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Firstly, it's better if you start with basic programming logic and algorythms, and an industry-standarized language like C right afterwards; once you have the basics of these things, you can move on to other languages, both simpler and more complex. A few good reference books are these:
Teach yourself beginning programming in 24 hours
Beginning programming for Dummies
C for Dummies
The C Programming Language

Those could serve as a good start. If you need further help, I can get you a basic manual of how to start programming in Visual Basic from the stuff I used at college; contact me through email (it's in my url) if you're interested.

Firstly, it's better if you start with basic programming logic and algorythms, and an industry-standarized language like C right afterwards; once you have the basics of these things, you can move on to other languages, both simpler and more complex. A few good reference books are these:
Teach yourself beginning programming in 24 hours
Beginning programming for Dummies
C for Dummies
The C Programming Language

Those could serve as a good start. If you need further help, I can get you a basic manual of how to start programming in Visual Basic from the stuff I used at college; contact me through email (it's in my url) if you're interested.

Firstly, it's better if you start with basic programming logic and algorythms, and an industry-standarized language like C right afterwards; once you have the basics of these things, you can move on to other languages, both simpler and more complex. A few good reference books are these:
Teach yourself beginning programming in 24 hours
Beginning programming for Dummies
C for Dummies
The C Programming Language

Those could serve as a good start. If you need further help, I can get you a basic manual of how to start programming in Visual Basic from the stuff I used at college; contact me through email (it's in my url) if you're interested.

Firstly, it's better if you start with basic programming logic and algorythms, and an industry-standarized language like C right afterwards; once you have the basics of these things, you can move on to other languages, both simpler and more complex. A few good reference books are these:
Teach yourself beginning programming in 24 hours
Beginning programming for Dummies
C for Dummies
The C Programming Language

Those could serve as a good start. If you need further help, I can get you a basic manual of how to start programming in Visual Basic from the stuff I used at college; contact me through email (it's in my url) if you're interested.

The assertion that we have "hardwired functions in brain" for "spoken discourse" is certainly rather bold

That language (and most of our higher brain functions) could have developed in the past two hundred thousand years is an assertion that has become rather mainstream. The only people that continue to deny it the "it's all nurture" people that prefer to view the brain as a "tabula rasa" with only cultural influences generating all of the behavioral complexity of a modern person. The fear of genetic determinism and the revival of eugenics seem to be preventing this type of person from accepting anything other than nurture as an explanation for anything like language... but what if the similarities between individuals of different races are much larger than the genetic differences between those same races?

The idea that kids are taught language by adults is laughable once you look at some of the data. Two and three year old children are so much better at learning language than adults it's scary (orders of magnitude better). Kids learn language from adults, but they learn it despite baby-talk and other things many western parents do, not because of it. In many other cultures, kids start to talk at exactly the same time as in the U.S. without any explicit assistance from their parents. The parents are talking around the kids all the time, and one day, the kid starts participating.

Some reading on the subject (same books from Powell's). I'd like to reassure you, the books I reccommend are quite accessable, even if you are not into evolutionary psychology, cognitive development, or linguistics. Also pretty cheap if you buy used paperbacks...

Regards,
Ross

The assertion that we have "hardwired functions in brain" for "spoken discourse" is certainly rather bold

That language (and most of our higher brain functions) could have developed in the past two hundred thousand years is an assertion that has become rather mainstream. The only people that continue to deny it the "it's all nurture" people that prefer to view the brain as a "tabula rasa" with only cultural influences generating all of the behavioral complexity of a modern person. The fear of genetic determinism and the revival of eugenics seem to be preventing this type of person from accepting anything other than nurture as an explanation for anything like language... but what if the similarities between individuals of different races are much larger than the genetic differences between those same races?

The idea that kids are taught language by adults is laughable once you look at some of the data. Two and three year old children are so much better at learning language than adults it's scary (orders of magnitude better). Kids learn language from adults, but they learn it despite baby-talk and other things many western parents do, not because of it. In many other cultures, kids start to talk at exactly the same time as in the U.S. without any explicit assistance from their parents. The parents are talking around the kids all the time, and one day, the kid starts participating.

Some reading on the subject (same books from Powell's). I'd like to reassure you, the books I reccommend are quite accessable, even if you are not into evolutionary psychology, cognitive development, or linguistics. Also pretty cheap if you buy used paperbacks...

Regards,
Ross

this may sound harsh, particularly as i'm a programmer and have been a roleplayer quite extensively myself,

Sounds like you had some really boring roleplaying, though, and possibly a terrible GM.

You should perhaps try playing some modern games where you don't put your intentions on the top of the page in the form of "Lawful Good" or "True Neutral". For example, in White Wolf's World of Darkness game settings, everyone is generally in the same group, but they could be working at cross purposes. Some of the best events in the game are when you pull off the perfect political maneuver to spite a character you don't see eye-to-eye with; or when you have to cajole, threaten, or negotiate to get a bit of vital information. Of course, this is on top of the challenge of considering things from the point of view of a completely separate character with different morals and motivations than you might have personally.

As for the "formalness" of the worlds, that really depends on the players and the GM. What's the modifier for turning over a table during a bar fight and using it as cover? What happens if an opponent in heavy steel armor crashes into the front of table? What if an acrobat leaps over the table and pins you against it? What if a mage sets the table on fire? I don't know what game you were playing, but these situations happened often in our role-playing and there were no hard and fast rules for them. The DM had to come up with rules and we collaborated to make a great session.

Finally, you should consider that not everyone is the same. In particular, there are introverts and extroverts, although these terms are very often misunderstood. I highly recommend the book, The Introvert Advantage which talks about these things in depth. I credit RPGing with allowing me to learn to extrovert as an introvert; this isn't something that comes naturally to introverts, so it's good to have a practice area where you can "just claim you're roleplaying" to ease anxieties. Learning to extrovert well has helped me a tremendous amount as a business owner. Of course, not everyone is as willing to learn and grow; people are often happy to fall back on old, comfortable, familiar patterns.

My thoughts,

It's essentially the Catholic Justice System.

An "opt-in" scheme is obviously unworkable, because the amount of effort required to chase down the often obscure chain of ownership rights to every book would be cost-prohibative.

Yes, obviously. You should let Amazon.com know. Perhaps then they will stop bleeding money from the futile effort to track down even a single book owner to sign on.

It's essentially the Catholic Justice System.

I think the Baptists would take exception at your excluding them from this party. They like controlling people too.

In Soviet Russia, Beowulf Clusters imagine *you*!

In some weird way this is (a part of) the plot of Greg Egan's Diaspora. I'm not kidding either.

I recently discovered a board game called Heroscape, which is awesome because it looks like a table-top D&D type game, but plays with a much simplified set of rules. The sets/maps/characters/story are completely customizable, which adds to the fun.

I just wish to thank Hasbro for creating this wonderful product to let us "minor" geeks play to. And to keep this post on topic, I am a computer geek and consider myself creative. So, I would say that geeky and creative people like to play games. Duh.

There are two separate issues here:

1) Vitamin-D(or E?) generation due to sunlight exposure
2) circadian rythm timing based on sunlight exposure

For a geek, what they really need to do, if they want to actually be able to function in the rest of the world (instead of rom noon to midnight+), is to expose themselves to roughly the output of a 100W lightbulb for a period that matches up with when the sun's out. Which means that after the sun goes down, you dim the lights down. This way the body understands what time it is. If you have lights on bright late at night, you'll slowly shift your circadian rythm later and later, getting up later and later each morning...

Total darkness at work doesn't help, either. The body uses sunlight to figure out when it should be awake/asleep.

Then if you're not getting enough light exposure (real sunlight), your body won't properly produce one of the vital vitamins, and depression will start to set in (anyone can become Seasonally Affected if they don't get enough sunlight, for a long enough period of time).

Ever notice how GOOD sunlight can feel sometimes? That's the body soaking up the UV for vitamins. Always being slathered in SPF40+ will actually cause the same problem, you NEED sunlight.

Dement wrote an excellent book about this (pioneer of sleep studies at Stanford).

If you are interested in reality vs. fairy tales, read Joel Brinkley's Defining Vision.

Penn and Teller have a segment in "How to Play With Your Food" - you put electricity thorugh a pickle, and it lights up. It's great fun at parties. It looks quite dangerous, and the more squeamish folks will be convinced that you're going to electrocute yourself. My neighbor, after seeing the initial demonstration years ago, was so impressed that he's built an "improved" model every year. I think we're up to 6th gen now. The newest unit looks like a pickle-sized electric chair, and it works wonderfully.

For reasons I can't explain, *everybody* loves the Pickle-ator.

Read the book Hot Property: The Stealing of Ideas in an Age of Globalization.

The Chinese on both the mainland and Taiwan have been stealing U.S. and European intellectual property for decades. They use any excuse they think will be accepted. It's possible that the excuse they are giving was market tested before they started to use it. The stealing is that sophisticated.

One way they steal is by buying the influence of corrupt U.S. politicians. Another way they steal is just by stealing.

I don't have any myself, but I typically rig up various moving things from assorted bits I have laying around the house.

A quick search pulls up books like Animatronics: Guide to Holiday Displays, which seems to be right on target.

The problem is, you don't even have two weekends left to get stuff done -- if you need to look for odd parts, or mail order something, it's really, really, late to be planning anything big. (yes, we typically do a conversion the day of halloween, so no one sees it too far in advance, as it's outside, but we've been doing it for years, and already have the stuff, and plenty of people to help.)

Oh ... if you're looking for a durable fog machine, you might want to look at a music store -- they're intended to be lugged about, etc, as opposed to the cheap ones that show up in Target and the like at this time of year.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be on iTunes.

-ccm

After a little research, it appears that LEDs have been designed that surpass the efficiency of compact fluoros, but these are not on the market yet.

LED lights are on the market now. LED: New Products. Amazon even sales some.

Then you (and your wife) might want to have a look at Modern Optical Engineering, or if you are into math and can also appreciate the theoretical background of LEDs, hunt for Light Emitting Diodes, by Fred Schubert, who is somewhat of the pope in this field.

Then you (and your wife) might want to have a look at Modern Optical Engineering, or if you are into math and can also appreciate the theoretical background of LEDs, hunt for Light Emitting Diodes, by Fred Schubert, who is somewhat of the pope in this field.

I've been using SuSe Linux for a few years but I've also taken an interest in OpenBSD for a while. Recently I decided to give it a go. The online documentation is very well thought out. To suppliment online documentation I opted for an excellent book which should help new and experienced *nix users alike in getting the best from OpenBSD for their requirements. Absolute OpenBSD by Michael W. Lucas ISBN 1-886411-99-9 http://www.nostarch.com/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-fo rm/103-8285097-8052630/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/188641199 9/qid%3D1129994895/026-1045610-3018009/ I like the way OpenBSD has been produced and the way in which it encourages good practice.

And what's the point of listening to lossless audio formats on earbud headphones ...

That's why the Etymotic ER-4P Earphones were invented. Granted, you need to re-mortgage your house to afford them, but you can't beat their 35-40 dB noise reduction that allows you to hear you music at normal volumes while you are out and about. And it sounds great: the response of these earphones is great.

But otherwise I agree. What is the point of anything other than low-quality mp3 if you are not going to be able to listen to it anyhow.

the stainless steel rat books a fun read.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765302772/103-08 04353-9635047?v=glance&n=283155&_encoding=UTF8&v=g lance
  rats and humans coevolve, in a process that hasn't stopped yet. build a better mousetrap, and the world will breed better mice. rats.

So what was the hold up? They wanted to try to secure Sony's agreement to supply Australians with their music?

The Seven Network has said it will start distributing popular television shows such as Dancing with the Stars to the Internet and portable devices by mid-2006.

That's good to hear (not that particular show, but that australian shows will be uploaded), but do we get American shows, and if so, when do we get them? American shows are often delayed in Australia, with some episodes merely not shown at all (or shown out of order), while entire seasons can just not be shown at all (we never got Enterprise Season 4, the best bloody season of the lot and it wasn't aired). We also have to put up with sci-fi shows being stopped mid-season for rubbish like this.

It's better for people to just wait for the season to be released on DVD half the time (although not only do we get those delayed, we get shafted with those as well compared with the American one.

If Apple can offer American shows to Australians at the same time as they offer it to Americans, they'll find a market ready and primed for them. Heck, if it weren't for the small screen size I'd include myself in those who would readily leap at the chance to buy the shows from Apple. Unfortunately I can just see the government and/or television companies trying to stop Apple :(

People protest nuclear because NuclearIsBad(tm). Education is the only way to combat this.

The more education you have regarding nuclear fission power, the more you protest.

No offense, but this is total and utter BS. Here are just a few very well reasoned out proposals/cases for nuclear power:

here
here
here

In short, the amount of C02 that even circa 1950s nuclear power plants emit is 5 times *less* than wind, 50 times *less* than solar (where do you think all that material to make solar cells comes from anyways?). As for cost, new nuclear power plants are about the same as natural gas turbines (which are as cheap as it gets) and have orders of magnitude left for improvement with new materials. As for safety, coal with its byproducts kill about 50,000 people yearly. Since its the extraction of materials blamed for premature deaths, if solar was scaled up to the same level as coal was, it would kill about 1000-2000/yr.

Face it; every source of energy has its risks. With nuclear, most of those risks can be mitigated because you get so much bang for your buck with the fuel that you can watch the risks carefully. Passively safe systems make things even more secure. Its one of the biggest irony in history that the Greens are fighting tooth-and-nail probably the most environmentally conscious enery source of all. (outside of conservation)

horos

People protest nuclear because NuclearIsBad(tm). Education is the only way to combat this.

The more education you have regarding nuclear fission power, the more you protest.

No offense, but this is total and utter BS. Here are just a few very well reasoned out proposals/cases for nuclear power:

here
here
here

In short, the amount of C02 that even circa 1950s nuclear power plants emit is 5 times *less* than wind, 50 times *less* than solar (where do you think all that material to make solar cells comes from anyways?). As for cost, new nuclear power plants are about the same as natural gas turbines (which are as cheap as it gets) and have orders of magnitude left for improvement with new materials. As for safety, coal with its byproducts kill about 50,000 people yearly. Since its the extraction of materials blamed for premature deaths, if solar was scaled up to the same level as coal was, it would kill about 1000-2000/yr.

Face it; every source of energy has its risks. With nuclear, most of those risks can be mitigated because you get so much bang for your buck with the fuel that you can watch the risks carefully. Passively safe systems make things even more secure. Its one of the biggest irony in history that the Greens are fighting tooth-and-nail probably the most environmentally conscious enery source of all. (outside of conservation)

horos

People protest nuclear because NuclearIsBad(tm). Education is the only way to combat this.

The more education you have regarding nuclear fission power, the more you protest.

No offense, but this is total and utter BS. Here are just a few very well reasoned out proposals/cases for nuclear power:

here
here
here

In short, the amount of C02 that even circa 1950s nuclear power plants emit is 5 times *less* than wind, 50 times *less* than solar (where do you think all that material to make solar cells comes from anyways?). As for cost, new nuclear power plants are about the same as natural gas turbines (which are as cheap as it gets) and have orders of magnitude left for improvement with new materials. As for safety, coal with its byproducts kill about 50,000 people yearly. Since its the extraction of materials blamed for premature deaths, if solar was scaled up to the same level as coal was, it would kill about 1000-2000/yr.

Face it; every source of energy has its risks. With nuclear, most of those risks can be mitigated because you get so much bang for your buck with the fuel that you can watch the risks carefully. Passively safe systems make things even more secure. Its one of the biggest irony in history that the Greens are fighting tooth-and-nail probably the most environmentally conscious enery source of all. (outside of conservation)

horos

The same way you successfully make any other movie: by focusing on the story.

It's hardly a surprise that a Napster insider would have a somewhat self serving perspective on what went wrong.

Other observers might very well conclude, e.g. from books like All The Rave that Napster was not a trustworthy (or even a competent) partner for a deal.

Furthermore, today there are all sorts of legal models for online music (subscription, per-song, whatever), and it hasn't exactly stopped piracy networks.

People that use mice have tiny balls, people that use trackballs... now they've got big balls! Kensington Expert "Mouse" is the way to go for gaming, and just clicking around.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 67LYFW/002-8910153-5526422?v=glance
I have one of these and it works well. It plugs into the headphone jack of your music player. The only downside is turning it off and on every time turn your car on or off.

(Non-affiliate-or-whatever-they're-called but obligatory Amazon link here

There's no reason why anyone would need to view the kernel source code to do a high level type of comparison as in the article. Smart people have already done this, in fact.

Apparently we've both been living under a rock. I didn't realize until now either. Yet here we are. Go figure.

No, "1776", by David McCullough.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743 226712/qid=1129841990/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104- 6981505-9258325?v=glance&s=books

Gregory Bateson in his book Mind and Nature deals with examining one's presuppositions. Under minning one's presuppositions is, in one way, what the study of epistemology, as it pertains to theories of knowledge vs the methodology of science, is about.

Creative, or, if you prefer, inventive work is, in large part, about testing the presuppositions underpinning a theory or protocol, and, where possibly profitable, collapsing the presuppositions that underpin our habits and protocols, if for no other reason then to see what happens next.

In response to a question on the role of open source software in Africa, Gerald Ilukwe, the general manager of Microsoft Nigeria, said that cost is not important, even though he admitted that the average annual salary in the West African country is only $160 (£91). Cost of XP? only about $189.99 Now, with a total YEARLY net profit, without expenses of food, etc, this would mean that they could afford less then one copy of XP home. Let alone the computer to run it. I've read some good articles about the efforts going on to get both Africa, and some parts of Australia connected using buses equppied with internet. These can run Linux (software, assuming you pick the right distro, is free), so you only have to pay for the hardware. Now, if a group of people, say... a small sized town... got together, they might be able to convince the people doing these bus routes to stop on by. I, for one, think that this is just up there with all of Microsoft's claims of fooey and blooey, FaB(tm), and wish they'd, perhaps, donate software to help some people out? Oh, and for all those people saying "they need food first" not *everyone* in Africa is starving, and computers would be valuable learning tools as well as would greatly help the economy (think academy courses where you can come out of high school with a programming certificate).

There is also a book, also called The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility , attempting to explain the thinking behind the clock, and the effects of humans over long time spans as well.

Maybe he meant to read both "Decline and Fall of the American Programmer" and "Rise and Resurrection of the American Programmer??"

Maybe he meant to read both "Decline and Fall of the American Programmer" and "Rise and Resurrection of the American Programmer??"

For further reading, here are some links:

A quick write up about it: http://www.bfi.org/Trimtab/spring00/longnow.htm

A wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_of_the_Long_Now

An interview aobut it: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/brand/brand_p2.htm l

A Discovery Article: http://www.discover.com/issues/nov-05/cover/

A book about the clock: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0465 007805/002-9433271-9089642?v=glance

One of his clocks was made of wood and he used wood that produced a natural lubricant so it needs no maintenance at all. It is STILL running.

Because it was considered by just about every scientist alive at the time of Apollo that there was absolutely no scientific value in sending a man to the Moon. Not just British scientists but Americian scientists too held this opinion. Many still hold this opinion today.

This is such a sad statement, and inaccurate. The Apollo missions were incredibly productive. The first geological exploration another world? 6 missions exploring amazingly diverse sites. Apollo contibuted greatly geomorphology, volcanology, geochemistry, isotope studies, remnote sensing, mapping... The Apollo mission reports are still available. Read them. I doubt you will feel the same way. As a former planetary geologist I can assure you that that opinion is not widespread in that community.

If you say this about Apollo, what do you think about the pointless research on the even more expensive space station?

The "Dual Alarm" allows a time for radio and a separate time for the buzzer.

Each supports: Every Day, M-F or Sat-Sun and the RADIO alarm lets you set the station to play
when it comes on, which can be different than the station played for 90/60/30/15/ minutes
with a different volume setting.

Turning the alarms on and off is easy (just press the Radio or Buzzer buttom - each time it
turns on or off the alarm). Push and hold the radio or buzzer button to set the alarm time
for the alarm in question (radio or buzzer).

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 1Y6J1Y/103-8033020-0764649?v=glance

that all this furor he's causing is because he has a book coming out in November and he wants some free publicity? Nah, of course not. Move along, nothing to see here.

What if you are a parent who does not want his kids renting Christian video games? Why are they only protecting kids from becoming violent and sexually active when some parents worry more about their children becoming part of a religion that typically distances themselves from non-believing family memebers?

for Jack Thompson to release a book and benefit from all this free publicity.

Oh, wait a second.

Anyone who watched the PC platform when Windows 95 came out knows better than to say that MS stifled development.

Agreed. I think it's more appropriate to say they set it back twenty years.

By creating a platform for developers,

Actually, that was GNU: By developers and for developers. Windows is probably the most unpleseant platform to develop for still in active use.

they allowed the lowly PC platform to catch up greatly to the Mac in usability

You'll end up shot if you tell a Mac person that.

Windows never came close to MacOS in terms of usability. Not to mention your leading about developers- MacOS was and still is extremely pleseant to develop for.

and bring capabilities to buyers of low-cost hardware that might never have come to them otherwise.

You mean like how almost half of a reasonable system goes into Microsoft's pocket?

Tales from the White Hart, almost a must read. I have a very old printing that was my father's favorite childhood book, and a copy of the most recent reprinting.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345 430727/qid=1129651213/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl 14/104-2949821-4630339?v=glance&s=books&n=507846