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I realize that people think it's cool to talk smack with respect to security officers, but realistically it's pretty much just jackassery.

Um, no: the jackassery is assuming the "security by (some measure of) obscurity" is a valid defense.

But they win anyway, so stop taking pictures. Stop taking "observable" pictures. The lens on your glasses that's constantly feeding the cloud, now, that they won't notice because you're not actively touching it! Thanks, Gordon Bell!

Another article on the subject
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/2009-year-linux-revolution

The efficiency of solar PV cells is poor, unless you start using rarified elements that are increasingly in short supply.

Using solar thermal, where focused sunlight is used to create steam and turn a turbine could be a good solution for electricity production. Used along with local solar water heating and we might have something, but it isn't by any means trivial. And we'd still face the issue of fuel for transportation. I'm not sure how many electric plants you'd have to build if we converted all the vehicles to pure electric. Probably somewhere between "a lot" and "a metric assload".

i also submitted this story this morning so since this made it i guess mine will be scrapped. because of this i can also give you a few links. This is great technology no doubt.

USM Main Website

Scientific American had a hit on this.

School of Polymers and High Performance Materials Link

Marek W. Urban is the principle chemist and researcher for the project and was the co-author of the findings and its current research publication in the journal Science.

Video of an actual test after scratching a surface.

Sorry if i am a little excited but its nice to be personally linked to a university that is about 15 minutes from where you live.

It's odd that the commentary has vanished, but the original interview site still exists.

"I knew from day one that it would be a tricky process," says project maestro Steve Ball, group program manager for Vista. In the end, it took 18 months--and a team of 20 composers, sound designers, engineers, and developers.

Unless there was a change of guard at some point, this article says the company responsible for the Shuttle's software is a branch of Lockheed Martin. The article has been cited many times in the past on Slashdot, it's a bit old but still a very interesting read.

IBM did make the AP-101 computers, however.

They're mostly heading up to the West Texas area between Lubbock and Fort Worth. I've gone through the area each summer and it seems like there has been an explosion in the total number of windmills over the past two or three years. Not only does Texas produce twice as much wind energy as any other state, it has been growing at an increasing rate of 1GW-1.25GW every year for the past four years.


For an insightful (and sometime humorous) look at the direction Texas is headed with wind power, check out this interview with Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson.

"I talked the Audubon Society and told them, "Don't worry about this, after several generations we'll have smarter birds." They did not think that was funny. The other thing I told them was wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico would be the first line of defense against avian flu. These people have no sense of humor. You can't break the ice with them."

The old "there a shortage of skilled labor" myth.

First off, all we have is the anecdotal exposition of one person.

See my other posts on the skills shortage. I've posted this before:

http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/itaa.real.html [ucdavis.edu]

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/85/essay.html [fastcompany.com]

http://www.upenn.edu/researchatpenn/article.php?708&bus [upenn.edu]

http://techtoil.org/wiki/doku.php?id=articles:shortage_myth [techtoil.org]

All companies want are disposable interchangeable people who will work for nothing. This concept is doomed.

What, exactly, Bjarne, is the definition of a qualified developer? Developer of what? Software for what?

The entire concept of a "software engineer" or "developer" is meaningless. Take for example the statement "I am an Engineer". That statement is so broad to be meaningless. What type? Electrical? OK, what type? AC or DC? Electronic? Computer? Servo systems? Architectural electrical? Power grids?

Do you get my point?

Ok, now to developer. Database applications. Financial systems. HR. Medical systems. Commercial systems. Academic records. I've had a5-6 IT and development jobs and each domain was unique requiring becoming a psuedo expert in a few short months. Expecting a "one size fits all" approach to work is a recipe for failure.

So before we prescribe a solution, we need to determine what exactly we are trying to solve.

I pulled out Fast Company #128, found the relevant line, googled it, and finally found a citation -- it's published as a separate article online.

• Washington spends $16,698 per student, the second highest in the country after Boston, yet:
• In 2007, 61% of D.C.'s fourth graders scored below basic level in reading, and 51% below basic in math.
• Of America's 100 largest school districts, D.C. Public Schools spent the most on administration (56% of budget) and the least on instruction (41%), in 2004 -- 2005.
• Twenty-nine percent of D.C. high-school grads enroll in college within 18 months versus 48% nationwide, and only 9% of them graduate within five years.
• D.C. seniors in the class of 2007 had the second-lowest SAT reading scores in the country (after Maine) and the worst math scores.
• Thirty-six percent of Washingtonians are functionally illiterate. The national average is 21%.

You also make a statement that "most of it goes to administration". Of course, since you don't provide actual budget percentages, it would be hard to gauge the veracity of this statement, as well.

The print version of the Fast Company article I linked claims (in an info box not present in the online version) more than 50% (51%, IIRC) of the D.C. district budget goes to administration.

I was unable to find an online citation for that statistic, but you can find it in Fast Company Issue 128.

Numbers, taken out of context, are worthless

All the citations I provided overwhelmingly demonstrate that these administrators are overpaid -- again, their district spends more on administration than any other district in the country as a percentage, has the third highest spending over all, and performs extremely poorly. That's certainly enough context to demonstrate that the district as a whole is paying a lot, and getting very little in return -- the very definition of overpaid.

this is about not having the supplies that directly contribute to your child's education

We have one of the highest per-student education spending rates in the world, and yet so little of that money ends up going where it's actually needed -- to competent teachers and classroom supplies.

D.C., specifically, is an amazing example of waste:

D.C. spent about $13,400 per student in 2006, which was only exceeded by New York and New Jersey.

Despite the city's high per-student spending, scores on math and reading were the lowest in the country last year, according to results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests.

To make matters worse, less than half of that money is actually going to instruction; most of it goes to administration, with 14 administrators raking in at least $150,000 per year.

We've doubled education spending but test scores haven't improved at all:

And while many people say, "We need to spend more money on our schools," there actually isn't a link between spending and student achievement.

Jay Greene, author of "Education Myths," points out that "If money were the solution, the problem would already be solved ... We've doubled per pupil spending, adjusting for inflation, over the last 30 years, and yet schools aren't better."

He's absolutely right. National graduation rates and achievement scores are flat, while spending on education has increased more than 100 percent since 1971. More money hasn't helped American kids.

Much of the money never makes it to our children; instead it goes to tenured incompetents who only bother to show up to work for the paycheck, useless bureaucrats, and other waste.

World's highest per-student spending rates, and yet our teachers can't afford to make photocopies. How the hell did we get here?

Hot? This???

Seriously dude, eww. I wouldn't screw her with YOUR dick.

I would normally say "it's an Acer", but if you do a little research, you'll find something interesting about WalMart products. Virtually every product in WalMart, is made specifically for WalMart. They are made slightly cheaper so WalMart can lower the final cost and always undercut their competition.

    I found this out with Sony HandCams. One place I worked had about a dozen of them for live web broadcasting (make assumptions, you're probably right). Two broke, so we went to a Sony authorized repair shop. He looked at them, or more specifically at the model, and heard our complaint. He then told us "I can't fix that". He wasn't trying to be difficult, so he explained that this model was a WalMart model. The broken component was something that breaks very quickly. He can't get replacements for it. If it had been another model from another retail outlet, he would have been more than happy to fix it, but it probably wouldn't have broken anyways.

    We had saved $50/ea on them. If I recall correctly even though they were simply sitting on tripods, attached by RCA cable to digitizers, 90% of them had some sort of failure within a year. I took one of the few surviving ones, just because we retired all of them. I left it charging on my desk, and one day it just started opening the tape door on it's own. I could close it, and sometime in the next few days it would just open it like someone hit the eject button.

    If you want something that will survive, don't buy it at WalMart, even if it looks just like the item being sold somewhere else, and only has a very subtle variation on the model number. WalMart makes their money selling crap at a price lower than the other stores can sell their slightly better crap. They know when it breaks, you will probably go back to WalMart and buy another one, blaming the manufacturer, not WalMart business practices.

    Read this story about Snapper discontinuing business with WalMart

    or this Business Week piece on lower quality Walmart products

Actually you could easily do this on the Norwegian Svalbard islands. Not only does it have Arctic conditions, reliable power supplies and high-speed fiber connections to main land Norway/Europe. But it's also a special status island group where citizens of any nation are free to live and work. Being part of Norway it's under a stable, free and democratic government.

Because of it's position close to the North Pole it's heavily used as a satellite communications site by NASA, JAXA and the European Space Agency.

There's even a University there.

Svalbard Satellite station (SvalSat) was established in 1997 and the rapid expansion of the ground station is changing this perspective. SvalSat is recognized, not only as the northernmost, but also the best-located ground station in the world. The extreme northern location on the Svalbard archipelago, at 78Â13' N, gives SvalSat its unique and favourable position. The satellite coverage at this latitude holds unique opportunities and SvalSat is the only commercial ground station in the world able to provide all-orbit-support (14 of 14 orbits) to owners and operators of polar orbiting satellites.

Just get rid of it.

There is no labor shortage to begin with in the first place:

http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/itaa.real.html

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/85/essay.html

http://www.upenn.edu/researchatpenn/article.php?708&bus

http://techtoil.org/wiki/doku.php?id=articles:shortage_myth

there is only one short term solution. We need an Apollo type national commitment to building Nuke plants.

Nuclear isn't a short term solution, unless you call 5 years short term and can build one that quickly. However a 5 megawatt wind turbine can be erected in weeks. Erect 20 a month and in one year you'll add more than a gigawatt of power*. Apply an Apollo project to wind and you could produce more power quicker than you could with nuclear.

As Texas oil Billionaire T Boone Pickens has intimated in his plan for wind farms, the Rocky Mountains alone contain enough potential wind energy to supply almost if not all of the 48 contiguous states with electricity. If that's not enough all along the Pacific coast then through AZ and NM to Texas there's more. Then there's the Mid Atlantic states on up to Maine. For instance the wind potential between Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras is estimated to be 330 Gigawatts.

Quite simply wind beats nuclear.

Falcon

*I use 1 gigawatt because in California 4 reactors, 2 each in 2 power plants, generate 4.324 Gigawatts. That's just over a Gigawatt per reactor. It's the same in Alabama, 5 reactors generate just over 5 Gigawatts.

Sorry, I hate to reply to my own posts. But, I have the articles, if anyone cares.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/believe-it-or-not-hes-a-pc.html

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/the-good-the-bad-and-the-boring.html

Sorry, I hate to reply to my own posts. But, I have the articles, if anyone cares.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/believe-it-or-not-hes-a-pc.html

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/the-good-the-bad-and-the-boring.html

Oddly enough, there is some research regarding psychopathy and management. While it would certainly be untrue to say "Most large corporations are run by sociopaths", there are examples of CEO's who do tick the boxes for psychopathy.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/96/open_boss.html is an interesting article covering some of the work by Robert Hare (the bloke who devised the Psychopathy Checklist used by police departments to profile killers).

Disclaimer - I have worked for a company where the CEO is in jail for being a cheating, lying toe-rag.

We can do the Right Stuff. Software doesn't need to be buggy as most desktop stuff.

Indeed. But what's also funny is that they are a Mac shop (at least 60/40 from another site I saw). I suppose their intent is to try to use that knowledge to try to know how to win people over. In the Fastcompany article about them they discuss it a bit.

That may explain why Keller and Reilly are today using their team as an early focus group for learning how to persuade Mac lovers to embrace Windows. "You've got a lot of passionate Mac people in here, and they've got to get their head around this thing -- why Windows is genius," says Keller. He and Reilly have outfitted their shared office (inherited from Bogusky) with an Xbox 360, which they've been using as a wireless hub. But their joint desk also holds two ultrathin MacBook Airs. When I ask if they're making their team get rid of their iPods and PowerBooks, Reilly responds, "It's not a matter of forcing people. It's getting them to want to use it. If you can't, you're not going to do great advertising."

So they may be able to give them up internally to keep the account/their jobs, but I'd be surprised if they are very successful at this campaign. Then again, since Vista isn't as bad as it was at it's launch and the real problems with it such as DRM/protected path most people don't understand or care about, maybe they have a chance to at least stem the tide.

It seems to me that Crispin Porter + Bogusky is using their new Microsoft account to make a lot of publicity for themselves, given that Fast Company just did a cover article on their acquisition of the Microsoft account.

Take a look at this guy, http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/a-mighty-wind.html. In a single interview Pickens manages to call Clinton dishonest and John Kerry a "fucking liar", and he doesn't have any problems finding investors.

Some people are more interested in what you do than what you say, and would prefer to deal with someone that says what they mean. It's kind of like corporate social responsibility, it's a great feel good measure but when it comes down to it, it's a bad investment. Catering to fringe groups just doesn't pay.

I also find it surprising that advanced manufacturing technology hasn't driven down the price of Legos. However, this article gives some insight into the business side of Lego and shows that the prices aren't simply inflated out of greed.

Well, the shuttle software has zero bugs - or seemingly as close to it as to be indistinguishable from zero.

numbers:

the last three versions of the program -- each 420,000 lines long-had just one error each. The last 11 versions of this software had a total of 17 errors. Commercial programs of equivalent complexity would have 5,000 errors.

So we could expect the Mars code to have about 3 bugs if it's managed as well. Being that it's a short project, doesn't carry humans, and doesn't have as long a history, I'd guess it's more likely to run into the dozens.

They can field patch these too.

Specifically, the group that wrote the software for the space shuttle. With a defects-per-line rate less than 1/1000th of the average, they're doing something right.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/06/writestuff.html

Of course, with a full pages of documentation for every 10 lines of code, and an average daily output of roughly a dozen lines of code, their process is much more time consuming and expensive than can be supported by most development budgets.

But they serve as an example of the wide spectrum of approaches to software development.

I strongly suggest you see if you can get a few weeks of academic internship with these people. Also know as 'Those who write the right stuff. They actually do know how to write software.

Other places to look for: Linux Kernel team. Donald Knuths Tex/Latex.
Or, believe it or not, Blizzard Entertainment. They actually are the only entertainment software company I know of with a proven track record of extremely high quality software compared to others in the field.

But any core team of non-trivial low-level open source software technology will do actually. Python core team, PHP core team, your favourite Linux IO crew, Apache, OpenLaszlo, KDE, Haxe, Blender, ... whatever. And while people will start bickering that Apache or Blender code is oh so crappy in this or that area, rest asured that all projects of that kind, *incuding* the aforementioned *all* have core team members who are very well aware of the downsides of their software. And thus can help you out in your pursuit for details on professional software developement, because they also know the pitfalls.

Bottom line: Join some tight crew of people that build stuff everybody uses or many people rely on to work. Hang with them for a month or two, then you'll have a better idea how exactly to approach your topic.

You actually bring up a very good point. However, as others in this thread have noted, designing flawless software can be quite expensive. This article shed's some light into the programmers responsible for the NASA shuttle program. As stated in the article, they are among the most expensive programmers in the US.

Of course, prominent financial institutions should be required to implement a system comparable to the NASA technique given the obvious importance of the data, but like most truly important things I doubt it will happen (especially considering the $35 million budget this group has).

I read a great article in Fast Company magazine the other day about this same thing. The article there is much more candid if you ask me, here's the online version:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/126/a-mighty-wind.html

Interesting to note that I'll RTFA if it comes to my door in paper format but I would care less about this online.

Picture here: http://images.fastcompany.com/blog/121503billboard.jpg

I whole-heartedly disagree with your comments about extending Drupal beyond its core. Admittedly if you try using Drupal without installing any modules you'll get pretty limited functionality. If you want something to work differently, you can install one of the thousands (yes, thousands) of contributed modules or write your own using Drupal's API (which is actually pretty good, and it got even better in Drupal 6).

For theming, you can use a stock theme (like the default Garland), you can grab one of many contributed themes, or you can create your own (from scratch or using an existing theme as a starting point). Drupal sites don't have to look like Drupal the same way WordPress sites don't have to look like WordPress.

Just like any other system, Drupal is only as customizable as the amount of work you're willing to put into it. A lot of WordPress sites out there use stock Kubrick, just as many Drupal sites use stock Garland. But a lot of people choose to customize their sites by creating custom themes and writing custom code (or using freely available modules).

Want some examples of sites that use Drupal that look nothing like your basic Drupal install and have plenty of unique functionality? Have a look at Popular Science*, FastCompany, or MTV UK.

* Disclaimer: I work for the company that built PopSci's new site and was one of the developers that worked on the site.

Well, first of all, modules in Drupal are code plugins. The stuff you move from one side of the page to another is a "block". :-)

Drupal is great for getting something out quickly, but yes, for any serious site you are going to be using numerous "contrib" modules (the add-on systems you mention). Drupal's architecture is built around letting add-on modules do the powerful stuff, while core is an engine to enable them to do powerful stuff.

For instance, if you're building a complex site without the CCK and Views modules, you're missing 2/3 of what Drupal has to offer. You can build sites that look and function nothing like "normal Drupal" without touching core code if you know where to "bend" it, and there are a large number of places where Drupal is designed to bend. No, you can't crank out the NYTimes web site in a weekend, but you can't do that with any CMS, and any CMS vendor that claims they can is lying to you. :-)

A small sampling of Drupal sites launched in the last year or two:

http://www.imamuseum.org/
http://artsci.wustl.edu/
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections
http://www.motogp.com/
http://gigaom.com/
http://donna.be/
http://www.fastcompany.com/
http://www.flipkowlier.be/
http://popsci.com/
http://rockband.com/

And several dozen from SonyBMG Music, such as:
http://www.pinkspage.com/
http://www.avrillavigne.com/
http://jenniferlopez.com/
http://britney.com/

You can do very non-Drupaly sites with Drupal if you learn to embrace contrib modules. :-)

(Disclaimer: I worked on several of the sites listed above.)

Originally in Fast Company:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open_snapper.html

It was even in a slashdot story at some point: http://slashdot.org/articles/06/03/28/2235246.shtml

This may have come full circle as Briggs & Stratton now owns Simplicity/Snapper and has the Brute product line for sale there:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8585731

That WAS a fantastic article, I remember it from years ago. ;)

Here's one version of it... I hope someone gets to read about what a stand-up guy he is:
The Man Who Said No to WalMart
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open_snapper.html

I think this is it.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open_snapper.html

Every year, thousands of executives venture to Bentonville, Arkansas, hoping to get their products onto the shelves of the world's biggest retailer. But Jim Wier wanted Wal-Mart to stop selling his Snapper mowers.

In third place iTunes captured a 9.8 percent share of total music sales, ahead of Amazon, Target, Borders, Circuit City, Virgin Megastores and others. The only retailers to outpace iTunes are Wal-Mart in first place with 15.8 percent and Best Buy with 13.8 percent.

Not the op-ed piece, but a Fast Company article about said Snapper/Walmart meeting: http://www.fastcompany.com/node/54763/print

http://www.fastcompany.com/node/54763/print

Ah yes, Fast Company...

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open_snapper.html

They've had other excellent articles on the nature of Wal-Mart's business.

The really interesting thing about those two articles in tandem is that the quotes go from Wal-Mart being 10% of the record industry's business to 20% in three or four years.

Can anyone say, "Vlasic"?

Wal Mart is an awful lot like the RIAA - they're horrific price gougers.

Read this.

When Wal Mart tells you to lower their prices, that means lower them or get outta my store.

Johnathon Goodwin has been doing very exciting work with converting cars and trucks to use bio-diesel (from processed to straight from the fryer) and hydrogen providing a significant increase in power and gas mileage and a significant decrease in emissions of the stock gas version, all with 90% existing technology.

It seems that there is a belief that high power, high gas mileage, and low emissions are all mutually exclusive. He is proving this to be wrong.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/motorhead-messiah.html

It doesn't give me much confidence that we're heading towards applications and operating systems that won't crash anytime soon when we can't even get something this important right. It really makes me curious about the whole software quality assurance program at NASA.

Hold your horses, Tex. It says in the article that they tuned the software to better pick up such particles. They may have had a big choice to keep it the way it was and play it safe, or get fancy to pick up much more data. You don't know what decisions they faced and are thus judging prematurely.

Remember, the instruments weren't originally designed for such, so they may have had to "get creative". There's always risk in exploration.

NASA has some of the best QA practices ever invented:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/06/writestuff.html

However, it takes time and money. I doubt the Geyser team had much time, for this pass-by is relatively recent in the probe plans.

When a vendor chooses to sell his/her product in Walmart, they have to met very high expectations.

For example, if WM is unable to sell 100% of the product, the vendor has to buy the difference back (via store credit). Or if WM sells the product too quickly, the vendor has to be able to meet the demand. If Everex has problems meeting the demand of the supply, WM may choose to pull that product from it's shelves.

WM's press release may have very little to do with the real reason it was pulled.

Interesting WM story: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

This is a really good article on the amount of planning and design work put into the software that runs the space shuttle: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/06/writestuff.html

Okay, on a serious note, this is 1976(?) tech here. I can understand wanting it real bad in 1979, but, err, 32 year-old-stuff is kinda dated when you consider that we routinely give China techonology that's a whole Hell of a lot newer.

Besides, weren't they going to retire the Shuttle anyway? If China wants one so bad, why not sell 'em a used one for a decent markup?

As someone who has worked in and around certain aircraft projects a very long time ago, I can say for certain that this guy would've never even hoped to get near, say, an F-117 or B-2 project... there's too much compartmentalization (especially between NASA and the USAF/USN, for Hell's sakes...)

Given all of that - unless the guy started hacking mainframes and whatnot @ Boeing, I guess I just don't see where there would be a really huge dent in US national security at this point. He wouldn't have had the clearance, for starters.

/P

Fair point.

Why not answer your own question by doing some homework?

In fairness, the linked article is lighter on details than it should be...

"Nintendo could sell as many Wii consoles without Wal-Mart as with Wal-Mart."

Very true. Also, I've seen games sell for less at other stores than they do at WallyWorld. This past Christmas included Cranium (bought 3 copies) and an electronic Sudoku game (5 copies).

WalMart doesn't have any sort of monopoly on lowest prices. TV DVD recorders - Worst Buy/Future Shit had the best deal - bought 3 LG-850s at $99/each. Much better than anything WallyWorld had, even at a higher price.

Also, there are manufacturers who refuse to continue to sell to WalMart because it hurts their brand.

In Levi's case, they just run a separate production line. Less thread count, less stitches, cheaper materials. If you get a pair of Levis from walmart and compare them to a pair of Levis from another store, you may very well get a completely separate pair of pants.

Snapper Lawnmowers on the other hand put their foot down and said No. Walmart asked for that $5 discount and Snapper came back and said No and pulled there mowers.

Some companies still have a bit of integrity.

• They were both started by the same person: Wales [1]
• They are based on the same principle: Crowd wisdom, social trust, etc [1]
• Frequent comparisons by Wales himself: "Just as Wikipedia revolutionized how we think about knowledge and the encyclopedia, we have a chance now to revolutionize how we think about search." [1]

Given the similarities, expecting a similar outcome from the two would not be unreasonable, would it? Unlikely maybe, because of the different target areas, but I don't think you can lash out at someone for linking the two when Wales is the one fueling such comparisons.