Well, like so many other tools the evil is in the intent of the wielder. I've been finding that javascript has become absolutely essential as web users have come to expect the same level of slickness they see on their desktops from their web browser. A case in point is the MyLibrary portal I implemented at the U. I expected the user comments to ask for more services and better grouping of information, y'know, the type of thing librarians might be concerned with. Instead almost all of the suggestions for changes in the next version were about the interface. Adding it all up, it was clear that the users were expecting the stuff in their web browser to behave like their main computer interface in terms of windowing, menu selection, being able to minimize things and so on. I don't know if I could have implemented their requests without Javascript
Here's a website that talks about the language: http://expect.nist.gov/. I bet there's other sites so check google. O'Reiley also has a book about it. I still think I'd use Applescript under MacOS, but under Linux I'd give expect a try. I played with it a little under Solaris and it looked pretty useful. I was able to automate the setup for US Robotics modem racks and Cabletron ethernet hubs using expect. Never did get that stuff totally debugged and my script would go crazy, but that's not the language's fault.
That's what's so frustrating about medical imaging technology. It's advanced enough to show what the brain looks like in the skull while the organism is still living, but you don't have a real good way of looking at the very fine structure without dissecting the brain. But, the things that's important to these researchers is what's happening at the cellular level. They want to know how the cells are qualitatively and quantitaively different. For that kind of analysis, they need cells, and a whole lot of 'em to get batches of cell stuff they can measure. My wife does this kind of work and it's amazing what they have to do in order to measure some of these chemicals and cell components.
Someone raised this point in another post earlier. The reason a new law seems to be needed is jurisdiction. It's very hard to work out which jurisdiction a hacking crime happens in. At least that's what I've seen in the cases I've read about. If a hacker causes death or serious injury, then the crime falls under state murder/manslaughter/negligence laws. Only problem is which state? This bill will give prosecutors the legal ablity to stick such offenders with a sentence that matches the crime. Or at least that's the theory put forward for public consumption. With the crap that the rest of this bill puts forward, I'm not sure I even buy the one sensible point in the whole thing.
I've been doing the cycling thing ever since college. My experience is that a ten mile commute is very doable. The best part is that you wind up in killer shape from that. Ideally you'd live on the temperat west coast or the southwest. I dunno too much about the weather patterns of the Southeast, but I'll assume there's a couple of months out of the year where it's too hot to ride. When I lived on the west coast, my bike journeys were almost always in excess of eight miles due to various circumstances. Eight miles is pretty pleasant and fun unless you have to ride through mountains. Fifteen miles is doable, but not if you're on a tight time table and certainly not every day. Living out in the midwest the main problem I have is weight gain during the the two to three months where it's just too cold an snowy to ride. I find that if I'm dressed right, I can ride somewhat comfortably down to 15 degres F. After that I say F*** it. Getting back in spring takes a month before I'm totally with it. The other positive thing about cycling is that public transpotation is increasingly accomadating bikes. In Ann Arbor where I live the buses now have racks. In Philly where I'm going to be living, the trains let you bring bikes aboard during non-peak hours. This really extends your range. The other cool thing that I see happening in urban areas is that cities and conservation groups are making bike trails along rivers and other green ways. Depending on how they're laid out both can really cut down your time even if they don't cut down your mileage. No stoplights and no traffic after all. One not so postive development is that moutnain bike manufacturers are no longer putting brazings on frames for racks sturdy enough to mount panniers. The big thing right now is disc brakes whose fittings supplant those for racks. I replaced my panniers when they wore out with Dana Design Bomb Pack because it's a big day backpack that does not push your head downwards when you sit on the bike wearing a helmet. 'Course I'm still riding the same old bike, but I dream of getting a new one.
While I think your comment hits very close, it doesn't quite get the bulls eye. Say gold ring. Anyway, you have to remember that the dream of every artist in any media is to be able to devote themselve to their creativity. In a perfect world, an artist would simply create. People would buy art out of a sense of asthetic duty, the state would support them or what have you. Sadly, the world ain't perfect, and artists like everyone else have to make comprimises. A musican may have to think they have to make faustian deals with record companies. A writer may support their works of love through writing crappy genre fiction. And a graphic artist may have to make some easily consumable pieces of art. It's either that, and a whole lot of luck, or they have to have a day job. I know exactly one artist who leads an pure uncomprimised life. She scrapes by on shows, music festivals, and whatever part time job she needs to get. She lives on something like $12-15K a year. She won't ever be big. She knows that, but she gets just enough attention to get by. I admire her for leading that life, but I can't do it. Neither can the other artists(meaning here musicans, writers, and so on) I know. The rest of the bunch have day jobs to support themselves while they find that big break. The downside is that you lead a very sleep deprived, exhausted life that way. It's really hard for me, especially now that I'm married, to sit down and write for four or so hours every night after work, but I do it. I look forward to the big break I know is out there, and I'm heart broken everytime something fails to come through. That heartbreak alone is enough to lead an artist to cut corners and make deals that comprimise them.
Bad example. Cattle in this country and other developed ones are bred to point of being almost genetically engineered to be, well, beefy. Look at healthy cattle in places like Africa, they're a lot leaner. The same goes with deer and other wild critters. The only fat deer and elk I've seen have been at wildlife shelters. A better comparison would be wild vs domestic animals. You will almost never see an obese wild animal, except maybe Univ. of Michigan squirrels, and animals stocking up for winter. Now, how many of us have a cat or dog that needs a serious diet plan? Quite a few I bet. The scary thing is that analogy may carry over into humans as well. I wonder if our obesity results from the fact that we have tamed ourselves and our environment to the point where we have to creat artifical physical stress to keep us healthy.
Tried and true methods. I used similar ones when I tried to be a body builder. Everyone's mileage will differ. I eventually hit a peak in terms body mass and definition that convinced me that I wouldn't be a good body builder. Annoyingly, despite hitting a wall in "buffness", I kept getting stronger. However, I was really fit and was, still am actually, able to do just about any physical activity I choose to. It's really nice to be in good enough shape that you can just go do things. I'll also point out that if you drop out of the strict regimen above and keep to the general outline, weights, balanced diet, small meals and relaxing, you won't be ripped, but you will be fit. I'm not sure an hour of lifting weights alone will do it though. I'm hitting my mid thirties now and I lift weights for an hour each day. When I don't commute by bike, I pack on a bit of flab and wind up with a Kirklike physique. So, I'd say an hour of weightlifting plus an hour after work or so of something active that you find fun for its own sake. Better yet, get out of the car if you can and make your commute do double duty.
Grapically, games, 1st person shooters and others, are very advanced. I mean we're getting towards phot realism and in some cases are just about there. However, what distinguishes, for me anyway, a good game from a mind blowing one is sound. This is especially true in suspense or horror oriented games. Several of id's games use atmospheric sounds to build up suspense and a sense of drea. Then they spring the monster on you and youp jump out of your chair. A lot games just don't have correct aural cues to convey suspense or other feelings. Anyway, what I'm wondering is why not use someone who has to rely totally on aural nuance to navigate through life to develop the sonic environment of a game?
I'm an amateur writer. After several years of writing in my spare time, I'm getting to the point where I might have chance of getting published. At the moment I'm working actively on two novels--one more than the other--as well as whatever short story I get an impulse to write. In terms of novels, what's a good way in Star Office, to ogranize chapters? I tend to save each chapter as separate file in the novel's directory. That works for the more action oriented one because for whatever reason, each chapter comes out feeling like an hour long TV episode. It doesn't work for the other one because the action doesn't have the same film or TV quality as the first. So what tools do reccomend for organizing work in Star Office?
PS Don't read the stuff on my web site becuase it's old and really lame for the most part. The grammar on that stuff comes out as an unholy fusion of Perl and science major's English. Over the past few years I've had to teach myself all the finer points of English comp that I either forgot or never had in the first place. Besides, the html on my page is icky. Some day I'll get off my but and redo it, but that's some day, not today.
Sorry if this is a duplicate post. Caffeine hasn't it made it to my fingers yet. Anyway, I remember reading about something similar happening in East Texas years ago. I dunno if I buy the report I read or not tho. The story talked about the fish stalking small dogs. Oh well, I suppose this means you go fising in your lawn now.
Don't give my roomate too bad a time. He was basically doing HS over again at community college after royally screwing up when he was younger. You gotta admire someone who realizes they made a mistake and actually goes out and tries to put things right. I know a lot of people who are content to just take easiest path down. This guy on the other hand was trying and succeeding at pulling himself out of the hole he was in. He was also working his butt off with two jobs and school at the same time.
I throw out a little caution here. Not too long ago I was helping a roomate through a remedial math class he was taking at community college. The text books were horrible. Without me, the poor guy would never have gotten the idea of negative numbers. I'd look for a good alternate text book. Still, this approach is a very good idea.
I was kinda in the same boat. Due to lousy math innstruction in HS and a dumbass mistake on a placement test in said HS, I barely got out with algebra. Not good for someone going into physics. I took a remdial self paced course in trig and analysis as freshman. There are a several good books written as college level remedial math course. Check your local community college bookstore for some of these. Meanwhile, my science book club sent me a really fun book. The title is something like _Mathematics_Through_History_. The author develops mathematical concepts as mankind discovered them through time. It takes you all the way from math as homo erectus might have done all the way to pre calc and some calculus as well. It's a big thick book that gives you a decent work out as you take it from the shelf and replace it. The book was designed as text book and has exercises. I pick it up from time to time and read a chapter or two just for fun. I dunno if I would teach from this book or even use it as a serious text book, but it's darned interesting read.
Let's not overlook the most common use of anitbiotics in the US: Feed supplements for live stock. To get an idea of exactly why, look into the system of feedlots as described in _Fast_Food_Nation_. There's some other recent works in the NY Times critical of the beef industry worth reading. The short of it is that because we're raising cattle so contrary to how they evolved, the majority of cattle are susecptible to infections that they never used to get. To control this feedlot operators mix fairly alarming amounts of antibiotics into the feed they give the animals. Although no one's proven a conclusive link to livestock being fed antibiotics and the emergence of resistant bacteria, outfits like the CDC are very worried about the situation. Now I'm not a PETA type, but this alone makes me revaluate my eating habits in terms their long range affects. BTW, I picked up some free range beef recently, and man was that some good stuff. Alternatives exist even if they are more expensive.
I read this story somewhere else. I remember having some problems with it. I thought it sounded like an urban legend. Has anyone done any serious fact checking on this one?
Seems to me you're just being as dogmatic about PE as the establishment. I figure if the kids have a good time and get some quality aerobic training out of it who cares? But, I agree with the rest of the comment. Used to piss me off that I couldn't get out of phys ed by taking martial arts classes after school. I mean, my kung-fu instructors ran a workout that made ex-marines give up. If I wasn't in shape from that I dunno what would do it. However, my school did let you out if you were in a sport or marching band. Silly me, I thought band was an easy way out:/
Only problem is that you need to have the actual management authority to get away with that. Otherwise, you'll be looking for a job PDQ. I do know of one department at my university that ghost's machines like that nightly. It does work for them, but this directive came all the way down from the director of that department.
Granted, I didn't have BSc when I started out, but I spent a couple of years working low paying research assistant jobs before I made the jump to something I could really make a living at. Seriously, it took that long before it looked like I had enough experience to be attractive. Granted, I could've been more agressive in my job search, but, still it was always annoying to hear that my education was impressive, but I didn't have enough experience. I'll also note that I was looking for a scientific programming job back then and there was a PhD glut in the field which meant someone with a BS didn't stand a chance. Even so, once I got experience, especially in Internet stuff, the offers started coming in. Nothing gets an employers attention like real experience. Meanwhile, I've had mixed results with certs. I have a cert in SNMP and that's been a real boon, but my cert in Cabletron's Spectrum system has been a real waste. Glad I didn't pay for it. I think the difference is that one cert, the SNMP, says that I understand a field, while the other, Cabletron, says I know a specific system. The later is less valuable because you never know if employer has adopted that particular system. So, I'd say a good cert in something like Java, C++, SQL, or some other broad tech area would be good while windows XP cert might not be much help. But, anyway you slice it, this is tough time to be starting out in CS. I see lots of job opps for people with 5-10 years experience in "blah", but nothing entry level at all.
I'll start off by admitting that I am infact a college grad. However, I'm not working in my field, physics. I've been a professional programmer ever since I graduated. Here's the rub: I have zero formal education in the field. I built my skills up on the side during college and started getting progressively more responsible jobs afterwards. My physics education has been useful indirectly(analytical skills, math knowledge etc), but has only rarely been directly applied. Do I regret wasting four years on an education that hasn't helped me professionally? Heck no! I loved physics. I'm just not really good enough to make it as a scientist. I went for it and didn't make the cut. No regrets whatsoever for trying. Just a few for not making it.
So what does this mean for your plans? College is not a trade school, and frankly, thats what much of the computer field amounts to, a trade or vocation. I'd say you're better off getting some certs and some junior college creds if you want to be a sys admin. Meanwhile if you go to college, study something you love for its own sake. Looking at what college costs now as opposed to when I went, I'd really have to ask myself whether the skills I would acquire would be worth it. However, the cautionary note here is that a lot employers in the IT field want a bachelors. Some state "or equivalent experience", but most want that BA or BS.
Yeah, this sounds like an Urban Legend to me as well. Especially since I myself have heard two variants of this same story.
Now onto biometrics for the deceased... I've been on a forensic science reading binge of late. I read a memoir of an NYC med examiner--darned if I can recall the title all of a sudden--and he said that dead bodies keep good finger prints as long as the skin is intact. Sometimes, the shriveled up nature of the body means you can't take prints from the dead hand. In cases like that MEs often skin finger, put the skin over their own presumably latex gloved finger and roll the print that way. Other times, they can inject the finger with water and make the skin puff back up. So, given that, I'm not sure how well a mummified thumb on the shelf would make a finger print.
Hey. I remember a/. article about people using Quake and other FPS game engines as a type of underground movie making system. I checked a couple out and wished I'd had something like this around when I was fifteen. The Quake 2 based movies I saw were pretty chunky and cheesey, but I liked the possiblities. Does anyone know if this scene is still happening? I'd like to see what they've been able to accomplish with some of the newer engines.
Wow! MS is handing us the keys to the entire estate! Think about it: Just about anyone here can hack passport. Just imagine the power of a million hackers unleashed on a National Identiy card. It'd be great: popup porn windows on ATM machines, Bill Gates getting deported, Linus Torvalds becoming president(hey, if we say he was born a citizen who's to argue? The ID verified it. Didn't it? *snicker*). Yeah, I can't wait.
Allegation of plagarism aside, Lucas did create a Campbell-esque saga. The point that Campbell was making in his books on myth was that humans are and have been telling the same stories over and over again since the beginning of recorded history. So whether or not Star Wars was original, it did follow the cycle of myth as did the works on which it based on--or copied from. The reason the movie followed the cycle points to something fundamental about human nature or so Campbell beleived.
This reminds of a weird tech paper from Digital Equipment Labs I once read. Some engineers were screwing around on break and one of them hooked their kim-chee to a power source and some test equipment. They discovered two things: one the kim-chee acted like a rectifier and that it also acted like a LED. They then did some preliminary research into the field of vegetable electronics. I'm not sure how serious this really was, but it was a fun read. This used to be on the web, but I haven't seen it in ages. Has anyone else read this?
Slashdot Mirror
Well, like so many other tools the evil is in the intent of the wielder. I've been finding that javascript has become absolutely essential as web users have come to expect the same level of slickness they see on their desktops from their web browser. A case in point is the MyLibrary portal I implemented at the U. I expected the user comments to ask for more services and better grouping of information, y'know, the type of thing librarians might be concerned with. Instead almost all of the suggestions for changes in the next version were about the interface. Adding it all up, it was clear that the users were expecting the stuff in their web browser to behave like their main computer interface in terms of windowing, menu selection, being able to minimize things and so on. I don't know if I could have implemented their requests without Javascript
Here's a website that talks about the language: http://expect.nist.gov/. I bet there's other sites so check google. O'Reiley also has a book about it. I still think I'd use Applescript under MacOS, but under Linux I'd give expect a try. I played with it a little under Solaris and it looked pretty useful. I was able to automate the setup for US Robotics modem racks and Cabletron ethernet hubs using expect. Never did get that stuff totally debugged and my script would go crazy, but that's not the language's fault.
That's what's so frustrating about medical imaging technology. It's advanced enough to show what the brain looks like in the skull while the organism is still living, but you don't have a real good way of looking at the very fine structure without dissecting the brain. But, the things that's important to these researchers is what's happening at the cellular level. They want to know how the cells are qualitatively and quantitaively different. For that kind of analysis, they need cells, and a whole lot of 'em to get batches of cell stuff they can measure. My wife does this kind of work and it's amazing what they have to do in order to measure some of these chemicals and cell components.
Someone raised this point in another post earlier. The reason a new law seems to be needed is jurisdiction. It's very hard to work out which jurisdiction a hacking crime happens in. At least that's what I've seen in the cases I've read about. If a hacker causes death or serious injury, then the crime falls under state murder/manslaughter/negligence laws. Only problem is which state? This bill will give prosecutors the legal ablity to stick such offenders with a sentence that matches the crime. Or at least that's the theory put forward for public consumption. With the crap that the rest of this bill puts forward, I'm not sure I even buy the one sensible point in the whole thing.
I've been doing the cycling thing ever since college. My experience is that a ten mile commute is very doable. The best part is that you wind up in killer shape from that. Ideally you'd live on the temperat west coast or the southwest. I dunno too much about the weather patterns of the Southeast, but I'll assume there's a couple of months out of the year where it's too hot to ride. When I lived on the west coast, my bike journeys were almost always in excess of eight miles due to various circumstances. Eight miles is pretty pleasant and fun unless you have to ride through mountains. Fifteen miles is doable, but not if you're on a tight time table and certainly not every day. Living out in the midwest the main problem I have is weight gain during the the two to three months where it's just too cold an snowy to ride. I find that if I'm dressed right, I can ride somewhat comfortably down to 15 degres F. After that I say F*** it. Getting back in spring takes a month before I'm totally with it. The other positive thing about cycling is that public transpotation is increasingly accomadating bikes. In Ann Arbor where I live the buses now have racks. In Philly where I'm going to be living, the trains let you bring bikes aboard during non-peak hours. This really extends your range. The other cool thing that I see happening in urban areas is that cities and conservation groups are making bike trails along rivers and other green ways. Depending on how they're laid out both can really cut down your time even if they don't cut down your mileage. No stoplights and no traffic after all. One not so postive development is that moutnain bike manufacturers are no longer putting brazings on frames for racks sturdy enough to mount panniers. The big thing right now is disc brakes whose fittings supplant those for racks. I replaced my panniers when they wore out with Dana Design Bomb Pack because it's a big day backpack that does not push your head downwards when you sit on the bike wearing a helmet. 'Course I'm still riding the same old bike, but I dream of getting a new one.
While I think your comment hits very close, it doesn't quite get the bulls eye. Say gold ring. Anyway, you have to remember that the dream of every artist in any media is to be able to devote themselve to their creativity. In a perfect world, an artist would simply create. People would buy art out of a sense of asthetic duty, the state would support them or what have you. Sadly, the world ain't perfect, and artists like everyone else have to make comprimises. A musican may have to think they have to make faustian deals with record companies. A writer may support their works of love through writing crappy genre fiction. And a graphic artist may have to make some easily consumable pieces of art. It's either that, and a whole lot of luck, or they have to have a day job. I know exactly one artist who leads an pure uncomprimised life. She scrapes by on shows, music festivals, and whatever part time job she needs to get. She lives on something like $12-15K a year. She won't ever be big. She knows that, but she gets just enough attention to get by. I admire her for leading that life, but I can't do it. Neither can the other artists(meaning here musicans, writers, and so on) I know. The rest of the bunch have day jobs to support themselves while they find that big break. The downside is that you lead a very sleep deprived, exhausted life that way. It's really hard for me, especially now that I'm married, to sit down and write for four or so hours every night after work, but I do it. I look forward to the big break I know is out there, and I'm heart broken everytime something fails to come through. That heartbreak alone is enough to lead an artist to cut corners and make deals that comprimise them.
Bad example. Cattle in this country and other developed ones are bred to point of being almost genetically engineered to be, well, beefy. Look at healthy cattle in places like Africa, they're a lot leaner. The same goes with deer and other wild critters. The only fat deer and elk I've seen have been at wildlife shelters. A better comparison would be wild vs domestic animals. You will almost never see an obese wild animal, except maybe Univ. of Michigan squirrels, and animals stocking up for winter. Now, how many of us have a cat or dog that needs a serious diet plan? Quite a few I bet. The scary thing is that analogy may carry over into humans as well. I wonder if our obesity results from the fact that we have tamed ourselves and our environment to the point where we have to creat artifical physical stress to keep us healthy.
Tried and true methods. I used similar ones when I tried to be a body builder. Everyone's mileage will differ. I eventually hit a peak in terms body mass and definition that convinced me that I wouldn't be a good body builder. Annoyingly, despite hitting a wall in "buffness", I kept getting stronger. However, I was really fit and was, still am actually, able to do just about any physical activity I choose to. It's really nice to be in good enough shape that you can just go do things. I'll also point out that if you drop out of the strict regimen above and keep to the general outline, weights, balanced diet, small meals and relaxing, you won't be ripped, but you will be fit. I'm not sure an hour of lifting weights alone will do it though. I'm hitting my mid thirties now and I lift weights for an hour each day. When I don't commute by bike, I pack on a bit of flab and wind up with a Kirklike physique. So, I'd say an hour of weightlifting plus an hour after work or so of something active that you find fun for its own sake. Better yet, get out of the car if you can and make your commute do double duty.
Grapically, games, 1st person shooters and others, are very advanced. I mean we're getting towards phot realism and in some cases are just about there. However, what distinguishes, for me anyway, a good game from a mind blowing one is sound. This is especially true in suspense or horror oriented games. Several of id's games use atmospheric sounds to build up suspense and a sense of drea. Then they spring the monster on you and youp jump out of your chair. A lot games just don't have correct aural cues to convey suspense or other feelings. Anyway, what I'm wondering is why not use someone who has to rely totally on aural nuance to navigate through life to develop the sonic environment of a game?
I'm an amateur writer. After several years of writing in my spare time, I'm getting to the point where I might have chance of getting published. At the moment I'm working actively on two novels--one more than the other--as well as whatever short story I get an impulse to write. In terms of novels, what's a good way in Star Office, to ogranize chapters? I tend to save each chapter as separate file in the novel's directory. That works for the more action oriented one because for whatever reason, each chapter comes out feeling like an hour long TV episode. It doesn't work for the other one because the action doesn't have the same film or TV quality as the first. So what tools do reccomend for organizing work in Star Office?
PS Don't read the stuff on my web site becuase it's old and really lame for the most part. The grammar on that stuff comes out as an unholy fusion of Perl and science major's English. Over the past few years I've had to teach myself all the finer points of English comp that I either forgot or never had in the first place. Besides, the html on my page is icky. Some day I'll get off my but and redo it, but that's some day, not today.
Sorry if this is a duplicate post. Caffeine hasn't it made it to my fingers yet. Anyway, I remember reading about something similar happening in East Texas years ago. I dunno if I buy the report I read or not tho. The story talked about the fish stalking small dogs. Oh well, I suppose this means you go fising in your lawn now.
Don't give my roomate too bad a time. He was basically doing HS over again at community college after royally screwing up when he was younger. You gotta admire someone who realizes they made a mistake and actually goes out and tries to put things right. I know a lot of people who are content to just take easiest path down. This guy on the other hand was trying and succeeding at pulling himself out of the hole he was in. He was also working his butt off with two jobs and school at the same time.
I throw out a little caution here. Not too long ago I was helping a roomate through a remedial math class he was taking at community college. The text books were horrible. Without me, the poor guy would never have gotten the idea of negative numbers. I'd look for a good alternate text book. Still, this approach is a very good idea.
I was kinda in the same boat. Due to lousy math innstruction in HS and a dumbass mistake on a placement test in said HS, I barely got out with algebra. Not good for someone going into physics. I took a remdial self paced course in trig and analysis as freshman. There are a several good books written as college level remedial math course. Check your local community college bookstore for some of these. Meanwhile, my science book club sent me a really fun book. The title is something like _Mathematics_Through_History_. The author develops mathematical concepts as mankind discovered them through time. It takes you all the way from math as homo erectus might have done all the way to pre calc and some calculus as well. It's a big thick book that gives you a decent work out as you take it from the shelf and replace it. The book was designed as text book and has exercises. I pick it up from time to time and read a chapter or two just for fun. I dunno if I would teach from this book or even use it as a serious text book, but it's darned interesting read.
Let's not overlook the most common use of anitbiotics in the US: Feed supplements for live stock. To get an idea of exactly why, look into the system of feedlots as described in _Fast_Food_Nation_. There's some other recent works in the NY Times critical of the beef industry worth reading. The short of it is that because we're raising cattle so contrary to how they evolved, the majority of cattle are susecptible to infections that they never used to get. To control this feedlot operators mix fairly alarming amounts of antibiotics into the feed they give the animals. Although no one's proven a conclusive link to livestock being fed antibiotics and the emergence of resistant bacteria, outfits like the CDC are very worried about the situation. Now I'm not a PETA type, but this alone makes me revaluate my eating habits in terms their long range affects. BTW, I picked up some free range beef recently, and man was that some good stuff. Alternatives exist even if they are more expensive.
I read this story somewhere else. I remember having some problems with it. I thought it sounded like an urban legend. Has anyone done any serious fact checking on this one?
Seems to me you're just being as dogmatic about PE as the establishment. I figure if the kids have a good time and get some quality aerobic training out of it who cares? But, I agree with the rest of the comment. Used to piss me off that I couldn't get out of phys ed by taking martial arts classes after school. I mean, my kung-fu instructors ran a workout that made ex-marines give up. If I wasn't in shape from that I dunno what would do it. However, my school did let you out if you were in a sport or marching band. Silly me, I thought band was an easy way out :/
Only problem is that you need to have the actual management authority to get away with that. Otherwise, you'll be looking for a job PDQ. I do know of one department at my university that ghost's machines like that nightly. It does work for them, but this directive came all the way down from the director of that department.
Granted, I didn't have BSc when I started out, but I spent a couple of years working low paying research assistant jobs before I made the jump to something I could really make a living at. Seriously, it took that long before it looked like I had enough experience to be attractive. Granted, I could've been more agressive in my job search, but, still it was always annoying to hear that my education was impressive, but I didn't have enough experience. I'll also note that I was looking for a scientific programming job back then and there was a PhD glut in the field which meant someone with a BS didn't stand a chance. Even so, once I got experience, especially in Internet stuff, the offers started coming in. Nothing gets an employers attention like real experience. Meanwhile, I've had mixed results with certs. I have a cert in SNMP and that's been a real boon, but my cert in Cabletron's Spectrum system has been a real waste. Glad I didn't pay for it. I think the difference is that one cert, the SNMP, says that I understand a field, while the other, Cabletron, says I know a specific system. The later is less valuable because you never know if employer has adopted that particular system. So, I'd say a good cert in something like Java, C++, SQL, or some other broad tech area would be good while windows XP cert might not be much help. But, anyway you slice it, this is tough time to be starting out in CS. I see lots of job opps for people with 5-10 years experience in "blah", but nothing entry level at all.
I'll start off by admitting that I am infact a college grad. However, I'm not working in my field, physics. I've been a professional programmer ever since I graduated. Here's the rub: I have zero formal education in the field. I built my skills up on the side during college and started getting progressively more responsible jobs afterwards. My physics education has been useful indirectly(analytical skills, math knowledge etc), but has only rarely been directly applied. Do I regret wasting four years on an education that hasn't helped me professionally? Heck no! I loved physics. I'm just not really good enough to make it as a scientist. I went for it and didn't make the cut. No regrets whatsoever for trying. Just a few for not making it.
So what does this mean for your plans? College is not a trade school, and frankly, thats what much of the computer field amounts to, a trade or vocation. I'd say you're better off getting some certs and some junior college creds if you want to be a sys admin. Meanwhile if you go to college, study something you love for its own sake. Looking at what college costs now as opposed to when I went, I'd really have to ask myself whether the skills I would acquire would be worth it. However, the cautionary note here is that a lot employers in the IT field want a bachelors. Some state "or equivalent experience", but most want that BA or BS.
Yeah, this sounds like an Urban Legend to me as well. Especially since I myself have heard two variants of this same story.
Now onto biometrics for the deceased... I've been on a forensic science reading binge of late. I read a memoir of an NYC med examiner--darned if I can recall the title all of a sudden--and he said that dead bodies keep good finger prints as long as the skin is intact. Sometimes, the shriveled up nature of the body means you can't take prints from the dead hand. In cases like that MEs often skin finger, put the skin over their own presumably latex gloved finger and roll the print that way. Other times, they can inject the finger with water and make the skin puff back up. So, given that, I'm not sure how well a mummified thumb on the shelf would make a finger print.
Hey. I remember a
Wow! MS is handing us the keys to the entire estate! Think about it: Just about anyone here can hack passport. Just imagine the power of a million hackers unleashed on a National Identiy card. It'd be great: popup porn windows on ATM machines, Bill Gates getting deported, Linus Torvalds becoming president(hey, if we say he was born a citizen who's to argue? The ID verified it. Didn't it? *snicker*). Yeah, I can't wait.
Allegation of plagarism aside, Lucas did create a Campbell-esque saga. The point that Campbell was making in his books on myth was that humans are and have been telling the same stories over and over again since the beginning of recorded history. So whether or not Star Wars was original, it did follow the cycle of myth as did the works on which it based on--or copied from. The reason the movie followed the cycle points to something fundamental about human nature or so Campbell beleived.
This reminds of a weird tech paper from Digital Equipment Labs I once read. Some engineers were screwing around on break and one of them hooked their kim-chee to a power source and some test equipment. They discovered two things: one the kim-chee acted like a rectifier and that it also acted like a LED. They then did some preliminary research into the field of vegetable electronics. I'm not sure how serious this really was, but it was a fun read. This used to be on the web, but I haven't seen it in ages. Has anyone else read this?