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As for landing on Mars, just bring Mars to us, Virtually, with all the data from all those droids now and into the future there has gotta be enough to recreate it in a place like Second Life where anyone can explore it first hand virtually....and add in some sort of immersion suit for a total experience.

How would you be able to simulate the lesser gravity, or the constant dust leaking into your suit (Kim Stanley Robinson calls them "fines" in his Red Mars )?

Your argument is based on numbers without foundation, and doomsday predictions about what will happen 100 years from now.

The numbers are from the appendix of Jared Diamond's book Collapse which was mentioned on slashdot a while back.

But I'm interested to know which numbers you find disputable? That the doubling time for humans is between 20 and 50 years? That there are currently about 6 billion people alive on the planet? Maybe it's the 6 billion times the U.S. consumption rate multiplication bringing us to within 50% of the total available resources?

What's your figure? Ten percent? One percent? Maybe you prefer a more optimistic one-one-millionth of a percent? Okay, if we run the numbers that way, my statement becomes:

Next, if you multiply the average rate of resource consumption in the places you mentioned (U.S., Canada, Europe) by 6 billion you'll find we're within one-one-millionth of consuming everything this planet has to offer.

You will have to find a better argument if you are to tell people they cannot have 5 or 6 kids.

And I suppose you will need to find a better presenter when the reality strikes you as well.

Jonathan Schaeffer 's book about the development of Chinook (from 1997):

http://www.amazon.com/One-Jump-Ahead-Challenging-S upremacy/dp/0387949305

Includes the details of the Tinsley matches and Tinsley's untimely death. Interesting for people interested in the effects of technology on human societies, as well as some of the technical aspects of the program (as it was in 1997).

For those that don't already know about Amazon Prime it works like this. I pay $79/year to be a member which gets me free 2nd-day shipping and discounted next-day shipping $4/item I believe). I don't have to buy a minimum amount of stuff. I also don't have to worry about grouping my orders to work around backordered items (which is what I used to do so I wouldn't have my entire order held up by one item or have to pay extra $$$ to ship items separately). I can also share it with family (friends too if you don't get caught). This of course wouldn't make sense for everyone. You have to buy a lot from Amazon to make this worthwhile. In my case I bought about $4500 worth of books from them last year which would have normally been in roughly $50-100 chunks. Assuming an average of $75 that's 60 separate shipments. I believe I was paying $12-15 for 2nd-day air depending on the weight. That's $720-900 I would have paid in shipping. This of course doesn't include the books that I have to have immediately. So for me it's a very good deal.

Back to the topic at hand. If you do a little price checking and use Amazon Prime to get free shipping (not exactly free because of the yearly fee but very discounted from the normal rates) you can save a lot of $$$. Most of the dry goods can be had this way. Some of the heavier items like canned goods aren't really any cheaper. Imagine yourself going to the store, guiding a cart through the isles overcrowded with everyone else who got off at 5:00, picking through the already picked-through selection, adding items to your cart that you really didn't need but are buying them anyway because the picture on the front makes you hungry, sorting coupons, and waiting in one of the 3 checkout lines that are open during the busiest hours of the day. That's at least 1.5 hours of your life down the crapper. Now imagine yourself drinking your 2nd-cup of joe in your office chair (or at home on the couch in your skivvies), opening up your web browser, searching for the dozen items that you need, running into the kitchen real quick to check the cupboards to see what you forgot, and checking out in about a minute's time (less if you don't read every single word on every single page). Which would you prefer to do? :-) I don't want to knock the little guys; my father was a "little guy" who ran his own service station for many years so I know what it's like competing with a giant. However there will always be little guys because they can offer you a level of service you can't get on your own. For those that prefer less service and lower prices they've got Amazon.

Try reading The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth by Tim Flannery. It's a good primer on the subject. Flannery addresses your questions and many more.

The Gods Hate Kansas

"A startling story of science at war with alien life-forms."

The Theory and Practice of Time Travel, originally presented as a speech at a 1970s SF Con and originally published by Del Ray in 1971 as part of All the Myriad Ways .

The Geek may someday get it pounded into his head that in Microsoft's core middle clasx market there is no need for a home user to pirate Office: Home Use Program, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 $122 US Three-seat license. No 1 in software sales at Amazon.com

He may also learn that mass market pricing can make Vista Ultimate look attractive and affordable: HP 17" Pavilion Widescreen Laptop PC w/ Intel Core 2 Duo Processor"

2 GB RAM 240 GB HDD
HD DVD-ROM / Multilayer DVD Burner
HDTV Tuner Card. Integrated Webcam, Fingerprint reader, and remote control.
NVIDA DX 10 GeForce 8600 GS w/ 256 MB dedicated RAM/upto 1 GB shared
1000 GiB Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
8 cell Lion batteru + 90 watt AC adapter
$2000

Thanks for the link. I'm currently reading Beyond the Quantum which claims the Aspect Experiment shows that there is a reality currently beyond our senses (that's an extreme oversimplification).

It will be interesting to read the counter-argument.

More choice, is NEVER a bad thing.

The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

-:sigma.SB

Who needs this? We've had a convenient book of random numbers available from the RAND Corporation since 1955.

Indeed, going to a store to buy computer parts is annoying, but seriously; who wants to pay shipping on milk?

If you want to play sheet music on the piano, the simplest way to do is pretend you're a guitarist and just look at the guitar chords written on the sheet music. No need to read the notes - play the root of the chord in your left hand, and the chord in your right hand. This method is called "Chord Piano", and Google is your friend here.

For an "bare minimum" level of understanding, all you need to know is if the chord is a Major or a Minor. Minor chords are written with an "m" or "min", like "Dm", "Dmin", "Dmin7" and so on. If it's not a Minor chord, it's probably a Major chord. If there are other things attached to the chord, like "G7", "Amin7", "Cmaj7", "Dm11", "Bbsus4" or "D#add2", just ignore those. They tell you what sort of additional notes or additions you're supposed to make to the chord. You can worry about them later.

A major chord is so named because the notes are taken from a major scale, and a minor chord has notes from a minor scale. In general, a chord takes the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes from a scale, but it can add additional decorative notes. For example, a C Major scale has the notes {C, D, E, F, G, A, B} in it, so a C Major chord would have the notes {C, E, G} in it, since they are the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the scale. The D Minor scale has the notes {D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C} in it, so a D Minor chord has the notes {D,F,A} in it.

To make a Major chord, put the thumb of your right hand on the key the chord starts with. So for a "Bb" chord, you put your thumb on a "Bb" note. That's the "root" or the "1" note. To get the 3rd note of the scale, count up from there 4 notes - including the black keys - "B", "C", "C#", "D". "D" is the next note of the chord. To get the 5th note of the scale, count up 3 more notes - including the black keys - "D#", "E", "F". "F" is the next note of the chord. So a Bb Major chord has the notes {Bb,D,F} in it. Write those notes above the chord, to remind you what to play.

The difference between a Major chord and a Minor chord is that the 3rd of the scale is 1 key (half step) lower. So instead of the pattern being (root+4+3), it's (root+3+4). So a "Bbm" chord has the pitches {Bb,Db,F} in it instead of {Bb,D,F}.

As to the rest of the "chord code", it isn't that tricky to crack, but it does take some work. You can find online programs here and here that will construct chords for you and show you the fingering. Again, I'd advise having a look at the books I mentioned.

To play the chords on the piano, play the root of the chord with you left hand, and the chord in your right hand. So for a "G" (major) chord {G,B,D}, you'd play a "G" in your left hand, and the notes "G", "B" and "D" in your right hand.

You'll notice that your hand jumps around a bit when you move from one chord to the next. I rearrange the notes so that they don't go below the "F" below middle C (middle C = the "C" note in the middle of the keyboard) and above the "E" above middle C. This keeps the chords in a nice register (about where a guitar would play), and my hand doesn't have to move very much. For example, instead of voicing the "C" chord as {C,E,G}, I play it as {G,C,E}. Again, work all this out ahead of time on paper.

Once you've got that going, you'll probably want to spice things up a bit. I usually play a pattern with my right hand, where I alternate between playing whatever note happens to be under my thumb (for the "G" chord, it's a "C") and the rest of the notes under my other

If you want to play sheet music on the piano, the simplest way to do is pretend you're a guitarist and just look at the guitar chords written on the sheet music. No need to read the notes - play the root of the chord in your left hand, and the chord in your right hand. This method is called "Chord Piano", and Google is your friend here.

For an "bare minimum" level of understanding, all you need to know is if the chord is a Major or a Minor. Minor chords are written with an "m" or "min", like "Dm", "Dmin", "Dmin7" and so on. If it's not a Minor chord, it's probably a Major chord. If there are other things attached to the chord, like "G7", "Amin7", "Cmaj7", "Dm11", "Bbsus4" or "D#add2", just ignore those. They tell you what sort of additional notes or additions you're supposed to make to the chord. You can worry about them later.

A major chord is so named because the notes are taken from a major scale, and a minor chord has notes from a minor scale. In general, a chord takes the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes from a scale, but it can add additional decorative notes. For example, a C Major scale has the notes {C, D, E, F, G, A, B} in it, so a C Major chord would have the notes {C, E, G} in it, since they are the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the scale. The D Minor scale has the notes {D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C} in it, so a D Minor chord has the notes {D,F,A} in it.

To make a Major chord, put the thumb of your right hand on the key the chord starts with. So for a "Bb" chord, you put your thumb on a "Bb" note. That's the "root" or the "1" note. To get the 3rd note of the scale, count up from there 4 notes - including the black keys - "B", "C", "C#", "D". "D" is the next note of the chord. To get the 5th note of the scale, count up 3 more notes - including the black keys - "D#", "E", "F". "F" is the next note of the chord. So a Bb Major chord has the notes {Bb,D,F} in it. Write those notes above the chord, to remind you what to play.

The difference between a Major chord and a Minor chord is that the 3rd of the scale is 1 key (half step) lower. So instead of the pattern being (root+4+3), it's (root+3+4). So a "Bbm" chord has the pitches {Bb,Db,F} in it instead of {Bb,D,F}.

As to the rest of the "chord code", it isn't that tricky to crack, but it does take some work. You can find online programs here and here that will construct chords for you and show you the fingering. Again, I'd advise having a look at the books I mentioned.

To play the chords on the piano, play the root of the chord with you left hand, and the chord in your right hand. So for a "G" (major) chord {G,B,D}, you'd play a "G" in your left hand, and the notes "G", "B" and "D" in your right hand.

You'll notice that your hand jumps around a bit when you move from one chord to the next. I rearrange the notes so that they don't go below the "F" below middle C (middle C = the "C" note in the middle of the keyboard) and above the "E" above middle C. This keeps the chords in a nice register (about where a guitar would play), and my hand doesn't have to move very much. For example, instead of voicing the "C" chord as {C,E,G}, I play it as {G,C,E}. Again, work all this out ahead of time on paper.

Once you've got that going, you'll probably want to spice things up a bit. I usually play a pattern with my right hand, where I alternate between playing whatever note happens to be under my thumb (for the "G" chord, it's a "C") and the rest of the notes under my other

My issue with the series is the price and format of the seasons on DVD. It is more expensive than Star Trek, which is saying something, and also grouped in a strange format (half seasons). I really want to support the series by buying the DVDs, but not at the prices I see in my local DVD store. For me SG1 is an example of a TV series using an easy to understand format and approachable pricing.

See here for Amazon.ca pricing:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/104-2424159-3 290317?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Daps&fiel d-keywords=farscape&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go

Amazon sells plenty of unlocked GSM phones without all the bells and whistles for a "reasonable" price. For example, the Motorola V191 is only $89. I'm not entirely sure what your cost/quality/durability requirements are, but it looks like a solid phone. - the Hun

The problem with that stuff (cool as it is) it that it's easy to get lost in all the technology, and lose sight of what you're after. If you're a real geek, you've probably already got at least one musical instrument you can play - guitar, piano, zither... Whatever. Doing it yourself will be a lot more impressive than paying some dude to do it for you. I taught myself how to play a handful of instruments, and I'm pretty much the klutziest guy I know. Have a look at something like How to Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons for a good book that demystifies making music.

Here's a quick lesson: if you've got access to a piano, you'll notice that the black keys are grouped in a repeating pattern of 3 and 2. The scale of notes (starting with the leftmost of the 3 black keys) spells out a F# major pentatonic scale (F# G# A# C# D#). It's the same scale that windchimes are tuned to - play those keys, and you won't hit a bad note. (For those curious, it's a "gapped" scale, with the notes B and F (technically E#) removed, which gets of the potential dissonance between the notes A# and B and F and F#. Play the F# with your left hand, and then noodle around on the black keys with your right hand. Change the note your left hand plays for variety (the progression F#, B, C# is particularly nice) and you've got it made. This isn't rocket science.

If music's not your gig, write a poem, or make a drawing, or whatever. Just make it honest. When my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I were broken up, she came over one day and snuck a look into my desk, and found a bunch of poems I had written about how miserable I was feeling without her. (No, I hadn't planned on her ever reading them - I'm pretty damned shy. Why do you think I'm posting as an Anonymous Coward?)

Anyway, she had already heard from me how I felt, but it wasn't until she actually read my private stuff for herself that she believed it.

It's not the slickness of the production, or the heartfelt sound of the singer's voice that's going to win her over. It's putting a chunk of your heart on the line, and doing something that's authentically you. (Unfortunately, that doesn't typically include writing her some elegant code).

Revisionist history a little?

There is no revision of history when someone points out hackers ARE NOT criminals nor that they intentionally damage systems. The first tyme "hacker" was used derogatorily was in the 1980s, before then Hacker meant "simply referred to a person who was capable of creating hacks, or elegant, unusual, and unexpected uses of technology."

The concept of hacking entered the computer culture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1960s...
But there are standards for success as a hacker, just as grades form a standard for success as a tool. The true hacker can't just sit around all night; he must pursue some hobby with dedication and flair. It can be telephones, or railroads (model, real, or both), or science fiction fandom, or ham radio, or broadcast radio. It can be more than one of these. Or it can be computers.

Steven Levy has written a good book on what and who hackers are, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

And on the third hand

In Victor Koman's KINGS OF THE HIGH FRONTIER he also describes spacesuits very similar in scope and technology to the original post. BTW, great all around book about a private space race which we are *finally* seeing come to fruition.

Why did I have the impression this is a well established fact?

I was actually first introduced to this concept way back in middle school when I read Madeleine L'Engle's A Wind in the Door. Granted, we now know that mitochondria are not little pig-like creatures that kill cells with overzealous games of ring-around-the-rosy. But L'Engle's understanding of the role mitochondria play within a cell was pretty good, I think. At least, I still remember it from a book I read over 20 years ago.

I agree. The 60CSx has very good sensitivity. That and topo quads allow navigation just about anywhere. That's what I use mine for. The price has come waaaay down too. I paid nearly $700 for mine 18 months ago.

First thing I did on the site was pull up an entry for a book my university press publishes. It had no "Buy" option. I edited the metadata to add the ISBN-10 number for it, and voila, a Buy option.

It then took a certain amount of self-control for me not to go into various titles dealing with George W. Bush and enter the ISBN-10 of the storybook containing "My Pet Goat". Purely as a proof of concept, you understand.

This is simply the Wikipedia vandalism problem writ large. What controls will OpenLibrary put in place to guard against it?

Von Braun had one as well: Where the Winds Sleep.

A book called The Millennial project was released several years ago that describes skin-tight space suits in very clear and specific terms, dicussing how a tight material is sufficient to handle the pressure, and how just a chest plate might be useful to provide radiation protection and protection from micrometeors and the like. I believe it described the use of tungsten..

It's a really interesting book, talks about a lot of other technology, and seems pretty darn reasonable about most of it too.

http://www.amazon.com/Millennial-Project-Colonizin g-Galaxy-Eight/dp/0316771635

Computers & Typesetting, Volume B: TeX: The Program is worth reading even if only in parts. You walk away from the experience thankful that you have intrinsically more readable languages today. (I am thinking of Java and Python in particular.) Pascal, which as defined by Wirth, is a teaching tool and is readable but, at that time (early 80's), any practical use of it required using the vendor's non-standard extensions. WEB was a means of adding modularization and vendor independence. At this it was successful. Where it went wrong was that it did not set the conditions of programming to steer the programmer into doing good design. The result, and you get this from just reading the first few chapter of The Program, is that the TeX implementation is a mass of global variables and twisty code.

even without prior knowledge of the joke, what do you think the chances are that an Apple employee could publish this and still have a job the next day?

Tim wrote this long after Steve's return to Apple, and has a history of writing outlandish April Fool's articles. The previous year, he claimed that he'd been slipped a CD-ROM from unknown sources that ran the entire QuickTime stack on every Microsoft-licensed platform: WinCE, XBox, etc. The 2005 article cited here was a little infamous because MacTech publication slipped so badly that the article actually came out in June. Still, when I saw him at WWDC, he said that he couldn't believe anyone had fallen for it even then, given the utter obsolescence and obscurity of SNOBOL, pushed over the top by his fanciful "SNOJOB". Anyways, Tim's activities still seem to be OK with management -- we QuickTime developers appreciate his openness and availability on the list.

Ironically, the one thing Apple won't let him do is put his name on his own books ( 1, 2), which are officially attributed to "Apple".

even without prior knowledge of the joke, what do you think the chances are that an Apple employee could publish this and still have a job the next day?

Tim wrote this long after Steve's return to Apple, and has a history of writing outlandish April Fool's articles. The previous year, he claimed that he'd been slipped a CD-ROM from unknown sources that ran the entire QuickTime stack on every Microsoft-licensed platform: WinCE, XBox, etc. The 2005 article cited here was a little infamous because MacTech publication slipped so badly that the article actually came out in June. Still, when I saw him at WWDC, he said that he couldn't believe anyone had fallen for it even then, given the utter obsolescence and obscurity of SNOBOL, pushed over the top by his fanciful "SNOJOB". Anyways, Tim's activities still seem to be OK with management -- we QuickTime developers appreciate his openness and availability on the list.

Ironically, the one thing Apple won't let him do is put his name on his own books ( 1, 2), which are officially attributed to "Apple".

At least as long as Fat Land has been out, but probably a bit longer than that. The story of American obesity is the story of American corn subsidies, which is therefore the story of high-fructose corn syrup and omnipresent, cheaper-than-water soda; and the story of vending machines and fast-food restaurants, 'family-style' Applebee's-like chains that exist solely to help burn off the excess corn stock by selling almost nothing but corn and its byproducts.

Don't tell the presidential candidates though, they have to win in Iowa!

I haven't read that one but I loved The Planiverse

Though Flatland is in the public domain and can be had for free on the Web, I'd still recommend buying a copy. Why? Two reasons. One is that published editions often have useful commentary. But the other is that there's a tradition of publishing the book alongside one of the most recent sequels that various authors have penned with reference to more recent notions of space, such as Flatland/Sphereland .

Sure, there are many examples, however I will tell you that there's little or no universal agreement. For example, I know some folks that consider qmail to be a terrific program, at least in design and coding, but there are plenty of criticism of qmail.

I suggest getting a copy of Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective by Diomidis Spinellis. He at least will introduce readers to a number of different criteria by which code can be judged.

I don't know about 'pretty', but the Lions' on 6th Ed. Unix is a great example of /clean/ code. I think of it as 'pretty clean'.

http://www.amazon.com/Lions-Commentary-Unix-John/d p/1573980137/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-4816217-2120035?i e=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184460207&sr=8-1

As for clean C++, it's harder to appreciate I think because C++ has a bit of overhead to it that makes the code appear more sprawling.. harder to appreciate I think. That said I feel that out of the many C++ apps I've written, large and small, there are a few I think are 'clean' and even, dare I say, almost 'elegant'. But it takes a lot of effort; one can spend a lot of time cleaning things up, and making comments 'just so'. I put the most effort into code that I know will be seen publicly, or might need to be handed off to others.. open source and team oriented work for hire especially.

History repeats itself

Paying SOMEONE ELSE to earn something, then taking most of what they earn (leaving them a lesser share) while YOU sit on YOUR dead butt is what capitalism is all about.

they could offer an hd-dvd player with 300 hd-dvds

Just shut the fuck up dimwit.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/

I honestly can't imagine what it must be like to actually such miserably fuck as you clearly are from your posts.

No one gives a shit about your juvenile attempts at spewing garbage about Sony. The rest of the gaming world is going nuts over Killzone 2, Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, GT, MGS 4 and laughing at the pathetic looking Halo 3 and insultingly lame Wiifit crap.

Go fuck yourself you piece of shit fanboy. Sony just made miserable little cunts like you their bitch.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/

Gee, sorry, I just made you look like just another idiotic fanboy...

Hilarious!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/

Crippled? The EE emulation on the new, and current European PS3s, is at 90 percent and growing rapidly with each firmware update.

"At this point we were all fooled by Sony once again."

Gotta love the fanboys still trying to pretend anyone is 'outraged'. Give it a rest.

Hmmm I just googled to confirm what you said about Serenity... here's something that I thought was rather funny:
http://www.amazon.com/Is-Serenity-on-Blu-Ray/forum /Fx2OBJXPD8AAL2V/Tx3HBJ73B4L8NHR/1?_encoding=UTF8& asin=B00005JO0J

"No, Universal is still in the HD DVD-only camp. Annoyingly, Fox is in the Blu-ray camp so if Firefly ever comes out in high-def, it will be a different format from Serenity." :D

Something like 15 years ago I read a Michael Crichton novel (I suspect it was Sphere ) where a character claimed that the chemical reactions of cone snail venom "works faster than nerve conduction velocity", meaning that one is dead before one even feels the sting. Is there truth to this, or is it totally false?

Long story short, this sort of thing has been going on for a very long time, and vastly predates the rise of mobile devices. And yet, we still seem to be doing fine.

Your recommended reading on this topic: Things that Make Us Smart, by Donald Norman.

Nights: Journey of Dreams. It kind of helps that Nintendo seems to get the best Sega games nowadays.

Because some of us, deep down, believe that with hard work, determination, and a little luck, we just might be the lucky guy stealing BILLIONS of dollars someday.

Absolutely. ;-)

You see, this is one of the things we like to call "American values". Sure Christianity is nice, but them Christians would get a whole lot more done if they'd stop fussin' with the wrong people.

You see, God wants us to be rich. Them Christians? They want us to help the poor and needy. What's up with that? How can I get rich if I'm helping a bunch of people who can't fend for themselves?

Let's face it. Jesus is great and all, but Jesus never bought me a big screen T.V.. And I for damn sure ain't about to hang around with no smelly poor people.

Note: For the humor impaired, the above submission was a work of satire.

The consumers don't seem to view this price cut as a farce. PS3 is the NUMBER ONE seller on Amazon right now:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/

How about Xbox 360? It's #20, behind such consoles as PS3, Wii, DS Black, PS2 Black and PS2 Silver.

BTW the article summary is 100% FUD. If it were written by paid Microsoft shills I don't see how it would change from its current state.

No one gave a fuck what console you bought before, why the fuck do you think anyone cares now?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/

If you are dumb enough to be posting in the latest Zonk FUDfest you really do deserve nothing more than to spend this console generation with a fucking GameCube with waggle bolted on.

PS. Halo 3 - bwahahahah!!! We all knew it was going to look like shit, but jeeze Bungie!

"It's like he's just begging for people to hate Sony. I don't get it."

What's that dipshit?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/

Aww, poor baby! Does it make you cry when you see that? Did you wet your panties? Does mommy need to change the poor little fanboy's panties for him?

Will you cry some more when the 60 gig models are sold out and Sony drops the cheaper to manufacture 80 gig models down to $499 once again?