But there is some truth to the idea that macs have less viruses. I have been an OSX user since it came out and I have never had difficulty with viruses or spyware. Now I take all the normal precautions anyone should, but being able to go into the BSD subsystems and check on all the running processes once in a while is certainly a source of piece of mind. It's a well known fact in biology that larger populations can more easily harbour disease than small populations, it seems the same is true for computers.
The problems pop up when peaple[sic] try to show some type of "link"...THAT is psuedo-science.
No, phrenology, astrology and creationism are pseudo science. Ecology, Oceanography and Geophysics are real physical science, firmly rooted in experimentation and more importantly statistics.
What non-scientists sometimes don't understand is that global warning is correlated to human activity above and beyond any natural cycles of the earth. There is some small chance that that correlation is a fluke, a statistical aberration, but statistics is a another very concrete science which is well used by good scientists. And these statistics give very strict confidence limits on the statements made by scientists; generally these confidence limits hover around 5%, 1% or 0.1%. So yes, there is at worst a 5% chance that the correlation between human activity and global climate change is due to natural cycles, but that leaves a 95% chance that it is US who are changing things.
Take a stats course, then take a geology course. Inform yourself and then consider the evidence for yourself. Don't simply take for granted that an oil funded think tank with a political agenda is going to present unbiased evidence.
I think this has more to do with Marketting that Look and Feel.
In fairness the iPhoto interface is good because it is obvious, so obvious that it was unorigional. I mean, arranging photos in "Albums" preceeded the personal computer. But Apple pulled it off well, and the program, if you've haven't used it, is very easy to work with. Now along comes Linspire realeasing a very similar program and they are trying as hard as they can to make it seem as if it is the same as iPhoto (with the name, with the names of the pull down menus); they are trying to milk a bit of iPhoto's reputation.
Why not just release a good program which is easy to use and then NOT try very hard to draw attention to your similarity to another popular consumer product.
Why on earth do you have that horribly offensive link in your sig? I mean honestly, that is just disgusting. I am sorry, I'm no prude, but I feel sick.
A number of companies including Kodac and Universal Display are already manufacturing OLED, or Organic LED's. These have the advantage over solid state LED's that they are cheaper to produce over large areas because they do not need to be etched like silicon but can be painted on.
Maybe I'll just stay in bed in the morning too and never say anything about anything again except maybe Firewall ACLs since that is the one thing out there that I can honestly say I know enough about to have an opinion on. Oh, and beer. And tits. And sports. Thats it, you've opened my eyes, thank you oh enlightened one. I'll never talk about anything ever again except beer, tits, sports and work.
A good intro book should be brief and interesting. Two books that everyone should read are: Vibrations and Waves by Anthony P. French
-and- Introduction to Quantum Physics by A. P. French, Edwin F. Taylor. I found french to be be very clear and fun to read. Vibrations should be read first because the concepts are more familiar but the math is similar and it will make the Quantum Book easier to digest. If you are the sort of person who must have The Bible for ever subject, you have to pick up: Quantum Mechanics Vol I&II by Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Bernard Diu, Frank Laloe. CTDL is an indispensible reference for the serious student covering everything from scattering to electron spin and magnetism to lasers. It is a really dense book and should not be studied lightly or you will get lost. If you are looking for a solid state physics Bible(semiconductors, superconductors, slashdot fodder)there is no better book than: Introduction to Solid State Physics by Charles Kittel. Chapters 1-3 covers crystals and once you have that, the rest is easy. This is again a higher level reference. Lastly, there is a really good book called QED by Richard Feynman. Quantum Electro Dynamics is a really cool field and this book is totally accesible to any reader (it is a short little paper back). However, this book contradicts alot of QM and will confuse someone who is trying to conceptualize QM using French or CTDL.
I understand Spanish, and for most purposes I'm fluent, but I learned it from my grandmother who wouldn't recognize a computer if it tapdanced into the room singing "I'm a computer!" while accompaning itself on the kazoo. (Frankly, that would freak me out too.)
Also, most of the monks who regularly use the computers speak and read english fluently. I just didn't want to shut out the few than don't.
As for Linux, I set up Debian on an old system of mine a few months ago, played with it for a day or two then the machine died. So I'm not a COMPLETE neophite, just not very experienced.
Slashdot Mirror
But there is some truth to the idea that macs have less viruses. I have been an OSX user since it came out and I have never had difficulty with viruses or spyware. Now I take all the normal precautions anyone should, but being able to go into the BSD subsystems and check on all the running processes once in a while is certainly a source of piece of mind. It's a well known fact in biology that larger populations can more easily harbour disease than small populations, it seems the same is true for computers.
What non-scientists sometimes don't understand is that global warning is correlated to human activity above and beyond any natural cycles of the earth. There is some small chance that that correlation is a fluke, a statistical aberration, but statistics is a another very concrete science which is well used by good scientists. And these statistics give very strict confidence limits on the statements made by scientists; generally these confidence limits hover around 5%, 1% or 0.1%. So yes, there is at worst a 5% chance that the correlation between human activity and global climate change is due to natural cycles, but that leaves a 95% chance that it is US who are changing things.
Take a stats course, then take a geology course. Inform yourself and then consider the evidence for yourself. Don't simply take for granted that an oil funded think tank with a political agenda is going to present unbiased evidence.
Good luck earth.
I think this has more to do with Marketting that Look and Feel. In fairness the iPhoto interface is good because it is obvious, so obvious that it was unorigional. I mean, arranging photos in "Albums" preceeded the personal computer. But Apple pulled it off well, and the program, if you've haven't used it, is very easy to work with. Now along comes Linspire realeasing a very similar program and they are trying as hard as they can to make it seem as if it is the same as iPhoto (with the name, with the names of the pull down menus); they are trying to milk a bit of iPhoto's reputation. Why not just release a good program which is easy to use and then NOT try very hard to draw attention to your similarity to another popular consumer product.
Why on earth do you have that horribly offensive link in your sig? I mean honestly, that is just disgusting. I am sorry, I'm no prude, but I feel sick.
A number of companies including Kodac and Universal Display are already manufacturing OLED, or Organic LED's. These have the advantage over solid state LED's that they are cheaper to produce over large areas because they do not need to be etched like silicon but can be painted on.
Maybe I'll just stay in bed in the morning too and never say anything about anything again except maybe Firewall ACLs since that is the one thing out there that I can honestly say I know enough about to have an opinion on. Oh, and beer. And tits. And sports. Thats it, you've opened my eyes, thank you oh enlightened one. I'll never talk about anything ever again except beer, tits, sports and work.
Mmmmm. Beer.
Mod down, ignore, sorry.
A good intro book should be brief and interesting. Two books that everyone should read are: Vibrations and Waves by Anthony P. French -and- Introduction to Quantum Physics by A. P. French, Edwin F. Taylor. I found french to be be very clear and fun to read. Vibrations should be read first because the concepts are more familiar but the math is similar and it will make the Quantum Book easier to digest. If you are the sort of person who must have The Bible for ever subject, you have to pick up: Quantum Mechanics Vol I&II by Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Bernard Diu, Frank Laloe. CTDL is an indispensible reference for the serious student covering everything from scattering to electron spin and magnetism to lasers. It is a really dense book and should not be studied lightly or you will get lost. If you are looking for a solid state physics Bible(semiconductors, superconductors, slashdot fodder)there is no better book than: Introduction to Solid State Physics by Charles Kittel. Chapters 1-3 covers crystals and once you have that, the rest is easy. This is again a higher level reference. Lastly, there is a really good book called QED by Richard Feynman. Quantum Electro Dynamics is a really cool field and this book is totally accesible to any reader (it is a short little paper back). However, this book contradicts alot of QM and will confuse someone who is trying to conceptualize QM using French or CTDL.
I understand Spanish, and for most purposes I'm fluent, but I learned it from my grandmother who wouldn't recognize a computer if it tapdanced into the room singing "I'm a computer!" while accompaning itself on the kazoo. (Frankly, that would freak me out too.) Also, most of the monks who regularly use the computers speak and read english fluently. I just didn't want to shut out the few than don't. As for Linux, I set up Debian on an old system of mine a few months ago, played with it for a day or two then the machine died. So I'm not a COMPLETE neophite, just not very experienced.