That said, there's not much useful new software coming out (I'd love to be proven wrong w/ download links) --- mostly it's just up-dates to stuff I've already d/l'd and installed:
LyX Scribus Inkscape
I'd love to find a modern alternative / successor to Zoomracks (I want a freeform database which allows calculations on information w/in it).
No U.S. Soldier or Marine on the ground has died as a result of an enemy air attack since WWII --- _that_ is what an improved technology, e.g., air superiourity buys one.
>neglected to plant non-Bt corn within Bt fields or in surrounding fields as a way to create a "refuge" for non-resistant rootworms in the hope they will mate with resistant rootworms and dilute their genes.
- I knew farmers would be resistant to the need to do plant such sacrificial surrounding crops --- I'd love to see Monsanto sue the farmers who didn't follow directions for destroying the value of their research. Of course, one hopes the lawyer defending the farmers will devalue said research by pointing out that Monsanto didn't expect it to be effective for more than a hundred years or so, as compared to the 10,000 or so years people have been farming.
>result of farmers who've planted Bt corn year after year in the same fields.
- but I'm surprised that they're giving up the well-documented benefits of crop rotation --- please tell me that ``organic'' labelling indicates that farmers do sensible things like crop rotation.
I want to see the lawsuit of the organic farmer whose crops are contaminated by the GMO crops (which aren't planted in accordance w/ the corporate guidelines of a sacrificial buffer strip of non-GMO crops around the edge of the field) as opposed to the set-piece lawsuit of the farmer who altered his crop rotation so as to capture pollen from a neighboring field to gain the advantages of the GMO crops w/o paying the license.
Jack Vance's Lyonesse Trilogy --- Suldrun's Garden, The Green Pearl, Madouc --- if you love high fantasy, and words which feel as if they are part of an oral tradition, this will resonate.
Steinbeck's _The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights_ --- read this just before Lyonesse if you're not familiar w/ Arthurian stories.
Susan Cooper's _The Dark is Rising_ pentalogy --- a set of books which actually would merit the sort of attention which was paid to the Harry Potter books and which makes the reader a better person.
Terri Windling's ``Fairy Tales'' series --- an amazing collection of books where contemporary authors re-write / tell a fairy tale. Jane Yolen's _Briar Rose is amazing and moving.
Agree w/ Cherryh's Alliance-Union books --- the most realistic space combat descriptions I've found yet and her fantasy works, the Morgaine trilogy (and sequel) and _The Tree of Sword and Jewels_ and _The Dreamstone_ are amazing.
I envy your living in Finland on this basis --- once, when working on packaging for shampoo, had to deal w/ the warning text which had to be customized for each country's legal and health system.
If memory serves, the French was the longest (though that may simply've been because of the verbosity of the language), and the warning texts all had typical injunctions of ``external use only'', ``keep out of eyes'', &c., save for the Finnish, which was so short, that I couldn't resist asking for the translation...
like to those used for firearms by people who carry concealed weapons when they're forced to leave their sidearm in their vehicle (e.g., when dropping by the post office or a bank).
I interviewed w/ a publisher in Philadelphia, and one of the things which appealed to me about the work-place was that the door to the conference room was hidden as one set of shelves in a wall of bookshelves.
This is why the U.S. shouldn't've dumped all those Liberator pistols over into Pacific Ocean when Japan surrendered --- should've kept them around as a threat to despotic regimes --- if you don't behave, we'll airdrop these onto all of your population centers.
Cancelled out and then some by the Irish monks copying books which saved much of the knowledge and literature which is at the core of our civilization:
_How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History)_ by Thomas Cahill
Windows XP for Tablet PCs wasn't _that_ bad, especially after the SP1 patch.
I've been using a tablet as my primary machine since NEC's NCR-3125 though, and find having a stylus invaluable for:
- marking up.pdfs in Adobe Acrobat
- drawing using FutureWave SmartSketch, Macromedia FreeHand, Creaturehouse Expression and AutoDesk Sketchbook
- writing out and then converting math equations into their LaTeX code using Infty Editor
- note-taking using EverNote
The tablet interface is also wonderfully immediate and immersive for a wide variety of games, most notably:
- RPGs done using the Infinity Engine such as Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale and their sequels
- the Microprose Magic: The Gathering computer game (much more affordable than buying physical cards)
It's also convenient for web browsing &c., and since the Fujitsu Stylistic ST-4121 I'm currently using has a daylight viewable display, it's very useful as a map reader when traveling.
I already get more vacation than I use each year (but my boss is kind enough to file the paperwork to roll it over), and I've missed work for being sick exactly once in my life (caught a nasty flu bug a couple of years ago and chose to stay home so as to hopefully not infect any co-workers).
What happens to society when a significant number of people:
- get their power from solar cells and geothermal
- have automated greenhouses (scaled up Aerogardens like the Aero Grow folks make) which provide much of their food needs (anyone run the numbers on how much seaweed one could grow in a tank the size of a typical house window?)
- make tchochkes (and small useful objects as well) using a makerbot or reprap or diylilcnc
- capture rainwater and filter / purify it, use grey water for washing and minimize their sewer bill w/ a composting toilet
Bonus points for those who are able to use excess energy to generate hydrogen which is then used to power their vehicles.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, one needs to be a commissioned officer, Captain last time I checked to be flying a drone (for the Air Force at least).
FWIW, the most useful list of software I've found recently is Hyper Jeff's OS X (Native) Applications list:
http://osx.hyperjeff.net/Apps/apps.php?w=1
which allows filtering by license type.
That said, there's not much useful new software coming out (I'd love to be proven wrong w/ download links) --- mostly it's just up-dates to stuff I've already d/l'd and installed:
LyX
Scribus
Inkscape
I'd love to find a modern alternative / successor to Zoomracks (I want a freeform database which allows calculations on information w/in it).
William
Exactly.
No U.S. Soldier or Marine on the ground has died as a result of an enemy air attack since WWII --- _that_ is what an improved technology, e.g., air superiourity buys one.
William
From the article:
>neglected to plant non-Bt corn within Bt fields or in surrounding fields as a way to create a "refuge" for non-resistant rootworms in the hope they will mate with resistant rootworms and dilute their genes.
- I knew farmers would be resistant to the need to do plant such sacrificial surrounding crops --- I'd love to see Monsanto sue the farmers who didn't follow directions for destroying the value of their research. Of course, one hopes the lawyer defending the farmers will devalue said research by pointing out that Monsanto didn't expect it to be effective for more than a hundred years or so, as compared to the 10,000 or so years people have been farming.
>result of farmers who've planted Bt corn year after year in the same fields.
- but I'm surprised that they're giving up the well-documented benefits of crop rotation --- please tell me that ``organic'' labelling indicates that farmers do sensible things like crop rotation.
William
koan wrote:
>POTUS has pretty good Intel on likely future scenarios, in a dry World what's more valuable than oil? Water.
Science fiction story on that:
http://www.amazon.com/Texas-Rocks-Daniel-Cruz/dp/0345316592
William
I want to see the lawsuit of the organic farmer whose crops are contaminated by the GMO crops (which aren't planted in accordance w/ the corporate guidelines of a sacrificial buffer strip of non-GMO crops around the edge of the field) as opposed to the set-piece lawsuit of the farmer who altered his crop rotation so as to capture pollen from a neighboring field to gain the advantages of the GMO crops w/o paying the license.
William
Jack Vance's Lyonesse Trilogy --- Suldrun's Garden, The Green Pearl, Madouc --- if you love high fantasy, and words which feel as if they are part of an oral tradition, this will resonate.
Steinbeck's _The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights_ --- read this just before Lyonesse if you're not familiar w/ Arthurian stories.
Susan Cooper's _The Dark is Rising_ pentalogy --- a set of books which actually would merit the sort of attention which was paid to the Harry Potter books and which makes the reader a better person.
Terri Windling's ``Fairy Tales'' series --- an amazing collection of books where contemporary authors re-write / tell a fairy tale. Jane Yolen's _Briar Rose is amazing and moving.
Agree w/ Cherryh's Alliance-Union books --- the most realistic space combat descriptions I've found yet and her fantasy works, the Morgaine trilogy (and sequel) and _The Tree of Sword and Jewels_ and _The Dreamstone_ are amazing.
William
I envy your living in Finland on this basis --- once, when working on packaging for shampoo, had to deal w/ the warning text which had to be customized for each country's legal and health system.
If memory serves, the French was the longest (though that may simply've been because of the verbosity of the language), and the warning texts all had typical injunctions of ``external use only'', ``keep out of eyes'', &c., save for the Finnish, which was so short, that I couldn't resist asking for the translation...
which was simply, ``for use on hair''.
William
like to those used for firearms by people who carry concealed weapons when they're forced to leave their sidearm in their vehicle (e.g., when dropping by the post office or a bank).
http://www.google.com/?q=vehicle+firearms+safe
William
That's why I prefer to live in a community where the Sheriff is a locally-elected official.
I interviewed w/ a publisher in Philadelphia, and one of the things which appealed to me about the work-place was that the door to the conference room was hidden as one set of shelves in a wall of bookshelves.
William
This is why the U.S. shouldn't've dumped all those Liberator pistols over into Pacific Ocean when Japan surrendered --- should've kept them around as a threat to despotic regimes --- if you don't behave, we'll airdrop these onto all of your population centers.
Cancelled out and then some by the Irish monks copying books which saved much of the knowledge and literature which is at the core of our civilization:
_How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History)_ by Thomas Cahill
mholve asked:
>Have you SEEN what's on TV?
_That_ is why I watch ~1 hour an 10 minutes or so of broadcast TV each week --- _This Old House_ on PBS and _Nintendo Week_ on the Nintendo Channel.
Windows XP for Tablet PCs wasn't _that_ bad, especially after the SP1 patch.
I've been using a tablet as my primary machine since NEC's NCR-3125 though, and find having a stylus invaluable for:
- marking up .pdfs in Adobe Acrobat
- drawing using FutureWave SmartSketch, Macromedia FreeHand, Creaturehouse Expression and AutoDesk Sketchbook
- writing out and then converting math equations into their LaTeX code using Infty Editor
- note-taking using EverNote
The tablet interface is also wonderfully immediate and immersive for a wide variety of games, most notably:
- RPGs done using the Infinity Engine such as Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale and their sequels
- the Microprose Magic: The Gathering computer game (much more affordable than buying physical cards)
It's also convenient for web browsing &c., and since the Fujitsu Stylistic ST-4121 I'm currently using has a daylight viewable display, it's very useful as a map reader when traveling.
William
Why does anything need to be done to accelerate this process?
Hal Clement had that scene in his short story ``Fireproof'' which was published in the collection _Space Lash_ / _Small Changes_.
``Fireproof'' I think it was, in his collection _Space Lash (formerly published as _Small Changes_)_.
Looks like his theorization on the science was good (as it usually is).
That book, and The Mad Scientists Club books made a huge impact in my childhood.
Excellent point, but profits are a larger share now than they were then, and _that's_ what's wrong w/ this picture.
I already get more vacation than I use each year (but my boss is kind enough to file the paperwork to roll it over), and I've missed work for being sick exactly once in my life (caught a nasty flu bug a couple of years ago and chose to stay home so as to hopefully not infect any co-workers).
What happens to society when a significant number of people:
- get their power from solar cells and geothermal
- have automated greenhouses (scaled up Aerogardens like the Aero Grow folks make) which provide much of their food needs (anyone run the numbers on how much seaweed one could grow in a tank the size of a typical house window?)
- make tchochkes (and small useful objects as well) using a makerbot or reprap or diylilcnc
- capture rainwater and filter / purify it, use grey water for washing and minimize their sewer bill w/ a composting toilet
Bonus points for those who are able to use excess energy to generate hydrogen which is then used to power their vehicles.
William
Increased automation was supposed to bring more leisure time and higher pay --- instead it's been used to prop up corporate profits:
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1345
I want a politician to stand up and demand a shorter work week --- force companies to either hire more workers or pay more overtime.
Recycling is cool and all, but it's not like this is a new / unique / unanticipated capability:
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/SDP/Privacy_Filters/
William
Surprising there wasn't a link there in the story since Susan Kare was featured in them. A few stories from there:
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=MacPaint_Gallery.txt
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Steve,_Icon.txt
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Desk_Ornaments.txt
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=World_Class_Cities.txt
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Swedish_Campground.txt
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Stolen_From_Apple.txt
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Pirate_Flag.txt
William
Yep. Read Jerry Kaplan's book _StartUp_ for another side of this story.