To add to this--the Gentoo Forums are usually a VERY helpful place to get information. What really set Gentoo apart is the ability of the current users to not post a response as RTFM!!
If they do, they usualy link directly to the portion of TFM you need to read.....
Can we just impeach these clowns or what. THe 9th circuit is so outrageous and wacko that they need to all be replaced. We need to start with some clean (or how about SANE) judges. While I may frequently disagree with several justices in the supreme court (the only other court with which I am familiar with the individual members), they at least are friggen sane.
These are the same people who said that VOLUNTARY recitation in schools of the pledge of allegiance violates the 1st amendment for using the words "under God" among other things.
They've done more. Googling for their recent flububs is an exercise left to the reader.
Re:Sad state of affairs...
on
Stealth Inflation
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Yes physicians and hospitals can really bilk it up. Upon reviewing the bill for my grandmother's expenses there were charges for services like x-rays and other tests dated AFTER SHE WAS DEAD AND IN THE GROUND!! Got to hand it to em...most people don't bother to check cause its all billed to insurance. I beleive on a 200,000 dollar bill there was some 40,000 in bogus charges (money racks up in the ICU).
Your speech can be used against you but that doesn't mean its restricted. No one will ever be arrested for the act of yelling "Fire" in a crowded theater. They will be arrested (assuming everyone doesn the normal thing and bolts for the doors) for causing unnessecary panic etc... The law broken was not a law that restricts speech in a certain area but one in which you decided to be a jerk and cause mass panic. The difference is subtle but important.
Your speech can certainly be used as evidence to convict you of other crimes--as you are advised in your Miranda rights.
But you can yell "Fire" in a crowded theater! You would not be charged with a speech violation--you would be charged with inciting mayhem or whatever.
You are free to say what you want in this country--however, you are responsible for the consequences of that speech. Your speech may be used as a "motive" for some other crime, however (cuasing panic, death threats etc...).
Unfortunatly some important people called the Supreme Court disagree with you...
In ~1990 they defined "the people" in the constitution as the individuals citizens of the US.
I beleive the ruling is US vs Vasquesz. It makes specific refernce to the use of the pharse "the people" and gives a definition of what that means w/ respect to the 2,4,5, and 9th amendmants.
I went from a 80 hour work week to a 50 hour work week and from a place I really didn't like to the number one location on my list.
I used to work for a semi-conductor manufacturer in Devlopement (no hints--but its product was the P4) and they were nice enough to hire me staright outta grad school. Then they were nice enough to expect stupifying hours, no weekends and 24 hours on call. But it paid my internet bills to......
Find a job!
But it took a lot of persistance and didn't happen overnight. I spent roughly 16 months send out app after app, resume after resume, searching and searching for the right job. And then it happened.
Benifits: No more anti-depresents No more anxiety medication Weekends off Evenings off Hair growing back Threw pager in trash (ok so I turned it in when I left)
Downside: None
Moral of story--if you don't like it CHANGE. Soon enough companies figure out that they are losing their best people becuase of stress and overwork. But Why wait yourself--you can find an eqaul paying job with less stress. It takes only time and persistance.
Seriously though, it is important in our understanding of both heavy nuclei physics and stellar astrophysics. That knowledge will not have an immediate benifit that most people can see. Eventaully that understanding will lead to some helpful devices and ideas that most people will go "ah-hah!" about. But inbetween breakthroughs we are inching along to set ourselves up for the next a-hah! moment.
As an example Americium (element 95--artifcially produced) is used often in smoke detectors. Back in the 30s and 40s the same argument could have been made, whats the point of all these artificial elelments?--but eventually "something" came out of it.
But more intangible furthering of knowledge is the real goal. Eventually there is some hope (and theory) that stable elements will be produced in the 115-120 atomic number range. Its hard to say exactly what hard "benefit" will come--maybe nothing, maybe something exceiting. They call it "re"-search for a reason! For now we will have to be content that we know more than we did before.
So you could say we are doing just because its there--but we are learning from it as well.
I call SHENANIGANS. Having (obviously) earned a degee and taken a position with industry, the difference is a night and day. In "The Real World (TM)" no one works a 9-5 job and makes the money that Ph.Ds make (myself included). But there is a difference between 60+ hour weeks and 100+ hour weeks. When the SHTF here, I may be here late, busting my butt. But when things are slow, I can take some time and go fishing, or *gasp* watch my son's soccor game. In industry I am allowed to take time off. Take time off in grad school and watch your boss go postal.
In graduate school I worked solid for 5 years including holidays and weekends with no vacation (Inluding CHristmas and THanksgiving as those were times when you could gets lots of work done). Many of my friends had similar experiences
I wold sumbit that in physics graduate school you CANNOT have a family. The job requirements (from faculty) are too stringint. When I had my first child my boss was upset that I was gone for 2 days (MY wife was in labor for 24 hours). There is a difference between working hard and slavery. Grad School is out and out slavery. This differes from professor to professor, but if you want to continue on, chances are you're not working for Mr. Personality, so you can get a good recommendation.
This post shows the kind of attitude that drives people out. If you don't work 7 days a week 10-12 hours a day you're a slacker. I call bullshi*t. In my first post-grad job, I often had 80+ hour work weeks. I still found time to start my family and find time to enjoy life. It was a cakewalk compared to graduate education. WHen "The price of excellence" includes working your staff so hard they fall asleep driving home because they average 6 hours of sleep or less over long periods of time, your standards are out of wack.
So fine--I'm a slacker because I'm interested in seeing my children, not working myself to death, and spending every waking moment in the labratory. But those slacker bosses of mine keep giving my those stupifying high-paying jobs and promotions. So lemme see here --work everyday for 40K, struggle to get tenure, struggle for funding, or work a normal schedule, get weekends off, have millions of dollars of funding, get paid 100K, three weeks paid vacation, most weekends off--hmmm Yup! I'm a slacker. A rich relaxed slacker doin the same work as a Professor, except of course--I get paid more, my funding is much more stable (not to mention there's a lot more of it), oh--and instead of forcing graduate student to be my bitch--I have 24/7 support from engineers and technicians who are not worked to death.
Survive college and graduate school. He'd need to get into a decent college which really isn't too bad for most people of intellect. He would then need to be selected for graduate school. Given the meat grinder that that process is, based on test scores and "refernce letters (aka who blows^H^H^H^H^H knows who system" chances are fair he'd probably end up at a non-prestigous school (strike 1!).
Then he'd have to survive the meat grinder of grad school itself. Sucking up to professors, jumping through artificial test hoops, begging, and whoring himself for assistantships. Upon completing his thesis hope he hasn't pissed off his professor (oops--Isaac you left to go to theology studies on Sunday mornings, no recommendation for you, you could have spent that time developing quantum gravity instead of regular gravity, and if you really applied yourself you could have had quantum relatavistic gravity.....) Strike 2.
Hey Isaac! You've just earned your degree after earning ~15K for 6 years at a "part-time" job where you worked 80+ hours per week. Now in exchange for a double of your pay raise--you can take a temporary (2-year) job as a post-doc and be expected to work even harder, longer hours. No need to thank us. (strike 3!)
Now Dr. Newton needs a professor ship and he's got between 1-3 strikes against him.
I think Issac may have been like many (but not all) science Ph.Ds and took the money and run... (pssst buddy--check this out--For 80 to 100Gs, I'll give you 2 days off a week, PAID vacation, and I'll even let you see the sun sometimes. While we're at it--take some stock, have some decent health care. All ya gotta do is sell your soul to the Devil "aka The Man, aka Industry"
Issac thinks a minute...... Fsck Hooke and Liebonitz! (I never could spell his name--lousy scum). I'm takin my vacation at Disneyland (PAID)!
Yeah I'm a too little negative on the system after going thru it (my therapist says its good to vent my anger)--but it weeds out far too many good people with the bad. People who instead of working stupifying hours chose that thing called a family (yes even geeks finds Sig. others) or sleeping at night. Add to that the buracracy of gettin hired as a prof and the whole tenure inbred system. Is it anywonder that our Univeristies are populated with psychotic misifts with the social skills of Hitler?
What they mean is that they have discovered ferromagnetic ordering in semiconductors at room temperature. Translation--"magnetic" behavior in semiconductors at room temperature. MRAM and hard drives all use ferromagnetic conductors or "Magnetic" metals
Had this happened at my company (intel) and you reported what you just did the following would have happened (minimum).
1.) Severe discipline to you. You opened an energized high voltage area without proper electrical Lock Out/Tag out. Had you been an onsite contractor, you would have had your badge pulled and kindly escorted off the premises by two burly rent-a-cops.Employee may have kept their job with a warning and probationary plan. But they prboably would have fired you anyway.
2.) Company safety stand down. That means people at no less than 4 sites with billions of dollars of product would have been brought to a halt.
3.) Big stupid meetings. I hate big stupid meetings.
I exagernate not, becuase people here have been kind enough to provide a working example. One of those was nice enough to stick a screwdrive into a Live 408V 3-phase supply on one of our toolsets in New Mexico. The metal panel he connected to went molten and exploded back at him. Fortune smiled upon him that day as he only had shrapnel holes in his clean-room suit. A couple inches the other way and he was a Darwin Candidate.
Perpendicular read/write is based on the GMR (Giant Magnetoresistance) effect. There were also GMR devices in longitudinal recording but I'll get to that in a second.
Basically in 1990 someone discovered that in magnetic multilayers you could create a very large change in resistance by varying a magnetic field. The effect is this: magnetic materials have "spin-dependant" resistance, meaning that the resistance of the layer is dependant upon the spin of the electrons going thru. If you send current thru a magnetic layer the spins will try and align to the smagnetic field. If you have alternating layers of magnetic field the resistance becomes very high. If all the layers are alligned parallel, the resistance is low. The trick is getting the magnetic layers to align when you want them to and how you want them to. Heres's a quick diagram:
High Res Low Res Fe-Layer Magnetic Field -> Magnetic Field -> Cu-Layer Fe-Layer Magnetic Field/- Magnetic Field ->
Now if you imagine the layers like a sandwich there are two ways to flow current. The first is along the current flows parralel to the layer interfaces or in plane. This is longitudianl recording or Current-in-plane recording. This was used initially because it was perfect first and was easy to implement sine the resistances were "normal range" (Ohms scale). You can also flow current perpendicular or thru the sandwich. This actually gives a bigger GMR affect since each electron is "forced" thru each layer, whereas in CIP geometry most of the current flows thru the Copper spacer. Again a diagram is in order:
Layers.... Perp. Current Material.... ^ Fe-Layer.... | Cu-Layer..... | Parallel Current -----> Fe-Layer.... |
The problem with perpendicular geometry is the resistances are so very small (10e-9 Ohms) since the layers are typically only several nm thick. (resistance = resistivity X distance / cross sectional area) that it is very difficult to make them into devices. Now with the advanced lithography from semi-condcutors it is posible to make devices with resistances high enough (Divide a small number by a smaller number and get a BIG number!--see the resistance formula) to make hard-drive devices and take advantage of the increased GMR affect for the perpendicular geometry.
If you have access to Physical Review search under Albert Fert for perpendicalar recording as a starting point. You may find his papers very complex but its referenced enough that you'll find links to good stuff (inluding the kick-off papers for the original GMR research). Those without a Phys Rev subscription may google for CPP GMR and CIP GMR.
Actually this is pretty much the truth (Headline SCO Hires Underpants Gnomes as new Chief Finicaial Consultant).
Listening to the interview over at CNet the other day its quite obvious that SCO is after their piece of the pie NOT protecting their IP (I know--I shouldn't read the articles but just post blindly). Why? The interviewes ask Darl "Why not just tell [Linux Coders] what the offending code is and they can replace it?" Darl essentially answers that it would be a big problem and role the code base back to a 2.2 kernel state that is not as good for enterprise (Let me translate: "Yes we could do that, but we wouldn't be able to make any money off of that solution")
The interview then goes on to ask Darl if SCO is just not bitter that IBM gave them the shaft on a cheap Unix on Intel soution by switching to Linux on Intel and making a boatload of money while SCO was left in the cold. Darl's answer was "Yes!"
Another interesting thing about this whole issue is ow SCO figured out the code was coming from IBM AIX? If there is a problem why not go after the offending submitter instead of the company. Do they have proof its IBM as a company and not some rogue coders?
Finally while basically claiming the SCO pVVn3p all Unix for ever and ever and so on, they seemed to shy away from the are you going after BSD? question. Interesting becuase BSD has NO money!! They talked about RedHat and if SCO would go after RedHat--Darl says no becuase that would shut down Linux. They don't want to shut down Linux, they want to SYPHON THE PROFITS!
I know from several of my colleagues that Al-Jazeera prides itself on being the 'CNN of the Arab' world. Now, I don't speak or read arabic yet, so I've had to read it through translation sites until recently when the english site cam up (english.aljazeera.net). Anyhoo, it is pretty slanted pro-arab, anti-american. However, it DID contain some very interesting articles and insights. Many of their stories are less than objective, but many of their insights are INVALUABLE, because there is no way in hell, "Western" media would report on them. Now I'm not fostering the idea that CNN, Fox, or even the BBC is some sort of perfect objective school of journalism. God knows they can be pretty slanted themselves. I think if Al-Jazeera works at trying to be more objective, they could really become a valuable member of the news community.
My biggest fault with them in the english site seemed to mix opinion pieces with fact reporting. Like all news sites, the editors can have an opinion pieces, but they should seperate it out from the reporting. I'm sure with the anti-western bias, combined with their less than stellar "objective" reports, they've got an uphill climb. We'd be far more forgiving if they were "pro-american," but then they would also give up a lot of access to the arab world that they enjoy. I hope they clean things up. They did correctly report the non-uprising in Basra, and a couple other items the western news got wrong. However, the comments embedded in the story ruined the factual reporting.
I insist we send cease and desist letters to the Sun IMMEDAITELY! The sun's nuclear program cannot be allowed to continue in space. ALERT THE UN. PASS A TREATY! DO SOMETHING NOW! It contains more radiation than all our nuclear weapons COMBINED! MAKE IT STOP!
NO NUKES IN SPACE!
Now if you'll excuse me I have to go tilt with a windmill--er dragon
Negative temperature (as in less than absolute zero) do exist as temperature is defined in thermodynamics as the change in entropy (read randomness) of the system. or 1/T = dS/dU T=Temp, S=Entropy, E=Energy
So any system that increases entropy while absorbing energy (or decreases entropy while emitting energy) is by definition at negative temperature. The weirdness comes from the fact that negative temperature are "hotter" than postive temperatures. A negative temperature system will transfer energy to a positive temperature system.
The confusion arises from extrapaltion of the idea gas. We know that air behaves like an idea gas, and our concepts of temperature come from the ideal gas, while the strict definition of temperature comes from statistical mechanics and when applied to ideal gases gives the behavior we all know and love. But its very strange when we extrapolate the ideas of the idea gas to items like electrons in atomic levels, which is incorrect. The statistical mechanics laws apply here as well but we should drop our association with things like gases because electrons in the atomic shell are not a "gas"
SO yes you can "cardinaly" produce a negative temperature.
Intel has no more than 40% manufacturing in one area for this precise reason (of course they have enough manufacuring they can afford it). I can't speak for how AMD works it.
Although 1 major Pacific NW Earth quake near portland (which, although not california is still an "Earthquake area" )and Bye bye Intel R&D. Of course the buildings are made to withstand 8.0 earthquakes. They were going to build stronger but found it cheaper to build a new plant in case of disaster.
This goes more deeply than a piece of inanimate steel and some chemical powders. In fact we should point out that there are almost several "Americas" where different experiences and ideas. This causes a lot of problems when studying the firearms issue.
In rural America crime is very low and people have a long history of gun ownership.
In suburban america crime is also low but gun ownership is not as prevalent.
In urban american gun crime is very high and gun ownership is low but highly criminal (mainly becuase most urban areas have severe restrictions).
Depending on which group you study, your outcome or statistics will vary. Gun Control advocates like to study urban areas of high crime and compare them to other countries. Gun rights advocates will favor the rural an suburban areas because crime there is very low an "We" look better compared to the rest of the world.
Fact is the non-urban crime rates favor well with the rest of the world. Our crime rates for inner cities do not. Factor in the American history of being very independant and mistrust of government--in the two first categories. Now put in the welfare state and dependanceon government of the inner city.
You can see where this is going. Its a mish mesh of crossing ideas and viewpoints that is a best a muddy mess. My only suggestion is to exmaine bery closely the arguments of both sides and your own beliefs and predjudices.
What got me (and YMMV) was the NRA relied on the FBI for its crime statistics and gun control relied on "focus groups". To me the FBI had no reason to lie. Now the argument can be made that gun rights spin the FBI numbers, and that is true--they can. However, my experience was closer to what gun rights were saying than gun control. BUt then again, I come from group 1...........
Games, Games, Games, ohhh and did I mention Games?
But not the ones you would think of. It was my 4 year olds software which no gamer in their right mind is porting to to Linux or BSD (Ok maybe I should do it). ANyways its hard to find setup info for Stanly's Adventure and Blues Clues on alt.quake.l337wankers
In addition the main (and I would say ONLY) advantage of Windows over *nix is out of box ready to go titles. While Quake is a dual-OS, not much more is without some significant twidling. I like screwing with the OS as much as the the next guy, but when it comes to hardcore girl on gir^H^H^H^H^H^H^H gaming I want to pop in the disk and GO!
The other minor pain is the proprietary MS stuff. Open Office/Star Office is a HUGE leap, but Internet Explorer problem is not going away. 99% of my surfing is Mozilla and Opera. Its that 1% for job hunting with sites only working on IE thats the (extremely irritating) killer. Its not like a sales site where I can just take my business elsewhere (and I do). This combined with work which runs only on IE for a lot of items *sigh* is a killer (I have to check factory items at home often--IE only as the pages won't load correctly at all in Mozilla and the menus don't work in Opera). Not to mention Ironic since we classify virus security threats HIGH when they run MS-OS and are connected to the internet, Meddium for MS non-internet connection and Low for Non-MS-OS.
Solve the game problem and the flood gates will open. Get out of box support for 80-90% of titles (including the drivers--which are a pain for new video cards--I'm looking at you ATI--your "support" of Open Source doesn't get me fragging any quicker) and this problem will go away. We've got everything else except IE and that is really a minor blip.
Ok-- I would have to agree with both reviews. Debian "seems" like a really bad kluge job for the installer. SLackware and Gentoo still have text installers, but Debian is lagging behind even them. I wanted to try Debian but never could get X working since I have a radeon 8500. After trying the experimental packages with no joy, I gave it the boot from the computer. Which is sad really cause I wanted in on the whole apt-get idea. But with X broken I really have no desire to go surfing for help in lynx (Sorry old school fellas). The lack of Xfree 4.2 was a HUGE factor in my decision to drop it. The installer was annoying, but not a stopping point. XFree at 4.1 was a point of no return. I understand the stability idea but 1 year is getting really slow. Espeically for a MAJOR item like X.
Acutally, I tried Gentoo as a semi-newbie. I've nearly all the major releases working but, it wasn't until I installed Gentoo that I really learned the inner workings of Linux systems. That was a HUGE benifit. If you are an 'experienced newbie' I would suggest if you have the Phat Pipe (TM) and l337 Hardware (TM), then wade into this full blast. Even if you don't keep Gentoo as you distribution of choice--You'll be better for the experience. The task is challenging but the documentation is good. I also personally like the non-bloatware feature and portage system (I admit nothing about being a BSD user!--you have no proof!).
Like I said give it a try. At the very least you can pick up some skills and that is worth the compile times (on a 1.2Ghz w/ 256DDR system takes me about a long evening start to command line--then emerge gnome or kde while you sleep).
In Oregon the Supreme court recently ruled that even if your Home security system goes off, the polics have no right to eneter your home unless they see specific criminal activity. This stemmed from an incident where cops found drugs (openly on a table in plain view) when responding to a security call from an NBA player's system.
Of course doing drugs doesn't anger the MPAA or RIAA so privacy here is ok. But had the bastard been file sharing we should of sent him to the big house for good!
Slashdot Mirror
To add to this--the Gentoo Forums are usually a VERY helpful place to get information. What really set Gentoo apart is the ability of the current users to not post a response as RTFM!!
If they do, they usualy link directly to the portion of TFM you need to read.....
Can we just impeach these clowns or what. THe 9th circuit is so outrageous and wacko that they need to all be replaced. We need to start with some clean (or how about SANE) judges. While I may frequently disagree with several justices in the supreme court (the only other court with which I am familiar with the individual members), they at least are friggen sane.
These are the same people who said that VOLUNTARY recitation in schools of the pledge of allegiance violates the 1st amendment for using the words "under God" among other things.
They've done more. Googling for their recent flububs is an exercise left to the reader.
Yes physicians and hospitals can really bilk it up. Upon reviewing the bill for my grandmother's expenses there were charges for services like x-rays and other tests dated AFTER SHE WAS DEAD AND IN THE GROUND!! Got to hand it to em...most people don't bother to check cause its all billed to insurance. I beleive on a 200,000 dollar bill there was some 40,000 in bogus charges (money racks up in the ICU).
Exactly my point--you don't get "speech tickets"
Your speech can be used against you but that doesn't mean its restricted. No one will ever be arrested for the act of yelling "Fire" in a crowded theater. They will be arrested (assuming everyone doesn the normal thing and bolts for the doors) for causing unnessecary panic etc... The law broken was not a law that restricts speech in a certain area but one in which you decided to be a jerk and cause mass panic. The difference is subtle but important.
Your speech can certainly be used as evidence to convict you of other crimes--as you are advised in your Miranda rights.
But you can yell "Fire" in a crowded theater! You would not be charged with a speech violation--you would be charged with inciting mayhem or whatever.
You are free to say what you want in this country--however, you are responsible for the consequences of that speech. Your speech may be used as a "motive" for some other crime, however (cuasing panic, death threats etc...).
Unfortunatly some important people called the Supreme Court disagree with you...
In ~1990 they defined "the people" in the constitution as the individuals citizens of the US.
I beleive the ruling is US vs Vasquesz. It makes specific refernce to the use of the pharse "the people" and gives a definition of what that means w/ respect to the 2,4,5, and 9th amendmants.
Except of course for those of use who favor an open interpretation of the second amendment. The ACLU reads it as a states rights argument.........
I went from a 80 hour work week to a 50 hour work week and from a place I really didn't like to the number one location on my list.
......
I used to work for a semi-conductor manufacturer in Devlopement (no hints--but its product was the P4) and they were nice enough to hire me staright outta grad school. Then they were nice enough to expect stupifying hours, no weekends and 24 hours on call. But it paid my internet bills to
Find a job!
But it took a lot of persistance and didn't happen overnight. I spent roughly 16 months send out app after app, resume after resume, searching and searching for the right job. And then it happened.
Benifits:
No more anti-depresents
No more anxiety medication
Weekends off
Evenings off
Hair growing back
Threw pager in trash (ok so I turned it in when I left)
Downside:
None
Moral of story--if you don't like it CHANGE.
Soon enough companies figure out that they are losing their best people becuase of stress and overwork. But Why wait yourself--you can find an eqaul paying job with less stress. It takes only time and persistance.
We could just solve this like everything else--whoever has the biggest lawyer wins. /cynic
I also am reminded of an appropraite life's not fair quote from the princess bride
"Life is pain...anything who says otherwise is selling something"
How bout
"Nobodybutfiziksgeekscareanymoreium"
Seriously though, it is important in our understanding of both heavy nuclei physics and stellar astrophysics. That knowledge will not have an immediate benifit that most people can see. Eventaully that understanding will lead to some helpful devices and ideas that most people will go "ah-hah!" about. But inbetween breakthroughs we are inching along to set ourselves up for the next a-hah! moment.
As an example Americium (element 95--artifcially produced) is used often in smoke detectors. Back in the 30s and 40s the same argument could have been made, whats the point of all these artificial elelments?--but eventually "something" came out of it.
But more intangible furthering of knowledge is the real goal. Eventually there is some hope (and theory) that stable elements will be produced in the 115-120 atomic number range. Its hard to say exactly what hard "benefit" will come--maybe nothing, maybe something exceiting. They call it "re"-search for a reason! For now we will have to be content that we know more than we did before.
So you could say we are doing just because its there--but we are learning from it as well.
I call SHENANIGANS. Having (obviously) earned a degee and taken a position with industry, the difference is a night and day. In "The Real World (TM)" no one works a 9-5 job and makes the money that Ph.Ds make (myself included). But there is a difference between 60+ hour weeks and 100+ hour weeks. When the SHTF here, I may be here late, busting my butt. But when things are slow, I can take some time and go fishing, or *gasp* watch my son's soccor game. In industry I am allowed to take time off. Take time off in grad school and watch your boss go postal.
In graduate school I worked solid for 5 years including holidays and weekends with no vacation (Inluding CHristmas and THanksgiving as those were times when you could gets lots of work done). Many of my friends had similar experiences
I wold sumbit that in physics graduate school you CANNOT have a family. The job requirements (from faculty) are too stringint. When I had my first child my boss was upset that I was gone for 2 days (MY wife was in labor for 24 hours). There is a difference between working hard and slavery. Grad School is out and out slavery. This differes from professor to professor, but if you want to continue on, chances are you're not working for Mr. Personality, so you can get a good recommendation.
This post shows the kind of attitude that drives people out. If you don't work 7 days a week 10-12 hours a day you're a slacker. I call bullshi*t. In my first post-grad job, I often had 80+ hour work weeks. I still found time to start my family and find time to enjoy life. It was a cakewalk compared to graduate education. WHen "The price of excellence" includes working your staff so hard they fall asleep driving home because they average 6 hours of sleep or less over long periods of time, your standards are out of wack.
So fine--I'm a slacker because I'm interested in seeing my children, not working myself to death, and spending every waking moment in the labratory. But those slacker bosses of mine keep giving my those stupifying high-paying jobs and promotions. So lemme see here --work everyday for 40K, struggle to get tenure, struggle for funding, or work a normal schedule, get weekends off, have millions of dollars of funding, get paid 100K, three weeks paid vacation, most weekends off--hmmm Yup! I'm a slacker. A rich relaxed slacker doin the same work as a Professor, except of course--I get paid more, my funding is much more stable (not to mention there's a lot more of it), oh--and instead of forcing graduate student to be my bitch--I have 24/7 support from engineers and technicians who are not worked to death.
Slacker and lovin it!
Survive college and graduate school. He'd need to get into a decent college which really isn't too bad for most people of intellect. He would then need to be selected for graduate school. Given the meat grinder that that process is, based on test scores and "refernce letters (aka who blows^H^H^H^H^H knows who system" chances are fair he'd probably end up at a non-prestigous school (strike 1!).
Then he'd have to survive the meat grinder of grad school itself. Sucking up to professors, jumping through artificial test hoops, begging, and whoring himself for assistantships. Upon completing his thesis hope he hasn't pissed off his professor (oops--Isaac you left to go to theology studies on Sunday mornings, no recommendation for you, you could have spent that time developing quantum gravity instead of regular gravity, and if you really applied yourself you could have had quantum relatavistic gravity.....) Strike 2.
Hey Isaac! You've just earned your degree after earning ~15K for 6 years at a "part-time" job where you worked 80+ hours per week. Now in exchange for a double of your pay raise--you can take a temporary (2-year) job as a post-doc and be expected to work even harder, longer hours. No need to thank us. (strike 3!)
Now Dr. Newton needs a professor ship and he's got between 1-3 strikes against him.
I think Issac may have been like many (but not all) science Ph.Ds and took the money and run... (pssst buddy--check this out--For 80 to 100Gs, I'll give you 2 days off a week, PAID vacation, and I'll even let you see the sun sometimes. While we're at it--take some stock, have some decent health care. All ya gotta do is sell your soul to the Devil "aka The Man, aka Industry"
Issac thinks a minute......
Fsck Hooke and Liebonitz! (I never could spell his name--lousy scum). I'm takin my vacation at Disneyland (PAID)!
Yeah I'm a too little negative on the system after going thru it (my therapist says its good to vent my anger)--but it weeds out far too many good people with the bad. People who instead of working stupifying hours chose that thing called a family (yes even geeks finds Sig. others) or sleeping at night. Add to that the buracracy of gettin hired as a prof and the whole tenure inbred system. Is it anywonder that our Univeristies are populated with psychotic misifts with the social skills of Hitler?
What they mean is that they have discovered ferromagnetic ordering in semiconductors at room temperature. Translation--"magnetic" behavior in semiconductors at room temperature. MRAM and hard drives all use ferromagnetic conductors or "Magnetic" metals
Had this happened at my company (intel) and you reported what you just did the following would have happened (minimum).
1.) Severe discipline to you. You opened an energized high voltage area without proper electrical Lock Out/Tag out. Had you been an onsite contractor, you would have had your badge pulled and kindly escorted off the premises by two burly rent-a-cops.Employee may have kept their job with a warning and probationary plan. But they prboably would have fired you anyway.
2.) Company safety stand down. That means people at no less than 4 sites with billions of dollars of product would have been brought to a halt.
3.) Big stupid meetings. I hate big stupid meetings.
I exagernate not, becuase people here have been kind enough to provide a working example. One of those was nice enough to stick a screwdrive into a Live 408V 3-phase supply on one of our toolsets in New Mexico. The metal panel he connected to went molten and exploded back at him. Fortune smiled upon him that day as he only had shrapnel holes in his clean-room suit. A couple inches the other way and he was a Darwin Candidate.
Perpendicular read/write is based on the GMR (Giant Magnetoresistance) effect. There were also GMR devices in longitudinal recording but I'll get to that in a second.
/- Magnetic Field ->
.... Perp. Current .... ^ .... |
Basically in 1990 someone discovered that in magnetic multilayers you could create a very large change in resistance by varying a magnetic field. The effect is this: magnetic materials have "spin-dependant" resistance, meaning that the resistance of the layer is dependant upon the spin of the electrons going thru. If you send current thru a magnetic layer the spins will try and align to the smagnetic field. If you have alternating layers of magnetic field the resistance becomes very high. If all the layers are alligned parallel, the resistance is low. The trick is getting the magnetic layers to align when you want them to and how you want them to.
Heres's a quick diagram:
High Res Low Res
Fe-Layer Magnetic Field -> Magnetic Field ->
Cu-Layer
Fe-Layer Magnetic Field
Now if you imagine the layers like a sandwich there are two ways to flow current. The first is along the current flows parralel to the layer interfaces or in plane. This is longitudianl recording or Current-in-plane recording. This was used initially because it was perfect first and was easy to implement sine the resistances were "normal range" (Ohms scale). You can also flow current perpendicular or thru the sandwich. This actually gives a bigger GMR affect since each electron is "forced" thru each layer, whereas in CIP geometry most of the current flows thru the Copper spacer. Again a diagram is in order:
Layers
Material
Fe-Layer.... |
Cu-Layer..... | Parallel Current ----->
Fe-Layer
The problem with perpendicular geometry is the resistances are so very small (10e-9 Ohms) since the layers are typically only several nm thick. (resistance = resistivity X distance / cross sectional area) that it is very difficult to make them into devices. Now with the advanced lithography from semi-condcutors it is posible to make devices with resistances high enough (Divide a small number by a smaller number and get a BIG number!--see the resistance formula) to make hard-drive devices and take advantage of the increased GMR affect for the perpendicular geometry.
If you have access to Physical Review search under Albert Fert for perpendicalar recording as a starting point. You may find his papers very complex but its referenced enough that you'll find links to good stuff (inluding the kick-off papers for the original GMR research). Those without a Phys Rev subscription may google for CPP GMR and CIP GMR.
Actually this is pretty much the truth (Headline SCO Hires Underpants Gnomes as new Chief Finicaial Consultant).
Listening to the interview over at CNet the other day its quite obvious that SCO is after their piece of the pie NOT protecting their IP (I know--I shouldn't read the articles but just post blindly). Why? The interviewes ask Darl "Why not just tell [Linux Coders] what the offending code is and they can replace it?" Darl essentially answers that it would be a big problem and role the code base back to a 2.2 kernel state that is not as good for enterprise (Let me translate: "Yes we could do that, but we wouldn't be able to make any money off of that solution")
The interview then goes on to ask Darl if SCO is just not bitter that IBM gave them the shaft on a cheap Unix on Intel soution by switching to Linux on Intel and making a boatload of money while SCO was left in the cold. Darl's answer was "Yes!"
Another interesting thing about this whole issue is ow SCO figured out the code was coming from IBM AIX? If there is a problem why not go after the offending submitter instead of the company. Do they have proof its IBM as a company and not some rogue coders?
Finally while basically claiming the SCO pVVn3p all Unix for ever and ever and so on, they seemed to shy away from the are you going after BSD? question. Interesting becuase BSD has NO money!! They talked about RedHat and if SCO would go after RedHat--Darl says no becuase that would shut down Linux. They don't want to shut down Linux, they want to SYPHON THE PROFITS!
I know from several of my colleagues that Al-Jazeera prides itself on being the 'CNN of the Arab' world. Now, I don't speak or read arabic yet, so I've had to read it through translation sites until recently when the english site cam up (english.aljazeera.net). Anyhoo, it is pretty slanted pro-arab, anti-american. However, it DID contain some very interesting articles and insights. Many of their stories are less than objective, but many of their insights are INVALUABLE, because there is no way in hell, "Western" media would report on them. Now I'm not fostering the idea that CNN, Fox, or even the BBC is some sort of perfect objective school of journalism. God knows they can be pretty slanted themselves. I think if Al-Jazeera works at trying to be more objective, they could really become a valuable member of the news community.
My biggest fault with them in the english site seemed to mix opinion pieces with fact reporting. Like all news sites, the editors can have an opinion pieces, but they should seperate it out from the reporting. I'm sure with the anti-western bias, combined with their less than stellar "objective" reports, they've got an uphill climb. We'd be far more forgiving if they were "pro-american," but then they would also give up a lot of access to the arab world that they enjoy. I hope they clean things up. They did correctly report the non-uprising in Basra, and a couple other items the western news got wrong. However, the comments embedded in the story ruined the factual reporting.
Thats right!
I insist we send cease and desist letters to the Sun IMMEDAITELY! The sun's nuclear program cannot be allowed to continue in space. ALERT THE UN. PASS A TREATY! DO SOMETHING NOW! It contains more radiation than all our nuclear weapons COMBINED! MAKE IT STOP!
NO NUKES IN SPACE!
Now if you'll excuse me I have to go tilt with a windmill--er dragon
Ok lets clear this whole thing up.
Negative temperature (as in less than absolute zero) do exist as temperature is defined in thermodynamics as the change in entropy (read randomness) of the system.
or 1/T = dS/dU
T=Temp, S=Entropy, E=Energy
So any system that increases entropy while absorbing energy (or decreases entropy while emitting energy) is by definition at negative temperature. The weirdness comes from the fact that negative temperature are "hotter" than postive temperatures. A negative temperature system will transfer energy to a positive temperature system.
The confusion arises from extrapaltion of the idea gas. We know that air behaves like an idea gas, and our concepts of temperature come from the ideal gas, while the strict definition of temperature comes from statistical mechanics and when applied to ideal gases gives the behavior we all know and love. But its very strange when we extrapolate the ideas of the idea gas to items like electrons in atomic levels, which is incorrect. The statistical mechanics laws apply here as well but we should drop our association with things like gases because electrons in the atomic shell are not a "gas"
SO yes you can "cardinaly" produce a negative temperature.
No its not "colder" than absolute zero.
Intel has no more than 40% manufacturing in one area for this precise reason (of course they have enough manufacuring they can afford it). I can't speak for how AMD works it.
Although 1 major Pacific NW Earth quake near portland (which, although not california is still an "Earthquake area" )and Bye bye Intel R&D. Of course the buildings are made to withstand 8.0 earthquakes. They were going to build stronger but found it cheaper to build a new plant in case of disaster.
This goes more deeply than a piece of inanimate steel and some chemical powders. In fact we should point out that there are almost several "Americas" where different experiences and ideas. This causes a lot of problems when studying the firearms issue.
In rural America crime is very low and people have a long history of gun ownership.
In suburban america crime is also low but gun ownership is not as prevalent.
In urban american gun crime is very high and gun ownership is low but highly criminal (mainly becuase most urban areas have severe restrictions).
Depending on which group you study, your outcome or statistics will vary. Gun Control advocates like to study urban areas of high crime and compare them to other countries. Gun rights advocates will favor the rural an suburban areas because crime there is very low an "We" look better compared to the rest of the world.
Fact is the non-urban crime rates favor well with the rest of the world. Our crime rates for inner cities do not. Factor in the American history of being very independant and mistrust of government--in the two first categories. Now put in the welfare state and dependanceon government of the inner city.
You can see where this is going. Its a mish mesh of crossing ideas and viewpoints that is a best a muddy mess. My only suggestion is to exmaine bery closely the arguments of both sides and your own beliefs and predjudices.
What got me (and YMMV) was the NRA relied on the FBI for its crime statistics and gun control relied on "focus groups". To me the FBI had no reason to lie. Now the argument can be made that gun rights spin the FBI numbers, and that is true--they can. However, my experience was closer to what gun rights were saying than gun control. BUt then again, I come from group 1...........
Games, Games, Games, ohhh and did I mention Games?
But not the ones you would think of. It was my 4 year olds software which no gamer in their right mind is porting to to Linux or BSD (Ok maybe I should do it). ANyways its hard to find setup info for Stanly's Adventure and Blues Clues on alt.quake.l337wankers
In addition the main (and I would say ONLY) advantage of Windows over *nix is out of box ready to go titles. While Quake is a dual-OS, not much more is without some significant twidling. I like screwing with the OS as much as the the next guy, but when it comes to hardcore girl on gir^H^H^H^H^H^H^H gaming I want to pop in the disk and GO!
The other minor pain is the proprietary MS stuff. Open Office/Star Office is a HUGE leap, but Internet Explorer problem is not going away. 99% of my surfing is Mozilla and Opera. Its that 1% for job hunting with sites only working on IE thats the (extremely irritating) killer. Its not like a sales site where I can just take my business elsewhere (and I do). This combined with work which runs only on IE for a lot of items *sigh* is a killer (I have to check factory items at home often--IE only as the pages won't load correctly at all in Mozilla and the menus don't work in Opera). Not to mention Ironic since we classify virus security threats HIGH when they run MS-OS and are connected to the internet, Meddium for MS non-internet connection and Low for Non-MS-OS.
Solve the game problem and the flood gates will open. Get out of box support for 80-90% of titles (including the drivers--which are a pain for new video cards--I'm looking at you ATI--your "support" of Open Source doesn't get me fragging any quicker) and this problem will go away. We've got everything else except IE and that is really a minor blip.
Ok--
I would have to agree with both reviews. Debian "seems" like a really bad kluge job for the installer. SLackware and Gentoo still have text installers, but Debian is lagging behind even them. I wanted to try Debian but never could get X working since I have a radeon 8500. After trying the experimental packages with no joy, I gave it the boot from the computer. Which is sad really cause I wanted in on the whole apt-get idea. But with X broken I really have no desire to go surfing for help in lynx (Sorry old school fellas). The lack of Xfree 4.2 was a HUGE factor in my decision to drop it. The installer was annoying, but not a stopping point. XFree at 4.1 was a point of no return. I understand the stability idea but 1 year is getting really slow. Espeically for a MAJOR item like X.
Acutally, I tried Gentoo as a semi-newbie. I've nearly all the major releases working but, it wasn't until I installed Gentoo that I really learned the inner workings of Linux systems. That was a HUGE benifit. If you are an 'experienced newbie' I would suggest if you have the Phat Pipe (TM) and l337 Hardware (TM), then wade into this full blast. Even if you don't keep Gentoo as you distribution of choice--You'll be better for the experience. The task is challenging but the documentation is good. I also personally like the non-bloatware feature and portage system (I admit nothing about being a BSD user!--you have no proof!).
Like I said give it a try. At the very least you can pick up some skills and that is worth the compile times (on a 1.2Ghz w/ 256DDR system takes me about a long evening start to command line--then emerge gnome or kde while you sleep).
In Oregon the Supreme court recently ruled that even if your Home security system goes off, the polics have no right to eneter your home unless they see specific criminal activity. This stemmed from an incident where cops found drugs (openly on a table in plain view) when responding to a security call from an NBA player's system.
Of course doing drugs doesn't anger the MPAA or RIAA so privacy here is ok. But had the bastard been file sharing we should of sent him to the big house for good!