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I have a collection of self-built RPMS for mathematics packages to try out if you like. Included are: drgenius, gap, geomview, gtkmathview, Macaulay2, maxima (a minor pain 'cause it depends on lisp), and others available at http://www.math.unl.edu/~rdieter. Enjoy.

At my university (Nebraska-Lincoln) we are currently facing budget cuts to the tune of something like 8.3 million dollars. Now, the university has a contract with Microsoft to for about a few million a year to supply all computers on campus with windows/office.

When somebody suggested not renewing the contract (Thereby saving a few mil) and instead switching over as much of campus as possible to Linux they where laughed out the door by the ITS people. They said, among other things:
1.)Cost too much to implement (retraining users, etc)
2.)Would be too hard to support
3.)Wouldn't provide students with the knowledge of computers to succeed in the real world I.E. Microsoft software is used by 99% of the business world and having everything run linux would simply not be effective in teaching students how to use 'real world' applications.

Where they right? I don't think so. But instead of cancelling the contract they are now cutting faculty raises, a number of teaching centers, and some extra programs.
Before we go and change how gov'ts contract software we must realize just how damm impossible it is to get them to get past microsoft's FUD.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln cs department has been using something like this for a few years now. They call theirs handin and it handles all programming submitions and checks them for cheating patterns. Big deal...

Computer Anti-virus Research Organization (CARO)

Check out: How computer viruses get named

The University of Nebraska - Lincoln (home to some alledgedly hot-shot theiving/conniving football team from what I hear) has a great wireless network covering a good chunk of their campus. The Union (student center) has complete coverage, as does the main library, the large chemistry building, the computer science building (duh) and I'm sure more buildings. You can roam around between these buildings and maintain decent connectivity.

http://www.unl.edu/lfsf/xbox-xsux.jpg

A basic physics experiment that illustrates the wave nature of light involves placing a screen with two slits in it at a distance from a point source of light and placing a second screen beyond the first. Instead of two bars of light appearing on the second screen directly in line with the light and the slits, multiple light bars appear across the second screen. That's because the slits diffract the light and the bars mark the convergence of light waves. It's Quantum Mechanics 101.

That is the explanation of the Young's double slit experiment, and that is High School physics.

By the way, unless the level of undergraduate quantum mechanics has changed since I took it, I don't think Feynman path integrals are in QM 101.

This happens in buildings on the University of Nebraska's campus - specifically, between Oldfather and Burnett. It gets to where it's hard to walk toward the buildings; seeing people walking at a 15-20 degree incline is not uncommon on bad days.
Someone actually did a graduate paper that figured out why the winds are so bad....
The wind effect there was completely accidental, so I can only imagine how incredible something consciously designed to do this would be...

Port 27374 is usually used by the SubSeven trojan (Windows). I've heard of at least one opportunistic worm that actively seeks out SubSeven-infected machines and uses the trojan to install itself, but it most likely isn't related to Code Red. I've had pretty good success at using Google to look up strange port numbers caught by my firewall; doing a search like "port 27374" (including the quotation marks) usually pulls up enough information in the first set of hits to tell me what I'm dealing with.

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[snip] The crux of Martin's message today is that the revolution CASE began that allowed computers to partly program themselves-- rather than depend entirely upon slow, expensive, error-prone humans-- will accelerate logarithmically in the near future.

Martin is nobody's fool. [snip]

...except maybe a mathematician's. It's been a while since I had the section on algorithmic complexity in my college programming classes, but isn't logarithmic growth the kind that goes something like this?

[snip overelaborate ascii sketch of a logarithmic curve, omitted because /.'s lameness filter thought that all the  's were just junk characters. they weren't dammit! well. if you don't know what a logarithmic curve looks like, try here:

• samples of various curve functions, plus other crap
• java applet for making various curve functions dynamically

If that's right, and I think that it is, then he's talking about diminishing returns, in which we get less progress in the future, rather than more. Linear growth would give constant improvement, exponentional would be, well, exponential. Logarithmic growth would, and please correct me if I'm wrong, give effectively diminished growth over time. Right?

Martin may or may not be some sort of great thinker, but the author of this article seems to be a colossal idiot, getting important details wrong, leaving out failed predictions (of which I'm sure Martin has had many in the past, and there seem to be some clear stinkers in this writeup as well), and ridiculously assuming that his business credentials ("oooh, he was a travelling IBM salesman" ...big deal) somehow make him some sort of Cassandra. They do not. These credentials say nothing about Martin's ability to predict the future, but they do indicate that this author is a gullible fool.

I also have some slick cartograms, which make even boring economic/demographic data seem cool.

andy a.

For those looking for hot jungle pr0n in this article, here you go. Scientific study of these primates in the wild has shown that they are exceptionally sexual in nature. Bonobos have engage in masturbation frequently, swing both ways (hetero and homosexual encounters among males and females), and perform oral sex. Ironically, it's this casual approach to sex that some scientists believe, for bonobos, dulls the normal "sex for procreation - NOW!" drive that most species have. Consequently, they are an endangered species

Here's an interesting link I found searching on Google concerning these randy little buggers.

Why the developers chose to name their software after the bonobo...well, I dunno. Maybe horny monkeys are funny.

RW

Sometimes it's worth replying to trolls, if only to help correct the common mistakes that they exaggerate.

This essay points out how the most central principles of both the Declaration of Independance and the Consitution not only are not supported by the Bible but in fact contradict it directly.

Of course, the support of slavery and conquest of native peoples are well-supported by the Bible...

If Windows Sneaks Onto Your Network

It's tricky enough to design file-systems that are properly distributed. I did some design for a school thesis for a serverless distributed file-system with useful fault tolerance features. Thats pretty tricky in and of itself, even to support UNIX file-semantics. Building on something like that to build a strong and safe RDBMS would be quite a feat.

People _really_ like the single-machine programming paradigm. The OS at every level needs to emulate that behavior as much as possible, regardless of the reality of the situation. Hence, the need for a good file-system. (see Berkely xFS for the right approach, or Centravision for a shipping product looks interesting). RDBMS are already choked by locking algorithms and contention on SINGLE CPU machines. It should be no surprise that a fast RDBMS that is fully distributed and scalable isn't widely available. To do it right you've got to have transparent internal replication of basially everything. Not just data and meta-data, but even logic. Coming up with a serverless (and thus usefully scalable) scheme that gives strong enough guarantees for RDBMS applications yet still survives and survives corectly and quickly and doesn't bog down the system with locking will be quite a feat for whoever manages to do it.

Levar hosts Reading Rainbow, an excellent kids' show about reading.
Oh, no ... the theme song is back in my head .... "Butterfly in the skyyyyyyyy! I can go twice as hiiiiiiigh!!"

By the way, some guy has managed to save the 640x480 version and has posted it up as a 26.12 meg zip file.

26.12 meg? Big whoop. It is only 27.5 meg uncompressed.
Hell, even I was able to get it using Monica, so....
Oh here is the uncompressed quicktime.

--
"I have also mastered pomposity, even if I do say so myself." -Kryten

slide 1
slide 2

slide 1
slide 2

Amp with cool sticker.
Gimme!

at deal.unl.edu/linuxexpo/
Quinn and Mark

I've got a few pics and recaps from the Expo and party

Link
Quicker

If we can find it we'll take digital photos and post at this page.
Along with our other Linux Expo diary entrees.
Gotta get food and fly.
Quinn and Mark
DEAL Lab, UNL

If we can find it we'll take digital photos and post at this page.
Along with our other Linux Expo diary entrees.
Gotta get food and fly.
Quinn and Mark
DEAL Lab, UNL

The keyboard should be just above your knees, so that you aren't lifting your shoulders in an unnatural way. The mouse should be at the same height, as close to the keyboard as possible, so you don't find yourself stretching to get to it. I just got a nice combination setup at work that allows me to raise and lower the entire surface, as well as tilt it forward and back. It's much better than just dropping a keyboard and mouse on the top of a desk.

The temperature of your work space makes a difference, too. When the thermostat at my office is set too low, I definitely notice a stiffness in my hands.

This site is all about RSIs and the things you can do to help yourself. Do a Google search on "repetitive strain injury" to find other sites.