Slashdot Mirror

The perceived personality that TFA talks about has little to do with a car's actual performance characteristics and more to do with how the car owner wishes to be perceived, at least to anyone who knows the first thing about cars. Round "open-eyed" headlights and a surprised mouth may suggest some sort of anime-style "passive femininity" to people who aren't familiar with, say, a Shelby Cobra or Ferrari Barchetta, but eventually even the nonenthusiast consumer will learn that "angry aerodynamic eyebrow" headlights and "low-slung frowny grilles" can be just as easily applied to mediocre grocery-getting minivans as high-end sports cars. The face of one's car tends to say far more about its owner than it does about the car itself.

Look at the front of a Prius. Obviously not marketed towards macho leadfoot NASCAR wannabes, but look: The grille is clearly smiling at you, but the headlights connote a high-tech aerodynamic (albeit not unfriendly) robot, in contrast to the helpful eager puppy look of, say, a new Thunderbird.

(For my (nonexistent) money, the new car that strikes the best balance is the new Challenger. The headlights are browed just right to look serious without being psychopathically aggressive, and in combination with the slightly smirking lower (intercooler?) intake the whole face looks confident without being obnoxiously threatening. It would have been a much better Bumblebee than that stupid Camaro.)

Do you make him write docs, or attach a junior programmer to him for that purpose?... somewhere up the ladder a software engineer's job becomes mostly writing docs (regardless of whether you go management or architect)

Really? Have you never heard of a technical writer? We write great documentation so developers don't have to :-)

If I ever see programs like cp become bloated with X library calls because some news reporter needs to see a GUI progress bar, I'm going to be very angry.

You got it backwards.

The cp command should still work pretty much as it does, perhaps with some verbose option that is easily parsed. Then a cp wrapper could be written in some thin scripting language, which would then call the regular cp command at the back end.

The command line user looses nothing and the window based person gets an easier interface.

The need for a window aware scripting language is one of my current rants.

I wonder why Missouri didn't prosecute.

"Missouri authorities said there was no state law under which Drew could be charged. But federal prosecutors in California claimed jurisdiction because MySpace is based in Beverly Hills. "

Missouri corrected this deficiency this year.

I found this detailed graph of what the USA federal spending looks like in 2008 quite insightful.

http://coolinfographics.blogspot.com/2007/07/death-and-taxes-2008.html

Tell me, which other bubble you want to reduce spending on? Maybe scrap the CDC, or FAA?

If you look at that graph, NASA is only one of the very few blobs outside the DoD and National Security/Intelligence that would be relatively painless to cut and is of decent size.

But it's clear to me that the big spending is in the DoD, NS/I and the wars in irak and afganistan.

I won't pretend to remember Lisp inventor John McCarthy's exact words which is odd because there were only about ten but he simply asked if Python could gracefully manipulate Python code as data. "No, John, it can't," said Peter and nothing more, graciously assenting to the professor's critique, and McCarthy said no more though Peter waited a moment to see if he would and in the silence a thousand words were said.

http://smuglispweeny.blogspot.com/2008/02/ooh-ooh-my-turn-why-lisp.html

You and the parent need to get the ublio version of ntfs-3g for OSX: http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/ Performance is excellent.

I can use NTFS, but cannot write to it on a Mac.

O but you can. First, you install MacFUSE and then install NTFS-3G on top of it. You can even format disks as NTFS with Disk Utility.

It's no secret that advertising of all kinds is moving online in the form of banner, text, and even video ads. The industry is booming, so it should come as no surprise that as election season draws near, political ads are moving online too. This presents a new challenge to publishers and ad networks trying to sort out their relationships with those ads--for the most part, everyone's interested in being as fair as possible. For example, last August, we posted about our own policy on accepting political ads on Ars (that is, we'll accept them from all legitimate candidates no matter who we like). Related Stories This is a continually evolving issue, and now two major figures have weighed in. Google is the first, and has recently posted its own policy on running political ads through its AdSense network. As Peter Greenberger of Google's Elections and Issue Advocacy Team noted on the company's public policy blog, the new policy boils down to five main points. First, each ad must meet the same editorial guidelines as every other AdSense ad. This includes not violating anyone else's copyrights, not promoting "unacceptable alcohol products," not promoting violence against anyone, not promoting counterfeit goods, and the like.

It's no secret that advertising of all kinds is moving online in the form of banner, text, and even video ads. The industry is booming, so it should come as no surprise that as election season draws near, political ads are moving online too. This presents a new challenge to publishers and ad networks trying to sort out their relationships with those ads--for the most part, everyone's interested in being as fair as possible. For example, last August, we posted about our own policy on accepting political ads on Ars (that is, we'll accept them from all legitimate candidates no matter who we like). Related Stories This is a continually evolving issue, and now two major figures have weighed in. Google is the first, and has recently posted its own policy on running political ads through its AdSense network. As Peter Greenberger of Google's Elections and Issue Advocacy Team noted on the company's public policy blog, the new policy boils down to five main points. First, each ad must meet the same editorial guidelines as every other AdSense ad. This includes not violating anyone else's copyrights, not promoting "unacceptable alcohol products," not promoting violence against anyone, not promoting counterfeit goods, and the like.

It's no secret that advertising of all kinds is moving online in the form of banner, text, and even video ads. The industry is booming, so it should come as no surprise that as election season draws near, political ads are moving online too. This presents a new challenge to publishers and ad networks trying to sort out their relationships with those ads--for the most part, everyone's interested in being as fair as possible. For example, last August, we posted about our own policy on accepting political ads on Ars (that is, we'll accept them from all legitimate candidates no matter who we like). Related Stories This is a continually evolving issue, and now two major figures have weighed in. Google is the first, and has recently posted its own policy on running political ads through its AdSense network. As Peter Greenberger of Google's Elections and Issue Advocacy Team noted on the company's public policy blog, the new policy boils down to five main points. First, each ad must meet the same editorial guidelines as every other AdSense ad. This includes not violating anyone else's copyrights, not promoting "unacceptable alcohol products," not promoting violence against anyone, not promoting counterfeit goods, and the like.

It's no secret that advertising of all kinds is moving online in the form of banner, text, and even video ads. The industry is booming, so it should come as no surprise that as election season draws near, political ads are moving online too. This presents a new challenge to publishers and ad networks trying to sort out their relationships with those ads--for the most part, everyone's interested in being as fair as possible. For example, last August, we posted about our own policy on accepting political ads on Ars (that is, we'll accept them from all legitimate candidates no matter who we like). Related Stories This is a continually evolving issue, and now two major figures have weighed in. Google is the first, and has recently posted its own policy on running political ads through its AdSense network. As Peter Greenberger of Google's Elections and Issue Advocacy Team noted on the company's public policy blog, the new policy boils down to five main points. First, each ad must meet the same editorial guidelines as every other AdSense ad. This includes not violating anyone else's copyrights, not promoting "unacceptable alcohol products," not promoting violence against anyone, not promoting counterfeit goods, and the like.

Whatever Steve Jobs' view of reading books on his iPhone, it seems just about everyone else with an interest in gadgets and reading wants to see the iPhone kitted out as the ebook reader of choice. There has been quite a bit of activity since Apple released its Software Developer's Kit (SDK) for the iPhone back in March. So, what's out there for your iPhone today?

Whatever Steve Jobs' view of reading books on his iPhone, it seems just about everyone else with an interest in gadgets and reading wants to see the iPhone kitted out as the ebook reader of choice. There has been quite a bit of activity since Apple released its Software Developer's Kit (SDK) for the iPhone back in March. So, what's out there for your iPhone today?

The only real problem I have is there doesn't exist a modern journaling FS which would work just as well on all 3 platforms.

I agree with you that's really important. I'd also like zfs to be that filesystem. However, as long as you don't need that drive to be the root drive of your respective file system, you might be interested in some of these links:

I can use ext3, but cannot plug it into a Mac.

Give this a try. The latest news is that you get write support in Tiger, but I use it in Leopard without problems.

Also don't worry about the ext2 part. Ext3 is designed to be backwards compatible with ext2. It can be mounted as ext2 (it just won't get journaling)

You didn't ask for it, so you might already know about this windows driver. There are actually a couple out there, I think that one works the best (which is kind of unfortunate, because it's freeware, but proprietary).

I can use NTFS, but cannot write to it on a Mac.

Sure you can, same way you do it in Linux, through fuse and ntfs-3g.

I can use Mac's FS, but cannot plug it into Windows (unless I pay for a proprietary driver every time I use that disk on a different machine)

Yeah, you got me there. MacDrive works really well, but I'd like a non-proprietary version myself.

For a removable drive that you can plug in anywhere, I'd go with ntfs actually. No FAT size restrictions, no permissions (actually a plus for a removable drive), and most linux distributions come with ntfs-3g installed by default. That means you only have to install the driver in mac os x

An interesting digram. BTW, a British newspaper produced a similar chart that summarises UK spending. (linked to a friends blog rather than the source image as the URL is a bit more civilised)

What company provides a man-rated LEO launch vehicle? Nobody.

Lockheed Martin's Atlas V will soon be man-rated, and Bigelow Aerospace is planning on signing an agreement with them to provide transportation of humans to Bigelow's private space stations.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13290
http://selenianboondocks.blogspot.com/2006/09/lm-atlas-v-man-rating-paper.html

Also, SpaceX's Falcon 9 is designed from the get-go to be man-rated.

Wow, when you had control you must of been giddy with power~

--
New punctuation update "~" at the end of a line to indicate sarcasm. http://harns.blogspot.com/

Let me guess, you didn't have enough room in your sig for "New dictionary update: 'of' now means the same as 'have'" ? ;)

I'm interested to find out your sources for the claim that government encouraged low density planning.

Seriously?? It's not blindingly obvious??? I mean, this is really a topic that could be stretched on for volumes, but here are some places to get yourself started: Euclid and zoning, roads and the Great Depression, and then the ultimate comparison: what the free market built vs. what the government built. And let's not forget that VA home loans (the primary vehicle of homeownership in the immediate post-war years) were restricted primarily to single-family developments at a time when the housing stock was not nearly as suburban as it is today. There is actually a blog devoted to exactly the idea that free market development is significantly denser, more urbanistic, and more environmentally-friendly than what's come out of contemporary American land use policy, and pretty much every post is an example of what you're looking for -- marketurbanism.com. But don't take anyone's word for it: see for yourself. Go find old buildings (excluding rural/farm buildings), and you'll see that they are way denser than your typical 2008 suburban development. Now, of course this is attributable more to the automobile than anything else, but ask yourself: how did the automobile become so widespread? Clearly private entrepreneurs weren't making fortunes off of building roads -- this was the government's work.

I also understand that freedom is more important to you than market efficiency.

This is 100% false. I have absolutely no interest in abstract concepts like "freedom" -- for me it's all about which system humanity would be better under. If state planning worked, I'd be all for it -- I don't have a dog in this ideological fight. I'm purely a pragmatist.

And in a libertarian system, that is all government is for: to protect the property of the rich from the poor.

I'm an anarcho-capitalist. I do not believe in the government in any form. I don't mean to be rude, but you're assuming a lot about me that's just not true.

Again, I ask: what does your system offer non-property owners?

Property is but one productive input. Knowledge (i.e., "labor") is the most valuable, and it's difficult to monopolize that (unless you have the government behind you enforcing IP laws and censorship, that is!). But like I said, "my system" isn't what you think it is -- under anarcho-capitalism, if you yourself do not have the means to protect and defend your property, nobody will protect your "right" to it for you. It's a system that makes owning property a lot more onerous for non-occupants, which is something that I'd think you'd like.

William Patry comes from the same general compass direction as Lawrence Lessig (he recently ended his blog, partly for reasons that he felt that copyright has become broken). Patry has 26 years of legal practice in the field, has written one of the major treatises, has international copyright chops, and currently is counsel for Google. Not sure that he would let Google go.

http://harns.blogspot.com/2008/07/additional-smartphone-screen.html

I've been talking about fold out screens for years. Why laptops don't have two thin screens is beyond me. All the technology is there.

Looks like a giant virus:

http://50milesmore.blogspot.com/2008/03/prepare-to-be-assimalated.html

Squiddy will give you a flu like no other.
     

I, despite not being American (but I do live nearby), nominate Ray Beckerman (NewYorkCountryLawyer). He seems to have lots of relevant experience in this field.

Any seconds?

Well, this might steer you away from jQuery but it looks like Microsoft will be using jQuery under the covers for its future ASP.NET AJAX technology offerings.

Allow me to point you to something that explains much of the disagreement you are having:

People who hold the same views as you are morons.

In perspective:
- I saw the signature Moryath had before he put it on hiatus during the election. It wasn't provocative and had been there long before Obama was even nominated (or won enough votes to be the "presumptive nominee"), yet Obamatons were routinely verbally attacking Moryath and downmodding incredibly insightful, well-thought-out and sourced posts for the mere presence of the signature.

- For some reason, the same downmodding on slashdot does NOT happen to people for having some pretty disgusting anti-Bush/"antiwar" hippie signatures.

- For anyone who is a fan of the movie Idiocracy, or who has paid attention to their Civics and History courses, there comes a time when they realize that the current form of "Democracy" is having problems because the vote is not an informed choice.

Seriously, I want you to think about this. Not just in America, but everywhere, what percentage of voters do you think are actually of decent IQ and possessing enough knowledge to understand what they are voting on?

This is the point of the Mencken quote that Moryath posts, and whether or not you like it or not, I think it's a valid insight into the problems we are facing today. Far too many "votes" are cast, from the Presidency on downwards, with the people pulling the lever having absolutely no fucking clue what they are doing except that "that guy has X skin color", "I ain't voting for no ticket with a wimmin on it", or other reasons that have no place in the ballot box.

In short, the "right to vote" and "responsibility to vote" are bad ideas. Citizens should carry the responsibility to educate themselves on the issues and candidates and then, only when educated, cast an informed ballot so as not to fuck the rest of us over with their cluelessly random "choice."

As for the other things you write:
His generalization that the left needs to do "homework" because they lack an understanding of the Geneva Conventions has no basis. Many people on the left have studied the Geneva Conventions quite thoroughly.

And many more have absolutely no fucking clue what the Geneva Conventions say , but shout about "war crimes" in between taking bong hits anyways. see above: YOU may have studied the Geneva Conventions thoroughly. I guarantee that most of your fellow travelers have not, because there are people who hold the same views as you who are morons.

Those statements are faulty generalizations on which he seems to have built at least part of his argument.

No, those statements are pretty accurate generalizations of the course of history surrounding Islamic society in warfare, both in wars between competing Islamic factions and between dar al-Islam and dar al-harb, as they refer to societies of Muslims and exterior non-Islamic societies (and please note, dar al-harb literally means "domain of WAR", which is another point against your theory).

Many Islamic groups adhere quite strictly to a moral code, and, in fact, many of the Islamic militants fighting in Iraq are acting on the conviction that our culture and our invasion of Iraq go against that code.

If you insist on claiming that the Koran's "moral code" is in any way compatible with the Geneva Conventions, how about I start going through the list of things the Koran lists that are completely contradictory to them, starting with the taking of slaves from the battlefield or the killing of prisoners who fail to convert to Islam (unless they're valuable in which case they are to be ransomed for tribute)? I warn you now, I'll have a field day with this one.

As a designer, you use drawings to communicate much more than just the appearance of spaces or objects. Great drawings "set the tone"; they provide a window into the actual experience of your ideas. Drawings also help communicate the state of your design: Where are you in the process? What level of feedback from your clients is appropriate? Is it time to talk about the roof tile, or are you still working out the building massing? Good drawings lead to good conversations, and that leads to better design. Style Builder lets you take hand-drawn lines (or any other lines you create) and apply them as edges in a SketchUp model. Now you can make your 3D models look like sketches, abstracting out the things you're not ready to discuss, and bringing forward the things you do. Styles you create in Style Builder are also totally unique; no one else will be able to make drawings that look like yours.

As a designer, you use drawings to communicate much more than just the appearance of spaces or objects. Great drawings "set the tone"; they provide a window into the actual experience of your ideas. Drawings also help communicate the state of your design: Where are you in the process? What level of feedback from your clients is appropriate? Is it time to talk about the roof tile, or are you still working out the building massing? Good drawings lead to good conversations, and that leads to better design. Style Builder lets you take hand-drawn lines (or any other lines you create) and apply them as edges in a SketchUp model. Now you can make your 3D models look like sketches, abstracting out the things you're not ready to discuss, and bringing forward the things you do. Styles you create in Style Builder are also totally unique; no one else will be able to make drawings that look like yours.

As a designer, you use drawings to communicate much more than just the appearance of spaces or objects. Great drawings "set the tone"; they provide a window into the actual experience of your ideas. Drawings also help communicate the state of your design: Where are you in the process? What level of feedback from your clients is appropriate? Is it time to talk about the roof tile, or are you still working out the building massing? Good drawings lead to good conversations, and that leads to better design. Style Builder lets you take hand-drawn lines (or any other lines you create) and apply them as edges in a SketchUp model. Now you can make your 3D models look like sketches, abstracting out the things you're not ready to discuss, and bringing forward the things you do. Styles you create in Style Builder are also totally unique; no one else will be able to make drawings that look like yours.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke last Thursday at a Natural Resources Defense Council event held at Google offices in New York. The topic for the evening was "Partnership for the Earth: Strategies and Solutions for Energy Security." Eric spoke about Google's Clean Energy 2030 plan and the importance of rebuilding America's energy infrastructure.The speech was followed by a panel discussion featuring Frances Beinecke, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Ralph Cavanaugh, co-director of NRDC's energy program, and Dan Reicher, Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives at Google.org.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke last Thursday at a Natural Resources Defense Council event held at Google offices in New York. The topic for the evening was "Partnership for the Earth: Strategies and Solutions for Energy Security." Eric spoke about Google's Clean Energy 2030 plan and the importance of rebuilding America's energy infrastructure.The speech was followed by a panel discussion featuring Frances Beinecke, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Ralph Cavanaugh, co-director of NRDC's energy program, and Dan Reicher, Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives at Google.org.

There are several issues that never seem to get addressed when it comes to robotic soldiers.

Firstly, when an autonomous unit makes a 'mistake', who is held accountable? The actual unit, the program running the unit, the programmer, the entity in control of the unit (state actor, military outfit, etc.)?

Second, what exactly constitutes ethical action? To really understand this we would have to start analyzing code and run simulations to see if that code actually responded to external environments in a manner we would truly deem ethical. And, in that scenario, who would deem the responses of a robotic killer ethical or appropriate? An ethics group? More likely a military outfit.

Lastly (for this venue), would an autonomous combatant every truly be autonomous? Pragmatism would necessitate override controls configured in each unit. It follows that entities in control of these units could override any action they saw fit to override. Ethical or non.

Current Perspectives
http://jacqueslaroche.blogspot.com/2008/04/from-mechanization-to-roboticization.html
-jacques laroche

A while ago, I posted a little essay called "Why the Gun is Civilization". It was pretty well received, and got me a lot of positive comments from a variety of people. Some folks asked for permission to reprint and publish the essay in various newsletters and webzines, and I gladly granted it every time, only asking for attribution in return. Recently, I have noticed my essay pop up on the Internet a lot in various forums, most of which I do not frequent. This in itself causes me no grief, but the reposts are almost invariably attributed to someone who is not me. Some are attributed to a Major L.Caudill, USMC (Ret.), and some are merely marked as "forwarded" by the same person. Others are not attributed at all, giving the impression that the person who posted the essay is also its author. In school, we call reproduction without attribution "plagiarism". It's usually cause for a failing grade or even expulsion in most college codes of conduct. In the publishing world, we call the same thing "intellectual property theft". Now, my little blog scribblings are hardly published works in the traditional sense, nor do I incur any financial damage from this unattributed copying, but it's still a matter of honor. I did, after all, sit down and type up that little essay. It may not make it into any print anthologies, but it's mine, and seeing it with someone else's name on the byline is a little annoying. Call it ego, call it vanity, but there it is. In the end, I guess I should probably shrug it off and tell myself that I can produce something that's worth stealing.

Seems you can enable rpm-fusion during the installation so you're up and running straight away. Very nice. This blog post provides useful details.

The Russians have been doing just that

I hope so. I was actually pleasantly surprised to discover how much non-RIAA music is out there and how often my favorite radio station plays it. That actually surprised me the most -- the radio station in question is owned by Clear Channel yet I've discovered a lot of good indie music through them. Who would've thought? Pandora is another good source in my experience, although it seems to take them longer to get new albums up for some reason (licensing issues?)

Yes. And I'm making a collection. I have a list of free links to indie music sources which I call "Liberated Music". And I have advertising links for indie-only music where I and my blog actually get a commission if you buy something.

I hope so. I was actually pleasantly surprised to discover how much non-RIAA music is out there and how often my favorite radio station plays it. That actually surprised me the most -- the radio station in question is owned by Clear Channel yet I've discovered a lot of good indie music through them. Who would've thought? Pandora is another good source in my experience, although it seems to take them longer to get new albums up for some reason (licensing issues?)

Yes. And I'm making a collection. I have a list of free links to indie music sources which I call "Liberated Music". And I have advertising links for indie-only music where I and my blog actually get a commission if you buy something.

The tests were not carried out on the very newest software, which puts Firefox and Safari in particular at a significant disadvantage.

Firefox introduced TraceMonkey to 3.1, and beta builds of it are available. In pure JS testing, they completely destroy 3.0.4 in terms of speed.
Safari introduced SquirrelFish, and then SquirrelFish Extreme which added JIT capability to Safari's JavaScript interpreter. It is available in the nightly WebKit builds.
Furthermore, with Acid3, WebKit nightlies pass Acid3 with 100% and Firefox nightlies get around 93%. Chrome nightlies, having merged newer WebKit code, get 100% as well.
A few months ago, I ran a test using the then-current nightlies, which I posted on my blog. One particularly good test site is Dromaeo, which TFA failed to mention. Dromaeo tests not only JavaScript, but JavaScript and DOM interaction, making it a good candidate for testing the performance of a real-world situation.

Why don't you get your facts straight?

It's not just that. Trying to coordinate the numerous navies involved can't be easy. I have been reading the occasional bit of Informattion Dissemination's coverage of the events out there. It's way too much for me to swallow on a regular basis, but it has commentary from professionals, not just journalists or cheerleaders.

Are you talking about this Sky Ramp
or this Magnetic Launch System
There was a site that had done some work on a maglev track to launch directly to orbit. www.maglev2000.com (the site seems to be down now.) The maglev track for a manned launch to orbit (4g max acceleration) is over 500 miles long!

But seriously there are a lot of ways that the E.U. is less free than America ..... and overall just a more-restrictive society.

Depends on your viewpoint actually... I find Europe to be much more free than the US with regards to the culture, even if the law is technically a little more restrictive (in many, but not all, ways).

First, where you're right: It's true that if I walk down the street here in Germany doing my best Hitler impression I could technically be arrested (although I don't know if they would do so in practice - I'm not game to find out), and it's also true that even in the case of self defence against criminals, one must be careful to avoid injuring the criminal beyond what is necessary to stop them committing the crime (it's NOT true you can't defend yourself though! AND violent crime is pretty rare, so it's less of an issue)...
It's also true that taxes here are very high - I pay nearly 50% of my income in taxes, plus reasonably high taxes on things I buy, especially petrol. I accept this though, because I can see the benefits of these taxes in the society around me (clean cities, no homeless people begging on the streets for change, low crime, excellent public transport, and much more)

HOWEVER, as I said, there's the cultural/social side to consider. For example, here in Europe:

• You can say "fuck" on TV without people getting offended or the word being "bleeped"
• Prostitution is legal (in most of Europe, but not all)
• There's no such thing as "indecent exposure"
• People are tolerant/accepting of "non mainstream" lifestyles (even if they don't agree with them or like them) - I'd feel distinctly unsafe walking through most places in the US wearing a cravat shirt and gothic makeup, whereas here in Europe I'll hardly get a second glance (no matter how weird they think I am, they'll leave me alone)
• Due to not being paranoid about everyone and crime rates being pretty low, it's okay to leave your child unattended or with a stranger for a minute while you go do something
• If I get caught with an illegal narcotic, I will NOT go to prison (unless it's an excessive amount, or I'm trying to take it over a border or something)
• I can drive as fast as I like on the Autobahn

If none of these things interest you (or even if you're actively against these things), fine... but we like it the way we have it, so you shouldn't think even for a second that we're all oppressed and struggling under authoritarian regimes on this side of the pond!

Cell phones in prisons have been big news in Texas, after a Death Row inmate was stupid enough to make threatening calls to the chairman of the state Senate's Criminal Justice Committee. They're still being found, weeks after a supposed crackdown that turned up dozens of in-cell cell phones systemwide, along with an inordinate amount of drugs and weapons.

The Grits For Breakfast criminal justice blog has been following the issue closely, asking questions like "Will we see prosecutions of staff who smuggle cell phones in addition to inmates and family members paying for their minutes?" Answer: probably not. Sen. Whitmire, whose family was the target of phoned-in threats from Death Row, summed it up pretty nicely at an emergency Senate hearing on the issue. TDCJ officials promised to implement a plan they'd been working on, to prevent guards from smuggling contraband to prisoners, to which Whitmire responded with a question: Why the hell weren't you doing that already?

One story mentioned a phone that was only found by an abdominal X-ray. I wonder if it was this little bugger? Oh, sorry, bad choice of words.

Chatting with webmasters often reveals widespread beliefs that might have been accurate in the past, but are not necessarily up-to-date any more. This was the case when we recently talked to a couple of friends about the structure of a URL. One friend was concerned about using dynamic URLs, since (as she told us) "search engines can't cope with these." Another friend thought that dynamic URLs weren't a problem at all for search engines and that these issues were a thing of the past. One even admitted that he never understood the fuss about dynamic URLs in comparison to static URLs. For us, that was the moment we decided to read up on the topic of dynamic and static URLs. First, let's clarify what we're talking about: What is a static URL? A static URL is one that does not change, so it typically does not contain any url parameters. It can look like this: http://www.example.com/archive/january.htm. You can search for static URLs on Google by typing filetype:htm in the search field. Updating these kinds of pages can be time consuming, especially if the amount of information grows quickly, since every single page has to be hard-coded. This is why webmasters who deal with large, frequently updated sites like online shops, forum communities, blogs or content management systems may use dynamic URLs. What is a dynamic URL? If the content of a site is stored in a database and pulled for display on pages on demand, dynamic URLs maybe used. In that case the site serves basically as a template for the content. Usually, a dynamic URL would look something like this: http://code.google.com/p/google-checkout-php-sample-code/issues/detail?id=31. You can spot dynamic URLs by looking for characters like: ? = &. Dynamic URLs have the disadvantage that different URLs can have the same content. So different users might link to URLs with different parameters which have the same content. That's one reason why webmasters sometimes want to rewrite their URLs to static ones. Should I try to make my dynamic URLs look static? Following are some key points you should keep in mind while dealing with dynamic URLs:

1. It's quite hard to correctly create and maintain rewrites that change dynamic URLs to static-looking URLs.
2. It's much safer to serve us the original dynamic URL and let us handle the problem of detecting and avoiding problematic parameters.
3. If you want to rewrite your URL, please remove unnecessary parameters while maintaining a dynamic-looking URL.
4. If you want to serve a static URL instead of a dynamic URL you should create a static equivalent of your content.

Which can Googlebot read better, static or dynamic URLs? We've come across many webmasters who, like our friend, believed that static or static-looking URLs were an advantage for indexing and ranking their sites. This is based on the presumption that search engines have issues with crawling and analyzing URLs that include session IDs or source trackers. However, as a matter of fact, we at Google have made some progress in both areas. While static URLs might have a slight advantage in terms of clickthrough rates because users can easily read the urls, the decision to use database-driven websites does not imply a significant disadvantage in terms of indexing and ranking. Providing search engines with dynamic URLs should be favored over hiding parameters to make them look static. Let's now look at some of the widespread beliefs concerning dynamic URLs and correct some of the assumptions which spook webmasters. :) Myth: "Dynamic URLs cannot be crawled."

Chatting with webmasters often reveals widespread beliefs that might have been accurate in the past, but are not necessarily up-to-date any more. This was the case when we recently talked to a couple of friends about the structure of a URL. One friend was concerned about using dynamic URLs, since (as she told us) "search engines can't cope with these." Another friend thought that dynamic URLs weren't a problem at all for search engines and that these issues were a thing of the past. One even admitted that he never understood the fuss about dynamic URLs in comparison to static URLs. For us, that was the moment we decided to read up on the topic of dynamic and static URLs. First, let's clarify what we're talking about: What is a static URL? A static URL is one that does not change, so it typically does not contain any url parameters. It can look like this: http://www.example.com/archive/january.htm. You can search for static URLs on Google by typing filetype:htm in the search field. Updating these kinds of pages can be time consuming, especially if the amount of information grows quickly, since every single page has to be hard-coded. This is why webmasters who deal with large, frequently updated sites like online shops, forum communities, blogs or content management systems may use dynamic URLs. What is a dynamic URL? If the content of a site is stored in a database and pulled for display on pages on demand, dynamic URLs maybe used. In that case the site serves basically as a template for the content. Usually, a dynamic URL would look something like this: http://code.google.com/p/google-checkout-php-sample-code/issues/detail?id=31. You can spot dynamic URLs by looking for characters like: ? = &. Dynamic URLs have the disadvantage that different URLs can have the same content. So different users might link to URLs with different parameters which have the same content. That's one reason why webmasters sometimes want to rewrite their URLs to static ones. Should I try to make my dynamic URLs look static? Following are some key points you should keep in mind while dealing with dynamic URLs:

1. It's quite hard to correctly create and maintain rewrites that change dynamic URLs to static-looking URLs.
2. It's much safer to serve us the original dynamic URL and let us handle the problem of detecting and avoiding problematic parameters.
3. If you want to rewrite your URL, please remove unnecessary parameters while maintaining a dynamic-looking URL.
4. If you want to serve a static URL instead of a dynamic URL you should create a static equivalent of your content.

Which can Googlebot read better, static or dynamic URLs? We've come across many webmasters who, like our friend, believed that static or static-looking URLs were an advantage for indexing and ranking their sites. This is based on the presumption that search engines have issues with crawling and analyzing URLs that include session IDs or source trackers. However, as a matter of fact, we at Google have made some progress in both areas. While static URLs might have a slight advantage in terms of clickthrough rates because users can easily read the urls, the decision to use database-driven websites does not imply a significant disadvantage in terms of indexing and ranking. Providing search engines with dynamic URLs should be favored over hiding parameters to make them look static. Let's now look at some of the widespread beliefs concerning dynamic URLs and correct some of the assumptions which spook webmasters. :) Myth: "Dynamic URLs cannot be crawled."

Chatting with webmasters often reveals widespread beliefs that might have been accurate in the past, but are not necessarily up-to-date any more. This was the case when we recently talked to a couple of friends about the structure of a URL. One friend was concerned about using dynamic URLs, since (as she told us) "search engines can't cope with these." Another friend thought that dynamic URLs weren't a problem at all for search engines and that these issues were a thing of the past. One even admitted that he never understood the fuss about dynamic URLs in comparison to static URLs. For us, that was the moment we decided to read up on the topic of dynamic and static URLs. First, let's clarify what we're talking about: What is a static URL? A static URL is one that does not change, so it typically does not contain any url parameters. It can look like this: http://www.example.com/archive/january.htm. You can search for static URLs on Google by typing filetype:htm in the search field. Updating these kinds of pages can be time consuming, especially if the amount of information grows quickly, since every single page has to be hard-coded. This is why webmasters who deal with large, frequently updated sites like online shops, forum communities, blogs or content management systems may use dynamic URLs. What is a dynamic URL? If the content of a site is stored in a database and pulled for display on pages on demand, dynamic URLs maybe used. In that case the site serves basically as a template for the content. Usually, a dynamic URL would look something like this: http://code.google.com/p/google-checkout-php-sample-code/issues/detail?id=31. You can spot dynamic URLs by looking for characters like: ? = &. Dynamic URLs have the disadvantage that different URLs can have the same content. So different users might link to URLs with different parameters which have the same content. That's one reason why webmasters sometimes want to rewrite their URLs to static ones. Should I try to make my dynamic URLs look static? Following are some key points you should keep in mind while dealing with dynamic URLs:

1. It's quite hard to correctly create and maintain rewrites that change dynamic URLs to static-looking URLs.
2. It's much safer to serve us the original dynamic URL and let us handle the problem of detecting and avoiding problematic parameters.
3. If you want to rewrite your URL, please remove unnecessary parameters while maintaining a dynamic-looking URL.
4. If you want to serve a static URL instead of a dynamic URL you should create a static equivalent of your content.

Which can Googlebot read better, static or dynamic URLs? We've come across many webmasters who, like our friend, believed that static or static-looking URLs were an advantage for indexing and ranking their sites. This is based on the presumption that search engines have issues with crawling and analyzing URLs that include session IDs or source trackers. However, as a matter of fact, we at Google have made some progress in both areas. While static URLs might have a slight advantage in terms of clickthrough rates because users can easily read the urls, the decision to use database-driven websites does not imply a significant disadvantage in terms of indexing and ranking. Providing search engines with dynamic URLs should be favored over hiding parameters to make them look static. Let's now look at some of the widespread beliefs concerning dynamic URLs and correct some of the assumptions which spook webmasters. :) Myth: "Dynamic URLs cannot be crawled."

The Last Lecture was one of the first books we tested on the Barcode Scanner application, a new searching tool available for download on Android-powered phones. Here's how it works: when you open up the application, the screen will show what the phone's built-in camera is seeing. When you line up the camera in front of a book barcode, it will automatically zoom, focus and scan the ISBN - without you even needing to click the shutter. As you can see below, you'll then have the option search the full text of the book on Google Book Search right away.

Here, I'm searching for push to find all the pages that mention push-ups, and they're displayed below the search box.

For students, this could be an easy way to locate that critical passage that the professor was talking about in lecture. Or if you're browsing through the shelves of a bookstore, you could use this application to easily determine whether a book contains the information you're looking for.

This is the first release of this program, so there may be some hiccups. Most of the books supported by this tool were printed in the mid-1990s or later, because it took some time for ISBN barcoding standards to stabilize. And of course, not every book is on Google Book Search. Yet even with these limitations, it's a lot of fun to search through a paper book using your mobile device, and I think the tool opens up new ways to experience printed works.

The Last Lecture was one of the first books we tested on the Barcode Scanner application, a new searching tool available for download on Android-powered phones. Here's how it works: when you open up the application, the screen will show what the phone's built-in camera is seeing. When you line up the camera in front of a book barcode, it will automatically zoom, focus and scan the ISBN - without you even needing to click the shutter. As you can see below, you'll then have the option search the full text of the book on Google Book Search right away.

Here, I'm searching for push to find all the pages that mention push-ups, and they're displayed below the search box.

For students, this could be an easy way to locate that critical passage that the professor was talking about in lecture. Or if you're browsing through the shelves of a bookstore, you could use this application to easily determine whether a book contains the information you're looking for.

This is the first release of this program, so there may be some hiccups. Most of the books supported by this tool were printed in the mid-1990s or later, because it took some time for ISBN barcoding standards to stabilize. And of course, not every book is on Google Book Search. Yet even with these limitations, it's a lot of fun to search through a paper book using your mobile device, and I think the tool opens up new ways to experience printed works.

The Last Lecture was one of the first books we tested on the Barcode Scanner application, a new searching tool available for download on Android-powered phones. Here's how it works: when you open up the application, the screen will show what the phone's built-in camera is seeing. When you line up the camera in front of a book barcode, it will automatically zoom, focus and scan the ISBN - without you even needing to click the shutter. As you can see below, you'll then have the option search the full text of the book on Google Book Search right away.

Here, I'm searching for push to find all the pages that mention push-ups, and they're displayed below the search box.

For students, this could be an easy way to locate that critical passage that the professor was talking about in lecture. Or if you're browsing through the shelves of a bookstore, you could use this application to easily determine whether a book contains the information you're looking for.

This is the first release of this program, so there may be some hiccups. Most of the books supported by this tool were printed in the mid-1990s or later, because it took some time for ISBN barcoding standards to stabilize. And of course, not every book is on Google Book Search. Yet even with these limitations, it's a lot of fun to search through a paper book using your mobile device, and I think the tool opens up new ways to experience printed works.

The Last Lecture was one of the first books we tested on the Barcode Scanner application, a new searching tool available for download on Android-powered phones. Here's how it works: when you open up the application, the screen will show what the phone's built-in camera is seeing. When you line up the camera in front of a book barcode, it will automatically zoom, focus and scan the ISBN - without you even needing to click the shutter. As you can see below, you'll then have the option search the full text of the book on Google Book Search right away.

Here, I'm searching for push to find all the pages that mention push-ups, and they're displayed below the search box.

For students, this could be an easy way to locate that critical passage that the professor was talking about in lecture. Or if you're browsing through the shelves of a bookstore, you could use this application to easily determine whether a book contains the information you're looking for.

This is the first release of this program, so there may be some hiccups. Most of the books supported by this tool were printed in the mid-1990s or later, because it took some time for ISBN barcoding standards to stabilize. And of course, not every book is on Google Book Search. Yet even with these limitations, it's a lot of fun to search through a paper book using your mobile device, and I think the tool opens up new ways to experience printed works.

The Last Lecture was one of the first books we tested on the Barcode Scanner application, a new searching tool available for download on Android-powered phones. Here's how it works: when you open up the application, the screen will show what the phone's built-in camera is seeing. When you line up the camera in front of a book barcode, it will automatically zoom, focus and scan the ISBN - without you even needing to click the shutter. As you can see below, you'll then have the option search the full text of the book on Google Book Search right away.

Here, I'm searching for push to find all the pages that mention push-ups, and they're displayed below the search box.

For students, this could be an easy way to locate that critical passage that the professor was talking about in lecture. Or if you're browsing through the shelves of a bookstore, you could use this application to easily determine whether a book contains the information you're looking for.

This is the first release of this program, so there may be some hiccups. Most of the books supported by this tool were printed in the mid-1990s or later, because it took some time for ISBN barcoding standards to stabilize. And of course, not every book is on Google Book Search. Yet even with these limitations, it's a lot of fun to search through a paper book using your mobile device, and I think the tool opens up new ways to experience printed works.