Slashdot Mirror

This blog entry suggests fixing an even bigger waste of electricity: replacing radiators and heating elements with computers that produce heat as a by-product.

One thing is noticeable that AJAX is useless if you try to fetch data from other domain,most probably you would get permission denied error. Alex of ajaxextended.com has written an awesome library which deals with this issue,and since he is not using builtin xmlhttp object,therefore you don`t need to create seprate instances for IE and Firefox.i have tried to create an AJAX based feedback form for my blog and it can be used on any website with zero installation,even on sites like geocities,one can experience it http://kadnan.blogspot.com/,by clicking CONTACT ME option,details are given at http://kadnan.blogspot.com/2006/01/customized-ajax -based-contact-form-for.html

One thing is noticeable that AJAX is useless if you try to fetch data from other domain,most probably you would get permission denied error. Alex of ajaxextended.com has written an awesome library which deals with this issue,and since he is not using builtin xmlhttp object,therefore you don`t need to create seprate instances for IE and Firefox.i have tried to create an AJAX based feedback form for my blog and it can be used on any website with zero installation,even on sites like geocities,one can experience it http://kadnan.blogspot.com/,by clicking CONTACT ME option,details are given at http://kadnan.blogspot.com/2006/01/customized-ajax -based-contact-form-for.html

This picture says it all...

The reason for this is more than 'apathy', it's active suppression. The major news outlets that aren't actually controlled by the same people who are behind Diebold and its ilk are intimidated by the constant barrage of 'media bias' attacks from the segment of the media that is allied with Diebold & Co. There is a perfectly good book that documents the theft of our last several elections by Mark Crispin Miller, just published a few months ago. But he can't get PBS or NPR (specifically WHYY) to let him appear and promote it. I have submitted stories on this but only get rejected. Can anyone figure how to get this information about censorship onto the main page of slashdot?

Mark Crispin Miller's Blog

The story on his blog noting Joe Bageant's recent essay on his inability to get airtime on WHYY's "Fresh Air"

Joe Bageant is a journalist and recently a very popular blogger of the plight of the 'redneck' culture in the neo-con political machine. His most recent essay is specifically about the refusal of WHYY to allow Mark Crispin Miller to appear on Fresh Air or otherwise promote his book -- Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One, Too (Unless We Stop Them) He hits tha nail on the head:

It is safe to say that WHYY and the rest of the public media gang are simply scared to death of uttering the book's title on the airwaves. They know that the neocons will jump up all over their asses claiming liberal bias. Maybe even launch one of their infamous letter writing campaigns. The Republican game plan of unrelenting bullshit, that steady grinding away day in day out -- it works. They have managed to wear down those media they don't already control from the top, make them either doubt themselves or make them damned afraid of repercussions. We can well imagine what the GOP assault on public radio and television has created around places like WHYY. Hell, if they can get Bill Moyers they can get anybody. Right?

It's censorship by intimidation. Large numbers of people are never going to hear about htis book because they don't search Amazon.com for new books about election fraud or by Mark Crispin Miller on a regular basis. They rely on the mass media to keep them informed, and it isn't working anymore. I also agree with his suggestion to contact WHYY directly and let them know that their fear of 'conservatives' reactions will attract the wrath of lots of 'liberals' whom they depend on for their funding at least as much as corporations or the government:

By the way, if you wanna give WHYY hell personally, the phone number is (215) 351-1200. Email is talkback@whyy.org

The reason for this is more than 'apathy', it's active suppression. The major news outlets that aren't actually controlled by the same people who are behind Diebold and its ilk are intimidated by the constant barrage of 'media bias' attacks from the segment of the media that is allied with Diebold & Co. There is a perfectly good book that documents the theft of our last several elections by Mark Crispin Miller, just published a few months ago. But he can't get PBS or NPR (specifically WHYY) to let him appear and promote it. I have submitted stories on this but only get rejected. Can anyone figure how to get this information about censorship onto the main page of slashdot?

Mark Crispin Miller's Blog

The story on his blog noting Joe Bageant's recent essay on his inability to get airtime on WHYY's "Fresh Air"

Joe Bageant is a journalist and recently a very popular blogger of the plight of the 'redneck' culture in the neo-con political machine. His most recent essay is specifically about the refusal of WHYY to allow Mark Crispin Miller to appear on Fresh Air or otherwise promote his book -- Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One, Too (Unless We Stop Them) He hits tha nail on the head:

It is safe to say that WHYY and the rest of the public media gang are simply scared to death of uttering the book's title on the airwaves. They know that the neocons will jump up all over their asses claiming liberal bias. Maybe even launch one of their infamous letter writing campaigns. The Republican game plan of unrelenting bullshit, that steady grinding away day in day out -- it works. They have managed to wear down those media they don't already control from the top, make them either doubt themselves or make them damned afraid of repercussions. We can well imagine what the GOP assault on public radio and television has created around places like WHYY. Hell, if they can get Bill Moyers they can get anybody. Right?

It's censorship by intimidation. Large numbers of people are never going to hear about htis book because they don't search Amazon.com for new books about election fraud or by Mark Crispin Miller on a regular basis. They rely on the mass media to keep them informed, and it isn't working anymore. I also agree with his suggestion to contact WHYY directly and let them know that their fear of 'conservatives' reactions will attract the wrath of lots of 'liberals' whom they depend on for their funding at least as much as corporations or the government:

By the way, if you wanna give WHYY hell personally, the phone number is (215) 351-1200. Email is talkback@whyy.org

they already have released Google Earth for Mac

The person made a mistake. He was getting someone elses mail for a different reason. You cannot make two account that are the same.

Here is his blog post saying he made the mistake.
http://fitrans.blogspot.com/2006/01/oops-formerly- found-in-my-inbox-odd.html

purchased back their rights from Disney and completely went on their way. Lassiter and Jobs can build an empire together. Lassiter will now make Disney all the money instead of Pixar. They are going to hate all the red tape and politics at Disney

I have seen this article in different formats everywhere, however I still read them just to see if there is ever a new spin.

It seems to me that everyone is happy to send a text string in one direction and then they proclaim they are the champion. When the reality is you will saturate your server with http requests if you keep everything functioning on such an atomic scale that each request is for but one piece of info from the server.

I wrote a simple article that goes 1 step deeper and actually talks about shipping complex data types over one AJAX request and parsing at the client.

Take a read if this stuff is interesting to you:

http://therustednail.blogspot.com/2005/11/ajax-tip -01-method-for-delivery-of.html

The president of Diebold said he would deliver the votes to Bush. And he did.

Fortunately, today comes more bad news for the Democrats. Their long awaited investigation into voter fraud found no evidence of voter fraud by the GOP and their deranged poster boy, Dean was forced into a humilating admission.

A five-month study for the Democratic National Committee found that more than one in four Ohio voters experienced problems at the polls last fall, but the study did not find evidence of widespread election fraud that might have contributed to President Bush's narrow victory there.

In a stinging reply to the report, Mr. Mehlman agreed that there were numerous election abuses that took place in Ohio last year, but said they were perpetrated by Democrats or their political allies. In one instance, he said, "Democrat allies attempted to disenfranchise Ohio voters by submitting registration cards for Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy and Michael Jordan."

...

"Overwhelmingly," this report said, "these problems were reportedly traced primarily" to four Democratic political allies who supported Mr. Kerry: ACORN, America Coming Together, the AFL-CIO and the NAACP National Voter Fund.

The president of Diebold said he would deliver the votes to Bush. And he did.

Fortunately, today comes more bad news for the Democrats. Their long awaited investigation into voter fraud found no evidence of voter fraud by the GOP and their deranged poster boy, Dean was forced into a humilating admission.

A five-month study for the Democratic National Committee found that more than one in four Ohio voters experienced problems at the polls last fall, but the study did not find evidence of widespread election fraud that might have contributed to President Bush's narrow victory there.

In a stinging reply to the report, Mr. Mehlman agreed that there were numerous election abuses that took place in Ohio last year, but said they were perpetrated by Democrats or their political allies. In one instance, he said, "Democrat allies attempted to disenfranchise Ohio voters by submitting registration cards for Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy and Michael Jordan."

...

"Overwhelmingly," this report said, "these problems were reportedly traced primarily" to four Democratic political allies who supported Mr. Kerry: ACORN, America Coming Together, the AFL-CIO and the NAACP National Voter Fund.

In fact, a lot of NN researchers are now modeling child development, based on a growing consensus that true artificial intelligence will have to be capable of learning from its environment in much the same way human infants do. --- Developing Intelligence: http://develintel.blogspot.com/

In fact, a lot of NN researchers are now modeling child development, based on a growing consensus that true artificial intelligence will have to be capable of learning from its environment in much the same way human infants do. --- Developing Intelligence: http://develintel.blogspot.com/

There is a problem with the hypothesis that consciousness is an emergent phenomenon. Some computers are already as complex as a human brain, especially if you take into account the fact that we rarely even use 10% of our brains. Yet, there is no evidence at all that they are conscious. Just being complicated is not enough to be conscious. Besides, you must have an idea where to draw your line in the animal hierarchy. I would claim that bacteria are conscious - they makes decisions on where to swim in water. Some of them even seek out saltier water, as experiments show. Yet bacteria are certainly nowhere as complicated as the simplest computers of today. I hope you are not claiming that computers are conscious. If you are, then I cannot win this argument, and I hope that you can admit that there _something_ that is fundamentally different between computers and humans. I'm calling it consciousness.

Also, if you say that you agree with me "today", then does it mean that tomorrow your definition of consciousness will change, as science advances forward? That's a pretty unstable definition. How would you define it in a way that does not change with scientific progress?

// Warning. More shameless advertising.
If you're really interested in this, I have a summary of several theories, including materialism, which seems to be your favourite, on my blog:
http://trueai.blogspot.com/

I just blogged (http://mark-watson.blogspot.com/) about this. For people who need to do a lot of offline reading of technical papers, etc., I think that this device is a winner. You can load it with PDF files in addition buying DRMed eBooks. This will work well with material from, for example, ACM's Digital Portal.

I am a big fan of the iTunes Store. My wife and I watched an old Alfred Hitchcock show last night (fantastic, BTW) that I bought for $2. I have no problem buying DRMed eBooks as long as I can back them up (as iTunes allows).

The blog 'WaPo Lies' has some of the comments that were deleted. Strangely, the creator of 'WaPo Lies' seems to think that posting this stuff will actually help the left-leaning cause.

I only find a few of the saved-and-reposted comments really offensive... for example, the 'Thurston Howell' one below. But almost all are useless and insulting spam. The sad thing is that these people don't realize that the Washington Post is actually doing them a huge favor by hiding those childish rantings from a wider audience. These kind of comments really do not help to win people to your cause.

I reproduce a few comments in their entirety below:

---

Deborah Howell is a GOP hack. I cannot countenance the Washington Post getting any support from me while she continues to be employed.

Posted by: elliottg | Jan 15, 2006 5:32:56 PM

Would you please do us all a favor and fire this broad Howell? We don't need anyone else glibly spouting GOP lies. You dig, Clyde?

Posted by: Frank Sinatra | Jan 15, 2006 5:37:34 PM

Would you please fire DEBrah?

Posted by: Ã"ÂÃ" | Jan 15, 2006 8:59:04 PM

Ho, Ha,
Fun is fun but I must disclaim any marital relationship to this Debora Howell person. As I hear it she is the remarried famous first wife of the late comedian, Sam Kennison who referred to her by the pet name of, "LYING LITTLE BITCH! AAARRRRGGG!"

Itâ(TM)s ever so obvious when you think about it. Is it not? ;-)

Yours Truly,
Thruston Howell III

Posted by: Thurston Howell III | Jan 15, 2006 9:01:27 PM

how much is Deb Howell being paid to whore for the rpublicans??? get the facts, not the spin....

Posted by: unbelivable | Jan 15, 2006 9:04:29 PM

There is quite a bit of debate on that point. I would suggest a set of DVD's called "Consciousness" which talk about exactly that problem - is there any difference between a brain and a computer? In other words, what is "consciousness"? Computers seem to be unconscious, while humans are.

//Warning: shameless advertising!
I have a blog about that here:
http://trueai.blogspot.com/

But there were also two fundamental problems: (1) The Washington Post has printed demontrable factually incorrect statements concerning Abramoff, a lifelong Republican and key friend/confident of Grover Norquist, giving money to Democrats - which he did not (2) both the WaPo and WaPo.com (note: two different entities) utterly refusing to engage this question any any level. The closest they have come is to admit that their articles were "inartful" - when they were in fact wrong.

It is like the old problem with taking quality surveys: if you take a survey, and then don't do anything, your customers are left angrier than they were before. WaPo.com solicited feedback, received it, and then cold-shouldered its readers. Guess what the reaction was.

sPh

As a similar story, I was a little shocked (in hindsight I probably shouldn't have been) at the search results I got back when trying to find this gaming blog that I had read about somewhere but couldn't remember the URL.

of course there is racism everywhere in a society based on a 300 year old color caste system. But that skin color caste was created by the colonial elite 300 years ago so as to prevent mixed race slave rebellions. To quote historian Edmund Morgan, the colonial elite thwarted rebellions of black slaves and white slaves/poor whites by seperating them with a "screen racial contempt." The elite did this by creating laws in colonial America that would place the poor whites and slave whites ABOVE the blacks in the social hierarchy. This added social status boost tied the poor whites the upper class whites by the color of their skins. For example, the elites passed a law that white slaves could no longer be flogged naked, but that black slaves could be flogged naked. Up to that time, black slaves and poor whites/ indentured whites worked side by side and lived together. They were roughly equal in social status--being on the bottom.

But the American plantation plutocrats of the 1600s learned from the mixed race slave uprisings of Haiti--they knew that they had to seperate the blacks and poor whites.

So they used their political poor. And remember that most whites could not vote in those days--property qualifications meant the lower 60% or so could not vote.

So over the next 100 years or so, the poor whites that were born in colonial America were born into a society based on a skin color caste. And we take the world as it appears to us. The whites did not create the skin color caste--the ELITE did. Don't blame white people for it. This color caste society is simply the water we swim in. Do you think it would be any different if the roles were reversed?

Of course the rich plutocrats have used their wealth to create a fauxleft centered in identity politics and white-hating multiculturalism. They did this over the last 40 years by using the non profit foundations to fund identity politics writers and activists. They GREW a fauxleft.
more here:
http://www.leftwingmediamachine.blogspot.com/

This doesn't really address the author's original inquiry, but it is (what I would consider) an interesting use of SSH tunnels, in a readable tutorial. I set up something similar to "GoToMyPC" for my Dad, that allows web-based (over JavaVNC) secure remote access to his computers:

Java VNC over SSH

"Ray took unauthorized automated queries very personally. If he could figure out the spammer's email address, he would send a terse cease and desist warning to them. If he couldn't, he might block their IP address from accessing Google altogether. In an extreme case, he might request that a spammer's ISP kick them off of their service. And, if the ISP wasn't responsive enough, he might block all of the ISP's other IP addresses, too. That's how Ray turned off access to Google for most of France one day. It got the ISP's attention, all the more so because it happened to be one of Google's larger customers at the time."

Just in case anyone else was wondering what the hell "Swedish Rounding" was (I'll be honest, my first thought had nothing to do with numbers), here's the deal:

One day I found a sign on the counter of check out explaining something called "swedish rounding". The explanation said something like they "round down prices ending in 1,2 to 0 and 6,7 to 5 and round up prices ending in 3,4 to 5 and 8,9 to 0." My head was spinning trying to figure out how that worked. I have since see the explanation more simply as 0,1,2 are rounded to zero, 3,4,5,6,7 are rounded to 5, and 8, 9 are rounded to 10.

from this blog: http://michaelandrews.blogspot.com/2005/07/swedish -rounding-world-famous-in-new.html

And yet there are numerous scientists who are starting to think that it may not be dead dinosaurs and dead trees. And these people are essentially cranks, though some of them, like the late Thomas Gold of Cornell, have university positions. Not one person actually engaged in the business of finding oil believes any of this to be true, as a recent dustup at Rigzone showed. The abiotic oil people have yet to make their case in commercial terms. The gold standard of scientific questions, "What is your proof?", remains unanswered. We're not familiar with the process as we haven't been able to duplicate it in the lab -- so its theory. Tell that to these folks, who have been converting turkey guts into petroleum.

When I was in the supply installation side of IT consulting, the company that I co-owned ran network cables (and phone cord and work with electrical contractors that laid electrical wire). Copper price could KILL us if we bid a project and then the price of copper went up. In fact, on the largest projects we actually took advantage of futures-style market provisions to pre-buy our copper at a set price (even if it fell, we still paid a certain price).

To say that copper is scarce is not really accurate -- the price of copper has gone up but not in the way you'd expect if a needed item was about to run out. I blog (and publish a print newsletter) about gold -- I do about 90% of my research trying to find the manipulators in the gold market. One of the "worst" manipulators is the mining industry itself, but I believe hiding trade facts is very important for a free market. If copper was truly disappearing, you'd see the market react by the price hyperinflating, not just steadily growing. Mining companies spend 10-15 years just opening a mine. If they knew they were running out, they wouldn't sell it so cheaply.

I believe the steady growth in the price of copper is more of an effect of fiat currency inflation causing all consumer goods and salaries to go up (basically devaluing everyone's labor even if they feel they're earning more). When copper goes up 1000% in a week, there will be a problem. 1% fluctuations is nothing.

Just as I don't believe we're anywhere near to running out of oil in the next 1000 years, I don't believe we'll be running out of copper. I study 5-10 mining reports a day and all I see is more and more oil, gold, carbon and copper being found. As we innovate and are able to drill deeper and deeper, we're finding that MOST of what geophysicists warned us about 10 years ago isn't true -- we keep finding more to consumer, not less. I think we will be able to say the same thing 10 years from now and 100 years from now -- we're amazed and what we're finding as we dig deeper.

All these "fear the scarcity" news reports on vital materials are bunk -- you'll know when there is a shortage when the price skyrockets (supply and demand is very hard to manipulate in the long run). And when the price skyrockets, it will give innovators reason to find new ways to recycle more efficiently, dig deeper or find other ways to provide the same service with a different product.

The day that copper is gone for good is the day that we take clay out of the ground and find a way to offer room temperature superconductivity. Serendipity doesn't end, and higher copper prices give innovators more reason to find new solutions to yesterday's problems. One of the reasons I formulated my anarcho-capitalist belief system is based on finding that supply and demand really does set prices in the long haul, even if government and industry tries to manipulate prices in the short run.

When I was in the supply installation side of IT consulting, the company that I co-owned ran network cables (and phone cord and work with electrical contractors that laid electrical wire). Copper price could KILL us if we bid a project and then the price of copper went up. In fact, on the largest projects we actually took advantage of futures-style market provisions to pre-buy our copper at a set price (even if it fell, we still paid a certain price).

To say that copper is scarce is not really accurate -- the price of copper has gone up but not in the way you'd expect if a needed item was about to run out. I blog (and publish a print newsletter) about gold -- I do about 90% of my research trying to find the manipulators in the gold market. One of the "worst" manipulators is the mining industry itself, but I believe hiding trade facts is very important for a free market. If copper was truly disappearing, you'd see the market react by the price hyperinflating, not just steadily growing. Mining companies spend 10-15 years just opening a mine. If they knew they were running out, they wouldn't sell it so cheaply.

I believe the steady growth in the price of copper is more of an effect of fiat currency inflation causing all consumer goods and salaries to go up (basically devaluing everyone's labor even if they feel they're earning more). When copper goes up 1000% in a week, there will be a problem. 1% fluctuations is nothing.

Just as I don't believe we're anywhere near to running out of oil in the next 1000 years, I don't believe we'll be running out of copper. I study 5-10 mining reports a day and all I see is more and more oil, gold, carbon and copper being found. As we innovate and are able to drill deeper and deeper, we're finding that MOST of what geophysicists warned us about 10 years ago isn't true -- we keep finding more to consumer, not less. I think we will be able to say the same thing 10 years from now and 100 years from now -- we're amazed and what we're finding as we dig deeper.

All these "fear the scarcity" news reports on vital materials are bunk -- you'll know when there is a shortage when the price skyrockets (supply and demand is very hard to manipulate in the long run). And when the price skyrockets, it will give innovators reason to find new ways to recycle more efficiently, dig deeper or find other ways to provide the same service with a different product.

The day that copper is gone for good is the day that we take clay out of the ground and find a way to offer room temperature superconductivity. Serendipity doesn't end, and higher copper prices give innovators more reason to find new solutions to yesterday's problems. One of the reasons I formulated my anarcho-capitalist belief system is based on finding that supply and demand really does set prices in the long haul, even if government and industry tries to manipulate prices in the short run.

The article links to the Googleblog, which does indeed have the post by Mike Jazayeri, the Product Manager for Google Talk.

The Google GTalk Blog (or Google Talkabout) has a similar update, but this one's by Gary Burd, one of the software engineers of Google Talk.

The ________ administration claims that it can bypass the warrant clause for "national security" purposes. In July____ Deputy Attorney General ___________ told the House Select Committee on Intelligence that the president "has inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches for foreign intelligence purposes." [51] According to _______, the president (or his attorney general) need only satisfy himself that an American is working in conjunction with a foreign power before a search can take place.

This kind of thing really pisses me off.

I have to wonder where we're going when people just want a pill for every ill instead of just dealing with it.

So annoyed have I been with this topic over the years, I felt compelled to 'blog about it...

well this will probably run multiple kernels, but probably means multiple times the work and the administration headaches, with Solaris Zones you share the kernel, but you only need to administer one core install of the OS.
 
A base install of Solaris in a zone, uses just 100MB of harddisk space. And on modern hardware takes less than 15 minutes per zone to install. Of course if you use the latest and greatest Solaris Express releases, you can use ZFS+Zones to cut the size of each zone down to 50MB of disk space, and zone creation time down to create a zone in 1 minute or less. You could also download and install brandz(Solaris patches that allows user to run Linux binaries in a Solaris Zone), and have even more choice. If you wish to debug your apps, you can use a stable dtrace and debug userland of both Solaris and Linux. And the Solaris kernel.

well this will probably run multiple kernels, but probably means multiple times the work and the administration headaches, with Solaris Zones you share the kernel, but you only need to administer one core install of the OS.
 
A base install of Solaris in a zone, uses just 100MB of harddisk space. And on modern hardware takes less than 15 minutes per zone to install. Of course if you use the latest and greatest Solaris Express releases, you can use ZFS+Zones to cut the size of each zone down to 50MB of disk space, and zone creation time down to create a zone in 1 minute or less. You could also download and install brandz(Solaris patches that allows user to run Linux binaries in a Solaris Zone), and have even more choice. If you wish to debug your apps, you can use a stable dtrace and debug userland of both Solaris and Linux. And the Solaris kernel.

This seems to me to be very much related to all the talk of net neutrality buzzing around. Vint Cerf wrote a good letter that was posted on the Google Blog, check it out: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/11/vint-cerf-s peaks-out-on-net-neutrality.html

As a figter against software patents I have now some experience reading legal documents and here is what I think of this one.

http://aigarius.blogspot.com/2006/01/ok-i-read-fir st-gplv3-draft.html

You seem to be suffering from bad-IDE burnout. Seriously, you need to at least try IntelliJ IDEA before passing judgment on it. Here's some specific replies:

> The learning curve is usually quite steep

IDEA starts off very simply, the only thing you really have to learn at the beginning is how to set up a project, which is actually quite simple. I have screencast to show how easy it is: http://idea-log.blogspot.com/2005/04/hello-idea.ht ml The screencast is for version 4.5, but 5.0 is almost the same.

> each has its own peculiarities

True of any program, but IDEA shines here at doing very little that developers don't expect.

> and each does things you originally had no intention of doing.

This criticism doesn't seem to apply to IDEA, as far as I can tell. IDEA does generate some cache files, but these are purely temporary files and are stored in a separate directory from your projects, so they don't clutter anything up.

> Case in point, Anjuta, on the creation of a new app, creates a 500K config file and I have no idea what
it's doing.

All I can say is Anjuta != IDEA

> Each IDE also has a tendency to create its own directory hierarchy, make file or equivilent, and if versioning is included, will pick its own scheme.

IDEA does none of this. You can use virtually any directory scheme you want for your projects. The only 'make file or equivalent' is a simple XML project/module file which you can put in any version control system you like (or not, if you choose). These files do not even have to be stored with your project if you don't want them to be. In other words, take virtually any existing Java project and you can configure IDEA to work with it without modifying a single file or directory in the project.

> What this usually entails for me is loss of control over the project. I sort of feel trapped within the IDE, and unable to get out. The Visual Studio effect;

This is why I think you have IDE burnout. IDEA is the opposite of this. By minimally specifying your project structure, you gain lots of control over your project, and you are never trapped in IDEA. You can get out at any time and use some other IDE or text editor.

> I don't know where my code ends and the automatically generated stuff begins.

IDEA doesn't autogenerate anything. The project configuration files are self-contained and do not have to be tied in any way to your project's directories. The cache files are also self-contained and the typical user will never even need to know they exist; they are purely temporary and for performance's sake.

> As such, I prefer keeping it simple. I use a bare text editor where possible.

IDEA also prefers keeping it simple. You can keep your project minimally specified if you like, and IDEA will simply act like a souped-up text editor. If you want to tap into the more advanced features for more complex projects, you can add them one step at a time.

> Syntac highlighting is a must for me, and I've found very few editors that do this correctly.

IDEA has the best syntax highlighting around, and it's fully customizable. If you've only used text editors and Visual Studio-like IDEs, you'll be very pleasantly surprised with IDEA in this regard.

> I find writing computer programs to be just that. Writing. It's a personalised sort of thing.

IDEA gets out of your way as much as possible. You will find that it does not stop you from writing software the way you are used to; it will only add capabilities that text editors do not have (or have, but in an incomplete way, such as searching for variables, methods, classes, etc.).

> A few personally written shell scripts, a handmade makefile, the command line and a decent editor can go a long, long way.

IDEA does not stop you from developing in this way, but it can (if you choose) take it much, much further. E.g. built-

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/google-eart h-in-mac-world-pc-too.html

Google Earth in a Mac world (PC too)

1/10/2006 12:49:00 PM
Posted by Chikai Ohazama, Google Earth Team

We feel like proud parents around here. Our eldest, Google Earth for the PC, is officially leaving beta status today, and we couldn't be more pleased. For those of you who downloaded early, upgrade to the latest and discover Google Earth all over again.

And we have a brand new member of the family -- Google Earth for Macintosh. We're happy to finally have some good news for the, ahem, vocal Mac enthusiasts we've been hearing from. Let's just say that we have gotten more than a few "requests" for a Mac version of Google Earth. They've gone something like this:

1) "When is it coming out? Your website says that you are working on it."

2) "You know, Mac users are very heavy graphics/mapping/visualization/design/ architecture/education/real estate/geocaching/social-geo-video-networking fans who would certainly use Google Earth a lot."

3) "So when is it coming out?"

We heard you loud and clear. The Mac version runs on OS X 10.4 and up. Happy travels throughout Google Earth, whether you're on a Mac or a PC.

Want to understand economics? I'll save you 4 years of college, a ton of headaches, and introduce you to completely understanding money and the markets in one evening:

http://dadasays.blogspot.com/2006/01/gold-stocks.h tml

Click on the link to Rothbard's book. It is free (e-book and HTML) and it completely takes away the confusion of what money and a market is.

The density of people on the land is increasing, since the number of people is increasing, and the part of the land that is useful to us is decreasing (desertification, salination, erosion, pollution, etc)

Actually, I tend to disagree. I see the amount of land becoming available to us as increasing. As technological resources continue to come to fruition, you'll see more people living on ocean cruisers, you'll see more homes being built in the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico (I was just there, and one desert town is now a grass-covered urban area). You'll see more buildings moving upward, allowing more people to live in comfort. Even in the deserts of the Middle East (just outside of Dubai) I see high rises.

Go look at the early history of ... anywhere

Before the printing press, yes. People lived and died based on the beliefs that their warlord was granted by God to conquer and spread their souls through rape and pillage. Now that people are a bit more intelligent, the mandate of God is not as potent. Maybe it is in the US (I'm a Christ follower and I just wrote about how Jesus was anti-government: 1 Samuel 8).

As people get more intelligent, they do realize that life is better through voluntary cooperation of mutual profit (capitalism). I don't see anyone allowing things to go to hell in a handbasket, as we've always worked together in mutual profit to make our lives better. The only time we don't is when we give government a big stick to smack us around with.

the chap who successfully predicted the USA's peak oil, and has predicted the world's peak oil soon now.

There is no peak oil. There never was, and there likely never will be. There is more oil available in the US than has every been taken out combined. Here and here.

Do I think oil will hit US$85 this year? Of course! The Fed keeps printing fake money, so all prices will rise. Oil is cheaper today than at any time in history once you factor in government printing presses and their inflation cycle. If oil is getting cheaper, it means that we aren't running out.

In a way, the new iMac is like a laptop - you can pull it apart and replace components, but it isn't as if it was designed for home user disassembly (like an ATX beige box.)

On the flip side, there are Mac designs like the eMac, which require significant disassembly to upgrade the drives. And to upgrade the CPU, your only real choice is to overclock with your soldering iron. And you have to deal with the high voltage CRT.

I always liked internal Mac design, but older Macs, although somewhat elegant on the inside, were very difficult to upgrade. Sometimes you open up an old Mac and you go "woah, it is shocking that they made it so fancy on the inside of this computer". No wonder they sold the translucent iMacs. But that pretty inside was designed for ease of factory assembly, not for ease of upgrades.

"Hopefully companies like Amteus Plc that are bringing a technology to overcome this problem of snooping, spam, phishing etc.. will survive attacks from those that hide behind anonimity."

Can I ask why you don't point out that in fact you work for Amteus ?

Pushing your own commercial solutions without declaring that interest kind of sounds a little, underhand, don't you think?

But of course, it's not your first time:
(from: http://drubin.blogspot.com/2004/07/penned-in-anger .html)

"amteus amteus amteus...

What is this...

Is technology that will bring us privacy and freedom of speach, the freedom of speaking without anyone being able to snoop on our conversations or emails.

Amteus is being floated. Check that company. I am buying some shares. We need many companies like amteus
# posted by Ramon Leonato : 7:00 AM"

Well of course you're buying shares. You work for the company :)

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/talkback/?PROCESS=show&ID=2 0054948&AT=39246561-39020651t-10000022c

"Today many companies, like the company I work
for Amteus Plc"..

Feel free to spam-post all you like. Modded accordingly I hope. Credibility -1 perhaps?

(Forgive me if I don't give a quick response to heavy philosophical issues like whether I'm really that Glyn Moody: I need to go away and think about it for a while.)

Well, firstly, the User Interface is excellent. It's the best UI of all the PDA I owned (PalmOS, PocketPC, Nokia 770). Why ? because it's really MEANT to be used with a pen. You can write everywhere on the screen, not just in a small part; you scribble to delete something; you have an easy and quick way of changing input and drawing methods (eg you can choose to have your drawings "straightened" -- draw a kind of circle, the newt will automatically transform it into a real circle, etc). Everything you draw is vectorial and you can easily manipulate it. And other than beeing really built around the use of a pen, the UI is very clean, slick and uncluterred.

Secondly, the recognition engine is incredible. Truely impressive. Basically, it works. Really, really cool. The simplicity of mixing some written text (automatically recognised) with some "ink" text, and any kind of drawing ... really gives you a _working_ notepad. It's the only PDA I ever used that could really be used for taking notes (and I _did_ once try to write down a course on my Palm Vx ;-) -- absolutely unusable apart from the "let's try it" factor).

Thirdly, NewtonOS is built on a real OO core, and NewtonScript is a very neat language. That's basically how things like the fat driver / patch or einstein were possible, as you can intercept messages. But more importantly for the user, you don't have files, but a kind of simple OO database. Why is it important ? because it lets applications _easily_ cooperate, picking and sharing informations. Real cooperation between apps is possible. It helps a lot to remove the apps at the back, and put your datas at the front.

Fourthly, there is this neat "assistant" technology that actually make a good use of the OO databases. That's how you can write "meet dave next friday", click on the assistant button, and automatically the Newt will propose you to add a new meeting entry into your calendar, for the next friday, with the most likely dave you know from your address book (and of course it's easy to change the propositions in the dialog box).

There's also the possibility to "send" apps results (by mail, by fax, to the printer, etc.) easily. Plus an I/O general mechanism to deal with everything you send or receive on the newt.

And lastly, the form factor. That's something that, sadly, is forgotten by the so called PDA today. Having a *big* screen helps a lot to write proper notes -- I mean, physically, not the resolution, even if the Newt resolution is rather good. Basically, while it's smaller than a tabletpc, it's also big enough to be useful for real note taking (and more).

Oh, and something that everybody forget to say: as it used flash memory, you never lost anything, even if your battery run out. Speaking of batteries, mine simply used standard AA batteries..

I really miss my newton 2100 (it was stolen...) .

And my new shiny nokia 770 is so far behind on the UI side it's not even funny (even if it's better on some technical aspects, mainly, the screen resolution). And I actually think that Maemo is a quite ok UI, compared to the other available choices today ! So, if I can put Einsteing on my 770... You bet I'll use it ;-)

For those interested, I wrote a few posts about the newton, the dynabook, and the nokia:

http://camaelon.blogspot.com/2005/07/newton-toil.h tml

http://camaelon.blogspot.com/2005/10/nokia-770.htm l

Well, firstly, the User Interface is excellent. It's the best UI of all the PDA I owned (PalmOS, PocketPC, Nokia 770). Why ? because it's really MEANT to be used with a pen. You can write everywhere on the screen, not just in a small part; you scribble to delete something; you have an easy and quick way of changing input and drawing methods (eg you can choose to have your drawings "straightened" -- draw a kind of circle, the newt will automatically transform it into a real circle, etc). Everything you draw is vectorial and you can easily manipulate it. And other than beeing really built around the use of a pen, the UI is very clean, slick and uncluterred.

Secondly, the recognition engine is incredible. Truely impressive. Basically, it works. Really, really cool. The simplicity of mixing some written text (automatically recognised) with some "ink" text, and any kind of drawing ... really gives you a _working_ notepad. It's the only PDA I ever used that could really be used for taking notes (and I _did_ once try to write down a course on my Palm Vx ;-) -- absolutely unusable apart from the "let's try it" factor).

Thirdly, NewtonOS is built on a real OO core, and NewtonScript is a very neat language. That's basically how things like the fat driver / patch or einstein were possible, as you can intercept messages. But more importantly for the user, you don't have files, but a kind of simple OO database. Why is it important ? because it lets applications _easily_ cooperate, picking and sharing informations. Real cooperation between apps is possible. It helps a lot to remove the apps at the back, and put your datas at the front.

Fourthly, there is this neat "assistant" technology that actually make a good use of the OO databases. That's how you can write "meet dave next friday", click on the assistant button, and automatically the Newt will propose you to add a new meeting entry into your calendar, for the next friday, with the most likely dave you know from your address book (and of course it's easy to change the propositions in the dialog box).

There's also the possibility to "send" apps results (by mail, by fax, to the printer, etc.) easily. Plus an I/O general mechanism to deal with everything you send or receive on the newt.

And lastly, the form factor. That's something that, sadly, is forgotten by the so called PDA today. Having a *big* screen helps a lot to write proper notes -- I mean, physically, not the resolution, even if the Newt resolution is rather good. Basically, while it's smaller than a tabletpc, it's also big enough to be useful for real note taking (and more).

Oh, and something that everybody forget to say: as it used flash memory, you never lost anything, even if your battery run out. Speaking of batteries, mine simply used standard AA batteries..

I really miss my newton 2100 (it was stolen...) .

And my new shiny nokia 770 is so far behind on the UI side it's not even funny (even if it's better on some technical aspects, mainly, the screen resolution). And I actually think that Maemo is a quite ok UI, compared to the other available choices today ! So, if I can put Einsteing on my 770... You bet I'll use it ;-)

For those interested, I wrote a few posts about the newton, the dynabook, and the nokia:

http://camaelon.blogspot.com/2005/07/newton-toil.h tml

http://camaelon.blogspot.com/2005/10/nokia-770.htm l

I went to the WWNC yesterday just for an hour to see the Einstein session (NewtonOS on ARM Linux) and I must admit, that I was highly impressed. I used the Newton from before the beginning (Sharp Newton!) up to the Newton Messagepad 2100. Then I switched to PalmOS, because I wanted a smaller form factor and now to PocketPC (Windows Mobile 2003 and 5) for the VGA screen and possibility of running VoIP clients (Skype, SIP). But every day I use PalmOS and PocketPC, I wonder how it is possible that a 10 year old device like the Newton2100 works so much better than anything I have today. So if I have a chance to run NewtonOS on any modern SMALL device, I will do it in an instant. BTW: I have some coverage of the WWNC (and Macworld Expo SF) on my blog at http://teddythebear.blogspot.com/

The French economy grew 0.7 percent in the 2005 third quarter. There were WEEKS of riots. A horrible attack on a passenger train on new years, etc etc etc (no one on the train put up a fight in their own defense, you can keep your gentler society) Real kind and gentle: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id= 30&objectid=10362567

More of that wacky kinder society, this time from the United State's dear friend Sweden: http://fjordman.blogspot.com/2005/12/immigrant-rap e-wave-in-sweden.html

The EU countries can be more socialist and build these "kinder and gentler societies" because they outsourced their defense to the United States. I, as a tax payer over here, pay for these gentler nations defense as well as their scorn and condescension. The United States fucked up badly in two ways after WWII. 1. The Marshall Plan (I.e. we should have let Europe starve) 2. If we had to have a Marshall Plan we shouldn't have provided for Europe's security against the Soviets. If Europe had to pay for its own defense the nanny states would never have been born, birthrates would be high, and the west would not be in decline.

How's the birthrate amongst non-immigrants in Europe? Take a look. These wonderful kinder and gentler nations don't reproduce. Never a good sign... How about that work week? 35hours to create jobs doesn't spell success to me. It spells -quagmire- one of economy at least. How's Germany doing now that they switched to the Euro? That's right, non stop recession as they connot lower interest rates. What's France's government spending per GDP? Ya, in the range of unsustainable. How about the pensions?

Europe won't be gentle for long. People go to jail for having the wrong political beliefs. People go to jail simply for annoying other people. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/ne ws/2006/01/12/nsacr12.xml

So genetle in fact that the EC isn't answerable to the foolish electorate. More fun is guaranteed given that fact. Let's check back w/ one another in 20yrs. It'll be a hoot.

Well, that's why I referred to a "thing or two" at http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2006/01/oh-irony .html for anyone who was interested.

Ever seen the plagarism of the year awards? http://5thnovember.blogspot.com/2005/12/and-winner -is.html

The winner was the Daily Mail which made a two page spread of someones blog and passed it off as their own work.

http://wethemedia.blogspot.com/2005/11/naughty-nau ghty-naughty.html/ and

http://jaiarjun.blogspot.com/2004/11/whorism-in-fi lm-writing.html/

http://wethemedia.blogspot.com/2005/11/naughty-nau ghty-naughty.html/ and

http://jaiarjun.blogspot.com/2004/11/whorism-in-fi lm-writing.html/

This is, of course, precisely how open content like Wikipedia is meant to be used. Maybe the newspaper as well as the journalist has a thing or two to learn.