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Amateur stuff compared to the reviews of the legendary Denon $500 cable: http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/product-reviews/B000I1X6PM/ref=cm_cr_pr_helpful?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0

Self-taught programmers might not know design patterns by name, but they will likely stumble upon the more common ones on their own. When they finally learn about design patterns, they will understand the topic better because they "invented" some of the design patterns themselves. That's how it was for me at least. One day I was explaining something to another programmer, and after my long explanation he just looked at me and said "Oh, so you're using the visitor pattern." I tilted my head, went online, and learned a new name for something I had been using for years.

This has been my experience as well. Finally, a good friend of mine handed me the "gang of four" design patterns text, and it has been invaluable, both in coding and in interviewing. :) http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Elements-Reusable-Object-Oriented/dp/0201633612

Reality begs to differ. But thanks for playing!

Testing and thinking like a QA person -- there are great resources out there for how to write tests that really have a chance to find and exercise bugs, it requires a knowing a bit about the most common programming errors.

Anything not specifically related to churning out "working code:
* proper use of source control
* how to debug effectively and debugging without leaning on the debugger as a crutch, e.g. the "binary search" strategy
* choosing the right tools for performance analysis and improvement
* how to read and understand existing code and where to make the changes you need to make
* how to prepare for and conduct a code review
* writing a technical memo or as-built document for a program or key part of a program.

Testing and thinking like a QA person -- there are great resources out there for how to write tests that really have a chance to find and exercise bugs, it requires a knowing a bit about the most common programming errors.

Anything not specifically related to churning out "working code:
* proper use of source control
* how to debug effectively and debugging without leaning on the debugger as a crutch, e.g. the "binary search" strategy
* choosing the right tools for performance analysis and improvement
* how to read and understand existing code and where to make the changes you need to make
* how to prepare for and conduct a code review
* writing a technical memo or as-built document for a program or key part of a program.

Testing and thinking like a QA person -- there are great resources out there for how to write tests that really have a chance to find and exercise bugs, it requires a knowing a bit about the most common programming errors.

Anything not specifically related to churning out "working code:
* proper use of source control
* how to debug effectively and debugging without leaning on the debugger as a crutch, e.g. the "binary search" strategy
* choosing the right tools for performance analysis and improvement
* how to read and understand existing code and where to make the changes you need to make
* how to prepare for and conduct a code review
* writing a technical memo or as-built document for a program or key part of a program.

Self taught also, Mechanical Engineer by training. I've found my biggest gap to be fundamental CS stuff, I'm currently working my way through a book on algorithms: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Third-Thomas-Cormen/dp/0262033844/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266595707&sr=8-1 While the practical implications of knowing this stuff is limited, it's always good to have a deeper understanding, and it will help if you're ever in an interview with hard core CS types.

When I want to burn a day away I'll still dust it off and pray the scratches haven't accumulated too much (I later bought both it and the expansion, and can't find anywhere to buy a new copy.)

I recently bought this (UK). Weirdly I can't seem to find that re-release on amazon.com, but there is a SMAC + Expansion here for a bit more.

They tried the paperless office, its not efficient.

http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Paperless-Office-Abigail-Sellen/dp/0262194643

Searching online only gives me $100+ coaxethernet transceiver type boxes.

Anonymusing wrote:

If the wire is nailed down (therefore not free to be pulled), perhaps he could use an Ethernet-over-coax adaptor or this one from Netgear.

Amazon wrote:

Ethernet-over-coax Converter/extender: $148.99
Netgear MCAB1001 MoCA Coax-Ethernet Adapter Kit (Black): $180.91

I imagine the OP was looking for a cheaper way to do this.

Searching online only gives me $100+ coaxethernet transceiver type boxes.

Anonymusing wrote:

If the wire is nailed down (therefore not free to be pulled), perhaps he could use an Ethernet-over-coax adaptor or this one from Netgear.

Amazon wrote:

Ethernet-over-coax Converter/extender: $148.99
Netgear MCAB1001 MoCA Coax-Ethernet Adapter Kit (Black): $180.91

I imagine the OP was looking for a cheaper way to do this.

Or this one from Netgear.

Anyone have experience with these?

Well, 10Base-2 uses coax. I think I have an old hub that still has a coax connector. :)

I was going to write my own "10base2" comment, but instead I'll just reply to this one. Yes, your coax cables are essentially 10base2 cables - but may have a different connector. Sounds like you're willing to do a little work - so, get a cable conversion tool and add some correct connectors.

Once you have that, you'll need to have some 10base2-to-10baseT converters. You can probably get them cheaper elsewhere, but here's one at Amazon.

My first workplace was wired entirely with 10base2, even in our server room. Some of our servers didn't support 10base2, so they had the media converters to go with them.

If the wire is nailed down (therefore not free to be pulled), perhaps he could use an Ethernet-over-coax adaptor.

Exactly why hackers choose Adobe as their prime target is tougher to divine, however.

Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash have as close to a 100% share of the desktop as makes no difference. The geek's dislike of these programs has had no more effect on their use than the phases of the moon or the rising and setting of the sun.

The Complete National Geographic on DVD was a runaway software best-seller during the Christmas shopping season. Adobe AIR powered, of course

The Flash 10 Beta Player [for Windows] delivers hardware accelerated H.264 HD video today - and not in some nebulous HTML5 future.

I was under the strange impression that Riddick was already a trilogy. Sure, one of the films was animated, but that doesn't stop it from existing.

Landis grew up a Mennonite, sometimes refered to German Baptists, often mistaken as Amish.

The Amish and the Mennonites are closely linked and both groups are descended from German Baptists. The practices of the Amish are distributed over a significant range; there are even some who will use a stationary gasoline or diesel engine to power equipment in the barn. They carefully consider the costs and benefits of innovation and how it would affect their way of life.

Also, the young people can be rebellious just like young people in the population at large. The rebellion might take the form of a battery-powered radio, or a car. The community tolerates this to a point. Eventually, the young person has to decide whether to commit to the Amish way or not, and the real trouble only comes if he apostasizes (i.e., says he will follow the Amish way and changes his mind).

I learned this from a book by a college professor who was raised in the Amish faith and chose to become a Mennonite when he came of age.

I know that's probably a hopeless request without some sort of basis in this field, but can someone give the "particle physics for dummies" equivalent here?

No, probably not, but if you're interested, I heartily recommended
Warped Passages by Lisa Randall. She spends first 80 or so pages reviewing physics in a manner accessible to those of us who took it in high school but need a refresher/update. But it does take those 80 or so pages under your belt so you can understand the rest of her book. Hence my apprehension that a comment here could suffice.

It's a couple years old, so some of the information is probably dated by recent Tevatron and LHC results (IIRC some of the theories reviewed in the book were looking for Higgs to be at 600 GeV?) but the foundation allows current news to make sense.

Or just wait a couple years, it'll all be figured out by then (if the Euro doesn't collapse and send Europe into chaos...). Understanding the multitude of theories used to shape the search isn't strictly necessary if it's found and plunked into the Standard Model.

A simple Amazon search for "Eee PC" reveals a raft of models comparable to your Acer. Why does everybody seem determined to forget that Asus basically created this category?

What happens when they turn 6?

Just a suggestion: they can read Now We Are Six (A.A. Milne). ;-)

The closest I've gotten do far: is this Acer from Amazon with a choice of XP or Android.

Asus used to have a bunch of them.

NewEgg just has two now - which have a BIG red note above saying they're deactivated or some such.

To be a Slashdot pedantic, you are wrong. BUT I used find a shit load of Linux notebooks at both locations and now I just see a couple, so YOU WILL be right even to the pedantics in a few weeks it looks.

Psh, real men read their technical manuals on a 65" Plasma Screen.

Isn't 2007 the one with the ribbon that no one can use? Doesn't that make it a new product, the fact that no one knows how to use it anymore?

Someone seems to know how to use it: Bestsellers in Software

#5 Office Home & Student 2007. 1147 days in the top 100.

I use my N800 daily, too ... to play Klondike. The FBReader software is a terrible user interface. A pity, really.

So I've tried to use my laptop. I've tried installing Amazon's Kindle for PC under Wine. It installs but won't run, so I don't know if it's suitable for reading or not.

Calibre seems intended for downloading and feeding data to devices like the Sony reader.

All in all, the laptop doesn't seem to be a good candidate for curling up with a book. If I perch it on my stomach it has a habit of spontaneously loading up Hulu and rotting my brain.

What surprises me is the massive boost in OS profits in Dec 09. Could that really be Windows 7, and if so, how? It costs about the same as XP/Vista, and it's not as if people are buying Windows 7 off store shelves to upgrade older computers (are they?)

They are:

Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade

235 days in the top 100. As always this time of year, tax preparation software takes center stage.

There were of course many - many - new and used refurbished PCs sold around the holidays that came with a free upgrade to Windows 7. For HP's Win 7 customer service workers, every day was Black Thursday.

the fact that Asimov never came across a worthy script while he was alive,

On what, exactly, do you base that comment on?

It sure better not be "because they never made any movies of his books" because in a business so full of egos and bizarro complicated licensing, failure to make a movie or even acquire the rights to make a movie doesn't mean squat.

For example, Harlan Ellison actually did write a screen play back in the late 70's / early 80's. It was even published in the 90's as I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay. According to the forward, Asimov was very happy with the script.

Tell me, where does the commie fascist UN plot for a world government fit into this?

It's a Liberal Fascist plot. Haven't you read your history? The plan, as always, is: central planning, and a 'rational energy policy' meaning: one planned and controlled by the government. State manipulation of industry, just like communists, fascists, liberals, and their fellow travellers have classically done things.

That doesn't sound like something a 30-person company could pull off. Or are you just incredibly competent?

That may be true, but I would go with propane anyway. Stored oil or gasoline can get nasty, and some events that take out the power may take out natural gas supplies also. A 17kW (140 amp/120VAC) propane or natural gas unit is about $3600. If they can't manage that then a 10kW (80 amp/120VAC) less then $2800. If you look on Amazon you may also find other units that will suffice. Many with free shipping.

Bare in mind you may need a "break before make" relay and you still want a short term UPS while the generator fires up. Also, it's a good thing to have a big propane tank that can't "grow legs" and wander off to someone's backyard grill.

That doesn't sound like something a 30-person company could pull off. Or are you just incredibly competent?

That may be true, but I would go with propane anyway. Stored oil or gasoline can get nasty, and some events that take out the power may take out natural gas supplies also. A 17kW (140 amp/120VAC) propane or natural gas unit is about $3600. If they can't manage that then a 10kW (80 amp/120VAC) less then $2800. If you look on Amazon you may also find other units that will suffice. Many with free shipping.

Bare in mind you may need a "break before make" relay and you still want a short term UPS while the generator fires up. Also, it's a good thing to have a big propane tank that can't "grow legs" and wander off to someone's backyard grill.

That doesn't sound like something a 30-person company could pull off. Or are you just incredibly competent?

That may be true, but I would go with propane anyway. Stored oil or gasoline can get nasty, and some events that take out the power may take out natural gas supplies also. A 17kW (140 amp/120VAC) propane or natural gas unit is about $3600. If they can't manage that then a 10kW (80 amp/120VAC) less then $2800. If you look on Amazon you may also find other units that will suffice. Many with free shipping.

Bare in mind you may need a "break before make" relay and you still want a short term UPS while the generator fires up. Also, it's a good thing to have a big propane tank that can't "grow legs" and wander off to someone's backyard grill.

it is a sizeable task, and is the type of topic that few professional journals or books will ever be written about.

Right, no one has ever written a single book on that topic.

it is a sizeable task, and is the type of topic that few professional journals or books will ever be written about.

Right, no one has ever written a single book on that topic.

How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive has added a chapter on how to add on a hamster wheel.

That's called an automatic movement. They're quite common.

Less common is a watch like this one, which is a quartz analog watch powered by five independent, shock-dampened micro-sized motors. It does chrono, world time, and alarms. Every night it syncs with the FM radio signal from the atomic clock in Fort Collins, CO (or at least it tries to, several times over several hours) so it always has the correct time. AND the entire face of the watch is a solar panel, which it uses to charge a battery, allowing it to essentially run forever (much like the device in this story).

When I was 13 I came down with a pretty bad case of strep throat. I was stuck at home and feeling pretty miserable. My mother did something a bit unusual, she stopped into a local used book store that I frequented quite a bit and picked up a Foundation Trilogy boxed set from the '60s. (This was the early '80s) I still bought a lot of books based on the cover back then and I don't know that I would have picked these up at the time. But she brought them home (along with a copy of Watership Down I think) and I dove into them. One of the best gifts my mother ever gave me. I fell in love with them, still have them and re-read them every so often.
 
I never could get into the newer books quite as much as those first three. They hold a very special place in my library. Hopefully down the road my kids will enjoy them as much as I did.
 
As for film adaptaptions, like most avid readers I think I will see it but wont expect much. I never expect film or tv to be as 'good' as a book because I like books more. I don't usually get too upset unless someone murders a book I love, which fortunately doesn't happen too often. But it does happen. Of course the, "It has to be done all CG because I would not know how to shoot this thing in real." quote doesn't inspire confidence. Anyone who says that about Foundation hasn't read it.

When I was 13 I came down with a pretty bad case of strep throat. I was stuck at home and feeling pretty miserable. My mother did something a bit unusual, she stopped into a local used book store that I frequented quite a bit and picked up a Foundation Trilogy boxed set from the '60s. (This was the early '80s) I still bought a lot of books based on the cover back then and I don't know that I would have picked these up at the time. But she brought them home (along with a copy of Watership Down I think) and I dove into them. One of the best gifts my mother ever gave me. I fell in love with them, still have them and re-read them every so often.
 
I never could get into the newer books quite as much as those first three. They hold a very special place in my library. Hopefully down the road my kids will enjoy them as much as I did.
 
As for film adaptaptions, like most avid readers I think I will see it but wont expect much. I never expect film or tv to be as 'good' as a book because I like books more. I don't usually get too upset unless someone murders a book I love, which fortunately doesn't happen too often. But it does happen. Of course the, "It has to be done all CG because I would not know how to shoot this thing in real." quote doesn't inspire confidence. Anyone who says that about Foundation hasn't read it.

And even when you are sampling music it usually makes you realize that the original was better.

But when writing a book, sampling has occurred before, but then usually mostly in the form of short quotes from other sources. To pick large sections of a story is another issue, but it's nothing new.

And one striking section is when you read The Last Castle by Jack Vance, and then Kirlian Quest by Piers Anthony. They do share a section that is very similar in plot and performance. (I leave it up to the reader to find it...)

But if it in that case was "sampling" or if it was a joint work on that section by the two authors is another question.

And even when you are sampling music it usually makes you realize that the original was better.

But when writing a book, sampling has occurred before, but then usually mostly in the form of short quotes from other sources. To pick large sections of a story is another issue, but it's nothing new.

And one striking section is when you read The Last Castle by Jack Vance, and then Kirlian Quest by Piers Anthony. They do share a section that is very similar in plot and performance. (I leave it up to the reader to find it...)

But if it in that case was "sampling" or if it was a joint work on that section by the two authors is another question.

If you are wondering why I think this point is intellectually dishonest, it is because someone coming across it and reading it would naturally conclude that Iroquois were a significant influence in forming the constitution. Even if you had said, "One could easily argue....." it would still be somewhat misleading, because it seems to imply there is a strong case for your point, when in reality there is not. But then overreach completely by claiming that the 'founding fathers most likely borrowed......' which isn't really supported at all.

I mean, seriously, one could just as easily argue that the nation was founded according to biblical precepts as it was Iroquois. See what I mean?

Cheers.

Don't blame me, that's what Einstein said... http://www.amazon.com/Ideas-Opinions-Albert-Einstein/dp/0517003937 (Worth the read IMHO)

Evolution - The Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer is an excellent book about Darwin, evolution, and even includes updated recent discussion related to intelligent design.

There's a great book by David Sloan Wilson called
"Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives"
http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Everyone-Darwins-Theory-Change/dp/0385340214

It explains how and why religion and god-concepts evolved in human culture.

It is very well written in plain-spoken language, and the author is an accomplished
evolutionary biologist.

If we could get that one on to the Texas high school science curriculum, or into their high school
libraries, it might go a long way in putting this debate in the proper perspective for
confused Texan students.

Autodidactic
30 year old
willing to take IQ tests
Formal Degree A.S. Computer Information Systems
Would like to be paid to study the psychology of human computer interaction and document my learning process.

  http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Human-Computer-Interaction-Stuart-Card/dp/0898598591

Can build Linux From Scratch and tinker with it.
Somewhat familiar with AIML, well I haven't edited it much, just a little trial and error.

"RE: Resume" at neurospyder at gmail dot com

I don't want to move.

But yes, a titanium-headed hammer would be stupid. Titanium also has poor surface hardness, so it would get dented really badly.

Right, no one would make those.

Well, but then we'd need to maintain a meta-meta constitution, and a meta-meta-meta constitution, ed infinium... Pretty soon you'd have Genies to grant meta-amendments, and such.

In case you missed the reference: http://www.amazon.com/Godel-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567

He f*cked up the originals, and I just don't even care anymore if he ever releases a decent DVD of the originals.

They did release a DVD of the original theatrical release. Sure it comes coupled with the 2004 re-release with all of George's "Fixes", but you can get it

This book was written for owners of small scopes like yours. Inter library loan or I'll send a copy to your school from Amazon (h/t Doctorow)

You might also consider getting help from the closest astronomy club. They do this kind of thing all the time.

Actually, there's lots of proof that consciousness is something entirely larger thane material existence, and not just a different way of looking at it. It's just that a lot of folks working in psychology, medicine and computational biology aren't taught about the evidence for psi, esp and related weirdness - there's a taboo about it.

The book Irreducible Mind collects a lot of the best mind-blowing research from the last 150 years into stuff that just does not fit the materialist paradigm. Includes a chapter on AI (somewhat outdated IMO but still interesting as it is written by an AI researcher).

My impression of this is that I think dualism doesn't work and we have to have a monist framework - but that framework has to be MENTALIST (idealist) monist, not physicalist. The body and the physical universe must be a projection of mind-stuff, not the other way around, because minds quite patently CAN exist outside bodies and there's a whole mind-universe out there which simply does not correlate to the physical universe, but rather transcends it.

This opens a can of works, but it's the only explanation which fits the data. And it also makes sense of why there are a lot of philosophical schools throughout history which have started from the otherwise absurd position of 'mind is prior to matter'.

This still leaves us puzzled, but at least now we understand a bit more about why we're puzzled. What are the physics of mind-stuff? I dunno for sure, but I think they're much closer to the physics of information than that of matter. Mind-stuff can exist in multiple places at once; the very notion of 'place' is a physical abstraction, which can be modelled as information (as virtual worlds teach us). Likewise with time. At best the physical universe is some kind of simulation, or sandbox environment, nested within a much larger, more 'real' shared-mental level. Our individual mindspaces are I think sort of like pocket universes within this larger shared universe - like locally-hosted shards of a MMO world. Certain people can train their minds to access the shared mindspace directly, and that's how we get psi/esp/mediumship. But the shared mindspace is BIG and it's full of very confusing information which does not map into our physical experience, so many mediums report very odd stuff. It's as if you showed Google or World of Warcraft to a medieval peasant - they'd come away with very strange ideas about what's really going on.

The potential of exploring 'irreducible mind' is huge, but the biggest problem is that there is this massive stigma against it from the materialist-monist camp who believe mental monism is patently absurd. Yes it is, IF you a priori believe a materialist-monist viewpoint. Not if you don't.

Materialist monism is like logging into World of Warcraft and believing that the virtual world in front of your simulated eyes is by definition 'real' and that all the servers which run it MUST be built out of VR constructs. At one level that's correct, but believing that that's all there is will lead to confusion. Yes, things exist in our 'physical' (simulation) world, but their existence comes from a higher level. You'll never map the WoW codebase just by poking at the behaviour of mobs, though you MIGHT well be able to do behaviourist psychology on those entities and come close to working out how they behave. But there will exist a whole level of structuring reality which is simply inaccessible to those running with 'user-level privileges' in the VR world. The true nature of WoW is that it is a construct of information, not 3D physical reality, and the information flows can bypass what appears to be local physics.

How would a medieval peasant, jacked into WoW via sufficiently advanced VR, try to grasp this concept? They might come up with terms like 'astral plane' or 'subtle matter' to describe the idea that there exists some kind of 'more real' reality which controls the simulation. Our kn

Suppose I'm adding a floating point to an integer. Is that a problem? Does it ruin everything? Or is it just sloppy coding that doesn't make a difference in the long run? Understanding what the code is doing is required for you to do an audit which will produce any useful results.

When I was about 5 years old, I decided to help out my father by filling up the gas tank, I used the garden hose; mixing integers and floats tends to be like that in most computer languages. I also learned to program Fortran on punch cards, RPG to me is a computer language and DOS was an operating system on the IBM 360, so it must be senility that prevents me from recognizing your obvious skills.
There is a book you may find interesting Chaos: Making a New Science, James Gleick, the first chapter talks about how minuscule errors in a computer program are potentiating themselves in a feedback model.

I never bought the first game, due to the draconian DRM. By the time it was eased, there were so many other great games on my list to purchase and play that I never got back around to Bioshock. The end result: They lost my business.

The problem is that they don't need your business:

Bestsellers in PC Games, Bestsellers in Console Gaming - Hardware and Software

Bioshock is #12 on the PC list, just out of the top ten. Bioshock was released in August 2007.

Bioshock & Oblivion Bundle [XBox 360]