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Columns that adjust based on screen width? Other than < IE9, they're already here. It's called responsive enhancement.

It's not built into CSS (which you are pining for), but it's quite elegant - switching CSS based on media queries. Change the width one of the sample pages in different browsers and watch how the layout changes and images change size. Pretty slick.

Short URL for spreading the word: http://xrl.us/respenh

You have to use twitter and be the type of person who clicks on questionable links without regard.

Which of these links is "questionable":

http://tinyurl.com/2tx
http://bit.ly/heezy
http://xrl.us/bh2p3m

That's what all of the links on Twitter look like, which are OK and which are questionable? How does one distinguish?

As IT specializations go, this may not be a bad one. Here a few things I like about it:

1) I think it would be one of the more difficult specializations to off-shore. I suppose you could have a local CCNA speaking with an off-shore CCIE, but I'm not sure if even that is practical.

2) Clearly NE is not a specialization that is not done by kids, hobbyists, or other amateurs. I believe it is a mistake to specialize in areas that are commonly done by amateurs, such as web-site development, or desktop admin. An amateur may be able to set up a home, or small business network, but a data center environment is a different sort of beast.

3) Reasonable high barrier to entry. Displaced IT workers like developers, QA testers, data analysts, and the like, will not be able to easily move into this field. Especially at the more advanced levels, this field can not be so easily glutted. I expect to see displaced developers trying to move into sysadmin, dba, and even help-desk jobs.

4) A lot of "hot" technologies are closely related to NE: SANs, VOIP, wireless, information security, and data center architecture. I know Cisco has a certification for practically everything. Of course, I'm not sure how long those specializations will remain "hot."

5) There seem to be some decent programs for learning NE. University of Colorado has a program:
http://xrl.us/csf8h
Also, Cisco is generally considered to have some of the better cert programs. These days, I don't think the entry level CCNA is worth much. But, some of the more advanced and/or specialized certs may be worth-while. With the exception of the CCIE, most Cisco cert exams are inexpensive, and can be passed by self-study. The CCIE, while very difficult and expensive, is also very valuable.

6) Unlike a lot of IT jobs, I think you can advance fairly steadily in NE. I would think the work environment would be stable than many developer positions, where the work load is always boom or bust.

7) Unlike many admin, and developer, NEs jobs do not seem to require those arbitrary, and seemingly endless, lists of products and technologies. For example if you a java developer, you may miss out on a particular job because you don't have professional experience with ColdFusion. If you really know your networking, and Cisco, you can probably find a job and keep it, without having to know every application, development environment, language, operating system, etc. known to man.

8) Salaries are good, although not extraordinary. Seems to me that most salaries in the Denver area are between $70K and $140K. A lack of extraordinary salaries may be a good thing. I think a lot of people want to become developers because they think they are going to get rich, this of course gluts the field.

On the other hand:

1) I don't think there is any critical shortage of NEs.

2) I don't think the need for NEs is growing all that fast.

3) Network admin tools, may decrease the need for NEs.

4) Getting started could be very difficult. Like most jobs in IT, there is practically no such thing as true entry-level. If you don't have experience, you can not get experience.

I have not worked as an NE myself. I would be interested to know what others think.

Norman Borlaug singlehandedly saved the world from starvation due to food production.

(An exaggeration, but a slight one.)

Please sign this petition for better service from AT&T. If I'm able to get enough signatures then it will be used as a source for generating bad press and hopefully putting more pressure on the death star. http://xrl.us/leashless

This just in! Scientists in Russia have confirmed the results using Vodka! The article even mentions a Japanese lab trying using Sake...

http://www.forbes.com/digitalentertainment/2005/06/20/batman-movies-superheroes-cx_de_0620batman.html

http://xrl.us/batman

Being Batman
David M. Ewalt, 06.20.05, 7:28 PM ET

Dark clouds have gathered over Gotham. Crime is rampant, despair is
widespread and no one is safe. Who will rescue the metropolis from
itself, fight the forces of evil and save the good people of the city?

Why don't you do it?

Plenty of us would love to fight for truth and justice--if only we had
magic powers or mutant genes. We all love superheroes. Last weekend,
Batman Begins was the No. 1 film in the U.S., pulling in $71.1 million
over its first five days. The Batman movie franchise is also one of
the most lucrative of all time, with five movies (not counting Batman
Begins) grossing nearly $1 billion.

OK, so he also has a couple billion dollars. Batman's alter ego, Bruce
Wayne, is an old-money heir and the owner of Wayne Enterprises, a
massive international-technology conglomerate. In our Forbes Fictional
Fifteen, we estimated his net worth at $6.3 billion. If he were a real
guy, he'd be the 28th richest person in America, right behind News
Corp.'s (nyse: NWS - news - people ) Rupert Murdoch.

Wayne uses his riches and corporate connections to equip himself with
the latest and greatest in military hardware, and uses those tools to
help him fight villains like the Joker, the Riddler, and Ra's Al Ghul.

But you don't have to be a billionaire to become a caped crusader.
Using commercially available training, technology and domestic help,
the average guy could conceivably equip himself to become a real-world
superhero, provided he's got at least a couple million to spare.

What would it cost to become a real-world Dark Knight? Click here.

The Training
Cost: $30,000

You'd better be ready to defend yourself if you plan to take on all
the thugs and super-villains that call Gotham home.

In the new movie, young Bruce Wayne goes to Tibet on the mother of all
study-abroad trips and ends up learning the martial arts from a group
of vigilante ninjas called the League of Shadows. But similar training
is available to those not lucky enough to get plucked out of obscurity
by Liam Neeson.

A good place to start would be an internship at the birthplace of kung
fu, the Shaolin Temple in Henan, China. One month of training at the
prestigious Tagou school costs about $740, including a private room
and training with a personal coach. It'll take a while to get good
enough to stop the Joker's worst thugs, though, so count on spending
at least three years and about 30 grand for the trip.

The Suit
Cost: $1,585

They say the suit makes the man, and Batman's no exception. Without
his outfit, it'd just be Bruce Wayne running around out there, and
there's nothing particularly scary about a billionaire playboy in his
underpants.

Batman's suit is a modified piece of infantry armor built by the
applied sciences division of Wayne Enterprises. It's waterproof,
bulletproof, knife-proof and temperature-regulating. Paired with an
impact-resistant, graphite-composite cowl and spiked ninja-style
gauntlets, it allows Batman to protect himself against everything from
swords to machine guns. Wayne Enterprises also supplies Batman with
his cape, a specially designed nylon-derivative fabric that stiffens
when hit with an electric charge, allowing Batman to use it as a
glider. All this doesn't come cheap. In the new movie, Wayne's told
that the armor alone costs $300,000.

Real-world superhero wanna-bes will have to go with a much more
prosaic solution. We recommend a lightweight ProMAX OTV bulletproof
jacket, which will cover your ar

Yeah, I agree. You can find out more about proper trolling techniques here.

My honors Calc class went on a field trip to the Crypto museum recently. There was some Enigma stuff, some Turing stuff, some NSA Black Ops stuff. It was all really great and I hihgly recommend it. Here are some photos. Some cool man sh1t there. Enjoy!

Oh boy oh boy, another giveaway brought to you, by me, featuring the fabulous PENISBIRD!
10 to give away, 1 in 6 clicks wins. Click here if you want one.

Lulz[myspace.com] has written a pretty good MySpace blog entry
[myspace.com] about this, along with some protection and removal instructions if needed(in the
comments and in my post also). One of this guy's hobbies is exposing
MySpace scammers. He actually predicted about a week ago that an
exploit like this would happen. Friend him if you have a MySpace. I
can't tell who came up with this information first, Lolo or these guys
but Lolo may have gotten there first. Either way you need to read his
blog posts if you use MySpace...

Please note that you can be infected by this virus by simply viewing an infected profile. It doesn't matter what browser you use, I was using Firefox 2.0 with AdBlockPlus and a decent filterset updater and was infected. I DO NOT believe it steals your password without going to the fake login page. So if your profile gets infected you are probably fine simply removing it

Here's how to prevent it:

        Use the FIND command or CTRL F to find the word LOGIN.

        It starts with this line of code ... I have stripped out the first "

                style type="text/css"
                div table td font { display: none }
                div div table tr td a.navbar, div div table tr td font { display: none } .testnav { position:absolute; top: 136px; left:50%; _top: 146px

        The code was at the very end/bottom of my ABOUT ME section.

        It then continues with an obvious line of code for the menu choices. I stripped out the code and the page is fine ... FOR NOW!

To truly protect yourself you need to adblock the offending Quicktime object - or better yet all .mov files.

Lulz[myspace.com] has written a pretty good MySpace blog entry
[myspace.com] about this, along with some protection and removal instructions if needed(in the
comments and in my post also). One of this guy's hobbies is exposing
MySpace scammers. He actually predicted about a week ago that an
exploit like this would happen. Friend him if you have a MySpace. I
can't tell who came up with this information first, Lolo or these guys
but Lolo may have gotten there first. Either way you need to read his
blog posts if you use MySpace...

Please note that you can be infected by this virus by simply viewing an infected profile. It doesn't matter what browser you use, I was using Firefox 2.0 with AdBlockPlus and a decent filterset updater and was infected. I DO NOT believe it steals your password without going to the fake login page. So if your profile gets infected you are probably fine simply removing it

Here's how to prevent it:

        Use the FIND command or CTRL F to find the word LOGIN.

        It starts with this line of code ... I have stripped out the first "

                style type="text/css"
                div table td font { display: none }
                div div table tr td a.navbar, div div table tr td font { display: none } .testnav { position:absolute; top: 136px; left:50%; _top: 146px

        The code was at the very end/bottom of my ABOUT ME section.

        It then continues with an obvious line of code for the menu choices. I stripped out the code and the page is fine ... FOR NOW!

To truly protect yourself you need to adblock the offending Quicktime object - or better yet all .mov files.

President George W. Bush endorsed the teaching of Intelligent Design alongside evolution in public school systems on August 1, 2007.
http://www.davidmattison.ca/wordpress/?p=132874240
  What's next, classes in witchcraft and magic? There is no Intelligent Design, only unintelligent people pushing political and religious agendas that have no place in any public school system. And if there were Intelligent Design, why aren't we all smart? Why is there still poverty, hunger, war, crime, pollution and bad weather? Why is there species extinction? Surely a godlike being would not be so cruel, to make our life so unfair, so like, what, evolution. I think a godlike being would have said from the start, Let there be peace on Earth.

Give MS a break! This sort of thing happens when the general public just can't wait to have the "newest" technology, operating system, what have you.... so thereby causing companies like Microsoft, and others, to "push" out thier newest prodcts in an attempt to try and please the general public.... now, now.... I have to say shame on Microsoft for marketing thier newest OS to computer producers as "Vista ready", or "Windows Visa capable". On the other hand, let this be a lesson to the general public that waiting for something can be a "good" thing and, not nessessarily nice to have the newest of anything,(Vista or whatever the case), as quickly as it can be had, which can cause many companies to be sloppy in thier final products rushed to the retail world. Let's all try waiting fo a change an encourage quality..... not quantity!
Here's a very informative discussion/blog that I've been following on the lawsuit. Much interesting information here:
yhttp://yro.topix.com/tech/judge-rules-vista-capable-lawsuit-can-proceedarticle.pl?s/

I'm a middle school science teacher. This week and a lovely well-spoken ....... youngster came up to me and asked to be excused any time that I referred to evolution in class.
This sort of thing come up quite often http://www.pandasthumb.org/archives/2006/02/aaas-teachers-a.php#74240

This sort of thing happens when the general public just can't wait to have the "newest" technology, operating system, what have you.... so thereby causing companies like Microsoft, and others, to "push" out thier newest prodcts in an attempt to try and please the general public.... now, now.... I have to say shame on Microsoft for marketing thier newest OS to computer producers as "Vista ready", or "Windows Visa capable". On the other hand, let this be a lesson to the general public that waiting for something can be a "good" thing and, not nessessarily nice to have the newest of anything,(Vista or whatever the case), as quickly as it can be had, which can cause many companies to be sloppy in thier final products rushed to the retail world. Let's all try waiting fo a change an encourage quality..... not quantity!
Here's a very informative discussion/blog that I've been following on the lawsuit. Much interesting information here:
http://www.topix.com/tech/judge-rules-vista-capable-lawsuit-can-proceedarticle.pl?sid=08/02/10/174240

I've been there... a fan of small and portable notebooks, phones, GPS, cameras, and all, I long and hard to find schwag for traveling the world. Check this review:http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/02/ask-engadget-whats-the-best-schwag-for-travel/

This why you need to keep the AT&T/NSA counter-decryption script handy... http://www.xs4all.nl/~egbg/counterscript.html

Fortunately, this sort of activity could become illegal in the United States.(PIPEDA [privcom.gov]), so I for one won't ever have to welcome your google overlords.

HIPAA covers third party databases [computerworld.com]. So, yes, you will be targeted for things like viagra, breast implants. .....

Slashdot claims to be a free and open haven on the net. A place for geeks to catch up on the latest news, and read interesting opinions about it. Instead, it is rife with behind-the-curtains moderation and subversive actions taken against accounts.

The editors are well known for their abuses. The canonical example is documented here yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/10/174240. A post which detailed troubling trends in moderation on slashdot was modded up by many moderators. Slashdot's editors secretly banned each and every moderator who modded the post up from moderating again on slashdot.
The Editors Are Unqualified

The editors of slashdot are unfit for the positions they hold. Above all, they lack journalistic integrity. The news posted is often factually incorrect, and is always slanted by the opinions of the editors. Their ineptitude in every aspect of the job crops up constantly. They are horrible programmers, incompetent sysadmins, and make elementary spelling and grammatical errors, and the quality of the site reflects this.

This problem produces a number of symptoms. Most notably, the competent readership is driven away. This is the group that has something to offer to slashdot- informative comments, wise moderations, etc. However, they are driven away by the site's amateur execution and moronic readership.
Moderation Sucks

Comments are judged by popular opinion. This means that anything that sounds smart gets the stamp of approval, which means that complete nonsense is promoted. While this may sound like a small point, consider that Slashdot is one of the most popular geek sites around. To a young, uneducated programmer, this sort of misinformation is extremely harmful.

My dad, we live in silicon valley, is into RFID implantation. He's got one. He's got some pics on his blogger of the gadgets he runs off it. Check them out!! Blogspot

Article has recruiter contact information for wannabe cyber warriors. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/02/20080209-12.html

For the people who don't know, here's what directive 51 is about, and how bush can stop elections and control the entire USofA without any checks from congress in any form (in fact, he'd be able to control congress). So all he has to do is provoke a war enough for him to want to declare a catastrophic emergency.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html [whitehouse.gov]

I've already asked about this and this was the response from Obama (the "official one" from when I emailed him using the whitehouse mail thing). Copied verbatim, and just noticed the spelling error too. Ironic.

Additioanlly, I would like to address your concerns about the National Security Presidential Directive 51 and the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20, signed by President Bush in May, 2007.

As you know, these directives establish procedures for continuity of the federal government in the event of a catastrophic emergency. "Continuity of government" is an effort to ensure the federal government can continue to perform essential functions during a time of emergency. Additionally, "catastrophic emergency" is defined as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."

I agree that Congress has an important obligation to monitor how the executive branch exercises its authority. The system of checks and balances enshrined in our Constitution is central to our democracy and protects us from a concentration of power in any one branch of government. I will continue to follow this issue closely with my colleagues on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs in an effort to ensure accountability and lawfulness, and I look forward to staying in touch during this process.

Jim Allchin, then the co-president of Microsoft's Platforms and Services Division, wrote in another e-mail, "We really botched this ... You guys have to do a better job with our customers."' The judge in the case is currently considering the plaintiffs' request to make it a class-action lawsuit."

I love it. Here's an article with discussion about the IMPENDING class action LAWSUIT against micro$oft. cgi-bin.law.com/jsp?id=1090180336325

Reports that itemize Microsoft's records of the relevant products purchased by claimants who participated in Microsoft's volume license programs (known as Enterprise, Select or Open licenses) have been mailed and are being processed.

Here is an interview with NASA researcher Dr. Drong with Chinese Natianaol News: http://my.cnd.org/modules/wfsection/

Webcam uplink of Seatle protest: http://www.earthcam.com/usa/washington/seattle/index.php?goto=hof145fs74240

I've found the abstract: from J of Adv Materialsjournalseek.net/cgi-bin/journalseek/journalsearch.cgi?field=issn&query=1070-9789

Reltated news story: Interview with super-entrepreneur Bob Malda of Bareback Mountain Software:
yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/10/174240

we also like to sit around and do this

that reminds me of my favorite robot

crossbow wins every time

total cost of legal fees for amazon thus far

Yeah, they've really been missing out on today's huge news stories...

ZOMG, iTunes to sell you your home videos for $1.99 each!

Linux advocates are lucky that one of the worlds leading technology companies has been busy creating software that shows the strengths of F/OSS. More details here

The sooner they get these out to the troops, the better

What do you expect when the war against freedom is being openly conducted and advocated by websites like this?

Can't you see how useful logging would be to help identify visitors to anti-American websites, like this one?

http://xrl.us/kj3j

Excuse me, but didn't you just paraphrase (copy) all this from this book "10-Minute Energy-Saving Tips : 250 Easy Ways to Save Big Bucks on Heating and Cooling Bills"? Although one could consider some of the content common sense, your wording seems awfully similar and the tips seem all to be in there. Might I suggest attribution in the future? Here's an amazon link (shortened): http://xrl.us/jwkf

If MSFT borrow ideas, they should pay for them as they would have the world pay them for using their ideas (except they're not Microsofts ideas because Microsoft never invented anything - a minor detail). If you still don't understand what's so offensive about Microsoft, then please, for the good of humanity go fuck yourself in the face with a handgun.

I would assume it is because this site has no need of XML buried in the HTML. The only reason to use XHTML over HTML 4 is the ability to embed XML technologies like MathML into the document. A really good explanation can be found at http://xrl.us/ba4c as to why not to use XHTML. It really doesn't make any sense to use XHTML, if you want to be completely strict, because it won't work right with a majority of browsers; not just the nameless one.

It all boils down to the fact that /. publishes content where HTML is the maximum requirement. There is no need to get complicated by throwing XML into the mix.

At least, that is how I see it.

Ah, refreshing! :-)

(or as little $9.99 used) The Red Queen.

If you want us to buy the book, then try to find a better deal than BN's standard 10% off.