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What do you plan to do on the machine? Program? Surf the web? Use it to monitor something? Play games?

Right. Can't make much of a recommendation without knowing the use case. You can slap a $32 Sempron 3850 in a $28 motherboard with a $40 SSD and 4GB of RAM and have the beginnings of a reasonable web browsing/email computer for $120. Or you could bump up that processor up to an Athlon 5350 and double the RAM for another $40 and have an okay basic computer. Then you could probably do all of those things, except for maybe playing many of the latest and greatest games, without too much trouble.

What do you plan to do on the machine? Program? Surf the web? Use it to monitor something? Play games?

Right. Can't make much of a recommendation without knowing the use case. You can slap a $32 Sempron 3850 in a $28 motherboard with a $40 SSD and 4GB of RAM and have the beginnings of a reasonable web browsing/email computer for $120. Or you could bump up that processor up to an Athlon 5350 and double the RAM for another $40 and have an okay basic computer. Then you could probably do all of those things, except for maybe playing many of the latest and greatest games, without too much trouble.

Fabulous. We now have the missing technology for the pheromone-based killer drone swarms featured in Daniel Suarez's Kill Decision

One imaginary sketch is not much better than any other imaginary sketch. You might as well put up "Terran Trade Authority" comic books as engineering references.

http://www.amazon.com/Spacecra...

HINT: You don't know things about things that have never actually been built.

What is it about space and sci-fi that turns off critical thinking skills in adults?

And most people can't tell the difference between a network cable and http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AK... Are you arguing that there is a real difference between those because *you* can tell the difference, even if nobody else can?

Simply put, I went from LCD to OLED and the OLED was not an improvement, then went from OLED to LCD and the LCD was an improvement. That's not just my opinion, but the opinion of everyone that's seen my new phone. So I asked a simple question, and nobody can answer it, though they get quite angry that I'm even asking it.

That makes me push the issue, to see if anyone can actually answer it. So far many are 100% sure I'm wrong, but can't tell me an easy way to see a difference between an OLED phone and LCD phone as displayed in a typical store, side by side. I've compared my current LCD phone to an OLED in a store, and didn't see any difference.

Go on, tell me how to tell. If you can.

Apple makes a Lightning to USB adapter. Or is your complaint that it supports too few device classes, or that its implementation of USB mass storage class supports too few file systems and too few file types?

USB to Serial adapter

USB to Parallel adapter

So there's certainly no need to have an internal serial or parallel port in your computer, for the very rare applications that need one of these antiquated interfaces.

I would argue that USB has indeed replaced both of these technologies, because all the common peripherals that used to use these (modems, printers, UPSes, fax machines, scanners, external drives, game controllers) have either become obsolete themselves, or have adapted to use USB.

USB to Serial adapter

USB to Parallel adapter

So there's certainly no need to have an internal serial or parallel port in your computer, for the very rare applications that need one of these antiquated interfaces.

I would argue that USB has indeed replaced both of these technologies, because all the common peripherals that used to use these (modems, printers, UPSes, fax machines, scanners, external drives, game controllers) have either become obsolete themselves, or have adapted to use USB.

Exactly, unless you have an embedded project that needs to have the board be as absolutely tiny as possible it just makes more sense to buy something like this AIO board that gives you dual X86 with a decent GPU capable of doing 1080P over HDMI and with built in Wifi, USB (both 2 and 3), Sata/eSata and Ethernet. By the time you bought all that for one of these? You'd have sunk more money for a less powerful system.

If you know a programmer who writes code vulnerable to SQL injections, tell them to buy this book. If you are a programmer that writes SQL injections, you need it (or a swift kick in the head).

Seriously, this is an old, solved problem. We know how to write code with zero SQL injections. It's been solved, and there is no excuse for having any of them in your code.

I'm reminded of the food products created by 'famine' in Pratchett & Gaimens' 'Good Omens' which one could eat as much as one wanted and yet starve to death -

"Nouvelle cuisine (the sort that consists of “a string bean, a pea, and a sliver of chicken breast, aesthetically arranged on a square china plate,” invented “the last time he’d been in Paris,”; diet fads (“D-Plan Dieting: Slim Yourself Beautiful, the book was called; The Diet Book of the Century!”; and new foods (“indistinguishable from any other [food] except for [] the nutritional content, which was roughly equivalent to that of a Sony Walkman. It didn’t matter how much you ate, you lost weight. [] And hair. And skin tone. And, if you ate enough of it long enough, vital signs”

I strongly recommend the book, incidentally - a great read -
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Ome...

I thought about that, and agree Apple is usually taking (right) decisions on our behalf, but if you consider the number of posts from not glossy-satisfied people... spending [more] money on anti-glare stuff like that. Maybe they just couldn't reach the "retina" rendering without a glossy screen?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1015238-REG/sony_pvma250_25_professional_oled.html
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=4k+oled&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=80219436733&hvpos=1t2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8649967677167467747&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_332gpox0u4_b

It has nothing do with encryption so you call all drop the comments about "But the Paris attackers didn't use encryption!" Totally irrelevant.

There is a book on the subject that details how Snowden negatively impacted US intelligence. You can believe he's a hero if you want, but it doesn't mean that his actions had no effect: The Snowden Operation: Inside the West's Greatest Intelligence Disaster

We're already there...

http://www.amazon.com/Tide-Pod...

Punchy lows. Solid mids. But where it really excels is highs. They're crisp and clear all the way to 200GHz and beyond. Of course you'll have to use our superflex cable with gold plated oxygen free copper conductors to really hear the difference!

This one? http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AK...

Updating of OTA broadcast, I think, will find more people turning to it and away from shitty cable and satellite, which is already a trend.

People are dropping cable, and more are installing antennas, but TV viewership even on broadcast OTA networks is also falling, as people spend more time on mobile devices...

http://pipedot.org/story/2015-...

I expect OTA viewership will take-off, and cable will really die, when mobile devices like tablets start including built-in TV tuners and antennas... Plenty of people with time to waste are away from home, and would like some entertainment that doesn't eat up their astronomically expensive data plan.

It has already been done... But once Apple gets the idea, everybody else will copy them, and the press will gush about how incredibly innovative they are...

http://www.amazon.com/RCA-7-In...

http://www.bonanza.com/listing...

Streaming over the Internet, I think, is just another 'pay TV' trap like cable and satellite, and as a matter of fact if you think for a moment, how is it really any different than cable or satellite directly connected to your TV?

Simple... Internet-based services don't hold a geographic monopoly like cable companies do. Lots of competition, versus NO competition.

Changing technology matters, too. Cable couldn't help but be linear, non-interactive a few decades ago. Now they can do things smarter, but many of their declining number of customers demand they maintain the old model, and their contracts with networks are equally difficult to substantially change to allow a new service model.

Replacing Americans with low paid foreign workers, as as Disney, is what the H-1B program is DESIGNED TO DO. Disney is not an accident. Politicians, like Rubio, may say otherwise but what they say and what they do are two different things.

It is perfectly legal to replace an American with an H-1B worker (even if Disney had down so without using Infosys) unless:

1. The H-1B worker is paid less than $60,000; AND

2. The H-1B worker does not have a graduate degree; AND

3. The employer has more than 15% of its total workforce on H-1B visas not counting those making $60,000 or having a graduate degree.

The national average wage for a computer worker is $84,000 (much higher in NYC and California where H-1B workers are more prevalent). Pay the worker $60,000 and you can replace Americans at will. Effectively, any employer can replace Americans at will in technology fields.

Infosys alone generates 8 figures a year in lawyer fees for H-1B visas. If Infosys cannot replace Americans, it is not getting H-1B visas. If it doe not get H-1B visas, there are no legal fees for lawyers. If there are no legal fees for lawyers, the lawyers cannot run their yachts. Therefore, American programmers are expendable.

If you go to the top of 8 USC 1182(n)(1), yes it says H-1B workers have to be paid the prevailing wage. But moved down to 8 USC 1182(p) and you find that Congress requires the Department of Labor to provide 4 skill-based prevailing wages. As the provisions dictate, the result is

Skill Level 1: 17th percentile of wages for the occupation and location. Employers classify 50% of H-1B workers here.

Skill Level 2: 34th percentile. 32% of H-1B workers

Skill Level 3: Median wage. 12% of H-1B workers

Skill Level 4: 64th percentile 6% of H-1B worker

Go to FLCDATACENTER.COM and you can see the wage savings by going H-1B for any occupation and location combination. You can see that this system is designed to allow employers to pay H-1B worker ridiculously low wages.

Those of you are hare saying that Disney came about due to a lack of enforcement are WRONG. What happened at Disney, under the H-1B program, IS PERFECTLY LEGAL. Maybe Ms. Blackwell can win on some other grounds. I wish her luck,.

You can read the complete details in Sold Out: http://www.amazon.com/Sold-Out...

The H-1B program is deliberately convoluted and designed to make the casual reader believe something different from reality. I spent two hours on Monday walking another lawyer who initially could not believe it was legal to replace Americans with low paid H-1B workers through the twists and turns of the H-1B statutes.

If you are posting nonsense like this—"It is not the law. H1B Visas are not meant to replace US worker force but to supplement the the workforce. It also expressly forbids paying workers lower wages. Look it up sometime. The problem is enforcement and the companies that game the system."—showing publicly that you don't know what you are talking about, I suggest you start listening and reading; rather than talking.

When you "look it up sometime" be sure you pay special attention to:

1. Defining an "H-1B Dependent Employer"

2. Defining an "exempt H–1B nonimmigrant"

3. The restrictions imposed on enforcement

4. The prevailing wage provisions of 8 USC 1182(p).

You will find that H-1B is, quite simply, the best legislation money can buy.

Congress needs to be held accountable. The problems with H-1B (and H-1B is just the tip of the iceberg), can only be fixed by Congress.

Otherwise, we lawyers can laugh all the way to the bank.

plus the purpose-built device will out-perform and be more reliable than the half-assed software baked into the TV.

I have a 2013 Samsung smart TV that came loaded to the gills with all kinds of bells-and-whistles and a pretty beefy quad core processor to run it all and yet I ended up using the Roku anyway because the apps kept breaking, malfunctioning and performed sluggishly... It's not like I had a ton of apps either... Netflix, Hulu and Amazon are about the only ones I use.

I've been putting off my Windows 10 upgrade because, as great as it seemed like the OS was going to be, the spyware and now the uninstalling of programs has completely put me off. I have a spare laptop (Windows Vista, I believe) that I mainly use for Kodi and to share out my external hard drive. I'm now considering installing Linux on it as a test. I'm not sure which distribution to use. Which one would be the best to migrate from Windows for Kodi/network file sharing? Would it allow me to boot the laptop back into Windows (in case I needed to access something from there)? Would it support USB remote controls/keyboards like this one?

If this install succeeds, my main laptop (used for web development, web browsing, document creation with OpenOffice, and light image editing) could be next.

Sadly, replacing Americans with H-1B workers IS perfectly legal. It is not because the government has failed to enforce the law. IT IS THE LAW. Folks should read the book Sold Out: How High-Tech Billionaires & Bipartisan Beltway Crapweasels Are Screwing America's Best & Brightest Workers. http://www.amazon.com/Sold-Out... It is shocking and busts many of the myths about H-1B visas. I was tearing my hair out when I read it. I never realized things are so bad and that the news media simply does not report on them.

UNIX is not beginner-friendly, and was never intended to be. If you can't be bothered to get training (or even pick up a book) before trying to use the system, it's your own fault.

If I can get someone from (or in) India to do something about 80% as well for 50% of the cost of an American worker, then why wouldn't I do it?

Because of the cost of locally fixing that other 20 percent.

We go online to buy items to avoid salestax.

And then, more often than not, break the law by not declaring use tax on your annual individual income tax return.

Or because Amazon sells it $10 cheaper than the local store, which employees people

My local store sells on Amazon, which employs people.

and keeps your property values higher

Does everyone want high property values? Unless you're in the business of flipping houses, rising property values tend to raise your rent, meaning you may have to settle for inferior food, clothing, or entertainment.

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/pro...

The weight requirement seems actually pretty high. That is the drone I bought for my son to play with. It isn't heavy enough for registration, despite all that extra plastic protecting the rotors, and that the thing is over a foot across. My guess is that this limit has to do with transmitters for the camera and autononomous flight ability (gps, as well as a computer strong enough to allow navigation).

I would expect that the regulation has something about powered flight which would exclude kites though.

Go read Seveneves.

Here's an example: over the past several years, e-readers have standardized on 6-inch screens. For all the variety that exists in smartphone and tablet sizing, the e-reader market has decided it must copy the Kindle form factor or die trying. Having used an e-reader before all this happened, I found a 7-8" e-ink screen to be an amazingly better reading experience. Oh well, I'm out of luck. It's not the worst thing in the world, but I'd fix it immediately if I could.

Oh well, if only you could find a 7-8" ereader. You must of scoured the earth.

Display Size:
5" (47), 6" (343)
7" (24), 8" (1)
10" (4)

You must of searched heaven and hell for that 7-8" e-reader.

eBook Reader Display Size
Under 6 Inches (8)
6 to 6.9 Inches (70)
7 to 7.9 Inches (47)
8 to 8.9 Inches (2)
9 to 9.4 Inches 9 to 9.4 Inches (1)
9.5 to 9.9 Inches 9.5 to 9.9 Inches (4)
10 Inches & Above 10 Inches & Above (2)

So, they decided to ignore the bullshit you imposed on the series halfway through? Thank goodness, that means we're getting back to the real Star Wars.

It's well-documented that you were just making it up as you went along in the original trilogy.

It wasn't until you made the prequels that you had this whole "generational soap opera" "vision" driving the thing, and the result was decidedly inferior. They're tossing away that "saga" nonsense you imposed post-hoc in favor of something that pleases the fans? That's perfect. That's the only way we're ever going to get anything actually true to the actual original vision of Star Wars.

> Not a chance in hell ANY PC gamer is getting 4K at 120HZ or higher framerates

Doing it _right_ now on my i7 4770K @ 4 GHz + GTX 980 Ti with Elite:Dangerous, Team Fortress 2, Path of Exile.

> you can't even BUY a display that can go higher than 60

Then why do I have **two** monitors that support 144 Hz ??

* ASUS VG248QE Black 24" Gaming Monitor, 144Hz
* ASUS VG278HE 27" Full HD 1920x1080 144Hz 2ms

> and most guys with $2000 in video cards are having trouble staying anywhere near 60hz at 4K.

My GTX 980 Ti was $669 + $58.20 tax = $727.20

It is called turning down the Video Options quality. Back in the Voodoo 1 days I would run glQuake at 512x384 to guarantee 60 Hz. These days that means turning off all the anti-aliasing and lowering the shader quality.

Basically, you don't know what the fuck you are talking about.

> Not a chance in hell ANY PC gamer is getting 4K at 120HZ or higher framerates

Doing it _right_ now on my i7 4770K @ 4 GHz + GTX 980 Ti with Elite:Dangerous, Team Fortress 2, Path of Exile.

> you can't even BUY a display that can go higher than 60

Then why do I have **two** monitors that support 144 Hz ??

* ASUS VG248QE Black 24" Gaming Monitor, 144Hz
* ASUS VG278HE 27" Full HD 1920x1080 144Hz 2ms

> and most guys with $2000 in video cards are having trouble staying anywhere near 60hz at 4K.

My GTX 980 Ti was $669 + $58.20 tax = $727.20

It is called turning down the Video Options quality. Back in the Voodoo 1 days I would run glQuake at 512x384 to guarantee 60 Hz. These days that means turning off all the anti-aliasing and lowering the shader quality.

Basically, you don't know what the fuck you are talking about.

Every platform has its strengths and weaknesses. There is no such thing as an "perfect" platform.

I've been custom building PC since the 90's and haven't had driver issues on PC in **years.** Stop buying cheap-ass parts. Go with nVidia, Intel, Asus, and Corsair. For ordering parts: Newegg, Micro Center, NCIX, Amazon have all great prices, and most importantly: ratings. i.e. Don't buy a part from NewEgg if the 4/5 and 5/5 eggs combines have a score of less then 80%.

PC
+ Mods
+ 4K resolution
+ 120+ Hz framerate
+ Steam --> *tons* of games on sale
+ Games that will never be on the console, such as RTS's, the free and excellent Path of Exile, Guild Wars 2, Civ 4/5, Eve Online, World of Warcraft, Terraria, etc.
+ Variable pricing = way better scalability. i.e. My primary dev box: 32 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, GeForce 980 Ti, etc. It will be 10 years before a console can even come close to matching this performance.
+ Mouse / Keyboard / Throttle == Elite:Dangerous bliss
+ 3D support
- Configuration / Driver issues
- crappy console ports

Console
+ Just "works"
+ Console "exclusive" titles
+ Far cheaper
= only 1080p
- crappy 30 Hz; maybe 60 Hz if you are _really_ lucky
- crappy FPS gamepad

Agreed on the remote. I thought I would like it, but it's hard to use and I do often find myself fast-forwarding unintentionally.

The Google TVs that I had (I still have one) are both standalone boxes made by Sony. You can run them by themselves or hook your cable TV or whatever into them. One of them even had an IR dongle thing so that you could remote control other devices that needed infrared. A quick Google search shows that the ones I have were discountined. http://www.amazon.com/Sony-NSZ... There are some new ones: https://www.google.com/tv/get....

I'd buy another one though, I really liked it.

I can't speak for Katamari, but assuming you have a PS2 dance pad...

http://www.stepmania.com/downl..., plus
http://stepmaniaonline.net/ind..., plus
http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ..., equals

A near-equivalent, if not superior, DDR experience on your computer.

Actually, it probably can be quantified, just not necessarily easy.

Example. The poster said that their market is a niche, so the market is not very large, but they probably are known. The competitors for their product are probably also known. First, identify (within a ballpark accuracy) everyone's market percentage. Identify (again, within a ballpark accuracy), the growth rate of their product and everyone else's product.

Then, how is their product and market growth comparing to everyone else's? If it is below the rest, then why? Maybe it can be attributed to the UI, maybe not. If they are losing customers, why?

An interesting book is How to Measure Anything which could be helpful.

Full disclosure. I do know the author, but receive no financial benefits. I didn't even get a free copy.

This book How to Win Friends & Influence People was probably the best I read during my short, short, short (1 semester) of taking MBA classes, that will help you understand influencing people.

I second that suggestion (as somebody who finished his studies & has worked as a dev for nearly 20 years).
Regarding my career & personal life I consider this book to be the most important one I ever read.

This does not sound like a technical problem to me. This sounds like a problem with how you can accomplish what you want to accomplish in your organization. If this is a technical problem, then read this book Working Effectively with Legacy Code

It sounds like you lack both political power and political influence inside your organization. You cannot force them to do what you want, and you cannot convince them to do what you want, so you are asking slashdot for advice.

When I had no power in an organization, I worked on gaining influence to enact the changes I wanted. This involves understanding people, and how to relate to them across lots of different situations (not just work problems.) It involves getting tons of stuff done for lots of different people, working extremely hard and productively, and being a general bad-ass so they will respect what you say and go along with you even if they don't exactly agree, since you helped them out tons of times before. People will start to think you make good decisions (in general.) It also involves talking with people individually to figure out what their honest objections to your goals are, and meeting with them individually to object to their agenda items to avoid bringing your objections out in public. It takes a while. If you go down this path, and your management is even kind of competent, eventually you'll gain the power to directly enact the changes you want to see. That doesn't mean you should use that power though, since it will make you an ineffective leader to constantly rely on power alone.

This book How to Win Friends & Influence People was probably the best I read during my short, short, short (1 semester) of taking MBA classes, that will help you understand influencing people.

This does not sound like a technical problem to me. This sounds like a problem with how you can accomplish what you want to accomplish in your organization. If this is a technical problem, then read this book Working Effectively with Legacy Code

It sounds like you lack both political power and political influence inside your organization. You cannot force them to do what you want, and you cannot convince them to do what you want, so you are asking slashdot for advice.

When I had no power in an organization, I worked on gaining influence to enact the changes I wanted. This involves understanding people, and how to relate to them across lots of different situations (not just work problems.) It involves getting tons of stuff done for lots of different people, working extremely hard and productively, and being a general bad-ass so they will respect what you say and go along with you even if they don't exactly agree, since you helped them out tons of times before. People will start to think you make good decisions (in general.) It also involves talking with people individually to figure out what their honest objections to your goals are, and meeting with them individually to object to their agenda items to avoid bringing your objections out in public. It takes a while. If you go down this path, and your management is even kind of competent, eventually you'll gain the power to directly enact the changes you want to see. That doesn't mean you should use that power though, since it will make you an ineffective leader to constantly rely on power alone.

This book How to Win Friends & Influence People was probably the best I read during my short, short, short (1 semester) of taking MBA classes, that will help you understand influencing people.

Here ya go: Cricket Flour from Amazon -- http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B...
I had it and it wasn't bad...kind of nutty if any flavor could be described. It mostly takes on the flavor of what its cooked with.
One theater served a bunch of "cricket bars" at their Snowpiercer showing and didn't really advertise the ingredients till after the movie (they told you it was made with cricket flour & fruit). Hit Central America or Asia and you'll find a plethora of insect dishes. The key is to fry the buggers, if not, you get the wet dirt taste.

http://www.amazon.com/Arrest-P...

Glorfindel does not use a rocket launcher.

Sure about that?

Here's an example of how deceiving those ads can be. Best Buy will have a 128GB flash drive for $19.99, discounted from the regular price of $99.99. Great deal, huh? Not really, as Amazon has the same drive right now for $32.44, and the list price is $52.99. Meaning, Best Buy had marked up their price to make the discount look much better than it actually is.

Hitler embraced the Catholic church and they embraced him back. Does "Gott Mitt Un" ring a bell?

I am taking no side on the current "religious assholes kill lots of people" vs. "atheist assholes kill lots of people" war. I just noticed the above statement, which I see a lot, and wanted to provide some historical context to it.

I have seen it frequently mentioned on the Internet that Hitler was Catholic and/or had a close relationship to the church. While Hitler may have been born to a Catholic family, he was never visibly religious throughout his life one way or another. Also, despite his Wagner fetish, he was not a devotee of the old Germanic paganism that mystic fringe elements of the SS seemed intent on reintroducing to German society. He never disavowed religion publicly, but it never played any role in his life either, at least according to modern Hitler scholarship.

Hitler's relationship to the Catholic church oscillated between uneasy truce and outright hostility throughout the time the Third Reich was in power. Germany was majority Protestant in the north, and majority Catholic in the south, and the Catholic church (which even had its own political party, the Center Party) was a useful ally at times. It disagreed with Hitler on many issues (primarily social), but Hitler showed no compunction about shutting down Protestant churches that preached against the excesses of its administration, and the Catholic hierarchy in Germany was perfectly willing to make a deal with the devil to avoid being shut down or expelled. There is also strong evidence (though not 100%) that the Pope (who had previously been Papal Legate in Germany) and his representatives made a deal with Hitler to turn a blind eye to Jews trying to flee the country in exchange for a continued presence in the country.

However, Hitler and the Catholic authorities in the Third Reich frequently clashed as well. Many Catholic priests spoke out against the human rights abuses of Hitler, and it was only through continued wrangling and negotiation with Hitler that priests weren't bundled off by the Gestapo en masse. Many politically active priests were nonetheless. And at times Hitler talked about putting the whole church on his "enemies" list and shutting it down for stirring up anti-government feeling (which wasn't hard to come by from 1942 onwards).

Long story short: Hitler wasn't a Catholic, and they weren't really allies. But the Catholic church did make deals with Hitler to preserve their power and legitimacy which are shameful in retrospect. If you're interested in more details, read the first volume of Ian Kershaw's excellent Hitler or Richard Evans's The Coming of the Third Reich.

Hitler embraced the Catholic church and they embraced him back. Does "Gott Mitt Un" ring a bell?

I am taking no side on the current "religious assholes kill lots of people" vs. "atheist assholes kill lots of people" war. I just noticed the above statement, which I see a lot, and wanted to provide some historical context to it.

I have seen it frequently mentioned on the Internet that Hitler was Catholic and/or had a close relationship to the church. While Hitler may have been born to a Catholic family, he was never visibly religious throughout his life one way or another. Also, despite his Wagner fetish, he was not a devotee of the old Germanic paganism that mystic fringe elements of the SS seemed intent on reintroducing to German society. He never disavowed religion publicly, but it never played any role in his life either, at least according to modern Hitler scholarship.

Hitler's relationship to the Catholic church oscillated between uneasy truce and outright hostility throughout the time the Third Reich was in power. Germany was majority Protestant in the north, and majority Catholic in the south, and the Catholic church (which even had its own political party, the Center Party) was a useful ally at times. It disagreed with Hitler on many issues (primarily social), but Hitler showed no compunction about shutting down Protestant churches that preached against the excesses of its administration, and the Catholic hierarchy in Germany was perfectly willing to make a deal with the devil to avoid being shut down or expelled. There is also strong evidence (though not 100%) that the Pope (who had previously been Papal Legate in Germany) and his representatives made a deal with Hitler to turn a blind eye to Jews trying to flee the country in exchange for a continued presence in the country.

However, Hitler and the Catholic authorities in the Third Reich frequently clashed as well. Many Catholic priests spoke out against the human rights abuses of Hitler, and it was only through continued wrangling and negotiation with Hitler that priests weren't bundled off by the Gestapo en masse. Many politically active priests were nonetheless. And at times Hitler talked about putting the whole church on his "enemies" list and shutting it down for stirring up anti-government feeling (which wasn't hard to come by from 1942 onwards).

Long story short: Hitler wasn't a Catholic, and they weren't really allies. But the Catholic church did make deals with Hitler to preserve their power and legitimacy which are shameful in retrospect. If you're interested in more details, read the first volume of Ian Kershaw's excellent Hitler or Richard Evans's The Coming of the Third Reich.

In fact, not judging a book by its title is just stupid. If you see a book titled, Python for Data Analysis, you can reasonably (and accurately) assume that it is not a mystery novel.

When someone (Francis Bacon, I think) said something like "it's the exception that proves the rule", by "proves" he meant "tests".

There was one time I went to a book sale and found a cheap copy of The Universe at Midnight. I was eager to read it. I bought some other books too and it was somewhere in the middle of the stack. I got home and started to read it, only to find that it was some cheesy crime novel because some asshole either carelessly or deliberately put the wrong cover on it. Perhaps I could use it for target practice?

I like to read so I've bought lots of books. Other than this one incident, the title on the cover has been a completely accurate method, just as you say. That makes it solid enough.

If you can add $10 to that rtl-sdr.com sell R820T/RTL2832U dongles (on Amazon) with temperature compensated oscillators, SMA connectors and other nice features for SDR experimentation. Start with that if you imagine using upconverters, front-end filters, etc.

You'll want a short USB pigtail for these devices, though; they are fairly large.

That title definitely makes this book sound like it takes a balanced and objective viewpoint of the situation, with both sides of the argument covered.

There seems to be a cultural shift in recent decades where you can't make a clear argument any more.

This starts with journalism, where "balanced reporting" initially meant that news organizations couldn't show only one side of a controversial issue (abortion, roughly 50% of Americans on one side or the other), and has progressed to where "balanced" journalism includes giving equal air time to climate change deniers (less than 3% of scientists), ESP and paranormal believers, and other completely fringe views.

To be completely fair, about 40% of Americans believe in Creationism, so it's probably OK that this gets equal billing. The point isn't about the beliefs per-se, it's about journalists unwilling to choose a side. Equal billing tends to prop up failing modes of thought.

I've read numerous books and papers that posit a claim and then cite evidence to support that claim... I *thought* that's how science debate worked. For example, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind does precisely this: establish a point, then bolster it with reams and reams (well, one ream - 512 pages) of evidence.

Why does someone with a position to argue need to lay out both sides of an argument?

That's not how human perception works. We rely on experts to sort through the information we don't have time or expertise to deal with.

What's wrong with making a clear point in a book tagline?

There is nothing inhuman about being managed by a straight talking lead who tells you exactly what you are doing wrong in blunt, uncertain terms.

What is inhuman and undignified is being managed by HR, to whom you are a number, and follow policies that dictate how your team is to communicate and what you are allowed to say.

I agree; I think the problem here, though, is that there's a difference between simply being blunt and telling it like it is and being an asshole...but that often the latter believes they are the former. Adding to that, where does one draw the line...and what if the person who is the recipient of the blunt talk is simply failing, and trying to rationalize it away by saying "oh, he's just an asshole"?

Then there's also the big question: what if the person is an asshole, but also a superstar? At what point is it worth it?

There's actually a really great book out there called (I shit you not) "The No-Asshole Rule," by Robert Sutton. Sutton originally wrote a piece for the Harvard Business Review (of the same title) and it got such a positive reaction that he went on to write a whole book. The book covers the difference between being an asshole and simply being direct, the urge to label people assholes for all kinds of reasons, and whether assholes are ever worth it. Oh, and he puts forth a remarkably sensible definition for what behavior makes someone an asshole in the first place. It even touches on the fact that, at some point, we have all been an asshole in the workplace.

The book's an easy and interesting read, and it's really applicable. I found that it helped me temper my own style in the workplace a bit...I don't think I was a full-blown asshole, but I could have gone that way...and I find it easier to be blunt and direct without people walking away from the interaction feeling bad about it. Instead, they seem to step away feeling a sense of direction without negative feelings about the whole thing. And I really like that, a lot.

Try this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...

$800 for a true quad core Intel notebook, Skylake and all:

Intel i5-6300HQ 2.3 GHz Quad-Core
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GDDR5
8 GB DDR3L / 256 GB Solid-State Drive
15.6-Inch FHD IPS, Wide-Angle, Anti Glare Screen

I own one of these, preordered it the day I saw it on Amazon, it is fast and the screen is very nice.

Read "What Is Mathematics? An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods" by Richard Courant. It is the single best overview of undergraduate mathematics, IMHO. I really wish I had read this as an undergrad.

There's also VESA brackets for the Raspberry Pi.

Fight for your bitcoins!

If you find TFA remotely interesting, I recommend you follow it up with "Cracking the Coding Interview" by Gayle Laakmann. Hell, I learned how to solve the Traveling Salesman problem using only directed cyclical graphs, and I don't even know what a graph is! I got a job at Google after I impressed the interviewers, and now I'm working on converting the the Android runtime to something called Java bytecode. Unfortunately, I haven't found a book called "Cracking the Java Bytecode", so I'm just making it up as I go along. That's because my Big O notation is n over infinity!

http://www.amazon.com/Cracking...