Do yourself (and your Mac) a favor and command-Q every once in a while, eh?
What I was inferring, and based on your reply you don't seem to be quick at catching on to things, is that I use most of these applications at least once in the evening or Saturday and Sunday without turning-off the computer. Memory will get paged-out to the hard drive because Mac OS X still keeps quit-applications in memory to be launched again without accessing the hard drive. See? You LEARNED something new from this post. The only way to get around this AFAIK is to reboot.
Memory usage depends on what YOU are using your computer for and the platform. I have an Apple PowerMac G5 with dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5 processors and 2.5 GB of RAM and IT ISN'T ENOUGH! Mac OS X pages out to virtual memory almost every day, because I'm constantly using Mozilla Firefox, Apple's Mail program, Micrsoft Office, OpenOffice (under X11), iTunes, MacTheRipper, HandBrake, Google Earth, VueScan, Preview, Adobe Reader, iCal, AddressBook, iWeb, QuickTime, AOL Instant Messenger, Skype, VLC, DVD2OneX2, Toast 6 Titanium, RBrowser, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and iChat. If you have a Macintosh running under a recent Mac OS X, you'll want as much RAM as possible to avoid paging-out to virtual memory - makes your Mac faster overall.
What's all the fuss about? This technology is NOT new! My 1992 Saturn SL2 computer brain box records the last 10 seconds of the car's acceleration, speed, throttle position, engine RPM's, and whether or not the brake is being pressed. This came to me directly from the Saturn dealer - and that's what they told me - approximately 40 different parameters are measured simultaneously every 1/100 of a second. In the event of an accident, the previous 10 seconds worth of THAT MUCH data is enough exonerate or convict someone of vehicular homicide. Besides, after living in Ohio, Michigan, and now in Connecticut, and observing that cameras are placed in most city and suburban intersections, this vehicular data will only substantiate the events that are recorded on surveillance cameras. I also want to point out that the data I've described was present in a vehicle 15 years old (it was purchased in September 1991, just after the Saturn model year change-over). Vehicles newer than this, like my 1999 Saab 93 very likely record more data, including if/when the airbags are deployed, and since the Saab that year had the option for OnStar, I would bet that a metric ass-load of data is recorded in that car's computer relative to the 1992 Saturn. This data collected in black boxes is only there to help people, not harm them or infringe on their rights. If you're concerned, then don't drive. You're either a criminal seeking to avoid detection and incarceration, or you're paranoid that the government is trying to keep track of your insignificant life.
I hope this and other stuff like this works before I get my onset... as a kid I had a bad habit of chewing aluminum can tabs, and I'm sure significan quantities broke off over the years...
ALUMINUM DOES NOT CAUSE ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. This is a fallacy due to a Biologist not knowing how to operate an electron microscope. At that time, the "Aluminum" in Alheimer's patients' brains was the result of the biologist having the electron intensity turned-up too high, and instead of detecting just brain tissue, the biologist detected the Aluminum support holding the brain tissue.
So, the moral of the story is: KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING IN THE LABORATORY AND HAVE ACCURATE AND PRECISE DATA ANALYSIS WITH MEANINGFUL REPLICATION OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS BEFORE PUBLISHING IN JOURNALS!!!
It's been more than 10 years and the public still thinks that using products with "Aluminum", i.e. soda cans, anti-perspirant, etc... will cause/contribute to Alzheimer's disease. Wrong Wrong Wrong!!!
As an Apple stockholder, I do not support the switch from IBM and FreeScale (formerly Motorola) PowerPC to Intel chips. Apple is effectively outsourcing the design of its hardware, of which much innovation and creativity were well received in the marketplace. Aside from the Rosetta chip, what *REALLY* distinguishes a Macintosh now from a PC aside from the shiny metal and plastic? I am not trolling, I know that Apple couples hardware from 3rd parties together very well, I just don't see how the switch to Intel chips is going to increase marketshare, damn, a Macintosh is a Macintosh only goes so far, the underlying hardware does have something to do with the *Macintosh* experience.
Aside from Intel speed bumps, the Macbook and Macbook Pro will have very little distinction. Hopefully, Apple will provide the chip in a socket and have a block of jumpers to upgrade chips and adjust CPU and logic board frequencies. At least I upgraded from a Motorola 400 MHz G3 to an IBM 500 MHz G3 in my Blue & White 'Yosemite' Macintosh with relative ease. With Intel-type designs, upgrading Macintoshes shouldn't be difficult.
Apple is treading in dangerous waters by switching to Intel and risking becoming irrelevant by embracing commodity PC hardware. Steve & Co. better have really, and I mean *REALLY* superior software to compete against The Borg, and I think that Switching to Intel pretty much burned the bridges with IBM and PowerPC unless Big Blue can produce cooler temperature chips that burn-up the Intel chips.
Assuming Apple gains significant market share in corporate America (and the world), the following scenarios are possible:
1. Your boss can actually watch you pick your nose and possibly see what you do with the booger. Options include wiping it on something, flicking it somewhere in your office/cubicle, eating it.
2. Your boss can view your facial expression to determine if you enjoy your job, enjoy your current task, day dreaming, sleeping on the job, or in general wasting time.
3. Your boss can see what you're eating/drinking while at work.
4. Your boss can see your facial expressions and behavior while looking at members of the same/opposite gender.
5. Your boss can see with whom you socialize and network while in front of your computer.
6. With regard to unauthorized employee monitoring, this technology could possibly be defeated with a semi-transparent mirror.
Fellow Slashdotters, please reply with ideas that I've missed/omitted!
It's simple really... the creatures that survived were more intelligently designed than those that died.
Well, I have another interpretation of this statement: 'the creatures that died were selected to go to heaven before the other animals with the better-designed DNA.' So, which animals have the 'better-designed' DNA? The ones that died first and are now with the creator, or the ones still left foraging in the forest? Something else to think about. One could argue that the animals who went back home to the creator before the other animals really had the better-designed DNA.
I hear so much in the media about how life is/was intelligently designed, but no one seems to make the argument I just posted. Death is very much apart of life, and according to supporters of ID, one would think that at least some of them would take sides with my argument, not that I believe the argument, which I do not because I'm a scientist. Good discussion is healthy for everyone.
Actually, synthetic compounds not native to our bodies are broken down rather easily, metabolized, and excreted from the body. The pharmaceutical industry uses ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Elimination) models every day to determine the efficacy and safety of drug compounds. If a compound stays around in the body too long and has adverse side-effects, then the compound will be no longer continue development as a active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in its current form; it is either modified, or the target protein must have an entirely new compound developed that binds at a different site.
Cytochrome P450 (CYP450) proteins are membrane-associated heme proteins that metabolize
physiologically important compounds in microorganisms, plants, and animals. Human CYP450 proteins
CYP1A2, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4 are the major drug-metabolizing isoforms, and
contribute to the oxidative metabolism of more than 90% of the drugs in current clinical use. (1) In mammalian systems, heme is predominantly synthesized in erythroid cells (~85%) with the remainder synthesized in mitochondria and the cytosol. The initial reactions for heme biosynthesis and other cyclic tetrapyrroles are common among plants, bacteria, and mammals with all of the carbon and nitrogen atoms derived from glycine and succinyl coenzyme A. (2-5)
1. Hodgson, J. Nature Biotechnol.2001, 19, 722-726.
2. D. Shemin and D. Rittenberg, J. Biol. Chem., 159, 567 (1945).
3. D. Shemin and D. Rittenberg, J. Biol. Chem., 166, 627 (1946).
4. D. Shemin and J. Wittenberg, J. Biol. Chem., 192, 315 (1951).
5. D. Shemin and S. Kumin, J. Biol. Chem., 198, 827 (1952).
These are really good references to get an understanding of how iron-metallated porphyrin in the active site of an enzyme can do amazing chemistry in the body.
I performed a Google search of my name and the first returned link was to OhioLink for my Master of Science degree, complete with a link to download my thesis. Several pages later I found links to my only published paper in a scientific journal, which is not free to download.
I found nothing bad about me from the search results... I'm not a very religious person, perhaps more spiritual, but the old saying that goes something like "a book of your life will be written for all to see" seems to have a more 'real' context than a religious context, at least for NOW. Since I don't engage in unethical/illegal/morally questionable activities, I don't think I have too much to worry about.
I think that the problem is the economics of the times: the middle class is being squeezed pretty badly, in fact, it's disappearing quite rapidly. People simply do not have the cash to go to the movie theater, at least I cannot part with that kind of money. I think that a lot of segments of the economy are charging (or at least trying to) a premium for their products/services and employing contractors instead of employing full-time hires. Whatever products/services people need/enjoy the most are the ones that get the money. If companies keep employing contractors, and energy prices continue to rise, then the economy is headed for a recession/depression. From where I'm sitting, things don't look all that nice. I'd like to see things change, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon.
Corporations have agendas, that are motivated/governed by one or a select few individuals. In the case of Apple Computer, everyone knows who the steward of the Apple ship is, what his path is remains to be somewhat "foggy." Why is this? Well, that my friend is a trade secret, owned by the one soul in the universe with his own REALITY DISTORTION FIELD. At the age of 38 and as a long time Apple user, I could never predict very far Steve Jobs's visions, and that's the key to the success of Steve and Apple. Steve Jobs has a gift that is unique to the success of a business that he co-founded, that he is absolutely passionate about. Whether you or I like it or not, Apple Computer is on the verge of crossing a threshold, a boundary that will propel it farther than its competition ever imagined. The foundation of this success will be the quality of its products: the iPod, iTunes and the momentum of the iTunes Music Store, and lastly the quality of Apple's operating systems and hardware. Consumers want something simple to use that works flawlessly out of the box. Apple has already achieved that with its computers (with less than or equal to 5% market share - it didn't work economically, hardware was too expensive for the average consumer), so it ventured into digital music players - now very successful! Now Apple is transitioning to Intel processors, i.e. more or less generic hardware that it doesn't have to design and engineer itself - effectively "outsourcing" the Macintosh design to Intel. Through its digital music players, Apple has shown the massive consumer market that it can design and successfully implement quality software and hardware integration that works flawlessly for the consumer. I predict that over time, Apple will make steep inroads to consumer markets, and eventually corporate America and global corporate markets. This will be in combination and recognition to producing goods and services that meet both consumer and commercial needs. There will be some serious convincing in the corporate world, but as more and more people play with and experiment with Mac OS X and iPods, people will be purchasing more Apple products. Microsoft and Sony have already lost the media war to Apple, I'm glad in one way that I own Apple stock, fearful in another way that Apple may "think itself so large and influential that it can go into any direction that it wants." There is always uncertainty with any investment... but Apple is here to stay no matter what Microsoft and Sony would like otherwise, or anyone else.
The one factor in Apple's favor is that Steve Jobs is hell bent on being NUMBER 1, not just good enough, unlike Bill Gates who likes to be just good enough. The Borg is too large and the corporate culture is too much "set in place" for adequate change for a serious challenge to Apple's agenda and momentum. Looking at Apple's market share, both in terms of computer sales, iPod sales, online services, overall market share, Apple Computer is GROWTH COMPANY AND CASH COW waiting to happen! It's just a matter of time before maturity develops...
The Timex/Sinclair 1000, with 2K RAM, 16K RAM Pack (Replaced with a 32K Memotech RAM Pack), 1040 Printer, and a Panasonic cassette player/recorder were all my first computer and associated hardware. I eventually got the Timex/Sinclair 2068 as a Christmas gift a year or two later. I spent hours playing the Psion Flight Simulators on both of the computers, enjoyed the excitement of getting the occasional COMPUTE magazine with Timex/Sinclair programs, typing in the all the various "graphics" characters in the REM statements for later machine language programming, hoping that they would work after saving to tape.
After reading some of the posts, these first 8-bit (Timex/Sinclair) and 16-bit (Apple IIGS) computers inspired much creativity because turning them on resulted being placed in a BASIC language interpretor. The Apple IIGS was a transition machine between the old days of programming and the more recent days of computing as an appliance/exploration tool.
The list and order of every computer I've ever owned (still have them all, all still work):
1. Timex/Sinclair 1000, 4 MHz Zilog Z80A, 2K internal RAM, 16K or 32K RAM Packs
2. Timex/Sinclair 2068, 4 MHz Zilog Z80A, 64K RAM
3. Apple IIGS, 3.75 MB RAM, Apple RGB color monitor, 3.5" 800K floppy drive, 5.25" floppy drive, ImageWriter II Printer, Apple 300/1200 Baud Modem.
4. Macintosh PowerBook 520C, 25MHz Motorola 68LC040, 32MB RAM
5. Blue & White Power Macintosh G3, 500MHz IBM PowerPC G3/1MB L3 Cache, internal Iomega 100MB Zip Drive, 768MB RAM
6. Power Macintosh G5, dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5, 2.5GB RAM
Being a long-time Apple user, owning an Apple IIGS, PowerBook 520c, Blue & White PowerMac G3, and now a PowerMac G5 with dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5s with oogles of RAM for multitasking and video/image processing for my viewing enjoyment. I have to admit that I use and support much open source software: OpenOffice, NeoOffice, GIMP, etc... on MacOSX. Is there anyone out there (I'm a cliff-jumping lemming) who can write ANYTHING close to the functionality of Apple's SPOTLIGHT search engine? I have an older version of Google Desktop at work and SpotLight beats Google Desktop hands down everytime - no trolling intended. I am very surprised that someone has not written an open source equivalent of spotlight for Linux/Windows to date. Anyone have any suggestions as to why this has not happened yet? Competition is good, and it inspires/requires expressions of creativity.
Pardon me, could you pass me the cheesie poofs?
on
Obesity Contagious?
·
· Score: 1
Pardon me, could you pass me the cheesie poofs?
All joking aside, obesity is a serious problem in the U.S.A. I have not yet read TFA, but I would like to make a few comments on diet.
I think that a lot of our dietary habbits are attributable to our local environments. We are at least swayed in judgement one way or another as to what is desirable vs. what is acceptable to eat. Working at a large pharmaceutical company, I am surrounded by the propaganda of the importance of eating well, and eating a well-balanced meal. This is in the company's best interest not to pay for human-self-inflicted conditions brought on by poor nutritional habits and lack of education. Even though the company outsources (BAD WORD) the cafeteria, the offerings are rather palatable and nutritious. The cafeteria's offerings are more palatable than many restaurants I have been to, and at a fraction of the price of the restaurants.
My cousin, a very nice, good hearted, and productive manager of a Bath & Body Works in a mall, is a young BBW! Through the years when I have visited on her lunch break (weekends), and even at home for dinner, she's always had FRIED AND PROCESSED FOOD! Cheesie Poofs! Chicken Nuggets! French Fries! Onion Rings! Curlycues! PIZZA! TATER TOTS! DEEP FRIED BREADED CHEESE STICKS! I've never seen her eat anything green, or freshly-picked vegetation, or food sprinkled with fresh herbs and spices (I grow my own - basil, rosemary, terragon, etc...). Not only is her obesity concerning to me, but she recently discovered that she has a cyst the size of a grapefruit on one of her ovaries and I am left wondering how much food of low nutritional value and possibly other bad things in fried foods contributed to this condition. I really think that much of what she chooses to eat today, even at home, was due to the availability, or rather, restrictive selection of MALL COURT FOOD!
Combined with certain employment pressures in the U.S.A., the fast food sector is thriving rather well due to the time and performance constraints of its customer base. If you think about it, these people are going to be NEEDING Liptor and other cholesterol-lowering drugs in the future. But hey, THAT'S GOOD FOR BUSINESS! THAT'S driving other sectors of our economy. Wrong as it may be, people will eat what they've been condition to eat, either through repeated exposure, peer pressure, time contraints, advertizing, or limited availability.
Incidentally, drinking ONE 8-ounce glass of red wine a day keeps heart disease, clogged arteries, and Liptior away. Drinking more than 8-ounces causes other serious problems.
My opinion is aimed more at the "user" crowd, not necesarily the "Slashdot" crowd.
Given the product offerings of Apple and its transition to Intel chips (I personally think this is a bad idea, it should have stayed with IBM and PowerPC), this couldn't be a better opportunity for the Windows PC crowd to *CONSIDER* a Macintosh running Mac OS X. My personal philosophy regarding computers is to buy the top-of-the-line Apple Power Macintosh every 5 to 7 years - really, for a *PERSONAL COMPUTER* you cannot go wrong, depending on what you use it for. Mac OS X, from my perspective is much more secure and easier to operate than Windows. I have a broadband connection and Apple's firewall turned on, along with "Block UDP Traffic, Enable Firewall Logging, and Enable Stealth Mode" all turned on. There are no virii for Mac OS X, no trojan horses, no spyware, etc... yet. I think that with Apple's offerings from the Mac Mini, iMac, and Power Mac, one simply cannot go wrong, BECAUSE, you get all of the features of the operating system regardless of the computer you buy. For email, websurfing, to using iLife, and M$ Office (Open Office / NeoOffice alternatives), you really cannot find a better computer for ANYONE to use out-of-the-box.
I think, when it really comes down to selecting a computer, how much do you value your personal time? Do you want to spend your time configuring your computer (Linux and Windows may require this)? Do you want to spend valueable time and money on virii/spyware software?
As a scientist, my time is very valuable, I don't have time to waste. I think anyone should like to find a computer/operating system that would allow for the best optimization of time and efficiency, most bang for the buck, that could be found on the marketplace. If anyone replies that Apple is a closed/proprietary architecture, well, so is a PC, Intel/AMD have patent protection. No matter where one buys the PC mother board, some patent protection is supporting it.
I think the real issue is, how valuable is your time, sanity, peace of mind? I don't have time to waste...Do you?
I agree completely with this statement, because I have seen and experienced it first-hand as a contractor at Pfizer Global Research & Development. However, surrounding one's self with excellence at work is only part of the equation, surrounding one's self with a nurturing and supportive family environment (good nutrition and well-balanced life experiences) at an early age further assists your development. Then there are the other relevant social, cultural, and other environmental factors that would go along with this. Given the proper development, many situations can present themselves as opportunities for advancement at any level, i.e. the problem seen before you no longer looks like a nail and your tools are not limited to varying sizes and shapes of hammers. With the right mix of intellectual, social, cultural, professional, and personal development, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. I really believe this, but so few people in our American society truely experience what exactly I am referring to, and these people are not limited to science, they are in medicine, law, business, engineering, religion, sports & other physical activities, manufacturing, politics (the incumbent president and associated currently corrupted members of that political party EXCLUDED).
Even if this does not result in genuis, it certainly is a factor in the obvious distinction between the "haves" and "have nots."
Agreed, it seems these days that anything associated with Steve Jobs has unimaginable or even feared consequences. I never thought Apple would switch from IBM to Intel, especially since Intel doesn't have a serious contender to rival the 64-bit PowerPC 970. In my opinion, both of these moves will be bad long-term, stifling growth and innovation.
It is not my intention to troll. I do not sit around thinking to myself "hmmm... how can I get more troll points on slashdot?" I'm simply stating my opinion, not trying to stir-up hard feelings in any way.
The point of my argument is that I prefer to purchase music legally as opposed to illegally getting it, but before iTunes, there really was no way of sampling it other than to listen to the radio, go to night clubs, or go to the music store and inquire about the CD/album.
Once again, I'm not into trolling, but some people here on slashdot obviously think I do.
Seriously, the iTMS has served me ONE function only - to search for music I like and to preview 30 second clips for me to decide whether or not I want to buy the CD at BestBuy for $12.99.
I admit, I am a diehard Macintosh, pro-PowerPC/anti-Intel archtecture zealot who downloads the FREE iTunes Music Store download of the week, but I will NEVER EVER purchase music online. First, with DRM, you never really own the music, wipe the license from your hard drive and you'll see what I mean - you can't play your music any/everywhere you want. Second, the quality of Apple's online downloads is pretty bad, for a audiophile. C'mon, 128-bit ACC/MP4 is what? Like no comparison to AIFF or the '--alt-preset insane' setting in 'iTunes LAME' plug-in, LAME for iTunes. With the '--alt-preset insane' setting in 'iTunes LAME' I can make the best-sounding MP3's available, and for listening through little tiny earbuds on my 4th generation 40 GB iPod, that's good enough. Forget Napster, LimeWire, and other P2P clients, hell, when and if I need to, I'll just loan-out to/borrow from a friend/associate a portable FireWire hard drive for copying an entire MP3 library - non DRM'd music to mine and determine what I want, the rest gets deleted; MB/GB are still expensive you know. Seriously though, iTMS is great for locating music that I want to PURCHASE, and preferentially, I'd like to purchase a CD at low cost from BestBuy or somewhere else which allows me to import into MP3 format in iTunes for portability. DRM is just too messy and inconvenient. The music industry should have had an online index of ALL available music a decade ago when music was being swapped P2P via Napster/LimeWire. Now the RIAA is at the mercy of Apple (at least it's NOT Micro$soft and the rest of the remaining BORG collective).
And, like a recent article I read on Slashdot, I do try to purchase and support the ARTISTS (not the RIAA) for the music written and appreciated.
America has officially lost its monopoly on stupid
Not quite true, we [America] still have to deal with George Bush, Jr. for the next 3 years. If foreigners actually knew how most Americans thought about the current leader of its country, then they truely would understand the embarassment we feel from the lack of intelligence displayed by our current President. Certainly, it can be implied by the multitude of Bushisms, that "W" is not an intellectual giant. "W" even admitted, jokingly, that he had "to knock on a lot of doors to follow in the old man's footsteps" to attend Yale University....."and for those of you with a C-average, you too can become President of the United States of America."
Now every geek, nerd, and Slashdotter can go about touching and feeling *REAL* women, as opposed to the life-sized blow-up dolls, without angering said women for ruining their pantyhose. C'mon guys, how many of you have done anything with a *REAL* woman, aside from kissing your mother, aunt, grandma, or sister? Be honest now! I see a few out there, among the thousands of spineless wishers (a hopeless cause indeed).
Having thought about this a little more, if any geek, nerd, or Slashdotter touched a *REAL* women, he'd probably be castrated, mauled, and kicked in the groin by default anyway, just for being an unkempt human initiating contact with a feminine, educated, cultured, lady-like, and elegant woman.
Sorry to arouse the nerds with the descriptive vocabulary.
Whew! It's almost like a prison in here [Slashdot], except that the geeks aren't aggressive psychopaths.
Stephen L. Thaler, Ph.D., founded Imagination Engines, Incorporated, a company he created that uses AI. His development of AI centered on pertubing the neural network nodes, and in extreme conditions, destroying the nodes. In the extreme perturbations of continuous node destruction, the AI experienced a "near death experience" whereby it "re-lived" its life and eventually "hallucinated" during the spiral to death. These series of events seem to correlate well in biological systems.
I will bet john bobbit will be happy when this is finally perfected on humans;-)
Bobbit....let's analyze this name by making some associations in combination with phonetics. What do you call a man with no arms or legs in the water? Bob! Hence something was chopped-off, amputated, or (non)surgically removed. Since Bobbit sounds a little like Hobbit, that would imply something else is missing....length, stature, and height, or even intelligence. Perhaps his genetic predispositions for sexual behavior and selection for violent women are well suited to his last name.
Slashdot Mirror
Do yourself (and your Mac) a favor and command-Q every once in a while, eh?
What I was inferring, and based on your reply you don't seem to be quick at catching on to things, is that I use most of these applications at least once in the evening or Saturday and Sunday without turning-off the computer. Memory will get paged-out to the hard drive because Mac OS X still keeps quit-applications in memory to be launched again without accessing the hard drive. See? You LEARNED something new from this post. The only way to get around this AFAIK is to reboot.
Memory usage depends on what YOU are using your computer for and the platform. I have an Apple PowerMac G5 with dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5 processors and 2.5 GB of RAM and IT ISN'T ENOUGH! Mac OS X pages out to virtual memory almost every day, because I'm constantly using Mozilla Firefox, Apple's Mail program, Micrsoft Office, OpenOffice (under X11), iTunes, MacTheRipper, HandBrake, Google Earth, VueScan, Preview, Adobe Reader, iCal, AddressBook, iWeb, QuickTime, AOL Instant Messenger, Skype, VLC, DVD2OneX2, Toast 6 Titanium, RBrowser, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and iChat. If you have a Macintosh running under a recent Mac OS X, you'll want as much RAM as possible to avoid paging-out to virtual memory - makes your Mac faster overall.
Star Trek Inspirational Posters
s p.html
http://echosphere.net/star_trek_insp/star_trek_in
Enjoy slashdotters!
Please don't Slashdot this site, this guy needs donations.
What's all the fuss about? This technology is NOT new! My 1992 Saturn SL2 computer brain box records the last 10 seconds of the car's acceleration, speed, throttle position, engine RPM's, and whether or not the brake is being pressed. This came to me directly from the Saturn dealer - and that's what they told me - approximately 40 different parameters are measured simultaneously every 1/100 of a second. In the event of an accident, the previous 10 seconds worth of THAT MUCH data is enough exonerate or convict someone of vehicular homicide. Besides, after living in Ohio, Michigan, and now in Connecticut, and observing that cameras are placed in most city and suburban intersections, this vehicular data will only substantiate the events that are recorded on surveillance cameras. I also want to point out that the data I've described was present in a vehicle 15 years old (it was purchased in September 1991, just after the Saturn model year change-over). Vehicles newer than this, like my 1999 Saab 93 very likely record more data, including if/when the airbags are deployed, and since the Saab that year had the option for OnStar, I would bet that a metric ass-load of data is recorded in that car's computer relative to the 1992 Saturn. This data collected in black boxes is only there to help people, not harm them or infringe on their rights. If you're concerned, then don't drive. You're either a criminal seeking to avoid detection and incarceration, or you're paranoid that the government is trying to keep track of your insignificant life.
I hope this and other stuff like this works before I get my onset... as a kid I had a bad habit of chewing aluminum can tabs, and I'm sure significan quantities broke off over the years...
ALUMINUM DOES NOT CAUSE ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. This is a fallacy due to a Biologist not knowing how to operate an electron microscope. At that time, the "Aluminum" in Alheimer's patients' brains was the result of the biologist having the electron intensity turned-up too high, and instead of detecting just brain tissue, the biologist detected the Aluminum support holding the brain tissue.
So, the moral of the story is: KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING IN THE LABORATORY AND HAVE ACCURATE AND PRECISE DATA ANALYSIS WITH MEANINGFUL REPLICATION OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS BEFORE PUBLISHING IN JOURNALS!!!
It's been more than 10 years and the public still thinks that using products with "Aluminum", i.e. soda cans, anti-perspirant, etc... will cause/contribute to Alzheimer's disease. Wrong Wrong Wrong!!!
As an Apple stockholder, I do not support the switch from IBM and FreeScale (formerly Motorola) PowerPC to Intel chips. Apple is effectively outsourcing the design of its hardware, of which much innovation and creativity were well received in the marketplace. Aside from the Rosetta chip, what *REALLY* distinguishes a Macintosh now from a PC aside from the shiny metal and plastic? I am not trolling, I know that Apple couples hardware from 3rd parties together very well, I just don't see how the switch to Intel chips is going to increase marketshare, damn, a Macintosh is a Macintosh only goes so far, the underlying hardware does have something to do with the *Macintosh* experience.
Aside from Intel speed bumps, the Macbook and Macbook Pro will have very little distinction. Hopefully, Apple will provide the chip in a socket and have a block of jumpers to upgrade chips and adjust CPU and logic board frequencies. At least I upgraded from a Motorola 400 MHz G3 to an IBM 500 MHz G3 in my Blue & White 'Yosemite' Macintosh with relative ease. With Intel-type designs, upgrading Macintoshes shouldn't be difficult.
Apple is treading in dangerous waters by switching to Intel and risking becoming irrelevant by embracing commodity PC hardware. Steve & Co. better have really, and I mean *REALLY* superior software to compete against The Borg, and I think that Switching to Intel pretty much burned the bridges with IBM and PowerPC unless Big Blue can produce cooler temperature chips that burn-up the Intel chips.
Assuming Apple gains significant market share in corporate America (and the world), the following scenarios are possible:
1. Your boss can actually watch you pick your nose and possibly see what you do with the booger. Options include wiping it on something, flicking it somewhere in your office/cubicle, eating it.
2. Your boss can view your facial expression to determine if you enjoy your job, enjoy your current task, day dreaming, sleeping on the job, or in general wasting time.
3. Your boss can see what you're eating/drinking while at work.
4. Your boss can see your facial expressions and behavior while looking at members of the same/opposite gender.
5. Your boss can see with whom you socialize and network while in front of your computer.
6. With regard to unauthorized employee monitoring, this technology could possibly be defeated with a semi-transparent mirror.
Fellow Slashdotters, please reply with ideas that I've missed/omitted!
It's simple really... the creatures that survived were more intelligently designed than those that died.
Well, I have another interpretation of this statement: 'the creatures that died were selected to go to heaven before the other animals with the better-designed DNA.' So, which animals have the 'better-designed' DNA? The ones that died first and are now with the creator, or the ones still left foraging in the forest? Something else to think about. One could argue that the animals who went back home to the creator before the other animals really had the better-designed DNA.
I hear so much in the media about how life is/was intelligently designed, but no one seems to make the argument I just posted. Death is very much apart of life, and according to supporters of ID, one would think that at least some of them would take sides with my argument, not that I believe the argument, which I do not because I'm a scientist. Good discussion is healthy for everyone.
Actually, synthetic compounds not native to our bodies are broken down rather easily, metabolized, and excreted from the body. The pharmaceutical industry uses ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Elimination) models every day to determine the efficacy and safety of drug compounds. If a compound stays around in the body too long and has adverse side-effects, then the compound will be no longer continue development as a active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in its current form; it is either modified, or the target protein must have an entirely new compound developed that binds at a different site.
Cytochrome P450 (CYP450) proteins are membrane-associated heme proteins that metabolize physiologically important compounds in microorganisms, plants, and animals. Human CYP450 proteins CYP1A2, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4 are the major drug-metabolizing isoforms, and contribute to the oxidative metabolism of more than 90% of the drugs in current clinical use. (1) In mammalian systems, heme is predominantly synthesized in erythroid cells (~85%) with the remainder synthesized in mitochondria and the cytosol. The initial reactions for heme biosynthesis and other cyclic tetrapyrroles are common among plants, bacteria, and mammals with all of the carbon and nitrogen atoms derived from glycine and succinyl coenzyme A. (2-5)
1. Hodgson, J. Nature Biotechnol. 2001, 19, 722-726.
2. D. Shemin and D. Rittenberg, J. Biol. Chem., 159, 567 (1945).
3. D. Shemin and D. Rittenberg, J. Biol. Chem., 166, 627 (1946).
4. D. Shemin and J. Wittenberg, J. Biol. Chem., 192, 315 (1951).
5. D. Shemin and S. Kumin, J. Biol. Chem., 198, 827 (1952).
These are really good references to get an understanding of how iron-metallated porphyrin in the active site of an enzyme can do amazing chemistry in the body.
I performed a Google search of my name and the first returned link was to OhioLink for my Master of Science degree, complete with a link to download my thesis. Several pages later I found links to my only published paper in a scientific journal, which is not free to download.
I found nothing bad about me from the search results... I'm not a very religious person, perhaps more spiritual, but the old saying that goes something like "a book of your life will be written for all to see" seems to have a more 'real' context than a religious context, at least for NOW. Since I don't engage in unethical/illegal/morally questionable activities, I don't think I have too much to worry about.
I think that the problem is the economics of the times: the middle class is being squeezed pretty badly, in fact, it's disappearing quite rapidly. People simply do not have the cash to go to the movie theater, at least I cannot part with that kind of money. I think that a lot of segments of the economy are charging (or at least trying to) a premium for their products/services and employing contractors instead of employing full-time hires. Whatever products/services people need/enjoy the most are the ones that get the money. If companies keep employing contractors, and energy prices continue to rise, then the economy is headed for a recession/depression. From where I'm sitting, things don't look all that nice. I'd like to see things change, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon.
Corporations have agendas, that are motivated/governed by one or a select few individuals. In the case of Apple Computer, everyone knows who the steward of the Apple ship is, what his path is remains to be somewhat "foggy." Why is this? Well, that my friend is a trade secret, owned by the one soul in the universe with his own REALITY DISTORTION FIELD. At the age of 38 and as a long time Apple user, I could never predict very far Steve Jobs's visions, and that's the key to the success of Steve and Apple. Steve Jobs has a gift that is unique to the success of a business that he co-founded, that he is absolutely passionate about. Whether you or I like it or not, Apple Computer is on the verge of crossing a threshold, a boundary that will propel it farther than its competition ever imagined. The foundation of this success will be the quality of its products: the iPod, iTunes and the momentum of the iTunes Music Store, and lastly the quality of Apple's operating systems and hardware. Consumers want something simple to use that works flawlessly out of the box. Apple has already achieved that with its computers (with less than or equal to 5% market share - it didn't work economically, hardware was too expensive for the average consumer), so it ventured into digital music players - now very successful! Now Apple is transitioning to Intel processors, i.e. more or less generic hardware that it doesn't have to design and engineer itself - effectively "outsourcing" the Macintosh design to Intel. Through its digital music players, Apple has shown the massive consumer market that it can design and successfully implement quality software and hardware integration that works flawlessly for the consumer. I predict that over time, Apple will make steep inroads to consumer markets, and eventually corporate America and global corporate markets. This will be in combination and recognition to producing goods and services that meet both consumer and commercial needs. There will be some serious convincing in the corporate world, but as more and more people play with and experiment with Mac OS X and iPods, people will be purchasing more Apple products. Microsoft and Sony have already lost the media war to Apple, I'm glad in one way that I own Apple stock, fearful in another way that Apple may "think itself so large and influential that it can go into any direction that it wants." There is always uncertainty with any investment... but Apple is here to stay no matter what Microsoft and Sony would like otherwise, or anyone else.
The one factor in Apple's favor is that Steve Jobs is hell bent on being NUMBER 1, not just good enough, unlike Bill Gates who likes to be just good enough. The Borg is too large and the corporate culture is too much "set in place" for adequate change for a serious challenge to Apple's agenda and momentum. Looking at Apple's market share, both in terms of computer sales, iPod sales, online services, overall market share, Apple Computer is GROWTH COMPANY AND CASH COW waiting to happen! It's just a matter of time before maturity develops...
As an Apple stockholder for several years now, two words come to mind:
CHIC-CHING!
The Timex/Sinclair 1000, with 2K RAM, 16K RAM Pack (Replaced with a 32K Memotech RAM Pack), 1040 Printer, and a Panasonic cassette player/recorder were all my first computer and associated hardware. I eventually got the Timex/Sinclair 2068 as a Christmas gift a year or two later. I spent hours playing the Psion Flight Simulators on both of the computers, enjoyed the excitement of getting the occasional COMPUTE magazine with Timex/Sinclair programs, typing in the all the various "graphics" characters in the REM statements for later machine language programming, hoping that they would work after saving to tape.
After reading some of the posts, these first 8-bit (Timex/Sinclair) and 16-bit (Apple IIGS) computers inspired much creativity because turning them on resulted being placed in a BASIC language interpretor. The Apple IIGS was a transition machine between the old days of programming and the more recent days of computing as an appliance/exploration tool.
The list and order of every computer I've ever owned (still have them all, all still work):
1. Timex/Sinclair 1000, 4 MHz Zilog Z80A, 2K internal RAM, 16K or 32K RAM Packs
2. Timex/Sinclair 2068, 4 MHz Zilog Z80A, 64K RAM
3. Apple IIGS, 3.75 MB RAM, Apple RGB color monitor, 3.5" 800K floppy drive, 5.25" floppy drive, ImageWriter II Printer, Apple 300/1200 Baud Modem.
4. Macintosh PowerBook 520C, 25MHz Motorola 68LC040, 32MB RAM
5. Blue & White Power Macintosh G3, 500MHz IBM PowerPC G3/1MB L3 Cache, internal Iomega 100MB Zip Drive, 768MB RAM
6. Power Macintosh G5, dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5, 2.5GB RAM
Being a long-time Apple user, owning an Apple IIGS, PowerBook 520c, Blue & White PowerMac G3, and now a PowerMac G5 with dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5s with oogles of RAM for multitasking and video/image processing for my viewing enjoyment. I have to admit that I use and support much open source software: OpenOffice, NeoOffice, GIMP, etc... on MacOSX. Is there anyone out there (I'm a cliff-jumping lemming) who can write ANYTHING close to the functionality of Apple's SPOTLIGHT search engine? I have an older version of Google Desktop at work and SpotLight beats Google Desktop hands down everytime - no trolling intended. I am very surprised that someone has not written an open source equivalent of spotlight for Linux/Windows to date. Anyone have any suggestions as to why this has not happened yet? Competition is good, and it inspires/requires expressions of creativity.
Pardon me, could you pass me the cheesie poofs?
All joking aside, obesity is a serious problem in the U.S.A. I have not yet read TFA, but I would like to make a few comments on diet.
I think that a lot of our dietary habbits are attributable to our local environments. We are at least swayed in judgement one way or another as to what is desirable vs. what is acceptable to eat. Working at a large pharmaceutical company, I am surrounded by the propaganda of the importance of eating well, and eating a well-balanced meal. This is in the company's best interest not to pay for human-self-inflicted conditions brought on by poor nutritional habits and lack of education. Even though the company outsources (BAD WORD) the cafeteria, the offerings are rather palatable and nutritious. The cafeteria's offerings are more palatable than many restaurants I have been to, and at a fraction of the price of the restaurants.
My cousin, a very nice, good hearted, and productive manager of a Bath & Body Works in a mall, is a young BBW! Through the years when I have visited on her lunch break (weekends), and even at home for dinner, she's always had FRIED AND PROCESSED FOOD! Cheesie Poofs! Chicken Nuggets! French Fries! Onion Rings! Curlycues! PIZZA! TATER TOTS! DEEP FRIED BREADED CHEESE STICKS! I've never seen her eat anything green, or freshly-picked vegetation, or food sprinkled with fresh herbs and spices (I grow my own - basil, rosemary, terragon, etc...). Not only is her obesity concerning to me, but she recently discovered that she has a cyst the size of a grapefruit on one of her ovaries and I am left wondering how much food of low nutritional value and possibly other bad things in fried foods contributed to this condition. I really think that much of what she chooses to eat today, even at home, was due to the availability, or rather, restrictive selection of MALL COURT FOOD!
Combined with certain employment pressures in the U.S.A., the fast food sector is thriving rather well due to the time and performance constraints of its customer base. If you think about it, these people are going to be NEEDING Liptor and other cholesterol-lowering drugs in the future. But hey, THAT'S GOOD FOR BUSINESS! THAT'S driving other sectors of our economy. Wrong as it may be, people will eat what they've been condition to eat, either through repeated exposure, peer pressure, time contraints, advertizing, or limited availability.
Incidentally, drinking ONE 8-ounce glass of red wine a day keeps heart disease, clogged arteries, and Liptior away. Drinking more than 8-ounces causes other serious problems.
My opinion is aimed more at the "user" crowd, not necesarily the "Slashdot" crowd.
Given the product offerings of Apple and its transition to Intel chips (I personally think this is a bad idea, it should have stayed with IBM and PowerPC), this couldn't be a better opportunity for the Windows PC crowd to *CONSIDER* a Macintosh running Mac OS X. My personal philosophy regarding computers is to buy the top-of-the-line Apple Power Macintosh every 5 to 7 years - really, for a *PERSONAL COMPUTER* you cannot go wrong, depending on what you use it for. Mac OS X, from my perspective is much more secure and easier to operate than Windows. I have a broadband connection and Apple's firewall turned on, along with "Block UDP Traffic, Enable Firewall Logging, and Enable Stealth Mode" all turned on. There are no virii for Mac OS X, no trojan horses, no spyware, etc... yet. I think that with Apple's offerings from the Mac Mini, iMac, and Power Mac, one simply cannot go wrong, BECAUSE, you get all of the features of the operating system regardless of the computer you buy. For email, websurfing, to using iLife, and M$ Office (Open Office / NeoOffice alternatives), you really cannot find a better computer for ANYONE to use out-of-the-box.
I think, when it really comes down to selecting a computer, how much do you value your personal time? Do you want to spend your time configuring your computer (Linux and Windows may require this)? Do you want to spend valueable time and money on virii/spyware software? As a scientist, my time is very valuable, I don't have time to waste. I think anyone should like to find a computer/operating system that would allow for the best optimization of time and efficiency, most bang for the buck, that could be found on the marketplace. If anyone replies that Apple is a closed/proprietary architecture, well, so is a PC, Intel/AMD have patent protection. No matter where one buys the PC mother board, some patent protection is supporting it.
I think the real issue is, how valuable is your time, sanity, peace of mind? I don't have time to waste...Do you?
I agree completely with this statement, because I have seen and experienced it first-hand as a contractor at Pfizer Global Research & Development. However, surrounding one's self with excellence at work is only part of the equation, surrounding one's self with a nurturing and supportive family environment (good nutrition and well-balanced life experiences) at an early age further assists your development. Then there are the other relevant social, cultural, and other environmental factors that would go along with this. Given the proper development, many situations can present themselves as opportunities for advancement at any level, i.e. the problem seen before you no longer looks like a nail and your tools are not limited to varying sizes and shapes of hammers. With the right mix of intellectual, social, cultural, professional, and personal development, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. I really believe this, but so few people in our American society truely experience what exactly I am referring to, and these people are not limited to science, they are in medicine, law, business, engineering, religion, sports & other physical activities, manufacturing, politics (the incumbent president and associated currently corrupted members of that political party EXCLUDED).
Even if this does not result in genuis, it certainly is a factor in the obvious distinction between the "haves" and "have nots."
Agreed, it seems these days that anything associated with Steve Jobs has unimaginable or even feared consequences. I never thought Apple would switch from IBM to Intel, especially since Intel doesn't have a serious contender to rival the 64-bit PowerPC 970. In my opinion, both of these moves will be bad long-term, stifling growth and innovation.
Blake,
It is not my intention to troll. I do not sit around thinking to myself "hmmm... how can I get more troll points on slashdot?" I'm simply stating my opinion, not trying to stir-up hard feelings in any way.
The point of my argument is that I prefer to purchase music legally as opposed to illegally getting it, but before iTunes, there really was no way of sampling it other than to listen to the radio, go to night clubs, or go to the music store and inquire about the CD/album.
Once again, I'm not into trolling, but some people here on slashdot obviously think I do.
Seriously, the iTMS has served me ONE function only - to search for music I like and to preview 30 second clips for me to decide whether or not I want to buy the CD at BestBuy for $12.99.
I admit, I am a diehard Macintosh, pro-PowerPC/anti-Intel archtecture zealot who downloads the FREE iTunes Music Store download of the week, but I will NEVER EVER purchase music online. First, with DRM, you never really own the music, wipe the license from your hard drive and you'll see what I mean - you can't play your music any/everywhere you want. Second, the quality of Apple's online downloads is pretty bad, for a audiophile. C'mon, 128-bit ACC/MP4 is what? Like no comparison to AIFF or the '--alt-preset insane' setting in 'iTunes LAME' plug-in, LAME for iTunes. With the '--alt-preset insane' setting in 'iTunes LAME' I can make the best-sounding MP3's available, and for listening through little tiny earbuds on my 4th generation 40 GB iPod, that's good enough. Forget Napster, LimeWire, and other P2P clients, hell, when and if I need to, I'll just loan-out to/borrow from a friend/associate a portable FireWire hard drive for copying an entire MP3 library - non DRM'd music to mine and determine what I want, the rest gets deleted; MB/GB are still expensive you know. Seriously though, iTMS is great for locating music that I want to PURCHASE, and preferentially, I'd like to purchase a CD at low cost from BestBuy or somewhere else which allows me to import into MP3 format in iTunes for portability. DRM is just too messy and inconvenient. The music industry should have had an online index of ALL available music a decade ago when music was being swapped P2P via Napster/LimeWire. Now the RIAA is at the mercy of Apple (at least it's NOT Micro$soft and the rest of the remaining BORG collective).
And, like a recent article I read on Slashdot, I do try to purchase and support the ARTISTS (not the RIAA) for the music written and appreciated.
America has officially lost its monopoly on stupid
Not quite true, we [America] still have to deal with George Bush, Jr. for the next 3 years. If foreigners actually knew how most Americans thought about the current leader of its country, then they truely would understand the embarassment we feel from the lack of intelligence displayed by our current President. Certainly, it can be implied by the multitude of Bushisms, that "W" is not an intellectual giant. "W" even admitted, jokingly, that he had "to knock on a lot of doors to follow in the old man's footsteps" to attend Yale University....."and for those of you with a C-average, you too can become President of the United States of America."
Now every geek, nerd, and Slashdotter can go about touching and feeling *REAL* women, as opposed to the life-sized blow-up dolls, without angering said women for ruining their pantyhose. C'mon guys, how many of you have done anything with a *REAL* woman, aside from kissing your mother, aunt, grandma, or sister? Be honest now! I see a few out there, among the thousands of spineless wishers (a hopeless cause indeed).
Having thought about this a little more, if any geek, nerd, or Slashdotter touched a *REAL* women, he'd probably be castrated, mauled, and kicked in the groin by default anyway, just for being an unkempt human initiating contact with a feminine, educated, cultured, lady-like, and elegant woman.
Sorry to arouse the nerds with the descriptive vocabulary.
Whew! It's almost like a prison in here [Slashdot], except that the geeks aren't aggressive psychopaths.
Stephen L. Thaler, Ph.D., founded Imagination Engines, Incorporated, a company he created that uses AI. His development of AI centered on pertubing the neural network nodes, and in extreme conditions, destroying the nodes. In the extreme perturbations of continuous node destruction, the AI experienced a "near death experience" whereby it "re-lived" its life and eventually "hallucinated" during the spiral to death. These series of events seem to correlate well in biological systems.
His first patent created the second patent.
Read about it here:
http://www.imagination-engines.com/
http://www.imagination-engines.com/thaler.htm
I will bet john bobbit will be happy when this is finally perfected on humans ;-)
Bobbit....let's analyze this name by making some associations in combination with phonetics. What do you call a man with no arms or legs in the water? Bob! Hence something was chopped-off, amputated, or (non)surgically removed. Since Bobbit sounds a little like Hobbit, that would imply something else is missing....length, stature, and height, or even intelligence. Perhaps his genetic predispositions for sexual behavior and selection for violent women are well suited to his last name.