Waldo is located between Tampa(Airport) and Gainesville (University of FL), all 4 times I have driven through the town someone has been pulled over. There are 2 squads that sit on the highway all day. Florida is a very strange place, believe me.
Arm wrestling is all about leverage (duh). My buddy, who always whoops my ass (I work out enough to be strong), always gets his elbow off the table. When we were in highschool, he even beat the biggest dude on the hockey team as a freshman, and the dude was a senior.
Are there any pro arm wrestlers (hah)/phyicists/smart-dudes that can comment about a good arm-wrestling strategy?
Something that I was actually thinking about this morning is why are people friends with some, and not with others. Its because most people use their friends to feel better about themselves. I'm not saying they abuse their friends, I had a shitty weekend and sitting around laughing with my buddies on Sunday night at the bar made me feel amazingly better.
My point is, I had this feeling of "this is us, these are my friends and this is where I belong". It took me about a year and a half to become a fully-accepted member of this social group.
It wouldn't suprise me if the future trend of social networks is to become more and more closed off and exclusive. Like having to do interviews and personality tests to see if you are accepted into the group.
I think that within my lifetime (21 yrs old), medical advancements will transcend what is historically possible with medicine. If not for this experiment, a doctor would have told this guy's parents to read-up on making their house handicapped accessable, and learning about strategies for caring for the tramatically brain-injured.
Medicine is whack. 90% of the time (admittedly bullshit statistic) doctors literally put band-aids on patients, tell them that life is painful, and send them on their way. I used to process medical documents into an EMR system, and although I am not medically trained, the most common solutions to back-pain seemed to be life-style changes, dope (perscription opiates), and invasive (life-threatening) surgery.
I have often wondered if, in the future, it will be possible to get a brain-implant that shuts off offending portions of the CNS. Instead of adjusting the body to deal with mental anguish (pain), why not adjust the body. I'm hoping by the time I need back-surgery for the 2 broken disc that are giving me pain already, it is going to be brain-surgery instead.
Any medical professionals care to share the feasability of brain-implants as a way of treating pain or other conditions not limited to the CNS, as TFA suggests the tech's use is for?
Yea, my post came off a wayyyy more egotistical and arrogant than I'd have liked it to. Both your objections are definetly well-placed and wise, but let me rephrase a little with my observations about the college dating-game.
I'm just a nice guy thats just pissed because hot girls, unlike the decent-looking average ones that I can have success with, are so damn difficult. There is a hell of a lot of competition for hot girls in college. A lot of the girls that I'd like to be involved with are running around with frat kids because, simply put, they are cooler than I am because they know how/where/and who to party with.
I have no problem being flirty and friendly with these girls in classes, but I can't seem to take it to the next level because I don't have anything cool to invite them to do (which may change now that I am 21 and can go to bars). Many of these girls, do not "date", they "hang out", and run through a lot of guys.
I am not going to spend all my money on "floozies", I know how to manage and save my money now (I have a retirement account that I started myself when I was 17). But attractive women typically feel like they deserve to live (read spend) like queens. I see plenty of college-age women driving around in very new cars, probably purchased for them by their fathers. Hell, it isn't uncommon for girls to spend $300 on their birthday/formal dress.
As much as it pisses me off to have to play this game, its the way it seems to work. I have seen plenty of husband/wife combinations of rich guys with girls they never could have wheeled in college. A lot of attractive girls, like money dude. They won't overlook serious personality flaws for it (like the bleeding egotism my last post suggested I have).
I would welcome any further discussion you would like to have on this matter, being that you are someone with college in retrospect.
I think that things will change for you when you graduate. You'd be surprised at how many hotties (and other girls) are just plain money-grubbing whores.
I'm not saying that you should ever allow a girl to use you for your money. I'm just saying that as smart guys get older, they usually have more money than the dumb guys that all the hotties run around with in college. Chicks dig money.
Right now I'm in college, good-looking, physically fit, outgoing, fun, and I can't find a fucking girlfriend to save my life. I can't wait until I graduate, get my masters, and buy a fucking Ducati and a Jag. I am going to run through every former party-girl, sorositute (sorority + prostitute), hottie on Match.com.
Moral of the story, smart, rich guys get all the hotties when it matters, so just wait until you are making a good living and the dumb-ass frat boys are stuck in cube-ville with their bullshit degrees.
High fructose corn syrup is definetly part of the problem. But of course, so are portions. "Do you want to make it a mega-lard-ass size for 15 cents more?" A portion of McDonalds fries (regular size) was 230 kCals in the 60s, now its over 400. A chipolte buritto is about 2/3s of the energy a health 20-40 year-old male needs in a day (granted he is the typical office worker who gets 20-30 minutes of excersize 4 times per week).
EVERYWHERE foods potions have gotten larger. Few people realize that A.) It takes 10-15 minutes to feel full. B.) Thirst is often mistaken for hunger C.) What tastes awesome (like McDonalds, candy, steak, etc) isn't an acceptable meal choice. Eat a pack of star-bursts over 2-3 days, not 10 minutes.
Basically, people are either too ignorant, apathetic, or lazy to make good nutrition choices. You really shouldn't even give little kids that much juice, becauses its nutritional content (high simple carbs) is similar to soda-pop.
BTW, all this came from the M.S. nutrition teacher I had last semester.
It is my understanding that in at least of the 30 of the 50 states you can "freeze" your credit, not allowing someone else (or yourself) to take out loans, get a credit card, etc. Choicepoint and the other 2 (asshole) credit bureaus are lobbying against this.
It really gets my goat that, contrary to what is in the social security act (it is illegal to use it for anything except SS purposes), our SSNs have become the defacto identifier in terms of any goverment, university, or financial application. Its like a freakin username with no password.
I can't wait until you can build and empire over 2000 years, and then walk through the streets ala GTA3. Maybe steals some cars and hit some pedestrians too, it would probably be straight if you didn' build the courthouse improvement.
Perscription pill abuse usually accompanies other drug-issues. Its a schedule III drug, so I doubt you'd get prison time, unless you are trafficing.
Adderall abuse pisses me off because it creates an unfair advantage in academic situations. Its fukin cheating. Like my buddy who drinks all week, goes to sleep early before a test, wakes up and studies 10-12 hours straight, and usually kicks the shit out of tests. 3000-5000 level classes too (major courses for mathematically intensive shit). I study for days, and have trouble concentrating, but I still do it the honest way.
TFA said that PHP usage has increased 3x. Web Applications are going to comprise the majority of business applications in the future. This is where management-types seem to be headed with everything. We are replacing CUFS (monolithic UNIX finacial database app used at many Big Ten schools) with a web-based solution. Electronic Medical Records systems are also mostly web-based.
What would have been done with Visual Basic 6 in 1998, is now being done with PHP/.NET/JSP and Ajax technologies. These technologies (on the server-side) are pretty platform agnostic. The future of the client platform, is the web-browser. Microsoft knows this. It is why their standards compliance is horse-shit. If 60% of webbrowsers (w3wschools.org) are IE6/7, people will continue to develop for it as the primary platform. I can't even access my bank-account outside w/o IE. Microsoft is going to continue with their own standards, know matter how much developers bitch, because it fuels their O/S sales and marketshare.
So basically, you are opposed to investment? If that is what you are saying, move to the Muslim region of the world, after-all the Quraan forbids lending/borrowing/gaining interest in a bank-account.
Investment has created a good-deal of the worlds wealth, which keeps you from having to farm-food, and creates all the nicities like computers and medical care. Debt can enslave you if you mis-manage money, or it can liberate you by providing a college education (very ideal example).
Borrowing money can be an ugly system, or it can create intelligence and wealth. A lot of people simply don't undertand the value of good credit, or how to go through the proper lending channels. I, a college student, have a line of credit through Wells Fargo that allow me to borrow $100 for $5 (up to $2000, flat-fee of 5% or $5, which ever is greater) with 19% APR after the first month. Essentially a pay-day loan for a hell of a lot less, they usually charge 300%(or is it 900%?) APR.
Y
Re:Another lame MS idea crashes & burns
on
Death of the UMPC?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I am assuming that you are making a joke since this was modded funny, but microsoft+vendors offer all of those features (including WiFi) in smartphones. The only real advantage that I could ever see for a UMPC was the full version of Internet Explorer. Despite Microsoft's claims to the countrary, WM5 doesn't support AJAX w/o some serious workarounds for the A part of the JAX. It has very limited support for things full-blown browsers have been doing for years, for example streaming media support is non-existant despite the device having Windows Media Player.
Someone I once met (management doochebag w/ a MIS degree) interned at Microsoft last summer. All he talked about was "Web 2.0", which to Microsoft execs seems to mean internet applications. ABC is streaming their prime-time shows live and free, google and open office seem to think that web-centric applications are the future, and the web will probably become a more mainstream medium for delivering content. It is an upward trend that I think the new Mobile Internet device is hoping to ride.
I go to the second largest undergraduate university in the country. Within the last year, both record (CDs) stores near our campus have closed. The one that closed last week had a sign on the door that said
"to all the people that download music, if you think you are only hurting big companies you are wrong. There are two working people with families who no longer have jobs because of music piracy."
I don't know who is to blame for the major decline in CD sales, the RIAA's stupidly clutching to the old music business model, or the students with 3000+ stolen songs on their ipods. I admit that I have pirated music, but I just listen to SIRIUS now and don't even own an iPod.
Most PDAs are true touchscreens (not like a wacom/tabletpc), so if the stylus gets lost you can use your fingers. If the iPhone doesn't have a stylus, i'd be interested to see how well the browser handles the clumsy input from human fingers, I know it is the only time I actually use the stylus for my pda-phone.
I lost my moto razr 2 weeks ago (damn snowbanks!), looking around on ebay for a replacement VZWireless (-ripoff) razr, I noticed that the xv6700 smartphone would be the same amount of money as a replacement.
My phone has WiFi and plays mp3s. It replaced the need for me to carry a laptop, and mp3 player. And it was less than $200 after shipping. Not bad, considering i have replaced the risk of losing(or having stolen) $1500 worth of electronics, with a $200 device, and I still have the same functions available.
I don't make a whole lot of money, but smart phones have come down a lot in price especially if you look at used phones.
(btw, the buttonless interface is clumsy, but the slide-out keyboard pretty much takes care of it)
"Verizon is just suing to keep Vonage -- and every other company offering a similar service -- from making it irrelevant in the home phone market. Which is exactly what's happening."
Verizon, even with all its millions of dollars of legal muscle, cannot stop VOIP from eventually biting into its business in home phone. Vonage may fail, but someone else will succeed because it is cheaper and easily implemented. With the competitive pricing of cellular phone service vs. land-lines, and the fact VOIP is replacing PBXs at the corperate level, it is only a matter of time until VOIP is a 100% transparent alternative to land lines.
My predcition, within the next 20 years, all data going into and coming out of your home will be done w/ IP . This is why television networks are testing online viewing of their shows. The physical connection for your television, cable, and of course internet will be from one large local monopoly (think cable company). But the individual services will be independent for television, phone, gaming (Xbox Live, etc). Specialization is the key to sucess in the business world, and large telecom companies w/ tons of services will eventually be a thing of the past.
I am not a conspiracy theorist but, there are quite a few educated people who have done sophisticated modeling of the TWA flight 800 'crash' and believe it was shot down by a shoulder fired missile. The history channel ran a program on it (or discovery maybe?) including several eyewitness accounts that made the theory plausible.
I am more concerned about other private databases than my freakin credit report. The govt can get cell-phone records, copies of leases, and god knows what else from private databases without any legal writ. Although they are probably all inadmissable in court, does it still matter?
My point is, I don't know a damn thing about what other information agencies are gathering on me. Data is freakin valuable; especially your purchasing habits. The 21st century is going to be marked by slow erosion of privacy because it is more valuable to many organizations (especially financial, think credit scores) than your perceived right to privacy. It sucks.
Yea, and think about the Crusades I, II, and III that destroyed the gems of middle eastern civilization at their peak. And Alexander's conquest of Persia (although this was pre-Muhammed?). Covert Soviet-American squabbles, and Desert Shit Storm I/II. Right now, Americans are supplying guns to Christian Somali Warlords (under the guise of legitimate govt) and providing Naval support so no Somali muslims can escape by sea. Did I mention that I am typing this blocks away from the largest Muslim Somalian community in the U.S.A. (minneapolis of all places!). What a big FUCK YOU to African Muslims...
"Did you know that the founding fathers themselves lost several ships to moslem terror ?" The barbary pirates were a government (regime), not a terrorist organization. Everyone else paid them tribute, France, England, Netherlands, Portugul. We didn't want to. We furthered our business interests by declaring war.
The point is, just because America didn't bomb you this year doesn't mean that their isn't widespread distrust of the West within the Muslim community. Their values are very differnt than our own, and they believe that unlimited rewards await in THE NEXT LIFE. NOT THIS ONE. Their adherence to the principles of Islamic doctrine is what they center this life around. It is as easy to sucker a ignorant Muslim into brutal doctrine as it is to sucker an ignorant American into a get-rich quick scheme.
By the way, I support George Bush, the War on Terror, and hope to make lots of money (Economics/Math major). Although I can not reconcile myself to their way of life(religion), I see the virtue in it. But I think our modern, western, world is too complicated for anything other than personal spirituality.
I am wondering, as a college student who is beginning to get into a financial profession typically dealing with immense datasets, how much value will this be to scientists/mathematicians/statisticians? Wouldn't it make more sense to prototype something in Maple, PERL, etc... and hand it off to programmers to implement a full model at top speed? In other words, is there any value to learning FORTRESS analagously to the value of learning FORTRAN in the 70s-80s? Haven't advances in computing rendered these languages obscure?
Anyone doing modeling with extremely large datasets wish to comment? Should I bother to pursue low-level programming languages?
Slashdot Mirror
Velociraptor does not mean Speedy Predator, raptor means theif.
And the Megaraptor, not the Deinonychus, was the villan of the JP movies.
Yes, it stands up in court.
Waldo is located between Tampa(Airport) and Gainesville (University of FL), all 4 times I have driven through the town someone has been pulled over. There are 2 squads that sit on the highway all day. Florida is a very strange place, believe me.
Arm wrestling is all about leverage (duh). My buddy, who always whoops my ass (I work out enough to be strong), always gets his elbow off the table. When we were in highschool, he even beat the biggest dude on the hockey team as a freshman, and the dude was a senior.
Are there any pro arm wrestlers (hah)/phyicists/smart-dudes that can comment about a good arm-wrestling strategy?
Something that I was actually thinking about this morning is why are people friends with some, and not with others. Its because most people use their friends to feel better about themselves. I'm not saying they abuse their friends, I had a shitty weekend and sitting around laughing with my buddies on Sunday night at the bar made me feel amazingly better.
My point is, I had this feeling of "this is us, these are my friends and this is where I belong". It took me about a year and a half to become a fully-accepted member of this social group.
It wouldn't suprise me if the future trend of social networks is to become more and more closed off and exclusive. Like having to do interviews and personality tests to see if you are accepted into the group.
"why not adjust the body"
Excuse me
why not adjust the brain?
I think that within my lifetime (21 yrs old), medical advancements will transcend what is historically possible with medicine. If not for this experiment, a doctor would have told this guy's parents to read-up on making their house handicapped accessable, and learning about strategies for caring for the tramatically brain-injured.
Medicine is whack. 90% of the time (admittedly bullshit statistic) doctors literally put band-aids on patients, tell them that life is painful, and send them on their way. I used to process medical documents into an EMR system, and although I am not medically trained, the most common solutions to back-pain seemed to be life-style changes, dope (perscription opiates), and invasive (life-threatening) surgery.
I have often wondered if, in the future, it will be possible to get a brain-implant that shuts off offending portions of the CNS. Instead of adjusting the body to deal with mental anguish (pain), why not adjust the body. I'm hoping by the time I need back-surgery for the 2 broken disc that are giving me pain already, it is going to be brain-surgery instead.
Any medical professionals care to share the feasability of brain-implants as a way of treating pain or other conditions not limited to the CNS, as TFA suggests the tech's use is for?
Yea, my post came off a wayyyy more egotistical and arrogant than I'd have liked it to. Both your objections are definetly well-placed and wise, but let me rephrase a little with my observations about the college dating-game.
I'm just a nice guy thats just pissed because hot girls, unlike the decent-looking average ones that I can have success with, are so damn difficult. There is a hell of a lot of competition for hot girls in college. A lot of the girls that I'd like to be involved with are running around with frat kids because, simply put, they are cooler than I am because they know how/where/and who to party with.
I have no problem being flirty and friendly with these girls in classes, but I can't seem to take it to the next level because I don't have anything cool to invite them to do (which may change now that I am 21 and can go to bars). Many of these girls, do not "date", they "hang out", and run through a lot of guys.
I am not going to spend all my money on "floozies", I know how to manage and save my money now (I have a retirement account that I started myself when I was 17). But attractive women typically feel like they deserve to live (read spend) like queens. I see plenty of college-age women driving around in very new cars, probably purchased for them by their fathers. Hell, it isn't uncommon for girls to spend $300 on their birthday/formal dress.
As much as it pisses me off to have to play this game, its the way it seems to work. I have seen plenty of husband/wife combinations of rich guys with girls they never could have wheeled in college. A lot of attractive girls, like money dude. They won't overlook serious personality flaws for it (like the bleeding egotism my last post suggested I have).
I would welcome any further discussion you would like to have on this matter, being that you are someone with college in retrospect.
I think that things will change for you when you graduate. You'd be surprised at how many hotties (and other girls) are just plain money-grubbing whores.
I'm not saying that you should ever allow a girl to use you for your money. I'm just saying that as smart guys get older, they usually have more money than the dumb guys that all the hotties run around with in college. Chicks dig money.
Right now I'm in college, good-looking, physically fit, outgoing, fun, and I can't find a fucking girlfriend to save my life. I can't wait until I graduate, get my masters, and buy a fucking Ducati and a Jag. I am going to run through every former party-girl, sorositute (sorority + prostitute), hottie on Match.com.
Moral of the story, smart, rich guys get all the hotties when it matters, so just wait until you are making a good living and the dumb-ass frat boys are stuck in cube-ville with their bullshit degrees.
High fructose corn syrup is definetly part of the problem. But of course, so are portions. "Do you want to make it a mega-lard-ass size for 15 cents more?" A portion of McDonalds fries (regular size) was 230 kCals in the 60s, now its over 400. A chipolte buritto is about 2/3s of the energy a health 20-40 year-old male needs in a day (granted he is the typical office worker who gets 20-30 minutes of excersize 4 times per week).
EVERYWHERE foods potions have gotten larger. Few people realize that A.) It takes 10-15 minutes to feel full. B.) Thirst is often mistaken for hunger C.) What tastes awesome (like McDonalds, candy, steak, etc) isn't an acceptable meal choice. Eat a pack of star-bursts over 2-3 days, not 10 minutes.
Basically, people are either too ignorant, apathetic, or lazy to make good nutrition choices. You really shouldn't even give little kids that much juice, becauses its nutritional content (high simple carbs) is similar to soda-pop.
BTW, all this came from the M.S. nutrition teacher I had last semester.
Many people here are complaining that displays on laptops are too small. Read the title of this post.
Yes, cost, and performance are OF COURSE the only reasons to buy a desktop over a notebook.
It is my understanding that in at least of the 30 of the 50 states you can "freeze" your credit, not allowing someone else (or yourself) to take out loans, get a credit card, etc. Choicepoint and the other 2 (asshole) credit bureaus are lobbying against this.
It really gets my goat that, contrary to what is in the social security act (it is illegal to use it for anything except SS purposes), our SSNs have become the defacto identifier in terms of any goverment, university, or financial application. Its like a freakin username with no password.
I can't wait until you can build and empire over 2000 years, and then walk through the streets ala GTA3. Maybe steals some cars and hit some pedestrians too, it would probably be straight if you didn' build the courthouse improvement.
Perscription pill abuse usually accompanies other drug-issues. Its a schedule III drug, so I doubt you'd get prison time, unless you are trafficing.
Adderall abuse pisses me off because it creates an unfair advantage in academic situations. Its fukin cheating. Like my buddy who drinks all week, goes to sleep early before a test, wakes up and studies 10-12 hours straight, and usually kicks the shit out of tests. 3000-5000 level classes too (major courses for mathematically intensive shit). I study for days, and have trouble concentrating, but I still do it the honest way.
TFA said that PHP usage has increased 3x. Web Applications are going to comprise the majority of business applications in the future. This is where management-types seem to be headed with everything. We are replacing CUFS (monolithic UNIX finacial database app used at many Big Ten schools) with a web-based solution. Electronic Medical Records systems are also mostly web-based.
What would have been done with Visual Basic 6 in 1998, is now being done with PHP/.NET/JSP and Ajax technologies. These technologies (on the server-side) are pretty platform agnostic. The future of the client platform, is the web-browser. Microsoft knows this. It is why their standards compliance is horse-shit. If 60% of webbrowsers (w3wschools.org) are IE6/7, people will continue to develop for it as the primary platform. I can't even access my bank-account outside w/o IE. Microsoft is going to continue with their own standards, know matter how much developers bitch, because it fuels their O/S sales and marketshare.
So basically, you are opposed to investment? If that is what you are saying, move to the Muslim region of the world, after-all the Quraan forbids lending/borrowing/gaining interest in a bank-account.
Investment has created a good-deal of the worlds wealth, which keeps you from having to farm-food, and creates all the nicities like computers and medical care. Debt can enslave you if you mis-manage money, or it can liberate you by providing a college education (very ideal example).
Borrowing money can be an ugly system, or it can create intelligence and wealth. A lot of people simply don't undertand the value of good credit, or how to go through the proper lending channels. I, a college student, have a line of credit through Wells Fargo that allow me to borrow $100 for $5 (up to $2000, flat-fee of 5% or $5, which ever is greater) with 19% APR after the first month. Essentially a pay-day loan for a hell of a lot less, they usually charge 300%(or is it 900%?) APR.
Y
I am assuming that you are making a joke since this was modded funny, but microsoft+vendors offer all of those features (including WiFi) in smartphones. The only real advantage that I could ever see for a UMPC was the full version of Internet Explorer. Despite Microsoft's claims to the countrary, WM5 doesn't support AJAX w/o some serious workarounds for the A part of the JAX. It has very limited support for things full-blown browsers have been doing for years, for example streaming media support is non-existant despite the device having Windows Media Player.
Someone I once met (management doochebag w/ a MIS degree) interned at Microsoft last summer. All he talked about was "Web 2.0", which to Microsoft execs seems to mean internet applications. ABC is streaming their prime-time shows live and free, google and open office seem to think that web-centric applications are the future, and the web will probably become a more mainstream medium for delivering content. It is an upward trend that I think the new Mobile Internet device is hoping to ride.
I go to the second largest undergraduate university in the country. Within the last year, both record (CDs) stores near our campus have closed. The one that closed last week had a sign on the door that said
"to all the people that download music, if you think you are only hurting big companies you are wrong. There are two working people with families who no longer have jobs because of music piracy."
I don't know who is to blame for the major decline in CD sales, the RIAA's stupidly clutching to the old music business model, or the students with 3000+ stolen songs on their ipods. I admit that I have pirated music, but I just listen to SIRIUS now and don't even own an iPod.
Most PDAs are true touchscreens (not like a wacom/tabletpc), so if the stylus gets lost you can use your fingers. If the iPhone doesn't have a stylus, i'd be interested to see how well the browser handles the clumsy input from human fingers, I know it is the only time I actually use the stylus for my pda-phone.
I lost my moto razr 2 weeks ago (damn snowbanks!), looking around on ebay for a replacement VZWireless (-ripoff) razr, I noticed that the xv6700 smartphone would be the same amount of money as a replacement.
My phone has WiFi and plays mp3s. It replaced the need for me to carry a laptop, and mp3 player. And it was less than $200 after shipping. Not bad, considering i have replaced the risk of losing(or having stolen) $1500 worth of electronics, with a $200 device, and I still have the same functions available.
I don't make a whole lot of money, but smart phones have come down a lot in price especially if you look at used phones.
(btw, the buttonless interface is clumsy, but the slide-out keyboard pretty much takes care of it)
"Verizon is just suing to keep Vonage -- and every other company offering a similar service -- from making it irrelevant in the home phone market. Which is exactly what's happening."
Verizon, even with all its millions of dollars of legal muscle, cannot stop VOIP from eventually biting into its business in home phone. Vonage may fail, but someone else will succeed because it is cheaper and easily implemented. With the competitive pricing of cellular phone service vs. land-lines, and the fact VOIP is replacing PBXs at the corperate level, it is only a matter of time until VOIP is a 100% transparent alternative to land lines.
My predcition, within the next 20 years, all data going into and coming out of your home will be done w/ IP . This is why television networks are testing online viewing of their shows.
The physical connection for your television, cable, and of course internet will be from one large local monopoly (think cable company). But the individual services will be independent for television, phone, gaming (Xbox Live, etc). Specialization is the key to sucess in the business world, and large telecom companies w/ tons of services will eventually be a thing of the past.
I am not a conspiracy theorist but, there are quite a few educated people who have done sophisticated modeling of the TWA flight 800 'crash' and believe it was shot down by a shoulder fired missile. The history channel ran a program on it (or discovery maybe?) including several eyewitness accounts that made the theory plausible.
A /twa.html
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/CRASH/TW
I am more concerned about other private databases than my freakin credit report. The govt can get cell-phone records, copies of leases, and god knows what else from private databases without any legal writ. Although they are probably all inadmissable in court, does it still matter?
My point is, I don't know a damn thing about what other information agencies are gathering on me. Data is freakin valuable; especially your purchasing habits. The 21st century is going to be marked by slow erosion of privacy because it is more valuable to many organizations (especially financial, think credit scores) than your perceived right to privacy. It sucks.
Yea, and think about the Crusades I, II, and III that destroyed the gems of middle eastern civilization at their peak. And Alexander's conquest of Persia (although this was pre-Muhammed?). Covert Soviet-American squabbles, and Desert Shit Storm I/II. Right now, Americans are supplying guns to Christian Somali Warlords (under the guise of legitimate govt) and providing Naval support so no Somali muslims can escape by sea. Did I mention that I am typing this blocks away from the largest Muslim Somalian community in the U.S.A. (minneapolis of all places!). What a big FUCK YOU to African Muslims...
"Did you know that the founding fathers themselves lost several ships to moslem terror ?" The barbary pirates were a government (regime), not a terrorist organization. Everyone else paid them tribute, France, England, Netherlands, Portugul. We didn't want to. We furthered our business interests by declaring war.
The point is, just because America didn't bomb you this year doesn't mean that their isn't widespread distrust of the West within the Muslim community. Their values are very differnt than our own, and they believe that unlimited rewards await in THE NEXT LIFE. NOT THIS ONE. Their adherence to the principles of Islamic doctrine is what they center this life around. It is as easy to sucker a ignorant Muslim into brutal doctrine as it is to sucker an ignorant American into a get-rich quick scheme.
By the way, I support George Bush, the War on Terror, and hope to make lots of money (Economics/Math major). Although I can not reconcile myself to their way of life(religion), I see the virtue in it. But I think our modern, western, world is too complicated for anything other than personal spirituality.
Looks sort of like Maple...
I am wondering, as a college student who is beginning to get into a financial profession typically dealing with immense datasets, how much value will this be to scientists/mathematicians/statisticians? Wouldn't it make more sense to prototype something in Maple, PERL, etc... and hand it off to programmers to implement a full model at top speed? In other words, is there any value to learning FORTRESS analagously to the value of learning FORTRAN in the 70s-80s? Haven't advances in computing rendered these languages obscure?
Anyone doing modeling with extremely large datasets wish to comment? Should I bother to pursue low-level programming languages?
metalstorm could put about 40 grenades per second (not per minute!!) into the same window