I really like Python. It is cross-platform, Open-Source, and has lots of contributed modules. Really fun too. The creator was a fan of Monty Python, so tradition has programmers embed "hints" to the comedy in their code.
As a scientist, I really find the numpy, scipy, and matplotlib add-ons indespensible. There are also modules that have bindings to popular databases. I like the MySQL bindings...
I suspect that the faculty will not hold together. Nature is a premier journal and typically the first choice for paper submission of faculty seeking tenure. I suspect only tenured faculty will even consider the boycott - and even tenured faculty need to get grants. There will be significant career ramifications for those who boycott. This will be interesting to watch.
I agree with you but add the proviso - if one thinks an incoming call or text is urgent and vital, safely pull off the road into a parking lot and return it safely. Here in Rochester we had a 17 year old girl kill herself and several of her friends who were passengers in the car by texting while driving - she crossed into the path of a large tanker truck. Death by imprudence...
Exactly. My daughter in law's laptop was simply geriatric with Vista. Yes, we had tried reinstalling without all the crapware. Finally, we blew it away and installed XP SP3 and all the patches. It is positively zippy now.
I still maintain that most businesses could save a fortune by going to one of the major Linux distributions and OpenOffice for most users. Of course there will be some who need special software - and virtualization works... I think that is the long term solution for legacy Windows applications...
Sadly,the DMCA precludes Linux distributions from distribution libdvdcss and the codecs required for this. The parts of DMCA that does this need to be repealed. I support the preclusion of pirating of copyrighted content. If an author want tolimit copying of his/her content, they should be able to do so. However, if I purchase a DVD or download content from YouTube or other sites that provide gratis content I should be able to view/listen to that content on my Linux box with the same (or better) ease than on a Windoze box. I also want more control over the services installed on my computer. The crap Windows apps stick all over the hard drive and bury in the registry is an abomination. All file/component identities and locations should be disclosed to the user.
Given the current economic slowdown and the relentless pressure on management to "take cost out of the system," I wonder when a medium to large company will decide that it can save a bundle by switching to Gnu/Linux Desktops for most of its employees. I have to admit that such a desktop with Open Office and Gnome [I use Mandriva 2009] does most of what a typical worker needs. Such a platform runs well on modest hardware. I do electron microscopy and image processing and must admit that there are many tasks where a couple of proprietary packages that only run under Windows are essential. Even these run on my Linux box in a virtual machine. Still, I have abandoned several others in favor of some very good F/OSS packages (fityk, Maxima, IPLT, and Sage.) The wonderful Python tools make scientific work and even "gluing together" legacy command line tools very productive.
I don't buy it. How do you properly evaluate an applicant's preparation and understanding of the fundamentals without at least considering the transcript? I would suggest that the transcript, evaluation of any publications, and well selected interview questions (guided by any perceived weaknesses from the transcript and publications) gives a better view of an applicant. Given the significant waste of time and money involved in hiring the wrong person, I would think you would use all the data available.
My son is an Army JAG Attorney. He was telling me that helping servicemen with such problems was part of the job that gave them much satisfaction. They can write some very good letters on your behalf. You probably have a few deployed with/near you.
I am an old fogey like your mom. I did a B.S. in Chemistry (1977) and a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering (1982). I never saw Group Theory until my junior year of college when I needed it for spectroscopy and crystallography. Imagine my shock when my daughter studied it in high school. I think it is misplaced. Here in New York State, the educational pinheads have abandoned 'mastery learning' for what they call 'cycling" - short units that never let the student truly 'own' the material. A dreaded subject is like the weather - if you don't like it, don't worry wait a few days, it will change. My wife teaches Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus in a small private High School. She complains to me that her incoming students can have "A" or "B" averages in maths and can't solve an algebraic equation and don't really know basic concepts. She spends a lot of time in remedial work. Most students expect everything to be 'easy' and 'fun'. Very few have the work ethic to succeed. The parents continue to overindulge them. I keeps suggesting that she take a page from the character 'Cecelia' in "Ph.D. Comics" and staple applications for employment at Taco Bell to their pitiful attempts at homework.
The person who gets it is Charles Murray in his book, "Real education." We need to look at return on investment on educational expenditures. My solution is to put the 'average' kids in a good basic program, the vo-tech types in a good tech program, the gifted students in one that pushes them, and the discipline problems in a boot camp school with ex Army drill-instructors to teach them motivation and respect - if the latter doesn't work, then cut our losses.
Your comment reminded me of a lecture by Stallman on the history of copyright. He favors a much shorter copyright period, initally suggesting 10 years. Stallman related participating in a panel discussion with several authors. Expecting to get hammered by the authors, Stallman was surprised that many favored even shorter copyright periods. Turns out their publishers own the rights, sit on them when out of prints and it limits the ability to adapt for derivative works. I favor shorter, non-renewable copyright periods and a "use it or lose it" approach. If a book is out of print, copying should be fair game. I think all scientific journals should revert to the public domain after five years. Sadly, this will never happens beacuse the big publishing houses have highly paid lobbyists, and subsidize all the campaigns. Special interests trump the public interest every time...
I think you are simply trying to divert the fact that Linux is not some kind of magical operating system that every user should embrace as the panacea to Windows. That's not the case and everyone knows it.
As an avid Linux user and one who has worked with others, I think you have set up a strawman. Linux can be a wonderful operating system for people who want to learn the applications. The graphical applications are generally quite intuitive but will never be exact clones of the Windows counterparts. That is OK.
The real strength of Open Source software is when a motivated user has a need that will never fit the business case of a closed-source package. I have been there. As a scientist who does microscopy and image analysis to characterize materials, this is why I learned to program. My needs are different from those who just need to use standard apps. My coworkers and I recognize this. We simply point out to those who just need to use standard apps is that a little flexibility can save them a lot of money. Linux/OSS is all about user choice. Choice is good.
Labar published an article describing the work in a scholarly, refereed journal and then distributed the code(he chose an executable) with a request for citation.
I think it depends upon the size of the potential market. If businesses think they can make a profit, they will take a risk to attend the tradeshow. I'll bet that each company affected has somekind of internal review and looks at ways to develop effective countermeasures.Then it will be a business decision - cost of doing business vs. rate of return.
I would start a newbie with Python. Python is Open Source, multi-platform, and object oriented. There are many, many extension packages. Lots of tutorials too...
So when people think about history they should always make sure that their thinking is reflected and objective; and not influenced by personal beliefs.
Nice sentiment, but impossible for humans. There is no such thing as a 'bare fact.' Our observations (data) are always interpreted in terms of our previous experiences and beliefs. The best one can hope for is that one acknowledges and scrutinizes these. A wise person once observed that 'tradition is a bigger problem for those who do not admit they have them than for those who do.'
The general result was that 50% of the schools resources was poured into 15-20% of the students. If you think that's fair that's your problem I for one will respectfully disagree.
I suggest that it is about return on investment. Resources invested in those who are motivated and and have at least a modicum of aptitude produce adults who go on to get good jobs and repay the cost in taxes that support others. I willingly support those efforts. Spending resources on those who don't give a rip or are clueless is money down a rat hole. As our economy continues to tank, we are going to have to make some tough, unpopular choices. I say spend the limited resources where they do the most good.
Don't dismiss the lowly.ini file so quickly. Sure, xml is a better approach. But if one has to make incompatible programs work together, I bet I can find more programming environments that 'out of the box' can read/write data to.ini files than any other similar format.
That includes that once they learned a skill set, they want to keep applying it all over the place.
This is a reasonable expectation. And Microsoft ignores their customers here because of the 'we know better' attitude. I hate the new Office 2007 interface. The old menu interface was intuitive and grouped for reasonable productivity.
It is actually worse than you mentioned on some cable channels. SciFi and USA network are two of the worst. They seem to have more time in commercials than in the shows. The worst part is when one watches a movie on one of these channels it has been cut terribly to fit.
Bingo! The download subscription is a good way to get both the 'commercial' add ons that make it easy to use in a Windows-oriented world and to support the distro. I have had some difficulties with specialized applications and am happy with the community atmosphere on the forums.
Slashdot Mirror
You are correct.
I really like Python. It is cross-platform, Open-Source, and has lots of contributed modules. Really fun too. The creator was a fan of Monty Python, so tradition has programmers embed "hints" to the comedy in their code. As a scientist, I really find the numpy, scipy, and matplotlib add-ons indespensible. There are also modules that have bindings to popular databases. I like the MySQL bindings...
I suspect that the faculty will not hold together. Nature is a premier journal and typically the first choice for paper submission of faculty seeking tenure. I suspect only tenured faculty will even consider the boycott - and even tenured faculty need to get grants. There will be significant career ramifications for those who boycott. This will be interesting to watch.
I agree with you but add the proviso - if one thinks an incoming call or text is urgent and vital, safely pull off the road into a parking lot and return it safely. Here in Rochester we had a 17 year old girl kill herself and several of her friends who were passengers in the car by texting while driving - she crossed into the path of a large tanker truck. Death by imprudence...
Exactly. My daughter in law's laptop was simply geriatric with Vista. Yes, we had tried reinstalling without all the crapware. Finally, we blew it away and installed XP SP3 and all the patches. It is positively zippy now. I still maintain that most businesses could save a fortune by going to one of the major Linux distributions and OpenOffice for most users. Of course there will be some who need special software - and virtualization works... I think that is the long term solution for legacy Windows applications...
The SciFi Channel's programming has become incredibly lame and so commercial-laden I can hardly bear to watch it anymore...
Sadly,the DMCA precludes Linux distributions from distribution libdvdcss and the codecs required for this. The parts of DMCA that does this need to be repealed. I support the preclusion of pirating of copyrighted content. If an author want tolimit copying of his/her content, they should be able to do so. However, if I purchase a DVD or download content from YouTube or other sites that provide gratis content I should be able to view/listen to that content on my Linux box with the same (or better) ease than on a Windoze box. I also want more control over the services installed on my computer. The crap Windows apps stick all over the hard drive and bury in the registry is an abomination. All file/component identities and locations should be disclosed to the user.
Given the current economic slowdown and the relentless pressure on management to "take cost out of the system," I wonder when a medium to large company will decide that it can save a bundle by switching to Gnu/Linux Desktops for most of its employees. I have to admit that such a desktop with Open Office and Gnome [I use Mandriva 2009] does most of what a typical worker needs. Such a platform runs well on modest hardware. I do electron microscopy and image processing and must admit that there are many tasks where a couple of proprietary packages that only run under Windows are essential. Even these run on my Linux box in a virtual machine. Still, I have abandoned several others in favor of some very good F/OSS packages (fityk, Maxima, IPLT, and Sage.) The wonderful Python tools make scientific work and even "gluing together" legacy command line tools very productive.
A favorite quote:
"A fact outside of context is very frequently a weapon of deception" - James White
I don't buy it. How do you properly evaluate an applicant's preparation and understanding of the fundamentals without at least considering the transcript? I would suggest that the transcript, evaluation of any publications, and well selected interview questions (guided by any perceived weaknesses from the transcript and publications) gives a better view of an applicant. Given the significant waste of time and money involved in hiring the wrong person, I would think you would use all the data available.
My son is an Army JAG Attorney. He was telling me that helping servicemen with such problems was part of the job that gave them much satisfaction. They can write some very good letters on your behalf. You probably have a few deployed with/near you.
I am an old fogey like your mom. I did a B.S. in Chemistry (1977) and a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering (1982). I never saw Group Theory until my junior year of college when I needed it for spectroscopy and crystallography. Imagine my shock when my daughter studied it in high school. I think it is misplaced. Here in New York State, the educational pinheads have abandoned 'mastery learning' for what they call 'cycling" - short units that never let the student truly 'own' the material. A dreaded subject is like the weather - if you don't like it, don't worry wait a few days, it will change. My wife teaches Chemistry, Physics, and Calculus in a small private High School. She complains to me that her incoming students can have "A" or "B" averages in maths and can't solve an algebraic equation and don't really know basic concepts. She spends a lot of time in remedial work. Most students expect everything to be 'easy' and 'fun'. Very few have the work ethic to succeed. The parents continue to overindulge them. I keeps suggesting that she take a page from the character 'Cecelia' in "Ph.D. Comics" and staple applications for employment at Taco Bell to their pitiful attempts at homework.
The person who gets it is Charles Murray in his book, "Real education." We need to look at return on investment on educational expenditures. My solution is to put the 'average' kids in a good basic program, the vo-tech types in a good tech program, the gifted students in one that pushes them, and the discipline problems in a boot camp school with ex Army drill-instructors to teach them motivation and respect - if the latter doesn't work, then cut our losses.
Your comment reminded me of a lecture by Stallman on the history of copyright. He favors a much shorter copyright period, initally suggesting 10 years. Stallman related participating in a panel discussion with several authors. Expecting to get hammered by the authors, Stallman was surprised that many favored even shorter copyright periods. Turns out their publishers own the rights, sit on them when out of prints and it limits the ability to adapt for derivative works. I favor shorter, non-renewable copyright periods and a "use it or lose it" approach. If a book is out of print, copying should be fair game. I think all scientific journals should revert to the public domain after five years. Sadly, this will never happens beacuse the big publishing houses have highly paid lobbyists, and subsidize all the campaigns. Special interests trump the public interest every time...
As an avid Linux user and one who has worked with others, I think you have set up a strawman. Linux can be a wonderful operating system for people who want to learn the applications. The graphical applications are generally quite intuitive but will never be exact clones of the Windows counterparts. That is OK.
The real strength of Open Source software is when a motivated user has a need that will never fit the business case of a closed-source package. I have been there. As a scientist who does microscopy and image analysis to characterize materials, this is why I learned to program. My needs are different from those who just need to use standard apps. My coworkers and I recognize this. We simply point out to those who just need to use standard apps is that a little flexibility can save them a lot of money. Linux/OSS is all about user choice. Choice is good.
http://www.mfa.kfki.hu/~labar/ProcDif.htm
Labar published an article describing the work in a scholarly, refereed journal and then distributed the code(he chose an executable) with a request for citation.
You could also look at the EMAN2 project
http://blake.bcm.tmc.edu/eman/eman2/
EMAN2 is distributed as open source. The authors also published the work in a scholarly, refereed journal.
I think it depends upon the size of the potential market. If businesses think they can make a profit, they will take a risk to attend the tradeshow. I'll bet that each company affected has somekind of internal review and looks at ways to develop effective countermeasures.Then it will be a business decision - cost of doing business vs. rate of return.
Good point. When you mud-wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty, and the pig likes it...
I would start a newbie with Python. Python is Open Source, multi-platform, and object oriented. There are many, many extension packages. Lots of tutorials too...
Nice sentiment, but impossible for humans. There is no such thing as a 'bare fact.' Our observations (data) are always interpreted in terms of our previous experiences and beliefs. The best one can hope for is that one acknowledges and scrutinizes these. A wise person once observed that 'tradition is a bigger problem for those who do not admit they have them than for those who do.'
I suggest that it is about return on investment. Resources invested in those who are motivated and and have at least a modicum of aptitude produce adults who go on to get good jobs and repay the cost in taxes that support others. I willingly support those efforts. Spending resources on those who don't give a rip or are clueless is money down a rat hole. As our economy continues to tank, we are going to have to make some tough, unpopular choices. I say spend the limited resources where they do the most good.
Don't dismiss the lowly .ini file so quickly. Sure, xml is a better approach. But if one has to make incompatible programs work together, I bet I can find more programming environments that 'out of the box' can read/write data to .ini files than any other similar format.
This is a reasonable expectation. And Microsoft ignores their customers here because of the 'we know better' attitude. I hate the new Office 2007 interface. The old menu interface was intuitive and grouped for reasonable productivity.
It is actually worse than you mentioned on some cable channels. SciFi and USA network are two of the worst. They seem to have more time in commercials than in the shows. The worst part is when one watches a movie on one of these channels it has been cut terribly to fit.
Bingo! The download subscription is a good way to get both the 'commercial' add ons that make it easy to use in a Windows-oriented world and to support the distro. I have had some difficulties with specialized applications and am happy with the community atmosphere on the forums.
The problem will be new hardware and drivers for XP. Not to mention security updates...