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You don't need to be skeptical. This will produce crappy results. You're still pushing the light through a tiny dirty lens and a tiny aperture

No kidding - I was looking forward to learning how he removed the iPhone's crappy lens and then got an slr lens exactly the right distance from the film plane to be useful. This was followed by a realization that he'd be wasting about 95% of the glass, since the sensor's size is a tiny fraction of a crop or 35mm sensor.

If he does stick with the iPhone lens, he's sticking the wrong optics in front. Canon and many other manufacturers make telephoto and wide angle lenses designed to fit over existing optics. This would get rid of the blue fringing, blurriness etc... in his sample pics. He could have saved a lot of time and effort by getting a Canon TC-DC58N lens on eBay and modded a LADC58B lens mount (or similar) to get the spacing right.

You don't need to be skeptical. This will produce crappy results. You're still pushing the light through a tiny dirty lens and a tiny aperture

No kidding - I was looking forward to learning how he removed the iPhone's crappy lens and then got an slr lens exactly the right distance from the film plane to be useful. This was followed by a realization that he'd be wasting about 95% of the glass, since the sensor's size is a tiny fraction of a crop or 35mm sensor.

If he does stick with the iPhone lens, he's sticking the wrong optics in front. Canon and many other manufacturers make telephoto and wide angle lenses designed to fit over existing optics. This would get rid of the blue fringing, blurriness etc... in his sample pics. He could have saved a lot of time and effort by getting a Canon TC-DC58N lens on eBay and modded a LADC58B lens mount (or similar) to get the spacing right.

Or just buy one of these http://www.amazon.com/AGL3080-Logger-Windows-Software-included/dp/B000WO6HJW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1279250061&sr=8-1/ for $50 and tag the photos before you upload them.

Personally (and I love that someone below mentioned Ahmdals law). The problem isn't as you said about specific language constructs but that there isn't any general solution to parallelism. That is to use Brook's illustration, problems we try to solve with computers aren't like harvesting wheat - they aren't efficiently divisible to an arbitrary degree. We do know of a few problems like this which we call "embarassingly parallel" but these are few and far between. So GPU's are great MD5 crackers, protein folders and I personally *love* writing CUDA code but I don't suffer from the delusion that this is somehow a revolution in software. That the usual day-to-day tasks are going to be affected. So the idea that GPUs are moving into the server room seems optimistic because the majority of stuff in there is pretty mundane.

That said I'd say I wonder if there aren't some architectural limitations on GPUs e.g. memory protection and if we really wanted to use these for general purpose computing and added them would we lose performance? In other words are we just making some kind of cores-to-features tradeoff?

Multiplayer games however, this could work. I find: ...

Most of the MP games I've got really into have stagnated from lack of fresh content as the game gets "old". Often these games go on for years longer thanks to some good modding, though fan made maps rarely fare so well.

Strangely, Valve has combated this in Team Fortress 2, but Valve hasn't try to monetize it. The latest (11th major) update came out last week with 4 new maps, 4 new Engineer weapons, and 38 new Engineer achievements. This is the last of TF2's nine class updates. Also, fan made maps are quite popular, and some even make it into the base game distribution during updates (ctf_turbine, cp_fastlane, cp_egypt, cp_junction, arena_watchtower, pl_hoodoo, cp_frieght, and cp_coldfront are the ones I can think of).

- MP games often come out with too much content for people to get properly into, resulting in a long lead time of people being inexperienced with the levels.

TF2 only started with only 7 maps comprising 3 (4 actually) game types, and no unlockable weapons or items.

TF2 today has (if I'm counting right) 34 maps (26 Valve-created maps, 8 community-created maps) comprising 7 (8 actually) game types, 34 unlockable weapons (27 Valve-created replacement weapons, 7 community-created replacement weapons (Medic and Spy don't have any yet)), and 49 hats/misc items (30 Valve-created hats/misc items (3 per class, and 3 generic), 19 community-created hats/misc items (2 per class, but Medic has 3)). Note: I'm ignoring the 10 specialty hats/misc items and 2 reskinned weapons that aren't randomly dropped.

Valve is also planning on adding the winners of the Polycount Contest to the game... they were supposed to announce the winners sometime this week, but that announcement was subject to Valve Time.

- related to above, many people tend to pick a few favourites and just ignore other maps, even if they're still quite good. These maps may offer more value if introduced when they are adding freshness as the old favourites are getting a bit tired.

Certain maps in TF2 are disliked. tc_hydro seems like a good map on the surface, and is one of three maps that has a developer commentary. Valve clearly put a lot of effort into it. However, it is easily the most stalemate-prone map in the game, which in turn makes it unpopular.

As for the new maps, the people on the OCRTF2 servers, which I'm an admin on, have already chosen maps they like and maps they don't. For instance, plr_hightower is disliked by some... it's a relatively small map and has this tendency for one team to steam-roll the other. pl_upward seems to be well liked. cp_coldfront is a map that we already had on our servers in its release candidates (Valve adds community maps in some updates, cp_coldfront was added in this update), and it... can be good or bad, depending on the teams. pl_thundermountain, I'm not sure about as we don't seem to play it as often as the others; I thought it was interesting, though, even if the map does sometimes get stopped before it reaches the final stage.

- the high initial price puts people off because MP games are "high risk" - good balance is hard to achieve.

TF2 has the advantage of being part of the Orange Box. OB had an MSRP of $50 at launch in late 2007, and has an MSRP of $30 today. It also includes all of HL2 (original plus both episodes), Portal, and TF2. On Steam, TF2 alone sells for $20... but a boxed copy from Amazon sells for $9.99. The boxed copy needs to be registered to a

As weird as this is to the "concerned parents and teachers" in Oklahoma, it is a basic effect of our minds and perception. There are no demons, no narcotic gateways, no pushers, and for most people, no permanent effects(*).

When the "Brain Machine" aka Sound-Light Machine (SLM) article came out in MAKE, I immediately built one. For me, it works great, and the visuals I see tend to be geometric patterns, depending on the frequency of the beats. It can be quite intense. For those who haven't seen this, apart from the silly graphics on the glasses as pictured in the article, the "brain machine" is a pair of safety glasses with LEDs, the microcontroller, and a headphone jack. The LEDs flash in synchronicity to the binaural beats, and this is what makes it so powerful -- your brain gets two very important senses stimulated the same way. Once the sequence finishes, the effect is totally over, there is no linger feeling, or "high" or demonic possession.

They used to sell audio cassettes that had binaural beat recordings. After I built the SLM, a friend showed me cassettes he had purchased a couple decades ago in Europe, but I haven't heard them to compare.

(*) The only caution I can think of is the possibility of bad effects in people susceptible to seizures. I don't know enough about that condition to know if seizures can be triggered through our hearing, but the SLM-like devices could possibly be a trigger to light-sensitive individuals.

One can find lots of related devices on the net. In no order are:
MindSpa
Procyon AVS
For helping with autism: Audio/Visual Entrainment

Seeing this video I can't help but laugh. It's the same tired Suburbanite Scare Story that D&D was in the 70's-80's, or that "satanic cults" were in the 80's.

You try listening to Aphex Twin - Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels Mount.

Somewhat related (and if you're feeling experimental), let me recommend Sunn O))). Their newest CD Monoliths and Dimensions is admittedly an acquired taste, but if you can get into the zone, it's pretty interesting stuff.

Up until high school, I spent my entire life locked into an ideal Norman Rockwell painting. No cares, no worries and just high on life. Things took a turn for the worse one day when I picked up an 288 tuning fork and a 320 tuning fork. I struck them both against my leg and held one up near either ear.

It was pure bliss. Like Jesus was just 32 hertz away from me. I wish I could describe the feeling. Like half of all the blades of grass in the universe were hummingbirds and the other half were bumble bees.

Let's see--I was a freshman at that time. Yeah, things just went downhill from there. I had earrings made with a tuning fork hanging from each one. The left side was A440 and the right side was a custom 444. I could raise my fingers to either lobe and flick it for instant gratification. The other kids called it ear basing. I called it god. And he was just nineteen dollars and eighty cents on Amazon. By my sophomore year I was already pretty hard into Fourier transforms. Everyone's tympanic membrane had a bifurcation sweet spot that could be exploited with the right theoretical frequencies. Yeah, we would rent middle of nowhere motel rooms to smelt hematite down into custom tuning forks and poor them into clay molds in the bathtub. We paid in cash and by the time the cleaning made hit the room it was slag burns in the carpet and clay all over the place. You probably remember the 20/20 investigations following all the reports.

Shit got real heavy real quick and one day we found Scrye (nickname for the metallurgist) hemorrhaging blood out of his ears in a coma from strapping two subwoofers to either side of his head with duct tape. I knew I had to get out, but how?

We gathered up all our text books on math, audio & music theory, physics, chemistry, electronics and metalworking and burned them in the parking lot of the hospital we brought Scrye to. I would never read about science again.

Parents, heed the images of those children getting 'innocent' highs from sounds and make sure they don't make the same mistake I did. This is just a gateway to bigger and badder things. If you find literature on Fourier Analysis, Electronics or Calculus in your child's bedroom, please get your child to Oklahoma and get them help from the nearest minister. I don't care if you have to lock them up in the basement against their will. Just make sure you save them from the same fate as I ... COMPLETE EAR DESTRUCTION!

it is DARPA. They're looking for research that will point toward new weapons.

Actually, they are not always looking for research on new weapons. Sometimes, they're looking for other stuff.

This book offers a keen insight into Darpa. While their research is pursued with the military in mind, it's not all about weapons. The chapter on limb research is a fascinating counter-example, as is the part on auto-surgeons. Of course, the author got permission to explore mostly the popular stuff : as a PR job, it's better to show off your ability to help rather than your capacity to maim.

According to Nick Lane's mitochondria book there are 20 times more mitochondria than human cells in order bodies. And they supply 90% of our metabolic energy. Multicellular animals could not move without them. I instantly though of Star War's mediclodrians mediating The Force.

I don't understand libertarians in anyway. I have never seen a market correct it's self.

- you just don't understand when you see it happening right in front of your eyes.

Do you remember the dot-com bubble? Do you remember the housing bubble?

The incoming t-bills/bonds/government short term refinancing bubble?

That's market trying to correct itself and people interfering with the correction.

Currently market is completely off balance by the actions of those, who do not want to accept the consequences of idiocy that has passed for economics since the Fed started printing cash and Keynes came to town.

I am not going to say anything about you being a troll, because I see you as somebody who is simply confused, and I don't mean it in any derogatory fashion, it's just that they don't want anybody to understand what economics is, even though it's really very simple.

You may want to find out, I suggest starting by observing people who understand it and reading something about it.

It's also pretty much covered in every book about the recording industry.

See, for example:

Confessions of a Record Producer by Moses Avalon
What They'll Never Tell You About the Music Business by Peter Thall

And numerous others.

It's also pretty much covered in every book about the recording industry.

See, for example:

Confessions of a Record Producer by Moses Avalon
What They'll Never Tell You About the Music Business by Peter Thall

And numerous others.

Well, if don't have the Kiss mouse, you can still get the Kiss Mousepad

They've been available for years now --- but they're expensive enough that most people won't buy them:

http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Cintiq-12WX-12-Inch-Display/dp/B00115OFJK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1279042099&sr=8-1

List price $1,199.99 --- on sale ``just'' $947.54 at the moment.

William

It was actually in his book, Death from the Skies. A tad morbid, given that it discusses all the ways in which our world could perish, but once you move beyond that it's exceptionally well-written and quite humorous. I highly recommend it.

Yes, let's make grand sweeping generalizations about people based on what products they buy. FYI some of Apple's greatest supporters are extremely critical of the company just not to the point of irrationality like some self professed "critical minds." Case in point Erica Sadun, who literally wrote the book on the iPhone, has been very outspoken about the reception issue as have many others. The same has been true about any number of issues in the past. Of course to see that you need to see beyond Slashdot groupthink and its anti-Apple and pro-Apple trolls (trolls trolling trolls trolling trolls ...)

For some interesting reading The Creature from Jekyll Island gives a good background on the creation of the Fed. It is the type of thing that you don't need a tinfoil hat to think it looks like a conspiracy.

As Forbes magazine Described the founding of the fed : Picture a party of the nation's greatest bankers stealing out of New York on a private railroad car under cover of darkness, stealthily riding hundred of miles South, embarking on a mysterious launch, sneaking onto an island deserted by all but a few servants, living there a full week under such rigid secrecy that the names of not one of them was once mentioned, lest the servants learn the identity and disclose to the world this strangest, most secret expedition in the history of American finance. I am not romancing; I am giving to the world, for the first time, the real story of how the famous Aldrich currency report, the foundation of our new currency system, was written...

When people representing about 1/4 of the world's wealth get together to form a central bank, you know we're going to get screwed.

I (22) had one. Are you seriously asking this question on Slashdot?

As someone who had a chemistry set in 1967, and pursued hobby chemistry into the 1970s, and then attempted to purchase similar ones for my kids in 1he 1990s and later, I can assure that any chemistry set that you could buy during your lifetime was a sad, pale and largely useless imitation of chemistry sets available at previous times.

To have a chemistry set approximating those available 35-40 years ago you have to spend a lot of time and money developing the lists of materials needed, buying and assembling the individual components into a set, and then you have the problem of coming up with a good manual of experiments.

In the old days the parents did not need to already be hobby chemistry experts to get their kid a set that would make him/her one.

Robert Bruce Thompson has put some effort to rectifying (not just lamenting) this situation. See his http://homechemlab.com/ site, and also look at the Amazon site material about the write-up on his book : Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture . which has a brief discussion of the decline in home chemistry.

Yeah, okay, I'll bite, even though your UID is higher than mine. Go onto any online store, you can search for the band I play in, called "The Infallible Collective." Here, this is a link to Amazon to get you started. We get maybe 30 cents per download, depending on the store you choose. I'll cover that, and handle defraying my bandmates' costs, if you want. Pick a song, email me, and I'll email you a FLAC. Free. Go for it, I dare you.

Yahoo!'s (and most of the other search engines) problems was, that they tried to promote most of the auxiliary services through the main site. Though Yahoo! isn't exactly loosing, they just did not get the majority of the search market, but for instance in Japan they are highly popular.. they are also the forth most visited site on the Internet, I wouldn't call that exactly loosing.

Google is doing a lot of stuff too, but most of it is standing alone (i.e. youtube) and is self-promoting.

They could clean up the start page a bit (or at least make it more customizable), but generally they are doing search + ads as primary business and the other stuff is loosely connected.

As for checkout.. well, PayPal was the first major popular global Internet payment option, but they are causing a lot of grief lately and will loose importance.

What will succeed them? My best bet is Amazon Payments, as they have attractive payment conditions (the nearest I have seen so far to micro-payments) and they have an established customer base with access to bank account data and _some_ trust of the users.

Google has no business where people regularly spend money from their account. They will have a hard time to make people set up payment account on their site, but it's not impossible.

Lord, thank you for the $500 network cable Google search. My life changed after reading Amazon comments:

http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/product-reviews/B000I1X6PM

I knew my day was going to improve when the truck pulled up at my home with this cable deep within. No ordinary truck, this one was Holy White, and the gold Delivery logo sparkled like a thousand suns reflected through shards of the purest ice formed with unadulterated water collected at the beginning of the universe. The driver, clad in a robe colored the softest of white, floated towards me on the cool fog of a hundred fire extinguishers. He smiled benevolently, like a father looking down upon his only child, and handed me a package wrapped in gold beaten thin to the point where you could see through it. I didn't have to sign, because the driver could see within my heart, and knew that I was pure. Upon opening the package, an angelic choir started to sing, and reached a crescendo as I laid this cable on my stereo system. Instantly, my antiquated equipment transformed into components made from the clearest diamond-semiconductor. The cable knew where to go, and hooked itself into the correct ports without help from me - all the while, the choir sang praises to the almighty digital god. With trepidation, I pushed "play," and was instantly enveloped in a sound that echoed the creation of all matter, a sound that vibrated every cell in my body to perfection. I was instantly taken to the next plane, where I saw the all-father. I knew with my entire soul, that all was good in the world.

But then I realized the cable was blue, so I only gave it one star. I hate blue.

Almost all comments - joking or not - are very funny.

Not only that, but sales of cultural products are radically stochastic. The best research on this is by Salganik and Watts on pop music and Art DeVany of films. thus even more than usual causal inference in any one instance is essentially impossible.

I know you are looking for retro joystick. But, I have been using:

http://www.amazon.com/Dual-Controller-Adapter-Converter-Playstation-2/dp/B001AATQ0Y

for quite a few years now. Plug and play and I use Joy2key free software to do the keyboard and mouse emulation, macros and more.

Works great for emulators and flash games.

It's still going, and is actually available for purchase.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/10/23/review-phantom-force.html
http://www.amazon.com/Excalibur-Phantom-Force-Chess/dp/B0018PWUJA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1278785244&sr=8-1

In conclusion, you don't sound very educated in either science, philosophy or your religion. I suggest a spot of reading before firing that mouth of yours off any further.

Wonderful, an ad hominem attack from an AC. Please create an account so that we can have a discussion instead of one-off posts (I wonder if you'll ever see this).

Al-Ghazali was probably the greatest thinker mankind has ever produced, and the implication that he took science backwards is just plain wrong.

Greatest thinker mankind has ever produced? No comment. But, no, I still stand behind him taking Islamic science backwards.

The period I criticized him for is 1095, when he threw science and scientific investigation out the window and replaced it with Sufism and revelation as the only way to truly understand the universe. When he said "there was no way to certain knowledge or the conviction of revelatory truth except through Sufism". That right there to me is throwing in the towel and calling it quits.

What do you think the repercussions on the Islamic scientific community were when he spent the last 16 years of his life being "technically" a preacher? What did he discover while repeating the "divine names" (dhikr) all day?

I'm not saying Islam or religion itself is bad (I probably lost our Atheists here), but the effect of inhibiting science and discovery by giving up and relying on the divine to truly understand the world is devastating to science. Didn't God say in Quran that we should learn math? (Al-Isra 12). And no, I'm not of the school that interprets "Hisab" as reckoning instead of math (but that's a different discussion).

Where would the world be today if Einstein or Newton spent more time in the Synagogue/Church and gave up on science?

Ok, maybe Newton is somewhat of a bad example since he also said "Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done". Maybe we would have learned a lot more about the universe had he not hit that wall, or maybe not.

Anyway, I have more important things to do with my time than to go and get Montgomery Watt's book to investigate and argue this point further. I might do it someday, but for the time being, I'm taking Neil Degrasse's and my own interpretation of what happened during that period of time over the AC who's "very familiar with his work" on Slashdot. mmkay?

I don't know if you've noticed this, but the capabilities of technology tend to filter done the price scale rather quickly. 2010's $500 device is 2012's $100 device is 2014's "get two free when you switch to our network" device. It won't be long before just about every phone for sale is a smart phone.

Pricewise, I beg to differ. The first android phone is barely 2 years old. Apparently it's impossible to find after its price was slashed in half last year to $99 (with a contract). Very few models get to become venerable AND remain in circulation like the Motorolla Rzr. Meaning, we rarely see tried models for cheap prices on the streets. Even when the inevitable good phone arrives, companies realize that phasing them out is good to maintain high profit margins. Exhibit A: the yearly iPhone rehash.

I am not sure about good resources for database design, but if you want a damn comprehensive book on MS SQL 2000, this book covers about everything possible.

Wow, Slashdotters, ask a simple question, get a hundred flames in response. Yes, I know he should have seen it coming, but hopefully he'll be able to locate some decent information in the midst of most of your garbage. Go flame about something actually controversial for Pete's sake.

Data Modeling and Database Design (amazon.com) by Umanath and Scamell - Excellent resource that covers several levels of data modelling, including conceptual schemas and logical schemas as well as normalization, relational algebra and quality/efficient SQL design.

Great post. In addition to those references, if someone is actually implementing SQL, I've found that Celko's SQL for Smarties is a great way to develop skills to turn good design into effective code.. http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Celkos-SQL-Smarties-Programming/dp/1558605762

Just an addendum to your excellent post..

And getting a copy of dungeon siege is SO difficult and expensive...

http://www.amazon.com/DUNGEON-SIEGE-PLUS-LEGENDS-ARANNA-PC/dp/B000JXPL70/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames
http://www.amazon.com/Dungeon-Siege-Pc/dp/B00005KBRD/ref=pd_cp_vg_1
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=dungeon+siege&scoring=p

Also DS is a decent game in its own right. Fairly linear, but decent for 'OMG I being assaulted by a horde of undead'. Also its pretty fun over a lan with others... Now it does get repetitive very quickly. So if you are not into loot type games you will not find it very fun. But for 2-5 bucks you could have it...

And getting a copy of dungeon siege is SO difficult and expensive...

http://www.amazon.com/DUNGEON-SIEGE-PLUS-LEGENDS-ARANNA-PC/dp/B000JXPL70/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames
http://www.amazon.com/Dungeon-Siege-Pc/dp/B00005KBRD/ref=pd_cp_vg_1
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=dungeon+siege&scoring=p

Also DS is a decent game in its own right. Fairly linear, but decent for 'OMG I being assaulted by a horde of undead'. Also its pretty fun over a lan with others... Now it does get repetitive very quickly. So if you are not into loot type games you will not find it very fun. But for 2-5 bucks you could have it...

X-Arcade sticks look nice, but they're just too honking big. And I'd rather have two separate sticks so I'm not right up on my friends playing. That and I don't have a separate cabinet to put those in. I play games on my PC. I ended up buying one of these which fits nicely on my desk:
http://www.amazon.com/PS2-PS3-PC-Universal-Fighting-Joystick/dp/B0015PHMFU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1278680318&sr=8-2

Nice stick for the price. Although I don't really use it that much, it works for my needs and didn't break the bank. All my gaming friends have either moved away and/or have kids so any kind of retro night for me isn't very realistic in the short term.

If you're looking for plug and play, this, or similar fight sticks, could work nicely as they are plug and play with Windows: http://www.amazon.com/Xbox360-Fighting-Stick-EX-Xbox-360/dp/B000V02P6Q
If you're wanting a bit more genuine experience, though, and are willing to put some time in to build your own panel (it's easier than it sounds), Ultimarc makes some of the nicest controls around. The owner, Andy, is one of the greatest guys to deal with when it comes to support, as well.

~Someone whose built his own arcade specifically for the purpose of reliving the classic.

The Data Modeling Handbook : http://www.amazon.com/Data-Modeling-Handbook-Best-Practice-Approach/dp/0471052906/ref=sr_1_58?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1278645029&sr=1-58 It is not new, but relational theory hasn't changed much in the last 20 years either. I have been designing, developing, implementing and fixing relational databases and data warehouses for the last 15 years. The book above was one of the most useful things I read early on in my career. In my opinion, data integrity is one of the most valuable functions that a database can provide, and a high quality data model is the most important first step in ensuring that. Understanding tuples, understanding relationships and understanding how to translate your business model and business requirements into a functional and correct data model is a very valuable process. Skipping this step, or attempting it with a limited understanding of the theory behind it is a major mistake.

This is a great book that is platform agnostic: Database Design for Mere Mortals. It goes through each phase of developing a database using an evolving project from conception to final product. It focuses on design and less on SQL and specific database software. Highly recommend!

Joe Celko writes fabulous SQL/database books! They are a joy.

Database design for Mere Mortals

http://www.amazon.com/Database-Design-Mere-Mortals-Hands/dp/0201752840/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278637201&sr=8-1

and

Sql Queries for Mere Mortals

http://www.amazon.com/SQL-Queries-Mere-Mortals-Hands/dp/0321444434/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

Bothe are really good books! They take you from start to finish on SQL databases and good design principles

-joe

Database design for Mere Mortals

http://www.amazon.com/Database-Design-Mere-Mortals-Hands/dp/0201752840/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278637201&sr=8-1

and

Sql Queries for Mere Mortals

http://www.amazon.com/SQL-Queries-Mere-Mortals-Hands/dp/0321444434/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

Bothe are really good books! They take you from start to finish on SQL databases and good design principles

-joe

If you are designing anything bigger than a couple of gigabytes, you are in for some fun (or your users are). ;-)

To be a good designer, there is no substitute for a thorough understanding of the subject matter. And you are a self-confessed n00b. Get an expert. Or study. Hard.

Database in Depth: Relational Theory for Practitioners.

"I am the Director of IT for a small/medium sized marketing company, where I personally write the code that runs our applications. We use a variety of technology at our office, the majority of which rely on MS-SQL and MySQL databases. I am familiar with tables, SQL queries, and have a general understanding of how the SQL databases work. What I'm looking for is a good book, particularly a newer book, to explain general database design techniques, and maybe explain some relational tables. We have some tables that have million of rows, and I'd like to know the best method of designing these tables."

There is more to RDBMS than tables and SQL. Your developers should understand data normalization first and foremost, at least 1NF, 2NF and 3NF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_normal_form

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_normal_form

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_normal_form

The examples in the URLs above should suffice for getting a general understanding on how to start with a relational model. As for books, I'd suggest these:

http://www.amazon.com/Relational-Database-Design-Implementation-Third/dp/0123747309/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278630155&sr=8-4

http://www.amazon.com/Information-Modeling-Relational-Databases-Management/dp/0123735688/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278630306&sr=1-3

I would also suggest C.J. Date's "Database in Depth: Relational Theory for Practitioners", but I can imagine the local penny arcade l33t-hax0r-wannabe crowd going batshit crazy about studying relational algebra and relational database theory in depth. To each his own. Most problems that arise in poorly designed relational database models arise from not understanding data normalization

:

"I am the Director of IT for a small/medium sized marketing company, where I personally write the code that runs our applications. We use a variety of technology at our office, the majority of which rely on MS-SQL and MySQL databases. I am familiar with tables, SQL queries, and have a general understanding of how the SQL databases work. What I'm looking for is a good book, particularly a newer book, to explain general database design techniques, and maybe explain some relational tables. We have some tables that have million of rows, and I'd like to know the best method of designing these tables."

There is more to RDBMS than tables and SQL. Your developers should understand data normalization first and foremost, at least 1NF, 2NF and 3NF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_normal_form

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_normal_form

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_normal_form

The examples in the URLs above should suffice for getting a general understanding on how to start with a relational model. As for books, I'd suggest these:

http://www.amazon.com/Relational-Database-Design-Implementation-Third/dp/0123747309/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278630155&sr=8-4

http://www.amazon.com/Information-Modeling-Relational-Databases-Management/dp/0123735688/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278630306&sr=1-3

I would also suggest C.J. Date's "Database in Depth: Relational Theory for Practitioners", but I can imagine the local penny arcade l33t-hax0r-wannabe crowd going batshit crazy about studying relational algebra and relational database theory in depth. To each his own. Most problems that arise in poorly designed relational database models arise from not understanding data normalization

:

We have some tables that have million of rows, and I'd like to know the best method of designing these tables.

I'm a developer, not a database expert. But it seems that every now and then I have to get my hands dirty with data modeling. "The best method" is probably a really vague concept. If you have serious hardware constraints than the best method changes from an easily maintainable system to something more complex. There's give and take in database design and I guess a million rows is really something that a traditional relational database should be able to handle. So I'd suggest any book that teaches data modeling will suit you here. I happened to learn on Data Modeling Essentials which was decent but not great. I have heard good things about Len Silverston's growing series that concentrates more on patterns. But really what you're going to want is a book on data modeling or analysis that teaches you the orders of normal form, when to use cross reference tables, etc so you can get a better idea of good modeling standards. At a million rows, you might not find the need to refactor if you read about the new best practices but perhaps you could make a business case to eventually migrate.

Now there are other topics that require entirely separate books because they are such a diverging path from relational databases. It's not common but your database can be based on something other than an object or table. If you consider the internals of Google, perhaps BigTable is the most prolific database implementation out there and while interesting, it is sort of a very specific proprietary database implementation. You could take this approach to tailor your company's database to be precisely what you need but this would clearly be overkill in your case. You don't talk about any bottlenecks or impending loads that need to be carefully considered so instead of treading down this path, I suggest you first take a course on MySQL or get the de facto book on whatever database you use and play around with fine tuning on a test system. A lot of DBs out there allow you to tune them through a configuration file so that your particular needs are met more closely. If you're looking for this sort of continuing education just out of curiosity, pick up a book on database design and start to tinker. But it requires a lot of knowledge and effort to start a database technology from scratch and compete with vanilla out of the box technologies like MySQL and PostgreSQL.

From what information you provide in your question, I'd suggest this book to help you understand database designs more via industry proven patterns. That assumes you have all the basic database design practices covered.

We have some tables that have million of rows, and I'd like to know the best method of designing these tables.

I'm a developer, not a database expert. But it seems that every now and then I have to get my hands dirty with data modeling. "The best method" is probably a really vague concept. If you have serious hardware constraints than the best method changes from an easily maintainable system to something more complex. There's give and take in database design and I guess a million rows is really something that a traditional relational database should be able to handle. So I'd suggest any book that teaches data modeling will suit you here. I happened to learn on Data Modeling Essentials which was decent but not great. I have heard good things about Len Silverston's growing series that concentrates more on patterns. But really what you're going to want is a book on data modeling or analysis that teaches you the orders of normal form, when to use cross reference tables, etc so you can get a better idea of good modeling standards. At a million rows, you might not find the need to refactor if you read about the new best practices but perhaps you could make a business case to eventually migrate.

Now there are other topics that require entirely separate books because they are such a diverging path from relational databases. It's not common but your database can be based on something other than an object or table. If you consider the internals of Google, perhaps BigTable is the most prolific database implementation out there and while interesting, it is sort of a very specific proprietary database implementation. You could take this approach to tailor your company's database to be precisely what you need but this would clearly be overkill in your case. You don't talk about any bottlenecks or impending loads that need to be carefully considered so instead of treading down this path, I suggest you first take a course on MySQL or get the de facto book on whatever database you use and play around with fine tuning on a test system. A lot of DBs out there allow you to tune them through a configuration file so that your particular needs are met more closely. If you're looking for this sort of continuing education just out of curiosity, pick up a book on database design and start to tinker. But it requires a lot of knowledge and effort to start a database technology from scratch and compete with vanilla out of the box technologies like MySQL and PostgreSQL.

From what information you provide in your question, I'd suggest this book to help you understand database designs more via industry proven patterns. That assumes you have all the basic database design practices covered.

We have some tables that have million of rows, and I'd like to know the best method of designing these tables.

I'm a developer, not a database expert. But it seems that every now and then I have to get my hands dirty with data modeling. "The best method" is probably a really vague concept. If you have serious hardware constraints than the best method changes from an easily maintainable system to something more complex. There's give and take in database design and I guess a million rows is really something that a traditional relational database should be able to handle. So I'd suggest any book that teaches data modeling will suit you here. I happened to learn on Data Modeling Essentials which was decent but not great. I have heard good things about Len Silverston's growing series that concentrates more on patterns. But really what you're going to want is a book on data modeling or analysis that teaches you the orders of normal form, when to use cross reference tables, etc so you can get a better idea of good modeling standards. At a million rows, you might not find the need to refactor if you read about the new best practices but perhaps you could make a business case to eventually migrate.

Now there are other topics that require entirely separate books because they are such a diverging path from relational databases. It's not common but your database can be based on something other than an object or table. If you consider the internals of Google, perhaps BigTable is the most prolific database implementation out there and while interesting, it is sort of a very specific proprietary database implementation. You could take this approach to tailor your company's database to be precisely what you need but this would clearly be overkill in your case. You don't talk about any bottlenecks or impending loads that need to be carefully considered so instead of treading down this path, I suggest you first take a course on MySQL or get the de facto book on whatever database you use and play around with fine tuning on a test system. A lot of DBs out there allow you to tune them through a configuration file so that your particular needs are met more closely. If you're looking for this sort of continuing education just out of curiosity, pick up a book on database design and start to tinker. But it requires a lot of knowledge and effort to start a database technology from scratch and compete with vanilla out of the box technologies like MySQL and PostgreSQL.

From what information you provide in your question, I'd suggest this book to help you understand database designs more via industry proven patterns. That assumes you have all the basic database design practices covered.

All of the items listed suggest that IQ is moderately to strongly correlated with performance, but almost all of them couch that by saying the correlations are weak, or that there are other influencing factors.

So we agree that IQ does indeed correlate moderately or strongly with performance in many jobs, but not all. Right?

Full Scale IQ scores are the product of scales that evaluate Verbal and Non-Verbal working memory. Both of these scales are informed by more specific sub-scales below them. Think of it like a pyramid with IQ sitting at the top; you cannot arrive at an IQ score without assessing the many different types of intelligence. The Mathematical and logical questions are not interchangeable, both of these types (and others) are required to arrive at anything like a reliable IQ score.

I don't doubt that many IQ tests are constructed that way, and I imagine it is a fine way to structure an IQ test. That the tests you know about are structured that way does not imply that it is necessary to do it that way to measure IQ.

I myself have taken the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices test which contains only questions of the type "pick the missing shape". I didn't notice any mathematical themes in the questions. You can read about it here.

I maintain that if you give people a huge battery of diverse questions about all manner of things, you'll have a good measurement of IQ. I have this straight out of the g factor, though I don't have the book handy to give a quote. There is no need to measure sub-components - in fact you need more questions to be able to do so.

I know I already quoted this bit but I want to hit on it again. One of the classic criticism of any form of standardized testing are the biases of the test writers. If I know nothing about duck hunting, and you give me an IQ test that consists largely of questions about duck hunting, I am going to score very low. This will not be a valid measure of my IQ. This is why determining an accurate IQ score is so difficult.

I didn't mean to suggest that a test just about duck hunting would measure IQ well. What you are pointing out is exactly the problem with asking a duck hunting question in an IQ test. Your ability to answer the question does correlate with your IQ, but it does so weakly because lots of people just happen to be uninterested in duck hunting and so they have little chance to know the right answer regardless of their IQ. So if you are going to ask questions like that, you are going to have to ask hundreds or thousands of questions about all kinds of things (certainly not just about duck hunting) to get a reliable indicator. The point is that IQ tests look the way they do not because IQ is just about logical puzzles or something like that (I know that you have not stated that it is), but because logical puzzles happen to be the fastest way to get a reliable measurement. IQ tests could look completely different from the IQ tests that we know, it's just that then they would consist of a much larger number of questions that would take longer to answer and grade, and they would probably also be more culturally dependent.

It wouldn't surprise me if all of that is true today, but MS did have a history of using undocumented DOS and Windows APIs in its own products. If you can find a copy of Undocumented Windows by Andrew Schulman, it's worth a read. I suspect MS has changed its tune only because the risks (e.g. "another $X billion fine") now outweigh the competitive advantages.

- T

New GE plants are tested by the FDA, the NIH, and the EPA

That's what you think, but it in not true. As the NIH's Medline says "Genetically engineered foods are generally regarded as safe. There has been no adequate testing, however, to ensure complete safety. There are no reports of illness or injury due to genetically engineered foods. Each new genetically engineered food will have to be judged individually." Bold added by me.

There have been toxic chemicals found in food sold that have been "traditionally" engineered, but none that have been "on purpose" engineered in in what has become known as GE.

Really? So soya with brazil nut genes, which can cause serious allergy reactions including death, has not been found to be allergic as well? And the military hasn't spend a lot of money developing biological agents, such as anthrax?

GM food is safer then it's counterparts. I'll take the GM food, please..

Citation needed for the safety. As for taking it, go ahead and keep it. Just don't force it on me.

I recommend the Whole Earth Discipline. Where he talks about his expertise (he's an ecologist/biologist by training) he's spot on. I don't agree with him on all the topics included in the book

If his expertise is "spot on" why don't you agree with everything he says? After-all he's an expert. Because the rest doesn't agree with what you want?

Falcon

I know I'm not the only one expecting a device that would allow me to enjoy some backyard astronomy anytime, anywhere. I am very disappointed.

I found a portable device that'll let you do this here. Side effects include soreness of hands and shoulders and an occupation of physical space, but if you have an attractive neighbor it evens out.

Science is right, There is a God

can you believe this guy?

oh well, i'm figuring that he's probably right seeing as science is just a bunch of atheistic dogma anyway...

rawr!