As much as I'd LIKE it to be "We 0wn the 0ther team" (that's what I tell my 14yr old Halo-3-addicted son) - I can back you up that it's from that "whoop there it is" song from 1994, and; pretty much #doom. That's where I remember it first. . . twas quite odd.
. . . also sad that my ". . . powers are weak, old man" because my kid constantly kicks my ass in Halo-3, and I can come nowhere close to the pwnage I did "back in the day" in Doom. *sniff*. I no longer have the reflexes, I no longer have the peripheral vision, I no longer have the "spidey sense". . . I'm just OLD.
This is a gross violation of everything we should stand for as Americans.
If the "offender" is a threat - then they should NOT be released. If the "offender" is a threat - then the database will not protect anyone.
If the "offender" is not a threat - then the database is a violation of that person's rights. If they have committed a crime, been fairly tried, found guilty, sentenced, and served their time, and found to no longer be a threat - then I don't see what right it is of mine to keep a database on the "offender".
If - however, the "offender" is still deemed a threat - keep the fucker IN PRISON.
Actually; I'm working with a guy now, whose legacy C code (dating back to 1992) generally, functions() take a single String parameter, which is actually a long string of concatenated parameters - and inside his function, he'll parse it down to individual operating parameters (and every function does it a little differently). He wasn't really exposed to any formal training as a programmer back when he wrote this stuff, nobody ever told him it was wrong, it's just the way he's always done it, and now, as you can probably imagine, the code is a nightmare to maintain. Whenever something has to be changed; like a parameter added, ALL of these functions (thousands, literally) have to be modified, in order to allow the parsing to work properly.
And where do these concatenated parameter strings come from?
Why - ASCII files, read-in at runtime, of course. And these ASCII files are somehow "not included" when we decide to do a code-freeze before a build. If he decides he needs to change these parameters at any time between the build and completion of the (newly designated) formal test process, then by gosh, he changes them!
The problem is; while Monopolies would naturally break themselves - in a perfect theoretical system, the reality is, a Monopolist gains political influence and power; yes, we have Linux BECAUSE of Microsoft's dominance. We also have stupid crap like the DMCA, CALEA, and whatever attrocities the lobbyists haven't come up with.
They've TRIED to outlaw Linux, for various reasons. They tried to outlaw it as a "tool for hackers" - they've tried to outlaw it as a threat to their "intellectual property", and they'll probably try to outlaw it as a "Chinese Information Warfare" weapon next.
At the same time, we have this bullshit patent abuse to wipe out VOIP as a potential competitor to POTS. So you can count THAT baby as being knifed as well.
The law is a tool - that is there. It is a reality, and it is a fact. It can be wielded by the people, or it can be wielded by Monopolists. Being afraid of the unintended consequences of how it is wielded, and desiring to ban it altogether (Law and/or Government) is all fine and dandy. But it is a UNILATERAL DISARMAMENT. If the People put down their only defense and weapon, do not assume that the Monopolists will.
Monopolies can not be tolerated or left alone. They MUST be broken up and destroyed, as must ALL concentrations of power.
If one were an engineer, trying to solve the WORLD'S energy problems, one would look at the relative amount of sunlight in Europe versus America. (The US has more sunlight, in the southwest - solar applications will necessarily be far more efficient if used in the US - it's actually a WASTE to ship them to Europe first). One would look at the relative location of the bulk of the world's oil supplies, nearer Europe, rather than the US (the US peaked its reserves in 1973, and is in decline - and NEEDS the alternatives sooner).
Of course, if one were to take POLITICS as a factor, into account, then it all fucking makes sense.
Some of the claimed "production costs" for these solar cells are calculated based on energy costs - which are based on PETROLEUM COMMODITIES SPOT PRICES. Which, in case nobody's noticed, have been fluctuating like a motherfucker lately (along with the major currency they're valued in).
So - to say that we need to wait for Solar to get below a certain $/watt cost to produce is false; for that reason, and also for the reason that; once you position a solar installation, they keep producing energy indefinitely, so it's really a different cost proposition than the petroleum x-dollars/bbl. The thing about petroleum is that you pump it out of the ground, basically for free. You pay for the drills, the rigs, the workers, but the goo is free. Even CHEAPER if you can rig an election to place a former oil executive as president, then con your government into invading other countries to secure you a good deal if the landowner is being a hardass. Even MORE profitable if that invasion makes the markets nervous, driving the spot prices up.
In any case; the argument that alternatives don't "measure up" economically against oil is a BULLSHIT argument, because the metrics you're using to measure with are the dollar, and the barrel of oil, both of which are rigged markets, with arbitrary, artificial valuations. And it is not a coincidence that the people who arbitrarily set the valuations of these metrics, are the same people who are in charge of our economy, and governments.
Now that we are tossing that in the shitter - we'll witness the same brain drain that NAZI GERMANY witnessed in the 30's-40's as guys like EINSTEIN got the hell out of dodge.
Fascism is the hallmark of the decline of a great civilization. Always has been, always will be. It is a defensive zeitgeist reaction to the perception of that decline (or maybe a plateau). And the effect is to hasten the decline, rather than slow or halt it.
While we've had these kinds of fears in the past; (the Red Scare, etc.) and we've generally pulled through alright, I'm not so sure we're going to make it this time.
Do you really want to live in a civilization like that?
Sure - parents should be free to teach their kids whatever. But the real world should not be interdicted either. And THAT, is why I wholeheartedly endorse public education.
And my 20 year old, was a screw-up in school, like his dad.
And my 14 year old, somehow, some way, gets consistent B's and A's - completely unlike his mother or father. And my 11 year old, somehow, some way, as well, is a consistent high-performer. (these two kids work their kiesters off, though.)
The difference between the two younger ones, is the older one lived with his mom. And not me. So maybe she screwed him up somehow. (?).
But I really don't have a freaking clue what I did right with my two younger kids, that my parents (and my wife's parents) did so wrong, that we were such terrible students, and they're such great students. No freaking clue.
Yeah - we work hard at it. We spend a lot of time with them. We have home schooled them a couple of years, and we still home school them on breaks and summers (in addition to regular school) - and we keep them highly-occupied with extra-curricular activities. Not a real big difference with what my parents did. So I really don't understand what the difference is.
Also: when you are done READING to your child - SING to them. Bedtime lullabyes, whatever. Try jazzing them up sometimes. Try singing them in a minor key sometimes. etc.
I know that I have *some* inherent musical talent - though not really enough to be a pro - (I lost a few octaves when I hit puberty, and screw that "castradi" shit). But what I nurtured in my daughter by spending an hour with her every night of her first 5 years; reading and singing to her - I'm constantly amazed at how easy songwriting comes to her. Her brother has every ounce of physical (vocal/ear/coordination) talent she has; but I didn't spend that time with him, and he's just nowhere near as comfortable using it, and doesn't have the same mindset for it. You can attribute any of that to nature or nurture if you please. Sample size = 2. Warning: anaectodes may be less significant than they appear.
On the other hand - I also sang all the "Schoolhouse Rock" math songs to both of them, made them memorize their 3's thru 12's, and they both pretty much breathe math too.
Let me test that, I'm the QA expert. Let me document that, I'm the Professional Tech Writer. Let me refactor that, I'm the OOP guy. Let me reset the rules on the router, I'm the Cisco-certified guy.
None of these phrases would cause a big stir where I work with any but the most ego-challenged head-cases.
People come to me, specifically, for some types of problems. They do NOT come to me to do high-level architecture of client-server Java programs. My feelings are not hurt. (though; sometimes, no, ALL THE TIME, I wish I earned as much as they do. . . )
This ignores the fact that we ALL know/knew kids who were smart, and DID NOT work hard, and got straight A's.
I was told I was intelligent as a teen. I did not believe a word of it. Because I was a straight-C student.
And how hard I worked didn't seem to have much relation to my grades. I can't really explain this - other than I must have been a late bloomer, because now, in my late 30's, I'm working my ass off, and I'm getting straight-A's.
There is more to this, than their oversimplifying theory.
The main problem with speech recognition is that we need a new spoken language.
Yes - we can devise software that can listen and discern words as they are spoken - but sometimes, software can't figure out things like homonyms, etc. Spoken language has ambiguities that written language does not. The keyboard bridges that gap. (even though when we enter human language in via a keyboard, the computer still has a hard time trying to figure out the meaning of the content - beyond just a few words at a time). There is no UNAMBIGUOUS map between a spoken human language, and ideas or concepts.
This is what programming languages are for. They are an unambiguous (hopefully) map between written language and a concept or idea (ie. the programming logic). But there's still ambiguity at the spoken-to-written interface. (with the limited sets we're talking about - I'm sure that a spoken programming language could be "done" - quite easily; just constrain the grammar).
What I have often thought of as a solution to the "portable devices are too small for a keyboard" problem, is the invention of a new language - and that's what Graffiti (Palm) was. That's what Greg Bear came up with in his book, Eon too, with the "Pict" language (not spoken, but rather, visual). But speech recognition has another problem. Local Privacy. You can't enter a private email into your device vocally, in a public area, without others overhearing. You CAN type a message semi privately.
I'm not sure what the "answer" is for portable-device data entry. Seems it will probably have to be some kind of telpathic (or cybernetic) interface - to translate thought directly into a message (for a messaging application - or data for authoring, etc.) on the device.
I never could make heads nor tails out of any frickin MAN pages. I usually get along better with a few O'Reilly books, and Google. Most MAN pages just make me want to slap the crap out of the person who wrote them. (Hello? functional examples please?)
. . . not to mention, at least from the perspective of An American - what the RIAA is doing, the laws they've lobbied for, and successfully gotten passed, VIOLATE MY RIGHTS, FUCKER.
So, frankly, I don't really give a crap about this lofty debate on business models, technology, "starving artists", the morality of P2P file sharing versus "stealing", etc. Because it is effectively a distraction from where the REAL debate ought to be taking place:
It infuriates me that the debate has been shifted from the basic fact that they have NO RIGHT to do these things, to whether I have a right to use a computer which I pay for, on a service which I pay for, in a manner that harms nobody else, under my own judgement, management, and recognizance as an adult, American Citizen, without big-brother filtering, monitoring, and harassing my activities.
They've exceeded the mandate of the provisions for copyright as laid out in the Constitution. They've corrupted the legislative, enforcement, and judicial processes. They've established a legal climate that systematically violates my rights, in ways specifically forbidden by the 1st and 4th (and 5th) Amendments, and frankly, it needs to fucking stop.
They have no fucking right to tell me what I can and can not say (communicate) to my peers on a public network, and they have no fucking right to search my private communications without a warrant from a judge. And yet - this is now business as usual for the RIAA, and their paid lackeys in our government.
Process Explorer; no workee on Vista - must use Process Monitor - which is GREAT if you want to monitor file and registry IO, not so great as a replacement for the kinds of things Process Explorer did (A Task Manager replacement).
I'm also not a big fan of the logfile format for Process Monitor. I liked the old csv format. In any case - for doing this kind of process monitoring stuff in Vista, I've resorted to writing my own vbs/WMI scripts to get this (performance) data, because it's just not coming out of Process Monitor in a useful format.
The roughly equivalent task in Pet Ownership is like having to do your own canine proctology (without rubber gloves) because Purina bought all the veterinarians to make them work on test animals at the food plant. It's nice that Purina ships free flashlights with the dogfood though.
I agree; that there HAS to be more to it (obesety) than simply Calories_in-energy_expended=stored_fat.
I tried several diets, including weight watchers, and was even temporarily successful on the Atkins diet. At one point, when I was 230 lbs, I was eating a certain quantity of food per day, and had a certain quantity of physical activity per day, and just plain not losing weight.
Now; I am on a pharmaceutical appetite suppressant. I'm maintaining 180 lbs. During the weight-loss phase of this program, I was eating the same quantity I was eating while I was on that diet. I was somewhat LESS physically active on this program than I was on the previous diet, on a day-to-day basis. Over a given time period for these parameters, I lost weight on the appetite suppressant, where I didn't lose weight on the straight "suffer!" diet. I don't feel hungry on the appetite suppressant. That's the only real difference. The mental state of *feeling hungry* seems related to how much of the food I ate - was actually processed and stored to maintain my weight. That's the only way I can explain it.
Personally, I'm sticking with this program - because now that I am down to a lighter weight, the wear and tear on my joints is far less, and it is a LOT easier (ie. less painful) for me to exercise regularly.
The conclusion my doctor came to; as he developed this program - is that there is a relationship between the modern diet, caloric availability, appetite, and how appetite controls how much the body stores. And for many people, this relationship is a broken system that results in obesity - and the only way some people can control it is to suppress the appetite sensation part of the system. Some people can control it by simply exercising more, and/or eating less. Those people are not afflicted with this disease.
What happens to the calories?
I don't know - there's tons of excretion going on. Probably hidden there. It's getting flushed out of my system without being absorbed, or maybe it's getting broken down; but the energy is going into some other chemical process that is generating waste products that are flushed out (fats? oils? who knows?). I guess it would probably be useful if someone's "output" were analyzed too.
But it's extraordinarily ignorant for someone else to come out and say: "just eat less!" because it's not a simple linear relationship. I know what I ate on my previous diet, and I know what I'm eating now - I was 230 then, I'm 180 now, I was doing 30 minutes a day 4 days a week on the treadmill then, I only have time to do that 2 days a week right now - I don't know any other way to explain it. (granted - when I finish classes, I'm ramping my physical activity back up - the bonus here is, at 180 lbs, I'm not in severe pain for 2-3 days after working out, like I was at 230 lbs).
Well, there may have been enough money before we blew a trillion and a half on Iraq. . . (only to end up with $100/bbl oil anyway).
I wonder how many nuclear plants we could have built for 1.5 trillion dollars? Or how many kids we could have educated in physics and math?
. . . or how many levees we could have reinforced? . . . or how many bridges could we have inspected and repaired? . . . or; damn - how many assholes carrying knives onto planes on September 11th, 2001, could we have stopped - had we just hired a few more competent rent-a-cops, and tacked the charge onto plane fares, and said; "hey, that's the cost of your convenience for flying - don't like it? take the train - trains don't fly into buildings."
But no - we have other priorities on how we spend money in this country.
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As much as I'd LIKE it to be "We 0wn the 0ther team" (that's what I tell my 14yr old Halo-3-addicted son) - I can back you up that it's from that "whoop there it is" song from 1994, and; pretty much #doom. That's where I remember it first. . . twas quite odd.
. . . also sad that my ". . . powers are weak, old man" because my kid constantly kicks my ass in Halo-3, and I can come nowhere close to the pwnage I did "back in the day" in Doom. *sniff*. I no longer have the reflexes, I no longer have the peripheral vision, I no longer have the "spidey sense". . . I'm just OLD.
Agreed.
This is a gross violation of everything we should stand for as Americans.
If the "offender" is a threat - then they should NOT be released.
If the "offender" is a threat - then the database will not protect anyone.
If the "offender" is not a threat - then the database is a violation of that person's rights.
If they have committed a crime, been fairly tried, found guilty, sentenced, and served their time, and found to no longer be a threat - then I don't see what right it is of mine to keep a database on the "offender".
If - however, the "offender" is still deemed a threat - keep the fucker IN PRISON.
Actually;
I'm working with a guy now, whose legacy C code (dating back to 1992) generally, functions() take a single String parameter, which is actually a long string of concatenated parameters - and inside his function, he'll parse it down to individual operating parameters (and every function does it a little differently). He wasn't really exposed to any formal training as a programmer back when he wrote this stuff, nobody ever told him it was wrong, it's just the way he's always done it, and now, as you can probably imagine, the code is a nightmare to maintain. Whenever something has to be changed; like a parameter added, ALL of these functions (thousands, literally) have to be modified, in order to allow the parsing to work properly.
And where do these concatenated parameter strings come from?
Why - ASCII files, read-in at runtime, of course. And these ASCII files are somehow "not included" when we decide to do a code-freeze before a build. If he decides he needs to change these parameters at any time between the build and completion of the (newly designated) formal test process, then by gosh, he changes them!
The problem is; while Monopolies would naturally break themselves - in a perfect theoretical system, the reality is, a Monopolist gains political influence and power; yes, we have Linux BECAUSE of Microsoft's dominance. We also have stupid crap like the DMCA, CALEA, and whatever attrocities the lobbyists haven't come up with.
They've TRIED to outlaw Linux, for various reasons. They tried to outlaw it as a "tool for hackers" - they've tried to outlaw it as a threat to their "intellectual property", and they'll probably try to outlaw it as a "Chinese Information Warfare" weapon next.
At the same time, we have this bullshit patent abuse to wipe out VOIP as a potential competitor to POTS. So you can count THAT baby as being knifed as well.
The law is a tool - that is there. It is a reality, and it is a fact. It can be wielded by the people, or it can be wielded by Monopolists. Being afraid of the unintended consequences of how it is wielded, and desiring to ban it altogether (Law and/or Government) is all fine and dandy. But it is a UNILATERAL DISARMAMENT. If the People put down their only defense and weapon, do not assume that the Monopolists will.
Monopolies can not be tolerated or left alone. They MUST be broken up and destroyed, as must ALL concentrations of power.
This actually makes no fucking sense at all.
If one were an engineer, trying to solve the WORLD'S energy problems, one would look at the relative amount of sunlight in Europe versus America. (The US has more sunlight, in the southwest - solar applications will necessarily be far more efficient if used in the US - it's actually a WASTE to ship them to Europe first). One would look at the relative location of the bulk of the world's oil supplies, nearer Europe, rather than the US (the US peaked its reserves in 1973, and is in decline - and NEEDS the alternatives sooner).
Of course, if one were to take POLITICS as a factor, into account, then it all fucking makes sense.
Some of the claimed "production costs" for these solar cells are calculated based on energy costs - which are based on PETROLEUM COMMODITIES SPOT PRICES. Which, in case nobody's noticed, have been fluctuating like a motherfucker lately (along with the major currency they're valued in).
So - to say that we need to wait for Solar to get below a certain $/watt cost to produce is false; for that reason, and also for the reason that; once you position a solar installation, they keep producing energy indefinitely, so it's really a different cost proposition than the petroleum x-dollars/bbl. The thing about petroleum is that you pump it out of the ground, basically for free. You pay for the drills, the rigs, the workers, but the goo is free. Even CHEAPER if you can rig an election to place a former oil executive as president, then con your government into invading other countries to secure you a good deal if the landowner is being a hardass. Even MORE profitable if that invasion makes the markets nervous, driving the spot prices up.
In any case; the argument that alternatives don't "measure up" economically against oil is a BULLSHIT argument, because the metrics you're using to measure with are the dollar, and the barrel of oil, both of which are rigged markets, with arbitrary, artificial valuations. And it is not a coincidence that the people who arbitrarily set the valuations of these metrics, are the same people who are in charge of our economy, and governments.
Our freedoms is what made this country great.
Now that we are tossing that in the shitter - we'll witness the same brain drain that NAZI GERMANY witnessed in the 30's-40's as guys like EINSTEIN got the hell out of dodge.
Fascism is the hallmark of the decline of a great civilization. Always has been, always will be. It is a defensive zeitgeist reaction to the perception of that decline (or maybe a plateau). And the effect is to hasten the decline, rather than slow or halt it.
While we've had these kinds of fears in the past; (the Red Scare, etc.) and we've generally pulled through alright, I'm not so sure we're going to make it this time.
There are also parents out there, whom we (society) do not WANT teaching their kids.
Abstinence-only?
Flat-earth? (young-earth creationism?)
Do you really want to live in a civilization like that?
Sure - parents should be free to teach their kids whatever.
But the real world should not be interdicted either.
And THAT, is why I wholeheartedly endorse public education.
I feel your pain, buddy, I do.
And my 20 year old, was a screw-up in school, like his dad.
And my 14 year old, somehow, some way, gets consistent B's and A's - completely unlike his mother or father.
And my 11 year old, somehow, some way, as well, is a consistent high-performer.
(these two kids work their kiesters off, though.)
The difference between the two younger ones, is the older one lived with his mom. And not me. So maybe she screwed him up somehow. (?).
But I really don't have a freaking clue what I did right with my two younger kids, that my parents (and my wife's parents) did so wrong, that we were such terrible students, and they're such great students. No freaking clue.
Yeah - we work hard at it. We spend a lot of time with them. We have home schooled them a couple of years, and we still home school them on breaks and summers (in addition to regular school) - and we keep them highly-occupied with extra-curricular activities. Not a real big difference with what my parents did. So I really don't understand what the difference is.
Also: when you are done READING to your child - SING to them. Bedtime lullabyes, whatever.
Try jazzing them up sometimes.
Try singing them in a minor key sometimes.
etc.
I know that I have *some* inherent musical talent - though not really enough to be a pro - (I lost a few octaves when I hit puberty, and screw that "castradi" shit). But what I nurtured in my daughter by spending an hour with her every night of her first 5 years; reading and singing to her - I'm constantly amazed at how easy songwriting comes to her. Her brother has every ounce of physical (vocal/ear/coordination) talent she has; but I didn't spend that time with him, and he's just nowhere near as comfortable using it, and doesn't have the same mindset for it. You can attribute any of that to nature or nurture if you please. Sample size = 2. Warning: anaectodes may be less significant than they appear.
On the other hand - I also sang all the "Schoolhouse Rock" math songs to both of them, made them memorize their 3's thru 12's, and they both pretty much breathe math too.
Let me test that, I'm the QA expert.
Let me document that, I'm the Professional Tech Writer.
Let me refactor that, I'm the OOP guy.
Let me reset the rules on the router, I'm the Cisco-certified guy.
None of these phrases would cause a big stir where I work with any but the most ego-challenged head-cases.
People come to me, specifically, for some types of problems. They do NOT come to me to do high-level architecture of client-server Java programs. My feelings are not hurt. (though; sometimes, no, ALL THE TIME, I wish I earned as much as they do. . . )
Motherf*ckr!
You just described me perfectly. (only I have a slender, good looking, smart son too.)
Then I realized - I had already marked you "friend" at some point. heh.
This ignores the fact that we ALL know/knew kids who were smart, and DID NOT work hard, and got straight A's.
I was told I was intelligent as a teen.
I did not believe a word of it.
Because I was a straight-C student.
And how hard I worked didn't seem to have much relation to my grades.
I can't really explain this - other than I must have been a late bloomer, because now, in my late 30's, I'm working my ass off, and I'm getting straight-A's.
There is more to this, than their oversimplifying theory.
Bah! Don't you worry. We can do this all day long. Americans are ALL ABooT one-upmanship.
We'll see your draconian DMCA-clone, and raise you an hideous bastard-child of USA PATRIOT ACT III!
Yes, with sulfuric acid for blood; do as you oughta, add acid-to-watah. . .
The main problem with speech recognition is that we need a new spoken language.
Yes - we can devise software that can listen and discern words as they are spoken - but sometimes, software can't figure out things like homonyms, etc. Spoken language has ambiguities that written language does not. The keyboard bridges that gap. (even though when we enter human language in via a keyboard, the computer still has a hard time trying to figure out the meaning of the content - beyond just a few words at a time). There is no UNAMBIGUOUS map between a spoken human language, and ideas or concepts.
This is what programming languages are for. They are an unambiguous (hopefully) map between written language and a concept or idea (ie. the programming logic). But there's still ambiguity at the spoken-to-written interface. (with the limited sets we're talking about - I'm sure that a spoken programming language could be "done" - quite easily; just constrain the grammar).
What I have often thought of as a solution to the "portable devices are too small for a keyboard" problem, is the invention of a new language - and that's what Graffiti (Palm) was. That's what Greg Bear came up with in his book, Eon too, with the "Pict" language (not spoken, but rather, visual). But speech recognition has another problem. Local Privacy. You can't enter a private email into your device vocally, in a public area, without others overhearing. You CAN type a message semi privately.
I'm not sure what the "answer" is for portable-device data entry. Seems it will probably have to be some kind of telpathic (or cybernetic) interface - to translate thought directly into a message (for a messaging application - or data for authoring, etc.) on the device.
I dunno.
I never could make heads nor tails out of any frickin MAN pages.
I usually get along better with a few O'Reilly books, and Google.
Most MAN pages just make me want to slap the crap out of the person who wrote them.
(Hello? functional examples please?)
You'd think they would have tried this crap with a mouse, or a monkey, or something, hundreds of years prior, when the stuff was first invented.
God damned animal rights assholes.
. . . not to mention, at least from the perspective of An American - what the RIAA is doing, the laws they've lobbied for, and successfully gotten passed, VIOLATE MY RIGHTS, FUCKER.
So, frankly, I don't really give a crap about this lofty debate on business models, technology, "starving artists", the morality of P2P file sharing versus "stealing", etc. Because it is effectively a distraction from where the REAL debate ought to be taking place:
It infuriates me that the debate has been shifted from the basic fact that they have NO RIGHT to do these things, to whether I have a right to use a computer which I pay for, on a service which I pay for, in a manner that harms nobody else, under my own judgement, management, and recognizance as an adult, American Citizen, without big-brother filtering, monitoring, and harassing my activities.
They've exceeded the mandate of the provisions for copyright as laid out in the Constitution. They've corrupted the legislative, enforcement, and judicial processes. They've established a legal climate that systematically violates my rights, in ways specifically forbidden by the 1st and 4th (and 5th) Amendments, and frankly, it needs to fucking stop.
They have no fucking right to tell me what I can and can not say (communicate) to my peers on a public network, and they have no fucking right to search my private communications without a warrant from a judge. And yet - this is now business as usual for the RIAA, and their paid lackeys in our government.
Process Explorer; no workee on Vista - must use Process Monitor - which is GREAT if you want to monitor file and registry IO, not so great as a replacement for the kinds of things Process Explorer did (A Task Manager replacement).
I'm also not a big fan of the logfile format for Process Monitor. I liked the old csv format. In any case - for doing this kind of process monitoring stuff in Vista, I've resorted to writing my own vbs/WMI scripts to get this (performance) data, because it's just not coming out of Process Monitor in a useful format.
The roughly equivalent task in Pet Ownership is like having to do your own canine proctology (without rubber gloves) because Purina bought all the veterinarians to make them work on test animals at the food plant. It's nice that Purina ships free flashlights with the dogfood though.
Well - Microsoft may be distributing Sysinternals products; but Marc Russinovich's Blog postings are becoming less and less frequent.
AND - Sysinternals used to distribute the source on some of their tools. No longer. It's out there. But it's not legal.
I agree; that there HAS to be more to it (obesety) than simply Calories_in-energy_expended=stored_fat.
I tried several diets, including weight watchers, and was even temporarily successful on the Atkins diet. At one point, when I was 230 lbs, I was eating a certain quantity of food per day, and had a certain quantity of physical activity per day, and just plain not losing weight.
Now; I am on a pharmaceutical appetite suppressant. I'm maintaining 180 lbs. During the weight-loss phase of this program, I was eating the same quantity I was eating while I was on that diet. I was somewhat LESS physically active on this program than I was on the previous diet, on a day-to-day basis. Over a given time period for these parameters, I lost weight on the appetite suppressant, where I didn't lose weight on the straight "suffer!" diet. I don't feel hungry on the appetite suppressant. That's the only real difference. The mental state of *feeling hungry* seems related to how much of the food I ate - was actually processed and stored to maintain my weight. That's the only way I can explain it.
Personally, I'm sticking with this program - because now that I am down to a lighter weight, the wear and tear on my joints is far less, and it is a LOT easier (ie. less painful) for me to exercise regularly.
The conclusion my doctor came to; as he developed this program - is that there is a relationship between the modern diet, caloric availability, appetite, and how appetite controls how much the body stores. And for many people, this relationship is a broken system that results in obesity - and the only way some people can control it is to suppress the appetite sensation part of the system. Some people can control it by simply exercising more, and/or eating less. Those people are not afflicted with this disease.
What happens to the calories?
I don't know - there's tons of excretion going on. Probably hidden there. It's getting flushed out of my system without being absorbed, or maybe it's getting broken down; but the energy is going into some other chemical process that is generating waste products that are flushed out (fats? oils? who knows?). I guess it would probably be useful if someone's "output" were analyzed too.
But it's extraordinarily ignorant for someone else to come out and say: "just eat less!" because it's not a simple linear relationship. I know what I ate on my previous diet, and I know what I'm eating now - I was 230 then, I'm 180 now, I was doing 30 minutes a day 4 days a week on the treadmill then, I only have time to do that 2 days a week right now - I don't know any other way to explain it.
(granted - when I finish classes, I'm ramping my physical activity back up - the bonus here is, at 180 lbs, I'm not in severe pain for 2-3 days after working out, like I was at 230 lbs).
With rising energy costs, shops will have to start to become accustomed to telecommuting.
. . . more likely, becoming accustomed to mass-layoffs. . .
When I was a kid, I watched ST:TNG faithfully and had a massive crush on Wesley Crusher. Nerd girls...what can I say?
. . . I suspect this is the root of the ire coming from nerd guys. . . .
Well, there may have been enough money before we blew a trillion and a half on Iraq. . .
(only to end up with $100/bbl oil anyway).
I wonder how many nuclear plants we could have built for 1.5 trillion dollars?
Or how many kids we could have educated in physics and math?
. . . or how many levees we could have reinforced?
. . . or how many bridges could we have inspected and repaired?
. . . or; damn - how many assholes carrying knives onto planes on September 11th, 2001, could we have stopped - had we just hired a few more competent rent-a-cops, and tacked the charge onto plane fares, and said; "hey, that's the cost of your convenience for flying - don't like it? take the train - trains don't fly into buildings."
But no - we have other priorities on how we spend money in this country.