program and such has given me some jobs that inexperienced college graduated did not get.

College graduates saddled with student loans are finding it a hard time to land jobs. Check the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glzuTXLzUFs
It does make sense. Even in economic downturns, I have not needed unemployment insurance.

And you are assuming the price is fixed at $100 whereas I would argue by the time that the new consoles (which will most likely be $300-$400 and up, except for whatever Nintendo comes out with) I have no doubt we'll be seeing sub $50 streaming boxes. I already picked up an Nbox for my dad because where he lives at DSL is around 500Kb on a good day, and by simply adding a USB enclosure to a 200Gb drive I had lying around I made a perfect present for my dad, that holds all of his action flicks and is butt simple to use.

How much would it cost in BOM to add wireless to this box? $1, maybe $2? Certainly less than the $20 difference between its current price and the $50 sweet spot. My guess is long before the next gen consoles get cheap as the current X360 is these boxes will be in the sub $60 range with wifi and Ethernet. Simply add a HDD like the WDTV or Nbox and you have a perfect little media tank for cheaper than a decent DVD player, something everyone including those who don't play games can afford.

And never underestimate the fact that people will see the next gen consoles as "game machines" first and foremost. sure the early adopters will be using all the bling bling extras but you'd be surprised how many people are actually surprised when I tell them their X360 and Windows 7 PC can be easily connected together. The thought simply never crosses their mind because the X360 is a "game player" and the PC is a ...well PC. And then you have to figure in the bedroom, the kid's room, etc and quickly those game players will add up, whereas the Nboxes and WDTVs will be so dirt cheap nobody will even think twice. I already have several families that after hearing me talk of the Nbox has gotten one for their kids, having a device with no discs to scratch is a BIG plus when you have kids under 7. with the new ripping software frankly my mom could rip a DVD to AVI, and if they add streaming support under $70? Easy sell my friend, easy sell.

"Your new TV set contains a computer that performs the functions provided by the external box... Soon, all TVs being sold will be able to do that. The boxes will exist only for people who want the function without buying a new TV."

True, but that's like saying DVD and Blu-Ray players are no longer necessary because you can buy a TV with a DVD or BD player built-in.

I have a HDTV with built-in DVD player but I still have a DVD player connected to it because built-in DVD players have always been junk in my experience.

http://www.amazon.com/Maniac-Mansion/dp/B00066X8J8
$50 no crazy adapter needed either.

Does the Internet have a copy of "Proceedings and plans for the completion of the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Rail-Road, from Chicago to Oshkosh", published in 1859? (http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/3577896) No? Didn't think so. How about "Sturiella minor: a fossil plant showing structure from the Carboniferous of Illinois", a UChicago student thesis from 1924? (http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/4512895) No? Didn't think so.

If your response is "who would ever need to know that kinda crap?", you don't understand the first thing about academic research. If your response is "why not just digitize these and put them online?" then you'll be glad to know that they built a digitization lab as part of this new library to do exactly that. But that work takes time. Years.

The Internet is great, but some things aren't on the Internet. Some things are very very hard to put on the Internet, due to copyright issues, age issues, and manpower problems. The Internet, for all its glory, often actually *reduces* the variety of information available: have you noticed that when you Google something, the first hit is Wikipedia, and the rest of the page is people plagiarizing Wikipedia? It's crucial that information networks from the past be integrated into the network of the present, or we stand to lose our history.

For more on this, read "Rainbow's End" by Vernor Vinge.

I recommend reading the book "Getting to Yes". It's a fluffy business book, but by far the most useful such book that I've ever read. It presents a very nice way of understanding and approaching the process of negotiation. Basically it comes down to 1) identifying your personal interests and the mutual interests that you share with the negotiating party and 2) identifying your "Best Alternative to Fairly Negotiated Agreement (BAFNA), i.e. what your fallback plan is if the negotiation falls through. The negotiation process starts with a discussion of the various interests and possible arrangements that can satisfy the interests, while avoiding positional bargaining (I want this much. You can have this much. No, I want at least this much...) The strength of your negotiating position depends on the attractiveness of your BAFNA, (and the strength of the other party depends on their BAFNA). This may all sound like plain old common sense, but I find that this framework helps structure my thoughts and approach to negotiating, leading to more success and less pain...

I did it fucking Thursday

You're fucking right. Looks like a real fucking showstopper. Better send a report to Steve.

the OS was so broken they sought a total replacement as fast as possible, the reason it was one of the shortest lived major releases.

Yet you're still using it 13 years later... is it just to give you an excuse to vent about Apple?

I've still got a G3 in the corner, ran OS9 on it for several years. No idea what you're doing wrong. Maybe you should read a book.

I suggest reading Jay Feinman's excellent book Law 101 - Everything You Need To Know About The American Legal System which covers, among other things, the McDonald's Hot Coffee case and explains how you can sue anyone for just about anything in the US under civil law even if it didn't happened here.

Some background on what to expect at as you scale:
        http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/06/scaling-up-vs-scaling-out-hidden-costs.html

I don't recommend Windows for a web startup, but if it is what you know, then it is what you know. I'd say the answer to your question is yes. As a one man show, you won't have time for much IT work. It is a poor allocation of your limited time.

Here is a simplest solution, but as always there are cheaper competitors:
      http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/

This AC is worth highligting...

They said..

The following book (written by university profs and heavily documented with references) contains numerous references to high ranking PLA officers referring to the US as the enemy, well at least in internal chinese language publications.
http://www.amazon.com/Death-China-Confronting-Dragon-Global/dp/0132180235

Yes, you should absolutely get a mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable/adapter. Here's one at random: Accell UtraAV DisplayPort Adapter.

If you can return the other, do so, otherwise figure out some other use for it / put it up on E-Bay. If nothing else, the drop in lag should be noticeable.

So, as I'm at one of the few enterprises that actually has an Apple Rep ...

We've been told no more xServes, as they're convinced that everyone would be fine with either a MacPro mounted sideways (which doesn't have the same density per RU, or a bunch of minis (you can get shelves for 'em ... I'd go for the 1U that holds two, as the 2U ones that hold 4 just doesn't have sufficient space for cables), which doesn't have sufficient cores to handle heavy loads.

I tried asking about when they'd release an i7 mini. (well, I had to leave early, I had one of my co-workers ask, and she's annoyed at me because our Rep gave her some rude answer about how they don't know anything about upcoming hardware).

The only good news we got was that in 10.7, 'OS X Server' will just be a pack that gets installed on top of any client install ...

If all you need the Mac for is for authentication services, the Mini will probably do you ... unfortunately, the group I work for does scientific computing, and the number of cores per rack matters, as do redundant power supplies and a crapload of memory for the database servers.

Uranium for the Win!

I have a Geiger counter from the 1960's that includes a small sample of radioactive material on its side for testing and calibration. The manual states that there should be a certain number of clicks per second, and based on the half life of the material, it looks like it still works fine. Amazon also sells small samples of uranium that have a specific number of clicks per second that you can use to test your equipment.
Other than that, there is a normal level of background radiation that amounts to about 14 clicks per minute if no other material is available, but this might not be viable in your area.
Actually, I don't really have a pressing need for my Geiger counter, and it sure sounds like you need it more than me. If you want, I'd be happy to ship it. Let me know.

Uranium Ore from Amazon?

Thanks for replying :-)

The real issue is that to build a high-performance site, you have to have a good understanding of the underlying platform - you can't just "farm it out" because it will influence how you write your code.

However, for just starting up, get a cheapie shared hosting account from a place like iweb for $2 to $6 a month. 600 gigs of storage should be enough for you to start, since you've indicated that your main concern is LARGE amounts of code :-)
link
... and if or when it grows, move to your own server for under $100 a month. This way, you can do the learning curve thing and experiment at your own pace.

"The cloud" is not for you at this point. Not when you can get your own server with 10 TB of bandwidth and 500 gigs of mirrored raid for $89 a month. Or using the option of creating one virtual server spanning 1 or more physical servers (and pooling the bandwidth), you can easily have 20TB, 30TB, etc.

Of course, you can also use Amazon's free tier.

http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/

... but remember, it's like crack - the first hit is free only because they want to hook you up :-)

Believe me, I know. I run Linux and there is no way to get any of the legal paid for movie services on my computer. iTunes does not work, Netflix does not work, the Amazon thing does not work. (I can only get free services like Hulu).

I also run Linux and Amazon's video and mp3 services work just fine for me. The former requires flash which works well enough on linux, the latter even has a native linux binary

See, you are a clear example of someone who doesn't get it. Have you never talked to a beginning programmer in your life? Have you not noticed that the way they think of variables in math is completely different than the way they think of variables in programming? Programming variables are containers, and math variables are constants. If you don't realize they are different, you will have trouble teaching people how to program.

Not only is that not true, it's also sometimes not true.

f(x, y) = x^2 + 2y + 3
or
z = x^2 + 2y + 3

Is that math or programming? Hard to tell? That's because it's hard to tell. That's math. Algebra. And/or maybe some geometry, trig, whatever. If you can't take a math problem that is "solve for x" and see the next math problem that is also "solve for x" and start to get the notion of a variable, then you just don't belong. Every graph has the notion of variables that are used for every point of the graph.

As to it also sometimes being not true: you need to do some functional programming. The "Seven Languages in Seven Weeks" http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Languages-Weeks-Programming-Programmers/dp/193435659X book isn't a bad one. In some languages, variables simply are not variable.

No, it's not. A 32GB micro-SD card costs $35 and is small enough that finding space to implant four of them would not be a challenge.

The actual brain / machine interface is the hard bit.

Jane McGonigal has written some great stuff about how and why gaming can be not only engaging but good for your level of engagement with life, friends, family.

See http://www.amazon.com/Reality-Broken-Games-Better-Change/dp/1594202850 for the book, and particularly her "Practical Advice for Gamers" included in this page.

http://vimeo.com/16227360 is a great video of a talk she did that's entertaining as well as instructive, gives a flavour of the book I think.

I don't completely buy that gaming is completely positive, as excessive hours gaming can really be a problem, but she makes some good points.