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1. Windows 98 Upgrade will upgrade Windows 3.11.
2. Windows XP Upgrade will upgrade Windows 98.
3. Any upgrade version of Windows 7 will upgrade any version of Windows XP.

So that's great news for all you folks running Windows 3.11 on at least a 1 GHz CPU and 1 GB RAM ;-)

Seriously, Microsoft has generous upgrade paths. Upgrade editions of Windows 7 will even work on Windows 2000.

1. Windows 98 Upgrade will upgrade Windows 3.11.
2. Windows XP Upgrade will upgrade Windows 98.
3. Any upgrade version of Windows 7 will upgrade any version of Windows XP.

So that's great news for all you folks running Windows 3.11 on at least a 1 GHz CPU and 1 GB RAM ;-)

Seriously, Microsoft has generous upgrade paths. Upgrade editions of Windows 7 will even work on Windows 2000.

I agree - the Mimms books are the place to look for basic, cheap yet informative and interesting projects. I used his "Getting started in Electronics" to teach ages 9-12. To make this learning physics rather than just a craft project, it's crucial to teach the basics before doing projects with complicated circuits or chips. I mean at least voltage, current, serial resistance and parallel conductance using the water-flow analogies, and preferably the divided-pressure tank model of the capacitor as well (see Bill Beatty's "Capacitor Complaints" Also read all his articles about "Electricity" or you will be guaranteed to perpetuate misconceptions. Great teaching ideas there.) This is about as much as you are likely to have time for, but very little interesting happens in circuits without semiconductors, so if you can work in the fluid analogies for diodes (check valves) and transistors the kids will benefit.

My personal choice for an educational medium-basic circuit project would be a high-pass and a low-pass single-pole filter (both just a capacitor and a resistor). Use a computer sound card as a signal generator and spectrum analyzer using a free program such as OscilloMeter.

Other good projects would be an H-bridge motor controller (6 transistors) or for something more ambitious a Tilden "nervous net" / BEAM robotic circuit such as a light-tracking head.

I played a lot with these sorts of projects when I was young. I really enjoyed the little books by Forrest M. Mims III at Radio Shack. This book is probably stocked with good ideas.

Using a wire wrapping tool could be a good way to construct circuits without using solder. You can also use breadboards. The breadboards are easier to work with, and can be reused by several classes. However, with the wire wrapping approach, you may be able to make the project cheap enough for the students to keep what they build.

I once made a "darkness detector" or night light which would light up an LED when a room was dark. It was kind of cool because it all fit inside a little plastic film canister. All it needs is an LED, a photoresistor, a watch battery, an on/off switch, and a transistor. (And perhaps a simple resistor.) It can all be wired up using the wire wrapping tool. It's more of a toy than a useful item, but it's so cheap that it could be something they can take home to keep.

That strategy didn't work too well with drugs, albeit because they didn't say who the real terrorists were.

The sad thing is you probably really believe crap like that.

The really sad thing is you're probably allowed to vote in elections somewhere.

The oxygen supply to your brain is so limited I bet you'd pass out if you tried to climb the stairs out of your parent's basement.

That strategy didn't work too well with drugs, albeit because they didn't say who the real terrorists were.

Trick is making countries buy technologies which they can`t afford (including nukes) and ask them to give up a resource when the loan pay day comes.

http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hitman-Perkins-John/dp/B001GG67CC/

"For many years he worked for an international consulting firm where his main job was to convince LDCs (less developed countries) around the world to accept multibillion-dollar loans for infrastructure projects and to see to it that most of this money ended up at Halliburton, Bechtel, Brown and Root, and other United States engineering and construction companies."

This one serves to NWO too, double evil ;) ID Card guys will say "look, even India uses them" to suspicious govt. guys.

Having fairly recently gone through the same process the steps I took are still fresh in my mind. I would recommend doing the following:

-Get a good understanding of digital electronics, you need to understand the building blocks that HDL languages such as Verilog and VHDL describe. Learn about flip flops, latches, counters, shift registers, and memories. With HDL you are describing how these basic building blocks connect rather than the sequential programming you may be used to. So go to Amazon and buy several used books on "Digital Electronics" or "Digital Fundamentals". You will be using these concepts to solve problems with HDL so it is important. Think of it as the equivalent of a "Data Structures and Algorithms" book for programming.

-Once you have a basic understanding of Digital Electronics then it is time to start learning an HDL. One of the biggest trip ups that I ran into while learning VHDL was the distinction between VHDL for simulation and VHDL for RTL synthesis. I was finding VHDL examples and tutorials on the web that did not explain the difference. There are many VHDL examples on the web that are only valid for simulation but do not work for RTL synthesis. So I ended up writing VHDL code that worked great in simulation but would blow up when I tried to synthesize it to run on a board. I wasted many, many hours before I found a book that clearly explained the difference. So get a book that focuses on RTL synthesis to avoid confusion in the beginning. The book that I found very helpful was Essential VHDL RTL Synthesis Done Right by Sundar Rajan. This book truly was the key, for me, to being successful with VHDL. (Search around for a better price, I did not pay over $100 for the book)

-Another great book that isn't necessarily important for HDL learning but has many easy to understand electronics solutions is Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz.

Finally, get involved with open source FPGA projects, there is nothing like studying the code of working projects. Head over to http://www.gadgetgactory.net/ which is a new FPGA Open Source community trying to make FPGA's more useful and accessible. You will find:
-A completely open source FPGA circuit design, the Butterfly Platform, that you can build yourself or purchase pre-assembled and tested. This board can fulfill your development needs and has the advantage of being actively developed for. Most dev boards on the market have examples that you can work through but once you get through all of them you are on your own. The goal of the Butterfly Platform is to find the best FPGA open source projects available and get them all running on this board.
-An open source Logic Analyzer design that is both useful for your electronics workbench but is also an amazing example to help with learning VHDL.
-An AVR compatible processor that supports the avr-gcc toolchain for C development. (Still a work in progress)
-Tutorials and Screencasts for basic FPGA tasks.

Take a look around and see if there is anything helpful. The site is in heavy development right now so keep checking back for more projects, tutorials, and FPGA wiki's.

Jack.

Having fairly recently gone through the same process the steps I took are still fresh in my mind. I would recommend doing the following:

-Get a good understanding of digital electronics, you need to understand the building blocks that HDL languages such as Verilog and VHDL describe. Learn about flip flops, latches, counters, shift registers, and memories. With HDL you are describing how these basic building blocks connect rather than the sequential programming you may be used to. So go to Amazon and buy several used books on "Digital Electronics" or "Digital Fundamentals". You will be using these concepts to solve problems with HDL so it is important. Think of it as the equivalent of a "Data Structures and Algorithms" book for programming.

-Once you have a basic understanding of Digital Electronics then it is time to start learning an HDL. One of the biggest trip ups that I ran into while learning VHDL was the distinction between VHDL for simulation and VHDL for RTL synthesis. I was finding VHDL examples and tutorials on the web that did not explain the difference. There are many VHDL examples on the web that are only valid for simulation but do not work for RTL synthesis. So I ended up writing VHDL code that worked great in simulation but would blow up when I tried to synthesize it to run on a board. I wasted many, many hours before I found a book that clearly explained the difference. So get a book that focuses on RTL synthesis to avoid confusion in the beginning. The book that I found very helpful was Essential VHDL RTL Synthesis Done Right by Sundar Rajan. This book truly was the key, for me, to being successful with VHDL. (Search around for a better price, I did not pay over $100 for the book)

-Another great book that isn't necessarily important for HDL learning but has many easy to understand electronics solutions is Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz.

Finally, get involved with open source FPGA projects, there is nothing like studying the code of working projects. Head over to http://www.gadgetgactory.net/ which is a new FPGA Open Source community trying to make FPGA's more useful and accessible. You will find:
-A completely open source FPGA circuit design, the Butterfly Platform, that you can build yourself or purchase pre-assembled and tested. This board can fulfill your development needs and has the advantage of being actively developed for. Most dev boards on the market have examples that you can work through but once you get through all of them you are on your own. The goal of the Butterfly Platform is to find the best FPGA open source projects available and get them all running on this board.
-An open source Logic Analyzer design that is both useful for your electronics workbench but is also an amazing example to help with learning VHDL.
-An AVR compatible processor that supports the avr-gcc toolchain for C development. (Still a work in progress)
-Tutorials and Screencasts for basic FPGA tasks.

Take a look around and see if there is anything helpful. The site is in heavy development right now so keep checking back for more projects, tutorials, and FPGA wiki's.

Jack.

"I believe you meant to use the word "affect". It's possible you're grammar trolling [xkcd.com],"

Actually it's a common unconscious mistake, and has to do with the way someones mind organizes memories. You should do a little research on neurology, the grammar and spelling nazi's need to bone up on science and lay off when someone makes a mistake, they should try to understand *the science* behind why such mistakes are made, then one stops being a retard and *understands* why these things occur and that it was *unintentional*.

When you see missing words, garbled grammar/sentences similar sounding words affect/effect, their/there, etc, this has to do with memory error retrieval do to how the brain stores and organizes words and information.

This means that their are issues with noise and signals getting dropped when sent to the motor neurons/nervous system and the user does not know they occured, since he did send consciously intend the thing in his mind but the unconscious systems did not retrieve or send all the data properly.

Most thought is unconscious, you and many others like you still suffer from the enlightenment fallacy:

http://www.linktv.org/programs/orwell_deceiving

See here, watch the video from 15 mintues in to ~24-30 minute mark, also the rest of the videos there are interesting when you get the time, I forget which video it is and when the time is but they show a newscaster making a "freudian slip" and they go on to explain why those errors happen to begin with and why they are so common.

Also some books for you:

http://www.amazon.com/Descartes-Error-Emotion-Reason-Human/dp/0380726475

http://www.amazon.com/Molecule-Metaphor-Neural-Language-Bradford/dp/0262062534

It will make you see human errors and human reasoning in a whole new way.

"I believe you meant to use the word "affect". It's possible you're grammar trolling [xkcd.com],"

Actually it's a common unconscious mistake, and has to do with the way someones mind organizes memories. You should do a little research on neurology, the grammar and spelling nazi's need to bone up on science and lay off when someone makes a mistake, they should try to understand *the science* behind why such mistakes are made, then one stops being a retard and *understands* why these things occur and that it was *unintentional*.

When you see missing words, garbled grammar/sentences similar sounding words affect/effect, their/there, etc, this has to do with memory error retrieval do to how the brain stores and organizes words and information.

This means that their are issues with noise and signals getting dropped when sent to the motor neurons/nervous system and the user does not know they occured, since he did send consciously intend the thing in his mind but the unconscious systems did not retrieve or send all the data properly.

Most thought is unconscious, you and many others like you still suffer from the enlightenment fallacy:

http://www.linktv.org/programs/orwell_deceiving

See here, watch the video from 15 mintues in to ~24-30 minute mark, also the rest of the videos there are interesting when you get the time, I forget which video it is and when the time is but they show a newscaster making a "freudian slip" and they go on to explain why those errors happen to begin with and why they are so common.

Also some books for you:

http://www.amazon.com/Descartes-Error-Emotion-Reason-Human/dp/0380726475

http://www.amazon.com/Molecule-Metaphor-Neural-Language-Bradford/dp/0262062534

It will make you see human errors and human reasoning in a whole new way.

I can think of a couple things to add.

Brian Greene - The Fabric of the Cosmos. Greene does an excellent job of describing high level physics in a way that those of us without physics doctorates can understand, and he highlights what is really fascinating and compelling about these discoveries.

Richard Feynman - Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! This book doesn't cover much scientific detail, but it gets you into the mind of a fascinating scientist. It can show the way to thinking like a scientist - being curious about the world, favoring logic and proof over intellectual authority, etc.

I have to say that I was disappointed by A Short History of Nearly Everything. This review sums up my thoughts pretty well. The book is concerned more than anything with the personal details of the lives of scientists and their squabbles. I'd love to find a book that covers the same scope, but focuses more on the actual discoveries, how they were made, and what they meant.

I write FPGA code for a living, more in VHDL than Verilog, and more for Xilinx than Altera.

I would actually recommend that you don't buy a board at first. You can pick one out so you can decide on a vendor's chip, that's fine, but simulate everything, because that's what HDL design is all about. Both vendors offer a free version of their toolset and there's a free simulator with each of those. Or you can download ModelSim Starter edition. I wouldn't call either one Linux friendly.

As far as the board goes, I would recommend one of Altera's Nios II Embedded Dev Kits. I feel that although Altera has a slightly steeper learning curve than Xilinx, they also have a nicer overall package than what Xilinx is currently offering. I'm speaking from the point of embedding a soft processor though, if that doesn't interest you, then either of the cheap Altera Cyclone or Xilinx Spartan kits will get the job done.

This is the only book you need on VHDL: The Designer's Guide to VHDL by Peter Ashenden.

I haven't found a Verilog book of similar quality.

Buy several books on Verification and testbench writing. That's where the real work comes in, and it's significantly more work than whatever circuit design you're doing. Spend the time to learn how to write self-checking testbenches.

Read over the Synthesis guides for whatever vendor's board you choose. Understand how the constructs you use affect synthesis. There's a wealth of information in the Xilinx and Altera online documentation. There's also a lot of really of good snippets of code which are themselves useful but also typically contrast less and more effective constructs for synthesis.

And finally, I will echo the caution that HDL is not a programming language, it is a design language. If you do not have a fundamental grasp of circuits, logic design, and computer architecture, I would recommend you pursue those topics first.

Fundamentals of Logic Design - Roth. Designed for a self-paced course taught at the University of Texas at Austin, so actually geared toward your needs. http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Logic-Design-C-Roth/dp/0495073083/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247594924&sr=8-1

Lots of people have proposed using them as the basis of really large space stations.

In his trilogy beginning with Red Mars Kim Stanley Robinson proposes using them as the basis of a vehicle that could deliver a substantial amount of colonist to Mars and give them enough space to be happy over the long journey.

My current science heroes are all grass-roots enthusiasts like Brian Dunning, Phil Plait, Pamela Gay & Fraser Cain, The Skeptical Rogues, Derek & Swoopy and the like.

Listening to all those podcasts and recommending them to all my friends has brought an interest in science out from purely occuring inside my own head into being a regular dialogue with people I know. It also makes you feel like the human race is actually going somewhere, instead of the general impression you get from the mainstream media that we are perpetually circling a gory hate-filled drain.

And, of course my original inspiration that started me listening to all these podcasts, Micheal Shermer, whose book "Why People Believe Weird Things" should be given to every 13 year old as part of their school education.

If I had 500 quid to get to Las Vegas I would love to have gone to this. Defniately doing it next year.

You should hear the noise it makes when I mistake its arse for a pencil sharpener.

Maybe you need to get one of these.

These are remarkably common gadgets and can be had surprisingly cheap. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_2/103-3580931-0563800?ie=UTF8&rs=&keywords=gps%20tracker&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Agps%20tracker&page=2

Plenty of choice, and some for even about half the price, and in theory do a better job than the iPhone with more battery life.

Free and open should naturally be the fundamental ground which any software stands on, even if it's proprietary or not.

If Photoshop were free and open source how would Adobe make enough money to pay the programmers? Sure there's GIMP, but they've been promising 16 bit colour channels for 10 years but it still only works with 8 bits per colour channel. And it needs a plug-in for CMYK support, which print artists need. Photoshop has CMYK built in and supports 32 bits, even 36 bits, per colour channel. I'd love it if GIMP had the capabilities of Photoshop but while it does fine for amateur and web artists it doesn't work so well for print photographers.

to you iTunes and iPod together makes perfect sense. To me it's a horrible lock down that serves only the interest of Apple, not the consumer.

Where is the lock-in for iTunes and the iPod? I don't own an iPod, or any other mpg3 player, the last portable player I bought was a Sony Walkman CD player I bought about 10 years ago. And though my Mac came with iTunes installed, I can use it or another player. If I want I can rip all of my music CDs with iTunes or another ripper and play the songs on an iPod or any other mpg3 player. Quite simply there is no lock-in for either iPods or iTunes.

If Apple tries to sell it with "loss" just to collect the rest of the revenue through iTunes store then the iPod is in a way on lease.

Apple does not require iPod owners to buy from the iTunes store. Actually the iTunes software makes it easy to rip CDs, CDa Apple does not sell, and then play the songs on Macs or Windows PC. Or the songs can be transfered to any mpg3 player. Again there is not lock-in.

If I buy an iPod bundled with iTunes and Apple actively support third party developers to create new or improved ways to use my device then I consider it a fair deal. The sad truth is however that Apple does everything to prevent this.

Are you for real? Or just spreading FUD? Fact is is Apple has a community and encourages iTunes developers. Though I am not now I have been a member of the Apple Developer Connection previously. Apple doesn't prevent or try to stop users from downloading media files from Amazon either.

Falcon

Oh, I like both Macs and open source

Ignorance is NOT bliss

http://www.amazon.com/Bible-Quran-Science-Scriptures-translated/dp/0935782494

Science and religion are completely compatible as long as science seeks to answer the how, and religion focuses on the why.

That is my personal belief on the matter. However, there are many many other theories about how the two are compatible. Please read http://www.amazon.com/Religion-Science-Gifford-Lectures-1989-1991/dp/0060603836 if you are interested in exploring them.

And for the record, I am not religious.

How about Brian Greene?
http://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Universe-Brian-Greene/dp/B001IDLCNM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247549920&sr=8-2

I found his writing to be pretty clear, light reading for quantum and relativistic introductions.

His examples are well thought out and simple enough for an intelligent twelve year old to understand (Kudos if you catch the reference).

Whether you're down with String Theory or not...

-The Fabric of the Cosmos

-The Elegant Universe

-Icarus at the Edge of Time (this would have tripped me out if read to me as a kid!)

Check out the NOVA documentaries for the Elegant Universe too

Whether you're down with String Theory or not...

-The Fabric of the Cosmos

-The Elegant Universe

-Icarus at the Edge of Time (this would have tripped me out if read to me as a kid!)

Check out the NOVA documentaries for the Elegant Universe too

Whether you're down with String Theory or not...

-The Fabric of the Cosmos

-The Elegant Universe

-Icarus at the Edge of Time (this would have tripped me out if read to me as a kid!)

Check out the NOVA documentaries for the Elegant Universe too

This is bullshit. It's not about stupidity at all, it's about control. People withhold information from other people in order to control them, not because they are stupid.

I recently read the following great book:
http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-Success-Behind-Unusual-Workplace/dp/0446670553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247546857&sr=8-1

It shows that if you allow free flow of information (and more democracy and less autocracy), ordinary people (which you denounce by calling them stupid) become much more productive and are able to make much better decisions.

Richard Dawkins is a pretty solid popularizer, if you are interested in biology.

A fair number of the bloggers at scienceblogs.com are also worth a look. Some tend more toward politics/culture; but there is plenty of science stuff, including scientists and science writers doing layman-accessible writeups of interesting peer-reviewed research(Not Exactly Rocket Science does pretty much exclusively that; but many of the others do it as well, from time to time, as do those on their blogrolls).

Beyond texts/video, of course, is equipment. Talking heads are all well and good; but microscope(should be good enough to avoid pure frustration, doesn't have to be anything fancy) will let you see the sort of crazy stuff living in your average drop of water. Even a cheap and nasty telescope will let you see more than Galileo was able to. A run through the Illustrated guide to home chemistry experiments might also be a worthy endeavor.

check out his book "The pluto files" http://www.amazon.com/Pluto-Files-Neil-deGrasse-Tyson/dp/0393065200

Read this:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html

Specifically, scroll down to the section "Enter the Web". After reading that, you should understand that it's not about keeping Internet Explorer dominant. It's about holding back the progress of the web.

Another source (in print):

http://www.amazon.com/Barbarians-Bill-Gates-Jennifer-Edstrom/dp/0805057544

The geek hasn't got a clue - and you can't slam one into his head with a twenty-pound sledge.

Software Best Sellers In Business [Updated Hourly]

1 MS Office Home & Student 2007. 931 Days In The Top 100.
4 MS Office Home & Student 2008. - Mac. 609 Days
7 Outlook 2007. 930 Days
17 MS Office Small Business 2007 Full Version. 400 Days
18 MS Office Pro 2007 Full Version. 494 Days
19 MS Office Standard 2007 Full Version. 916 Days.
23 MS Office Pro 2007 Upgrade. 930 Days.
24 MS Office Small Business 2007 Upgrade. 575 Days.

26 of the top 100 Business Best Sellers in Software at Amazon are MS Office 2007 products.

WordPerfect X4 Home&Student at $70 comes in at #60.
50 Days In the The Top 100.

I can't agree with this enough. My personal server room used to cost me about $60/mo in electricity. Now with fewer and smaller drives and moving a number of things to a single vmware server I've reduced it to about $30/mo. For anyone interested in seeing what things really use, I recommend picking up a kill-a-watt meter for $25. http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1247515957&sr=8-1 Of course they can't measure things that are under 15A on a 110v outlet. Higher loads can be measured using one of those loops on a multimeter, but I think you have to isolate and loop around the hot line only which can be a pain unless you are comfortable opening the breaker box while live.

I suppose the social norms in Japan can be a bit more oppressive than in other countries too, particularly for women.

My wife certainly struggled with that. She found it so oppressive that it put her into a funk and produced some real anxiety issues; this was a large part of why we moved back to the US, despite having moved to Japan with the intent of being there for the long haul, given our serious misgivings about the US. There was an interesting book written by a gaijin woman about living and coping in Japan, called Being a Broad in Japan. That helped some; but there's a difference between intellectually understanding why something is the way it is, and viscerally having to live with it. Ah, well... The things we do for love, eh?

Cheers,

One: The title is a borderline lie. Yes, you can buy 12x 1TB drives for about a grand. But if I'm going to build an array and bench mark it and constantly compare it to buying a Core i7-975 Extreme, the drives alone don't do me any good! (And I love how you continually reiterate with statements like "The Idea: Massive Hard Drive Storage Within a $1,000 Budget")

Two: Said controller does not exist. They listed the controller as ARC-1680ix-20. Areca makes no such controller. They make an 8, 12, 16, 24 but no 20 unless they've got some advanced product unlisted anywhere.

Three: Said controller is going to easily run you another grand. And I'm certain most controllers that accomplish what you're asking are pretty damned expensive and they will have a bigger impact than the drives on your results.

Four: You don't compare this hardware setup with any other setup. Build the "Uber RAID Array" you claim. Uber compared to what, precisely? How does a cheap Adaptac compare? Are you sure there's not a better controller for less money?

All you showed was that we increase our throughput and reduce our access times with RAID 0 & 5 compared to a single drive. So? Isn't that what's supposed to happen? Oh, and you split it across seven pages like Tom's Hardware loves to do. And I can't click print to read the article uninterrupted anymore without logging in. And those Kontera ads that pop up whenever I accidentally cross them with my mouse to click your next page links, god I love those with all my heart.

So feel free to correct me but we are left with a marketing advertisement for an Areca product that doesn't even exist and a notice that storage just keeps getting cheaper. Did I miss anything?

Sounds like you need to reset your thyroid. I think the massive amounts of chemicals in food may have knocked your body chemistry out of whack.

Check out the Kevin Trudeau book "Natural Cures".

You can get it from Amazon.com for 1 cent with $3.99 shipping:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0975599518/ref=sr_1_olp_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247490143&sr=8-2

Yeah it has some infomercial-sounding crap in it, but there is a lot of good info as well.

Markup d'oh. Dean Radin's Entangled Minds.

"But as someone who has degrees in both philosophy and mathematics, I've got to say this: belief in fictional, mythological spirits can only be damaging to serious discussions about any subject area."

That would be a sensible and rational conclusion if spirits and the realm they inhabit *were* fictional and mythological and all scientific evidence pointed toward a purely material universe.

However, that's not the case, as investigations into extra-sensory perception, remote viewing, anomalous cognition, and other paranormal phenomena have revealed. And in the last few years, a number of researchers have started documenting this evidence for a new generation.

The modern age of Spiritualism - since the Fox sisters in 1848 - launched the Society for Psychical Research, which gathered an immense amount of extraordinary data. Since then, there have been a number of independent scientific programs evaluating the 'spiritual', and the data is very interesting.

Ignorance of this field among the scientifically-educated who are not parapsychologists is understandable - given the hostility of gatekeeper publications like Scientific American and anti-psi advocacy groups like CSICOP/CSI - but, well, it's now 2009, we have the Internet, and if you really do have an open mind and would like to look at the data yourself rather than having your mind made up for you by others, now is a wonderful time to dive in and explore.

The mother of all textbooks on the subject is Kelly & Kelly et al's Irreducible Mind with a wall of footnotes, aimed at a college-level audience - if you want a more approachable entree to the subject, I highly recommend the late Elizabeth Mayer's Extraordinary Knowing, Chris Carter's (not the X-files guy, someone else) Parapsychology and the Skeptics, or Dean Radin's .

Don't limit yourself by irrationally saying 'well this stuff is impossible therefore I won't even look at the data'. Instead, try looking at the data and then ask 'if this stuff really occurs, then what does this imply about the nature of the universe?' If you open that door, and investigate the material, you'll find there's an extraordinary reality inside. But be warned that it will change you.

"But as someone who has degrees in both philosophy and mathematics, I've got to say this: belief in fictional, mythological spirits can only be damaging to serious discussions about any subject area."

That would be a sensible and rational conclusion if spirits and the realm they inhabit *were* fictional and mythological and all scientific evidence pointed toward a purely material universe.

However, that's not the case, as investigations into extra-sensory perception, remote viewing, anomalous cognition, and other paranormal phenomena have revealed. And in the last few years, a number of researchers have started documenting this evidence for a new generation.

The modern age of Spiritualism - since the Fox sisters in 1848 - launched the Society for Psychical Research, which gathered an immense amount of extraordinary data. Since then, there have been a number of independent scientific programs evaluating the 'spiritual', and the data is very interesting.

Ignorance of this field among the scientifically-educated who are not parapsychologists is understandable - given the hostility of gatekeeper publications like Scientific American and anti-psi advocacy groups like CSICOP/CSI - but, well, it's now 2009, we have the Internet, and if you really do have an open mind and would like to look at the data yourself rather than having your mind made up for you by others, now is a wonderful time to dive in and explore.

The mother of all textbooks on the subject is Kelly & Kelly et al's Irreducible Mind with a wall of footnotes, aimed at a college-level audience - if you want a more approachable entree to the subject, I highly recommend the late Elizabeth Mayer's Extraordinary Knowing, Chris Carter's (not the X-files guy, someone else) Parapsychology and the Skeptics, or Dean Radin's .

Don't limit yourself by irrationally saying 'well this stuff is impossible therefore I won't even look at the data'. Instead, try looking at the data and then ask 'if this stuff really occurs, then what does this imply about the nature of the universe?' If you open that door, and investigate the material, you'll find there's an extraordinary reality inside. But be warned that it will change you.

"But as someone who has degrees in both philosophy and mathematics, I've got to say this: belief in fictional, mythological spirits can only be damaging to serious discussions about any subject area."

That would be a sensible and rational conclusion if spirits and the realm they inhabit *were* fictional and mythological and all scientific evidence pointed toward a purely material universe.

However, that's not the case, as investigations into extra-sensory perception, remote viewing, anomalous cognition, and other paranormal phenomena have revealed. And in the last few years, a number of researchers have started documenting this evidence for a new generation.

The modern age of Spiritualism - since the Fox sisters in 1848 - launched the Society for Psychical Research, which gathered an immense amount of extraordinary data. Since then, there have been a number of independent scientific programs evaluating the 'spiritual', and the data is very interesting.

Ignorance of this field among the scientifically-educated who are not parapsychologists is understandable - given the hostility of gatekeeper publications like Scientific American and anti-psi advocacy groups like CSICOP/CSI - but, well, it's now 2009, we have the Internet, and if you really do have an open mind and would like to look at the data yourself rather than having your mind made up for you by others, now is a wonderful time to dive in and explore.

The mother of all textbooks on the subject is Kelly & Kelly et al's Irreducible Mind with a wall of footnotes, aimed at a college-level audience - if you want a more approachable entree to the subject, I highly recommend the late Elizabeth Mayer's Extraordinary Knowing, Chris Carter's (not the X-files guy, someone else) Parapsychology and the Skeptics, or Dean Radin's .

Don't limit yourself by irrationally saying 'well this stuff is impossible therefore I won't even look at the data'. Instead, try looking at the data and then ask 'if this stuff really occurs, then what does this imply about the nature of the universe?' If you open that door, and investigate the material, you'll find there's an extraordinary reality inside. But be warned that it will change you.

"But as someone who has degrees in both philosophy and mathematics, I've got to say this: belief in fictional, mythological spirits can only be damaging to serious discussions about any subject area."

That would be a sensible and rational conclusion if spirits and the realm they inhabit *were* fictional and mythological and all scientific evidence pointed toward a purely material universe.

However, that's not the case, as investigations into extra-sensory perception, remote viewing, anomalous cognition, and other paranormal phenomena have revealed. And in the last few years, a number of researchers have started documenting this evidence for a new generation.

The modern age of Spiritualism - since the Fox sisters in 1848 - launched the Society for Psychical Research, which gathered an immense amount of extraordinary data. Since then, there have been a number of independent scientific programs evaluating the 'spiritual', and the data is very interesting.

Ignorance of this field among the scientifically-educated who are not parapsychologists is understandable - given the hostility of gatekeeper publications like Scientific American and anti-psi advocacy groups like CSICOP/CSI - but, well, it's now 2009, we have the Internet, and if you really do have an open mind and would like to look at the data yourself rather than having your mind made up for you by others, now is a wonderful time to dive in and explore.

The mother of all textbooks on the subject is Kelly & Kelly et al's Irreducible Mind with a wall of footnotes, aimed at a college-level audience - if you want a more approachable entree to the subject, I highly recommend the late Elizabeth Mayer's Extraordinary Knowing, Chris Carter's (not the X-files guy, someone else) Parapsychology and the Skeptics, or Dean Radin's .

Don't limit yourself by irrationally saying 'well this stuff is impossible therefore I won't even look at the data'. Instead, try looking at the data and then ask 'if this stuff really occurs, then what does this imply about the nature of the universe?' If you open that door, and investigate the material, you'll find there's an extraordinary reality inside. But be warned that it will change you.

"So, the end of that slippery slope? We're there. The sled ride is over."

Francis Fukuyama, is that you?

Oh wait, he changed his mind a few years later.

In a way, they are learning about SQL.

"Logic, Sets and Recursion" http://www.amazon.com/Logic-Recursion-Jones-Bartlett-Mathematics/dp/0763716952 is an excellent introduction to RDBMS, and it's read in a lot of non-CS undergraduate programs.

This book might help:
    "The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health & Happiness" by Douglas J. Lisle
    http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508

The central idea is that we get desensitized to the varied nuances of plain food by eating a lot of stuff that is very salty, sugary, fatty, or in other ways intense. Once we are desensitized, eating foods that are not so good for us brings us no more pleasure than we used to get from plainer food. The book talks about ways to get back to a more basic diet with more vegetables and fruits and complex carbohydrates. The book also talks about fasting as a way to reset your expectations of food. Fasting is a complex subject that one should learn a lot about before trying, especially for anyone loaded up on toxics from a Standard American Diet, perhaps requiring building up to longer fasts; you can also look up "Eat Stop Eat" as an alternative to longer fasts. One simple tip from the book is to prepare meals that either have veggies and carbohydrates, or veggies and meat, but never meat and carbohydrates at the same meal. One thing this book does not talk about is how different there might be different body types with different nutritional needs (Dr. Mercola has written about this).

By the way, of course you know this, but allergies can be symptoms of different underlying issues (including stuff like Lyme disease). Omega-3s (fish oil) may help with the joint pains, although again they could be related so something like Lyme. Chinese herbs, Yoga, and so on can help with that too -- a good book to explore is "Healing Lyme" by Stephen Harrod Buhner.
    http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Lyme-Prevention-Borreliosis-Coinfections/dp/0970869630
These things can all interact.

Good luck to you and your wife. I know how hard it can be to deal with extra pounds.

This book might help:
    "The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health & Happiness" by Douglas J. Lisle
    http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508

The central idea is that we get desensitized to the varied nuances of plain food by eating a lot of stuff that is very salty, sugary, fatty, or in other ways intense. Once we are desensitized, eating foods that are not so good for us brings us no more pleasure than we used to get from plainer food. The book talks about ways to get back to a more basic diet with more vegetables and fruits and complex carbohydrates. The book also talks about fasting as a way to reset your expectations of food. Fasting is a complex subject that one should learn a lot about before trying, especially for anyone loaded up on toxics from a Standard American Diet, perhaps requiring building up to longer fasts; you can also look up "Eat Stop Eat" as an alternative to longer fasts. One simple tip from the book is to prepare meals that either have veggies and carbohydrates, or veggies and meat, but never meat and carbohydrates at the same meal. One thing this book does not talk about is how different there might be different body types with different nutritional needs (Dr. Mercola has written about this).

By the way, of course you know this, but allergies can be symptoms of different underlying issues (including stuff like Lyme disease). Omega-3s (fish oil) may help with the joint pains, although again they could be related so something like Lyme. Chinese herbs, Yoga, and so on can help with that too -- a good book to explore is "Healing Lyme" by Stephen Harrod Buhner.
    http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Lyme-Prevention-Borreliosis-Coinfections/dp/0970869630
These things can all interact.

Good luck to you and your wife. I know how hard it can be to deal with extra pounds.

far leftists such as William Ayers, author of "Rules for Radicals" (which outlines this very strategy) and a close personal friend of a certain American President,...

You're a huge tool.
The author is Saul Alinsky. http://www.amazon.com/Rules-Radicals-Saul-Alinsky/dp/0679721134
All the spoon-fed propaganda you read from your right-wing echo chamber has really made you too lazy to check basic facts.

http://www.amazon.com/Who-Controls-Internet-Illusions-Borderless/dp/0195152662

it's an interesting read. it was assigned in a freshman seminar i took. talked about how the illusions people had that law was unenforceable on the internet was shattered in its early days.

still, i think the only reason the US didn't grant them asylum was because they didn't want a scandal with the UK. if those people were from, say, lebanon, i'm pretty sure the story would've had a different ending..

It's called Iron Board Bridge Qigong, used to train torso strength in tradition Chinese Kung-Fu (Gongfu). Training methods about it in this book http://www.amazon.com/Essence-Shaolin-White-Crane-Martial-Qigong/dp/1886969353 Totally hardcore.

If you'll excuse the shameless self promotion, this book teaches UNIX security people how to use Mainframes: http://www.amazon.com/Mainframe-Basics-Security-Professionals-Getting/dp/0131738569/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202746607&sr=8-1

I agree with others here that the MLAS appears to be overly
complex. Too many things need to happen. I prefer the "KISS"
philosophy.

As a backup system this is good.

I liked the earlier Apollo escape system. Fire rockets, drop the
rockets, deploy parachute. They did the same type tests viewable
in "The Mighty Saturns" (see web link below). However This
system might not be practical with the larger and heavier module
being used today.

"The Mighty Saturns" Spacecraft Films
http://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Saturns-Saturn-Extended-Collectors/dp/B0001NBM5I

Nah. He's more like John Klieg, the patent troll from John Barnes' Mother of Storms.

I consider the MS Trackball Explorer to be the king of trackballs. Unfortunately they don't make them anymore and they aren't cheap on E-bay (or amazon used as you can see in the link). I absolutely love mine. The Logitech Cordless Optical Trackman is probably the closest to it that is currently manufactured, although with trackballs being cordless isn't nearly that important.