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has less drivers of high quality (makes sense, PC makers & parts makers KNOW what drives the PC world is why)

Granted. Linux has drivers for a bunch of other platforms Windows has never touched, though, obviously.

NOW - Thing is?

Well - Neither DELL nor HP is doing that... lol! Show me where they said they are "locking out Linux" (especially intentionally), ok??

1) They're obviously never going to admit to doing it, regardless of whether they are or not.
2) The people the guy talked to were not really in a position to be knowledgeable about this stuff, from the sounds of it.
3) The general consensus from the posts here is that article author is hardly an unbiased, reliable source himself. Quite the opposite.

That ALL said & aside:

Linux folks asking vendors TURN OFF a VALUABLE & EFFECTIVE security measure, especially for layered security

Yeah, why would Linux want to turn off a "VALUABLE & EFFECTIVE security measure" that prevents it categorically from being booted? Linux people have no problem with the security itself, just that Linux is probably going to be "coincidentally" left out in the cold by it.

It really sounds like a terrible idea to begin with. If they won't give customers the keys to sign the stuff with (which seems to be the whole point of the system in the first place), either 1) Linux booting is disallowed, or 2) they make the secure boot disable-able, which completely defeats the whole purpose of it to begin with if all anybody has to do to bypass it is toggle an option in the BIOS (well, I suppose you could lock down your BIOS so maybe not). Sure, it's great if all you care about is running Windows...at least until a bug creeps in and Windows accidentally its own signature...or the first h/cr/acker figures out how to invalidate the signature...

(which I am QUITE expert on, see here http://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=%22HOW+TO+SECURE+Windows+2000/XP%22&btnG=Search&gbv=1&ei=UA-zTsH5GqrX0QGV8L3TBA , OR here http://www.bing.com/search?q=HOW+TO+SECURE+Windows+2000%2FXP&go=&qs=ns&form=QBLH ... I practically "wrote the book" on how to do that & have since 1997... )

Well, you wrote *a* book. Damn, dude: nobody's ever going to accuse you of being terse! As for being an expert, I guess I'll just have to take your word on that one.

Why don't they adapt for it? Nobody's stopping them!

Um, yeah, that's kind of the point...

Perhaps they are unable to??

They may eventually, yeah, but it'll suck in the short term if it goes the way it looks like it's going to.

Again - I didn't see vendors STATE they were locking out Linux! Show me where they have... ok?

See above.

APK

P.S.=> As far as "hack Windows", & it being done by Penguins? Yes, I said it - what BETTER WAY for they to discredit MS!

Yay stereotyping. Like I said, this is about being able to boot Linux, period. Yes, there are some people who may use that ability maliciously, but there's also a hell of a lot of people who don't.

& judging by the "anti-microsoft/anti-windows" sentiments around here

Okay, yes, I'll give you that one. Diversity of opinions and plenty of people on both sides, etc., etc....but yeah.

Yea, I'll stand by it.

Yes - I'm fairly sure that "goes on" from the "penguins" even here too

I only pointed out that Linux isn't "adapting to change"& from the article, it seems they insinuated Windows is "locking them out" - that wouldn't be MS doing it, it's be said vendors (the 2 big ones in DELL & HP Mr. Bott spoke to).

I used Linux (KUbuntu 10.10 & patches) for MOST of 2010 in fact, & certainly ALL thru the summer... a patch blew it up on me, of all things, & I can safely say "it's not windows, not by a longshot & not in a good way"... it's less versatile, has less drivers of high quality (makes sense, PC makers & parts makers KNOW what drives the PC world is why), less high quality & less used wares on it, less games (big home market thing) etc. & more! In fact, I've used various Linux distros since 1994 (Slackware 1.02 being my 1st - yes, I look at "how the other 1/2 lives" to learn & grow!)

NOW - Thing is?

Well - Neither DELL nor HP is doing that... lol! Show me where they said they are "locking out Linux" (especially intentionally), ok??

* BOTTOM-LINE: Today, out there now? The security/hacker-cracker problem's gone NUTS... how do I know, & especially since 2004? Well, I've been populating a custom HOSTS file since 1997, & the "jump" in bad hosts/domains has shot way, Way, WAY UP since then... especially the past 2 yrs.!

That ALL said & aside:

Linux folks asking vendors TURN OFF a VALUABLE & EFFECTIVE security measure, especially for layered security (which I am QUITE expert on, see here http://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=%22HOW+TO+SECURE+Windows+2000/XP%22&btnG=Search&gbv=1&ei=UA-zTsH5GqrX0QGV8L3TBA , OR here http://www.bing.com/search?q=HOW+TO+SECURE+Windows+2000%2FXP&go=&qs=ns&form=QBLH ... I practically "wrote the book" on how to do that & have since 1997... )?

VERY DUMB!

( & that's what Linux folks are basically asking for in today's "World-of-Malware-In-General Exploits" & those exploits? They're becoming FAR more dangerous, more rootkit tech (especially combined bootsect/driver ones), even dedicated partitions work if not hacking BIOS from various vendors & more!)

Why don't they adapt for it? Nobody's stopping them! Perhaps they are unable to?? Again - I didn't see vendors STATE they were locking out Linux! Show me where they have... ok?

* Lastly & by the way? I'll post in the style I like, and IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT? DON'T READ IT!

APK

P.S.=> As far as "hack Windows", & it being done by Penguins? Yes, I said it - what BETTER WAY for they to discredit MS!

Better than "FUD" is, & being caught in it, like Mr. Bott has done... good for him, about time they did in bigtime journalism in this field!

See - put it this way:

I personally know Linux folks that do it in fact OR try to, we converse on it @ times... & judging by the "anti-microsoft/anti-windows" sentiments around here (which EVERYONE here knows about worldwide no doubt, lol)??

Yea, I'll stand by it.

Yes - I'm fairly sure that "goes on" from the "penguins" even here too IF they have time & are inclined to do so... but, what they do NOT understand is, that ONLY MAKES WINDOWS STRONGER!

I.E./E.G.-> MS patches consistently, 2nd week of every month, when these things are found & IF it is quickly + reliably patchable, especially REMOTELY EXPLOITABLE ONES (which Linux is behind in/has more of, mind you)...

Heck, the 2 MS has NOT patched? EASILY WORKED AROUND! I even posted that much here as to how to go about it easily enough via workarounds, how/when/where/why ->

Following up, I'd recommend the following book, which contains an account of the disaster in Chapter 3:
The river dragon has come! by D. Qing, J. Thibodeau, & P. B. Williams.

Well as long as I'm modded troll for that comment I might as well add that that fix, the 2.3.4 update for the Samsung Galaxy S2 which hasn't been released for belgian users for months now, includes a fix for poor battery life for a small number of users. Yet no uproar for that on Slashdot.

"Battery life: some users let us know that their batteries didn’t seem to be lasting as long; battery life should be improved for these folks."

Yes, that is "bull". Why did you not post to info from Google? Like this?

http://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/developer/bin/answer.py?&&answer=112622

Oh, because it still says 30%, that's why.

What does a blog post have to do with actual reality? The terms still state 30% as of right now:

http://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/developer/bin/answer.py?&&answer=112622

The perpendicular line in the first animation represents the asteroid's position relative to the Earth, as the Earth moves. So, although it's traveling at approximately a 45-degree angle relative to Earth's movement as it passes, it's going enough faster than the Earth that its angular velocity along the direction of Earth's orbit is about the same as the Earth's, so from an Earth perspective it passes perpendicular to our orbit.

Try this experiment: take a pen in each hand, and hold your left hand stationary while you drive a vertical line going up with your right hand, from the bottom of the paper to the top. You'll have a dot and a straight line - that will look like the animated image where the Earth doesn't move. Now have someone pull the paper to the right while you do this (or move both hands to the left in unison), and you'll get a horizontal line for your left hand, and a diagonal line for your right, which will represent a small portion of the second image centered around where the asteroid crosses the Earth's orbit.

Relative orbits are a fascinating subject (for some people). One of my pet projects is a simple gravity simulator, to which I added the ability to render relative orbits, so you can see those weird kidney bean shapes around Lagrange Points. See Earth coorbital asteroid 2002 AA29 and Near-Earth asteroid 3753 Cruithne for some interesting examples.

Don't get down on nuclear. Thorium is the future. We have enough supply of it to replace the entire world's energy needs, and the salt based solution is the safest there is. It does not require the reinforced meltdown containment of traditional nuclear.

If any nuclear power could be called safe, Thorium is it. Or LFTR, specifically.

https://plus.google.com/u/1/107403602702342125509/posts/VFLzb7rzByx - All about Thorium and the WH.gov petition link.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=fukushima+lies+tokyo+electric

Google Voice commands allow that format. When I'm on the road, I never type- I click the microphone and say "navigate to mcdonalds" which it then uses gps to determine which mcdonalds i'm looking for. Or "navigate to 22 somwhere st. " Here's the full list: http://www.google.com/mobile/voice-actions/

Hey guys, where else can we find more drivel to dilute our search results?

homoeopathic.google.com

> But is it really temporary?

I'd say that is entirely in the hands of the PA. They have been offered pretty much EVERYTHING they publicly profess to desire, see Clinton's effort. They turned it down because they want it all, from the river to the sea.

Not quite everything, if you look into the details, though I suppose that was a pretty good offer. At least that's the way the Israeli negotiators describe it. Since then there was a change at the Palestinian helm, though, and both sides have changed their positions.

Thought experiment for you to see if you are an honest debater or just a pro terror apologist.

Let me ask you about a real-life fact to determine if you're an honest debater or just an apartheid apologist: what might be the long-term vision of successive Israeli governments as they keep approving settlements in the depth of the west bank? Do you suppose they plan to spend billions to later uproot the same people they are now sending to live there? Do you have any idea how politically difficult it is to evacuate Israeli settlements after they have been built?

Imagine tomorrow Abbas announced his desire for a two state solution (something he publicly denounces btw, and he is the moderate)

That's news to me - unless you're referring to Israel's precondition that they recognize it as a "Jewish" state - which was an attempt to get the Palestinians to compromise the "right of return" as a precondition to negotiations. If you mean something else, please provide a citation.

and to live in peace with Israel. That it is time to end this terrible bloodshed and finally have peace and a future.

Note that the tiny enclaves ruled by Abbas already live in de-facto peace with Israel. While the Israelis certainly enjoy the great reduction in violence, I see no sign that they have come any closer to recognizing the Palestinians' human and national rights.

Now imagine he not only lived through the next twenty four hours but that the people were finally tired of the fighting and rose up in public demonstrations of support so profound that Hamas went to ground. The suicide and mortar fire ceased and it really looked like THIS time they meant it. How long could an Israeli politician hold out against signing a treaty? That is what I mean, it is all up to them, they will have peace the second they decide they have to settle for it instead of the total victory they keep dreaming is coming real soon now. Now explain how I'm totally wrong.

Did you know that something similar has actually happened in real life? So far Netanyahu is holding out just fine and doesn't seem like he ought to be concerned in the least about peace talks. So based on what has actually happened - the Palestinian authority denouncing and actively fighting terrorism, and publicly stating very clearly that it is interested in a two-state solution - I'd say that your thought experiment does not lead where you think it leads.

> Either way, it does not annex the land and make it a part of the legal definition of Israel. The legal terms that apply to the west bank
> are the same terms that applied to Japan after its defeat in 1945. Would you say that the occupied Japan was part of the US and
> that its post-war status was an internal matter? If you would, then you have a very peculiar definition of "internal".

Yes, exactly the same. Except for the detail that Japan was administered by the Allied Forces instead of just the U.S. That is why half of Japan uses 60Hz electricity and the othe

Thanks. Where does it confirm that you could "multiply the numbers of deaths caused by nuclear by 1000 and it will still be safer than oil, coal and gas"? That is the claim made in the prior post that I was responding to.

Besides, I think I already mentioned that there are some serious issues with the data from Chernobyl. Studies can only be as good as the underlying data. Just be patient . . . in 25 years we will probably have much better data from the Fukushima disaster.

Additionally, how do you explain studies that come to very different conclusions?

The difficulty is that(while most compressed archives are supported) you run into the situation where either the tool you are using has to have the ad-hoc ability to operate on the contents of a given archive type, or you need to decompress somewhere temporary, operate, and then compress it back up. That is sort of annoying.

What you really want is something like http://code.google.com/p/fuse-zip/ Fuse-zip(ideally one with support for all common archives you are going to run into; but if this is just for your use it doesn't much matter: Because the zip archive becomes a FUSE-mounted filesystem location, all non-zip-aware programs will transparently operate on the contents of the archive without even knowing anything is different.

With Google, you should be able to eliminate the Facebook posts by adding -facebook to your search query. This is likely what the parent post was referring to as Google allows you to eliminate terms from your search. Here is Google's page on commands to better control your search queries.

As long as this drivel isn't included in my search results by default, I don't really mind it at all.

Google Blocked Sites

You can always just block results from the Facebook.com domain from appearing in your results. I'm not sure I buy the idea that comments on Facebook are somehow different than the billions of comments Google already indexes from other sites, in a way that would "pollute" your search results.

this should find it :)

With a name like "game boy" and a comment about "SMB shares", I think for half a second about this kind of SMB share.

The official term is "Sex By Surprise", as absurd an excuse to reel someone in as there ever has been.

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=%22sex+by+surprise%22&btnG=Google+Search

But you don't need 100% detection. Even 1% might be quite valuable. In many cases you'll be able to guess bits based on context. There's also a good chance of redundant copies of the same file.
The 50% per bit number also seems to ignore the use of parity.

Nobody has ever demonstrated recovery of data from a drive that had been written across with all zeros.

What are your qualifications for making that statement?

I have to say, if someone handed me a disk where 50% of the bits were readable, I bet that I could get data about where it came from and what it was used for. It may be hard to recover a single 1KB chunk perfectly, but you could tell with a high degree of confidence whether a given 10 MB chunk of data had been on the disk. That might be all it takes to convict someone.

If I read one bit the way I expect, there's a 50% chance it was actually that way.
If I read two bits the way I expect, only a 25% chance that it wasn't there before the wipe.
If I read two bits and only one is the way I expect, 50%.
Etc.

Think about it like recovering the GPS signal from below the thermal noise floor using the spreading codes. There's a good chance any particular bit going into the algorithm is wrong, but having a known pattern of bits to look for makes it possible.

I agree wholeheartedly about the War on Drugs being violent and ill-advised, but I think you missed my point about heroin.

The drug itself may cause the user to feel very mellow, but the withdrawal is mentally, emotionally, and physically painful. The user who is looking for a fix has very few qualms about being violent, as a quick Google search can show. I'm not imagining this violence, I'm using it to justify my feelings related to this specific drug.

If you choose to use or abuse heroin, that is your choice - but I don't feel that it would be a good idea to legalize that particular drug. Sorry.

Have you tried GWT? Basically, you code in Java and it compiles it to JavaScript. There are other languages that cross-compile into JavaScript, too.

France has a power plant near Givet, which is situated in a "peninsula" of French territory going into Belgium. That's going to be pretty convenient when Belgium needs to buy massive amounts of power from abroad (hint: Belgium is very poorly endowed for hydro/solar/geothermal energy)

That bulb under the pilot is a Swiss Ball, and it's there because it's cheap, light, tough, and pretty foolproof as a landing gear for a hovering vehicle.

The best reason to depress the CM below the rotors is that you don't have to do so much fine control to get what you want. You won't get terrific responsiveness, but you won't be wobbling about a nearly-unstable balance point.

If they do that, though, it stops being really different and becomes similar to any other lightweight helicopter, only with 8 small motors and propellors instead of one big one, and no need for a tail rotor. You can steer it without any control other than a throttle and a stick that angles the propellor frame relative to whatever you're hanging from.

Perhaps you should research the facts before you ask others to do rethinking. China is already experiencing some regional and sector-based labor shortages, and has been doing so since 2006.

Its real simple to not open your mouth when you know that you dont know what you are talking about. You knew you didn't know, but you spouted anyways. Pathetic.

"How about 8,000 rockets launched into Israel in the last 10 years?"

Israel, Palestine, they are both as bad as each other. For every Palestinian atrocity you can name, I can name an Israeli one. That game will lead you nowhere.

https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=israeli+atrocites+against+Palatine&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gl=uk#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&client=ubuntu&hs=sXN&channel=fs&gl=uk&source=hp&q=israeli+atrocities+against+Palastine&pbx=1&oq=israeli+atrocities+against+Palastine&aq=f&aqi=&aql=1&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=4447l6253l0l6880l9l6l0l2l2l0l413l1438l0.3.2.0.1l8l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=3dd5bec6e38bb980&biw=1901&bih=854

Sigh.

What's less pointless is looking at whether continued US support for Israel has contributed in large part to the growth of radical Islam and instability of the Middle East in general. Of course, the British started it, but that's no excuse.

This is the Hello World of Google Maps. If you check the source code you see that there are no API keys (it's Google Maps API V3) so what happens after a page like that is loaded for the 25,001th time in a day? Are they keeping track of all the HTTP Referers and count if a given domain has generated traffic over the free quota and eventually stop serving maps for it? They don't need to do it in realtime but that's going to be a big query and/or a big queue. I'd really like to know how they implemented it.

Ditto this.

A couple of years ago I went to the local DMV at http://maps.google.com/maps?q=90th+St+%26+Bergenline+Ave,+North+Bergen,+NJ+07047 which I admit doesn't look "low rent" given the location. But it covers a "low rent" area. I arrived soon after opening (first mistake I guess) and was greeted by having to line up outside, because the people didn't fit inside, in the snow. Followed by grumpy people behind the counters.

I recently went to this one: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=%5B3189-3199%5D+Us+Highway+1,+Lawrence+Township,+NJ+08648 Which again while the location might not indicate so is in a wealthier area. There I rocked up on Saturday was handed the form I needed to fill in and given a number. The number was called before I had finished filling out my name on the form.

Ditto this.

A couple of years ago I went to the local DMV at http://maps.google.com/maps?q=90th+St+%26+Bergenline+Ave,+North+Bergen,+NJ+07047 which I admit doesn't look "low rent" given the location. But it covers a "low rent" area. I arrived soon after opening (first mistake I guess) and was greeted by having to line up outside, because the people didn't fit inside, in the snow. Followed by grumpy people behind the counters.

I recently went to this one: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=%5B3189-3199%5D+Us+Highway+1,+Lawrence+Township,+NJ+08648 Which again while the location might not indicate so is in a wealthier area. There I rocked up on Saturday was handed the form I needed to fill in and given a number. The number was called before I had finished filling out my name on the form.

Homepage for the EPUB standard.

Why do I recommend EPUB so highly? Besides the fact that it's an open standard, that is? ;) Well, Wikipedia has a good comparison chart of e-book formats versus the e-book readers that are covered. It shows that the only format with a broader range is straight text. (Yes, it even beats out PDF and HTML.)

There is a plug-in available for OO.o and LO called Writer2ePub that will save directly to EPUB, btw. The main support channel is through a MobileRead forum.

May I suggest that you spend some time browsing MobileRead before making any final decisions? In particular, I would like to call your attention to the Calibre, Sigil, and OpenInkpot forums.

Next, there is a package called eLyXer which does a pretty good job of converting LyX files to XHTML. EPUB relies heavily on a subset of XHTML as part of its specification so I've been experimenting with a new toolchain.

I write my documents in LyX to get good looking PDFs, then use eLyXer to get XHTML, then use the import/convert function of Calibre to get a good looking EPUB, then use Sigil to fine tune the final output. Since both eLyXer and the e-book conversion utility packaged as part of Calibre can be called from the command line, it would be possible to automate some of that work pretty easily. I haven't bothered with that as my needs are only for occasional use at the moment.

Another alternative would be to just write the journal in Sigil. That would probably mean abandoning PDFs and paper output entirely, though.

P.S. How come you didn't have an article focussing on Arduino in your initial issue??

First, let me say that I agree that the pilot should probably be under the blades, although I'm more concerned about stability. Lots of people have commented on the possibility of broken propellers, and yes, that is something to consider. However, I'd say it's less of a factor than most people on /. seem to think. I've got somewhere between 900 and 1000 hours of pilot in command time* in about 20 years and guess how many in-flight propeller failures I've seen in that time?

None.

Zero.

Not. One. Single. Failure.

Even the propeller that a friend of mine dragged along the runway during a botched landing bent, but didn't break. For the record, she recognized that something was wrong, and added power to "go around", and flew another approach and landing after curling up the last four inches of the propeller blade, but it didn't fail. The ONLY broken propeller I've ever seen was on my "amateur-built, experimental" airplane when a windstorm overnight flipped the airplane onto its tail (it's a pusher airplane, not a tractor like most Cessnas or Pipers), breaking the wooden prop. But that wasn't an in-flight failure; it happened at night, while the aircraft was unattended and *definitely* not running.

*admittedly, in airplanes, not helicopters and most definitely not multicopters. I'd be surprised if that made any difference, however.

From the FAQ:

If my web site or application becomes suddenly popular, will my maps stop working?

No. Your maps will continue to function. However if your application qualifies for and consistently exceeds the published Maps API usage limits, you do not have a Maps API Premier license, and you do not enroll for online purchasing of excess map loads, a warning may be shown on your map and a Maps API Premier sales manager may contact you to discuss your licensing options.

I hate to plug Microsoft, but I can think of another thing MS probably got right that Google definitely didn't: it didn't take them well over a year to show Louisville as a city.

I wonder how Bing maps is about dealing with user-reported errors or suggestions? I gave up on reporting anything to Google Maps long ago because they never actually fixed anything. They'd email me back weeks later saying the problem was fixed, except that nothing had changed.

Who is charged for this overage? If it is the guy who uses the application or is it the "application writer"?

Reading the announcement link, it sounds like the "application writer/server" pays. But I don't get it ... If my web server serves up a html/js page that calls the google maps v3 api, which doesn't require an api key, and the end user user's web browser executes the javascript calling the metered google api, how does google identify the application writer/server?

Looks like the JS load from the server is what they are counting but it does seem like you could cheat.

Google is absolutely HORRIBLE at making APIs.

I don't know from APIs, but that was one of the main points of Googler Steve Yegge's rant last month:

https://plus.google.com/112678702228711889851/posts/eVeouesvaVX

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/12/2043207/google-employee-accidentally-shares-rant-about-google

the worst flooding in the country for more than half a century

Well there you go. They built a fab on a known flood plain. I wonder what the actuarial table for that looks like. That is assuming, of course, that WD even bothered with flood insurance...

I believe there was a Supreme Court case in the 1800s where the court ruled on something and the president said something like:
"Now let them try to enforce it"
But basically all enforcement activities fall to the executive branch. Now if the executive branch won't enforce court ruling or laws then we the people have to vote them out of office or the legislative branch needs to start impeaching some people. Good luck trying to get the legislature to impeach the president over this, although there are a bunch with Rs after their names (possibly some Ds as well but they would be very few) who are looking for an excuse to impeach Obama. They even made a stink about this when Obama said he wouldn't be enforcing parts of DOMA.

Google is absolutely HORRIBLE at making APIs. Microsoft is better at making APIs than Google and Microsoft isn't good at anything. Bing has a superior map API than Google.. When Google+ came out? One API. Ebay/Paypal has better APIs than Google (http://developer.ebay.com/common/api/ https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/howto_api_reference) Go take a look at https://developers.google.com/ it's really depressing.

A list articles is here.

Yours In Novosibirsk,
Kilgore Trout, C.I.O.

They already cover this case:

Non-profits and applications deemed in the public interest (as determined by Google at its discretion) are not subject to these usage limits. For example, a disaster relief map is not subject to the usage limits even if it has been developed and/or is hosted by a commercial entity. In addition we recommend that eligible Non-profits apply for a Maps API Premier license through the Google Earth Outreach program. This provides a number of benefits, including the right to opt-out of advertising, higher quotas for Maps API web services, and technical support.

http://code.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html#usagelimits

With OpenStreetMap, you can clone the maps (get dumps and install the software) and use them on your own servers. If you're serious about using maps on web sites, you either give Google a few bucks (with the special API for those who wants to pay) or you use your own servers. On the browser, you can install special libraries like leaflet to have pretty maps like Google.

I don't think announcing the prices counts as being rumored.

a) Is there any chance that if I self-teach Dart, I can get a job in development without a CS degree, once companies begin using the language?

Assuming you have a technical degree/bachelor of science I don't see why not. The biggest problem I see is going to be that I've never encountered a job where I didn't also need to know stuff about the back end and databases. I've always developed on all fronts of a project and I'm not sure where you would go to just do Dart development and not also some webservice or controller or MVC style design. And that's where you'll get blindsided is you probably aren't familiar with MVC design or database queries. Who knows though? I've interviewed a Mechanical Engineer and brought them on to do requirements back when we did waterfall.

b) Is it really worth installing Virtual Studio as per the dartlang docs, or should I wait for a dedicated IDE like the rumored 'Brightly'? Alternatively, are there any solid open development environments that are adding support?

I'm guessing from this that your best bet is this if you're a minimalist kind of person (like me) or this if you're familiar with the behemoth Eclipse. You'll probably find yourself repeating that process after filing bugs until there is a stable release though ...

c) Do you know of any books that are out or on the way that I could buy?

This language was announced in September. At some point (four or five months?) a "rough cuts" of a book will probably be available on Safari books.

What programming series do you guys recommend?

I'm partial to Pragmatic Programmer, O'Reilly and No Starch in that order. APress might be worth a mention but personally I steer clear of Packt and Wrox. I've done some reviews on this site and I think that my reviewing reflects this.

Hopefully I can learn in my spare time, and if I can't get a job in development I can at least have fun with it, and maybe make a few libraries for the Dart community!

Stay active on the dartlang.org Google group and shout out if you get stuck. Good luck and have fun!

I'm guessing you don't have any programming experience on your resume. If you really want that programming job, I'd set goals for myself to complete a project in dart on my own so that I have at least something to show a prospective employer that shows some capability and (more importantly) self-motivation.

Actually, the problem with Heroin (as I understand it) is that it's insanely addictive and eventually kills its users due to an overdose caused by its massive tolerance curve. It also has severe withdrawal symptoms, which can include death.

As for your claim that 60 Minutes said heroin was ok... you're gonna need a citation on that. Especially since a single google search gave me over a million hits for "heroin addiction withdrawal", the first of which is this study by the National Institute on Drug Addiction - admittedly not an unbiased source. However, the Wiki article on heroin seems to agree with those facts.

My main issue with heroin is not what it does to the user, though. It's what the users due in order to achieve their next score. Users of exceedingly addictive drugs will do anything to get "just one more hit". Knock over a liquor store, prostitute themselves, pawn anything and everything they can, even kill people.

Sorry, heroin stays on the list with cocaine and PCP, in my book - it's not safe.

>It seems Mr Shuttleworth has become infected with the Corporate "agree with us or you're stupid" mindset.

Yeah. A few other examples of this:

2. M$ with the Office ribbon. They didn't have to revert to "normal Office" UI because they are effectively a monopoly.

3. MS with the tablet UI in Windows 8.

4. The whole Netflix/Qwikster thing. This one included the patronizing "it's only the cost of a latte" comment. They were forced to eat their words, but not before massive losses.

5. The New Coke/Old Coke Drinkers of America. AFAIK, Coke was forced to go back to the old formula.

The question arises, why do corps do this over and over again. The thing I've come up with is marketers do it in order to feel useful.

To be honest, I think KDE, Gnome, E17, XFCE, hell even plain FVWM are too dumbed-down. In fact that includes everything designed after the Xerox Alto's ideas.

And don't get me wrong: I love eyecandy, as I've got emotions too. (But it has to have a point or a use. Even if that is just to make me feel better. [Which is pretty important to me.])

And I like when I have to think less to achieve something.
It's just that I notice how often I just press the key on the top right of my keyboard that drops down Yakuake (Quake-style console) and just type it in, because going through the GUI is such a hassle. (I use KDE, but it's true with Windows XP and OS X too).

It's because the GUIs are so dumbed down, that only a dumb person can still use them.
The moment I noticed this, was when I tried to help my n00b brother with his new Mac Pro. I couldn't do simple things like configure the network unless I started to think "Hmm... what would a dumb person do?". And what do you know, that worked! But since everyone else is just copying off each other and OS X, this is true for all of them too, to some extend.
I was a bit shocked.

One day I realized the core problem: It's NOT simplicity that is the ideal we should all strive for. Because simplicity, driven far enough, makes it less efficient again.
The original ideal we should go for, is efficiency!
Doing more with less does only mean "simpler" half of the time.

And here's the kicker: We're WAY past the point of maximum efficiency, deep is the territory where it just slows you down.

All just because we want to save brainpower?
You know what we call somebody who saves so much energy that it actually costs him more energy?
LAZY! :)

Interesting. It looks like yeast should be up to the job though,
apparently folks have had it produce ~50 kDa proteins;
as best as I can tell, android browser won't let me access the other pages of that 4-page chunk.

June 10, 1792
Vancouver survey party in this area [points to William Point on Samish Island (*)] Puget relates ... "An animal called a Skunk was run down by one of the marines after Dark & the intolerable stench it created absolutely awakened us in the tent. The Smell is to bad for a Description ... The Man's Cloaths were afterwards so offensive that notwithstanding boiling, they still retained the Stench of the Animal & in the Next Expedition others were given him on Condition that those that retained the Smell should be thrown away & happy he was to comply with it.

[odd spellings and capitalizations in the original]

(*) Williams Point is on the upper side of the middle hump just to the left of the B marker. I can't move the marker off the road.

June 10, 1792
Vancouver survey party in this area [points to William Point on Samish Island (*)] Puget relates ... "An animal called a Skunk was run down by one of the marines after Dark & the intolerable stench it created absolutely awakened us in the tent. The Smell is to bad for a Description ... The Man's Cloaths were afterwards so offensive that notwithstanding boiling, they still retained the Stench of the Animal & in the Next Expedition others were given him on Condition that those that retained the Smell should be thrown away & happy he was to comply with it.

[odd spellings and capitalizations in the original]

(*) Williams Point is on the upper side of the middle hump just to the left of the B marker. I can't move the marker off the road.

Of course, paper trail is among the best ways to have an e-voting system. However, the best way to have a voting system does not involve a computer receiving the votes.

There are many ways to abuse a paper trail system - But instead of rehashing it here, I'll rather point you to my friend Federico Heinz's text: Urnas electrónicas: con imprimir el voto no alcanza (Spanish original) or automated translation: Electronic booths: Printing the vote is not enough.