Seems like it would be a lot more effective to just add an emergency comms exception to HIPAA.
The great thing about ham radio is that we have stacks of old, analog, simple, reliable equipment and we can get a signal through no matter what.
Encryption on the other hand requries fancy radios and fancy computers and while we could probably swing it most of the time, situations could certainly arise where the smoke comes out of the fancy radio or the computer shits it's bits and we're left with an FM 2m rig or SSB HF rig and people are going to die if you don't transmit their medical info.
Anyway I for one could care less if emcomms groups encrypt or encode patient names, although I think we'd all appreciate it if they didn't blanket encrypt all their traffic.
I've thought about whether encrypting just the password would be legal, and I think you could argue that it is, because the letter of the law refers to the "meaning" of the "messages", and the password has no meaning (beyond the fact that it's a password and encrypting it doesn't obfuscate that meaning) and it isn't really a "message". The origin of the term "message" in the rules comes from radiograms. The reason for the rule is they want ham radio to be self policing and not used for crimes, espionage, etc. Encrypting just a password is certainly in keeping with the spirit, and perhaps the letter of the law.
https on the other hand is obviously a big no-no.
How about listening to streaming internet radio over a ham licensed WAP? Muddle that one.
So when is Cinnamon going to support window grouping "out of the box"? I know there's a 3rd party applet for it, I tried it, it was buggy and kludgy. Despite members of the community clamoring for it, the devs claim that not having it is a "design decision". So it's a design decision to make it frustrating and difficult to find the right window when I have a many windows open, which I usually do, because I'm a software developer and power user? It's a design decision to ignore the requirements of the Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition community?/rant
Overall I have to say I've been very happy with Linux Mint. It really "just works" and I wouldn't even consider switching to another distro, the above complaint notwidthstanding. Cinnamon is mostly sexy and cool.
Seriously. Do what works for you. I mostly do my email in gmail. But I do all of my real paying work at a shell prompt or in VIM. Because it works. When I have to use a windows box for whatever reason I install cygwin so I can keep doing my work in bash & VIM.
The thing is more and more people are using computers every day. As computing becomes commoditized it moves towards the lowest common denominator. This is to be expected. Don't feel like you have to stoop down to that level, but don't be all high falutin' either. Do your thing, be true to yourself, be respectful of others. You might even convert a few people to IRC.
It's not like your skills are stale if you don't use tablets. It's not like iPads are hard to use or something.
Slashdot is a news aggregator. The posts don't necessarily reflect the ops opinions. I for one appreciate the opportunity to hear both sides of the story.
I graduated in 2005 from Vermont Technical College, a small state school, only about 1000 students. Everybody in my class (Computer Engineering Tech) was capable of writing complete and comprehensible sentences or at least capable of cheating to fake it.
I forgot to mention that there is some degree of integration between pandas and ipython notebook so it makes sense to use them together for interactive use.
Also before anybody digs on Python's performance, Pandas is built on NumPy which is written in C so it's relatively fast and memory efficient even on large data sets. NumPy is even working on automatic vectorization and paralelization for those really tough problems.
It's not exactly a spreadsheet, but Pandas is totally awesome and is useful for many tasks for which you might think of using a spreadsheet.
pandas is a Python package providing fast, flexible, and expressive data structures designed to make working with “relational” or “labeled” data both easy and intuitive. It aims to be the fundamental high-level building block for doing practical, real world data analysis in Python. Additionally, it has the broader goal of becoming the most powerful and flexible open source data analysis / manipulation tool available in any language. It is already well on its way toward this goal.
IPython Notebook is sort of like a combination of the normal ipython shell and an IDE. You interact via your browser but it connects to a normal python process on your local (or remote?) system.
I've used these tools together for many tasks for which I might otherwise have used a spreadsheet, particularly for "pivot tables" and time series analysis. Again, even combined they do not a spreadsheet make, but they are in many ways superior. They can handle very large data sets, and best of all you are doing it all in Python.
Anybody who thinks that software development should mirror home construction has obviously never built a house, lived in a brand new house and delt with the sorts of issues that arise, done any major renovations, or otherwise been exposed to the sort of shoddy cob jobs that permeate the industry. Here in Vermont you're always finding shit like balled up newspaper insulation in the walls, 100 year old knob and tube wiring, frozen pipes, banging pipes, lead pipes, lead paint, asbestos, vermiculite, front porches built from rotting wood, leaking roofs, freshly painted fronts but peeling backs, dry laid slate foundations, and other eye boggling crap, pretty much every house you look at. The architect might draw plans but belive me the construction crew will find a way to bungle them and will do whatever they damn well please to get the job done. I feel like somebody is stretching for an analogy. SOFTWARE IS NOT CONSTRUCTION! SOFTWARE IS NOT LIKE A HOUSE! FFS. Different types of projects require different levels of care. Blogs, social networks, and one off command line utilities do not kill people when they break.
Anyway as a software engineer I can tell you that I THINK in code. I draw diagrams sometimes, for the complex bits, as necessary. But if I code up a POC and it sucks, it's cheap to tear it down and start again. Not so much when you are building a house, get it right the first time or you will hate life. So it's a dumb analogy.
In that order.
Arduino is cheap and dirt simple and surprisingly powerful and flexable. Arduino is based on AVR which is the next step if you wish to pursue ultra cheap ultra lower power micro designs. AVR is compatbile with the complete GNU toolchain including GCC and GDB via JTAG and in-circuit emulation using the astoundingly cheap Atmel Dragon, the $50 JTAG adapter. Raspberry Pi and Beaglebone both run Linux. The RPi is super cheap but is better targeted at apps which require a GUI. The BeagleBoard is more expensive but is better tuned for embedded use. It would be nice if the inverse were true, but oh well.
Bullshit. I knew when I was seven years old that I was going to grow up to be a computer programmer. I fought to go to vocational school for 11th and 12th grade and then I got a BS from a technical college. I'm 33 now with a successful career in my chosen field, thank you. When I was a kid, I always wished people like you who thought they knew best for me would just fuck off. I bet kids still wish people like you would fuck off today. Kids should absolutely be given a choice between a generalized and specialized education.
Python has been using VS2008 up to this point for their windows releases, although I understand with 3.3 they will move to 2010. I think we'll get plenty of mileage out of VS2010. Calling windows free software dead" is a bit sensationalist, but I guess it sells. There's also gcc-mingw, which while a bit klunky, does work and some projects use it. I mean what does 2011 really do that 2010 doesn't do? Automatic SSE2 optimizations? How many apps can really benefit from that? The existing apps that really need it (VLC comes to mind) have probably already implemented SSE2,SSE3,donkyballs5000 optimizations the old fashioned way.
That said I think companies need to really look at what their charging for dev tools. I was an Apple fanboy up to about 1998 when I realized how much it would cost to buy the full set of Inside Macintosh and a good compiler like MPW or Metrowerks (not to mention new mac hardware). A bit out a college student's price range. That's when I dumped Macs from my life. Apple did get smart eventually and give the tools away and look at their ecosystem now.
This isn't really news, organic farmers have always known this. Anyway conventional ag has problems too. Pesticides poison bees and us. Fertilizer comes from petroleum. GMO crops, Monsanto, etc. Organics are also closely connected to sustainability which is the idea that intensive factory farming just can't go on forever so we'd damn well better figure out another way to feed ourselves.
If I were king I'd start by banning suburbs built on arable land. I'd also suggest that certain groups stop producing so many offspring.
It's sort of open source, as open as an excel spreadsheet goes anyway. Works fine in OpenOffice Calc. I've been using it for years, haven't been audited yet.
Well that was kind of fun for about 30 minutes, by then I'd gotten the Ultimate Sword and the Golden Armor and I demolished the Skeleton King and then there wasn't much point to keep playing.
According to OTHER SCOTUS rulings the cops can legally detain you for a LONG time (hours) and then walk a drug dog AROUND you car and if the dog signals (or if the cop SAYS the dog signals) they have probable cause to search. E.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_v._Caballes Also the definition of a "reasonable amount of time" to detain somebody while waiting for a drug dog is very ambiguous; courts have found hours long detentions while waiting for drug dogs are legal.
Imagine how awesome Radio Shack could be if they started supporting local efforts of Makers to build things. Why is Radio Shack not offering modern electronics courses, along with rentals of some gear too hard to afford yourself?
They could really transform themselves into something powerful with a small twist.
I agree RatShack has gone downhill, and it's especially unfortunate that they no longer sell amateur radio gear. But I think it's actually been improving of late. They carry way more components than they used to and they finally took my advice and put them in drawers. They still have solder, RF adapters, antennas, some basic computer parts, kits, books, arduinos, basic stamps, 100 in 1 electronics sets (I've already bought one for my 2 year old, can't get 'em started too early!) Radio Shack is a hell of a lot better than nothing and let's hope this positive trend continues.
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Seems like it would be a lot more effective to just add an emergency comms exception to HIPAA.
The great thing about ham radio is that we have stacks of old, analog, simple, reliable equipment and we can get a signal through no matter what.
Encryption on the other hand requries fancy radios and fancy computers and while we could probably swing it most of the time, situations could certainly arise where the smoke comes out of the fancy radio or the computer shits it's bits and we're left with an FM 2m rig or SSB HF rig and people are going to die if you don't transmit their medical info.
Anyway I for one could care less if emcomms groups encrypt or encode patient names, although I think we'd all appreciate it if they didn't blanket encrypt all their traffic.
Absolutely illegal.
I've thought about whether encrypting just the password would be legal, and I think you could argue that it is, because the letter of the law refers to the "meaning" of the "messages", and the password has no meaning (beyond the fact that it's a password and encrypting it doesn't obfuscate that meaning) and it isn't really a "message". The origin of the term "message" in the rules comes from radiograms. The reason for the rule is they want ham radio to be self policing and not used for crimes, espionage, etc. Encrypting just a password is certainly in keeping with the spirit, and perhaps the letter of the law.
https on the other hand is obviously a big no-no.
How about listening to streaming internet radio over a ham licensed WAP? Muddle that one.
I don't view Ubuntu as its own distro. It just piggy backs off of Debian's success and hard work.
There, fixed it for you.
So when is Cinnamon going to support window grouping "out of the box"? I know there's a 3rd party applet for it, I tried it, it was buggy and kludgy. Despite members of the community clamoring for it, the devs claim that not having it is a "design decision". So it's a design decision to make it frustrating and difficult to find the right window when I have a many windows open, which I usually do, because I'm a software developer and power user? It's a design decision to ignore the requirements of the Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition community?/rant
Overall I have to say I've been very happy with Linux Mint. It really "just works" and I wouldn't even consider switching to another distro, the above complaint notwidthstanding. Cinnamon is mostly sexy and cool.
Sometimes I wistfuly dream of the days when I could do useful work in a text mode browser.
Seriously. Do what works for you. I mostly do my email in gmail. But I do all of my real paying work at a shell prompt or in VIM. Because it works. When I have to use a windows box for whatever reason I install cygwin so I can keep doing my work in bash & VIM.
The thing is more and more people are using computers every day. As computing becomes commoditized it moves towards the lowest common denominator. This is to be expected. Don't feel like you have to stoop down to that level, but don't be all high falutin' either. Do your thing, be true to yourself, be respectful of others. You might even convert a few people to IRC.
It's not like your skills are stale if you don't use tablets. It's not like iPads are hard to use or something.
Slashdot is a news aggregator. The posts don't necessarily reflect the ops opinions. I for one appreciate the opportunity to hear both sides of the story.
I graduated in 2005 from Vermont Technical College, a small state school, only about 1000 students. Everybody in my class (Computer Engineering Tech) was capable of writing complete and comprehensible sentences or at least capable of cheating to fake it.
I forgot to mention that there is some degree of integration between pandas and ipython notebook so it makes sense to use them together for interactive use.
Also before anybody digs on Python's performance, Pandas is built on NumPy which is written in C so it's relatively fast and memory efficient even on large data sets. NumPy is even working on automatic vectorization and paralelization for those really tough problems.
It's not exactly a spreadsheet, but Pandas is totally awesome and is useful for many tasks for which you might think of using a spreadsheet.
http://pandas.pydata.org/index.html
IPython Notebook is sort of like a combination of the normal ipython shell and an IDE. You interact via your browser but it connects to a normal python process on your local (or remote?) system.
http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/dev/interactive/htmlnotebook.html
I've used these tools together for many tasks for which I might otherwise have used a spreadsheet, particularly for "pivot tables" and time series analysis. Again, even combined they do not a spreadsheet make, but they are in many ways superior. They can handle very large data sets, and best of all you are doing it all in Python.
No, a Telegard BBS.
Anyway as a software engineer I can tell you that I THINK in code. I draw diagrams sometimes, for the complex bits, as necessary. But if I code up a POC and it sucks, it's cheap to tear it down and start again. Not so much when you are building a house, get it right the first time or you will hate life. So it's a dumb analogy.
I stand corrected. I still will not recomment PIC due to the lack of support for using an exclusively FLOSS toolchain.
Oh I should mention why I don't recommend PIC based platforms; poor support for using Linux as a development host.
Thanks for taking away valuable functionality to protect idiots from themselves. O_o
Bullshit. I knew when I was seven years old that I was going to grow up to be a computer programmer. I fought to go to vocational school for 11th and 12th grade and then I got a BS from a technical college. I'm 33 now with a successful career in my chosen field, thank you. When I was a kid, I always wished people like you who thought they knew best for me would just fuck off. I bet kids still wish people like you would fuck off today. Kids should absolutely be given a choice between a generalized and specialized education.
Python has been using VS2008 up to this point for their windows releases, although I understand with 3.3 they will move to 2010. I think we'll get plenty of mileage out of VS2010. Calling windows free software dead" is a bit sensationalist, but I guess it sells. There's also gcc-mingw, which while a bit klunky, does work and some projects use it. I mean what does 2011 really do that 2010 doesn't do? Automatic SSE2 optimizations? How many apps can really benefit from that? The existing apps that really need it (VLC comes to mind) have probably already implemented SSE2,SSE3,donkyballs5000 optimizations the old fashioned way.
That said I think companies need to really look at what their charging for dev tools. I was an Apple fanboy up to about 1998 when I realized how much it would cost to buy the full set of Inside Macintosh and a good compiler like MPW or Metrowerks (not to mention new mac hardware). A bit out a college student's price range. That's when I dumped Macs from my life. Apple did get smart eventually and give the tools away and look at their ecosystem now.
If I were king I'd start by banning suburbs built on arable land. I'd also suggest that certain groups stop producing so many offspring.
http://home.mchsi.com/~taxcalculator/
Well that was kind of fun for about 30 minutes, by then I'd gotten the Ultimate Sword and the Golden Armor and I demolished the Skeleton King and then there wasn't much point to keep playing.
According to OTHER SCOTUS rulings the cops can legally detain you for a LONG time (hours) and then walk a drug dog AROUND you car and if the dog signals (or if the cop SAYS the dog signals) they have probable cause to search. E.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_v._Caballes Also the definition of a "reasonable amount of time" to detain somebody while waiting for a drug dog is very ambiguous; courts have found hours long detentions while waiting for drug dogs are legal.
Imagine how awesome Radio Shack could be if they started supporting local efforts of Makers to build things. Why is Radio Shack not offering modern electronics courses, along with rentals of some gear too hard to afford yourself?
They could really transform themselves into something powerful with a small twist.
Tru dat!
I agree RatShack has gone downhill, and it's especially unfortunate that they no longer sell amateur radio gear. But I think it's actually been improving of late. They carry way more components than they used to and they finally took my advice and put them in drawers. They still have solder, RF adapters, antennas, some basic computer parts, kits, books, arduinos, basic stamps, 100 in 1 electronics sets (I've already bought one for my 2 year old, can't get 'em started too early!) Radio Shack is a hell of a lot better than nothing and let's hope this positive trend continues.