Since Actinobacteria are gram positive bacteria, Usnea lichen extract might be effective. It certainly would be worth a try as it's only about $10 for a bottle of tincture. (I just did a search and found some from HerbPharm for $7.99/bottle; it's commonly available)
Usnea is a lichen known as 'Old Man's beard' that is commonly found on tree branches in wet areas (we have it in abundance here in the coastal Northwest). The active component, usnic acid has been shown to be effective against gram positive bacteria. There has been some renewed interest in Usnea since many of the more modern antibiotics have become ineffective against many strains of bacteria.
I ssh into my ISP and use pine to read email. Been doing it this way for over 10 years. Some people find this a bit quaint, but I don't have to worry about any worm/virus/phishing issues.
There's a lot of Creationist bashing going on here. But maybe we can view the two sides in a different light. Perhaps we can view the two sides as being locked in a co-evolutionary system.
Darwin posited his theory which was generally rejected by the religious. Later Creationists 'evolved' their ideas in a more 'scientific' direction by raising problems with the theory. They sometimes raise legitimate questions which deserve an answer.
Evolutionists then had to work harder to 'evolve' their theory to answer the Creationist's critique.
Now we have the ID (Intelligent Design) school raising objections to the theory. The evolution of the eye has been a longstanding question (as in "how could natural selection account for the development of the eye"). And now the evolution side has come up with perhaps a more complete answer.
Really, I'm not sure why there is so much antagonism toward Creationists (at least the ones that try to posit well-reasoned, thought out questions - yes, they may be in the minority). In some sense aren't the Creationists helping the Evolutionists to hone their theory? If everyone agreed with the theory, and nobody questioned it, how would the theory develop and improve?
Maybe instead of a "how dare you question evolution!" sort of an attitude, the evolutionists should thank thoughtful Creationists (or even just doubters of evolution who are not Creationists) for playing some part in the development of the theory.
The whole idea of Wiki is based on eastern religion concepts. Personally I find that a little unsettling.
What?!! I hope this is a joke.
I've heard Ward Cunningham give a talk on how he came up with Wikis and it didn't have anything to do with Hinduism or Buddhism, or any other eastern religion that I am aware of. As I recall the inspiration was Apple's Hypercard - he wanted something like that for the web. He got the name wiki from the name on he Hawaiian bus/taxis which are called 'wiki-wiki' which apparently means 'fast'.
So I suppose if Hawaii is a bastian of 'Eastern Religion' then there could be some slight connection, but your reason for not liking wikis is bizarre.
Instiki is by far the easiest wiki to setup and configure that I've tried. It would only take you a few minutes to try it out. It's especially easy to install on OSX and after doing so it will show up on your toolbar. And it has pdf and TeX output.
Doesn't India "outsource" manufacturing of soft drinks to American Coca Cola and Pepsico?
Well, not quite. The soft drinks that are sold in India are probably actually made in India as it would cost too much to ship bottles of Coke over from Atlanta. Yes, the American companies get some small amount of money from each bottle sold, but no American workers were employed in the process....besides: which would you rather have insourced: Software Engineering and Surgical jobs or Softdrink jobs?
Now I'm waiting for some liberal to come refute my facts,
Well, I'm no liberal, but can I give it a try? (One can certainly make a conservative case against this war as well - I seriously doubt that Ronald Reagan would have invaded Iraq - he would have sent over cruise missles and air strikes, but he wouldn't have been stupid enough to invade.)
* The war in Iraq isn't perfect, but according to a lot of interviews with soldiers and stuff, it's not as bad as NBC/CBS/ABC/CNN wants you to believe. And I'm sure that you can find "soldiers and stuff" who will tell you it's worse than NBC/CBS/ABC/CNN 'wants' you to belive". It all depends on where said soldier is stationed, doesn't it? What about the soldiers who refused an order recently because they knew they were being sent into a suicide mission? I suspect if you asked them you'd get a different perspective.
Even though Iraq doesn't have nukes, Saddam was an insane asshole who would've tried as hard as possible to get them -- several reports show that he was using the oil-for-food program to bypass UN sanctions
But the fact is he didn't have nukes. Shouldn't we require more proof than that the leader of the country we plan to invade is an asshole? Otherwise we may as well start invading several other countries who we just 'know' are going to do bad stuff in the future.
I certainly hope that if Bush is re-elected that he doesn't repeat this sort of mistake and decide to go invading another country for similar flimsy reasons. If he does then how long will it be before Russia, China, Germany & France (yeah, it's a wild scenario, but world wars have started over lesser things) decide that the leader of the US is a dangerous asshole who has nukes and must be taken out.
I know the job market isn't that great. Hell, I'm only working part time. But I ALSO know that Bush inherited a HORRIBLE economic situation and managed to turn it into the smallest recession in US history.
I'm only working part-time as well, but to call this the 'smallest recession in US history' seems to go against what the experience of millions of Americans tells them. Sure from some kind of ivory tower economic formula it was a short recession, but experience tells us that in many ways the recession continues to this day for lots of folks. There are many of us who are makine much less than we were 4 years ago. It really seems as though we need some other metric for economic growth because if that was the 'smallest recession in US history' then we must not be measuring correctly anymore.
I know the world doesn't agree with us. People: THIS IS OKAY. The world looks out for the world. The US needs to look out for the US.
But the fact remains that after 9/11 world opinion was strongly with US, but now a mere 3 years later Bush has managed to squander that goodwill. We had the opportunity to leverage our the 'war on terrorism' and thus share the burden, but now we seem hellbent on doing it all on our own and bearing the cost (both in $ and blood).
The Zaurus (I've got a 5500) is a cool little device. Stick a CF wifi card in it and you can check your email and surf the web when you're out on the road. It's a lot easier to pack a Zaurus than it is to pack a laptop. Most of the time the Zaurus is just fine for this purpose.
Actually, it's pretty easy to put a CF Wifi card in one (I've got an SL-5500) and use it to surf the web and check email when you're out and about. They're a lot smaller than a laptop and much easier to carry around.
I really think that if you're coming from Perl you'll prefer Ruby to Python. No indentation hassles with Ruby, for example. You'll also like the way Ruby does OO compared to Perl OO. MoreRubiliciouslinks...
Also, The Pragmatic Programmers have released a new edition of Programming Ruby that's a great intro and reference to the language - go buy it from their website.
Ruby: Because I can't wait around for Perl 6 to get finished
Bush is against abortion and the destruction of embryos for stem cell research; Kerry is not. For this reason alone, Bush will be receiving my vote.
But that's such a simplistic view of 'pro-life'. Sure, I voted for Bush last time for similar reasons. However, I no longer consider Bush to be truely 'pro-life'. Killing 20000+ Iraqis (it's estimated that half of them were innocent civilians) , 1050 US soldiers dead, 24000 wounded - this doesn't seem to me to be 'pro-life'. Also, Bush's environmental record is abysmal - again this doesn't seem to be 'pro-life'. He's for the death penalty - how is that 'pro-life'? Cuts in medical care for the poor - again, how is this 'pro-life'? We need to also be concerned with people who are no longer in the womb as well...
The Lowell Sun endorsement is based solely on national security and it can be argued that Bush is wrong on security. He's sent a major portion of the National Guard to Iraq. The National Guard was intended to protect the homeland (National Guard means guard the nation), not to be sent for the pResident's overseas adventures. Also, Bush let the chemical industry off easily by agreeing not to force them to take certain measures to protect their infrastructure - this endangers many cities in the US because chemical plants are still easy targets.
The Iconoclast's (OK, I agree, that is a strange name) endorsement by contrast covers not only security but also economic issues. The article cogently outlines all of the reasons they can't support Bush this time. Since I voted for Bush last time, I know how they feel - betrayed!
Given his record, I'm at a loss to figure out why Bush has the amount of support he does this time around. I chalk it up to Kerry's appearance as a being a weak candidate - though he seems to be doing of good job of dispelling this image in the debates.
I'm not a huge Kerry fan, but I look at it strategically: The Republicans will probably still controll Congress on Nov. 3rd. If we return Bush to power with a Repuplican congress he'll be able to do a lot more damage. If we send up Kerry with a Republican congress it'll slow down the damage.
Yeah, but it turns out that McCarthy was partially right about Communists in the state department (and other parts of the US gov including the Treasury dept). See the Venona Papers on Wikipedia as well as the entry for Alger Hiss.
This is not to excuse McCarthy's tactics. If you accuse enough people (and McCarthy certainly accused a lot of people) you're bound to get a few of them right.
OK, so let's say they dig that 12' trench through the school yard during the summer. And let's say you're the principal and you ask what the hell is going on and the answer you get is: "Sorry, can't tell you that, it's priviledged information"
OR, what if the school gets built a year or two after the pipeline goes in. Who is going to tell the school district that they'd better not build their school in that location? How are they going to explain why they shouldn't build there?
Practically speaking, you have a point: Somebody's gonna notice a big pipeline going in. And people will ask questions. They just won't get straight answers.
Terrorists are hiding under every rock, and behind every Bush. It's the new excuse for taking away our rights - "We can't let you see that because the terrorists could use it!"
Recently on Now with Bill Moyers (PBS, Friday nights, great show) there was a story about a major natural gas pipeline that would be passing near towns and populated areas. Problem is that no one could find out exactly what the route would be because of terrorism concerns. So it could pass under a school and no one would be allowed to know that. It was a great deal for the company building the pipeline because they didn't have to fight any protests over it running too close to someone's house.
Portland relies on hydro power rather than dirty power. Isn't it odd that a region that sells its excess kilowatts to other regions is one of the few places in the US where green housing is seriously considered?
Sure, we have a lot of hydro power available in Oregon & Washington, however, in recent years our power bills have nearly doubled because of 'deregulation'. What 'deregulation' means for us here is that we now have to pay market rates for electricity because all of our hydro power is now put on the open market. (perhaps good for other areas of the country, bad for us - the NorthWest was screwed by deregulation) What that means is that we used to have cheap power here (because of hydro), but now we're paying almost the same as most other metropolitan areas in the US. My power bill went from about $50/month about five years ago to $100/month now. (oh, and Enron buying our local power company [PGE] didn't help).
The other factor to consider with hydro is that it harms migrating salmon, so there are times of the year when the dams have to be either shut down or running with less turbines. Also, there probably will not be anymore hydro development in the Northwest due to environmental concerns so we need to find ways to accomodate a growing population - conservation is a big part of this.
Add to this the fact that Portland is one of the most environmentally-aware communities you'll find anywhere in the US. People tend to bike and take public transportation a lot more than in other areas of the country.
This is a great acheivement and all, but I didn't see any numbers showing efficiency, voltage& curreent produced/square cm, etc.
How do they compare to silicon based solar cells both in price (now they probably can't, but what about future projections), power density and efficiency?
Forget Perl 6. I want a Ruby compiler for Parrot. Anyway Perl 6's VM, Parrot, is a more important accomplishment than Perl 6, the language.
Indeed. And Ruby seems to be what Perl 6 aspires to be. Seriously, look at the list of features being added to Perl 6 and you get the idea that they're being heavily influenced by Ruby. They even have the idea of the 'Ruby-meter' in the Perl 6 community; as in how well does a particular proposed feature score on the 'Ruby-meter', so even they seem to think of Ruby as the benchmark.
BTW: If you're looking for a Ruby frontend for Parrot, why not jump in and help us make one? The project is called Cardinal
Ruby: Because I can't wait until Perl 6 is finished
Not a chance. Silicon Valley has 3 things going for it that will make it last forever.
No center of anything (cultural, technological, commercial, religious) will last forever. A cursory look at history shows that nations rise and fall.
China itself was once the technological, cultural, artistic leader of the world till about 600 years ago when Europe began to emerge from the dark ages.
No, eventually (and it could be happening now, or it could be in 100 years) Silicon Valley will cease to be the technological center of the world and it will go back to being one of the best farming areas in the world. One thing definately going against it now is the cost of living. That's certainly hurting it now. Also, when it comes to climate, you neglect the geological climate (earthquakes) - it has a very stormy one.
The US is 'investing' (wasting) $200+Billion on a senseless war in Iraq while China is investing Billions on R&D.
Ridiculous software/tech patents are costing the US Billions in litigation not to mention the stiffling effect on innovation.
The US K-12 education system is a mess, while the Chinese consistently score much higher in math & science tests.
Nations rise and fall. Look at the long view of history. Go back one or two thousand years and you'll find that China was on top then when Europe was in the dark ages. We had our time in the Sun, maybe it's just about over.
Set up a Linux box at home. It can be an old machine that's not able to run WinXP.
As far as distros go, you could choose whichever distro they plan to run at work. If they haven't selected one yet you could try the Xandros Free version for now to get your feet wet - it's supposed to be quite easy to set up. Or you could try one of the liveCDs like Knoppix for a while. After that if you really want to learn all of the ins & outs I would suggest Gentoo - you'll learn a lot setting it up since they don't have much in the way of easy install tools yet. Gentoo makes you dig into a lot of stuff to get it installed. After you install Gentoo, you'll have learned a lot.
In their paper, Mr. Bhagwati and his co-authors write that such an assessment of the education systems of India and China "almost borders on the ludicrous." In an interview, Mr. Bhagwati said, "You have a lot of people, but that doesn't mean they are qualified.
The problem is that management doesn't seem to care if they're qualified or not. If they can save a buck (or many bucks in this case) they seem to overlook the qualifications.
Some of the jobs being offshored would have lots of requirements stated in explicit detail if advertised here in the US (such that it would be virtually impossible to find anyone who has all of the required skills) , but when they're sent to India those requirements tend to get overlooked... "You've got a BSCS from Bangalore Uni - you're hired!"
The thinking on management's part seems to be that they can make up for lack of technical skills by throwing more (cheap by US standards) bodies at the problem.
Eventually they'll realize that this doesn't work (and anecdotal evidence suggests that this is already beginning to happen).
THe point is that young men at that general ago are hardwired to NEED some sort of rigorous disciplinary training.... they are basically hardwired to need this type of experience.
Huh? You make a very sweeping generalization here. I personally don't think I was 'hardwired' for a military-school type experience when I was 13-17 years old. I think in many cases you'll kill something in a lot of boys that age if you send them off to military school (you'll kill creativity, imagination, curiosity, etc.).
There may be some (definately a minority) who 'need' this sort of thing, but you shouldn't force the rest to conform.
Slashdot Mirror
Since Actinobacteria are gram positive bacteria, Usnea lichen extract might be effective. It certainly would be worth a try as it's only about $10 for a bottle of tincture. (I just did a search and found some from HerbPharm for $7.99/bottle; it's commonly available)
Usnea is a lichen known as 'Old Man's beard' that is commonly found on tree branches in wet areas (we have it in abundance here in the coastal Northwest). The active component, usnic acid has been shown to be effective against gram positive bacteria. There has been some renewed interest in Usnea since many of the more modern antibiotics have become ineffective against many strains of bacteria.
I ssh into my ISP and use pine to read email. Been doing it this way for over 10 years. Some people find this a bit quaint, but I don't have to worry about any worm/virus/phishing issues.
There's a lot of Creationist bashing going on here. But maybe we can view the two sides in a different light. Perhaps we can view the two sides as being locked in a co-evolutionary system.
Darwin posited his theory which was generally rejected by the religious. Later Creationists 'evolved' their ideas in a more 'scientific' direction by raising problems with the theory. They sometimes raise legitimate questions which deserve an answer.
Evolutionists then had to work harder to 'evolve' their theory to answer the Creationist's critique.
Now we have the ID (Intelligent Design) school raising objections to the theory. The evolution of the eye has been a longstanding question (as in "how could natural selection account for the development of the eye"). And now the evolution side has come up with perhaps a more complete answer.
Really, I'm not sure why there is so much antagonism toward Creationists (at least the ones that try to posit well-reasoned, thought out questions - yes, they may be in the minority). In some sense aren't the Creationists helping the Evolutionists to hone their theory? If everyone agreed with the theory, and nobody questioned it, how would the theory develop and improve?
Maybe instead of a "how dare you question evolution!" sort of an attitude, the evolutionists should thank thoughtful Creationists (or even just doubters of evolution who are not Creationists) for playing some part in the development of the theory.
The whole idea of Wiki is based on eastern religion concepts. Personally I find that a little unsettling.
What?!! I hope this is a joke.
I've heard Ward Cunningham give a talk on how he came up with Wikis and it didn't have anything to do with Hinduism or Buddhism, or any other eastern religion that I am aware of. As I recall the inspiration was Apple's Hypercard - he wanted something like that for the web. He got the name wiki from the name on he Hawaiian bus/taxis which are called 'wiki-wiki' which apparently means 'fast'.
So I suppose if Hawaii is a bastian of 'Eastern Religion' then there could be some slight connection, but your reason for not liking wikis is bizarre.
Instiki is by far the easiest wiki to setup and configure that I've tried. It would only take you a few minutes to try it out. It's especially easy to install on OSX and after doing so it will show up on your toolbar. And it has pdf and TeX output.
Instiki is the easiest wiki to setup and configure that I've tried. Especially if you're installing on OSX. And it has pdf and TeX output.
Doesn't India "outsource" manufacturing of soft drinks to American Coca Cola and Pepsico?
...besides: which would you rather have insourced:
Well, not quite. The soft drinks that are sold in India are probably actually made in India as it would cost too much to ship bottles of Coke over from Atlanta. Yes, the American companies get some small amount of money from each bottle sold, but no American workers were employed in the process.
Software Engineering and Surgical jobs or Softdrink jobs?
If they want it even cheaper they should dump Windows in favor of Linux (or as the OP suggested, FreeBSD)...
It should be more reliable too.
Now I'm waiting for some liberal to come refute my facts,
Well, I'm no liberal, but can I give it a try? (One can certainly make a conservative case against this war as well - I seriously doubt that Ronald Reagan would have invaded Iraq - he would have sent over cruise missles and air strikes, but he wouldn't have been stupid enough to invade.)
* The war in Iraq isn't perfect, but according to a lot of interviews with soldiers and stuff, it's not as bad as NBC/CBS/ABC/CNN wants you to believe.
And I'm sure that you can find "soldiers and stuff" who will tell you it's worse than NBC/CBS/ABC/CNN 'wants' you to belive". It all depends on where said soldier is stationed, doesn't it? What about the soldiers who refused an order recently because they knew they were being sent into a suicide mission? I suspect if you asked them you'd get a different perspective.
Even though Iraq doesn't have nukes, Saddam was an insane asshole who would've tried as hard as possible to get them -- several reports show that he was using the oil-for-food program to bypass UN sanctions
But the fact is he didn't have nukes. Shouldn't we require more proof than that the leader of the country we plan to invade is an asshole? Otherwise we may as well start invading several other countries who we just 'know' are going to do bad stuff in the future.
I certainly hope that if Bush is re-elected that he doesn't repeat this sort of mistake and decide to go invading another country for similar flimsy reasons. If he does then how long will it be before Russia, China, Germany & France (yeah, it's a wild scenario, but world wars have started over lesser things) decide that the leader of the US is a dangerous asshole who has nukes and must be taken out.
I know the job market isn't that great. Hell, I'm only working part time. But I ALSO know that Bush inherited a HORRIBLE economic situation and managed to turn it into the smallest recession in US history.
I'm only working part-time as well, but to call this the 'smallest recession in US history' seems to go against what the experience of millions of Americans tells them. Sure from some kind of ivory tower economic formula it was a short recession, but experience tells us that in many ways the recession continues to this day for lots of folks. There are many of us who are makine much less than we were 4 years ago. It really seems as though we need some other metric for economic growth because if that was the 'smallest recession in US history' then we must not be measuring correctly anymore.
I know the world doesn't agree with us. People: THIS IS OKAY. The world looks out for the world. The US needs to look out for the US.
But the fact remains that after 9/11 world opinion was strongly with US, but now a mere 3 years later Bush has managed to squander that goodwill. We had the opportunity to leverage our the 'war on terrorism' and thus share the burden, but now we seem hellbent on doing it all on our own and bearing the cost (both in $ and blood).
The Zaurus (I've got a 5500) is a cool little device. Stick a CF wifi card in it and you can check your email and surf the web when you're out on the road. It's a lot easier to pack a Zaurus than it is to pack a laptop. Most of the time the Zaurus is just fine for this purpose.
hell maybe if it had a ethernet jack on it
Actually, it's pretty easy to put a CF Wifi card in one (I've got an SL-5500) and use it to surf the web and check email when you're out and about. They're a lot smaller than a laptop and much easier to carry around.
Oh, and full size keyboards are available.
I really think that if you're coming from Perl you'll prefer
Ruby to Python. No indentation hassles with Ruby, for example. You'll also like the way Ruby does OO compared to Perl OO. More Rubilicious links...
Also, The Pragmatic Programmers have released a new edition of Programming Ruby that's a great intro and reference to the language - go buy it from their website.
Ruby: Because I can't wait around for Perl 6 to get finished
Bush is against abortion and the destruction of embryos for stem cell research; Kerry is not. For this reason alone, Bush will be receiving my vote.
But that's such a simplistic view of 'pro-life'. Sure, I voted for Bush last time for similar reasons. However, I no longer consider Bush to be truely 'pro-life'. Killing 20000+ Iraqis (it's estimated that half of them were innocent civilians) , 1050 US soldiers dead, 24000 wounded - this doesn't seem to me to be 'pro-life'. Also, Bush's environmental record is abysmal - again this doesn't seem to be 'pro-life'. He's for the death penalty - how is that 'pro-life'? Cuts in medical care for the poor - again, how is this 'pro-life'? We need to also be concerned with people who are no longer in the womb as well...
I'll be voting for Kerry this time.
The Lowell Sun endorsement is based solely on national security and it can be argued that Bush is wrong on security. He's sent a major portion of the National Guard to Iraq. The National Guard was intended to protect the homeland (National Guard means guard the nation), not to be sent for the pResident's overseas adventures. Also, Bush let the chemical industry off easily by agreeing not to force them to take certain measures to protect their infrastructure - this endangers many cities in the US because chemical plants are still easy targets.
The Iconoclast's (OK, I agree, that is a strange name) endorsement by contrast covers not only security but also economic issues. The article cogently outlines all of the reasons they can't support Bush this time. Since I voted for Bush last time, I know how they feel - betrayed!
Given his record, I'm at a loss to figure out why Bush has the amount of support he does this time around. I chalk it up to Kerry's appearance as a being a weak candidate - though he seems to be doing of good job of dispelling this image in the debates.
I'm not a huge Kerry fan, but I look at it strategically: The Republicans will probably still controll Congress on Nov. 3rd. If we return Bush to power with a Repuplican congress he'll be able to do a lot more damage. If we send up Kerry with a Republican congress it'll slow down the damage.
Yeah, but it turns out that McCarthy was partially right about Communists in the state department (and other parts of the US gov including the Treasury dept). See the Venona Papers on Wikipedia as well as the entry for Alger Hiss.
This is not to excuse McCarthy's tactics. If you accuse enough people (and McCarthy certainly accused a lot of people) you're bound to get a few of them right.
OK, so let's say they dig that 12' trench through the school yard during the summer. And let's say you're the principal and you ask what the hell is going on and the answer you get is: "Sorry, can't tell you that, it's priviledged information"
OR, what if the school gets built a year or two after the pipeline goes in. Who is going to tell the school district that they'd better not build their school in that location? How are they going to explain why they shouldn't build there?
Practically speaking, you have a point: Somebody's gonna notice a big pipeline going in. And people will ask questions. They just won't get straight answers.
Terrorists are hiding under every rock, and behind every Bush. It's the new excuse for taking away our rights - "We can't let you see that because the terrorists could use it!"
Recently on Now with Bill Moyers (PBS, Friday nights, great show) there was a story about a major natural gas pipeline that would be passing near towns and populated areas. Problem is that no one could find out exactly what the route would be because of terrorism concerns. So it could pass under a school and no one would be allowed to know that. It was a great deal for the company building the pipeline because they didn't have to fight any protests over it running too close to someone's house.
So much FUD.
Portland relies on hydro power rather than dirty power. Isn't it odd that a region that sells its excess kilowatts to other regions is one of the few places in the US where green housing is seriously considered?
Sure, we have a lot of hydro power available in Oregon & Washington, however, in recent years our power bills have nearly doubled because of 'deregulation'. What 'deregulation' means for us here is that we now have to pay market rates for electricity because all of our hydro power is now put on the open market. (perhaps good for other areas of the country, bad for us - the NorthWest was screwed by deregulation) What that means is that we used to have cheap power here (because of hydro), but now we're paying almost the same as most other metropolitan areas in the US. My power bill went from about $50/month about five years ago to $100/month now. (oh, and Enron buying our local power company [PGE] didn't help).
The other factor to consider with hydro is that it harms migrating salmon, so there are times of the year when the dams have to be either shut down or running with less turbines. Also, there probably will not be anymore hydro development in the Northwest due to environmental concerns so we need to find ways to accomodate a growing population - conservation is a big part of this.
Add to this the fact that Portland is one of the most environmentally-aware communities you'll find anywhere in the US. People tend to bike and take public transportation a lot more than in other areas of the country.
This is a great acheivement and all, but I didn't see any numbers showing efficiency, voltage& curreent produced/square cm, etc.
How do they compare to silicon based solar cells both in price (now they probably can't, but what about future projections), power density and efficiency?
Forget Perl 6. I want a Ruby compiler for Parrot. Anyway Perl 6's VM, Parrot, is a more important accomplishment than Perl 6, the language.
Indeed. And Ruby seems to be what Perl 6 aspires to be. Seriously, look at the list of features being added to Perl 6 and you get the idea that they're being heavily influenced by Ruby. They even have the idea of the 'Ruby-meter' in the Perl 6 community; as in how well does a particular proposed feature score on the 'Ruby-meter', so even they seem to think of Ruby as the benchmark.
BTW: If you're looking for a Ruby frontend for Parrot, why not jump in and help us make one? The project is called
Cardinal
Ruby: Because I can't wait until Perl 6 is finished
Not a chance. Silicon Valley has 3 things going for it that will make it last forever.
No center of anything (cultural, technological, commercial, religious) will last forever. A cursory look at history shows that nations rise and fall.
China itself was once the technological, cultural, artistic leader of the world till about 600 years ago when Europe began to emerge from the dark ages.
No, eventually (and it could be happening now, or it could be in 100 years) Silicon Valley will cease to be the technological center of the world and it will go back to being one of the best farming areas in the world. One thing definately going against it now is the cost of living. That's certainly hurting it now. Also, when it comes to climate, you neglect the geological climate (earthquakes) - it has a very stormy one.
The US is 'investing' (wasting) $200+Billion on a senseless war in Iraq while China is investing Billions on R&D.
Ridiculous software/tech patents are costing the US Billions in litigation not to mention the stiffling effect on innovation.
The US K-12 education system is a mess, while the Chinese consistently score much higher in math & science tests.
Nations rise and fall. Look at the long view of history. Go back one or two thousand years and you'll find that China was on top then when Europe was in the dark ages. We had our time in the Sun, maybe it's just about over.
Set up a Linux box at home. It can be an old machine that's not able to run WinXP.
As far as distros go, you could choose whichever distro they plan to run at work. If they haven't selected one yet you could try the Xandros Free version for now to get your feet wet - it's supposed to be quite easy to set up. Or you could try one of the liveCDs like Knoppix for a while. After that if you really want to learn all of the ins & outs I would suggest Gentoo - you'll learn a lot setting it up since they don't have much in the way of easy install tools yet. Gentoo makes you dig into a lot of stuff to get it installed. After you install Gentoo, you'll have learned a lot.
In their paper, Mr. Bhagwati and his co-authors write that such an assessment of the education systems of India and China "almost borders on the ludicrous." In an interview, Mr. Bhagwati said, "You have a lot of people, but that doesn't mean they are qualified.
The problem is that management doesn't seem to care if they're qualified or not. If they can save a buck (or many bucks in this case) they seem to overlook the qualifications.
Some of the jobs being offshored would have lots of requirements stated in explicit detail if advertised here in the US (such that it would be virtually impossible to find anyone who has all of the required skills) , but when they're sent to India those requirements tend to get overlooked... "You've got a BSCS from Bangalore Uni - you're hired!"
The thinking on management's part seems to be that they can make up for lack of technical skills by throwing more (cheap by US standards) bodies at the problem.
Eventually they'll realize that this doesn't work (and anecdotal evidence suggests that this is already beginning to happen).
THe point is that young men at that general ago are hardwired to NEED some sort of rigorous disciplinary training.... they are basically hardwired to need this type of experience.
Huh? You make a very sweeping generalization here. I personally don't think I was 'hardwired' for a military-school type experience when I was 13-17 years old. I think in many cases you'll kill something in a lot of boys that age if you send them off to military school (you'll kill creativity, imagination, curiosity, etc.).
There may be some (definately a minority) who 'need' this sort of thing, but you shouldn't force the rest to conform.