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Whistle physics

http://www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/reso...

Who continues the circumstance, and why do you think it continues? African immigrants fare quite a bit better than native-born Africans, if it was institutional/cultural (as you hint), then I'd expect immigrants to do even worse given they do not have the same understanding of language and culture as native-born citizens.

So after an infinite amount of time, the set of gaps in the fossil record will resemble the Cantor set?

Jupiter already makes the sun wobble. 18-20x larger would probably not be good. http://tycho.bgsu.edu/~laird/cp_images/wobble.html

Being some random griefer who sends flying phallic objects across the Metaverse doesn't make you an expert in anything except flying genitals. So let's step through your insolent propaganda point by point.

1. "...they're [sex and money] the only reasons anyone uses it [Second Life], despite claims to the contrary by media-whorish Linden Labs."
   Perhaps you're not aware of the number of corporate entities using Second Life, not even for direct profit, but simply as a platform to deliver product information, such as Sun Microsystems, or the educational institutions using it as part of a prototype distance learning initiative, such as Bowling Green State University. Maybe you're not aware of the high-profile full-time businesses in Second Life, or the many, many articles reputable business publications have written noting the unique opportunities that exist in SL. There's much more than just sex and money. As in real life, there is entertainment, education, experimentation and economy. You know little about these because you spend all your time making the experience inconvenient for others.
2. "A bank called "Ginko" that recently went insolvent sent shockwaves through the economy lately."
   This was no surprise to anyone not stupid.
3. "As the Linden (the currency of Second Life) is not based on anything, Linden Labs simply dumps currency into the market whenever they feel like it."
   A quick look through the SL Economy metrics and blogs shows you're full of it. There is an actual regulation to the currency in SL, you're just ignorant of it.
4. [Your last statements]
   Again, your ignorance shines through. Do you do any investing in the real world? Do you know what happens when you invest 100k in prime real estate in California and an earthquake devastates it? Unless you took out insurance of some kind with an organization who certainly makes more than they will ever put out (on a sidenote, there are investement insurers in SL), you are SOL. Linden is careful to use the terminology "unit of trade" for the Linden dollar, because the Metaverse is not a seperate governmental body, has no legal jurisdiction in the real world, and wants to avoid the IRS putting their grubby mitts any further in. If you are foolish enough to make an unwise investment in SL, then, just as in real life, you learn that a fool and his money are soon parted.

In conclusion, please know what the hell you're talking about before you respond. And stop griefing the Metaverse, it's obnoxious.

Haven't you played Moria?

What Makes a Libertarian? is a 1995 posting containing speculation by a CS professor about why libertarianism is so attractive to the CS-inclined. I think the reasoning is sound with respect to some people, but will not go so far as to generalize without Stuart Reges' experience. There is no more direct and plausible answer that I have found explaining this psychological connection.

although, if someone wanted to, they could probably figure out where the guy in the article works, and find the policy from there

The following is prohibited conduct for any individual using ITS managed computers or networks:
...
22. Anonymous use, or use of pseudonyms on a computer system or computer network to escape responsibility. No person shall use a computer system or computer network anonymously or use pseudonyms to attempt to escape from prosecution of laws or regulations, or otherwise to escape responsibility for their actions.

According to the article, he's in Bowling Green State University, which is in Ohio. So DHS will be on this case in no time.

First off, yes, there were denials of warming by some neocons. At least until now:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8917093/

Then there's the argument that, oh, the environment will just adjust and absorb the carbon. Nope:

http://www.sundayherald.com/51146
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/umw elt_naturschutz/bericht-47597.html

Oh, and why worry, it's just heat, right?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/20 02377292_ocean13m.html
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29498448 .htm
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/08/05/ne ws/community/friloc07.txt
http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/pr/news/2005/news8474. html

Archimedes didn't even like the idea of irrational numbers. Pi isn't even algebraic for Athena's sake.

I believe R.K. Milholland, who writes Something Positive, has been addressing that issue in some recent comic strips. I'd mod him insightful, but mod points don't seem to work off slashdot for some reason....

As far as Card's stated views, he makes a better case than most religious zealots as for why gay marriage is a bad idea from a sociological standpoint. He's at least willing to argue from a sociology standpoint, which while not as rock solid a science as physics, are at least an improvement over "Thuh Bible saiyz so."

Not that his argument is convincing. I think several of his assertions in the (typical) article I noted are made with insuficient justification (EG: "Monogamous marriage is by far the most effective foundation for a civilization") or just plain wrong ("Calling a homosexual contract 'marriage' [...] will not make it contribute in any meaningful way to the propagation of civilization"). I think he is right to be concerned about the continued impact of some earlier social changes from the early to mid-20th century. The changes that have weakened "the family" over the last 50 years, that have led to the symptomatic high divorce rates and working single parents, have in turn caused major problem on a lot of levels, and that the present situation has Major Problems. Unfortunately, he sees allowing gays to marry as yet another step towards doom, instead of potentially increasing the number and variety of stable model family units for children to imprint off of, in the event that they are in a disfuntional family.

He also doesn't get that by prohibiting gays from marrying, it artificially and unjustly creates a legal discrimination of heterosexual non-reporoductive partnerships versus homosexual non-reproductive partnerships. Of course, his reference to Plessy versus Fergesson when condemning judicial activism in his followup shows he's closer to a legal idiot than a legal scholar-- that case upheld the law as legislated all the way.

His worry for society is well placed, but his fears have the wrong target. Frankly, most of this attention deficit generation seems to lack the long-term focus and the ability to compromise that seems necessary for maintaining a stable partnership. The problem is further compounded by the last several decades' economic strains on the family; now, two working parents seems all but required. The present situation is dangerous, but trying to force the clock back will trigger disaster; though it has risks, further change offers hope.

As for his wrtiting, Card isn't worth buying in hardcover (except perhaps Ender's Game itself), but I've still picked up some of his more recent books in paperback after checking them out from the local library. As for the movie... I'll wait for the reviews.

Interm Website

Thank you for all the responses! It confirmed some of the thoughts i had and help me set an idea of what needed to be done. More info on the orgnization and LAN party can be found here: http://personal.bgsu.edu/~randlem/xngc/

If your event is public, just make sure that you've complied with their licensing. This usually entails one copy of per game per PC if it's being held in a Lab. If it's BYO-PC, then people will have to worry about their own licenses and games.

Now, for what BGSU is known for... If you plan to attend, you best pack a rubber.

Back when I was in college at BGSU and the method of checking email was telnet to one of four different SunOS servers to use Pine, someone came in and "revamped" everything so that we could covert to Lotus Notes. They upgraded hardware, software, and pushed Notes on everyone. Sure, you *could* use any old POP equipped mail client but anywhere on campus you could only check your mail with Notes.

It was a major flop. The software was seriously crappy, it was slow, and it was quickly dropped in favor of POP clients and now webmail (which from what I understand still sucks).

The code may be messy but the application itself is a POS and isn't likely to be picked up by users.

I just arrived back to the BGSU campus a few days ago, and when I went into the lab in the basement of the computer science building, I noticed that all the SGI X-terminals and Macintoshes had been replaced by brand new Dells. That was the only lab I used, since I'd rather do my programming assignments on Solaris/CDE than in Visual C++ or on the UNIX system over telnet. I complained to a lot of people, but no one so far has been able to tell me why they did this or what happened to the SGI's. They got new Dells for at least one other lab too, which were NOT needed, while raising everyone's tuition again. I guess I'll never know, but I really think Microsoft had something to do with it. Maybe that's why we can buy Windows and Office (Professional versions) for only ten dollars at the bookstore. I guess I'll be using KDevelop now.

I don't know which has the BEST female to male ratio, but BGSU has about a 3:1 ratio. Not too bad, but obviously irrelevant for us geeks.

Oh, and the bandwidth is great. They block all P2P, though.

Speaking of passing variables, that reminds me of the fun I used to have with BGSU's student portal. You can have it display any text you want by appending it to the address. I used to have lots of fun modifying the browser home pages in the labs.

Opera should be a CSS superstar

Opera is a CSS superstar

My most recent visit to a Kmart in Troy, Michigan was a surprise. They're actually removing every single self-checkout lane. Signs were posted around these now-closed machines, claiming it's an attempt to "improve customer service". I myself do believe they're slower than human-staffed lanes.

But what I find really odd is that Kmart's soon-to-be-removed system isn't the common "U-Scan" variety at Meijer and Kroger -- ostensibly, it's a bit friendlier to use.

FWIW there's a comparison of the two here.

Good advice. At BGSU, where I go, the dorm desks are so small that a standard CRT monitor and keyboard take up over half the space. Also, there is a shelf above the desks, so any monitor larger than 17" won't fit. Halfway through my freshman year, I gave up on trying to use the remaining desk space to write and brought in a second computer and monitor to fill it up. I now use the front drawer of the desk to write on.

most people already pay a technology fee for an over-worked network. I went to BGSU and until 2000 they had only 4xT1s for their entire campus network. I was paying $60/semester for this tech fee and was getting between 8 and 12kB/s on transfers. Try doing any kind of work with those speeds.

So they upgraded to a 10mbit DS3 (and had that at least until now). nearly 20k students and a 10mbit Internet connection. That's just ridiculous.

So, instead of hogging the Internet bandwith with morons downloading porn AND music off the net, conserve the external bandwith for music and let them trade on the internal fiber network... Sounds like a plan to me.

that was a major reason that I left the CS program at BGSU. I felt that it was behind the times and boring. Other people I knew who were going to schools like MIT and Bucknell were learning Java and Scheme (MIT obviously) and were doing interesting coding projects I was stuck writing "grading programs for 10 students in Ms. Smith's 8th Grade Math Class".

I saw the need to learn the fundamentals of C/C++ but I didn't think that boring projects were the way to accomplish that.

Nothing like being forced to learn a non-existant version of ASM that was created by BGSU for teaching purposes. It was SO out-dated and worthless that I couldn't take it anymore.

I have since graduated with an equally worthless degree in History. At least writing papers about things that happened 300+ years ago is useful ;)

My university, BGSU, uses Blackboard for its student web portal. We have ID cards that can be used to buy food, books, etc., but I don't know if that is a Blackboard system. The description on their website sounds like what we have. If this is, in fact, what we're using, this news definitely concerns me. I'd try to find out more about this from IT Services, but they are always reluctant to talk about security, at least with students. Maybe if enough students bugged them, we could find out if they know anything about security flaws, and if they are doing anything about them. I figure we have a right to know; after all, our fees are paying for this. And yes, I'm posting as AC on purpose. I know you guys over in Hayes Hall are reading this.

My university, BGSU, uses Blackboard for its student web portal. We have ID cards that can be used to buy food, books, etc., but I don't know if that is a Blackboard system. The description on their website sounds like what we have. If this is, in fact, what we're using, this news definitely concerns me. I'd try to find out more about this from IT Services, but they are always reluctant to talk about security, at least with students. Maybe if enough students bugged them, we could find out if they know anything about security flaws, and if they are doing anything about them. I figure we have a right to know; after all, our fees are paying for this. And yes, I'm posting as AC on purpose. I know you guys over in Hayes Hall are reading this.

My university, BGSU, uses Blackboard for its student web portal. We have ID cards that can be used to buy food, books, etc., but I don't know if that is a Blackboard system. The description on their website sounds like what we have. If this is, in fact, what we're using, this news definitely concerns me. I'd try to find out more about this from IT Services, but they are always reluctant to talk about security, at least with students. Maybe if enough students bugged them, we could find out if they know anything about security flaws, and if they are doing anything about them. I figure we have a right to know; after all, our fees are paying for this. And yes, I'm posting as AC on purpose. I know you guys over in Hayes Hall are reading this.

while I cannot *stand* any institution using SSNs for anything not money related (financial aid) it is a near necessity...

I went to BGSU and we had P00 numbers as our student ID (P001123344 for example). While I remember mine from BGSU the college I currently work for has "student IDs" as well but they are not as widely known (most of the foreign students w/o SSNs know theirs but not many others).

So if colleges didn't use them MANY people would have problems getting the info they needed b/c searching through 10000 Michael John Smith's is a pain in the ass.

As for this fan-funded Farscape dream, it's complete bullshit. $100 or even $1000 here and there won't cover production costs for the show. People need to think before they start email campaigns and set up www.savemyshow.com sites.

Dewey believed that school should teach students how to be problem-solvers by helping students learn how to think rather than simply learning rote lessons about large amounts of information. In Dewey's view, schools should focus on judgment rather than knowledge so that school children become adults who can "pass judgments pertinently and discriminatingly on the problems of human living" (Campbell, 1995, p. 215-216). Dewey also believed that schools should help students learn to live and to work cooperatively with others. In School and Society he wrote, "In a complex society, ability to understand and sympathize with the operations and lot of others is a condition of common purpose which only education can procure."

The problem in our system is not that Dewey's arguments prevailed, it's that they did not.

In actual fact rocket engines are 'heat engines' and more efficient than jet engines and routinely achieve 80% efficiency.

I think not. A rocket engine is not a heat engine. And the maximum efficiency of a heat engine is 27%.


Undercarriage costs weight too.

The shuttle already has an undercarriage, as is evidenced by this picture on this site

I am a graduate student and teach an introductory level course. Now because the department I teach in is called Popular Cultre, most people think that all we do is watch movies and critique them (an before anybody makes any jokes about my chosen discipline at least go to the department's website beforehand, ok?) So if one of our students decide they want to write about the Simpsons, some of them get papers off of the web. Well, guess what? They very often stick out like a sore thumb because they are just biographies or rolling stone style fan worship pieces. In short, they aren't cultural studies papers.

In my department we have had kids cut and paste stuff from amazon.com, roling stone, and most commonly the first search result that comes up from google. I haven't caught any of my students, perhaps that is because I am a technology guy and I show them sites like turnitin.com and scare them (of course I don't tell them you have to pay to use it), either that or really am stupid.

And that is how I look at plagiarism. If they turn in a plagiarized paper, they are basically insulting my intellegence and saying that I'm too stupid to catch them. I have been in college for quite a while and I've done all my own work and so should they. I would take great joy in nailng the bastard to the wall if they did plagiarize in my class. We had several cases last semester (one kid even was so dumb that when we confronted her she with the web site that the paper was from she asked, "Is it plagiarism if I got it from someone who turned it in last semester?), so plagiarism is on the rise, at least in our department. However, as I said, I make a concerted effort to show them that I know where to get free papers as well as where to check them and so I haven't had a problem with suspicious papers.

.... from a guy talking to a class about 15 years ago. His general theme was that although the technology had been around for a long time, certain political barriers were delaying it's release. But, he added, in just a few short years, it will replace conventional television.

Here's some HDTV Highlights (Feb. 1981-March 1998).

>>Just a question someone might be able to answer, how well will this compress ?

Why would you want to compress HDTV? That misses the point. HDTV is a high resolution format. You might as well just record regular your NTSC feed if you're going to compress it.

Also, to the person that posted under the SGI thread:

>>Jeez, ten years ago the format currently called HDTV did not exist. So what are you smoking?

Um, actually HDTV was first demonstrated in 1981 at a SMTPE conference using hardware from Japan's NHK. Here's a link The History of HDTV

It's best to check facts before you spew.

check here for an easy to follow tutorial to get xfree86, gtk+, gimp, etc set up and running on OSX. It gives a link to download a binary for xfree86, install instructions, and tells you how to use fink to install just about anything else you could want. enjoy

ahh this is the problem.

Here at BGSU they don't want to teach that. They want to teach you how THEY want you to think.

The president (Sidney Ribeu) has recently instated his "Core Values" program.

* respect for one another
* cooperation
* intellectual and spiritual growth
* creative imaginings
* pride in a job well done

Now, what I am really annoyed w/is his "minority initative" trying to recruit more minorities to the University and promote "diversity". Doing this is not such a problem but the campus itself is primarily caucasion. He is trying to show that we are not this way by making sure that all University ads, etc are showing minority students as the majority. Basically lying to the public about the massive exclusion of non-white students.

All teachers at the University seem to teach certain topics and want nothing else. It has been said in the Opinion columns of the University paper (The BGNews that everyone knows that if you want a good grade on a paper just write about the political agenda that the teacher openly discusses (differs per prof) and you are set. Go against that and you will Fail. Now, myself I haven't seen too much of that (as far as paper writing goes) but I definitly disagree w/the profs openly expressing their political/social views to the class. No one cares if you are Republican/Democrat and if you hate Gore/Bush (for example purposes only).

In college you are supposed to learn to learn. Not learn how the prof/president feels how you should act outside the University.

Stop worrying about core fucking values (Kindergarten is for that) and start worrying about teaching us what we should learn.

That is just my worthless .02

Intel is still not less expensive. It is absolute bullshit to think that AMD wouldn't be a better choice for Gateway to sell.

The problem here is a lot similar (at least in my eyes) to the Pepsi/Coke college thing. Pepsi came on campus here at BGSU and gave them $8 million dollars to take PepsiCo as the main supplier of soft drinks (rather than having both like they did before).

Intel is pulling the same bullshit. They want to squeeze out the competition so they best way to do that is to force large outlets of computers to stick w/one chip vendor.

I consider this very unethical.

I don't know if this is exactly what happened in this case (but I can only assume that it is)

I can't see why people would want to spend more money for less output on an Intel machine when the AMD is tons cheaper and faster.

Yes, yes, we know the public is misinformed and really believes that clock-size is important but price is what gets most people.

AMD still wins there.

Bad choice Gateway.

I don't know about a new TV episode; AFAIK the movie is about curently in pre?) production, starring Paul Darrow as Avon... set five years PGP (p[ost Gauda Prime.) Dr WHo I can take or leave (although I gre up withit); it's B7 that I've obsessively collected on video. 25 tapes at $25 a pop... worth every penny. I'm a fan, does it show? ;) (google for my username for further evidence...) Some random B7 resources from my bookmarks:

http://ernie.bgsu.edu/~sclerc/Blakes7.html
http://www.horizon.org.uk/
http://lcw.simplenet.com/b7lib.html

For the benefit of anyone unfortunate enough to miss out on on B7, it absolutely rocks, being a cheesy low-budget BBC take on Star Trek - except the Federation are an evil repressive authoritarian state and the good guys are outlaws on the run - and they all argue/distrust/betray each other. A refreshingly cynical worldview...
--
"I'm not downloaded, I'm just loaded and down"

I would highly recommend checking out Bill Schottstaedt's snd.

You also may want to look at Mix. Some of the software here is also great.