Slashdot Mirror

.ad afgjk uba dooba doo DRUDGE REPORT 2002
Support The DrudgeReport; Visit Our Advertisers

WASH POST: Bush Admin Split over Iraq...

IRAQ 'CLOSE TO NUCLEAR BOMB GOAL'

Passive smoking can kill your cat... TIMEWARNER to charge flood victims for cable boxes... Archerd: Democrats seeking Hollywood money... Republicans will tie ANWR to Iraq; Say threat in Baghdad necessitates oil drilling in Alaska... Ventura Goofs On God... AP WORLD
AP NATIONAL
AP WASHINGTON
AP BUSINESS
AP ENTERTAINMENT
AP ON THE HOUR
AP HEADLINES
AP BREAKING
SEARCH
Headline:
Date Range:
Within 14 Days Within 13 Days Within 12 Days Within 11 Days Within 10 Days Within 9 Days Within 8 Days Within 7 Days Within 6 Days Within 5 Days Within 4 Days Within 3 Days Within 2 Days Within 1 Day
Any word(s) in article:


ANANOVA
DOW JONES
BLOOMBERG
PAKISTAN WIRE
PAKISTAN BROADCASTING
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC WIRE
ITAR-TASS
KYODO WIRE
PR NEWSWIRE
[SHOWBIZ] PR WIRE
SCRIPPS HOWARD
US INFO WIRE
U.S. NEWSWIRE
WORLDWIRES
XINHUA ABC NEWS
AD AGE DEADLINE
BBC
BBC AUDIO
BILLBOARD
BOSTON GLOBE
BROADCASTING & CABLE
CBS NEWS
C-SPAN SCHEDULE
CHICAGO TRIB
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
CNN
CNN TRANSCRIPTS
DAILY VARIETY
D.C. DAYBOOK
E!
ELECTRONIC MEDIA
EMERGENCY NET
ENT WEEKLY
FINANCIAL TIMES
FORBES MAG
FOX NEWS
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIB
HILL
H'WOOD REPORTER
HUMAN EVENTS
INSIGHT MAG
INVEST BUS DAILY
JERUSALEM POST
JEWISH WORLD REVIEW
LA DAILY NEWS
LA TIMES
LUCIANNE.COM
MEDIA CHECK
MEDIA LIFE
MSNBC
MUCHMUSIC
NATION
NATIONAL ENQUIRER
NATIONAL REVIEW
NEW REPUBLIC
NY DAILY NEWS
NY OBSERVER
NY POST
NY TIMES
NEW YORKER
NEWSBYTES
NEWSWEEK
N. KOREAN NEWS
PEOPLE MAG
R & R
REASON MAG
ROLL CALL
SKY NEWS
SLATE: PAPERS
STAR
TIME MAG
TV SHOPTALK
[U.K.] DAILY MIRROR
DAILY RECORD
[U.K.] EVENING STANDARD
[U.K.] EXPRESS
[U.K.] GUARDIAN
[U.K.] INDEPENDENT
[U.K.] NEWS OF THE WORLD
[U.K.] PEOPLENEWS
[U.K.] STAR
[U.K.] SUN
U.K. TABLOIDS
[U.K.] TELEGRAPH
[U.K.] TIMES
US NEWS
USA TODAY
VILLAGE VOICE
WASH POST
WASH TIMES
WEEKLY STANDARD
WORLDNETDAILY
UPDATE: Mob Kills 2 in Ill. After Van Crash... US Senate Fails to Pass Medicare Drug Plan... Agents leaving Border Patrol in droves, union says... French spa to host next G8 summit... GLASSMAN/HASSETT: Dow 36000 Revisited... MATT DRUDGE
3 AM GIRLS
CINDY ADAMS
ARMY ARCHERD
DAVE BARRY
MICHAEL BARONE
PETER BART
BOB BARTLEY
STEPHEN BATTAGLIO
MARILYN BECK/SMITH
BLANKLEY
GLORIA BORGER
L. BRENT BOZELL
BRESLIN
DAVID BRODER
PAT BUCHANAN
BILL BUCKLEY
MONA CHAREN
ELEANOR CLIFT
RICHARD COHEN
PAUL COLFORD
JOE CONASON
ANN COULTER
STANLEY CROUCH
MICHAEL DALY
LOU DOBBS
MAUREEN DOWD
STEVE DUNLEAVY
ROGER EBERT
JOSEPH FARAH
SUZANNE FIELDS
ARI FLEISCHER
MICHAEL FLEMING
ROGER FRIEDMAN
JOHN FUND
LEAH GARCHIK
BILL GERTZ
GEORGIE GEYER
JONAH GOLDBERG
ELLEN GOODMAN
MARTIN GROVE
LLOYD GROVE
PETE HAMILL
CARL HIAASEN
NAT HENTOFF
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
H'WOOD REPORTER E-MAIL
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
INSIDE BELTWAY
INSIDE POLITICS
INSIDE THE RING
MOLLY IVINS
AL KAMEN
MICKEY KAUS
KEITH J. KELLY
MICHAEL KELLY
MICHAEL KINSLEY
HARRY KNOWLES
MORT KONDRACKE
KRAUTHAMMER
LARRY KUDLOW
HOWIE KURTZ
JOHN LEO
DAVID LIMBAUGH
RUSH LIMBAUGH
HAL LINDSEY
RICH LOWRY
MICHELLE MALKIN
CHRIS MATTHEWS
MARY MCGRORY
MICHAEL MEDVED
DICK MORRIS
PEGGY NOONAN
BOB NOVAK
OFF THE RECORD
KATE O'BEIRNE
MARVIN OLASKY
BILL O'REILLY
PAGE SIX
ANDREA PEYSER
JIM PINKERTON
JOHN PODHORETZ
TV PROGRAMMING INSIDER
WES PRUDEN
ANNA QUINDLEN
WILLIAM RASPBERRY
REX REED
RICHARD REEVES
J. MAX ROBINS
RICHARD ROEPER
RUSH/MOLLOY
BILL SAFIRE
SCHLAFLY
TOM SHALES
GAIL SHISTER
LIZ SMITH
MICHAEL SNEED
JOE SOBRAN
THOMAS SOWELL
ANDREW SULLIVAN
HELEN THOMAS
CAL THOMAS
HUNTER S. THOMPSON
NEAL TRAVIS
TV COLUMN
DEB WEISS
JEFFREY WELLS
GEORGE WILL
WALTER WILLIAMS
WASHINGTON WHISPERS
BILL ZWECKER
GERTH ZEROS IN ON CHENEY... AIRLINES TO TRIM FLIGHTS ON SEPT 11... Accounting controls on EU budget 'unreliable'... Man Accused of Raping Nine Women He Met Through Internet... Pentagon: Hamas experimenting with chemical weapons... AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
AFP INTERNATIONAL
AFP NEWS WRAP
AFX
UPI WIRE
UPI NATIONAL
UPI WORLD
AP/REUTERS PHOTO WIRE
REUTERS ROUNDUP
REUTERS SPOTLIGHT
REUTERS WORLD
REUTERS POLITICS
REUTERS ODD
SEARCH






*FINDS ANY STORY LINKED ON DRUDGE WEATHER ACTION
QUAKE SHEET x x x x x VISITS TO DRUDGE
07/31/02

004,776,309 IN PAST 24 HOURS
107,519,403 IN PAST 31 DAYS
895,224,122 IN PAST YEAR DRUDGE ARCHIVES DRUDGE REFERENCE DESK EMAIL: DRUDGE@DRUDGEREPORT.COM SUPER-POWERED BY ALLEGIANCE TELECOM... DRUDGE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB SPEECH TRANSCRIPT

Q. Did you ever say, as has been widely circulated on the Internet, "640K [of RAM] ought to be enough for anybody?"
No! That makes me so mad I can't believe it! Do you realize the pain the industry went through while the IBM PC was limited to 640K? The machine was going to be 512K at one point, and we kept pushing it up. I never said that statement-I said the opposite of that.
Looks like your link mentions another of his denials, too, but you should have mentioned the apocryphality (is that a word?) of the quote.

I don't doubt that you've lived places that grow their own food and transport it by "electrified train" -- but you say your electricity comes from coal! Do you have any idea how the coal gets to the power plant? I'll give you a hint: it doesn't walk...
Now as to your statement that most of the population of the world is not dependent on gasoline -- you're actually quite wrong. Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia , and Germany (look towards the middle of the page under industry) all have petroleum or petroleum refining as one of their major industries. I'm sure there are many more -- these are just the ones I came up with links for in about five minutes of googling. I listed some smaller countries to show that just about everyone is dependant to some extent -- obviously the entire middle eastern region, as well as many south american countries and other African countries would be included as well.
In fact, According to Stuard Baird, M.Eng.,M.A., writing for the Energy Educators of Ontario in 1993:

"At the present time, oil provides the energy for over 95% of the world's transportation needs."

I find your lack of knowledge about the world you live in disturbing!

Excuse me?
That is just pure bull. Been to a research talk before? Yout know, where they introduce Dr. so-and-so? Ever looked at a faculty list for any graduate institution? Apparently someone forgot to tell these institutions.

-Ted

My college is currently ranked #1 in the nation for undergraduate engineering, which includes the Computer Science department here. And in fact, I've had several final exams which were completely open hard drive. That's right...you can bring a laptop, and anything's fair game (no net access, though). Cheating here is barely ever mentioned at all. Better to give students the benefit of the doubt and have them prove it with their work then to go after them with witch-hunts.

U.S. News and World Report has an interesting article about wind power in its current issue.
--

Are you sure that Bill Gates actually said that?

According to this US News report, X10.com had the 14th highest traffic of any domain in the month of august. Pretty impressive for a site that sells something almost no one wants.

Has anyone else noticed that their special deals are always about to expire in the next day or two, and yet the offer itself doesn't change for weeks on end. Maybe someone should get them on deceptive advertising?

I stumbled across a site that has tons of detailed reports, research, and studies about Terrorism and Counterterrorism. Many may have see nthis already but a quick search turned up no hits within ./ so here it is. The Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism "is dedicated to preventing and reducing terrorism and mitigating its effects."

It has many links tons of Articles related to terrorism from various sources, Fact Sheets from Governments, Journals, Terrorism-related journals and magazines published by the United States, State Department and various Institutes. Information describing the lessons learned from past incidents. Reports on Counterterrorism and related reports from governmental and non-governmental sources. And an image gallery. This is definitely worth checking out.

Many are in HTML but most are in PDF foramt.

A few that I found interesting include On Terrorism's Trail: How the FBI Unraveled the Africa Embassy Bombings and "Combating Terrorism: In Search of a National Strategy" .

The URL again is http://www.mipt.org

Q. Could this happen again? Now that nearly every airline passenger in the world knows that hijackers could well be on a suicide mission, mightn't a large proportion be non-cooperative while a few terrorists hijack the plane?

Perhaps this happened on the plane that was crashed into the uninhabited PA strip mine, and which may have been headed toward Camp David. Passengers and crew may have heard of the earlier crashes, and concluded they were headed to slaughter, so they might as well resist. A report that someone called from one of the planes to alert authorities that hijackers had taken over and stabbed flight attendents indicates the hijackers method may have been to take over the plane by disabling those in charge with hand weapons such as knives, and threatening to kill hostages, so they would have been vulnerable to a mob.

Those nasty tech journals have dragged the precious name of journalism through the mud.

Despite the fact that that inane sock puppets get segments on morning news shows.

Despite the fact that this is America's second favorite newspaper.

Despite the fact that this paper has any chance of gaining respectability, and has lost circulation because the mainstream media now covers what it's been covering for years.

Despite the fact that this guy is let anywhere near a camera, even though he is blatenly biased and seems to have fabricated data in one of his reports.

Look. If you're reading slashdot to get an unbiased opinion of the world you live in, you need to have your head examined. I read it to find out when Linus has another baby or what the latest crazy thing that ESR or RMS has said. I believe that for various reasons, a lot of tech journals have very little in the way of ethics, and that software and hardware reviews are often favorablewhen the shouldn't be.

OTOH, I challenge you to pick up Cosmopolitan and find an article taht says "Such-and-such lip moisturiser is crap" or "Most designer fashions aren't worth the extra money." Why? Partly ad revenues, and partly that plugging products sells magazines, and panning them doesn't. Do you think that car magazines would sell vey well if they had "2002: A mediocre year for cars" splashed on the front cover?

The tech magazine boom has opened up a lot of information to the average reader, but this has come at a price. We all have to evaluate the truthfulness or slant of what we read. This isn't a new problem, in fact it's a very old problem Now there's just more of it.

While I'm sure we here on /. all agree that once you give up privacy for security, you start down a path where all privacy is given up, I think that the journalist's comments are a good representation of how the average American feels that their privacy rights should come after the safety of the nation. Sure, people stealing books from Borders aren't going to be hurting anyone, but there is little differnce between looking at everyone's face in a store and looking at everyone going through a light. And the question of who watches the watchers is raised, but the journalist appears to write this under the table, since the governments completely infallible (uh-huh).

No I am not. Please, let me open my mouth wider so you can stuff more of your arguments in it. What is at issue here has nothing to do with who is getting killed. It's a matter of examining the act of killing. Is the act of killing wrong? Is it really? Or is it a matter of convenience that we kill when we can find the object of our violence despicable, and not when it's an innocent child?

A murderer (the kind that are executed)

Please, don't mention this article. 74 people, according to the article, have been released from death row in the last 25 years. So we're sure that we're only killing awful people who deserve it?

Until our society as a whole can reconcile that killing is actually wrong (no not just when it's convenient) and the state has no more rights in this regard than individuals, there will be a movement to permit abortion, and I will as a general rule tolerate it. Becuase behind the grotesque inconsistency I see that it has nothing to do with the sanctity of life. Maybe that's what you think, but as a whole the anti-abortion movement is about the same group of people who want to prevent assisted (or any other kind) of suicide, and enforce capital punishment. It's the concept that the State (and the Church behind it) can tell us when we shall be born, and when we shall die. The die-hard liberal in me, where the "lib" in liberal means "free," says that I and I alone should be permitted to determine whether I live tomorrow or die. The State can lock me up for committing a heinous crime, and that's fine, but it is not up to the State to decide who shall live and who shall die. Conservatives say they are about property rights. Well, my person is my property. I was not given life by the state or by the church. They shall not have jurisdiction over its length.

BTW, here is the online-article from U.S. News (though without the photo) http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/010806/usnews/f ace.htm.

..that Toricelli is trying to attract any attention that will distract people from his current troubles (ethics violations accusations)? Why else would he try to re-illegalize something already illegal?

From: Hilly Rosebud
To: Henry Waxman
cc: Steve Largent
Subj.: A Commendation For Your Efforts

I, Hilly Rosebud, president of the PIAA (Pornographic Industry Association of America) would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of all of our membership, to thank you for your diligence and leadership in this situation.

Our membership has been suffering a disturbing downturn in sales and revenues for the past five years in comparison to the amount of pornographic material currently possessed by the public. Currently, pornography in the United States is only an eight billion dollar per year industry. With recent studies of public possession, we now estimate that 80% to 90% of current distribution is though illegal means, either through peer-to-peer sharing on the internet, tape-duplication, treehouses, or other means.

Now, due to recent legislation and this investigation, the pornographic industry may finally be in a position to collect the revenues it is entitled to. Not only will elimination of peer-to-peer trading in pornography force consumers to pay for the right to view it, but the wisely written DMCA, which has just been given its first test of legal power, will allow our members to move to the new EBoink standard within one year. Printed or videotaped pornography will be eliminated, and all pornography will only be available in secure electronic formats, either on DVD discs, or paid for on the internet, locked to the machines it is downloaded on, and illegal to decrypt or remove the protections from. Extrapolating from the amount of our material that is circulating illegally, we expect that our revenues will increase by 500% to 1000%, from five to ten times their current amount.

Our membership will then earn from forty to eighty billion dollars in revenue annually. Pornography will become one of the largest industrial groups in the country, comparable in earnings to that of the construction sector.

We therefore take great pride in announcing that you have both shared in the annual awarding of this year's Pornographer Of The Year award. As well as being enshrined for eternity as a great contributor to the pornographic industry in the Pornography Hall Of Fame, invitations bearing your titles as Pornographer Of The Year have been sent out to you so that you may attend our award ceremony, at our annual convention in Las Vegas which will take place less than a month from now. Mr. Waxman's wife has already indicated that she has received his invitation in a telephone call to us, and it was touching how much she was like the typical lady winner of a contest the way she screamed and screamed.

We look forward to your continuing support of our industry in the future. With our profits increasing to five or ten times their current levels, our political contributions will be increased similarly to ensure that America is always a good place for pornographers to do business. Unfortunately, due to your party's statements on pornography, those millions will have to be directed to the Democrats and the Libertarians, but we thank you for your support regardless and will ensure that you are rewarded.

Sincerely,
Hilly Rosebud, President
Pornographic Industry Association Of America

Is it any coincidence that the list of schools using Scheme includes most of the best CS schools in the country?

MIT, UCB, Waterloo, CMU, Georgia Tech, Harvard, UIUC, UTA, and Cornell all factor Scheme early in(or at the beginning of) the CS curriculum.

What is probably the most popular intro CS book is based on Scheme.

Check these sites for current rankings and contact admissions asap so they can start a file on you and track your interest in their program. Don't forget to contact financial aid asap too, and look for the free money, because it IS out there. Business Week B-school Rankings are at http://businessweek.com/bschools/index.htm US News and World Report rankings are at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/beyond/gradrank/m ba/gdmbat1.htm

ANY MINORITY APPLICANTS PLEASE CHECK OUT http://cgsm.org !!! They want to give you free money. Contact them immediately. I will accept e-mail questions about the program.

Good luck, the recession is coming.

Here is the case I was refering to ...

Here ...

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The civil service-the substructure that is so vital to day-to-day operations-is rapidly crumbling: 53 percent of the federal workforce will qualify for retirement by 2004; 71 percent of the government's senior managers can retire by then.

And there's precious little new blood to replace them. A survey of the nation's most academically gifted college students-the Phi Beta Kappa graduates-found that only 1 in 10 rated the government as the employer of choice. Among the nation's public-policy schools, interest in government has also declined. According to Light, some 76 percent of those graduates sought public-sector jobs in 1973; two decades later, the number dropped to 49 percent; today it has dwindled to about 30 percent. And these are people supposedly being trained for public service!

There is a temptation to blame recent moral turpitude in elected officials for the intellectual vacuum of the civil service corps, but calling it a leadership issue is oversimplifying.

Closer to the mark, we get what we pay for. I just turned down a GS position, because the pay was 2/3 a private sector offer.

Go figure why we are shocked by this decision to spare unclassified hard drives.

No one is forced to eat there, do business there, or work there, but they're somehow super oppressive and evil.

Whoever modded this up to 5 must have been reading too much Ayn Rand. In fact, if these companies force competitors out of business, I am essentially forced to eat there. (Yes, I know, I can go home and make myself a sandwich, but you get the point.)

When it comes to real estate, marketing, etc., these corporation have an incredible amount of power compared to the competition. Now those who are wont to jump for joy at this display of capitalism in action should take note of a few things.

The ability to drive out competition can have nothing to do with quality or service. Merely the ability to pay higher rents, etc., until the competition leaves.

The short-term "benefits" of these megacorps often hide long-term effects that we will pay for long after this crop of shareholders cashes in on their stock dividends. An example is the loss of rainforest land and subsequent reduction in biodiversity due to slash and burn cattle ranching.

This is one of the main problems with capitalism as practised today. Cheap, short-term solutions can almost always win out by hiding expenses in long-term issues that aren't considered. If companies had to pay taxes based on those cost (e.g., throw-away packaging, strip mining), then we wouldn't see some of quality of life issues that plague us today.

And we want the government to be super-powerful to protect us from the corporate evil, but it'll never occur to us that the government's power might be used against us.

The best way to combat this possibility is not by donning fatigues and joining the local survivalists, but by staying involved in a government by the people.

Secondly, the Portuguese were active in parts of the Northern Atlantic in the 1400's, and increasing rapidly thereafter, particularly due to several expeditions searching for a northwest passage. Now, why they would search for that in the shores around Greenland, if they at the time did not have knowledge that America likely stretched far north, is an interesting question.

There are claims concerning Columbus visiting both Greenland and Iceland.

Some claims about Portuguese activity in the North Atlantic can be found here: a message referring to claims about Portuguese slave traders, an article (in Norwegian, unfortunately) referring to theories about Columbus reaching Labrador in 1477, with subsequent Portuguese activity in the Northern regions as a result, a claim that Vatican records tells of a slaving raid in 1418, and information about a possible Portuguese expedition to Greenland around 1479, an article about possible contact between Columbus and Vikings on Iceland, based on memoirs written down by his son.

Much of this is of dubious quality, though, and I'm certainly not judging their quality, but it is an interesting theory whether correct or not.

While brining up more or less weird theories, though, there's a few people that have presented a theory that Columbus was originally Scandinavian, member of an important family with roots in royalty throughout Europe.

Decide for yourself whether to laugh at a funny story, or believe there's something in it. But either way, history from that far back isn't always as straightforward as people tend to think - there are very few parts of history from that time period that is comprehensively documented in trustworthy sources.

As long as I know, Ainu and Ryukyu tribes (native Okinawa people) are genetically related, and there is no part of Ryukyu tribes resembles the Caucasians (it was published in a Japanese journal several years ago). The best I can refer you now available in English is here, although it really doesn't tell you too much...
At least, Ainu is not Caucasians. Check here and here. There are a few more on this topic available written in Japanese, but most of you probably can't read them (I am part Ainu Japanese. I do not look quite like a "normal" Japanese).
I have seen this type of misconception often, because some documentations on Ainu describes the features like Cacasians. This is mainly because of the full beard, and Ainu people looks different from other tribes around the immediate area (Japanese as well as Amur river tribes). These are mainly reported by the earliest Europeans seeing Amur river region Ainu.

The fair, brotherly cops and respectable politicians are the source of enough institutional racism that the UN is getting involved. Your government has investigated the cops and found them guilty of pervasive racial bias. Heck, your own officers don't even believe that their fellow cops are fair or brotherly.

BTW, the rate of church attendance is more like 44% in the US and 27% in the UK. The University of Michigan has one of the most respected social sciences/statistics departments in the world, so please don't come back here claiming otherwise.

And as far as New Labour and the "Third Way" being responsive to the people... well, it's about as believable as hearing the same thing from Clinton. It is true that the British government isn't bought and sold as brazenly as ours is, but it is just as responsive as any other government when dollars (or pounds, as the case may be) are at issue. When those businesses want to start invading your privacy more brazenly, you can be sure that MI5 will be there to help out.

In conclusion- either you are a damn good troll or you are pretty deluded about the society you live in. Hope it is the latter... it is never too late to learn.

~luge

On a separate though, I wonder if they could use the negative refractive index composite material in making the solar sails, since they are probably still investigating the material to use for the sail?

From yesterday's linked article:
"``negative refraction'' would make possible the construction of a lens capable of focusing light to limits not currently achievable. "

and a related article on the Economist about how negative refractive index material can possibly help make a "perfect lens"

Perhaps they could use the phenomenon of the negative refractive index to make more efficient or more maneuverable sails?

I think this explains why girls do better than boys when younger, but worse later, in education. Girls are good at doing routine tasks. It has been scientifically shown that they have a higher boredom threshhold. However, boys desire stimulation, and so the pre teen education system disadvantages them.

I'd love a citation on this.

I know you're just a bullshit troll, but I'm still calling you out on the bogus gender stereotypes.

Just so this isn't a one-sided game, here's an article from US News about how women now outnumber men in higher education. And here's a report from the US Department of Education's Education Statistics Quarterly that suggests that girls continue to excel in verbal skills relative to boys at all ages, and that there's no statistically significant difference in their achievment in math and sciences.

Kinda shoots down your central assumption ("girls do better than boys when younger, but worse later, in education").

Any response?

-Isaac

Okay. There's three listed in the latest U.S.News collegiate rankings of Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs with Ph.D. Programs. University of Utah ranks 67th overall (and I recall about 20th in CS, and top 5 in computer graphics). BYU is 86th overall. And Utah State Univresity is 101st.

Lookie here

-k

If you are referring to the US News & World Report media longevity comparison, then you should read some of the following:

http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Industry/news/media-ch ronology.html
http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/Media/ Longevity.html

Prologue: Most of the questions posted here seem to have ignored your involvement with the MentalLinux project. True, your age offers a different perspective than many readers of /., but we're a wide-ranging bunch. I'm 20 myself, so I went through high school not that long ago. I am indeed in college, and against the statements implied in a couple of the different questions here, I highly recommend you go to college. Just make sure to go to a good one. (ie, top 25 overall or something nice like that. US News has a good ranking).

The Question: How does it feel to start a linux distribution? What motivated you to take on such a project? If it was the steep learning curve of linux, then why not simply write a Linux User's Guide? Additionally, what aspects of your distribution make it easier for begining Linux folks to use? To me, grep is grep. I don't see how you could make grep easier to use.

The next time you go to Togo's for a hot pastrami remember to ask the people working there how they manage to live in Silicon Valley, where under $40k/year is poor or what their commute is like.

Look here for more information about this important, divisive issue.

It's because 'creationism' tends to carry a lot more baggage than just the concept of a creator existing. Typically, creationism encompasses the 6,000-year-old-earth nonsense, and that's what educated, reasonably intelligent people find absurd.

I think one problem that has hurt the image of faith-oriented people such as myself is that various terms have been invented or used overgenerally to pigeonhole people into well-defined categories when those categories don't really exist (this happens to all of us, but since we're debating the source of the universe here, I'll limit the discussion to "creationists").

Typically (as in the quote above), "creationist" is used as a term to refer to those who believe in a God who takes an active role in the universe. Unfortunately, that same label also encompasses what I would call "biblical literalists" -- those who take the Bible as-written (as-translated, actually).

I personally believe in an active God who not only creates but also works in our everyday lives. The actual method of creation is unimportant: whether by big-bang, evolution, clay molding or transmundane Lincoln Logs, the result is still at once spectacular and intimately familiar.

Yet I hesitate to call myself a "creationist" due to all the negative connotations that go with the term. Perhaps "activist" is a better term, but it is confusing due to the political overtones it conveys.

"Religionist" is a particularly damning term. As my pastor once said, "religion often gets in the way of faith." I am faithful first, religious second.

For a good look into language and its importance in our worldview and political process, I highly recommend this article.

--

UNC in a liberal arts college. NCSU has the top Comp Sci program in the area. UNC is often bashed for having a weak Comp Sci. undergrad program. The standard retort is, "Our graduate program is one of the best in the nation."

Click here to see the real story.

NCSU is 28th, Duke is 33rd, UNC is not ranked.

coderhacker

Since a vote for a minor party will have basically no chance of being reflected in the overall representation in Congress or elsewhere, my only way of influencing politics at all is to vote for the "lesser of two evils" from the major parties.

Not to pick on you personally, but I'm really tired of hearing this. Comments like this strike me as being from someone who is just looking for an excuse to complain.

Does anyone here remember where the (current) Republican party came from?

Yes, it's true the Reps and Dems have more money, etc. to blow on a campaign, but a vote for a third party is not wasted. Ask Abe Lincoln.

And for those complaining about how politics today is all about mudslinging and character assasination, please review the history of presidential elections in the United States. This has been going on almost since the country was founded. US News had a good article on this a few issues back.

--

• The economy is good now, but it won't always be.
• The Internet gold rush is, for the most part, over. Your chances of making millions from stock options, after working only a couple years, are very slim. So take a long term view of your career.
• If you're interested in programming, understand this: the software industry is incredibly ageist. Unless you're exceptionally brilliant, you may be unable to find work as a programmer past the age of 40!

• Too old to write code? on USNews.
• Questioning the Labor Shortage , the New York times piece referred to in an earlier Slashdot article
• Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage, Dr. Norman Matloff's testimony to the House Subcommittee on Immigration

First I'd like to respond by saying:

HAHAHAHAHAHA!
"The USian education system is geared more towards sports than education in many cases"
Really Mr. Trollman? Name a case. You do not even LIVE in the US, and yet are proficient on its Educational system? Colleges cannot afford to just lay importance on sports teams. There's a little thing called US NEWS College Rankings that colleges strive for. If they don't make the grade and get a poor ranking, they will get a poor turnout, and thereby go out of business. Sports is only a way to attract money from Alumni. Trust me...been there, worked there. Its the money that allows the school to build buildings and support research.

This supposed shortage of labor is nothing but a mirage created by the industry. They know that most workers know how much their jobs are really worth, when foreign laborers really do not. This is merely a way to entice cheap foreign laborers over to the US. Nothing more and nothing less. One thing that the article did not mention, was the average starting salary of a foreign national VS. that of a seasoned US industry person.

TRollin Trollin Trollin...keep those comment's rollin...DUMBHIDEeeeeeeeee.

You are referring to the chemist who resigned from science in 1980 and now serves as the "adjunct professor of chemistry at the Institute for Creation Research"?

Chittick uses science to attack science, a curious position. Let's examine his credentials. Chittick got his PhD at a tier 3 school. He taught a two private colleges, the University of Puget Sound (a tier 3 school)and George Fox College (a highly rated private religious school with 1700 students).

Chittick also championed the Coso Artifact as a kind of Geode that was proof against evolution. Later the artifact was revealed to be a 1920s era Champion Spark plug. Chittick is not a brilliant scientist who is challenging the scientific norm. He is a buffoon with a little bit of knowledge and a whole lot of willingness to overlook inconvenient facts in favor of his faith.

All this, and more, can be learned by starting at the talk.origins site.

You are referring to the chemist who resigned from science in 1980 and now serves as the "adjunct professor of chemistry at the Institute for Creation Research"?

Chittick uses science to attack science, a curious position. Let's examine his credentials. Chittick got his PhD at a tier 3 school. He taught a two private colleges, the University of Puget Sound (a tier 3 school)and George Fox College (a highly rated private religious school with 1700 students).

Chittick also championed the Coso Artifact as a kind of Geode that was proof against evolution. Later the artifact was revealed to be a 1920s era Champion Spark plug. Chittick is not a brilliant scientist who is challenging the scientific norm. He is a buffoon with a little bit of knowledge and a whole lot of willingness to overlook inconvenient facts in favor of his faith.

All this, and more, can be learned by starting at the talk.origins site.

There wouldn't be any huge parent companies anymore (at least temporarily). We would all get our news from smaller, independent outlets.

We would all get our news from smaller, independent outlets. We would, of course, have to decide for ourselves on the credibility of said news outlets. That in and of itself is a scary thought, we would have to make an important decision with information that we would have to go out and gather ourselves.

The foundation of today's news media is organizations like United Press International, BBC News, National Public Radio News, the Associated Press, the New York Times. These are all outstanding news organizations.

The Washington Post (a pretty good paper) owns Newsweek, an alright magazine, though its website is now hosted by MSNBC.

US News and World Report is also pretty good.

Skipping the rest of the good newspapers and the plethora of great magazines around the country (as well as the really bad ones) we get to Corporate Media. Time isn't really bad per se, but knowing what we know about Time Warner (I am an employee of the company) I personally stay away.

I stay away from all U.S. television news sources for reliable information, except for the excellent Newshour with Jim Lehrer and C-SPAN, both independent media. The former rocks, and I live in the neighborhood where Lehrer grew up; the latter isn't really news but has very informative content on current issues.

Okay! I hope I have convinced everyone that you don't have to worry about your news source if you know where to go. Even if Time Warner bought up half of these news souces somehow, it could never get them all. Also remember that if good journalists realize they are working for a company with a deteriorating reputation, they jump ship.

...that Lincoln fathered slave children, from US News & World Report

For what its worth US News Rates the top IP law schools; however, it might be a good idea to talk with professors and former students who have been to the schools on your short list. When I started law school, I was limited b/c I had to continue working. Do you want to go full time (3 years) or part time (4 years)? If you are considering any law schools in New England, I'll be happy to relay my experiences, please feel free to email me.

But "Ivy League schools" are not the best option for everyone. And I'm not refering to those who couldn't get in anyway, I'm refering to the high schooler who is trying to decide between engineering at Berkeley, Cal Tech, MIT, and Stanford. (Yes, I'm from California. Bit of a bias, but I am also looking at the U.S. News ranking of the best undergraduate engineering schools with Ph.D. programs. Sometimes 'best' needs to be defined in terms of what you want. If you want an education which emphasizes practical, hands-on, do it yourself, go out to the shop and weld yourself a bike, you might not get as much as you want at an Ivy League school as you would at others.

I know, I go to a great school. Cal Poly was ranked 4th in the nation for the best undergraduate engineering schools without Ph.D. programs, ie. we concentrate on teaching undergraduate engineering. To compare, the US service academies (West Point, Annapolis, and US Air Force Academy) all rank below us, and they are considered world-class. Our graduates are known for being good engineers the first week on the job, quality contributors, intelligent people.

Basically, you don't need Ivy to be great.

Louis Wu

Thinking is one of hardest types of work.

But "Ivy League schools" are not the best option for everyone. And I'm not refering to those who couldn't get in anyway, I'm refering to the high schooler who is trying to decide between engineering at Berkeley, Cal Tech, MIT, and Stanford. (Yes, I'm from California. Bit of a bias, but I am also looking at the U.S. News ranking of the best undergraduate engineering schools with Ph.D. programs. Sometimes 'best' needs to be defined in terms of what you want. If you want an education which emphasizes practical, hands-on, do it yourself, go out to the shop and weld yourself a bike, you might not get as much as you want at an Ivy League school as you would at others.

I know, I go to a great school. Cal Poly was ranked 4th in the nation for the best undergraduate engineering schools without Ph.D. programs, ie. we concentrate on teaching undergraduate engineering. To compare, the US service academies (West Point, Annapolis, and US Air Force Academy) all rank below us, and they are considered world-class. Our graduates are known for being good engineers the first week on the job, quality contributors, intelligent people.

Basically, you don't need Ivy to be great.

Louis Wu

Thinking is one of hardest types of work.

Alex Bischoff
---

There's an article in the most recent US News & World Report with "Napster guy" also.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/ issue/000306/napster.htm

Pablo Nevares, "the freshmaker".

Spacing Imaging has been covered in the press for months, e.g., this article in U.S. News & World Report (the online version doesn't have the same impact as the print article, which had a beautiful, full-page, 1-meter image of Washington D.C.). The company was also featured in the N.Y. Times Sunday January 16th, etc., etc.

1. When the group is assembled:
2. Be the first person to speak up so the other students automatically associate you as the group leader.
3. Say "What do you guys think?"
4. Nod your head, but ignore whatever they are saying. This is an especially useful skill for those pursuing a career in management or administration.
5. Apply Divide + Conquer method. Suggest that "we" group "ourselves" so that "we" can "maximize" "our" "resources". I.e., figure out who had the best recollection of the head, the arms, etc. and have them built the parts separately.
6. Congratulations, you probably just got accepted into a bogus liberal arts school when you could've gone to engineering school to build bigger and more kickass robots.

1. Pay careful attention to rules of grammar, write outside of class.
2. Learn to read quickly and remember what you've read.
3. Pay attention in science class and approach problems logically.
4. Do your math homework.
5. Repeat 1-4 throughout secondary education career.
6. Utilise (1) for English test, (2) for Reading, (3) for Science Reasoning, and (4) for Mathematics.