It's true. When PLOS first came out it was $1500 and article flat rate. They got blasted in the popular press for this. The article i published there was originally slated for the Journal of Biological Chemistry. If we didn't use any color it would've been $4,000 and in color it would've gone to nearly $6,000. PLOS was cheap, colorful, and it's still free to read online and I've never had to get copyright permissions to use those figures. I still have the copyright technically.
I love technology but don't post to Slashdot much. I didn't realize you have to use HTML formatting to get a carriage return, as opposed to it publishing like it looks on screen. Biologists use Word sometimes. You can make fun of my ignorance all you want but we also discovered something interesting about obesity signaling this morning. It won't be easily understood when I publish it if it's not formatted properly. I sure wish there was a way to pay someone to do that for me.....it's ok not to be able to do everything 100% on your own...there's a bigger picture that needs attending to.
I largely agree that journals charge far too much for subscriptions but they do provide value added. Latex is great for physics and math, but provides little help to biologists. Frankly, after writing grants, doing the work, analyzing it, writing it up, and defending it at conferences, I feel I don't have a lot of time left over to play with margins and get the typesetting and hyperlinked references all working. The layout work actually is valuable. Yes, new tech makes it easier, but there's still the research to do.
Additionally, some journals have staff that help with the review process. Peer review is done by people busy with other things who often miss a lot, espeically well executed fraud. Many of the biology-related publishers perform text and image analysis of submitted articles to look for evidence of fraud. They find duplications, square edges where square edges are never found (introduced through deletions), etc. Not EVERY journal falls into ALL of the stereotypes, and Elsevier is by far the worst offender.
I also find it funny when people blast open access journals for having page charges to authors as if this is a new affront. Virtually all journals (at least in the biochem/biology space) have HUGE page charges and often charge hundreds of dollars extra for each color figure. A lot of color ISN'T used to save money. When the Public Library of Science opened in 2003 they got blasted because they had a flat $1500 publishing charge and then it was free open access from there. That charge was less than half that charged by other journals for just the base price.
Publishing WELL includes editorials, perspective, handling fraud and retractions, etc., and keeping the legacy data available in supplements available to modern computers. I suppose this COULD be done by a volunteer army by it's important enough to pay to have it done well. These are the archives of our knowledge. This may look cheap and easy to the IT crowd but other disciplines don't fall so easily into having 1 server at MIT and some volunteers. It doesn't and shouldn't be as expensive and bound up in copyright as it is (PLoS lets me keep the copyright and it's so nice not to have to ask for permission to use my own figures) but there is probably a happy middle ground as is already been explored by more and more open access journals.
It would be great to put that on Youtbue. However, one should make sure there were release agreements signed by Steve or his proxy, and if not, get permission from the family first.
7 is special in the bible. Maybe the birth of the baby that caps off the 7 billion will start the rapture, which has been delayed from earlier estimates due to the unforeseen development of birth control (psychics and prognosticators can't nail EVERY detail).
What's wrong with them. I've been doing some mega transfers on my Macs lately and those progress bars are right on, even for transfers that took two days to complete. When it says an hour left, it pretty damn well means it. By-hand calculations based on file size and sustained transfer speeds match their's straight on. From the behavior I think Macs sum up the total size of all files and divides by the current transfer rate (or recent average). If there's a dip (router gets slow) the time adjusts accordingly. In Windows I see it jump around dramatically as files move. I THINK what it's doing is looking at average-time-to-transfer-a-file. If you have a mxi of large and small files (I move huge data file along-side the tiny scripts that generated them) and I think it thinks that the 10 minutes it took to move a data file means the next 5 KB text file is going to take the same amoutn of time, but then it starts that file and thinks, "Oh no, this is going fast now, shorten the time." I think they're changes are probably a lot of smoke and mirrors
Yeah, I saw the lack of forward/reply-all and thought, "Oooh, someone on that team has a sense of humor." Of course they'll put it back in, but it's tempting to go as is and call it a real feature.
How about a bug that causes the springs to deploy when your face is close to the screen while using Facetime. How about setting off the airbag in someone's pants both getting a good guffaw over the obvious fart-joke implication while simultaneously sterilizing the target. What about getting springs lodged in your leg while dancing or tripping down stairs. Oh yeah, nothing can pos-i-blie go wrong.
This is the problem of the difference between marketing and art. The art students, in addition to their technological development, must've also decided to make 'artistic' looking glasses, and hence they look like rejects from 80's fashion shows. If actually manufactured one hopes they would use contemporary designs, put real lenses in them, and then we can see if people are ok with the idea of wearing a stranger's hair on their face all day.
Maybe it's different in other states, but in California you have to get a smog check every couple years. You bring your car in, the stick a sensor up the tailpipe (the car's) and you find out if you meet emissions standards. And the reporting back to the DMV is all electronic. Just have the smog check guy write down the car's mileage. The DMV or other government computer calculates the distance traveled in the last 2years, calculates the tax, and distributes it over the next two tax years. If the car is sold/bought/retired the mileage is recorded at title time and the old owner pays for new miles and the new owner for miles since. Of course, you will be screwed multiple ways when any solution goes into effect: Paying your own tax, and then paying the taxes of the bsuinesses you deal with since they have to pay more too. Remember when gas prices went up and then delivery fees started to increase? You'll pay the tax over and over again through various channels.
Legal protections, abuse, etc., are all important, but the basic issue with the article is the assertion that everyone has the right to free WiFi (one could argue that we all have the right to clean drinking water but I still pay a monthly bill for mine and know my neighbor would not approve of me filling my bathtub from his garden hose). The issue becomes, if it's a right, or at least socially responsible, who pays for it? If you have the right to demand free WiFi access, you are demanding someone pay for it. If I can use my neighbor's WiFi for free, what do I do when he moves away? Demand my other neighbor let me into their system? If it's a right then why not increase taxes and have the government subsidize all the ISPs...pay your taxes, get free internet. If I can afford it and my neighbor can't, would a law be passed saying I'd have to let him use mine? Where would it stop?
I took offense at the idea that the US is cracking because other countries are moving towards knowledge-based and green economies and infrastructures faster than the US did. Umm, the US did it first, and did it well, and then SHOWED other people how to do it (you can't open an iPad factory and not expect people to learn something about technology, design, manufacturing, marketing, etc.). Also, the US will be slower to change to a green infrastructure because we already HAD an infrastructure. It's well and good for China to say their new roads are made with green concrete when the US already has 8.5 million miles of roadway in place. It would be environmentally irresonsible to tear it all up and replace with greener options since it's already there. I get that appropriate metrics are hard to use, but come on....
The researchers have added a human component to cow milk, but they didn't do eveything that's different in one shot. The upside is this is a naturally occuring antibiotic that would have benefits not just for babies but also for adult drinkers. Your body already produces this (for example, it's in your tears and helps a lot with preventing eye infections). It may also help with reducing the need to load cow with as much antibiotics as they do. To the poster who asked about antibodies, it won't have them. Those need to be human and specific to the mother. Antibodies are sufficiently complex that coming up with a comprehensive suite of them appropriate for mass consumption wouldn't be possible. Though maybe a small handful around common ailments/issues might be possible.
At my company, unfortunately, powerpoint presentations at team meetings are pretty much the only way key data get presented and recorded. Some of it's in the database, but because these slides will often be referred to in perpetuity, without consulting the author, there need to be lots of words to make sure the message is clear. While that may be fine internally, too many people have gotten in the habit and their external presentations are way to heavy and wordy. Gotta be flexible depending on your aims.
The US has a plethora of hardened death row inmates. Why not use them? Nothing could posibly go wrong (yes, I spelled it that way on purpose, Simpsons reference). It can be the basis of either a fictional or based-on-a-true-story type summer blockbuster movie in a couple years.
*knock knock, door opens* "Yes?"
"Who will give birth to the man who will lead the resistance against the machines after Judgement day ultimately overthrowing skynet and returning control of the planet to humans." "Umm, who is Sarah Connor?" *BLAM*
"Why are you killing us?" "I'm sorry, please rephrase your statement in the form of an answer."
Dear Terrorists,
Due to a minor software glitch we request that you stay within 13 meters of your cell phone at all times. No reason, we just appreciate your help. Thanks,
The US Government
P.S. Don't look up
P.P.S.....no...what whistling noise do you hear?
Two things: What Google did isn't illegal. Maybe it should be, maybe it shouldn't be, but part of this is, in a way, similar to the introduction of the MP3. Sure, you could copy a tape or CD from a friend, but now you could broadcast it to millions worldwide. Similarly, anyone can walk up with a laptop and grab your unencrypted data, but Google just showed that a corporation could do it on a large scale. Granted it was a mistake and what they got was useless. But the politicians have to consider what would have happened if a mapping company wanted more than that, and pressing Google for details on what happened will help them understand (because they're not tech people and don't understand) how this happened and how one would legislate going forward. If the authorities don't do this, and then it's found that Google or some other entity with similar capabilities did do it on a large scale WITH malicious intent then these posts would revert to, "Look at greedy MegaCorp, they can't be trusted with our data." They have to act, even if its stupid. The legislation that's obviously needed is to get the WiFi router manufacturers to make it A WHOLE lot easier to setup the encryption. I just visited my parents, who aren't idiots but are not that tech interested complaining about their wireless. I sniffed around and found that there were FOUR WiFi networks accessible from within their house called 'linksys' and their computers, and their neighbor's computers, and their neighbor's neighbor's computers were all switching between them randomly. You try calling a neighbor in their 60's and say, "Ok, type 192.168.1.1 in the browser bar, select WEP2, and here's a hex string for you." It's not simple, not by a longshot for the average consumer. Teach people to secure their own data and make it easy and you'll solve a lot of what EvilMegaGlobalCorp can do to you maliciously.
I remember in college physics the prof talked about how oil companies use small deviations in gravity to help identify where large oil deposits might be. Oil is much less dense than rock, so maybe that large well in the Indian ocean is a huge oil deposit?
Slashdot Mirror
It's true. When PLOS first came out it was $1500 and article flat rate. They got blasted in the popular press for this. The article i published there was originally slated for the Journal of Biological Chemistry. If we didn't use any color it would've been $4,000 and in color it would've gone to nearly $6,000. PLOS was cheap, colorful, and it's still free to read online and I've never had to get copyright permissions to use those figures. I still have the copyright technically.
I love technology but don't post to Slashdot much. I didn't realize you have to use HTML formatting to get a carriage return, as opposed to it publishing like it looks on screen. Biologists use Word sometimes. You can make fun of my ignorance all you want but we also discovered something interesting about obesity signaling this morning. It won't be easily understood when I publish it if it's not formatted properly. I sure wish there was a way to pay someone to do that for me.....it's ok not to be able to do everything 100% on your own...there's a bigger picture that needs attending to.
I largely agree that journals charge far too much for subscriptions but they do provide value added. Latex is great for physics and math, but provides little help to biologists. Frankly, after writing grants, doing the work, analyzing it, writing it up, and defending it at conferences, I feel I don't have a lot of time left over to play with margins and get the typesetting and hyperlinked references all working. The layout work actually is valuable. Yes, new tech makes it easier, but there's still the research to do. Additionally, some journals have staff that help with the review process. Peer review is done by people busy with other things who often miss a lot, espeically well executed fraud. Many of the biology-related publishers perform text and image analysis of submitted articles to look for evidence of fraud. They find duplications, square edges where square edges are never found (introduced through deletions), etc. Not EVERY journal falls into ALL of the stereotypes, and Elsevier is by far the worst offender. I also find it funny when people blast open access journals for having page charges to authors as if this is a new affront. Virtually all journals (at least in the biochem/biology space) have HUGE page charges and often charge hundreds of dollars extra for each color figure. A lot of color ISN'T used to save money. When the Public Library of Science opened in 2003 they got blasted because they had a flat $1500 publishing charge and then it was free open access from there. That charge was less than half that charged by other journals for just the base price. Publishing WELL includes editorials, perspective, handling fraud and retractions, etc., and keeping the legacy data available in supplements available to modern computers. I suppose this COULD be done by a volunteer army by it's important enough to pay to have it done well. These are the archives of our knowledge. This may look cheap and easy to the IT crowd but other disciplines don't fall so easily into having 1 server at MIT and some volunteers. It doesn't and shouldn't be as expensive and bound up in copyright as it is (PLoS lets me keep the copyright and it's so nice not to have to ask for permission to use my own figures) but there is probably a happy middle ground as is already been explored by more and more open access journals.
It would be great to put that on Youtbue. However, one should make sure there were release agreements signed by Steve or his proxy, and if not, get permission from the family first.
7 is special in the bible. Maybe the birth of the baby that caps off the 7 billion will start the rapture, which has been delayed from earlier estimates due to the unforeseen development of birth control (psychics and prognosticators can't nail EVERY detail).
So, wealthy people should have no expectation of privacy by virtue of being wealthy, but the poor should receive extra protection? You suck.
What's wrong with them. I've been doing some mega transfers on my Macs lately and those progress bars are right on, even for transfers that took two days to complete. When it says an hour left, it pretty damn well means it. By-hand calculations based on file size and sustained transfer speeds match their's straight on. From the behavior I think Macs sum up the total size of all files and divides by the current transfer rate (or recent average). If there's a dip (router gets slow) the time adjusts accordingly. In Windows I see it jump around dramatically as files move. I THINK what it's doing is looking at average-time-to-transfer-a-file. If you have a mxi of large and small files (I move huge data file along-side the tiny scripts that generated them) and I think it thinks that the 10 minutes it took to move a data file means the next 5 KB text file is going to take the same amoutn of time, but then it starts that file and thinks, "Oh no, this is going fast now, shorten the time." I think they're changes are probably a lot of smoke and mirrors
Yeah, I saw the lack of forward/reply-all and thought, "Oooh, someone on that team has a sense of humor." Of course they'll put it back in, but it's tempting to go as is and call it a real feature.
How about a bug that causes the springs to deploy when your face is close to the screen while using Facetime. How about setting off the airbag in someone's pants both getting a good guffaw over the obvious fart-joke implication while simultaneously sterilizing the target. What about getting springs lodged in your leg while dancing or tripping down stairs. Oh yeah, nothing can pos-i-blie go wrong.
This is the problem of the difference between marketing and art. The art students, in addition to their technological development, must've also decided to make 'artistic' looking glasses, and hence they look like rejects from 80's fashion shows. If actually manufactured one hopes they would use contemporary designs, put real lenses in them, and then we can see if people are ok with the idea of wearing a stranger's hair on their face all day.
Maybe it's different in other states, but in California you have to get a smog check every couple years. You bring your car in, the stick a sensor up the tailpipe (the car's) and you find out if you meet emissions standards. And the reporting back to the DMV is all electronic. Just have the smog check guy write down the car's mileage. The DMV or other government computer calculates the distance traveled in the last 2years, calculates the tax, and distributes it over the next two tax years. If the car is sold/bought/retired the mileage is recorded at title time and the old owner pays for new miles and the new owner for miles since. Of course, you will be screwed multiple ways when any solution goes into effect: Paying your own tax, and then paying the taxes of the bsuinesses you deal with since they have to pay more too. Remember when gas prices went up and then delivery fees started to increase? You'll pay the tax over and over again through various channels.
Legal protections, abuse, etc., are all important, but the basic issue with the article is the assertion that everyone has the right to free WiFi (one could argue that we all have the right to clean drinking water but I still pay a monthly bill for mine and know my neighbor would not approve of me filling my bathtub from his garden hose). The issue becomes, if it's a right, or at least socially responsible, who pays for it? If you have the right to demand free WiFi access, you are demanding someone pay for it. If I can use my neighbor's WiFi for free, what do I do when he moves away? Demand my other neighbor let me into their system? If it's a right then why not increase taxes and have the government subsidize all the ISPs...pay your taxes, get free internet. If I can afford it and my neighbor can't, would a law be passed saying I'd have to let him use mine? Where would it stop?
I took offense at the idea that the US is cracking because other countries are moving towards knowledge-based and green economies and infrastructures faster than the US did. Umm, the US did it first, and did it well, and then SHOWED other people how to do it (you can't open an iPad factory and not expect people to learn something about technology, design, manufacturing, marketing, etc.). Also, the US will be slower to change to a green infrastructure because we already HAD an infrastructure. It's well and good for China to say their new roads are made with green concrete when the US already has 8.5 million miles of roadway in place. It would be environmentally irresonsible to tear it all up and replace with greener options since it's already there. I get that appropriate metrics are hard to use, but come on....
$10 says that after they roll this out to the rest of the country we rapidly find out that nobody noticed the system doesn't work for buying alcohol
The researchers have added a human component to cow milk, but they didn't do eveything that's different in one shot. The upside is this is a naturally occuring antibiotic that would have benefits not just for babies but also for adult drinkers. Your body already produces this (for example, it's in your tears and helps a lot with preventing eye infections). It may also help with reducing the need to load cow with as much antibiotics as they do. To the poster who asked about antibodies, it won't have them. Those need to be human and specific to the mother. Antibodies are sufficiently complex that coming up with a comprehensive suite of them appropriate for mass consumption wouldn't be possible. Though maybe a small handful around common ailments/issues might be possible.
At my company, unfortunately, powerpoint presentations at team meetings are pretty much the only way key data get presented and recorded. Some of it's in the database, but because these slides will often be referred to in perpetuity, without consulting the author, there need to be lots of words to make sure the message is clear. While that may be fine internally, too many people have gotten in the habit and their external presentations are way to heavy and wordy. Gotta be flexible depending on your aims.
The US has a plethora of hardened death row inmates. Why not use them? Nothing could posibly go wrong (yes, I spelled it that way on purpose, Simpsons reference). It can be the basis of either a fictional or based-on-a-true-story type summer blockbuster movie in a couple years.
was the kitty
...is part of our town's 10 year plan to have a huge disaster.
Maybe he means that he 'fights for the users.'
*knock knock, door opens* "Yes?" "Who will give birth to the man who will lead the resistance against the machines after Judgement day ultimately overthrowing skynet and returning control of the planet to humans." "Umm, who is Sarah Connor?" *BLAM* "Why are you killing us?" "I'm sorry, please rephrase your statement in the form of an answer."
that is all
Dear Terrorists, Due to a minor software glitch we request that you stay within 13 meters of your cell phone at all times. No reason, we just appreciate your help. Thanks, The US Government P.S. Don't look up P.P.S. ....no...what whistling noise do you hear?
Two things: What Google did isn't illegal. Maybe it should be, maybe it shouldn't be, but part of this is, in a way, similar to the introduction of the MP3. Sure, you could copy a tape or CD from a friend, but now you could broadcast it to millions worldwide. Similarly, anyone can walk up with a laptop and grab your unencrypted data, but Google just showed that a corporation could do it on a large scale. Granted it was a mistake and what they got was useless. But the politicians have to consider what would have happened if a mapping company wanted more than that, and pressing Google for details on what happened will help them understand (because they're not tech people and don't understand) how this happened and how one would legislate going forward. If the authorities don't do this, and then it's found that Google or some other entity with similar capabilities did do it on a large scale WITH malicious intent then these posts would revert to, "Look at greedy MegaCorp, they can't be trusted with our data." They have to act, even if its stupid. The legislation that's obviously needed is to get the WiFi router manufacturers to make it A WHOLE lot easier to setup the encryption. I just visited my parents, who aren't idiots but are not that tech interested complaining about their wireless. I sniffed around and found that there were FOUR WiFi networks accessible from within their house called 'linksys' and their computers, and their neighbor's computers, and their neighbor's neighbor's computers were all switching between them randomly. You try calling a neighbor in their 60's and say, "Ok, type 192.168.1.1 in the browser bar, select WEP2, and here's a hex string for you." It's not simple, not by a longshot for the average consumer. Teach people to secure their own data and make it easy and you'll solve a lot of what EvilMegaGlobalCorp can do to you maliciously.
I remember in college physics the prof talked about how oil companies use small deviations in gravity to help identify where large oil deposits might be. Oil is much less dense than rock, so maybe that large well in the Indian ocean is a huge oil deposit?