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The problem here is that the press reports are just rehashes of what the cops are putting out. Somebody should find this guy and interview him. He may be in hiding for reasons of his own.

His book is self-published on Amazon. It's been out since 2011, and you can read a sample there. This guy is not the next Steven King. A typical sentence: "As Zea approaches her partner she cannot restrain herself from hyperventilating as she peers at the black embossed letters on the translucent glass sign above the entrance to the central atrium".

Today, the Los Angeles Times quotes cops as saying "Everybody knew about the book in 2012", and that this is more about a four-page letter he recently sent to officials in Dorchester County, containing "complaints of alleged harassment and an alleged possible crime". There may be more clarity over the next few days, now that the story is getting attention.

"We don't support Linux, use windows"

Because Linux users are a pain in the ass.

You can find a bugzilla from about five years back where I had a problem with the built-in NIC on an ASUS mobo corrupting memory. Several others had the same problem on the same series of boards, and we were exchanging notes and working together on the bugzilla. Initially ASUS was helpful and looped in Atheros. But once we had a clear pattern (I mean a pattern of bit inversions in the hex dump), both went radio-silent.

I mean, what were they going to do, recall all the motherboards in that line just because they were no good? My time was worth more than the $90 for the mobo but we figured initially that its was a Linux driver bug and were trying to get to the bottom of it.

Anyway, had to rip it out and replace it (no slots left for another NIC in that application). Went to MSI ("oooh, jap caps") but those toasted (literally, burn marks on the mobo) quickly, found ASRock and haven't looked back.

I have an ASRock Z97 Extreme 4 in my cart at Amazon. Now don't you guys go buying them all before I put in the order on Friday. ;)

Back in the day, my parents had a board game called "Lie, Cheat & Steal". A pretty fun game!

It's awesome that his pen name was Voltaer which sounds like a reference to Voltaire who was fighting for civil rights and had his books burned.

It sounds like this guy is brilliant. He was smart enough to use a pen name to hide his writings from his students, and also smart enough to choose a pen name that mocks anyone who uses these writings to defame him. Clearly, Voltaire should now be required reading by Dorchester county students.

Anyone interested in a halfway decently written adventure story built on the basis of the Whole Yella blowing might look into the Ashfall trilogy:
http://www.amazon.com/Ashfall-...

"In other words, power corrupts. It should really be regarded like super-heroin: no matter your initial purposes for getting it, you will be addicted and unwilling to put it down, until keeping it and getting more is all that really matters to you anymore. Which explains why the world is so dysfunctional: every society is led by junkies."

If "power" is addictive, maybe that explains the outrage on Slashdot regarding a plea to limit internet speed and access? :-)

More seriously, while you may well be right about the political motivation in this case, there was a recent Slashdot article on how social networks make people more depressed, and here are links to stuff by Paul Graham on the "Acceleration of Addictivess" and so on.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
http://www.paulgraham.com/addi...
http://www.amazon.com/Supernor...
http://www.sparringmind.com/su...
http://www.drfuhrman.com/libra...
http://www.amazon.com/Moths-Fl...
http://www.amazon.com/Autonomo...

And something by Bill Joy on "How the Future Does Not Need Us".
http://archive.wired.com/wired...

One other example of what we have lost:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...
"Nature deficit disorder refers to a hypothesis by Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods that human beings, especially children, are spending less time outdoors resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems. ... Louv claims that causes for the phenomenon include parental fears, restricted access to natural areas, and the lure of the screen. Recent research has drawn a further contrast between the declining number of National Park visits in the United States and increasing consumption of electronic media by children."

So there are many obvious negatives of modern technology. Look at all the concern on Slashdot about ubiquitous surveillance of everyone that was effectively impossible decades ago. I don't know what the general solution is for the USA regarding technological choices. Obviously Iran has its own political and social dynamics and what may be right for that culture may not be right in the USA. But I'd suggest we need a more reflective attitude towards technology and social systems connected to it. Maybe that would be hard in Iran with its current politics and censorship, but at least, in the USA and on Slashdot, we may want to be more reflective on both what we have gained and what we have lost.

For example, the Amish don't shun technology as much as ask whether specific technologies promote community or not.
http://www2.etown.edu/amishstu...
"Many outsiders mistakenly think that the Amish reject technology. It is more accurate to say that they use technology selectively. Televisions, radios, and personal computers are rejected outright, but other types of technology are used selectively or modified to fit Amish purposes. Amish mechanics also build new machines to accommodate their cultural guidelines. Moreover, the Amish readily buy much modern technology, such as gas grills, shop tools, camping equipment, and some farm equipment.
The Amish do not consider technology evil in itself but they believe that technology, if left untamed, will undermine worthy trad

"In other words, power corrupts. It should really be regarded like super-heroin: no matter your initial purposes for getting it, you will be addicted and unwilling to put it down, until keeping it and getting more is all that really matters to you anymore. Which explains why the world is so dysfunctional: every society is led by junkies."

If "power" is addictive, maybe that explains the outrage on Slashdot regarding a plea to limit internet speed and access? :-)

More seriously, while you may well be right about the political motivation in this case, there was a recent Slashdot article on how social networks make people more depressed, and here are links to stuff by Paul Graham on the "Acceleration of Addictivess" and so on.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
http://www.paulgraham.com/addi...
http://www.amazon.com/Supernor...
http://www.sparringmind.com/su...
http://www.drfuhrman.com/libra...
http://www.amazon.com/Moths-Fl...
http://www.amazon.com/Autonomo...

And something by Bill Joy on "How the Future Does Not Need Us".
http://archive.wired.com/wired...

One other example of what we have lost:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...
"Nature deficit disorder refers to a hypothesis by Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods that human beings, especially children, are spending less time outdoors resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems. ... Louv claims that causes for the phenomenon include parental fears, restricted access to natural areas, and the lure of the screen. Recent research has drawn a further contrast between the declining number of National Park visits in the United States and increasing consumption of electronic media by children."

So there are many obvious negatives of modern technology. Look at all the concern on Slashdot about ubiquitous surveillance of everyone that was effectively impossible decades ago. I don't know what the general solution is for the USA regarding technological choices. Obviously Iran has its own political and social dynamics and what may be right for that culture may not be right in the USA. But I'd suggest we need a more reflective attitude towards technology and social systems connected to it. Maybe that would be hard in Iran with its current politics and censorship, but at least, in the USA and on Slashdot, we may want to be more reflective on both what we have gained and what we have lost.

For example, the Amish don't shun technology as much as ask whether specific technologies promote community or not.
http://www2.etown.edu/amishstu...
"Many outsiders mistakenly think that the Amish reject technology. It is more accurate to say that they use technology selectively. Televisions, radios, and personal computers are rejected outright, but other types of technology are used selectively or modified to fit Amish purposes. Amish mechanics also build new machines to accommodate their cultural guidelines. Moreover, the Amish readily buy much modern technology, such as gas grills, shop tools, camping equipment, and some farm equipment.
The Amish do not consider technology evil in itself but they believe that technology, if left untamed, will undermine worthy trad

"In other words, power corrupts. It should really be regarded like super-heroin: no matter your initial purposes for getting it, you will be addicted and unwilling to put it down, until keeping it and getting more is all that really matters to you anymore. Which explains why the world is so dysfunctional: every society is led by junkies."

If "power" is addictive, maybe that explains the outrage on Slashdot regarding a plea to limit internet speed and access? :-)

More seriously, while you may well be right about the political motivation in this case, there was a recent Slashdot article on how social networks make people more depressed, and here are links to stuff by Paul Graham on the "Acceleration of Addictivess" and so on.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
http://www.paulgraham.com/addi...
http://www.amazon.com/Supernor...
http://www.sparringmind.com/su...
http://www.drfuhrman.com/libra...
http://www.amazon.com/Moths-Fl...
http://www.amazon.com/Autonomo...

And something by Bill Joy on "How the Future Does Not Need Us".
http://archive.wired.com/wired...

One other example of what we have lost:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...
"Nature deficit disorder refers to a hypothesis by Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods that human beings, especially children, are spending less time outdoors resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems. ... Louv claims that causes for the phenomenon include parental fears, restricted access to natural areas, and the lure of the screen. Recent research has drawn a further contrast between the declining number of National Park visits in the United States and increasing consumption of electronic media by children."

So there are many obvious negatives of modern technology. Look at all the concern on Slashdot about ubiquitous surveillance of everyone that was effectively impossible decades ago. I don't know what the general solution is for the USA regarding technological choices. Obviously Iran has its own political and social dynamics and what may be right for that culture may not be right in the USA. But I'd suggest we need a more reflective attitude towards technology and social systems connected to it. Maybe that would be hard in Iran with its current politics and censorship, but at least, in the USA and on Slashdot, we may want to be more reflective on both what we have gained and what we have lost.

For example, the Amish don't shun technology as much as ask whether specific technologies promote community or not.
http://www2.etown.edu/amishstu...
"Many outsiders mistakenly think that the Amish reject technology. It is more accurate to say that they use technology selectively. Televisions, radios, and personal computers are rejected outright, but other types of technology are used selectively or modified to fit Amish purposes. Amish mechanics also build new machines to accommodate their cultural guidelines. Moreover, the Amish readily buy much modern technology, such as gas grills, shop tools, camping equipment, and some farm equipment.
The Amish do not consider technology evil in itself but they believe that technology, if left untamed, will undermine worthy trad

It's like there's some kind of morality subtext that's really "pro pain" and opposed to feeling better

Yes, that's exactly right - Puritanism is a terribly destructive mindframe and thoroughly-ingrained in American culture.

Three things:
1) there a slight chance that these patients could have some fun or pleasure on these drugs. That's reason enough to put a foot down on society.
2) suffering is a virtue. God will lessen the suffering of those who are themselves virtuous, but for the same reason people whip and crucify themselves "for God", those suffering horribly from disease should not be brought from that blessing.
3) people with these afflictions may deserve them.

and those who profit handsomely from such ugly undercurrents in society are all too happy to exploit them for wealth and power.

c.f. A Renegade History of the United States for more on this. The author was fired from a university professorship for publishing such "radical" views on the failures of Puritanism.

Just in case anyone else but me is having a hard time finding out what the book actually is, it's called What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions.

Slashdot: home of the best comment moderation system and the worst article summaries.

Okay, so why is the german version cheaper?

I sense a conspiracy.

German Version

English Version

Okay, so why is the german version cheaper?

I sense a conspiracy.

German Version

English Version

let me amazon that for you...

I was just looking at that one a few hours ago (need to replace my desktop ... Mozilla apps are pigs with high core-affinity).

I decided against it because it has many fewer of the new instructions than the 4790K, slower clock, and almost double the TDP (and I prefer quiet/low power).

Obviously for highly parallel tasks that can fit nicely in the 5820K's bigger cache, it will win handily. I'd love to see an ffmpeg coding shoot-out, but I'm concerned that the 5820K's disabled PCIe lanes might hamper other system performance (vs. e.g. the 5830K).

If anybody here has an ASRock Z97 mobo that they love, I'd like to hear about it.

If you print on flash paper you can "burn before reading"...
http://www.amazon.com/Burn-Before-Reading-Presidents-Intelligence/dp/0786886668

I've had one of these for decades. Engineers don't make mistrakes.

Rather than typical Trivial Pursuit games, I would recommend the Bet You Know It version http://www.amazon.com/Trivial-... It has a betting mechanic that has you betting whether the person answering the question will get it right or not. With enough chips you can buy pie pieces for categories you aren't good at. This helps even things out with your typical gamer group, where you may have a few people really good at trivia, and a few who are awful at it. Otherwise it's no fun if you are just going to get stomped, or crush everyone with no challenge.

They're not the only ones. The IBM mainframes have long been VMs implemented on top of various microcode platforms.

But the microcode implemented part or all of an interpreter for the machine code; the instructions weren't translated into directly-executed microcode. (And the System/360 Model 75 did it all in hardware, with no microcode).

And the "instruction set" for the microcode was often rather close to the hardware, with extremely little in the way of "instruction decoding" of microinstructions, although I think some lower-end machines might have had microinstructions that didn't look too different from a regular instruction set. (Some might have been IBM 801s.)

So that's not exactly the same thing as what the Pentium Pro and successors, the Nx586, and the AMD K5 and successors, do.

Currently mainframe processors, however, as far as I know 1) execute most instructions directly in hardware, 2) do so by translating them into micro-ops the same way current x86 processors do, and 3) trap some instructions to "millicode", which is z/Architecture machine code with some processor-dependent special instructions and access to processor-dependent special registers (and, yes, I can hear the word PALcode being shouted in the background...). See, for example, " A high-frequency custom CMOS S/390 microprocessor" (paywalled, but the abstract is free at that link, and mentions millicode) and "IBM zEnterprise 196 microprocessor and cache subsystem" (non-paywalled copy; mentions microoperations). I'm not sure those processors have any of what would normally be thought of as "microcode".

The midrange System/38 and older ("CISC") AS/400 machines also had an S/360-ish instruction set implemented in microcode. The compilers, however, generated code for an extremely CISCy processor - but that code wasn't interpreted, it was translated into the native instruction set by low-level OS code and executed.

For legal reasons, the people who wrote the low-level OS code (compiled into the native instruction set) worked for a hardware manager and wrote what was called "vertical microcode" (the microcode that implemented the native instruction set was called "horizontal microcode"). That way, IBM wouldn't have to provide that code to competitors, the way they had to make the IBM mainframe OSes available to plug-compatible manufacturers, as it's not software, it's internal microcode. See "Inside the AS/400" by one of the architects of S/38 and AS/400.

Current ("RISC") AS/400s^WeServer iSeries^W^WSystem i^WIBM Power Systems running IBM i are similar, but the internal machine language is PowerPC^WPower ISA (with some extensions such as tag bits and decimal-arithmetic assists, present, I think, in recent POWER microprocessors but not documented) rather than the old "IMPI" 360-ish instruction set.

The main differences between RISC and CISC, as I recall were lots of registers and the simplicity of the instruction set. Both the Intel and zSeries CISC instruction sets have lots of registers, though.

Depends on which version of the instruction set and your definition of "lots".

32-bit x86 had 8 registers (many x86 processors used register renaming, but they still had only 8 programmer-visible registers, and not all were as general as one might like), and they only went to 16 registers in x86-64. System/360 had 16 general-purpose registers (much more regular than x86, but that's not setting the bar all that high :-)), and that continues to z/Architecture, althoug

Or both. Any new understanding of the world will be used in as many ways as people can think of using it. I wrote a novel that speculates on precisely the topic of what might happen with exactly this kind of technology, and part of the fun was thinking about how different groups might use it for good or ill: http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-...

They used to be so good, but (wouldn't you know) it was when I bought a set of 24 of them (staggered lots) for a big ZFS NAS was the time their quality took a dive. Every drive failed within three years - yeah, there was a warranty but I'd trade not dealing with that on 24 drives, one at a time (failed about every 2 weeks)! And this was in an always-on well-cooled data center with clean power.

I switched over to Hitachi and have been much happier with the reliability. I'm hoping that the WD acquisition doesn't destroy them but they're the best bet right now. I did find that some of their big drives are 'green' and frankly the slowest drives I've used since the 90's. The trick is to use the NAS drives, and those perform how you'd expect a drive built anytime in the aughts or later to perform. And their power consumption is really trivially more - you can save far more energy by fronting your disk pool with SSD's (ZFS log/cache or dm-cache) than by buying the very slow 'green' drives anyway. Not moving heads is the ultimate power savings!

Living like this won't necessarily make you grumpy. Check out Happy. Long-term happiness is attained by a combination of these three things: 1) participation in a community, 2) having a self-cultivating hobby, 3) engaging in altruistic behavior. Also, time spent in flow-state helps.

One need not marry, have kids, or live opulently in order to have these things.

Just to be clear, "paleo diets" may have some benefits for some people. I'm NOT saying the "paleo diet" ideas are necessarily bad.

I waffle between Paleo and low-Gi and I'd have to say this is the most sensible statement I've seen here on the subject. Basically, cut the crap carbs, eat your fruits and veggies, and get a healthy amount of fat in your diet along with some protein.

I started out the easy way: no white carbs. No potatoes, sugar, white flour, white rice, etc. and went from there. It works. Getting away from processed foods works wonders as well.. which was easier to justify after reading this. When they're down to using MRI scans to figure out how to make food irresistible, they're in the same camp as the tobacco companies as far as I'm concerned.

I just checked, and the laptop battery I bought last December for our Toshiba is an Anker, with a higher mAh rating than the OEM battery. It's still working great with a decently long battery life, so consider that yet another recommendation. I didn't know anything about the brand at the time - I bought it because it offered longer life than OEM, and it was highly rated on Amazon.

As for cell phones, I bought a couple EC Technologies batteries for our Samsung cell phones one year ago that are still going strong. I get two full days of life from a charge with moderate usage on my Exhibit 4G.

First off, I think we should put PSAs over Bennett's stories.

Yes, and it should link to this, this, and this.

That last one was used as an ESL textbook at my university, but Bennet could truly benefit from it. (it's actually a really good book, 90% of the internet could use it).

First off, I think we should put PSAs over Bennett's stories.

Yes, and it should link to this, this, and this.

That last one was used as an ESL textbook at my university, but Bennet could truly benefit from it. (it's actually a really good book, 90% of the internet could use it).

First off, I think we should put PSAs over Bennett's stories.

Yes, and it should link to this, this, and this.

That last one was used as an ESL textbook at my university, but Bennet could truly benefit from it. (it's actually a really good book, 90% of the internet could use it).

I'm OK with targeted ads. I just wish they would figure out how to target them.

On the desktop version of Amazon, go to "Your Account" on the top right next to the search bar, then "Your Recommendations" from the drop down. Under the search bar there should be a "Improve Your Recommendations" link. Find your "Hello Kitty" purchase and click "Don't use for recommendations."

Note: If anyone cares, I do not work for Amazon any more than any of their other customers do.

For a very low-price but useful entry-level telescope, try the Galileoscope. It is an achromatic refractor that has been designed as part of the International Year of Astronomy, and can be had for approximately US$ 50 (or order a box of 6 for US$30 apiece). It comes with an eyepiece that approximates Galileo Galilei's experience, but also with (IIRC) 2 modern eyepieces that are decent enough for the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn's ring. Also, it uses a standard eyepiece adapter, so it can be further upgraded if required. Some assembly required - this is intended as a teaching opportunity ;-). It's cheap enough that it can just be passed on to another kid or a local school if a better instrument is obtained.

Don't buy a telescope. Instead, get a good pair of 10x50
binoculars and an intro astronomy book with pictures.

Specifically, buy them The Stars: A New Way to See Them by Hans A. Rey, the creator of Curious George.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Star...

The reviews on the back cover are worth the trouble of reading, if you can make them out in the Amazon image. Hell, just the names of the authors of the reviews on the back cover are worth the trouble of reading.

It is quite simply the best popular book on observational astronomy ever written.

I wanted to get something that my daughter and I could use to view the moon with but didn't want to spend a large amount of money in the event that she was not interested. I also wanted something that was easy to set up and portable (we live in the suburbs between two major cities, so to get a decent dark sky we need to drive a couple of hours). After doing some research I decided to go with the Celestron SkyMaster 15x70.

These have several advantages:
- They're very portable and compact
- They can be mounted on a tripod
- They can be used for non-astronomical viewing
- It's only a $60 investment

Ultimately for us, it was the best of both worlds.

I've no objection to getting a better tool for that specific job. They're still electrical heating elements, so they're still using roughly 100 Watt for a typical car or truck engine.

Their main disadvantage is that they tend to have an electrical plug you have to fish out and connect at night, and put back safely in the morning. People tend to forget them and drive off with them connected, then rip the cord off. So what I've personally recommended to a few people is this.

                    http://www.amazon.com/US-Wire-...

The cord is bright orange, obvious sticking out from the hood, and 25 feet long, The hook on top is also very handy for storing it away safely when you take it out from under the hoood. it's very useful for seeing what you're doing from _under_ the car when working, as well, and if you have to you can still put a compact flourescent bulb in it. That didn't used to work well, but some of the flourescent bulbs are small enough now.

It's not a perfect solution, but it still works quite well.

"And they do have uses. There are places where the energy output is the _point_, such as putting a shoplight under the hood of your car, to keep the engine from freezing solid, in very cold winters. "

Or you could do it like the people in cold countries and use a proper oil heater for 15 bucks or so. They heat the oil inside the block and need only 90 Watt.
They also have battery heaters etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Kats-152...

Same issue as the poster, dying batteries with pretty thick bulges from LiPo expansion on a 4-year old HTC phone. Same dillema searching for reputable products, found Anker batteries and bought 2 of them. Very happy with their performance. Tested them with a LiPo hobby charger using a charge-discharge-charge cycle and the mAh rating on them came within the advertised 95-97% value. Batteries still work great after over 1-year of usage.

Anker Universal Cell Phone Battery Charger - $9.99 USD @ Amazon

I love their universal battery charger with the sliding battery terminals that do polarity auto-detection. I can charge all kind of different batteries in it since many phones now don't have separate battery charger cradles.

Or it comes free if you buy 2 battery packs from Anker, or at least mine did a year ago since I can't find it bundled with anything anymore.

I'm not sure if he reviews all different types of batteries, but "NLee the Engineer" reviews tons of rechargeable batteries (and other stuff, as you'll see at the link) at Amazon, and he seems to really know his stuff.

Basically, after you've found what you're looking for, his reviews seem to be very knowledgeable. He'll knock bad products and give good reviews to good ones.

His link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/p...

It's like trainspotting, but for advertising memes.

Gartner is the king/pusher of course. But I think they were actually insightful about this 5 or so years ago. They predicted about 3 year of all hype, no product "cloud", another 3 years of practical, useful cloud infrastructure with nothing really taking advantage of it, and only after that would we see startups (and VC investment opportunities) making use of the cloud to make actual products. I think we're almost there.

Even for hobby programming, the cloud is becoming quite appealing. For example, take a look at this remarkable Mabdelbrot zoom to 10^275. This required 6 core-years to render (6 months wall clock). If you have the patience, the machines sitting idle (perhaps discarded bitcoin rigs) and no fear of power bills, then sure, turn on 3 old high-CPU towers for 6 months. But if you're good at massively parallel coding (and Mabdelbrot rendering is great to learn that!) you can usually get AWS Spot machines for under a penny per core-hour. That means you can get that 6 core-years of CPU for about the price of a midrange geek PC, and you can get thousands of cores in parallel, and be done rendering in a day.

For a hobby project it might be hard to justify spending $hundreds this way, but for a start-up it makes perfect sense. So there's something to the "cloud" IMO if you're trying to do supercomputer parallelism on a shoestring budget, something that's really only become possible in the past couple of years. I'm not sure how cheap 10000 core-hours for $100 is, really, but 10000 cores in parallel for an hour for $100 is something wonderful.

My point there is that democracy, while important, isn't a cure-all. It's inherently adversarial, a conflict which has notably ground today's national legislature to a standstill.

I'm going to disagree with your point. The founders of the USA designed gridlock into the system, so that if there isn't agreement on what to do, nothing will get done.

Are you worried about theocrat conservatives? Don't worry; they will never get any of their goals accomplished.

Are you worried about liberals completely turning the country into a socialist country? Don't worry; there is a point past which they will never be able to go.

There is plenty to worry about. My biggest worry is that the government is debasing the currency while running up huge debt. In the past, that has been a recipe for disaster but I guess our leaders believe that this time is different.

You should also worry about the growing trend of using the courts to hammer people just for their politics. Indicting Rick Perry for using his veto? It's like a banana republic.

My other big worry is how the mainstream news has stopped even pretending to cover the news fairly, and spins every story in favor of the issues and politicians they like, while spinning every story against the issues and politicians they don't like. My most hopeful thought is that, in the long run, people are just going to stop putting any faith in what the mainstream media claims.

Other styles of farming whether square foot gardening or indoor hydroponics can be much more productive per acre than big field farming with tractors, but they are *labor* and *knowledge* intensive. Robotics (or other automation) make greater yields per square foot much more achievable more cheaply. That also makes vertical farming in cities more feasible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
http://www.motherearthnews.com...
http://www.verticalfarm.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...

See especially:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
"A 2010 study published in the journal Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems showed that biointensive methods resulted in significantly increased production and a reduction of energy use when compared with conventional agriculture (Moore, S.R., 2010, Energy efficiency in smallâscale biointensive organic onion production in Pennsylvania, USA, Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 25:3, pp. 181â188). This study states that "Current mechanized agriculture has an energy efficiency ratio of 0.9 ... energy efficiency for biointensive production of onions in our study was over 50 times higher than this value (51.5), and 83% of the total energy required is renewable energy."

The fact that many people have inefficient backyard gardens does not mean that people could not have very productive gardens if they knew more and had more time for them. Biosphere II was a good example of intensive food production in a small space.

See also books on "Survival Gardening".
http://theprepperproject.com/s...

The best one I've seen (by that name, by John Freeman) is not mentioned there though:
http://www.amazon.com/Survival...

Don't know about this new one by someone else:
http://www.amazon.com/Survival...

Granted, that is mostly about organic vegetables and beans. Grains may be a somewhat different issue, but they are already heavily automated in many ways. But as Dr. Fuhrman suggests, eating more fruits and vegetables is healthier than eating more grains (especially refined grains).

You should not discount that gardening in the sunshine can be good health-promoting exercise. It saves money indirectly by displacing other less healthy recreational activities like shopping for the next unneeded consumer item.

BTW, we can grind up rock to get good fertilizer for relatively cheap, especially if powered by excess renewable energy:
http://remineralize.org/

By this estimate by economist Julian Simon, there is plenty of opportunities for growing lots more food if we want to:
http://www.juliansimon.com/wri...

General purpose agricultural robotics makes intensive gardening so much more feasible to do on a small local scale... Still, highly-automated indoor agriculture powered by cheap energy is probably more the future of food production because it is so much more predictable.

Other styles of farming whether square foot gardening or indoor hydroponics can be much more productive per acre than big field farming with tractors, but they are *labor* and *knowledge* intensive. Robotics (or other automation) make greater yields per square foot much more achievable more cheaply. That also makes vertical farming in cities more feasible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
http://www.motherearthnews.com...
http://www.verticalfarm.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...

See especially:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
"A 2010 study published in the journal Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems showed that biointensive methods resulted in significantly increased production and a reduction of energy use when compared with conventional agriculture (Moore, S.R., 2010, Energy efficiency in smallâscale biointensive organic onion production in Pennsylvania, USA, Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 25:3, pp. 181â188). This study states that "Current mechanized agriculture has an energy efficiency ratio of 0.9 ... energy efficiency for biointensive production of onions in our study was over 50 times higher than this value (51.5), and 83% of the total energy required is renewable energy."

The fact that many people have inefficient backyard gardens does not mean that people could not have very productive gardens if they knew more and had more time for them. Biosphere II was a good example of intensive food production in a small space.

See also books on "Survival Gardening".
http://theprepperproject.com/s...

The best one I've seen (by that name, by John Freeman) is not mentioned there though:
http://www.amazon.com/Survival...

Don't know about this new one by someone else:
http://www.amazon.com/Survival...

Granted, that is mostly about organic vegetables and beans. Grains may be a somewhat different issue, but they are already heavily automated in many ways. But as Dr. Fuhrman suggests, eating more fruits and vegetables is healthier than eating more grains (especially refined grains).

You should not discount that gardening in the sunshine can be good health-promoting exercise. It saves money indirectly by displacing other less healthy recreational activities like shopping for the next unneeded consumer item.

BTW, we can grind up rock to get good fertilizer for relatively cheap, especially if powered by excess renewable energy:
http://remineralize.org/

By this estimate by economist Julian Simon, there is plenty of opportunities for growing lots more food if we want to:
http://www.juliansimon.com/wri...

General purpose agricultural robotics makes intensive gardening so much more feasible to do on a small local scale... Still, highly-automated indoor agriculture powered by cheap energy is probably more the future of food production because it is so much more predictable.

Sure it doesn't mean "bend over and give us all your personal information," like having to disclose your real name in a Google+ public profile in order to be allowed to comment on a YouTube video? Or perhaps it just means birthday.

Which brings me to a song by Bad Lip Reading with lyrics "Everybody poops and if they don't they're an Android and should be destroyed." This is sold on iTunes but also on Amazon, which also runs an Android app store. I'm not sure with which platform this song's theme fits. On the one hand, "Android [...] should be destroyed" fits in with the dream of Steve Jobs to go thermonuclear on Android. On the other hand, the implication that every other smartphone OS "poops" could be taken either way.

So?

I used to run a big adult site. We wanted servers closer to the customers for speed. We made enough that we didn't really care about the connection costs. We'd put up server farms around the world where it suited our customers best.

We owned every piece of equipment in our cabinet or cage (depending on the location). The provider equipment ended at the fiber they dropped to us, and the power outlets.

Netflix was hosted with Amazon for a while. A couple years ago, they claimed to have started their own CDN.

Their own CDN site talks about putting Netflix gear out for free. So they are basically saying they want the free ride. No one gets rack space, power, and connections for free. The right thing to do would be to lease the space like everyone else does.

But hey, they're loving to cry about being treated unfairly. They are the loudest ones about it. Honestly, other than speed complaints that are usually a fault, not a conspiracy, I don't know of anyone else talking about the same thing.

It is possible that the world is ganging up on Netflix. It happened to Cogent, more than once. That was mostly they refused to pay on their contractual obligations.

Long time d20 (and variants) player here. Not as long as some, but long enough to have played 2nd Edition when it was still current.

IMHO, 5th Edition's success will come down to their acceptance of the OGL (Open Gaming Licence), which we will discover in the coming days. All signs point to no, but Wizards might surprise us yet.

For those who don't know, the OGL was introduced in the 3rd edition (and continued its minor update, v3.5) of D&D. It was truly revolutionary. The OGL not only permitted players to redistribute the base rule system as they wished, including publishing it online for free almost in its entirety, but empowered players, writers, and campaign masters to edit, change and adapt the rules as they saw fit -- and publish those changes, as long as they too were under the OGL. It's open source for gaming systems.

One of the leading benefits of this was the publication of "Adventure Paths". As the OGL did not cover game worlds, only the mechanics and rules of the game, any writer or publishing company with a solid working knowledge of the game could create, publish, and distribute (freely or for profit) their own adventures, rules variations, optional mechanics, and thousands of various changes. One of the leading companies was Paizo, who specialized in publishing these so-called Adventure Paths. They were not the only ones. For example, I personally published a Pathfinder flavoured novel about a kobold, "Ren of Atikala", set in the original world of Drathari (oblig. plug: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EZ...). Using the OGL, I am able to legally use, alter, and draw inspiration from the rules and mechanics of OGL-licensed publications and create original works.

As I said earlier, it's open-source for gaming systems.

Between 3rd edition and v3.5, this was the state of D&D for almost 8 years, until June of 2008, when D&D 4th Edition was released. Unfortunately, D&D 4th Edition used a different version of the OGL, which was much more restrictive in what it permitted players, authors, and creators to edit, change, and redistribute (IIRC, it was essentially, "you may only reprint the *name* of the rule, and then reference the Player's Handbook", which meant if you were playing Star Wars you had to look up Power Attack in the D&D Player's Handbook... ugh).

Because of this change, and the simplifications made to the rules system which were often disfavourably compared to a video game, many players took a distinct, sight-unseen dislike to 4th Edition.

This restrictive change to the OGL also strongly disinsentivised Paizo from publishing Adventure Paths. After some internal discussion, it was decided that 4th Edition was not for them, and released a revised version of v3.5 of Dungeons and Dragons, known as the Pathfinder RPG (sometimes informally referred to by the player base as D&D v3.75), specifically intended to be backwards compatible with v3.5 of Dungeons and Dragons material. It was published shortly after 4th Edition's debut.

For many reasons -- a feeling that v3.5 was "good enough", Paizo's open-beta policy and staunch support of the OGL even for expansion books, and for viewing companies such as Green Ronin as allies rather than competitors -- Pathfinder has flourished in the wake of the relatively-poorly received 4th edition and is now a common staple at Roleplaying conventions and tabletop gaming communities, where previously only Dungeons and Dragons was played.

D&D Next seems, to me, to be squarely aimed directly at bringing Pathfinder converts back into the fold, promising to address some of the issues in both 4th Edition and Pathfinder, by providing a linearly scaling advancement, reducing preparation time for Game Masters, and simplifying many poorly thought out and complicated legacy rules which most players will admit probably need to go.

For me, though, D&D Next will live or die the same death 4th Edition did, based on its acceptance of

Do "denialists" have a theory?

Yep. A grand conspiracy theory whereby all the world's climate scientists are perpetrating a fraud, and somehow everyone throughout the globe, and all incoming students are inducted.

They're total crackpots.

Do "denialists" get much research grant funding?

No, denialists aren't scientists. They're PR professionals. They get plenty of PR funding though.

Does they even get published?

Yes, they're well over-published. This is what PR is all about these days. What they're not is peer-reviewed. This is because they're crackpots.

I get the feeling you've missed something very important across this whole debate and that its done some damage to your credibility on this issue.

Somebody has.

Do "denialists" have a theory?

Yep. A grand conspiracy theory whereby all the world's climate scientists are perpetrating a fraud, and somehow everyone throughout the globe, and all incoming students are inducted.

They're total crackpots.

Do "denialists" get much research grant funding?

No, denialists aren't scientists. They're PR professionals. They get plenty of PR funding though.

Does they even get published?

Yes, they're well over-published. This is what PR is all about these days. What they're not is peer-reviewed. This is because they're crackpots.

I get the feeling you've missed something very important across this whole debate and that its done some damage to your credibility on this issue.

Somebody has.

Do "denialists" have a theory?

Yep. A grand conspiracy theory whereby all the world's climate scientists are perpetrating a fraud, and somehow everyone throughout the globe, and all incoming students are inducted.

They're total crackpots.

Do "denialists" get much research grant funding?

No, denialists aren't scientists. They're PR professionals. They get plenty of PR funding though.

Does they even get published?

Yes, they're well over-published. This is what PR is all about these days. What they're not is peer-reviewed. This is because they're crackpots.

I get the feeling you've missed something very important across this whole debate and that its done some damage to your credibility on this issue.

Somebody has.

I'm strongly reminded of The Raw Shark Texts link

Great dynamic analysis of engineering social systems! For ways around this via skunkworks development, see William L. Livingston's writings, like "Have Fun At Work":
http://www.amazon.com/Have-Fun...

From a review:
http://infohost.nmt.edu/~shipm...
"It is dangerous, and often fruitless, to try and solve problems without considering the underlying social system.
This is the message of William L. Livingston, a mechanical engineer with over 100 patents and decades of industrial experience. Several books and a newsletter detail his disturbing but important worldview. ...
``Have Fun at Work'' (1988, ISBN 0-937063-05-3, $24.95) is the basic work. ...
The book sketches a different social structure that is better equipped to cope with complexity: the Skunkworks. The term comes from a legendary aircraft development shop that produced the U-2 and Blackbird aircraft. In general, a Skunkworks is a small (3--5) team of battle-hardened, generalist engineers equipped with the latest in software tools for simulating the behavior of all the involved systems (mechanical, electrical, software, and social).
On a purely practical level, this book is an excellent survival manual for results-oriented engineers who have developed attitude problems about the structural barriers to success in their work environments. Livingston discusses how to evaluate your social structure's potential for success, ways to get working projects out the door in spite of these barriers, and how to tell when you're wasting your time even working there.
Livingston's more recent work, ``Friends in High Places'' (1990, ISBN 0-937063-06-1, $28.50), spends less time discussing organizational pathologies and more time discussing the Skunkworks procedure. It is a somewhat more positive, less bitter work than ``Have Fun at Work.''"

I also think free and open source collaborations via "stigmergy" are another way around this, where people collaborate by adding to a shared digital artifact.
http://p2pfoundation.net/Stigm...
"3. Collaboration in small groups (roughly 2-25) relies upon social negotiation to evolve and guide its process and creative output.
4. Collaboration in large groups (roughly 25-n) is dependent upon stigmergy. "

Even at IBM Research, technologies like the Jikes Java compiler only got picked up by other groups because they were made open source. Otherwise the organizational barriers within a big organization like IBM would be too strong to use the tools. That was something mentioned somewhere by one of the authors as the biggest surprise of open sourcing Jikes, that other IBMers suddenly were using it.
http://jikes.sourceforge.net/

By contrast, back aound the same time Jikes went open source, I desperately wanted to try IBM's embedded Smalltalk (acquired from OTI) in a research project at IBM instead of using VxWorks for the portable IBM Personal Speech Assistant (a handheld speech recognizer and TTS system as a coprocesser to a Palm Pilot, a forerunner in a way to Siri and Google Voice). That other group said I would need to come up with about US$200,000+ worth of funding to their team before they would make their code available for use even just inside IBM, claiming they would have to dedicate a support person to it. Sadly, that was not feasible; I was only a contractor, and this was my own idea because I loved Smalltalk. So that technology did not get used at all in that project. Too bad for that group, because the then IBM chairman Lou Gerstner asked for one of the devices for his office to show people -- and wouldn't it have been nice for that IBM group if their technology had been used instead of or in addition to VxWorks?

If IBM/OTI Embedded Small

I found one particular economics class hilarious; we spent more than half of the semester learning a set of related equations for (for example) forecasting optimal production levels, that all just took the derivative of the same damn underlying equation from different perspectives.

Just out of curiosity, was the course based on Hal Varian's textbook [BUY IT NOW]? He's at Google now.

The literary executor of George Orwell's estate could had accused Amazon of using Newspeak. But maybe would be Doublespeak the right language for the dystopian present of 2014.

George Orwell did warn the world about Newspeak, didn't he? BUY IT NOW

Also, for an extra $75, you should be getting at least a 50W panel:

http://www.amazon.com/ALEKO-50...

Or maybe even 75W:

http://www.amazon.com/ALEKO-75...

Also, for an extra $75, you should be getting at least a 50W panel:

http://www.amazon.com/ALEKO-50...

Or maybe even 75W:

http://www.amazon.com/ALEKO-75...