On the university. When I went through the University of Illinois (Urbana) back in '90-'94, Computer Engineering was a hybrid of EE and CS that focused on hardware design and development, where their CS program introduced you to all of the major branches of CS (ie, hardware, hardware/software interface, software, algorithms, AI, etc), and gave you the flexibility as to which branch you wanted to specialize in. Although to tell the truth with the way the job market is, both of them will be extremely marketable... it really depends on what you wanna do with it.
This wasn't THE most important event in the entire history of Middle-Earth, but it was certainly one of the three most important. In order, those would have been: The casting out of Morgoth (and the end of the First Age), the defeat of Sauron at the hands of the Last Great Alliance of Elves and Men (end of the Second Age), and finally the destruction of the One Ring (ending the Third Age).
There are a number of reasons that Elrond and the White Council chose not to use force to destroy the Ring, but instead sent a small Fellowship to destroy it. The first reason is that the strength of the Elves and Men of Numenor was much less than that in previous Ages. Many of the greatest Elves had been slain in prior Wars against Morgoth and Sauron, and many of the rest had returned across the Sea to Valinor. The only Elven strongholds with the strength to combat Sauron were in Rivendell and Lorien, and few of the race of Numenor remained as well (including the Rangers of the North and the Stewards of Gondor). They simply did not have the strength for a full-on assault on Mordor.
Additionally, who would they give the Ring to? Gandalf? Galadriel? Aragorn? The desire to use the Ring would quickly overwhelm anyone with that kind of power, and they would find themselves in a position to overthrow Sauron; however, they would quickly be corrupted by the pure Evil of the ring. Of all the Ringbearers, only Frodo and Bilbo Baggins were pure enough of heart and free enough of desire and ambition to actually have a chance of resisting the temptation of the Ring, and in the end, Frodo even succumbed to the Ring's desire.
Also, they did not send Frodo off "with just any friends he found along the way". Yes, the four hobbits seemed like unwise choices at the outset, but they all proved their worth by the end. However, Gandalf (in truth Olorin of the Maia) was one of the most powerful forces in Middle-Earth at the time (remember, he faced a Balrog one-on-one and defeated it). Aragorn was the Heir of Isildur, and probably one of the few Men in Middle-Earth that Sauron actually feared, and he wielded the blade that had originally defeated Sauron at the end of the Second Age. Boromir was the Heir to the Steward of Gondor, and a great warrior in his own right. Gimli and Legolas both proved to be outstanding warriors as well, felling over ninety orcs in the battle of Helm's Deep between the two of them.
When given all of the options (hiding the Ring, sending a massive force to destroy the Ring, or sending a small Fellowship to destroy the Ring), this was the ONLY choice that had any reasonable chance of success.
Taxes. As a gainfully-employed geek, I make enough money to buy my geek toys and have a nice apartment, but not enough money to buy a house or qualify for all the nifty neato deductions. As a result, the government takes out WAY more of my paycheck than I'm comfortable with.
Social Security. As a (relatively) young educated geek, I know better than to depend on Social Security for anything other than paying my parents' bills. Given current demographics, it will be difficult to impossible to keep Social Security in place and keep it viable until such a time as I can actually start drawing from it (like in the year 2040). Let us young, intelligent people put that money someplace where it can do US some good when we're of retirement age. Give me 7% of my pre-tax income to put in a nice IRA (like the Foolish Four or Vanguard's S&P 500 fund), and you can keep my employer's 7% of that.
There is now a petition against senate bill S.1433 at e-thepeople.com This is addressed to Sen. William V. Roth, Jr, the chairman of the Senate Finance committee, and will also be addressed to other key members. If you care about internet taxation, head on over there and sign it.
Episode II will deal with the Clone Wars, and with a grown-up Anakin (who at the end of the movie gets married to Queen Amidala), and his training to become a Jedi Knight. Boba Fett is supposed to make an appearance in this one.
Episode III is Anakin's downfall and how he became Darth Vader.
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On the university. When I went through the University of Illinois (Urbana) back in '90-'94, Computer Engineering was a hybrid of EE and CS that focused on hardware design and development, where their CS program introduced you to all of the major branches of CS (ie, hardware, hardware/software interface, software, algorithms, AI, etc), and gave you the flexibility as to which branch you wanted to specialize in. Although to tell the truth with the way the job market is, both of them will be extremely marketable... it really depends on what you wanna do with it.
This wasn't THE most important event in the entire history of Middle-Earth, but it was certainly one of the three most important. In order, those would have been: The casting out of Morgoth (and the end of the First Age), the defeat of Sauron at the hands of the Last Great Alliance of Elves and Men (end of the Second Age), and finally the destruction of the One Ring (ending the Third Age).
There are a number of reasons that Elrond and the White Council chose not to use force to destroy the Ring, but instead sent a small Fellowship to destroy it. The first reason is that the strength of the Elves and Men of Numenor was much less than that in previous Ages. Many of the greatest Elves had been slain in prior Wars against Morgoth and Sauron, and many of the rest had returned across the Sea to Valinor. The only Elven strongholds with the strength to combat Sauron were in Rivendell and Lorien, and few of the race of Numenor remained as well (including the Rangers of the North and the Stewards of Gondor). They simply did not have the strength for a full-on assault on Mordor.
Additionally, who would they give the Ring to? Gandalf? Galadriel? Aragorn? The desire to use the Ring would quickly overwhelm anyone with that kind of power, and they would find themselves in a position to overthrow Sauron; however, they would quickly be corrupted by the pure Evil of the ring. Of all the Ringbearers, only Frodo and Bilbo Baggins were pure enough of heart and free enough of desire and ambition to actually have a chance of resisting the temptation of the Ring, and in the end, Frodo even succumbed to the Ring's desire.
Also, they did not send Frodo off "with just any friends he found along the way". Yes, the four hobbits seemed like unwise choices at the outset, but they all proved their worth by the end. However, Gandalf (in truth Olorin of the Maia) was one of the most powerful forces in Middle-Earth at the time (remember, he faced a Balrog one-on-one and defeated it). Aragorn was the Heir of Isildur, and probably one of the few Men in Middle-Earth that Sauron actually feared, and he wielded the blade that had originally defeated Sauron at the end of the Second Age. Boromir was the Heir to the Steward of Gondor, and a great warrior in his own right. Gimli and Legolas both proved to be outstanding warriors as well, felling over ninety orcs in the battle of Helm's Deep between the two of them.
When given all of the options (hiding the Ring, sending a massive force to destroy the Ring, or sending a small Fellowship to destroy the Ring), this was the ONLY choice that had any reasonable chance of success.
Imagine what you could do with lego mindstorms when hooked up to a fully-featured processor? :)
HP Labs demonstrated a molecular logic gate last July. See the article here or news coverage at ABC News.
The catherder ad was for EDS.
Here's what issues will win my vote:
Taxes. As a gainfully-employed geek, I make enough money to buy my geek toys and have a nice apartment, but not enough money to buy a house or qualify for all the nifty neato deductions. As a result, the government takes out WAY more of my paycheck than I'm comfortable with.
I'm gonna sue /. for sucking up my work hours with excellent news and cool stories.
I'm gonna sue userfriendly.org for making me lose productivity by reading their strip and laughing my butt off.
I'm gonna sue my ISP for providing me with these wastes of time and *gasp* charging me for it...
Um... what other stupid lawsuits can I think of??
The "Super-G", or 1GHz Athlon should be available from KryoTech this December, according to their website.
There is now a petition against senate bill S.1433 at e-thepeople.com This is addressed to Sen. William V. Roth, Jr, the chairman of the Senate Finance committee, and will also be addressed to other key members. If you care about internet taxation, head on over there and sign it.
On the PII-300 we have here, running NT of all things *bleah*. Just wish HP would release Linux drivers for their Visualize-fx graphics cards...
"Given an infinite number of penguins hacking on an infinite number of computers, sooner or later you will create the Ultimate OS."
"640k of memory should be more than enough for anybody"
-- Bill Gates
Yeah, I've seen it free, but I'd pay to see it on the big screen. You lose quite a bit in the transition...
Saw the trailer. It absolutely ROCKS.
Episode II will deal with the Clone Wars, and with a grown-up Anakin (who at the end of the movie gets married to Queen Amidala), and his training to become a Jedi Knight. Boba Fett is supposed to make an appearance in this one.
Episode III is Anakin's downfall and how he became Darth Vader.
starwars.countingdown.com is dead, too!
It's been available with HP's compilers since 11.0 came out, circa Nov. 97... no new news here.
I'm definitely buying a copy! :)