I hate to break it to you but I seriously doubt there are GRP binaries for PS2. The gentoo-mips port (gentoo PS2 is really just gentoo-mipsel) doesn't even have GRP binaries yet. I compiled *everything* including X on my SGI Indy (with the help of distcc and cross-compilers!).
I was actually able to get half-life to run *perfectly* under linux using regular wine (some very recent version...can't remember which). The only problem is that you have to restart your X server in 16-bit color or it won't work. That's pretty annoying actually.
Not much to add to what you said...but I was wondering the same thing. I *just* started here at VT (getting my PhD), and from everything I've heard the budget crisis is very bad. Lots of classes and labs have been cut down on the number of available slots...or even completely cut period.
Around the 5th of August give or take a day, the power substation for the town I was living in at the time (Rolla, MO) caught fire, cutting power for the better part of two days to the entire town. The city is supposedly fitted with backup generators capable of running everything in the event of such a power loss. Yet, it took the better part of two hours for the backup power to even come on. And when it did, only a few select areas of town had power at all. Do they really think they are going to be able to get backup power on in 7 minutes or less? Maybe if this battery was capable of an hour or two power supply it would be worth it. Even if they *can* get power on in less than 7 minutes, why would they need the battery? Is 7 minutes of not having power so bad?
"1) Gnumeric's charting abilities have historically been pathetic (I wrote the guppi wrapper so I'm allowed to tell it like it is). Guppi was a nice piece of work, with lots of fantastic features. None of which were visible to a Gnumeric-1.0.x user. Please do not judge us by that."
That's fine...I'm not judging future versions of Gnumeric. I may have come across rather harsh on that point. I replied to an AC that replied to me above, mentioning I'm just looking for the right tool for the job. That tool will be something that is user friendly and powerful for graphing on a linux system, and that deals with Excel graphs properly. If gnumeric ever does that, I'll use it. If Openoffice does it, I'll use it. Basically whatever works I will use.
"2) MS Excel's charting IMHO sucks badly. It is definitely the weakest part of their product. Which makes (1) hurt even more. There are definitely projects out there that already make data visualization and analysis much easier that the highly polished kludge that XL uses. Don't get me wrong, the interface to the mess has seen alot of work. Which is what you'd expect from a product with 100s of millions of beta testers (aka customers). Look at Splus/R, grace, or any of the pletora of analysis tools out there and XL's byzantine mess will instantly seem silly. We can definitely do better."
For me, the kludge to make it work doesn't matter so much as that nice polished interface on top of it. I have checked out R, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm definitely not a programmer (I'm a geologist whose only programming experience was a fortran class 6 years ago that I remember nothing of), so programming-like things such as R doesn't work for me.
Well first of all I'm a graduate student, so I get access to MS Office through the University site license. Twenty hours of my time per week as a GTA is all it costs me. Cost is irrelevant to me here. I'm just talking about the right tool for the job. If my advisor sends me an excel sheet with some graphs I need, or if he sends me a word document with an embedded excel sheet, what do I do? Open it up in openoffice and watch it puke on the graphics? Open it up in gnumeric and watch it butcher the graphics? The situation is just not that simple.
I actually completely agree with almost everything you said with respect to Excel clones. I don't care if Gnumeric is or isn't an Excel clone, and I don't like people that bitch about it either. In this case, I'm bitching about not having the right tool for the job that needs doing. If someone did come up with a better tool to do so, I'd be all for it. Unfortunately, I'm not a programmer, so I can't do anything about it.
"For example, I would be amazed if the graphs embedded in spreadsheets and generated from the data look anything like they do in Excell; they certainly were not ever readable in the versions of Gnumeric I've used."
You make a very very good point that I like to harp on a lot. As far as working with numbers and text, just about any MS alternative spreadsheet is just as good. Graphics are where they ALL fall short. It is just so much easier to graph in Excel. Not only that, but Excel spreadsheets and graphs will embed inside a word document. I can't tell you how many times this has been so extremely handy to me. Why go back and forth between Excel and Word just to change a few data points or equations for a graph when you can do it all in one?
Not only that, but the graphing feature in most alternatives just plain sucks. For example, I haven't been able to figure out a way to get OpenOffice to let me choose which axes I want data to go on. It seems that data from the left-most column you are trying to graph automatically goes on the X axis and you have no choice (or on the y axis automatically...can't remember offhand). Gnumeric's graphing abilities are only marginally better. The zoom feature is sort of cute, but I've had problems trying to properly display multiple data sets on the same graph. On top of that, Gnumeric's way of graphing is *completely* non-compatible with Excel, which is a major problem for me because I am always exchanging data sheets and graphs with Excel user.
Hmm, perhaps you missed the point here. The nucleus itself is not decaying. Rather, the atom itself is decaying from a high energy state to a low energy state, and emitting gamma rays in the process. It's like when you have an atom in an electrically excited state, where one electron has jumped up to a higher energy level (or electron shell if you want to simplify it), and then it jumps back down, releasing energy in the process. In the case of the Hafnium bomb they are proposing, this decay occurs at a first order exponential rate, however they have figured out how to get it to happen all at once, releasing lots and lots of gamma rays all at once.
It seems perhaps you are hung up on the term decay. Nuclear decay can be several things. Alpha decay, beta decay, gamma decay, fission decay. Chemical reactions also decay at a set rate. Many are just much higher order than the first order nuclear reactions. Pick up a chemical kinetics textbook sometime and read it.:)
Sorry for the slow response, but I just moved halfway across the country. Anyway, right now getting Gentoo to run may be more of a chore actually. The only real way to install it is to actually use Debian's netboot image much as you would use the Gentoo 1.4 live cd for a PC installation, meaning the initial part of the install is like Debian (getting DHCP on the network, tftp the image, etc). I started from the initial Stage 3 tarball because I had problems with 1 and 2. Kumba on #gentoo-mips on irc.freenode.net has been working on building new stage tarballs with more current packages, which should hopefully make things better. I think he has been thinking about trying to create a Gentoo netboot too so we don't have to use Debian's. The latest binutils properly supports mips I through IV ISA levels. In my make.conf, I use -mips4 -mabi=32 -Os -pipe (I think so...not at home to log into the machine).
Since I installed, I have had few problems. I got Apache 2.0.46 with mod_php 4.3.1 (I think that's the right version...) and one of the latest mysql versions to all compile with no problems. I even compiled Xfree86 on it! If you are serious about trying Gentoo on your Indy, you might drop by the #gentoo-mips channel on freenode. There aren't too many people there usually, but the numbers are growing. I go as geoman there.
Another thing, having a cross-compiler has been a savior for me. I have a howto I created that is actually hosted on my Indy's webserver, but I don't have internet at my new home yet, so I can't serve it up right now. If nothing else, compiling a kernel on my AthlonXP blows away waiting for it to compile on the Indy. Like I mentioned in the parent post to yours, I have succesfully used the cross-compiler through distcc too. Once you get the big things compiled for your system, the smaller programs typically don't take all that long. Whenever I have to update something, I do it while I'm asleep or away from home.
I've actually been wondering about using my Indycam. The latest CVS kernel has support for the VINO/Indycam stuff, however from what I understand the clipping is all wrong. The driver loads for me but I have no idea how to try and capture an image...it was so much easier in IRIX. I've got a second Inday (R4K 100mhz) laying around that I was contemplating getting IRIX onto to just use it for the Indycam. Only problem is, it's got a GR3-XZ 24 bit grahpics board (I actually got the second Indy because it had the 24-bit XL board so I could use the newport console driver in linux on my R5K, and swapped video boards), which is apparently too new of a board for the PROM version in that machine, so it doesn't work. Anyway, I'm rambling now, so I'll quit.:)
Don't forget mips!! Gentoo runs on mips as well. Current supported machines are SGI Indy, SGI Indigo2 (R4k), and SGI O2 (R5K). I've got an R5K Indy with gentoo mips, and it works great. Distcc and fast machines with cross-compilers make it really fast and easy too.
Actually from my experience in geology, you typically know who is refereeing the paper. In fact, when you submit a paper, sometimes you also give a list of people (aside from people directly involved in the research or former advisors, etc) that would be appropriate to review the paper.
To further your argument on personal biases, I can tell a story here.
My M.S. advisor submitted a paper some years back about using crystal morphology, size, and depth of formation relationships to try and answer some questions about the formation of that particular mineral (dolomite if anyone cares to know...it's very hard to explain how it forms at lower temperatures). One of the referees was also a fellow who also works on dolomite formation, but all work he does involves some fairly high level geochemical analysis. Simply put, the guy just could not understand the paper. This is probably because he didn't *want* to understand a paper using techniques other than the ones he was familiar with. The other two referees loved the paper, but this other guy basically drew a big red X through each page and said it was bullshit.
Well, my advisor didn't take too well to that, so he just pulled it from review for that journal instead of completely re-writing it, and submitted it to another journal that gladly accepted it.
When the new Rush cd came out, I was waiting for one of the songs to come on the radio so I could hear it. Rip mentioned in his article that a cd recorded LOUD like Vapor Trails would likely sound quieter on the radio, and I would have to agree. I was driving on the highway in my wife's car, which is a bad car to listen to the radio in because it's loud (mainly because the AC doesn't work very well so I had to have the window at least cracked). Typically, I have to turn the radio up a bit higher than normal due to the noise of the car, and that's fine, because I can then hear every song just great. Well, a song off of Vapor Trails came on, which I had been waiting for, and I could not hear a *damn* thing. I ended up turning the radio up so loud that the poor little speakers in her car starting crying in pain, but I still couldn't hear anything but some sonic mush and an occasional drumbeat. I've noticed some other songs that had the same effect, but I can't remember any off the top of my head.
"Where is the science in declaring that archaeopteryx is the descendent of dinosaurs and ancestor of birds?"
Umm...let's think about this....maybe because the skeletal structure (that's a concrete observation by the way, no speculation) shares characteristics with both?
Anyway, the creation vs. evolution argument from a philosophical standpoint doesn't interest me either, because nobody wins. This is how most of my arguments go: I list several pieces of data that detail why the earth is 4.6 billion years old, or point out reasons why man has to be descended from a primate ancestor, blah blah blah, etc....and then my opponent just throws faith up in my face typically. You can't argue against that, so I try not to now.
I like to argue A) against people who try to exploit things that are not related (like your argument about the moon) or B) who use "pieces" of actual valid scientific data while ignoring the rest of it as "evidence" for creation. It just doesn't work.
Point A: That's like saying, "the rock I randomly placed on my window-sill happens to cast a shadow *exactly* on a sticker on my computer at 4pm on December 2nd, which is the reason I tripped and hurt myself last June."
Point B: Trying to tell everyone (this is just an example...I know it's completely unrelated to your post, but I'm just trying to tell you I'm not blindly ripping creationists just because I want to but because I have knowledge of certain things) Rb/Sr radiometric dating doesn't work because in some cases you get isochron lines that gives dates *way* older than a rock really is...while what they're really ignoring is the part that if when you form the rock you mix magmas of two different isotopic compositions, you start out with a rock that has a positive isochron slope thus accounting for the discrepancy(chapter 9 in Faure, 1986).
Anyway, I'm just rambling and burning karma points now, so I'll quit.
Ha! I find it very ironic and that a creationist would quote Steven J. Gould to help support his argument. Something just seems very wrong about that to me. Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again, any post that makes a reference to "data" (in the loosest sense of the term because it's only un-scientifically backed speculation) coming from a creationist website is automatically worthless.
You also mention: "There are many different evolutionists with different ideas. The same problem exists. So instead of saying 'there's never the same thing', I instead show them when they veer from what is actually taught, or answer their arguments when it is the official evolutionary line." I suggest you go read the link in my sig as an answer to this.
Why can't your character have experience as a motivation? Haven't you done anything in real life for the experience of it? The game just assigns points to represent electronically the knowledge or skill you would gain for doing something in real life. That's the way I look at it anyway.
Yeah, I hear ya. My point was that from simple observation of those pictures, 2 and 2 could have been put together to come up with a more meaningful explanation than the change in rotational velocity at the surface. I find it hard to get technical about geologic information with people who aren't geologists, meaning most of the slashdot readers. That plus I'm a geochemist and not a geophysicist, so I'm talking a out of my area of expertise here (been a while since I had my global plate tectonics class).
If I had mod points, I'd mod you up some more. Excellent point you make here. I've been playing a MUD recently where roleplay is *extremely* emphasized. If you act out of character, you risk getting your character deleted. The reason I have so much fun playing this MUD is because of the good-bad conflict. Without that, everyone would just run around killing non-player characters for XP. Everyone dies at some point, and there are ways to come back, like begging a high level priest to resurrect you. Even then the RP aspect comes in, because depending on your race or alignment, that priest may tell you hell no! I've PK'd people lots of times, and as long as it's for in character reasons, people accept that because that's just how the game goes. And the cool thing is they'll probably come back when they're stronger or with more people to serve up some revenge later on. So basically, everyone gets theirs in the end.
However, in a non-role playing environment (like Everquest from everything I've heard about how people act in there), it may be tougher to act evil. When everyone is talking out of character all the time, no sense of character is in play. Basically, if you kill someone, you're doing it for out of character reasons. In this case I can see some sense of morality creeping in, but my original point is that if you are truly role-playing, morality should not matter.
How's this for being evil. Do the quest, get the reward, kill her afterwards. In a way that's *more* evil because you exploited her kindness and then killed her for whatever money and experience she'll give you for it.
Actually if you knew a little bit of geology and some geography to go with it, you would see that the gravity highs exist around areas of *very* thick crust. In other words, areas of mountain building due to either collision of plates or from volcanism (including the mid-ocean ridges).
Slashdot Mirror
I hate to break it to you but I seriously doubt there are GRP binaries for PS2. The gentoo-mips port (gentoo PS2 is really just gentoo-mipsel) doesn't even have GRP binaries yet. I compiled *everything* including X on my SGI Indy (with the help of distcc and cross-compilers!).
I was actually able to get half-life to run *perfectly* under linux using regular wine (some very recent version...can't remember which). The only problem is that you have to restart your X server in 16-bit color or it won't work. That's pretty annoying actually.
Not much to add to what you said...but I was wondering the same thing. I *just* started here at VT (getting my PhD), and from everything I've heard the budget crisis is very bad. Lots of classes and labs have been cut down on the number of available slots...or even completely cut period.
Around the 5th of August give or take a day, the power substation for the town I was living in at the time (Rolla, MO) caught fire, cutting power for the better part of two days to the entire town. The city is supposedly fitted with backup generators capable of running everything in the event of such a power loss. Yet, it took the better part of two hours for the backup power to even come on. And when it did, only a few select areas of town had power at all. Do they really think they are going to be able to get backup power on in 7 minutes or less? Maybe if this battery was capable of an hour or two power supply it would be worth it. Even if they *can* get power on in less than 7 minutes, why would they need the battery? Is 7 minutes of not having power so bad?
That's fine...I'm not judging future versions of Gnumeric. I may have come across rather harsh on that point. I replied to an AC that replied to me above, mentioning I'm just looking for the right tool for the job. That tool will be something that is user friendly and powerful for graphing on a linux system, and that deals with Excel graphs properly. If gnumeric ever does that, I'll use it. If Openoffice does it, I'll use it. Basically whatever works I will use.
"2) MS Excel's charting IMHO sucks badly. It is definitely the weakest part of their product. Which makes (1) hurt even more. There are definitely projects out there that already make data visualization and analysis much easier that the highly polished kludge that XL uses. Don't get me wrong, the interface to the mess has seen alot of work. Which is what you'd expect from a product with 100s of millions of beta testers (aka customers). Look at Splus/R, grace, or any of the pletora of analysis tools out there and XL's byzantine mess will instantly seem silly. We can definitely do better."
For me, the kludge to make it work doesn't matter so much as that nice polished interface on top of it. I have checked out R, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm definitely not a programmer (I'm a geologist whose only programming experience was a fortran class 6 years ago that I remember nothing of), so programming-like things such as R doesn't work for me.
I actually completely agree with almost everything you said with respect to Excel clones. I don't care if Gnumeric is or isn't an Excel clone, and I don't like people that bitch about it either. In this case, I'm bitching about not having the right tool for the job that needs doing. If someone did come up with a better tool to do so, I'd be all for it. Unfortunately, I'm not a programmer, so I can't do anything about it.
You make a very very good point that I like to harp on a lot. As far as working with numbers and text, just about any MS alternative spreadsheet is just as good. Graphics are where they ALL fall short. It is just so much easier to graph in Excel. Not only that, but Excel spreadsheets and graphs will embed inside a word document. I can't tell you how many times this has been so extremely handy to me. Why go back and forth between Excel and Word just to change a few data points or equations for a graph when you can do it all in one?
Not only that, but the graphing feature in most alternatives just plain sucks. For example, I haven't been able to figure out a way to get OpenOffice to let me choose which axes I want data to go on. It seems that data from the left-most column you are trying to graph automatically goes on the X axis and you have no choice (or on the y axis automatically...can't remember offhand). Gnumeric's graphing abilities are only marginally better. The zoom feature is sort of cute, but I've had problems trying to properly display multiple data sets on the same graph. On top of that, Gnumeric's way of graphing is *completely* non-compatible with Excel, which is a major problem for me because I am always exchanging data sheets and graphs with Excel user.
It seems perhaps you are hung up on the term decay. Nuclear decay can be several things. Alpha decay, beta decay, gamma decay, fission decay. Chemical reactions also decay at a set rate. Many are just much higher order than the first order nuclear reactions. Pick up a chemical kinetics textbook sometime and read it. :)
Yeah, he might go crazy because of the evil communist plot to take us all over through fluoride in our drinking water...
Nothing insightful to add....just would like to say this: amen!!
Since I installed, I have had few problems. I got Apache 2.0.46 with mod_php 4.3.1 (I think that's the right version...) and one of the latest mysql versions to all compile with no problems. I even compiled Xfree86 on it! If you are serious about trying Gentoo on your Indy, you might drop by the #gentoo-mips channel on freenode. There aren't too many people there usually, but the numbers are growing. I go as geoman there.
Another thing, having a cross-compiler has been a savior for me. I have a howto I created that is actually hosted on my Indy's webserver, but I don't have internet at my new home yet, so I can't serve it up right now. If nothing else, compiling a kernel on my AthlonXP blows away waiting for it to compile on the Indy. Like I mentioned in the parent post to yours, I have succesfully used the cross-compiler through distcc too. Once you get the big things compiled for your system, the smaller programs typically don't take all that long. Whenever I have to update something, I do it while I'm asleep or away from home.
I've actually been wondering about using my Indycam. The latest CVS kernel has support for the VINO/Indycam stuff, however from what I understand the clipping is all wrong. The driver loads for me but I have no idea how to try and capture an image...it was so much easier in IRIX. I've got a second Inday (R4K 100mhz) laying around that I was contemplating getting IRIX onto to just use it for the Indycam. Only problem is, it's got a GR3-XZ 24 bit grahpics board (I actually got the second Indy because it had the 24-bit XL board so I could use the newport console driver in linux on my R5K, and swapped video boards), which is apparently too new of a board for the PROM version in that machine, so it doesn't work. Anyway, I'm rambling now, so I'll quit. :)
Don't forget mips!! Gentoo runs on mips as well. Current supported machines are SGI Indy, SGI Indigo2 (R4k), and SGI O2 (R5K). I've got an R5K Indy with gentoo mips, and it works great. Distcc and fast machines with cross-compilers make it really fast and easy too.
Actually from my experience in geology, you typically know who is refereeing the paper. In fact, when you submit a paper, sometimes you also give a list of people (aside from people directly involved in the research or former advisors, etc) that would be appropriate to review the paper.
My M.S. advisor submitted a paper some years back about using crystal morphology, size, and depth of formation relationships to try and answer some questions about the formation of that particular mineral (dolomite if anyone cares to know...it's very hard to explain how it forms at lower temperatures). One of the referees was also a fellow who also works on dolomite formation, but all work he does involves some fairly high level geochemical analysis. Simply put, the guy just could not understand the paper. This is probably because he didn't *want* to understand a paper using techniques other than the ones he was familiar with. The other two referees loved the paper, but this other guy basically drew a big red X through each page and said it was bullshit.
Well, my advisor didn't take too well to that, so he just pulled it from review for that journal instead of completely re-writing it, and submitted it to another journal that gladly accepted it.
When the new Rush cd came out, I was waiting for one of the songs to come on the radio so I could hear it. Rip mentioned in his article that a cd recorded LOUD like Vapor Trails would likely sound quieter on the radio, and I would have to agree. I was driving on the highway in my wife's car, which is a bad car to listen to the radio in because it's loud (mainly because the AC doesn't work very well so I had to have the window at least cracked). Typically, I have to turn the radio up a bit higher than normal due to the noise of the car, and that's fine, because I can then hear every song just great. Well, a song off of Vapor Trails came on, which I had been waiting for, and I could not hear a *damn* thing. I ended up turning the radio up so loud that the poor little speakers in her car starting crying in pain, but I still couldn't hear anything but some sonic mush and an occasional drumbeat. I've noticed some other songs that had the same effect, but I can't remember any off the top of my head.
Hmm, it was a joke...a bad one, but a joke. Ya know, abducted...where the hell is it? etc etc...
Is it just me or did anyone else see the title to this story and immediately think it was related to the Duke Nukem Forever engine?
Umm...let's think about this....maybe because the skeletal structure (that's a concrete observation by the way, no speculation) shares characteristics with both?
Anyway, the creation vs. evolution argument from a philosophical standpoint doesn't interest me either, because nobody wins. This is how most of my arguments go: I list several pieces of data that detail why the earth is 4.6 billion years old, or point out reasons why man has to be descended from a primate ancestor, blah blah blah, etc....and then my opponent just throws faith up in my face typically. You can't argue against that, so I try not to now.
I like to argue A) against people who try to exploit things that are not related (like your argument about the moon) or B) who use "pieces" of actual valid scientific data while ignoring the rest of it as "evidence" for creation. It just doesn't work.
Point A: That's like saying, "the rock I randomly placed on my window-sill happens to cast a shadow *exactly* on a sticker on my computer at 4pm on December 2nd, which is the reason I tripped and hurt myself last June."
Point B: Trying to tell everyone (this is just an example...I know it's completely unrelated to your post, but I'm just trying to tell you I'm not blindly ripping creationists just because I want to but because I have knowledge of certain things) Rb/Sr radiometric dating doesn't work because in some cases you get isochron lines that gives dates *way* older than a rock really is...while what they're really ignoring is the part that if when you form the rock you mix magmas of two different isotopic compositions, you start out with a rock that has a positive isochron slope thus accounting for the discrepancy(chapter 9 in Faure, 1986).
Anyway, I'm just rambling and burning karma points now, so I'll quit.
You also mention: "There are many different evolutionists with different ideas. The same problem exists. So instead of saying 'there's never the same thing', I instead show them when they veer from what is actually taught, or answer their arguments when it is the official evolutionary line." I suggest you go read the link in my sig as an answer to this.
to the geologist, "is that a gneiss piece of schist in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"
Why can't your character have experience as a motivation? Haven't you done anything in real life for the experience of it? The game just assigns points to represent electronically the knowledge or skill you would gain for doing something in real life. That's the way I look at it anyway.
Yeah, I hear ya. My point was that from simple observation of those pictures, 2 and 2 could have been put together to come up with a more meaningful explanation than the change in rotational velocity at the surface. I find it hard to get technical about geologic information with people who aren't geologists, meaning most of the slashdot readers. That plus I'm a geochemist and not a geophysicist, so I'm talking a out of my area of expertise here (been a while since I had my global plate tectonics class).
However, in a non-role playing environment (like Everquest from everything I've heard about how people act in there), it may be tougher to act evil. When everyone is talking out of character all the time, no sense of character is in play. Basically, if you kill someone, you're doing it for out of character reasons. In this case I can see some sense of morality creeping in, but my original point is that if you are truly role-playing, morality should not matter.
How's this for being evil. Do the quest, get the reward, kill her afterwards. In a way that's *more* evil because you exploited her kindness and then killed her for whatever money and experience she'll give you for it.
Actually if you knew a little bit of geology and some geography to go with it, you would see that the gravity highs exist around areas of *very* thick crust. In other words, areas of mountain building due to either collision of plates or from volcanism (including the mid-ocean ridges).