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You are not allowed to set higher suggested retail price at Amazon then in any other shop. Read the hole agreement before posting: https://developer.amazon.com/

You are not allowed to set higher suggested retail price at Amazon then in any other shop. Read the hole agreement before posting: https://developer.amazon.com/

You are not allowed to set higher suggested retail price at Amazon then in any other shop. Read the hole agreement before posting: https://developer.amazon.com/

You forgot that the MSRP you set at Amazon must be the lowest in the Market. Read the hole agreement before posting: https://developer.amazon.com/

Another reply I cut copy paste: You have to upload all your apps in 14 days after agreeing. You need to upload new apps at Amazon 14 days before uploading them elsewhere. Read the hole agreement: https://developer.amazon.com/

For your loophole to work you need to found a 2nd company.

(that is the wrong found isn't it. Well, I am only a German, I don't know how the other one is spelled)

Amazon thought about that loophole as well: You have to upload all your apps in 14 days after agreeing. You need to upload new apps at Amazon 14 days before uploading them elsewhere. Read the hole agreement: https://developer.amazon.com/

For your loophole to work you need to found a 2nd company.

You are not allowed to set higher suggested retail price at Amazon then in any other shop. Read the hole agreement before posting: https://developer.amazon.com/

You are not allowed to set higher suggested retail price at Amazon then in any other shop. Read the hole agreement before posting: https://developer.amazon.com/

>>California has figured out the scam... why can't you?

Because the MSRP is an imaginary number, and so paying sales tax on it is ridiculous - that's the point. Verizon didn't pay full MSRP, Blackberries don't sell online (even unlocked, without a service plan) for full MSRP. Amazon sells unlocked phones with no contract for hundreds of dollars less than the "list price", for example. They'll list something at $700 and sell it at $400.

For example, see:
http://www.amazon.com/Blackberry-9550-Smartphone-stabilization-Touchscreen/dp/B003YHOXFY/ref=sr_1_3?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1295139856&sr=1-3

The only scam is the one California is running. I could see paying sales tax on $400, but not on $700.

It seems I have a different opinion than all the other posts. Maybe my (PHB) pointy hair is affecting my thinking.

Sounds like the boss is asking for about 30% more hours. Would you like it better if the boss announced a 30% layoff (in these tough times)? Or maybe he might be demanding more hours, with the expectation that he'll have some attrition. This isn't a bad strategy for him, if all the employees are approximately "worth what they are paid", but a horrible strategy if he has some employees who are a bargain, and others who are overpaid for their contribution. He might want to swiftly eliminate any under-contributors.

There are several factors that you should consider when getting this request from your boss. They are:

What are the company's prospects?
What are your personal prospects inside the company? (Are you well respected?)
What are your personal prospects outside the company? (How's the job market?)
How much do you like the job?
What leverage do you have in this situation?

Let's take an extreme example as an illustration. Say you are paid $150K, the people at the company are great, the boss is highly ethical and has a good mind for business, and there is a downturn in business, obviously temporary, because your largest customers went bankrupt. The job market is bad in your part of the world (and so getting a 75K job might take a couple of years of job hunting), The company has treated you more than fairly over the year (even though you have not received ownership, they've paid you well). In this case, if the boss asks for more hours, you'd be a fool not to go along with it. Probably the best thing you can do is to try to negotiate a short duration of the long hours - say a month or two - or request an agreement that back pay will be provided when things turn around. But if you can't negotiate it, you suck it up, and do the hours. Or, as an alternative (if you are inclined), you ask if you can take a lesser salary to simply work 8 hour days.

More likely though, this company has never been profitable, you are burning through the investment dollars (or you are costing the ownership money every month, and perhaps the boss is the owner). He might be looking at a situation where he is "working for free" or even at a loss, simply to pay the employees.

I have been both an employee and a boss/owner in those situations. It's tough. It's very stressful to be the boss/owner, who works hard every day, and at the end of the month, instead of getting a paycheck, he has to write a check ("pay to work here" sucks for a boss!). Let me tell you, it sucks. And it really sucks if when you hear your employees doing normal office social interaction (chit-chat) - and doing everything you can to resist yelling "GET BACK TO WORK".

I found that the best way to handle this as a boss is to think of the business as an engineering problem. And make it a shared problem. Instead of doing something haphazard, like asking people to work 10-11 hour days, you formulate a plan, and make it a shared plan. This is more of advice for your boss, not for you, but perhaps you can direct him to it.

This approach requires a lot of honesty of the boss, and a trust in the maturity of the workforce. But I have seen it work MANY times. (get Jack Stack's books (1, 2, 3) to read about one of the more high profile cases of this working, with factory workers!)

First, start out with the statement of the problem. The boss has to lay it all out there. And he has to approach this like a problem-solving exercise, not a threat.

Gather the team together,

It seems I have a different opinion than all the other posts. Maybe my (PHB) pointy hair is affecting my thinking.

Sounds like the boss is asking for about 30% more hours. Would you like it better if the boss announced a 30% layoff (in these tough times)? Or maybe he might be demanding more hours, with the expectation that he'll have some attrition. This isn't a bad strategy for him, if all the employees are approximately "worth what they are paid", but a horrible strategy if he has some employees who are a bargain, and others who are overpaid for their contribution. He might want to swiftly eliminate any under-contributors.

There are several factors that you should consider when getting this request from your boss. They are:

What are the company's prospects?
What are your personal prospects inside the company? (Are you well respected?)
What are your personal prospects outside the company? (How's the job market?)
How much do you like the job?
What leverage do you have in this situation?

Let's take an extreme example as an illustration. Say you are paid $150K, the people at the company are great, the boss is highly ethical and has a good mind for business, and there is a downturn in business, obviously temporary, because your largest customers went bankrupt. The job market is bad in your part of the world (and so getting a 75K job might take a couple of years of job hunting), The company has treated you more than fairly over the year (even though you have not received ownership, they've paid you well). In this case, if the boss asks for more hours, you'd be a fool not to go along with it. Probably the best thing you can do is to try to negotiate a short duration of the long hours - say a month or two - or request an agreement that back pay will be provided when things turn around. But if you can't negotiate it, you suck it up, and do the hours. Or, as an alternative (if you are inclined), you ask if you can take a lesser salary to simply work 8 hour days.

More likely though, this company has never been profitable, you are burning through the investment dollars (or you are costing the ownership money every month, and perhaps the boss is the owner). He might be looking at a situation where he is "working for free" or even at a loss, simply to pay the employees.

I have been both an employee and a boss/owner in those situations. It's tough. It's very stressful to be the boss/owner, who works hard every day, and at the end of the month, instead of getting a paycheck, he has to write a check ("pay to work here" sucks for a boss!). Let me tell you, it sucks. And it really sucks if when you hear your employees doing normal office social interaction (chit-chat) - and doing everything you can to resist yelling "GET BACK TO WORK".

I found that the best way to handle this as a boss is to think of the business as an engineering problem. And make it a shared problem. Instead of doing something haphazard, like asking people to work 10-11 hour days, you formulate a plan, and make it a shared plan. This is more of advice for your boss, not for you, but perhaps you can direct him to it.

This approach requires a lot of honesty of the boss, and a trust in the maturity of the workforce. But I have seen it work MANY times. (get Jack Stack's books (1, 2, 3) to read about one of the more high profile cases of this working, with factory workers!)

First, start out with the statement of the problem. The boss has to lay it all out there. And he has to approach this like a problem-solving exercise, not a threat.

Gather the team together,

It seems I have a different opinion than all the other posts. Maybe my (PHB) pointy hair is affecting my thinking.

Sounds like the boss is asking for about 30% more hours. Would you like it better if the boss announced a 30% layoff (in these tough times)? Or maybe he might be demanding more hours, with the expectation that he'll have some attrition. This isn't a bad strategy for him, if all the employees are approximately "worth what they are paid", but a horrible strategy if he has some employees who are a bargain, and others who are overpaid for their contribution. He might want to swiftly eliminate any under-contributors.

There are several factors that you should consider when getting this request from your boss. They are:

What are the company's prospects?
What are your personal prospects inside the company? (Are you well respected?)
What are your personal prospects outside the company? (How's the job market?)
How much do you like the job?
What leverage do you have in this situation?

Let's take an extreme example as an illustration. Say you are paid $150K, the people at the company are great, the boss is highly ethical and has a good mind for business, and there is a downturn in business, obviously temporary, because your largest customers went bankrupt. The job market is bad in your part of the world (and so getting a 75K job might take a couple of years of job hunting), The company has treated you more than fairly over the year (even though you have not received ownership, they've paid you well). In this case, if the boss asks for more hours, you'd be a fool not to go along with it. Probably the best thing you can do is to try to negotiate a short duration of the long hours - say a month or two - or request an agreement that back pay will be provided when things turn around. But if you can't negotiate it, you suck it up, and do the hours. Or, as an alternative (if you are inclined), you ask if you can take a lesser salary to simply work 8 hour days.

More likely though, this company has never been profitable, you are burning through the investment dollars (or you are costing the ownership money every month, and perhaps the boss is the owner). He might be looking at a situation where he is "working for free" or even at a loss, simply to pay the employees.

I have been both an employee and a boss/owner in those situations. It's tough. It's very stressful to be the boss/owner, who works hard every day, and at the end of the month, instead of getting a paycheck, he has to write a check ("pay to work here" sucks for a boss!). Let me tell you, it sucks. And it really sucks if when you hear your employees doing normal office social interaction (chit-chat) - and doing everything you can to resist yelling "GET BACK TO WORK".

I found that the best way to handle this as a boss is to think of the business as an engineering problem. And make it a shared problem. Instead of doing something haphazard, like asking people to work 10-11 hour days, you formulate a plan, and make it a shared plan. This is more of advice for your boss, not for you, but perhaps you can direct him to it.

This approach requires a lot of honesty of the boss, and a trust in the maturity of the workforce. But I have seen it work MANY times. (get Jack Stack's books (1, 2, 3) to read about one of the more high profile cases of this working, with factory workers!)

First, start out with the statement of the problem. The boss has to lay it all out there. And he has to approach this like a problem-solving exercise, not a threat.

Gather the team together,

I tried the clock thing because I found it odd how the software could stop working when it and the phone had not been updated and I'm not in the habit of downloading and running a lot of windows software. I even tried uninstalling and reinstalling the software from the original shipped cdrom to no available.

So I guess I've just taken the easy route and letting people know about it when opportunities like this popup. Certainly taking the phone back to Tottenham Court Rd, London would have been a big waste of time.

I found someone else complaining about it with a search below, but their take is that the software is buggy, as in below:

        "The software for the Samsung P2 is extremely problematic. It will attempt to update, it fails, it will attempt to download new firmware, it fails, it will even try and convert movies, and guess what? it fails. The bundled software is horrible I couldn't get it to work. If you download the latest it works but I noticed many features are missing like datacasts. And still time to time it will fail. When it says the device supports so and so format it means the software supports that format and will gladly attempt to convert the video for you"

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-YP-P2JAB-Widescreen-Screen-Player/product-reviews/B000VQ7ZJM?pageNumber=2

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning

Liberal Fascism - The blog

Say Nothing.

Don't get involved in the conversation if the manager asks, assume no interest at all.

Be one of the crowd.

Buy a copy of 'Death March' and put it on the manager's desk. - http://www.amazon.com/Death-March-2nd-Edward-Yourdon/dp/013143635X

Leave.

Welcome to the world of cryptography, kiddo! "Random" is a fun word. Here's an example of some random numbers: http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2001-10-25/

Need more? http://www.amazon.com/Million-Random-Digits-Normal-Deviates/dp/0833030477/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

For the purposes of cryptography, though, random (obviously) means 'unpredictable.' Or, more specifically, it means it is impossible to write program which generates passwords devised using your scheme without going through, on average, half the keyspace per attempt.

So remember that when you're talking crypt, use the crypto definition of the term. Then you (hopefully) won't make embarrassing comments like that again.

No, the guy who wrote it (Phil Kaplan, aka "Pud") shut it down after the bubble burst. Ironically, today he's a VC and the founder of a company, Blippy, whose business model ("every time you buy something with your credit card, we post the details of your purchase online for all your friends to see!") sounds almost as silly as the companies he used to make fun of.

If you want a '90s nostalgia fix, he did write a FuckedCompany book after winding the site down.

Get your boss a copy of: http://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959/

Basically... oh I don't even have a simple way of breaking this down...

Is there really evidence that the problem getting customers is lack of features? All the features in the world won't help if the product isn't something people want, or it's not being marketed effectively.

Can the developers prioritize features over, say, usability or stability, if they're just looking for a box to tick (ladies and gentlemen, I give you Microsoft)?

If developers have to work 50+ hour weeks on a long term basis, they will screw up your code base. You will have to spend a lot of time later, un-screwing it. Expect to at least match every hour over a 40 hour week, in time to undo the damage. Is getting features at the cost of massive technical debt, going to help?

Sorry, Rule 34 isn't out until July: http://www.amazon.com/Rule-Halting-State-Charles-Stross/dp/0441020348

>>...I'd say that a lot of what they loved about philosophy, while it may still be there as philosophy, much of it is better known by other names -- Logic, Mathematics, Sociology, etc.

Which kind of gets at why philosophy is so important. It's often called "the study of first principles", because on these big questions about what is right, what is the greatest good, etc., you end up with (far down the road) the study of peoples in groups, and analyzing what makes societies work well.

Likewise, while the Philosophy of Science is easy to mock (see for example TFA), I do think that studying it makes one a better scientist, and if one is not a scientist, then at least more resistant to pseudo-science.

>>Of course, what we're talking about now is yet another branch of philosophy which, while it still exists as philosophy, has also split off into another field: Politics.

The same statement applies here. There's a reason why some political science and philosophy classes were the same at my university. (In other words, you could take Poly Sci 23 or Philosophy 23, but it was the same class, taught by the same professor, with the same students). Political science people study Plato, Machiavelli, Herodotus, Locke, Thucydides, Rousseau, Marx, and so forth, because they need to know the philosophical foundations of the political edifice they are building (or tearing down).

These discussions have taken place over thousands of years, and there's a lot of really interesting thought that have gone into them.

I understand, from what you're saying, that you think modern philosophy isn't much like this. This isn't entirely true - my department still taught metaphysics even though they thought it was nonsense (except maybe the guy teaching it, but he was a nut anyway), and Intro to Philosophy classes still teach Descartes and all that. My school also hosted a big conference on Kant when I was there, and invited people from all over to come and present their papers on him. So it's not all that dry, uninteresting positivism crap.

You can still find people interested in the big questions... I've enjoyed reading Colin McGinn's stuff. Since he spent years teaching introductory philosophy classes as a TA, he can explain what sounds like esoteric problems (like the Gauthier Paradox) in an easy to understand manner. I've read three of his books, and they're all quite interesting, though if you would prefer a sort of Intro to Philosophy thing, you can get his audiobook, which is out of print, here - http://www.amazon.com/Eternal-Questions-Timeless-Approaches-McGinn/dp/B000LHPIOK

I spend a lot of time in my car, so it was fun to listen to him present a philosophical problem and then ruminate on it for a half hour or so before listening to him start talking about the various answers people have developed over the years.

Please see my other posts to this article, including these links and others:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/autism-research-discovery_b_794967.html
http://www.amazon.com/Disease-Proof-Your-Child-Feeding-Right/dp/0312338058
http://www.ravediet.com/preview.html
http://www.iodine4health.com/

The first link suggests that pretty much all autism is related to various issues like you discovered in time (there are just a bunch of them from vitamin D deficiency, to iodine defiency, to lack of omega-3s, to dairy, to toxins of various sorts in processed foods or, presumably, vaccines). From there: "Most neurodevelopmental disorders have common roots. But looking at only one aspect of such conditions will not solve the problem of autism. Current autism research is based on an outdated approach -- one that is something like blind men examining the proverbial elephant. Each researcher works in his or her own silo examining different factors and coming to different conclusions. Research that integrates, synthesizes and examines all the data on causes and potential treatments is practically non-existent. The mitochondrial dysfunction identified in the JAMA study I've been talking about is ultimately only one downstream symptom of many upstream causes. Other researchers have found systemic inflammation,(ix) brain inflammation,(x) gut inflammation,(xi) elevated levels of toxins and metals, gluten and casein antibodies,(xii) nutrient deficiencies including omega-3 fats,(xiii) vitamin D,(xiv) zinc, and magnesium, and collections of metabolic dysfunction related to quirky genes that make it difficult to perform chemical reactions essential for health in the body such as methylation and sulfation.(xv)"

The second and third links show why excessive dairy is pretty harmful for most people (even ignoring how most of the world is lactose intolerant). The fourth is something I'm just learning about at the moment (iodine deficiency, where dairy is often a primary source of iodine, so watch out for it without dairy or eating seaweed or supplementing).

Your son is lucky to have you as his Dad. You might want to still monitor for the other health issues and take pro-active steps to "disease-proof" your family on a diet of mostly vegetables, fruits, and beans (and some nuts, seeds, and whole grains).

As a four year old, my wife had surgeons open up her belly and take her guts out (and put them back) because they refused to listen to her mother who suggested she had a millk allergy (from an article she read) -- and it turned out, after all the trauma, yes it was an allergy to milk and lactose. Doctors (especially surgeons) seem to be trained to sound very confident even when they don't have a clue (especially about nutrition). Part of how it got that way, starting around 1910:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexner_Report

For down the road:
    http://www.newciv.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt
    http://www.holtgws.com/

http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1932134&cid=34740048
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1932134&cid=34740098

Also, from:
    http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14401
"Merck spokesperson Amy Rose refused say how many trials Merck contracted to CROs or what percentage of the Gardasil subjects these contractors recruited in the Third World. She also refused to specify how, or even if, the company oversees CROs. Many consumers assume that the FDA carefully monitors CROs. But the agency hobbled by under-funding, politicization, and dependence on industry fees has few resources to assess foreign trials and relies on drug companies. "

On the point in your sig, and maybe a way to get better research by less conflict-of-interest in funding:
    http://econfuture.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/robots-jobs-and-our-assumptions/#comment-392

On keeping people healthy for cheap:
    http://www.amazon.com/Disease-Proof-Your-Child-Feeding-Right/dp/0312338058
    http://lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi111.html
    http://www.iodine4health.com/
    http://www.ravediet.com/preview.html
    http://www.bluezones.com/

But that's the problem -- there are no enormous profits in natural wellness; the only big profits are in palliation and treatment for sickness or random attempts at "magic bullet" wellness through phrama stuff.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/autism-research-discovery_b_794967.html
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/autism/vit-D-theory-autism.shtml

Look into iodine deficiency too:
http://theiodineproject.webs.com/addadhdautism.htm
http://www.coffetoday.com/child-autism-associated-with-iodine-deficiency/903216/

A comprehensive approach to nutrition:
http://www.amazon.com/Disease-Proof-Your-Child-Feeding-Right/dp/0312338058

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/autism-research-discovery_b_794967.html
Not to raise false hopes, but from there: "The causes of mitochondrial dysfunction are well known, specifically as it relates to metabolism and the brain, and I have documented them in my books "UtraMetabolism" and "The UltraMind Solution." They include environmental toxins (iv) -- mercury, lead and persistent organic pollutants(v) -- latent infections, gluten and allergens (which trigger inflammation) sugar and processed foods,(vi) a nutrient-depleted diet(vii) and nutritional deficiencies.(viii) These are all potentially treatable and reversible causes of mitochondrial dysfunction that have been clearly documented. I found all these problems in Jackson, and over a period of two years we slowly unraveled and treated the underlying causes of his energy loss which included gut inflammation, mercury, and nutrient deficiencies. Over time, the tests for his mitochondrial function and oxidative stress (as well as levels of inflammation and nutrient status) all normalized. When they became normal, so did Jackson. He went from full-blown regressive autism to a normal, bright beautiful six-year-old boy."

If you do only one thing, check vitamin D:
    http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/autism/vit-D-theory-autism.shtml
    http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/another-autism-case-report.shtml

Vaccines may still be involved in a couple of different ways, for kids who are having problems dealing with various heavy metals, where they may be struggling before, but the hevay metals or other issues with the vaccines pushed them over the edge (especially in a vitamin D deficient child, since vitamin D is used in creating glutathione, the brain's master antioxidant). One doctor being discredited doesn't prove that some vaccines can't have side effects in some especially sensitive individuals.

A new way of eating that in six weeks your family would like as much as how you eat now:
    http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/foodpyramid.aspx
    http://www.amazon.com/Disease-Proof-Your-Child-Feeding-Right/dp/0312338058
At the very least, you'll probably live longer on that plan to help your kid longer.

We try to eat more that way, and take our vitamin D, and so on...

... The problem is that once you fuck up herd immunity, you've fucked it up for everyone, including the very young, the very old, and those with compromised immune systems. ... In short, and pardon my directness, but speaking as a parent, fuck those who don't get the shots for themselves and their kids right in their entitled, self-centred, arrogant asses. They and their spawn should be given the choice to get them, and then airdropped on a remote island with all the rest of the assholes who think that the chance of their precious little snowflake having a disability is more important than the life of other people's so they can't screw it up for the rest of us.

In short, and pardon my directness, but speaking as a parent, what about those who don't breastfeed their children for at least two years and beyond (WHO advised), and who don't get enough vitamin D, and who don't read about nutrition and "disease proof" their children?
    http://www.amazon.com/Disease-Proof-Your-Child-Feeding-Right/dp/0312338058
    http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
    http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/infantfeeding_recommendation/en/index.html

And what about all those parents who spread disease by sending their children to day prisons so they can work, rather than homeschooling?
    http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/734486

Not to mention the socio-psychological fallout:
    http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/prologue.htm

Should they and their "spawn" be airdropped on a remote island with all the rest of the "assholes" who think that the habit of feeding their precious little snowflake junkfood or putting them in school for convenience is more important than the life of other people's so they can't screw it up for the rest of us?

How many people would that leave in the USA? 1%?

A SciFi/Fantasy series. This one is from Wizard's First Rule. http://www.amazon.com/Wizards-First-Rule-Sword-Truth/dp/0765362643/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294858332&sr=1-1 The series starts good and kind of decays into an Ayn Randian mess around book 6.

You'd be better off getting one designed for that purpose. Rock Band 3 Wireless Fender Mustang PRO-Guitar Controller for Xbox 360

A lot of it is encapsulated in the Mobil lectures -- the book is basically those lectures fleshed out and made more algebraically complete and extensive. Although given that Jaynes distributed about a zillion copies of his own book before he died -- I have my very own copy in the original, widely distributed tex sources -- I find it difficult to believe that any sort of meaningful copyright could hold up here. How widely does one have to distribute something without any sort of restriction before it becomes public domain?

As for the brain, I'd strongly suggest reading Mackay's book (it's free, online, and awesome). However, note well that the human brain comes preprogrammed (by evolution and mucho very subtle biochemistry) with tons of Bayesian priors, and is in its earliest stages an overwhelmingly greedy Bayesian inference engine. Not by any means "purely" -- reality appears to be messy, and "good enough" is the rule. But it is pretty clear that much of our earliest learning serves as Bayesian priors and logical axioms (is there a difference?) for what we learn later at a higher level. It is also particularly pernicious and difficult to shake off. Hence the enormous difficulty humans have had shaking off religious superstition in spite of the enormous cognitive dissonance it creates with its many internal inconsistencies and external absurdities.

If one learns "Jesus is real" at a sufficiently early age and with sufficient intensity, it becomes a Bayesian prior that forces an enormous distortion of one's entire worldview in order to accomodate the facts of everyday experience. I was walking through Barnes and Nobel last night and saw a book entitled:

http://www.amazon.com/When-GOD-Winks-Coincidence-Guides/dp/0743467078

This is pretty astounding. An entire book devoted to making confirmation bias applied to anecdotal evidence an acceptable way of dealing with cognitive dissonance and an acceptable form of "proof" of deity. Something one would never do if one hadn't had "God exists" tattooed on one's brain as a Bayesian prior long before one could actually reason, to the extent where one is perfectly happy reinventing reason itself as long as it permits one's worldview to avoid contradicting this prime axiom/prior.

rgb

Sigh.

So little time to point to other green blobs.

The series has 3 books that have won the Hugo for Best Novel and 3 others that were nominated but didn't win.

That's not going to convince judicious readers. All too often books have been nominated or awarded the Hugo or Nebula solely on the ideas they present, not the writing that the reader has to get through to hear these ideas. I just finished reading Robert Sawyer's Calculating God , felt it was mainly crap, and then was shocked to read that it had been nominated for a Hugo.

You didn't buy the right one

It's worse than that. They are even starting to agitate against Democracy, obviously because "the people" aren't behaving themselves and doing what they're told. We need to fight these people, not increase their funding.

I've also heard that DuPont also pushed for illegalization as they had recently invented nylon rope but have never seen any citations to that.

See: The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer.

Everyone needs to own a copy of this book, as it lays bare how the interests of those with wealth and power come together and corrupt government to protect profit and domain; the people be damned.

Doing the change: 3-4 hours of work.

Organizing the update to the controller in the field?
- Requires a look into what could be influenced by the change
- Requires in some cases an 'offline' load of the controller which can only be done at a time of a maintenance downtime (once a year at most, sometimes every 2-4 years)

Documentation:
- Documentation of what functionality changes for operators
- Update of system configuration diagrams
- Update of various tag info in the plant documentation system

Install:
- A job package must be written detailing every change made to the system.
- A test package must be written with a full test suite to check that nothing broke during the change. People make mistakes and this is important.

Now... How much will all this cost?

When I'm working on jobs like this the company I work for charges about 170 bucks an hour...

4*3 hours (The change, verification and signoff, various overhead)
5*2 hours (Field work, included travel time etc, x2 for 2 people)
8*3 hours (documentation, x3 due to document controllers, various overhead)
6*2 hours (job/test package)
5*5 hours (testing)

83 hours, 170 bucks an hour, 14110 USD.

This is a fairly average estimate of what something would cost on -our- side of a very small change. If hardware is involved it rapidly skyrockets in cost.

In addition there is a myriad of people that need to check and verify the change on the -other- side of the fence. Namely the owner and/or operator of the plant.

All these time-consuming road-blocks put in place are barriers against making changes that could breach safety. They look arcane and silly to quite a lot of people but they are there for a reason.

Most of the accidents where I work happen when someone do a quick tiny change. One that "wont cause any issues" except that it turns out it does.

To see why small changes can have huge impacts have a look at this book: http://www.amazon.com/What-Went-Wrong-Histories-Disasters/dp/0884150275

I realize it would be horribly boring reading for anyone not interested in it :p

AOL was designed to be the internet for computer illiterate people, and the web grew simple enough that AOL became obsolete. On top of that, Time Warner laid off thousands of employees after the merger and did nothing to make AOL worth having over direct Internet access through a local ISP. Not to mention the fact that there was a dot-com bust. A whole book was written about the consequences of AOL's merger with Time Warner and the internal politics that arose that weakened AOL.

Tying AOL's death to a lack of open access rules is totally ridiculous. You even threw in "net neutrality" for some reason. That wasn't why AOL died at all.

"Unexplained things happen every so often, which don't really phase me as a seasoned computer user, but would drive my mom bats."

And this is exactly why I ended up with an iPhone.

It started simply enough, I bought a Motorola Q. Worse... Phone... Ever. Crashed often and nothing worked on it because while it ran Windows Mobile the Q didn't have a touchscreen so I'd have to search for special Windows Mobile programs that didn't require touchscreen input and without a Windows Mobile app store that provided to be almost impossible.

This lead me to upgrade to a HTC Mogul, a touchscreen with sliding keyboard running Windows Mobile. That was better but finding good programs that didn't crash was difficult, there was no Windows Mobile store and it wasn't designed for fingers since it used a stylus.

Next came the BlackBerry Curve. Great phone, amazing email access (better than iPhone), but beyond email it didn't really do anything right, tiny buttons to dial with, phone was slow, offered few apps and the decent apps were pretty expensive ($5-$10+) and there were almost no free apps or demos.

Enter the iPhone. Required a carrier switch but that ended up being a good thing since AT&T turned out to be much better than my previous provider. iOS was amazing, no more crashing, phone functionality was much better than Windows Mobile or Blackberry, and navigation was much easier. Tons of great apps for cheap (99 cents) or free, and most of the paid for apps offer free demos. App store allows real user reviews.

Really it's the apps that make the difference with the iPhone. There's currently over 300,000 apps, 63 from EA and even classics like Final Fantasy made by Square Enix. Android just don't have the pull iOS does to bring the big names to the table. I don't care if the iPhone's CPU is 600mhz or 1000mhz, I bought a smartphone for apps, not to brag about my cpu speed.

I have a feeling as soon as the iPhone shows up on Verizon we're going to see a 10% jump or higher. I also think price has a lot to do with it: most the people I know buying Android did so because Android is free while iPhones are $200+, there has never been a free iPhone with contract. But the 3GS is now only $50 so we'll see if that helps, and I know some people are saying "that's the old one, I want the iPhone 4!" but I guess they forgot about the reception issues. I'd buy a 3GS or wait for iPhone 4GS.

If you have to get one now, the Viewsonic G-Tablet for $400 is as generic an Android tablet as I've seen; Tegra 2 processor, 10.1" 1024 X 600 screen, 512MB RAM, 16GB flash, mini SD card slot, mini and full-size USB ports, B/G/N WiFi, Bluetooth, an honest 8-10 hours of battery life, etc., etc.

If you read the reviews, there seem to be two categories. People who are disappointed with the out-of-the-box Tap-n-Tap interface and return it, and those who spend an hour or two updating the software and are happy with it.

Viewsonic does seem committed to improving the G-Tablet and is reportedly pushing out frequent software updates.

And it's available from Amazon and Sears.

I wouldn't mind living on in a VR environment, as long as it's not a hell...

Wii discs get scratched; what'll fix those?

Game discs get scratched? Yes, I'm being facetious, but anything newer than PS1 games are hard to scratch. Keep games in their cases when you're not playing them, and don't use them as frisbees and they won't scratch. Also there are devices designed to fix scratches in discs:

http://www.amazon.com/Excelerator-Motorized-Automax-Scratch-Repair/dp/B0009834M4

Also, Nintendo has a history of rejecting indie developers with nontraditional business structures.

No one cares about the axe you constantly grind about that.

Read this and see if you feel the same way.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=mk_sss_dp_1?ie=UTF8&nodeId=527692&pop-up=1

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Just checked on amazon.

Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray] comes with 9 discs - for $89.99.

Star Wars: The Original Trilogy (Episodes IV - VI) [Blu-ray] and Star Wars: The Prequel Trilogy (Episodes I - III) [Blu-ray] are both 3 disc sets for $44.99 each.

So, you get 3 extra discs in the complete set for 1 cent more, and you save on the shipping if you don't want or don't qualify for the FREE_Super_Saver_ShippingTM.

Just checked on amazon.

Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray] comes with 9 discs - for $89.99.

Star Wars: The Original Trilogy (Episodes IV - VI) [Blu-ray] and Star Wars: The Prequel Trilogy (Episodes I - III) [Blu-ray] are both 3 disc sets for $44.99 each.

So, you get 3 extra discs in the complete set for 1 cent more, and you save on the shipping if you don't want or don't qualify for the FREE_Super_Saver_ShippingTM.

Just checked on amazon.

Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray] comes with 9 discs - for $89.99.

Star Wars: The Original Trilogy (Episodes IV - VI) [Blu-ray] and Star Wars: The Prequel Trilogy (Episodes I - III) [Blu-ray] are both 3 disc sets for $44.99 each.

So, you get 3 extra discs in the complete set for 1 cent more, and you save on the shipping if you don't want or don't qualify for the FREE_Super_Saver_ShippingTM.

Winnings for counting cards are not denied in "legitimate" casinos (is that an oxymoron?). Card counting is legal, but once you are known to be capable of playing the game this well against the casino, the casino will refuse to let you play.

Try reading the books about the MIT student card counting teams here http://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Down-House-Students-Millions/dp/0743225708.

Or the Wikipedia article talking about the whole phenomena, here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Blackjack_Team.

There is a bundle of all 3 Star Wars movies available on DVD that comes with two disks for each movie: the crap version and the original theatrical release. I picked it up at Costco a couple of weeks ago. It isn't Blu Ray, but it's a lot better quality than an analog Laser Disc copy. Here it is on Amazon (not a referral link).

I think those DVDs were covered here on Slashdot a couple of years ago. Again, not Blu-ray (and hence not high def), but the best quality purists among us are going to get of the original releases for the foreseeable future.

Fifth time I've paid for a license to three of these movies.

If I'm going to respect copyright, tell me why I don't deserve to have these movies on my Nintendo DS, Netbook HDD, PS3, etc in whatever the latest resolution is. I've cumulatively shelled out hundreds of dollars (with inflation adjustments) for these three movies and yet I'm continually paying for them in the latest format. I bet if they figured out a way to approve lifetime licenses to this media, a lot more people would feel okay buying a copyright. Right now, I'm 28 years old and I've been nickel and dimed since age 12. Also, for those who didn't like the sequels, there appears to be a cheaper subset for $45 of the original three.

I'm sad that there isn't BD-Live for these in the Amazon description, I'd love to listen to fan commentary and possibly add my own. Has anyone had good/bad experiences with BD-Live commentaries? I was hoping that'd be used to do MST3K versions of popular movies or add insight to movies like Donnie Darko or Lost maybe. Unfortunately, having only received my PS3 this last holiday I've discovered that very very few movies are BD-Live.

I have a Laser Keyboard. It's neat, but it's a toy. Doing any amount of work is painful due to the repeated pounding of my fingers against the surface with no resistance.

My buckling spring blank keyboard is my "serious" keyboard. Keys need to provide a cushion for fingers. No touch screen keyboard provides this much needed resistance, and "air typing" (which you can do with the Laser Keyboard if you set it up just so), lacks the feedback I need to type accurately and quickly.

I fear that a foam-like sponge keyboard would only collect even more of the disgust that we must not name than a traditional keyboard -- At least when I clean my blank keyboard I don't have to worry about putting the key caps back on the correct posts, and I can rotate my key caps to allow even wear...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/autism-research-discovery_b_794967.html
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/autism/vit-D-theory-autism.shtml
MIght be of interest...

See also: http://www.amazon.com/Disease-Proof-Your-Child-Feeding-Right/dp/0312338058

I would bring a carbon monoxide detector. Preferably one capable of detecting very low levels and with a digital display, like this one.

Chances are they have a natural gas or oil furnace (or fireplace, wood burning stove, etc) which isn't working properly. Incomplete combustion or a leaky exhaust system can cause carbon monoxide buildup in the house. This is especially true in winter, when people are running the heater a lot and keeping the doors and windows closed. It also explains why ghost sightings tend to be more common in cold climates or older homes.

Per the wikipedia article: Many of the phenomena generally associated with haunted houses, including strange visions and sounds and feelings of dread, can be attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning, as its symptoms include confusion, delirium, emotional disturbances, and hallucinations.