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Don't you just read comments in any contentious article? Or maybe view those lower-rated posts and see what the less lively discussions are. And then the rest of the people who dislike all the Idle posts can have less filler on Slashdot. Anyhow, I'd imagine this is pretty generic "disagree mail" for any major news collection + comment site. The world is full of nutty people who send in wacky letters to all sorts of places.

If you're looking for interesting letters, try overqualified, the wacky antics of Open letters to people or entities who are unlikely to respond, or get a copy of idiot letters (book). If that fails, just google around for "dumb letters."

You're obviously ill informed of the FED's previous bailout history. Companies that get aid loan packages from the FED rarely can ever pay them back. What happens? Nothing. More bailout loan packages, more inflation, more debt. Guess who gets to pay it all back in the end? That's right, the American Taxpayer through taxes AND inflation.

If anybody wants a real explination about how exactly our economy has functioned (or not functioned more accurately) read Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve. Every American and actually every world citizen needs to know how this bank and it's subsidiaries the IMF and World Bank are destroying sound economic policy all over the world.

From your example, I really don't see what the problem is. You imply that B is the more liked candidate, but if his own supporters are giving him a 7, and another group is giving him zeros, maybe he shouldn't win. A is the only candidate who doesn't get any zeros, and he has the highest average score, to me it seems like the system chooses the best candidate in this example.

No voting system is perfect, including range voting. And so there will always be edge cases where the system does not elect the ideal candidate. But range voting (and approval which is a subset of range) have been shown to give the least amount of bayesian regret. It is certainly better than the current plurality system which is one of the least fair voting methods.

I'll bet you would approve of the book "Electron flow in organic chemistry" by Paul H. Scudder. http://www.amazon.com/Electron-Flow-Organic-Chemistry-Scudder/dp/0471613819/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221791572&sr=1-1 From the product description: "Presents twenty electron flow pathways as the building blocks of all the common mechanistic processes."

Thirdly, I don't think the cost of media is the biggest factor by a long way. They've probably also factored in cost of a contract with Iron Mountain, cost of robotic tape library, licensing costs for TSM (or similar) and a proportion of the wages involved in paying someone to swap the tapes out and hand them over to Iron Mountain every day.

Indeed -- the cost is in offsite storage and archival. I've previously used Amazon S3. They charge .15 cents per gigabyte-month for redundant online storage, and if you want redundancy against bit flip failures on their end, you can also employ something like reed-solomon error correction on uploaded data.

When I set up uploading of (encrypted) backup archives, the total overhead was approximately $102/month in data transfer costs (1 terabyte amortized over a month) and $307/month in data storage (2 terabytes/month), with minimal month over month growth. This is a yearly cost of $4908, or $2.39 per gigabyte per year.

There is a comprehensive book on the subject. It is called Answering the Objections of Atheists, Agnostics, and Skeptics Buy it.

You want to find out more about this kind of "thin slicing" of reality?

Check out Blink by Malcom Gladwell.

Never has so little been said so well for over 200 pages. Gladwell is the Barack Obama of the writing world.

I've never liked the K&R, even later versions, much preferring Harbison & Steele "C - a reference manual". I've worn out 3 editions so far. But that's offtopic since the question was about online presence. For this comp.lang.c remains the most useful.

The funny thing is that for some 20 years, before I started using Python, my favorite and almost only language was C, and I don't know of any really good site for C.

I agree. C and Python are, in my opinion, the only languages that integrate *really well* with general UNIX design philosophy. They're both incredibly simple and powerful, in their own ways.

Before Python, I was a Perl guy... but I left Perl a year ago and haven't looked back.

Now I'm getting good at writing Python extension modules in C (what fun). The API is really nice and almost trivial to use from a C programmer's perspective. It's not unlike the GTK APIs, but focuses a litttle less on consistency and a little more on practical usability.

However, I do know of a really good author, that is a "dead tree" author, for C: Herbert Schildt. I would recommend these. Any of them. Well, just kidding, I haven't read them all, I doubt anyone has, but I bet they are all good.

I like his books too, and you have a good point. There are plenty of references for C functions (standard library, man pages, system calls) and plenty of excellent open source example code, but there aren't really any good online resources that teach or demonstrate the idioms of C programming in a step-by-step fashion. I guess that sort of goes hand-in-hand with the roll-your-own attitude that some C programmers have. :-/

Someone prove me wrong, please?

Yup. I agree.

Just as the McCain campaign was dead wrong trying to characterize Obama as a pervert (over Kindergarten child rape prevention clases) and calling Sarah Palin a "pig," when his old press secretary wrote a book about it as a metaphor for spin, and McCain himself used the metaphor himself to describe Hillarycare II.

So basically, the McCain campaign is "plain wrong," and so is this nutcase fringe group that broke into Palin's mails. Glad we're clear on that.

Hopefully, all concerned parties will stop being "plain wrong" and go back to being "right," possibly with a little help from the appropriate country's corrections system, in the latter case.

--
Toro

SGI's STL site is excellent, though I'm not not sure how up-to-date it is.

The C++ Programming Language , by Bjarne Stroustrup, is the only essential and authoritative language reference, other than the standard itself. It isn't a web site, but programming in C++ isn't something you pick up on a whim.

And of course Boost, the first place to look when you think, "There should be a library for this."

The funny thing is that for some 20 years, before I started using Python, my favorite and almost only language was C, and I don't know of any really good site for C.

However, I do know of a really good author, that is a "dead tree" author, for C: Herbert Schildt. I would recommend these. Any of them. Well, just kidding, I haven't read them all, I doubt anyone has, but I bet they are all good.

My favorite is his book on artificial intelligence. It's out of print now, but it was one of the reasons why C was my favorite language for about 20 years, and it still would be if Python hadn't come out.

The funny thing is that for some 20 years, before I started using Python, my favorite and almost only language was C, and I don't know of any really good site for C.

However, I do know of a really good author, that is a "dead tree" author, for C: Herbert Schildt. I would recommend these. Any of them. Well, just kidding, I haven't read them all, I doubt anyone has, but I bet they are all good.

My favorite is his book on artificial intelligence. It's out of print now, but it was one of the reasons why C was my favorite language for about 20 years, and it still would be if Python hadn't come out.

it's perfectly possible to know one and not the other

Oh, for sure, any reasonably intelligent person can calculate a car's fuel consumption without any knowledge about engines. But someone who writes about a "28 valve V-6 engine" seems like he read this book. If you want to quote those detailed specs, better get them right. Otherwise, you become indistinguishable from a liar.

This isn't a gamer's PC - but this second generation TouchSmart PC suggests what is happening in OEM Vista:

64-Bit Vista is becoming mainstream. The dual or quad core CPU with 3 or 4 GB RAM has a presence at every price point above entry-level.

What interests me most is that NVIDIA's tech is backwards compatible to DX 7 - and designed for the wide screen - big screen - HDTV.

It puts the PC back into the family game room.

2 copies of the radio play on mp3-CD here: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-Radio/dp/0563494212

"Under the US Constitution, the people is the sovereign power, delegating its powers to the three branches of the state, executive, legislature and judiciary, which are supposed to be agents of the people. But delegating sovereign powers to private hands undermines the state's capacity to govern. Outsourcing political decisions threatens the democratic principle of accountability."

http://www.amazon.com/Outsourcing-Sovereignty-Privatization-Government-Functions/dp/0521867045

Read a preview at http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=ecAYc_tuAukC&dq=government+privatization&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=q2-SR9mtzn&sig=ox7JxfoBXmGeGTdZ6q5ArYb1skQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result

This technology is equivalent to having hundreds of thousands (millions) of officers watching the public highways and recording the every license plate. Included are also the clerks collecting the notes and able to search through them in seconds.

No society could afford this many policemen — the cameras and the computers are productivity tools, just as they are in the offices or at industrial facilities.

The old adage is, police can solve any crime, but not every crime — for lack of resources.

The real question is, do we want to increase the ratio of solved crimes (up to 100%) — as the technology may allow us to do? Or do we want to allow some transgressions unpunished to allow some "breathing room" for future fighters against some hypothetical tyranny?

This issue is examined in the first three stories in David Drake's 1986 anthology Lacey and His Friends -- a dystopian society where surveillance is omnipresent by law, and most crimes are solved by bringing up the surveillance video of the crime to identify the culprit, with the most sophisticated crimes requiring tracing through chains of surveillance by dedicated personnel. It's well worth reading if you can find a copy.

hurt just thinking about it. Humans, I'll never understand them, you don't even need a brain the size of a planet to know this won't work.


I just finished reading the 2003-updated edition of Neil Gaiman's Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and I have to say that I don't believe anyone can really emulate Adams' particular style of writing. And unless they've found a treasure trove of almost-finished manuscripts (unlikely) the best that we have from Adams' writing before his death is mostly compiled in The Salmon Of Doubt, and there was just the merest inklings of a beginning of a truely Adamsian epic tale in there...


Besides, we all know the only person who could write HHGttG properly is Terry Pratchett, and he is ONLY allowed to write Discworld books until he's unable to write or they cure Alzheimer's Disease. And someone sure as hell had better cure it.

hurt just thinking about it. Humans, I'll never understand them, you don't even need a brain the size of a planet to know this won't work.


I just finished reading the 2003-updated edition of Neil Gaiman's Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and I have to say that I don't believe anyone can really emulate Adams' particular style of writing. And unless they've found a treasure trove of almost-finished manuscripts (unlikely) the best that we have from Adams' writing before his death is mostly compiled in The Salmon Of Doubt, and there was just the merest inklings of a beginning of a truely Adamsian epic tale in there...


Besides, we all know the only person who could write HHGttG properly is Terry Pratchett, and he is ONLY allowed to write Discworld books until he's unable to write or they cure Alzheimer's Disease. And someone sure as hell had better cure it.

I heartily agree there Brave New hpycmprok! Education in the USA has tanked. Too many otherwise good people are not completing high school. See the David Brooks editorial below (NyTimes registration required). A summary; the USA was fine and improving through 1970 then from 1975 to 1990 education graduation did not move. Other countries during that time moved ahead. The article is based on two books. Goldin and Katz http://www.amazon.com/Race-between-Education-Technology/dp/0674028678 "Schools, Skills, and Synapses" by Heckman (downloadable PDF) http://ftp.iza.org/dp3515.pdf "The Real Issue", David Brooks http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/opinion/29brooks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Finally people are not concerned about TFA because they a) shelter their knowledge by keeping within circles of limited curiosity. This means they don't care., b) as you said, could not comprehend its impacts. Best wishes oh wise one, Jim Burke

1. I define myself as a liberal because I believe in using tax money to fund social programs, I'm against the war, for gay rights, etc. All positions which you can probably respect, regardless of whether you agree.
2. Change the definition of the word "liberal" in people's minds minds to mean Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show.
3. Since I gave myself that label, I can no longer argue that I am not a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, ..., Freak show, because I admitted it myself, right?

In my own mind I do the same with Republicans. I hear "conservative" and I think, "Gun-toting, Bible-thumping, fact-ignoring, etc", when really they probably just believe in lower taxes, a free market and strong national defense, which are things I don't agree with but don't hate you for believing.

I appreciated Mr Adams qualifying his survey with his own leanings, but the bias of the economists makes it very difficult to pull anything useful out of the results.

88% of Democratic economists think Obama would be best, while 80% of Republican economists pick McCain

And, since there were more than 3x as many Democrats in the pool as Republicans, I would assume that many of the "Independents" were also left-leaning. For whatever reason, apparently "economist" is a field that attracts liberals.

On a side note, for those of you that haven't read God's Debris: A Thought Experiment , it's worth checking out from the library (or dropping the $10 at Amazon) and taking a look at Scott Adams's serious side - Nothing life changing, but occasional moments of insight.

Do you have any proof of this bias?

Straight from their own front page:

• Ninety Percent of Olympic Athletes Used Nutritional Supplements to Enhance Performance
• Criminals Who Eat Processed Foods Leave More Evidence Behind at Crime Scenes
• Media Quotes Vitamin B12 Deficiency Study to Attack Vegetarians, Vegans
• Yet More Pharmaceuticals Found in the Public Water Supply of U.S. Cities

Did Kevin Trudeau write any of those articles I posted?

Never said he did. I was merely pointing out a similarity between Natural News and Kevin Trudeau both claiming that "natural" remedies are more effective than man-made medicines (which are also natural).

Do you have any links or proof that he is providing miraculous cures?

Just a few. Like this one, this one and this one. So yes, I have proof he is providing miracle cures. That and his infomercials on which he peddles his book which has in its title, "Includes The Natural Cures For Over 50 Specific Diseases".

Good job at attacking a source you don't like instead of trying to prove anything they said wrong. Very intelligent!

I never said I didn't like the source. Some "natural" items can be very beneficial to certain people. However, claiming that ONLY "natural" products, such as supplements which are unregulated and don't have to detail what they actually contain or what effect they may have on people, is disingenuous and potentially harmful.

As far as proving them wrong, I don't need to prove them wrong because studies over the years have proven them wrong. Here is one article which discusses "natural" remedies, and this one which talks about Lycopene.

So yes, I was very intelligent to point out the bias of Natural News so people are aware of their bias. Whether people heed the warning is up to them but they have been warned.

In other news, you can now buy a Pyrex(TM) cake pan and Pyrex spatula to go with your M$ Cray.

In other news, you can now buy a Pyrex(TM) cake pan and Pyrex spatula to go with your M$ Cray.

Note: the vast majority of all fresh water processing is fueled by fossile fuel today (think sea water processing)

It gets better - as oil and natural gas run out, the "easy" oil is being used up first. That leaves the stuff that's really deep, really viscous, or problematic in other ways when it comes to extraction. What's the primary material used to aid in this difficult extraction process? That's right, water.

A good (horrific) example is the oil sands extraction industry in Alberta, which is merrily destroying the Athabasca River watershed through massive water takings and pollution.

As oil runs out, we run out of energy to deal with the looming water crisis. As water runs out we run out of the raw material needed to extract energy ... fun times ahead

In fact, since it goes against absolutely every single piece of evidence available, the only position compatible with the information I have is that that claim is in fact false.

If you're serious about wanting to hear some of the best arguments for the alleged resurrection being an actual historical event, you might want to read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis or The Case for Easter by Lee Strobel. The first is considered a classic. The second book I haven't read, but I've read some of Strobel's other books, and I've found them to be pretty good.

Of course, if you're so certain that Christianity is false that you don't consider it worth investing the time in reading a book that tries to make the case for Christianity, then I guess there's not much I could do right now to convince you.

Of course, as an agnostic, it's not that much skin of my back ;)

In fact, since it goes against absolutely every single piece of evidence available, the only position compatible with the information I have is that that claim is in fact false.

If you're serious about wanting to hear some of the best arguments for the alleged resurrection being an actual historical event, you might want to read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis or The Case for Easter by Lee Strobel. The first is considered a classic. The second book I haven't read, but I've read some of Strobel's other books, and I've found them to be pretty good.

Of course, if you're so certain that Christianity is false that you don't consider it worth investing the time in reading a book that tries to make the case for Christianity, then I guess there's not much I could do right now to convince you.

Of course, as an agnostic, it's not that much skin of my back ;)

For those interested in some further reading on the subject, might I suggest the following: Class 11: Inside the CIA's First Post-9/11 Spy Class . The book elaborates upon, among other things, the differences between clandestine and covert operations, the training of CIA case officers for domestic and overseas assignments, different types of cover (official and otherwise), and basic spycraft techniques employed by case officers. It was an interesting inside look at an often misunderstood agency of our government and definitely worth a read if you want to know more about what the CIA and other intelligence agencies do and what it might be like to work for them (should you dare to apply).

You seem angry ("You can't understand because you are stupid.") I'm not sure why. I actually thought this was a really interesting conversation.

Regarding the genealogy timeline thing. I can see why you'd see that. The explanation I've heard though is that it's customary for those genealogies to omit certain generations. That is, "X is the father of Y" is meant to be interpreted as "X is an ancestor of Y". It's hard to know whether or not scholars come up with that claim just to deal with that particular problem, or if even non-Christian / non-Jewish scholars would agree that that literary form of genealogy really can skip generations.

This actually raises a broader issue I've encountered when trying to determine if the Bible is true. Whenever I've come to an apparent contradiction, there's always been some scholarly explanation that explains away the contradiction. And since I'm not a full-time scholar of ancient literary forms, it's hard to know whom to trust about this stuff. Maybe it's really true that casual readers are likely to completely misinterpret texts like the Bible.

The thing about the sun stopping the the sky: I dunno. Maybe the Bible's wrong, maybe we're interpreting it more literally than that book's original author meant, or maybe there's some third explanation. I'm pretty beat, so I'm going to leave researching that one into you if you're interested. A good place to look is something like this.

This is a great example of both a false analogy and genetic fallacy. There is no credible evidence that Jesus as described in the bible existed, while there there is volumes of evidence that George Washington existed. Therefore the analogy is false. The genetic fallacy comes in when you assert that a fictional character is real.

Why do you believe that there's no credible evidence that the Jesus of the bible existed?

In other words Argument from half-truth. You want to change the definition of what makes "good evidence" to allow false premises to support your arguments.

I wasn't equivocating. I never agreed with you on the definition of "good evidence" in the first place. Your charge of sophism isn't accurate.

False Dilemma: It is not that belief itself isn't scientifically verifiable, but that what you believe has no scientifically verifiable evidence. It is in no way self-contradictory to require that there be scientific evidence of the thing one believes in as one is not demanding evidence of belief but rather evidence of the thing believed in.

I think you misunderstood my point. But it was probably a point I shouldn't have made anyway, because it's trying to argue against a view that I don't think you hold. I suggest we suspend this branch of the discussion.

BTW, thanks for keeping up the conversation. This is fun for me.

Then what is it? Some links/citations to the scientific evidence of a creator would be nice.

Sure, I'll see what I can dig up. But bear in mind that I'm agnostic, so I haven't found any evidence on either side completely compelling.

Rather than trying to dig up some slam-dunk scientific argument (which I personally have never found), I'll give you a few links to books from guys who have tried to make compelling cases for the compatibility of Christianity and modern science (and/or other reasons to believe that Christianity is true). I think you'll find the kinds of arguments you're looking for in these books. I'd try to answer your request more narrowly, but I'm actually at work and should get back to it. Some links are below.

• Evidence that Demands a Verdict
• The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
• Mere Christianity
• The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus
• Here's one where you'll have to decide whether or not the author is lying. If he's not, then I guess I'm done being agnostic. I just can't figure out how to determine if he's lying, though. The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun

Then what is it? Some links/citations to the scientific evidence of a creator would be nice.

Sure, I'll see what I can dig up. But bear in mind that I'm agnostic, so I haven't found any evidence on either side completely compelling.

Rather than trying to dig up some slam-dunk scientific argument (which I personally have never found), I'll give you a few links to books from guys who have tried to make compelling cases for the compatibility of Christianity and modern science (and/or other reasons to believe that Christianity is true). I think you'll find the kinds of arguments you're looking for in these books. I'd try to answer your request more narrowly, but I'm actually at work and should get back to it. Some links are below.

• Evidence that Demands a Verdict
• The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
• Mere Christianity
• The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus
• Here's one where you'll have to decide whether or not the author is lying. If he's not, then I guess I'm done being agnostic. I just can't figure out how to determine if he's lying, though. The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun

Then what is it? Some links/citations to the scientific evidence of a creator would be nice.

Sure, I'll see what I can dig up. But bear in mind that I'm agnostic, so I haven't found any evidence on either side completely compelling.

Rather than trying to dig up some slam-dunk scientific argument (which I personally have never found), I'll give you a few links to books from guys who have tried to make compelling cases for the compatibility of Christianity and modern science (and/or other reasons to believe that Christianity is true). I think you'll find the kinds of arguments you're looking for in these books. I'd try to answer your request more narrowly, but I'm actually at work and should get back to it. Some links are below.

• Evidence that Demands a Verdict
• The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
• Mere Christianity
• The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus
• Here's one where you'll have to decide whether or not the author is lying. If he's not, then I guess I'm done being agnostic. I just can't figure out how to determine if he's lying, though. The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun

Then what is it? Some links/citations to the scientific evidence of a creator would be nice.

Sure, I'll see what I can dig up. But bear in mind that I'm agnostic, so I haven't found any evidence on either side completely compelling.

Rather than trying to dig up some slam-dunk scientific argument (which I personally have never found), I'll give you a few links to books from guys who have tried to make compelling cases for the compatibility of Christianity and modern science (and/or other reasons to believe that Christianity is true). I think you'll find the kinds of arguments you're looking for in these books. I'd try to answer your request more narrowly, but I'm actually at work and should get back to it. Some links are below.

• Evidence that Demands a Verdict
• The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
• Mere Christianity
• The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus
• Here's one where you'll have to decide whether or not the author is lying. If he's not, then I guess I'm done being agnostic. I just can't figure out how to determine if he's lying, though. The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun

Then what is it? Some links/citations to the scientific evidence of a creator would be nice.

Sure, I'll see what I can dig up. But bear in mind that I'm agnostic, so I haven't found any evidence on either side completely compelling.

Rather than trying to dig up some slam-dunk scientific argument (which I personally have never found), I'll give you a few links to books from guys who have tried to make compelling cases for the compatibility of Christianity and modern science (and/or other reasons to believe that Christianity is true). I think you'll find the kinds of arguments you're looking for in these books. I'd try to answer your request more narrowly, but I'm actually at work and should get back to it. Some links are below.

• Evidence that Demands a Verdict
• The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
• Mere Christianity
• The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus
• Here's one where you'll have to decide whether or not the author is lying. If he's not, then I guess I'm done being agnostic. I just can't figure out how to determine if he's lying, though. The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun

First, some URLs:

Long range acoustic device
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_range_acoustic_device

Ship Blasted Pirates With Sonic Weapon
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8DNUV2G3&show_article=1

Sonic Weapons Ward Off Pirate Attack
http://realmwaverider.blogspot.com/2005/11/sonic-weapons-ward-off-pirate-attack.html

Does LRAD Work?
http://maritimeaccident.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/does-lrad-work/

Cruise Lines Turn to LRAD
http://www.marinelink.com/Story/Cruise+Lines+Turn+to++LRAD-200811.html

This is almost a Security Theatre/Boondoggle Exercise all over again.

Any pirates wanting a particular ship, or even a random one that is known to be equipped with sonic blasters, but not protected by specially-trained anti-piracy personne with long-range weaponry will only need to fire RPGs, or laser-guided weapons, or use sniper rifles with HE/AP shells to take out the expensive, lone sonic mount. Even a frag blast *near* it may send it off-kilter.

To pull this off is a no-brainer. Typically, pirates already send one to 3 boats ahead of the target lying wait in the dark. They already would have paid out (dispensed) a line rigged between them as they separated sufficiently to ensnare the target. The target craft/vessel encounters the line, and forging ahead, draws the pirates in closer. They pirates use suction cups or grappling hooks, or some combination thereof and scale the hull.

Now, using sniper rifles with NVG-enhancement type equipment, a few well-placed sniper-fired rounds from one or more craft can take out the LRAD mounts -- unless so many multiples (fakes) are emplaced so as to cause the pirates to fire enough rounds do betray their location. Smart LRAD emplacements will have gear to detect and localize the source of incoming fire and train the operational/real LRAD to that bearing and elevation and dwell on the target. But, in congested areas, like the Strait of Malacca, using the LRAD can quickly become illegal if locals are sickened, ship-wrecked or otherwise harmed.

For a more recent article (but not one containing countermeasures such as mine, which anyone with half a brain can adduce/deduct/produce/educe in 45 seconds), see:

Maritime Reporter & Engineering News (www.marinelink.com) August 2008

If you are a sailor/yacht operator, you've probably already read:

"The New Piracy"
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n24/glas01_.html

"Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas", By John Burnette (I bought my copy in 2003)
http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Waters-Modern-Piracy-Terror/dp/0452284139

Sound absurd? It's true.

'The Truth Machine' written in 1997 is a sci-fi novel that goes into this idea fairly well, and provides a bunch of other near-future interesting technologies. Not perfect by far, and it's out of print now, but you can get see more info about it or pick it up at Amazon. (The first 1-star rating was quite harsh in my opinion because the tech ideas expressed make it worth at least 3 stars, many of them implementable with today's technologies.)

He wrote that the ESP sense is
1. Primitive-brain, and
2. NOT words-based.

He showed that the "debunkers" INSIST on verbal reporting of ESP, disallowing any "art" based method
( drawing, showing what it's showing you ),
and that engaging verbal-mode JAMMED the ESP, thereby "proving" that it didn't exist.
( specifically his Everybody's Guide to ESP, which was about $100 second-hand, when I got my copy )

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&tag=mozilla-20&index=blended&link_code=qs&field-keywords=ingo%20swann%20esp&sourceid=Mozilla-search

Ingo Swann ESP
search on Amazon.

From what he, and
Stephen K. Hayes & Charles Daniel ( these 2 are ninja )
have written, there are 3 effective ways of developing ESP:

1. alone, use Strikingly Bold Design cards
Blank business cards, with, say, 7 or 8 distinct bold visual things, several instances of each so the "feel" of the card doesn't give it away... ... say Single Solid Triangle, small
Large Hollow Square
2 Parallel Straight Lines
3 Parallel Wavy Lines...

you get the idea, shuffle 'em, separate one out behind your back, and set it aside, behind your back.

Now, leaving 'em all behind you,
look into a blank white paper, and wait,
while intending *seeing* of that one set-aside card.
You'll probably see some colorless proto-shape appear,
or squirm into/out-of being on the paper.
DRAW WHAT YOU SEE.
if it twists/changes, draw the early and later forms.

After a few minutes, you've got a couple of proto-images, and can grab that card from behind you to compare.

When you start, accept ANY success,
because you're training a sense you've blocked/abused all your civilized life,
and you have to cherish it into living/functioning again.

You will probably find something right, though ( density, proportion, "line"ness or something ) not likely all, in your first while ( days/months, depends on individual ).

Here's the crucial point, though:
Since it's primitive-brain, and the network in one's brain ( for bearing such consciousness ) is
atrophied & delicate, DON'T OVERTRAIN, OR YOU "BLOW" THE SENSE.

iow, do it once a day, every day,
and you'll be eventually able to suddenly *know* that you need to move,
just *before* something bad happens to where you were.

Ninjutsu calls that "biomind"
( Charles Daniel does, anyway - moving out of the way of the attack that you,
by *conventional means* could not possibly have known about,
means being not-hit.
Much better than being super-tough and macho and pounding the
hell out of someone who just chopped you in two )

The second way?
2. Have someone put some super-distinct/bold appearing object on a blank table, or area-of-floor,
in another room.
See/Draw that, same method as above.
Now you're working with more information:
maybe what you're drawing you're getting from their mind, instead of from "space".
Also, their intent may interfere with your seeing.
Again, NEVER overtrain, unless you *want* to burn out sense-capability.

Third way?
3. MAKE probability-wave happen:
get a set of 4 dice & a mug & saucer.
put one of the dice in front of you, & the other 3 behind you, in the mug.
Set the die in front of you to whatever side you choose/intend.
Behind your back, in the mug+saucer, shake up the other 3 dice, very thoroughly.
When you feel "enough", let the dice stop on the saucer, and bring 'em around.

Did you get one of 'em right?
First few times, it doesn't matter if one only got some sub-something right
( 4 corners! put a 6, but got a 4, e.g. ),
since it isn't your cognition-brain that's doing the doing,
it's your primitive-brain, and it thinks in very basic symbols.
Eventually, though, you will find you get consiste

http://www.amazon.com/Messages-World-Statements-Osama-Laden/dp/1844670457/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221481223&sr=8-1

Let the bad reviews start. Well, here's the discussion forum until then:

http://www.amazon.com/Command-Conquer-Red-Alert-3-Pc/forum/Fx1HJE2RTRO2AI9/-/1/ref=cm_cd_dp_sap?_encoding=UTF8&cdAnchor=B0016BVY7U&asin=B0016BVY7U

I wish EA would smarten up - I really would have liked to play^H^H^H^Hpay for this game.

(crossposted from Blacknell.net)

Sad.1 David Foster Wallace2, along with perhaps only William Gibson, had a reader in me for everything he wrote. So dedicated was I to his Infinite Jest that I carried it in planes, trains, and autobuses over three continents.3 If you've never read any of his work, maybe you could start with this brilliant 2005 essay on political talk radio.4

1And I say sad in some weirdly personal sense that comes from both finding his writing deeply compelling in itself, and identifying his work with a period of time in my life which is not missed, but stands out as significant in recollection.

2David Foster Wallace (or DFW, as he is popularly known among fans) also provided (albeit completely unknowingly) some of the reason that Blacknell.net exists today. The blog that inspired me to start my own was written by an alumnus of the law school I had just started in. He, in turn, had been motivated to write online (in a format once known as an "online journal") while he read Infinite Jest (nb. This same author once had an essay published in the same collection as DFW). An early autobiography of this online journal community is available here (it is amusing to consider how much energy was expended on the subject of diary v. journal, only to have blog become the accepted appellation).

3 A massive tome of a book with 1200 pages of writing to be relished and consumed (in addition to being read) I took two years to complete it, taking it to Panama, Venezuela, and Britain. I've since reread it (in sections, while it wasn't lent out).

4Even though it isn't entirely representative.

(Ah, for want of a superscript tag . . .)

I agree with you that a wiki is very useful, particularly for sharing information within a team. But is this an example of recursive advice ?

It would actually be a good start to set up a minimal web server for hosting the wiki. That would provide experience with Apache and MySQL, which are trivial to install in RHEL/CentOS and Debian/Ubuntu. Then set up more virtual machines and document the process, which should be a lot more straightforward the second time around.

I typically document on the second or third time around, because the first time I do something is often spent figuring out how the system works. My situation is similar to the OP's in that I'm a lone sysadmin with very little prior professional experience. All of my learning prior to my current job, and most of my learning at the present, is self-motivated.

I recommend CentOS for a few reasons. It's a free (as in beer) version of RHEL, which has a reputation for being very stable. The yum package management system is fairly intuitive and offers an excellent selection of applications. With the CentOS Plus repository enabled, the versions of many popular package are updated recently enough to take advantage of modern features.

The Practice of System and Network Administration, by Tom Limoncelli, is an excellent book for someone getting started as a lone sysadmin. I can't recommend it enough.

how about the accessory market for iPods, which requires special licensing and fees?

Good job, you named another one. But the problem with is.....what, exactly? If Bose wants to sell a fancy iPod doc for over $200, why is it unreasonable for Apple to get a chunk from an accessory market that they created?

Airtunes, Airtunes, Airtunes

There's a difference between "proprietary" and "not holding your hand". This is a case of the latter:

With Airfoil you can take audio from any application and send to your AirPort Express units, as well as Apple TVs, and even other Macs and PCs running Airfoil Speakers! Transmit audio from RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, QuickTime Player, and other media players. Send audio from web-based applications like Pandora, Last.fm, and more. You can even stream audio from audio devices like RadioSHARK, XM and Sirius radios, all around your house.

Heck, how about this very patent? You "Yawn" about it because everybody abuses patents, which makes Apple a saint of course, because Microsoft does it too.

Yes, yawn. Apple is not a patent troll. If you want examples of that, look at how Adobe and Macromedia would sue eachother every six months over lame patents.

The problem of the anti-Mac fanboys is that they're making false comparisons between Microsoft (a convicted monopolist) and Apple, which doesn't have a monopoly on anything. If you don't like FairPlay or the licensing fee, nothing is preventing you from having a similar experience with similar devices from other manufacturers.

That a company doesn't operate the way you want it too != design flaw or abusive practice. Porche wont sell me a 911 Turbo for $30,000, but you don't see me whine about it.

No, you can't "do the same job" with a $50 photoframe. The $50 USB photo frames you talk about are not real time displays. The USB link is to transfer photos to/from the memory card. If you want to get real time on a USB photo frame you need one capable of Vista SideShow, and that will set you back $200.

No, you can't "do the same job" with a $50 photoframe. The $50 USB photo frames you talk about are not real time displays. The USB link is to transfer photos to/from the memory card. If you want to get real time on a USB photo frame you need one capable of Vista SideShow, and that will set you back $200.

Easy, just log onto Amazon and buy some music. It downloads wherever I want.

It's kind of slow, but certainly functional, and there is no DRM attached. I play it with TCMPC and as an added bonus the album art appears on the screen while the music is playing.

I could probably use Emusic too, though I haven't tried.

"I've definitely priced myself out of this market. "

Dragon THC:

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

If you are not getting work, drop your price. Do a great job, get referrals, raise your price as your time becomes more in demand.

Also, your handle, "Dragon THC". Quick James Joyce stream of consciousness:

THC = marijuana = doper.

Dragon = aggressive, destructive:

"Like most mythological creatures, dragons are perceived in different ways by different cultures. Dragons are sometimes said to breathe and spit fire or poison. They are commonly portrayed as serpentine or reptilian, hatching from eggs and possessing typically feathered or scaly bodies. They are sometimes portrayed as having large yellow or red eyes, a feature that is the origin for the word for dragon in many cultures. They are sometimes portrayed with a row of dorsal spines, keeled scales, or leathery bat-like wings."

Be positive; read Dale Carnegie:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671723650

I am not suggesting you change your user name to NiceChinchilla, but, maybe consider an attitude adjustment? Change your attitude, change your life.

HTH

I found the following 2 books quite helpful:

http://www.amazon.com/Practice-System-Network-Administration-2nd/dp/0321492668/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1

http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-System-Administration-Handbook-3rd/dp/0130206016/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Neither is a "Do A,B,C and execute, voila! $service!" type of book. They're more about understanding the concepts. Once you understand the lay of the land you're generally far better able to solve things for yourself rather than relying on someone else's tutorial.

As many others have already said, virtualization and your home network are your friends. Being able to learn in a breakable environment is excellent.