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"Blu-Ray has Pirates 3, Spiderman 3, Harry Potter, 300, Ratatouille, Simpsons, The Bourne Ultimatum, All 4 Die Hard movies, Knocked Up, Oceans 13, Fantastic Four 2, Surf's Up (never underestimate DVD sales on a kid's movie like this), Rush Hour 3, etc."

Ummmm... HDDVD has 300:
http://www.amazon.com/300-Combo-HD-DVD-Standard/dp /B000Q6GXW2/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-0798074-8278442?ie=UT F8&s=dvd&qid=1187675216&sr=8-2

It doesn't have the Bourne Ultimatum, but it at least has The Bourne Identity... I figure "Ultimatum" is coming soon:
http://www.amazon.com/Bourne-Identity-HD-DVD/dp/B0 00QEIOTO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_11/002-0798074-8278442?ie=U TF8&s=dvd&qid=1187675303&sr=8-11

And I don't give a rat's ass about "Pirates 3" because HD-DVD has "Pirates":
http://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Three-Collectors-Unr ated-All-region/dp/B000NY7L8C/ref=pd_bbs_7/002-079 8074-8278442?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1187675216&sr=8-7
CHICKA BOW BOW!

The pr0n industry WILL be the deciding factor in the hi def wars. Remember... for every family out there that is looking at getting a hi def player, daddy needs to be able to watch his pr0n. ...and yes, I did just buy into the HD-DVD camp. I put my money where my mouth is on rootkit-bastard hating, TYVM.

-q

"Blu-Ray has Pirates 3, Spiderman 3, Harry Potter, 300, Ratatouille, Simpsons, The Bourne Ultimatum, All 4 Die Hard movies, Knocked Up, Oceans 13, Fantastic Four 2, Surf's Up (never underestimate DVD sales on a kid's movie like this), Rush Hour 3, etc."

Ummmm... HDDVD has 300:
http://www.amazon.com/300-Combo-HD-DVD-Standard/dp /B000Q6GXW2/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-0798074-8278442?ie=UT F8&s=dvd&qid=1187675216&sr=8-2

It doesn't have the Bourne Ultimatum, but it at least has The Bourne Identity... I figure "Ultimatum" is coming soon:
http://www.amazon.com/Bourne-Identity-HD-DVD/dp/B0 00QEIOTO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_11/002-0798074-8278442?ie=U TF8&s=dvd&qid=1187675303&sr=8-11

And I don't give a rat's ass about "Pirates 3" because HD-DVD has "Pirates":
http://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Three-Collectors-Unr ated-All-region/dp/B000NY7L8C/ref=pd_bbs_7/002-079 8074-8278442?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1187675216&sr=8-7
CHICKA BOW BOW!

The pr0n industry WILL be the deciding factor in the hi def wars. Remember... for every family out there that is looking at getting a hi def player, daddy needs to be able to watch his pr0n. ...and yes, I did just buy into the HD-DVD camp. I put my money where my mouth is on rootkit-bastard hating, TYVM.

-q

"Blu-Ray has Pirates 3, Spiderman 3, Harry Potter, 300, Ratatouille, Simpsons, The Bourne Ultimatum, All 4 Die Hard movies, Knocked Up, Oceans 13, Fantastic Four 2, Surf's Up (never underestimate DVD sales on a kid's movie like this), Rush Hour 3, etc."

Ummmm... HDDVD has 300:
http://www.amazon.com/300-Combo-HD-DVD-Standard/dp /B000Q6GXW2/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-0798074-8278442?ie=UT F8&s=dvd&qid=1187675216&sr=8-2

It doesn't have the Bourne Ultimatum, but it at least has The Bourne Identity... I figure "Ultimatum" is coming soon:
http://www.amazon.com/Bourne-Identity-HD-DVD/dp/B0 00QEIOTO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_11/002-0798074-8278442?ie=U TF8&s=dvd&qid=1187675303&sr=8-11

And I don't give a rat's ass about "Pirates 3" because HD-DVD has "Pirates":
http://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Three-Collectors-Unr ated-All-region/dp/B000NY7L8C/ref=pd_bbs_7/002-079 8074-8278442?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1187675216&sr=8-7
CHICKA BOW BOW!

The pr0n industry WILL be the deciding factor in the hi def wars. Remember... for every family out there that is looking at getting a hi def player, daddy needs to be able to watch his pr0n. ...and yes, I did just buy into the HD-DVD camp. I put my money where my mouth is on rootkit-bastard hating, TYVM.

-q

No Linus wrote Linux as a reimplementation of BSD, during the period that AT&T sued to stop the distribution of BSD. Had BSD not been held up in court, there would have been no need to rewrite BSD from scratch using inferior networking code.

Relative poverty hurts more than absolute poverty. You should check out The Working Poor .

The views and opinions are sincere, she and I both believe in these with absolution. Because the view point is such a controversial one, it is often (more time than not) considered to be posted by posers, radicals, or misguided information. And this is often the reaction behind most 'turning points' in society.

The masses are starting to speak up with a new age of thinking, acting and living by the 'old school' as set forth thousands of years ago.

The irony that seems to stifle this movement is that the movement itself is being lead by women themselves and not by the male gender; this creates a disbelief in its validity - but the truth is that it IS starting and it IS being lead by women.

The Surrendered Wife : A Practical Guide to Finding Intimacy, Passion, and Peace with Your Man The Surrendered Wife - New York Times Best Seller and Amazon's #1 seller. A look inside The Surrendered Wife is available from amazon as well

Even more noticeable are some the women that are behind the movement. Donna Nordone Heaney, has been an advocate for abused women and children and domestic violence issues for over 10 years. Admits to and actively promotes The Submissive Wife.

I could list numerous female sources that all admit to the best marriage they could have ever imagined. My wife and I have been married a long time and to date do not argue. Our "God" given roles are evident and therefore by fulfilling those we are able to live a happy life.

Do not get this wrong. Being near 40 years old now and having these feelings since I was a teenager may not seem odd, though I have never read the Bible - not one single page, that is until a few months ago my wife (who taught Sunday School and was in the Chior for years) starting telling them a lot of the things that are in the bible sound similar to what I was saying. Therefore since I never read the bible, and have only been to church a handful of times in my life (less weddings, etc) there was no outside influence to cause me to conform to a book of true unknown origin. My wife started blogging about this herself, the roles of a woman and a man are no longer agreeing to stay by societies conformity, and are rearing up in its defense.

The point of this, is that the debate over God and Evolution is looked at in a side-ways aspect. Yes, we did evolve and yes, there is GOD. However we did not evolve from apes. An ape IS a different species. Thousands of years from now they may look are a blue jay and a cardinal in comparison, and yes they look similar, and are apart of the same 'family' but they are two different species in time.
God does NOT have to be the omnipresences that is depicted, but there is nothing to say that he does not exist. An alien life form (which nearly all geeks here believe have factual bearing), a higher being, different level of existence that simply cannot comprehend. 2000 years ago you could not explained nuclear physics, or even the concept and impact of the Internet. There were simply too many unknown factors, learning curves and different technology to being to fathom any of it.

The movie What the Bleep do You Know, has a good comparison to ships in the sea that no one could see even though they were right there in front of them. If you've sen something, you brain does not know how to process it, therefore it will process it the best it can. - Have you ever seen

The views and opinions are sincere, she and I both believe in these with absolution. Because the view point is such a controversial one, it is often (more time than not) considered to be posted by posers, radicals, or misguided information. And this is often the reaction behind most 'turning points' in society.

The masses are starting to speak up with a new age of thinking, acting and living by the 'old school' as set forth thousands of years ago.

The irony that seems to stifle this movement is that the movement itself is being lead by women themselves and not by the male gender; this creates a disbelief in its validity - but the truth is that it IS starting and it IS being lead by women.

The Surrendered Wife : A Practical Guide to Finding Intimacy, Passion, and Peace with Your Man The Surrendered Wife - New York Times Best Seller and Amazon's #1 seller. A look inside The Surrendered Wife is available from amazon as well

Even more noticeable are some the women that are behind the movement. Donna Nordone Heaney, has been an advocate for abused women and children and domestic violence issues for over 10 years. Admits to and actively promotes The Submissive Wife.

I could list numerous female sources that all admit to the best marriage they could have ever imagined. My wife and I have been married a long time and to date do not argue. Our "God" given roles are evident and therefore by fulfilling those we are able to live a happy life.

Do not get this wrong. Being near 40 years old now and having these feelings since I was a teenager may not seem odd, though I have never read the Bible - not one single page, that is until a few months ago my wife (who taught Sunday School and was in the Chior for years) starting telling them a lot of the things that are in the bible sound similar to what I was saying. Therefore since I never read the bible, and have only been to church a handful of times in my life (less weddings, etc) there was no outside influence to cause me to conform to a book of true unknown origin. My wife started blogging about this herself, the roles of a woman and a man are no longer agreeing to stay by societies conformity, and are rearing up in its defense.

The point of this, is that the debate over God and Evolution is looked at in a side-ways aspect. Yes, we did evolve and yes, there is GOD. However we did not evolve from apes. An ape IS a different species. Thousands of years from now they may look are a blue jay and a cardinal in comparison, and yes they look similar, and are apart of the same 'family' but they are two different species in time.
God does NOT have to be the omnipresences that is depicted, but there is nothing to say that he does not exist. An alien life form (which nearly all geeks here believe have factual bearing), a higher being, different level of existence that simply cannot comprehend. 2000 years ago you could not explained nuclear physics, or even the concept and impact of the Internet. There were simply too many unknown factors, learning curves and different technology to being to fathom any of it.

The movie What the Bleep do You Know, has a good comparison to ships in the sea that no one could see even though they were right there in front of them. If you've sen something, you brain does not know how to process it, therefore it will process it the best it can. - Have you ever seen

The bullies at my school must have had a well enough developed sense of self preservation not to fool with the geek who was carrying around a Signetics data book and reading things like The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives.

Reminds me vaguely of Hogan's The Multiplex Man (Baen Free Library copy available).

"Google really needs to go back and tweak their page ranking because whatever it's based on, it's pretty obvious that spammers have figured it out."

Or maybe you just need to be a better searcher?

I thought "Flim and the BB's" were first but they may have been the first to record in a strictly digital format. Their CD's have two D's "DD" on the cover instead of the traditional three "DDD". If I remember correctly 3M asked them to come in and record to test out some of their new shiny digital recording equipment.

http://www.amazon.com/Flim-&-The-BB's/artist/B000A Q1CS8

And maybe she can adopt there.

Spa fon? SQUAA TRONT!

The National Electrical Code (NEC) changes every 3 years. I read it cover to cover in 1993, and have recently reviewed the changes - all are (to my nonprofessional eye) insignificant to the layman. The big thing now is how to deal with 12V lighting, which is relatively new, but that's kind of an edge case for the kind of wiring you're going to do in a kitchen, garage, or bathroom remodel.

I think about it like Scuba diving. Yes, there are tables to keep you safe. BUT, it's a horrible idea to get anywhere near their limits. Just make sure when you dive you get NOWHERE CLOSE to the edge of dangerousness, this is a friggin FUN thing, not worth your life. Basically, my rules are, don't go below 70 feet and come up fast on a single tank; if you're planning on hitting 70 feet, do it first, don't stay at that depth long, and come up to 30 if you can and stay upwards of that for the rest of your tank.

Same rules apply to electrical work. Only use #12 or #10 awg for a normal 15 amp circuit, haul 3 wires (black, white, and green) even in conduit, for each of your circuits, oversize the conduit, only use the big "1400" junction boxes (jboxes) instead of cutting corners and trying to fit your splices into a tiny jbox behind a pair of GFCI plugs. Buy two nice pairs of electrical pliers and spend an hour twisting pairs together 'till you get good at it.

Basic engineering applied to Life.

My wife and I buy "soap base" in bulk and use it. It's intended to be mixed with fragrances and coloring (and I suppose resold) but we use it straight. It's very inexpensive, though you have to buy empty dispenser bottles to use it.

Here's the site we order from. There's no "anti-bacteria" chemicals in it, and for people like me who hate fragrances, it's hypo-allergenic without the boutique price. For a gallon, it's 25 cents an ounce. And it should last about two years per person. If you want something with an interesting label, go with Dr. Bronner's.

For those chemists (cooks) out there, soap is easy to make yourself.

I became convinced that antibacterial soap was a horrible idea for everyday use when I read The Coming Plague. While the plague she described hasn't yet emerged, I don't think it's a good idea to tempt fate.

I've found that Kirk's Castile Soap is antibacterial, high-quality, and cheap too. In the mid-atlantic, Rodman's sells it for $.99 per bar.

What teachers unions should oppose about national curriculum is that it moves decisions higher up in the hierarchy and into the hands of a smaller number of people. This kind of effect on industries is described in The Electronic Sweatshop by Barbara Garson. Regardless of whether you agree with anything I'm saying, you should read that book. Everyone should. The part I'm citing is the tendency in organizations to take decisions out of the hands of lower level employees. This results in lower training costs, shorter training time, and interchangeability of employees. When you can easily replace an employee, you can afford to treat them worse (and pay them less) because there's always someone else available who can do the job just as well. This frees up more of the money to go to the people at the top.

What I've found, though, is that no one opposes anything that comes down. The law is the law. As much as teachers and administrators may disagree aloud with things like NCLB or MSPAP or the Maryland HSA, or more to the point the Maryland VSC. It's called the Voluntary State Curriculum but the state examinations are based on it so no school is well advised to ignore the VSC. The problem you might find with the VSC is that it doesn't exist for all courses. Schools respond to the testing and VSC by throwing money and resources at the courses that are covered. Class sizes are down, even those smaller classes are 2 periods long and team taught, teachers who do well on the tests are Teacher of the Year, the whole schmeer.

Those resources come from someplace right? In Maryland the math test for high school is Algebra 1. I've been teaching Algebra 2 for a number of years now and it's been a long time since I had any oversight to speak of. My point here is that the resources to improve Algebra 1 have to come from someplace, and that's the rest of the math sequence. If we instead tried to throw those kind of resources at all courses equally, we'd have to vastly increase the resources going to education, or leave out a lot of students. What those other countries do is leave out a lot of students from the school program (and consequently the achievement testing.) Those kids go to vocational schools. In the US where vocational programs exist, they're voluntary.

How many SF movies have you seen where "it" (i.e. an individual) evolved, or the creatures evolved within the few hours/days covered by the show? Evolution is a good examle of a horrible trend. And then you have the X-Men, "the next step in human evolution" etc. At least people are just ignorant of physics--they actively know and believe things that are false when it comes to evolution. Movies are make-believe (as are comic books, etc) and I'd guess they've always worked against real-life knowledge by being more entertaining and fun than, well, reality. Do you think movies like The Day After Tomorrow really help public knowledge of environmental concerns? Movies always suck when it comes to science.

How many SF movies have you seen where "it" (i.e. an individual) evolved, or the creatures evolved within the few hours/days covered by the show? Evolution is a good examle of a horrible trend. And then you have the X-Men, "the next step in human evolution" etc. At least people are just ignorant of physics--they actively know and believe things that are false when it comes to evolution. Movies are make-believe (as are comic books, etc) and I'd guess they've always worked against real-life knowledge by being more entertaining and fun than, well, reality. Do you think movies like The Day After Tomorrow really help public knowledge of environmental concerns? Movies always suck when it comes to science.

But really folks, is invisible surveillance really that much more dangerous than the visible kind? I don't think so.

Disciplinary power... is exercised through its invisibility; at the same time it imposes on those whom it subjects a principle of compulsory visibility. In discipline, it is the subjects who have to be seen. Their visibility assures the hold of the power that is exercised over them. It is the fact of being constantly seen, of being able always to be seen, that maintains the disciplined individual in his subjection.

So what is this Yorkshire Tea, is that a brand or a flavour ?

It's a brand, you can get it on Amazon, there's also a 'British shop' that stocks it near here. T'was recommended to me by a tea taster!

Im a recent coffee convert, coffee is great for a hit, but tea is much more soothing and relaxing...

Agreed, coffee is good first thing in the morning to get you going. Tea is good for the afternoon, along with some nice Digestive biscuits dunked-in. It's all a matter of choosing the right tool for the job. :)

Like those who misunderstood Turing's writing, you might want to be more careful about what you read (although perhaps you can't be blamed since you seem to have suffered a temporary eye spasm). When Chomsky says "the details need not concern us", he means the details aren't important in the context of what he was writing, not that the details are of no significance.

In the excerpt you began to read, he says, "There is no fixed Turing test; rather, a battery of devices constructed on this model" and leaves it at that because the discussion moves on to say why, even if you use the so-called "Turing test" (i.e. the approach proponents in AI try to use), it doesn't tell us anything. Whether or not we choose to call a computer "intelligent" is a question "of decision, not fact; decision as to whether to adopt a certain metaphoric extension of common usage".

You and I both agree with Chomsky that believers in what's called "the Turing test" have misunderstood Turing's paper, and that there is no test that can be "passed" for a computer to be found "just as intelligent as a human" (or more so). This is something Chomsky's elaborated on, in detail, elsewhere and one reason I find his writing on the topic to be so important. See New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind, for example. Or perhaps you'll want to pick up some Grape Nuts and a metronome instead...

Like those who misunderstood Turing's writing, you might want to be more careful about what you read (although perhaps you can't be blamed since you seem to have suffered a temporary eye spasm). When Chomsky says "the details need not concern us", he means the details aren't important in the context of what he was writing, not that the details are of no significance.

In the excerpt you began to read, he says, "There is no fixed Turing test; rather, a battery of devices constructed on this model" and leaves it at that because the discussion moves on to say why, even if you use the so-called "Turing test" (i.e. the approach proponents in AI try to use), it doesn't tell us anything. Whether or not we choose to call a computer "intelligent" is a question "of decision, not fact; decision as to whether to adopt a certain metaphoric extension of common usage".

You and I both agree with Chomsky that believers in what's called "the Turing test" have misunderstood Turing's paper, and that there is no test that can be "passed" for a computer to be found "just as intelligent as a human" (or more so). This is something Chomsky's elaborated on, in detail, elsewhere and one reason I find his writing on the topic to be so important. See New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind, for example. Or perhaps you'll want to pick up some Grape Nuts and a metronome instead...

Like those who misunderstood Turing's writing, you might want to be more careful about what you read (although perhaps you can't be blamed since you seem to have suffered a temporary eye spasm). When Chomsky says "the details need not concern us", he means the details aren't important in the context of what he was writing, not that the details are of no significance.

In the excerpt you began to read, he says, "There is no fixed Turing test; rather, a battery of devices constructed on this model" and leaves it at that because the discussion moves on to say why, even if you use the so-called "Turing test" (i.e. the approach proponents in AI try to use), it doesn't tell us anything. Whether or not we choose to call a computer "intelligent" is a question "of decision, not fact; decision as to whether to adopt a certain metaphoric extension of common usage".

You and I both agree with Chomsky that believers in what's called "the Turing test" have misunderstood Turing's paper, and that there is no test that can be "passed" for a computer to be found "just as intelligent as a human" (or more so). This is something Chomsky's elaborated on, in detail, elsewhere and one reason I find his writing on the topic to be so important. See New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind, for example. Or perhaps you'll want to pick up some Grape Nuts and a metronome instead...

OK, Mr. Professional Musician, what have you done that's more worthwhile or enjoyable than, oh, say this limited dynamic range, mono recording, for example?

http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Cello-Suites-Nos-1-6/dp /B00004VXD2

"The external view of a house is the very least important thing about a house. "

Ummm, I wouldn't say that.

that's great only Microsoft, Google, HP, Intel, Philips, Dell, Earthlink, and Samsung don't have any advantage in screwing up cable reception. But Microsoft does.

Have you not seen Microsoft join various boards, organizations, and/or committees and constantly nitpick the process, technology, people, etc? There's an old but easy to read book out called "StartUp" which gives a hint as to how Microsoft does business. Meanwhile, back in Redmond, their engineers are busy hacking together their version which only runs on Windows. And in the end, they go off and release their own version while the spend millions in marketing telling the world+dog how wrong/bad/dangerous,etc the standard stuff is and how great their stuff is.

Here's the book link:

http://www.amazon.com/Startup-Silicon-Adventure-Je rry-Kaplan/dp/0140257314/ref=sr_1_1/104-3608395-58 30353?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187130933&sr=8-1

Was Microsoft trying to pull something in this case? It is HIGHLY likely given their history but were they also just inept at building something which worked? Another possibility for sure.

What does Google, HP, Intel, Philips, Dell, Earthlink, and Samsung have to do with this anyways? It was Microsoft submitting the device and it was Microsoft complaining not Google, HP, Intel, Philips, Dell, Earthlink, and Samsung

LoB

Just for the record, have you read Michael Behe's book: Darwin's Black Box?

I finally got around to reading it last year and was surprised to find a very reasonable argument. Nothing in the book was what I'd describe as foaming at the mouth, claiming to debunk Darwin and/or prove the reality of a 6 day creationist world view. As a bonus, I actually learned many interesting details of sub-cellular life from reading the book (the appendix alone is a great overview of microbiology).

I ask because, in the year since, I've never yet met anyone (mostly in Comp Sci. circles) who have actually read his book but I've met plenty of people (in the above circles) with a strong opinion of Behe's intellectual prowess :-).

It's called advergaming. A subset of Serious Games Game engines used in architecture

It's called advergaming. A subset of Serious Games Game engines used in architecture

I built my own white-box PC when I was only 11 using parts I ordered myself.

The only thing any adult provided me with was the money for the parts and a good amount of faith in my ability (thanks, Dad).

Kids can actually do quite a lot. The only instruction I had was from a book. If these kids can't read, they can probably get enough instruction from a video.

There are good earbuds and crappy earbuds.

I am pretty happy with my amazingly efficient cheap new Phillips earbuds, they are about four times louder than earbuds claiming to be twice as loud (better impedance matching with the ear, I think due to small venting holes), and they don't distort at high volumes either.

Down side, they lasted a month before I had to resolder the tip.

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-HE591-Surround-Sound -Earbuds/dp/B0001OY2VS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-0733557 -1295142?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1187069521&sr=8 -2

And what's this bullshit about being "surround sound"?

of human behavior, that motivates interest in a creative product turning into money. and so the way you think of creative product is a mentality that does not maximize your return possible

for example, you talk about getting the pristine internet copy, seeing it at home on your 60" projector. ok. why in you mind does this represent a person who would have otherwise spent $10 in a theatre? you encounter these types of trolls all the time: i hate the crying babies, the cell phones, etc. this theoretical movie viewer would not go to the movies anyways, no matter what. so by preventing him from having his electornic copy, you are magically going to force this man to go to a theatre? why the fuck do you think this way about human behavior?

menwhile, they have shown that people go to movies with the same psychological force of connection they went to church in previous centuries: the munching popcorn, other people laughing or crying: this adds to the experience, it doesn't detract from it. there is no way you can ever replicate this at home. the movie going experience is untouchable. people go to movies to CONNECT with the crowd in the dark. it's sociological. you can't replicate it at home

and in fact, in the 1950s, this is what people thought television was going to do to movies: kill it. why go the theatre when you can watch tv at home? did tv kill the movies? you look at box office returns in the years since 1950s, you tell me

come on einstein: there are televisions in almost every house on the fucking planet. SO WHY THE FUCK DO PEOPLE DRIVE TO A DARK BOX TO WATCH CONTENT THEY CAN GET AT HOME FOR FUCKING FREE SINCE THE 1950S

come on einstein, educate me

and so also the thinking on vhs/ dvd: it's killing movies... except it aided their bottom lines!!!

now its internet downloads, killing movies... REALLY?

no, you just don't fucking get it. you babble on and on about this subject matter, and at the root of it, you communicate nothing but a colossal ignorance of the subject matter you are involved in

your mind is brittle and fragile, and you don't understand change

you're a fucking fossil

here, go read a book that matches your maladaptive mentality

do you HONESTLY fucking believe the past is going to magically be preserved, the business model made obsolete by technological progress is going to be preserved, by a platoon of lawyers? that your moral pontifications about right and wrong about "stealing", when it isn't STEALING at all, is somehow going to convince people, hell, convince children, who have a BETTER understanding of what is actually happening than you do?

you're a loser

CHANGE motherfucker CHANGE

do you speak it?

If American Companies cooperate with this sort of repression, and Congress does nothing to stop it, then America has forgotten what it once stood for.

I think they forgot long ago.

Preceeding WWII, Thomas Watson and his Company IBM, voraciously pursued the selling and servicing of the Hollerith tabulating machine that was used to process census data to identify Jewish lineage.

Read the book IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation ( http://www.amazon.com/IBM-Holocaust-Strategic-Alli ance-Corporation/dp/0609607995, there are numerous examples of Watson's active sojourn's overseas, and the path that was cleared for him by US officials.

The Invisible Computer.

>So far we're on target for Dr. Feynman's predictions. :-/

Quite unfortunately for us and NASA, when he announced these, we all assumed he was joking! :p

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0393316041/ref=s9_asi n_title_1/102-8483475-6626520?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DE R&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0DEGJCHMSYY456CDH27K&pf _rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=278240301&pf_rd_i=507846

Seriously though, it's a great book. Well worth the read for any self-respecting nerd.

Please, Don't Hassel the Hoff.

I don't know if a convenient 'trickle' uploader exists yet, but I'm setting up a backup scheme for myself that uses duplicity to upload to Amazon's S3, and uses an EC2 instance for a few hours each month to coalesce the incremental backups into a full backup. Since this is for my VPS, I don't worry too much about using a lot of bandwidth when it runs the backup (the incrementals are usually small anyway).

Where [WTC7's] vertical supports were devasted by lateral-moving wreckage from the tower next door, and little things like generator fuel tanks got nicely peppered by red-hot debris, sparking electrical equipment (including huge battery backups in data facilities in the building). Again: that buidling wasn't designed to stand with important pieces of its central supporting structure weakened. Of COURSE if fell in on itself. What would be amazing would be if it fell any other way.

"I'm losing my nerve," Benny said mournfully. "Six times this past year we've flicked into flash crowds, and three times I threw away everything I had because it looked like the cops had time to put us under riot control. Once I was right. Twice I was wrong. That's just not good enough." He braced himself. "I think I'll quit." There, he'd said it.

A hole in space. Larry Niven.

Are the police going to share the location information?
I might want to watch. Cops live!

Badonkadonk Land Cruiser Tank?

Once nice side-effect of unit testing is that it helps you communicate the code's intended use. In effect, a unit test behaves as executable documentation, showing how you expect the code to behave under the various conditions you've considered. Team members can look at the test for examples of how to use your code.

His new patent seems to be quite similar to what Katherine Albrecht had warned against back in October 2005 in the book "SPYCHIPS: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Purchase and Watch Your Every Move." She not only warns us about business tracking us with RFID tags but also mentions to other related technologies such as shopper's ID cards. I can't recall if she specifically mentioned cell phones and GPS devices or not, but she definitely discusses the idea of "targeted advertising" and various related technologies. She had also founded Spychips.com and NoCards.org as opposition to that general type of thing.

Perhaps the inventor might have also seen a couple of the examples of tracking and "targeted advertising" that were in the movie "Minority Report."

Back before he supposedly invented the idea, I had already purchased an RFID blocking wallet and started leaving my cell phone behind in my truck, before entering shopping malls. That was to protect my privacy against his not yet invented new idea.

• RFID Blocking Wallet
• RFID Blocking Passport Billfold

Actually, this is the prevailing theory of human evolution today. This article is merely throwing another rock on the pile. Check out Mapping Human History by Steve Olsen (2002).

Isn't this basically what that whole "survival of the fittest" thing does? End less suitable genetic traits and combine the surviving ones in an ever repeating cycle, ever closer to the "fittest" genetic blend?

Evolution is not teleological, that is it does not move toward some sort of perfection. It's quite a bit more complex than that, and it's extremely difficult to argue for the adaptedness of a specific trait. It's easy to start with an arm and come up with reasons why it's beneficial to the organism, but it's quite difficult to argue why an arm and not some other structure.

Unless you're a social Darwinist or a proponent of eugenics (or some other bigotry packaged as "science"), it doesn't make sense to argue that the surviving human lineages are "the fittest". I recommend Ernst Mayr's What Evolution Is for much more articulate answers to questions like the one you posed.

As far as humans go in comparison to other species, we may not be well-adapted at all (see microbes, insects, etc.) especially if the ecological destruction we've done is considered. As Kurt Vonnegut mused, "We're terrible animals. I think that the Earth's immune system is trying to get rid of us, as well it should." There may be good reason to believe that.

In fat control, cardio activities are far more important than strength training. Walking (briskly, but walking, not running) about 30-60 minutes a day, with 20-30 minutes 3 times a week of strength maintenance have been shown to be the most effective exercise approaches over time for fat control. See books like You: On A Diet for the latest science behind weight control. I'm sure there's something more recent, but Rozien's book is fairly straightforward in its descriptions of the biological processes.

And while I can't cite individual studies, it's becoming clear to me that high fructose corn syrup (HFC) is a culprit of many of the weight issues Americans have. Look at the labels. You will see a lot of HFC in processed foods. Phenomenon such as the French Paradox seems to come partially from the fact that the French consume substantially less HFC than Americans. They also tend to walk a lot more than we do, which I'm sure also has an effect. The only diet that shows consistently lower rates of heart disease than the French is the Japanese, who eat an inordinate amount of fish, as much as 3 times more per capita than Americans, for instance.

Science is also showing that the agribusiness practice of factory farming, which relies on the feeding of corn, is what makes red meat less healthy. Grass fed beef and mutton has substantially lower saturated fat levels and considerably higher levels of good fats than corn fed beef/mutton. Which make sense, since ruminants are best at digesting grasses and other forage plants. (In fact, corn fed cattle are much more susceptible to disease, and, in fact, are not ever really healthy animals. Grain is an unnatural diet for them and they develop all sorts of problems related to the ridiculously high consumption that they are forced on in the modern feed lot. The standard feed lot conditions don't help either.)

Anyway, all indicators suggest you should see a significant increase if fat loss if you add a daily 30-60 minute walk to your life. But you might also see a significant over all improvement in diet if you also sought to eliminate HFC from your diet.

Thought was the "Clarke-ian" version. See his novel, Earthlight for a fairly reasonable description of ship-to-ship tranfer without suits.

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