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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]

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]

The differences in the quality and content of cost estimation handbooks for software and civil engineering disciplines are astounding. It's possible to take a detailed description of a building and come up with an accurate cost estimate; the books describe how much the material costs and the labor and equipment required to install it. Software engineering cost estimation books, on the other hand, can be distilled down to: "Using a process for cost estimation is good!" and "Use the result from the last time you built it".

For instance, compare the descriptions between these books. Look at the specifics given in the construction estimator vs. the fluff in the software estimator -- and keep in mind the latter was written by Steve McConnell, a well respected author in this field:

• Cost Estimation of Structures in Commercial Buildings : "A broad range of commercial building types is considered, from five to 50 storeys in height, and the effects on quantities of the varying design parameters, such as column grid size, number of storeys, location of structural components, arrangement of beams, grades of concrete, and so on, are described and illustrated by charts."
• Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art : "Software Estimation focuses on the art of software estimation and provides a proven set of procedures and heuristics that software developers, technical leads, and project managers can apply to their projects. Instead of arcane treatises and rigid modeling techniques, award-winning author Steve McConnell gives practical guidance to help organizations achieve basic estimation proficiency and lay the groundwork to continue improving project cost estimates."

Granted, a handful of software is sufficiently bleeding edge that it's not possible to find and document past experience. But surely we've deployed database schemas, created servlets, written session handling code, etc., often enough to start documenting the typical tasks involved and how long they took.

The differences in the quality and content of cost estimation handbooks for software and civil engineering disciplines are astounding. It's possible to take a detailed description of a building and come up with an accurate cost estimate; the books describe how much the material costs and the labor and equipment required to install it. Software engineering cost estimation books, on the other hand, can be distilled down to: "Using a process for cost estimation is good!" and "Use the result from the last time you built it".

For instance, compare the descriptions between these books. Look at the specifics given in the construction estimator vs. the fluff in the software estimator -- and keep in mind the latter was written by Steve McConnell, a well respected author in this field:

• Cost Estimation of Structures in Commercial Buildings : "A broad range of commercial building types is considered, from five to 50 storeys in height, and the effects on quantities of the varying design parameters, such as column grid size, number of storeys, location of structural components, arrangement of beams, grades of concrete, and so on, are described and illustrated by charts."
• Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art : "Software Estimation focuses on the art of software estimation and provides a proven set of procedures and heuristics that software developers, technical leads, and project managers can apply to their projects. Instead of arcane treatises and rigid modeling techniques, award-winning author Steve McConnell gives practical guidance to help organizations achieve basic estimation proficiency and lay the groundwork to continue improving project cost estimates."

Granted, a handful of software is sufficiently bleeding edge that it's not possible to find and document past experience. But surely we've deployed database schemas, created servlets, written session handling code, etc., often enough to start documenting the typical tasks involved and how long they took.

Take a look at Tom DeMarco's Controlling Software Projects. He deals with the issues behind estimating (including that one of the reasons we're so bad at estimating is that we get so little practice - much of what we call "estimating" is actually deadline negotiating). He ends up suggesting a separate measuring and estimating team - probably out of bounds except for fairly large companies, but the book has some good insights.

On the contrary, a quick google search shows that SUVs are even more deadly to their own passengers than they are to other vehicles. I recounted the resons in an earlier comment, no reason to be redundant.

Crash tests tell little. The best way to survive a crash is to avoid it, and in an SUV avoiding a crash is far harder than any other vehicle.

School is often boring for many people. Is this study proof that compulsory schooling is bad for most people's health?

See also:

"The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher" also by John Taylor Gatto
    http://www.newciv.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt

"The Three Boxes of Life and How to Get Out of Them: An Introduction to Life/Work Planning" by Richard N. Bolles (also writes "What Color is Your Parachute")
      http://www.amazon.com/Three-Boxes-Life-How-Them/dp/0913668583

Other links:
    "College Daze links (was Re: : FlossedBk, "Free/Libre and Open Source Solutions for Education")"
    http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2009-October/005379.html

http://www.amazon.com/Mac-OS-Version-10-5-6-Leopard/dp/B000FK88JK

Amazon has a list of retailers who sell 10.5.6. I'm sure you can find other sources. One good place to start a search for older Mac stuff is http://lowendmac.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Home-Premium-Upgrade/dp/B002DHLUWK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1265647046&sr=8-1

Where do you guys get this $300 number? I keep seeing it on Slashdot... are you just assuming that Windows 7 costs the same as previous Windows versions? Are you assuming that people are buying the "new install" copy even though they're just going to upgrade? ($179, BTW, not even close to $300.)

Keeping babies in cages is frowned on by most other societies, according to anthropologist Meredith Small:
    "Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent"
    http://www.amazon.com/Our-Babies-Ourselves-Biology-Culture/dp/0385483627
    http://books.google.com/books?id=925HAAAAMAAJ
"""
"In the winter of 1995, in a dimly lit room in Atlanta, Georgia, I witnessed a birth. Not the birth of a baby, but of a new science, ethnopediatrics." Thus begins Meredith Small's new, groundbreaking book on the study of parents and infants across cultures and the way different caretaking styes affect the health, well-being, and survival of infants. Pediatricians, child development researchers, and anthropologists today have turned their research efforts to studying this new science of why we parent our children the way we do. Each culture, and often each family, offers advice and directives on the right and wrong way to raise and care for infants, from feeding, interaction, emotional support, sleeping, and more. Yet scientists are finding that what we are taught is the right way to parent our children is based on nothing more than cultural directives-and may even run directly counter to a baby's biological needs. Should a child be encouraged to sleep alone from an early age, as parents do here in the U.S.? Is breastfeeding better than bottlefeeding, or is that just the myth of the '90s? How frequently should children be nursed-or does it matter? Do children in all cultures develop colic? How do mothers in different cultures respond to a crying baby? And how important to our infants' ultimate development is it to talk, sing, and interact with them? These are but a few of the questions Meredith Small, through the research emerging from this new science, answers-and the answers are not only surprising, but may even change the way that we think and go about raising our children. Written for general audiences and parents alike, Our Babies, Ourselves shows what makes us bring up our kids the way we do-and what is actually best for babies.
"""

From a review there: "A look at the not-so-new idea that how babies eat, sleep, and cry is determined by the culture into which they are born -- including a subtext that the ever-evolving parenting mode in the US may still not be all that baby-friendly. "

Also related:
    http://www.google.com/search?q=attachment+parenting
    http://www.google.com/search?q=cosleeping
    http://www.google.com/search?q=extended+breastfeeding
    http://www.google.com/search?q=continuum+concept
    http://www.google.com/search?q=crib+cage
    http://www.google.com/search?q=unschooling
    http://www.google.com/search?q=free+range+children

What would we do with out such an enormous cultural asset such as Google?

Why do men have nipples? is a humor book. It's a New York Times Bestseller.

If you don't like that query, blame the New York Times, or blame the author of that book. Don't blame Google. The same goes for the rest of those queries, you can probably blame the rest of those queries on TV Quiz shows, or on people trying to game the system. In any case, "why" is a super-vague query, most people enter quite a few more meaningful keywords. Judging Google on that criterion alone just tells us more about you than anything it tells us about Google.

I am interested in your experience using the Smartpen. Do you have time to go back and review your notes or listen to the audio? Do you transfer the notes to PDF and file the documents in your normal folders on your computer? Seems like a good product. In grad school we took notes in class and then re-wrote them into another notebook. We consulted with classmates in case our notes were vague or missing. We then used our condensed notes to study for the qualifying exams. But that took a great deal of time and had very high value, so we put in the time. At work I might not have too much "review time" but it would be nice to have my notes somewhere in one place that I can search upon. Currently handwritten notes go into folders, but you have to remember which folder you might have stored the note. If I write clearly enough it sounds like you can search entire notebooks.

The reviews here will help you:
http://www.amazon.com/Livescribe-2GB-Pulse-Smartpen-APA-00002/dp/B001AAN4PW

I have one, but my experience isn't intensive. When you go to charge the pen, it uploads the files on to your computer and then you can make PDF or other pages.

Conversely, I don't really look at that in my classes - my notes are sparse -- I can make a keyword here are there, or just a doodle -- and when reviewing my notebook, I just hit anything I wrote, and the audio goes directly to that part of the lecture.

There are videos showing it. Neat bit of technology.

Seems to work better in small rooms vs huge lecture halls.

I don't really think Snowflake Bentley has been "long forgotten", as the summary implies. Our homeschooled children just finished a unit study on him a few weeks ago (which doesn't prove anything of course except that he's still well known enough for there to be unit studies made available on him...).

In fact, a book about him, appropriately titled Snowflake Bentley won the Caldecott medal as recently as 1999!

Two Books by Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley:

Snowflakes in Photographs
Snow Crystals

Three books about Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley:

The Snowflake Man: A Biography of Wilson A. Bentley
My Brother Loved Snowflakes: The Story of Wilson A. Bentley, the Snowflake Man
Snowflake Bentley

Two Books by Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley:

Snowflakes in Photographs
Snow Crystals

Three books about Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley:

The Snowflake Man: A Biography of Wilson A. Bentley
My Brother Loved Snowflakes: The Story of Wilson A. Bentley, the Snowflake Man
Snowflake Bentley

Two Books by Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley:

Snowflakes in Photographs
Snow Crystals

Three books about Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley:

The Snowflake Man: A Biography of Wilson A. Bentley
My Brother Loved Snowflakes: The Story of Wilson A. Bentley, the Snowflake Man
Snowflake Bentley

Two Books by Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley:

Snowflakes in Photographs
Snow Crystals

Three books about Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley:

The Snowflake Man: A Biography of Wilson A. Bentley
My Brother Loved Snowflakes: The Story of Wilson A. Bentley, the Snowflake Man
Snowflake Bentley

Two Books by Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley:

Snowflakes in Photographs
Snow Crystals

Three books about Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley:

The Snowflake Man: A Biography of Wilson A. Bentley
My Brother Loved Snowflakes: The Story of Wilson A. Bentley, the Snowflake Man
Snowflake Bentley

The infamous Von Schlieffen plan. Henry Kissinger discusses it in his book "Diplomacy" and a chilling read it is. The idea was that in order for Germany to be secure, France had to be knocked out, so they could focus on Russia.

In reality, it was an extremely destabilizing plan, and obviously led to disaster.

I think it has relevance today, but few seem to talk about it. I suppose people like Herman Kahn thought about it, only in the context of nuclear weapons. Good thing he did.

You can pretty much get three netbooks for the price of one better-than-decent desktop ($200 vs $600). This is also why I generally agree with the positive predictions for Linux and ARM on netbooks; the netbook not running windows doesn't really matter if you've already got access to a windows machine, and once you've passed that hurdle the better battery life and lower price become all the more attractive.

The ARM netbook remains a phantom. The price tag pure guesswork.

At 3:30 ET [Feb 6] Amazon.com has the Win 7 SE Acer AOD250-1695 at $257. If the ARM was to successfully compete against Windows it needed to be in stores this past Christmas.

See http://www.amazon.com/Killswitch-Cassandra-Kresnov-Joel-Shepherd/dp/1591027438

It just happens to be a novel about an attempt to engineer loyalty into a synthetic organism. Oh, and it's totally awesome.

Actually, the "iPhone form factor" was introduced by Palm in 2004 (not counting all the 320x320 devices with a "graffiti" area below the screen). Your points are valid, though.

There's a simple answer. The speed of light (in a vacuum) is the absolute speed limit. The red and blue shifts you are talking about are when an object with mass goes faster through a specific medium than light can. But the key point there is that it's through a specific medium. Even if you were inside of a space ship that was going through a dense cloud faster than light could go through it, you'd still be going far less than C. Plus, the light that's measured here is presumably passing through a vacuum inside of the clock... That's without taking relativity into account. Once you add special relativity, the effect that time slows as you approach C causes everything to work itself out. Note that there's no absolute clock. There is no such thing as absolute time. There's only time relative to a reference frame. So while the clock on a space ship going 0.5*C relative to earth will go significantly slower than one on earth, it'll still be just as accurate within that reference frame (So two ships with the exact same velocity (vector) which have these clocks will be as accurate as they would be if sitting on earth).

Even if time did stand still or go backwards, you wouldn't be able to tell since our perception is dependent on time going forwards. Since time must be constant in any non-accelerated reference frame (gravity asside), if a clock was stopped by the slowing of time, so would your heart, and cells, and brain, and electrical impulses, etc...

I would recommend a pair of books for you written by Richard Feynman. Six easy pieces and Six Not so easy pieces... They provide a good "foundation" if you've never had a college level calculus based physics series before...

There's a simple answer. The speed of light (in a vacuum) is the absolute speed limit. The red and blue shifts you are talking about are when an object with mass goes faster through a specific medium than light can. But the key point there is that it's through a specific medium. Even if you were inside of a space ship that was going through a dense cloud faster than light could go through it, you'd still be going far less than C. Plus, the light that's measured here is presumably passing through a vacuum inside of the clock... That's without taking relativity into account. Once you add special relativity, the effect that time slows as you approach C causes everything to work itself out. Note that there's no absolute clock. There is no such thing as absolute time. There's only time relative to a reference frame. So while the clock on a space ship going 0.5*C relative to earth will go significantly slower than one on earth, it'll still be just as accurate within that reference frame (So two ships with the exact same velocity (vector) which have these clocks will be as accurate as they would be if sitting on earth).

Even if time did stand still or go backwards, you wouldn't be able to tell since our perception is dependent on time going forwards. Since time must be constant in any non-accelerated reference frame (gravity asside), if a clock was stopped by the slowing of time, so would your heart, and cells, and brain, and electrical impulses, etc...

I would recommend a pair of books for you written by Richard Feynman. Six easy pieces and Six Not so easy pieces... They provide a good "foundation" if you've never had a college level calculus based physics series before...

Like Custer's valiant last stand at Little Big Horn, how America is at it's root a "Christian Nation," and that the pilgrims and the indians got together and sang kumbaya on the first thanksgiving?

No, history has never had to be factual.

Read the big red book "Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C". http://www.amazon.com/Applied-Cryptography-Protocols-Algorithms-Source/dp/0471117099/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265363727&sr=8-1 Highly recommended to anyone who uses public key encryption or needs to implement VPN's, mail encryption or tunnels.

In essence, no it doesn't make any difference. However, if for example you application would communicate short commands often through public key encryption it would be more economical to use persistent connections instead of making new connections all the time. Key generation is Expensive.

Also, in you situation, just use screen.

How in the hell does retarded 'ask slashdots' make the front page, but not my submission of http://itpomminpurkaja.blogspot.com/2010/02/css-anchor-pseudo-class-concerns.html and http://www.fizzl.net/ for which I actually expended some effort to create.

One response to this would be that Microsoft needs s/Ballmer/Jobs/g. But if you think about it, they actually need a Lou Gerstner.
IBM was more or less the same way as they are now during the PC/desktop times of the early 90s- stifled by bureaucracy and personal fiefdoms, increasingly irrelevant in the market, to the extent that there was talk of it being broken up. Gerstner transitioned it to focus on software and services as well, changed the corporate culture, and wrote a great book on pirouetting pachyderms about it afterwards.

They (Microsoft) do have talent, as mentioned in the article, but no one will stick on much longer if these issues are not sorted out.

Anyone interested in the early history of pen computing should read GO Computer founder Jerry Kaplan's book Startup. Among other things, we learn that Pen Windows and the Apple Newton were started largely in response to GO (without attribution, of course). Nobody in the book comes off particularly well, including Kaplan himself. Microsoft's Bill Gates and Jeff Raikes (now both leading the fight against disease at the Gates Foundation) are portrayed as almost unbelievable weasels.

Thanks for your other replies. Sorry to hear about your ex-girlfriend's negative spiral. Certainly her case should show how wealth has diminishing returns for most people, and things like physical health, mental health, and community become better investments by society at some point than just producing more stuff and and isolated indoors lifestyle to go with that? Some ways past that:
"Surviving America's Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy"
http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Americas-Depression-Epidemic-Community/dp/1933392711
"Vitamin D and Depression"
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/depression.shtml
"Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life's Ordeals"
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Nights-Soul-Finding-Through/dp/1592400671

You continue to evade some key points I have made. The most important is that, as Einstein said, there is no objective way to decide what we want to do without considering values and priorities and related assumptions, which are things that stem for essentially a religious impulse.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/einstein/einsci.htm

By the way, a toilet cleaning robot (not that it looks that well worked out):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9vaqsd1iP4

Here is a better idea, that, using better design, makes a toilet into more of a self-cleaning appliance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcpZgp23nzM&NR=1

There are more links in the sidebar. Why do we have to build an entire society and economy around forcing people to clean other people's toilets when we can build robots to do it, or build better toilets that clean themselves? And the same extends to any disagreeable task you can name -- we can either build a robot to do it at this point, redesign the process so it does not need to be done, redesign the process so it is fun, decide it is not as important as we thought, or figure out some equitable way to share the disagreeable parts. But you still seem fixated on this issue that people have to be motivated to do stuff. Healthy humans do stuff because that is what healthy humans do. Granted, between school, TV, authoritarian workplaces, lack of sunlight, broken communities, and so on, most US Americans are not very healthy, as reflected in the skyrocketing depression rates at ever earlier ages, and also as reflected by a growing rich/poor divide that split our society into three classes -- those with no need to work, those who work too much, and those who can't get jobs at all.

As was said in 1964,
http://educationanddemocracy.org/FSCfiles/C_CC2a_TripleRevolution.htm
"The industrial system was designed to produce an ever-increasing quantity of goods as efficiently as possible, and it was assumed that the distribution of the power to purchase these goods would occur almost automatically. The continuance of the income-through jobs link as the only major mechanism for distributing effective demand--for granting the right to consume--now acts as the main brake on the almost unlimited capacity of a cybernated productive system."

That is what you are ignoring, as are most of the other believers in essentially mainstream economics. The "Midas Plague" is totally changing the nature of economics, and the choice are essentially to waste all that productivity to keep a scarcity-based economic model working or to broadly

Thanks for your other replies. Sorry to hear about your ex-girlfriend's negative spiral. Certainly her case should show how wealth has diminishing returns for most people, and things like physical health, mental health, and community become better investments by society at some point than just producing more stuff and and isolated indoors lifestyle to go with that? Some ways past that:
"Surviving America's Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy"
http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Americas-Depression-Epidemic-Community/dp/1933392711
"Vitamin D and Depression"
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/depression.shtml
"Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life's Ordeals"
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Nights-Soul-Finding-Through/dp/1592400671

You continue to evade some key points I have made. The most important is that, as Einstein said, there is no objective way to decide what we want to do without considering values and priorities and related assumptions, which are things that stem for essentially a religious impulse.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/einstein/einsci.htm

By the way, a toilet cleaning robot (not that it looks that well worked out):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9vaqsd1iP4

Here is a better idea, that, using better design, makes a toilet into more of a self-cleaning appliance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcpZgp23nzM&NR=1

There are more links in the sidebar. Why do we have to build an entire society and economy around forcing people to clean other people's toilets when we can build robots to do it, or build better toilets that clean themselves? And the same extends to any disagreeable task you can name -- we can either build a robot to do it at this point, redesign the process so it does not need to be done, redesign the process so it is fun, decide it is not as important as we thought, or figure out some equitable way to share the disagreeable parts. But you still seem fixated on this issue that people have to be motivated to do stuff. Healthy humans do stuff because that is what healthy humans do. Granted, between school, TV, authoritarian workplaces, lack of sunlight, broken communities, and so on, most US Americans are not very healthy, as reflected in the skyrocketing depression rates at ever earlier ages, and also as reflected by a growing rich/poor divide that split our society into three classes -- those with no need to work, those who work too much, and those who can't get jobs at all.

As was said in 1964,
http://educationanddemocracy.org/FSCfiles/C_CC2a_TripleRevolution.htm
"The industrial system was designed to produce an ever-increasing quantity of goods as efficiently as possible, and it was assumed that the distribution of the power to purchase these goods would occur almost automatically. The continuance of the income-through jobs link as the only major mechanism for distributing effective demand--for granting the right to consume--now acts as the main brake on the almost unlimited capacity of a cybernated productive system."

That is what you are ignoring, as are most of the other believers in essentially mainstream economics. The "Midas Plague" is totally changing the nature of economics, and the choice are essentially to waste all that productivity to keep a scarcity-based economic model working or to broadly

TabletPC wasn't just a "me too" project, Microsoft actually actively sabotaged their competitors to drive them out of the market and then tried to grab the market for themselves (and failed).

What are you talking about ?

Go! Computer.

Read Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure.

Granted, it's a touch biased because the author was the founder/CEO of Go!, but it still shows how MS sabotaged competitors.

One of the things that many scientists lack, is a good grounding in the Philosophy of Science. The public version of science, largely pushed by science teachers has an origin in the Vienna Circle of Logical Positivists. This is now largely known to be problematic, but is still the prevailing view. Folks should read Feyerabend's *Against Method* , or Ravetz's *Scientific Knowledge and Its Social Problems* for a more realistic view.

As a scientist, I can also tell tales about how the scientific method gets distorted by ideology. When I was in grad school, I was working on a complex set of problems that were a horror -- a week doing eight hours a day pumping numbers into a scientific calculator is not my idea of fun. However, back then, it was a necessary evil. So, I was about to have to do another horror week with the calculator, which I did not want to do, so I was wasting time and did something silly. It turned out to be a great idea. It gave a whole new method to solve the problem type at hand. A number of other people had a hand in the final paper, but I got to be first author. Unfortunately, as only one author amongst many. The paper made claims about the hypotheses that was being tested, I objected very strongly to this -- there was no hypothesis, but we just got lucky. However, there is a paper with my name on in, published in the 20th Century, that contains claims about what we discovered which are false, at least with respect to hypotheses and all that stuff, in order to ensure that we were following someones idea of the scientific method. It irks me even today. Fortunately, a book about the issue now gives a more accurate account. However, there is no doubt that scientific ideology can drive out the truth. Thus, what is proposed here is a good idea. Telling the truth (even if it does not conform to the ideologically driven official method) is something I teach my grad students even today.

It used to be ok, but for the past few eons that area's been so unfashionable.

My other option is to buy something form HMV

I'm assuming you live in the US (which might be wrong) but have you tried Amazon? They have a great selection of anime and manga and they ship nationwide (and on some things even worldwide)

Are you kidding? What consumer wants to spend $300 on Photoshop?

They wouldn't. They'd be paying for the much discounted Photoshop Elements. It's always funny to hear people compare Duh Gimp to the highest end version of Photoshop when making the comparison and completely ignoring the consumer-oriented version of Photoshop that's been around for 9 years.

You would think Quantum Mechanics would be one subject so mind-bogglingly difficult you definitely would not want any errors in your text, but McGraw Hill's "Quantum Mechanics Demystified" (a cram guide) is so riddled with errors it's ridiculous. Worse, in years they haven't bothered fixing these and are continuing to sell the same error plagued edition:

http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Mechanics-Demystified-David-McMahon/dp/0071455469

This puts to sleep the myth that publishers are guardians of quality control. For many books I would encourage you to check out reader reviews before you purchase because you won't believe the number of textbooks being published today that are riddled with errors.

This is nice because it promotes discussion.

Indeed. Amazon over-reacted when Macmillan decided it wanted more money for its publications than Amazon had been offering, and they must have known it.

I'm not really in the habit of defending publishers, but Macmillan's profile of publications covers a range of non-fiction, academic and textbook material that is way more expensive to produce than your average scheissdreck from Dan Brown and his ilk. To ask a higher price for these publications isn't exactly being unreasonable.

The fact that Macmillan is prepared to offer digital editions of its publications at all, rather than insisting that everybody pay ten times as much for a dead-tree edition is to be commended. Here's just one example of what I'm talking about. I would have loved to have a digital version of this bulky and heavy tome to carry around on a lightweight device while I was an undergrad, but neither the option nor the technology existed. In fact, Amazon's Kindle still doesn't offer the technology, since it is still stuck on monochrome displays.

Why should political speech be anonymous?

Because sometimes it can get you beat up or killed.

If anonymity is as needless as you claim, why do you have a secret ballot? Why not require everyone to broadcast who they voted for?

I added high end lighting to my bike. you can get a http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Bike-Blinky-eXtreme-Bicycle/dp/B000KBEH1W/ref=pd_bxgy_sg_img_c red led blinker for your back that will nearly blind cars in the daytime. same for the front. along with that I wear high visibility colors and have a flag. the Flag is the only thing that will save you when a idiot in a SUV blocks the other cars from seeing you, they see the bright orange flag over the suv.

Another good thing, if your bike does not have disc brakes, either upgrade or get a new bike. the increased stopping power is well worth it.

At this point, is our decline even reversible?

After reading Jacques Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, among other things, I think the answer is No. It is not just America that is in decline (which is all that's meant by decadence) but the entirety of Western civilization. It is one man's prediction, but he happens to be an accomplished historian with an in-depth knowledge of our culture. He weaves a historical narrative whose force is hard to ignore.

It's not a doomsday thing, as it must by necessity be replaced by a new culture. Many of us will likely be around for the big changes ahead, which means that we can have a hand in shaping the new culture.

I highly recommend the book to anyone with even a modest interest in history. Even if you disagree with the hypothesis of this culture's end, it's a very thorough and educational look at our civilization.

And George Carlin got this idea from this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Risk-John-Adams/dp/1857280687/ref=sr_1_199?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265063180&sr=1-199

The more people feel safe, more they will do the risky things. And seat belts do not save lives, only transfer the risk from the person driving to other drivers and pedestrians.

Two minor corrections: (1) The downloadable content is available. The publisher's had a glitch on their web site that has since been corrected (but not until after I had finished the review - oh well!) If you go to http://www.informit.com/title/0672330970 and click the Download tab, you'll get it. (2) The link for purchasing goes to the 7th edition. This is the 8th edition, and the link to that book is http://www.amazon.com/Sams-Teach-Yourself-Hours-Coverage/dp/0672330970/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1265061056&sr=8-1.

... and you'll get a book deal.

"That's the funny thing. Many of the dumber grammatical errors you see on Slashdot are made by people who are evidently native English speakers. They're things that should have been corrected in grade school, like problems with "your" and "you're", or "their", "there" and "they're". As they occur in trends like many other mindless activities, the latest one is "loose" vs. "lose". "

Actually these things aren't "correctable" in many people who make these errors. They have unconscious errors in their neurology and they make these mistakes without realizing them, there are gaps in expressing things through motor system of the brain. I'm one who can think clearly internally but when I go to express what I am thinking some words I told my motor system to type will never make it there or there is mis retrieval.

The spoken and writing areas of how words are stored in the brain overlap, the ironic thing about slashdot is that most people here have no background or have read up on modern neurology.

A quick course in the neurology and the activation of these networks will give you a new appreciation for why these people make errors constantly and no amount of schooling is going to correct the problem for many people.

Online many people don't really care if they make small mistakes, it's expected.

A good place to start would be to get a copy of Descartes error, it will give you a new appreciation for how much of what you take for granted in how you function is done by unconscious processes and you're not 'really in control', your control is really minimal and a function of the health of the underlying neurology of different parts of the brain and nervous system.

http://www.amazon.com/Descartes-Error-Emotion-Reason-Human/dp/014303622X/

"Back in the day" tinkerers used to hot-rod Model A's and Model T's; now cars are too reliant on electronics (ironically) for much "real" tuning or hot-rodding (it's mostly buying engine cpu interfaces, and after-market, bolt-on accessories).

I too miss ResEdit (as in "Zen and the Art of", my copy cost a lot more than US .48, btw), but this seems to be pretty much the way things go.

With any luck your kid will find something even more interesting to tinker with.

Don't forget that prior to the latest iMac, both used laptop parts exclusively, and should both be treated as such for upgrade purposes. They were never designed for the end user to take them apart.

That said, the iMac makes it easy to do the memory, but not the hard drive or any of the other components. The iMac has a panel on the bottom edge of the display which can be removed to easily upgrade the ram. The panel is the same sort you see on any laptop. The hard drive on the iMac is much more difficult. You have to use suction cups to remove the glass, which exposes the innards. Fortunately you can order 1 or 2 TB 7200 RPM drives right from the factory for the iMac so it's not a big need for most people to upgrade the hard drive. Most of the pre-fall '09 iMacs used only laptop parts (2.5" HD's, slimline optical drives, mobile graphics chipsets). The latest model iMacs are now using some desktop components which is a nice change, although I still don't have the urge to crack the case. That said, I've always had plenty of space due to the large hard drive selections, and I've found the graphics hardware adequate for my needs.

The mini is easy to replace the hard drive and upgrade the memory, however they still use all laptop parts and I don't expect that to change given it's footprint. The mini is easy to upgrade, but again only the parts you can typically replace in a laptop. It doesn't mar the visible parts of case. You simply use a putty knife on the inside edge of the case. I literally had the entire thing apart in 5 minutes. About the only unnerving bit is releasing the clips that hold the case (the noise sounds like the plastic case is cracking). Mine had no scuffs or any other visible damage when I was done. The cover snapped back on firmly when I was done with no apparent damage to the fastening clips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-zGbcr1eWw
http://www.methodshop.com/gadgets/tutorials/macmini-ram/index.shtml

I just purchase the base model of Mini, and upgraded it to 4 GB for $80 bucks. The hard drive unfortunately, also uses the 2.5" form factor, so the options for larger storage are expensive (I do see that WD now has a $200 1TB 2.5", although it's only 5200 RPM). I opted for an external 3.5" 7200 RPM 1TB drive for $99 bucks and an external USB SATA enclosure for $20 bucks. It makes a good (and cheap) HTPC since it, like every Mac, includes the Headphone Jack/SPDIF Optical combo port. It has no problems with 1080p video.

I've heard of some people upgrading the CPU in these, but I'd be hesitant to do so considering their both similar to laptops when it comes to thermals. In a work environment, I would think either would be fine. For a home power user, the temptation to upgrade components would probably be contrary to the design.

In all cases, they should be considered as laptops when thinking of upgrade options (Ram, Optical Drive, and Hard Drive). I'm hoping the recent shift to desktop components in the iMac will change that, and hopefully spur Apple to make it a bit more serviceable.

Not that surprising if you've read the book "The Accidental Billionaires". They specifically mention that there is one person dedicated to writing a PHP compiler and compiling all Facebook PHP.

Also, I don't understand why they don't use one of the currently available PHP compilers, phc or Roadsend. It's possible they started their initiative earlier, but they should have announced it and possibly prevented some duplicate work.

It has some notion of the units present on a tape measure, and functions helpful for a builder:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0008GO6A6/ref=asc_df_B0008GO6A61018580?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Why should I buy their crappy black rifle now? There are SO many. Hell S&W, the darling British compan that bled itself so white less cerebrally challenged people took it over have a black rifle for under 800. That is pretty amazing since you couldn't get a screw from them for under 50 bucks.

Monster Hunter speaks
http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2007/10/09/hk-because-you-suck-and-we-hate-you/
He's pretty good and a good author. http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Hunter-International-Larry-Correia/dp/1439132852

H&K can bite me the same as Ruger.

What happens if we don't "participate" Comrade Obama?

What's next? A Council of Americanism?

I recommend learning and reading over passive propaganda any day.
Try these non-political books: Naked Economics and Learn to Earn.

Leave the passive stuff to the sheep.