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  1. The Solution: on URL Shortener tr.im To Go Community-Owned, Open Source · · Score: 1
  2. Shocking! Exxon funded scientist criticises Gore on Scientists Respond to Gore on Global Warming · · Score: 2, Informative

    ExxonSecrets.org
    Many articles on Professor Carter's "qualifications"
    I'm sure that there are more links about this professor, but even if there are some scientific dispute about a specific study sited about global warming, the bottom line isn't really in dispute: human activity is having and will have for decades to come a noticeable impact on our global environment.

  3. Re:Won't play on my MP3 players on Yahoo Introduces Competitor for iTunes · · Score: 1

    Actually, I own an iPod too. For $5 / month this looks like a good service. If they could just cut a deal to put their music on my iPod, it would be a slam dunk.

    However, even so, I might just use it on my computer to try and find music I like, and then buy it. Its *almost* worth it. I'm going to wait a while. I'm sure Apple has something up their sleeves.

  4. here's a better article on The Pseudoscience of Intelligent Design · · Score: 1


    http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/

    29+ Evidences for Macroevolution

    Split up into several key parts (by scientific discipline)
    Part I. A unique, historical phylogenetic tree
    Part 2. Past history (anatomical vestiges, etc.)
    Part 3. Evolutionary opportunism
    Part 4. Molecular evidence
    Part 5. Change

    What is Meant by "Scientific Evidence" for Common Descent?

    Scientific theories are validated by empirical testing against physical observations. Theories are not judged simply by their logical compatibility with the available data. Independent empirical testability is the hallmark of science--in science, an explanation must not only be compatible with the observed data, it must also be testable. By "testable" we mean that the hypothesis makes predictions about what observable evidence would be consistent and what would be incompatible with the hypothesis. Simple compatibility, in itself, is insufficient as scientific evidence, because all physical observations are consistent with an infinite number of unscientific conjectures. Furthermore, a scientific explanation must make risky predictions-- the predictions should be necessary if the theory is correct, and few other theories should make the same necessary predictions.

    Are There Other Scientifically Valid Explanations?

    The worldwide scientific research community from over the past 140 years has discovered that no known hypothesis other than universal common descent can account scientifically for the unity, diversity, and patterns of terrestrial life. This hypothesis has been verified and corroborated so extensively that it is currently accepted as fact by the overwhelming majority of professional researchers in the biological and geological sciences (AAAS 1990; NAS 2003; NCSE 2003; Working Group 2001). No alternate explanations compete scientifically with common descent, primarily for four main reasons: (1) so many of the predictions of common descent have been confirmed from independent areas of science, (2) no significant contradictory evidence has yet been found, (3) competing possibilities have been contradicted by enormous amounts of scientific data, and (4) many other explanations are untestable, though they may be trivially consistent with biological data.

  5. Re:I'm as stumped as my girlfriend usually is on Telstar 4 is Down · · Score: 1

    It's hard for me to believe its' even English you're speaking.

    Oh, yea, this is better:

    An amonyouns redaer wirtes "Setomime tihs mirnnog (Spet. 19) Testlar 4 had a maojr onbaord fiulrae. I jsut checked a few mitneus ago and three are CW crearirs up on 11700 MHz V & 12200 MHz H, so the spccreafat wolud apeapr to sitll be in its oibratl solt - jsut no trffaic. The Lroal Skynet stie has no mteionn of tihs yet, but sesdupoply Ttlsear 8 was aelardy suechdeld to ralecpe T4, so tehy may jsut seepd the porcess up. Tihs trun of eenvts wlil no doubt be of smoe salml cneorcn to Isenlatt, who rcnteely argeed to hubzilla msot of Lroal's US hubzilla fleet, inidcunlg T4."

  6. Yawn. on Buy.Com Debuts Music Download Site · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For the low low low price of $7.95 you can buy .... not much. Teasers. Click around, you'll find that almost all of the songs are the same or *higher* prices as the ones on Apple's music store. I just checked Audioslave from their list of top 5 album downloads. At Buymusic.com its $12.69. At Apple its $11.99.

    Also, Apple's store is 100% integrated into iTunes. That makes getting, downloading, & adding music to your library that much easier.

    Luckily, MS DRM has (allegedly) been cracked. The DRM is a PITA, take a look:

    Make sure you mean to buy your music from your primary computer (for example: your home computer) so that it contains your primary license. The licenses are non-transferable. Example: You cannot buy your music on your home machine and then transfer your primary license to your work machine. The computer you buy from becomes the primary computer with the primary license for that song. You can only copy music from your primary machine via your primary license. See below for details.

    Each record label has control over these license restrictions including the number of times you may:

    transfer your songs to another computer(s)
    transfer your songs to an approved portable digital media player.
    burn your songs to CD

    BuyMusic.com complies with each record label and adjusts the SDMI license on each of your music downloads accordingly.


    Thanks though, I think I'll stick with Apple's music store.

  7. Re:Flowers!? MS search no better on Digging Holes in Google · · Score: 1

    MSN Search for 'flowers'

    Virtually the entire first page is shopping related too. Guess Google's not the only site having problems with shopping web pages.

  8. Should be JUST LIKE mail order on Internet Taxation May Be Imminent · · Score: 3

    With mail order, the seller enforces the sales tax if it has a business location within the state. Otherwise its technically up to the buyer to report the sales tax to the state.

    There is no such thing as tax free catalog sales or internet sales. Its just that no one ever reports the taxes their supposed to unless its a big ticked item that they need to register anyway (car, etc.).

    So for example if Borders was going to merger their internet and brick & mortar operations into a single business entity (maybe they are, this is just an example), then they'd have to charge sales tax on every trans action. That's why many internet operations are seperate business entities from their main company.

    What this proposal is all about is the fact that many legislators think that because the internet is all technology driven (duh!) that its easy to whip up a whiz bang tax feature and *blamo* instant tax collection for the state that used to go unregulated.

  9. Re:Ethics, IP, amd AI on IEEE Spectrum Surveys Current Games' AI Technology · · Score: 2, Redundant

    no an ai will not be considered alive until it can sucessfully judge a turing test (i.e. tell if a someone is a human or a machine) as well as pass it.

  10. NOTHING on What's Keeping You On Windows? · · Score: 2

    Hmmmm ... lets see, I can use Office on OS X. I can SSH wherever I need to. I can have a light kick ass laptop with full userland tools. I can script to my hearts content, and even better its an awsome Java development platform.

    So, I'd have to say nothing.

    Sure, I've used Windows in the past year, but after I switched my main laptop to a PowerBook I've never looked back.

    The only thing I miss is a two button mouse ... *grin* +1 troll

  11. Re:Eligibility... on Jaguar Free for K-12 Teachers · · Score: 2

    FYI: Illinois Math & Science Academy (IMSA) is a very famuous state funded honors high school.

    IMSA is almost certainly qualified.

  12. Try Using eXtreme Programming on Project Management For Programmers? · · Score: 2, Insightful
    http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Programm ing/Methodologies/Object-Oriented/Extreme_Programm ing/

    I have found that an excellent way to get project owners more involved with doing things the right way is to use Extreme Programming

    1) write the tests first (i.e. define the interfaces for the code that is going to be implemented first ... this focuses you to think about design up front)

    2) short iterations - keeps the project in synch with the owners expectations. If an itteration is 2 weeks (my usual cycle), then the owner is always on top of whats going on

    3) continuous integration - everyone must checkin as soon as they've written the code the completes their current task (tasks should never be longer than a day or two). So, if something breaks at most you've only got a day of code to go through and find out where the bug is. And, since you're writing the tests first (i.e. JUnit or its clones http://www.xprogramming.com/software.htm)

    4) Simple design. Never add code that you don't need right now, because you think it will make adding a future feature easier. Often requirements change. The best case is you guess right and you've already done the work by the time you get to that feature. However, if you're even slightly wrong about the feature, then you'll have to rework it anyways, so don't do it ... ever.

    All of these play together to make the boss or project manager more involved (not what you wanted to hear), but in return you usually get more control (including testing) because the tests are actually part of the design process and have to be written before any code is.

    Good Luck!

  13. Re:Wouldn't be the same on Cringely: OS X on Intel · · Score: 1

    There is NO ACCEPTABLE REASON that it takes two seconds to drag a window to the bottom right hand corner of the screen to maximize it. None.

    That's funny. I have a G3/500 portable too, and I just dragged windows all over the place, minimized & maximized them, and it was really peppy.

    maybe you should do top -u and find out what you've screwed up on your machine. You've probably got some processes running away chewing up your CPU. That is the only situation where I've ever had bad GUI performance in OS X (10.1.2).

  14. Re:Open Source isn't accepted on Open Code in Public Procurement · · Score: 1

    What about Apple? The core of their OS is open source (a FreeBSD variant) and if, as your IT staff claims, their end users really really really love MS Office apps, then they could simply buy or site license MS Office for Mac.

    Also, Apple's OS licenses fee's are one-time fees, and most point upgrades are free. So, unlike MS "activation" fees, you could run the current version for a relatively long time (until some new feature comes out that you "can't" live without).

    Furthermore, Apple already has a huge presence in Education, so there shouldn't be any incremental costs.

  15. Re:"ONLY 4.5%" on Steve Jobs And The Oh-So-Cool iMac · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yup ... that's higher than BMW's and Mercedes-Benz's market share Combined! And, I could be wrong, but I don't think than anyone is calling either of those cars endangered or that their existence is threatened.

    Here is Apple's retail manifesto:

    Apple currently has around 5 percent market share in personal computers. This means that out of one hundred computer users, five of them use Macs. While that may not sound like a lot, it is actually higher than both BMW's and Mercedes-Benz's share of the automotive market. And it equals 25 million customers around the world using Macs.

    But that's not enough for us. We want to convince those other 95 people that Macintosh offers a much simpler, richer, and more human-central computing experience. And we believe that the best way to do this is to open Apple stores right in their neighborhoods. Stores that let people experience firsthand what it's like to make a movie right on a Mac. Or burn a CD with their favorite music. Or take pictures with a digital camera and publish them on their personal website. Or select from over 300 software titles, including some of the best educational titles for kids. Or talk to a Macintosh 'genius' at our Genius Bar. Or watch a demonstration of Mac OS X, our revolutionary operating system, on our theater's giant 10-foot diagonal screen.

    Because if only 5 of those remaining 95 people switch to Macs, we'll double our market share and, more importantly, earn the chance to delight another 25 million customers. Here we go ...

    Shop different.

  16. Re:thanks, but that's not the way I see it on Apple OS X, BSD and Jordan Hubbard · · Score: 1

    Let's stick to the facts instead of name calling. They have not opened their entire base ...

    Duh ... Apple is a commercial company. The have lots of Applications that run on top of their OS. Aqua is their window manager and they consider it a strategic asset.

    To say that they need to open up everything is ridiculous. Apple has done more for Open Source BSD development than any major tech company I can think of, and yet everyone complains ... blah blah blah, that's nice, but Apple didn't do X, Y, & Z.

    Well Tough. Go participate in Darwin. Go Port an App. No matter what you say, Apple does in fact contribute back tons to FreeBSD & FSF. Apple has submitted tons of patches to GCC (not all were accepted). Apple has tons of engineers & many outside Darwin developers actively participating. I think that in 5 years Darwin as a stand alone OS will be as large as FreeBSD.

    Is it so absurd to think of them pooling their resources to make Debian or some specific BSD better?

    Debian is Linux and is GPL. Apple cannot use GPL. As for your second comment, what do you think Jordan is doing at Apple? Duh! OS X is based in large part upon FreeBSD. Apple is contributing back lots to FreeBSD ... sheesh please pay attention before you post.

  17. Re: FireWire is not more expensive on Treó 10: Another Portable Mass Storage Device · · Score: 2, Insightful
    But most computers, nowadays, only have USB (mostly because of restrictive, expensive licensing on the part of Sony and *ahem* Apple).

    Beg Pardon??? Sure USB is more ubiquitous and that is a very good reason to choose to make a product based on it. But you should have stopped while you were ahead.

    That "expensive" license was only there for the first six months after Apple introduced Macs' with FireWire. After that, they dropped the price, check it out do a google search.

    Apple makes kick ass hardware, but also makes some stupid moves, but that wasn't one of them.

  18. Re:iBook a good choice for education on Maine buys 38,600 ibooks for Public Schools · · Score: 1
    Don't forget the *heavy* drop in price.

    I'm seeing people write that Apple is selling these iBooks for $300 below list price ... UNLIKELY.

    The low-end iBook lists at $1199 with a 500 MHz G3 PPC, 128 Meg RAM, 15 GIG HD, integrated 56K modem, 10/100 Ethernet, 2 USB, Firewire, 802.11 AirPort, 4.9 Lbs. 5 Hour battery. And they're tough little machines. Feel free to compare them to a cheapo Dell or a cheapo Gateway, or whatever. Its a very tough comparison, especially if you include the quality of the hardware. Frankly, I think iBook is a pretty good value for the money at full list price, but of course no one pays that.

    I think it sucks because Apple don't give a crap about developers

    Beg pardon??? I'm an old NeXT developer. Apple has the best developer libraries around. Not only are they awesome because they are well designed and object oriented. Both of those, let me be more productive. But, Apple has completely turned around its Developer Relations department. I think you might be re-living past perceptions.

    Apple Developer Relations has really started cranking out good documentation. They signed a deal with O'Reilly to publish Apple's tech books. And the post tons of sample code on their web site and they publish the entire source code to their kernel in Darwin. I think you're way off base.

    As to your other point, that there is less software for the Mac. The real truth of the matter is, how many different IRC clients do you need?? Or Word Processors. All of the big software packages are available for both platforms. In the Business world there are a few that aren't available for the Mac.

    However, this is the key point, in the Education World there are some Applications that ARE NOT available for Windows (*gasp*). So, while its obvious that Apple leads in ease of use and all forms of multi-media (making songs & movies); Apple is also a good choice for education too.

    And to you that asks "You want MS instead?" I ask back "What is the difference anymore?"

    Go look at Macs in an educational environment. There is a big difference. Macs work with less crashes (especially the ones I've seen using OS X), and unlike Windows there are less viruses. The key point is that with Macs, the computer become a tool to help the students learn, but Windows computers become a noose impeding education, because they need so much technical support because they are always getting messed up or crashing or behaving unpredictably and needing a re-install.

  19. iBook a good choice for education on Maine buys 38,600 ibooks for Public Schools · · Score: 3, Informative
    You can complain all you want Apple is a minority or niche OS compared to MS in the business world. But seriously Word is Word.

    However, even more importantly Apple is a serious player in the education market, and a lot of educational software in K-12 is made for the Mac and the Mac version is better than the Window's ports --- so this isn't as strange of a decision as it sounds.

    It was an open bidding process, so Apple won this bid fair and square based on the merits of their bid (the software, the training, and the hardware).

    I'm so sick of hearing: a) its not MS so its a good thing and b) Apple is small so no one should ever use them. Its very important to use the right tools for the right jobs. And, in this case Apple legitimately sounds like its the right tool for the job.

    Apple's iBook is a tough little computer with all of the connectors built in so that there are no dongles & with integrated wireless networking, this deal will end up saving all the schools in the State of Maine a ton of money not needing to pull cable to each desk in each classroom in each school across the whole state.

    So, Congratulations to Apple. I hope that competition like this causes them to keep making better computers and make better deals.

  20. Re:Tom Reilly on MS Settlement: Six States (And Samba) Say "Stop!" · · Score: 1
    My question is this: 6 states oppose the settlement, 6 states are undecided (want more money), and 6 states are for it (we're already paid off). Of these three groups, are any of them actually interested in protecting their businesses from this predatory monopoly? Is anyone truly acting on principle?

    Actually, in Illinois, its very simple. The AG is running for Govenor and it was determined by his "People" that the support he needed to win the Republican primary from the Illinois Manufacturers Associate and some other conservative "Business" groups was much more important than annoying a "few on-line geeks".

    I'm a Democrat, but this just re-inforces my opinion that he will do anything to get elected and has no principles.

  21. Re:Interesting point of departure... on Netscape 6.2 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Since Sun is the biggest Unix

    If you say so. If you mean biggest as in big iron ... ok. But, I'm pretty sure Apple recently announced how many copies of OS X it has shipped and that it was more than there are copies of Solaris.

    could be wrong ... so sue me.

  22. Re:MS On the Run? Hardly. on MS Wants To Outlaw Open Source: "Threatens" the "American Way" · · Score: 1
    MS thinks ONE of the ways to deal with it, is to discredit Open Source software

    HA HA HA HA

    Umm folks thats just about the only way MS knows how to deal with ANYTHING its part of FUD (either that or buy it).

    POIU

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  23. More news links on Jobs Plays It Frank · · Score: 2
    This MacCentral Article has better notes on the meeting. [Jobs] concentrated much of his address to the "customer experience" at retailers such as Circuit City, telling the dealers that, "buying a car is no longer the worst purchasing experience. Buying a computer is now number one."

    Jobs gave only one example of a specific retailer -- that of Circuit City -- in which Apple had verified customer experiences where sales people had deliberately steered customers from the Apple store-within-a-store area and toward Windows-based products. Jobs called such situations "unacceptable."

    The independant dealers were actually pretty pleased to have this meeting. This was not a challange to them. Many of the smaller independent dealers give good service to Mac customers. Its the big box stores that don't know crap about computers, but we already know that. This really aimed at John Q. Public who doesn't know much about computers and is looking for an easy to use first computer.

    POIU

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  24. Re:Multimedia vs. Networking on Dumping LinuxPPC For MacOS X? · · Score: 2
    Also, I agree with the premise of the article. I think that when Apple comes out with a server version of Mac OS X it will start to get some serious interest in many places were Linux is currently used for servers.

    WHY? Because, instantly overnight, Apple will become the largest vendor on earth. IT departments care about (1) support & (2) is the system stable. Apple is a big company that has a large established support system that just recently got rated tied with Dell for best PC support (shocking isn't it!).

    Mac OS X 1.0 might not be 100% stable, but Mac OS X 1.1 will probably be. All of the non-GUI stuff is open source in Apple's Darwin Project and is constantly being improved. There is a growing ports collection. And, I personally think its fascinating. They are taking a few courageous steps by not doing things 100% the "old fashioned *nix way", but are doing some really cool things like bundles.

    Also, believe it or not, a lot of people are looking for a TRUE alternative to MS. Linux is a true alternative, but frankly I've sen too many IT folks scared by it and fall backwards into the MS womb. Apple has had a big problem, because traditional Mac OS while great for a desktop, was a JOKE as a server of any kind. Mac OS X will start to address this. Also, for all you whiners that say that the cost of the server is a big detternent, rememver that a $1000 difference doesn't mean squat to an IT department as long as the system is stable and has a long uptime which Mac OS X has. POIU

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  25. Re:Okay... just get an iMac on First Internet Appliance With BeIA - From Sony? · · Score: 1
    Your grandmother needs an iMac. This is the perfect computer for your grandmother. Seriously, this is the test:

    If she gets a computer, she will try to use the computer. She will get confused (well maybe not YOUR grandmother, but you get the point). What computer do you want to support over the phone?

    My Great Uncle has a Win98 machine from Best Buy (that has caused ME nothing but headaches) & one of my Great Aunt (on the other side of the family) has an iMac. The iMac has much lower grandparent tech support requirements!!! I'm practically ready to tell my Uncle that I won't help him anymore unless he gets an iMac.

    POIU

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