I'm a Canadian living in Texas for the time being. Every time a local asks me what I think of it I never miss a chance to say I like their "cute little state."
The interesting thing is that to make it harmful all you have to do is boost its power. This new weapon is essentially the same as the microwave crowd control devices that've been in the news for a couple of years now, the only difference being power levels and how the microwaves are projected.
Basically in both cases the default configuration is to be nonlethal, but it wouldn't take a whole lot to change that in a hurry.
Thanks for the reminder! Also worth mentioning...I found his website, and was pleased to see he's got an online subscription service running for new DragonRealm material. For those in the know about Dragonrealm, he hints that Shade might be making a comeback...
I second David and Leigh Eddings, the Belgariad and the Malloreon are two of my all-time favourite series. Also the later books Belgarath The Sorceror and Polgara The Sorceress are fantastic, they tie the events in both the above series together. And finally The Rivan Codex was a great read, really lets you know what it's like to be a writer.
I'd also recommend Richard A. Knaak, probably better known 'round here for his Dragonlance stories and books, but he also did a series a while back that was really well done. Can't remember the name of the series (anyone remember the main character Bedlam? anyone?), but they were excellent.
You're right-it was only a few weeks ago a friend of mine had a similar thing happen to them, although for him it was a debit card. Apparently the gas station had a little gizmo between the card swiper and the actual debit card unit, so that when the victim swipes their card it keeps a local copy of the info. By the time he got home they'd taken more than two thousand from his account.
A lot of posters have commented on the fact that those that are really interested in science and engineering will tough it out, regardless of how the pay goes. So far in my life I've found that to be true.
I grew up in a small town, and when I was in high school I was really passionate about chemistry. I talked to my chem teachers about chemistry, and they told me flat out, "find something else, you'll never be able to support yourself the way you'd like." When I neared the end of my high school days, and everybody and their dog was asking me what I was going to do next, if I said "engineer" I'd get something like "you mean the guys who drive trains? Don't have to go to school for that you know!" and if I said "physicist" I got "you mean like a gym teacher?" As I said, it was a pretty small town.:)
Anyway, no matter what I said, it always involved some kind of science (usually physics). And I'd always hear "You know, you'll never make as much as your Dad." But I went through with physics anyway, because I liked it. I liked the idea of getting trained in the whole scientific process, giving me the mental toolset that basically lets me handle just about anything thrown at me.
So here I am a few years later. My Dad, the blue collar worker, still makes more than me. My cousin who had similar interests in science but was pushed into business, makes more than I do and he's ten years younger. Do I wish my background had proved a little more lucrative? You bet. Would I have changed studies, knowing then what I know now? No way.
I'm here in the U.S. on the H1B. What follows is just my personal situation, i.e. probably different to a large degree to most everyone else on the visa.
I'm not in IT, I'm in physics, in a very un-glamourous branch of materials science. I went to grad school for this, and off the top of my head I can think of about 2 other graduate-level programs worldwide for my particular brand of voodoo. There's plenty of technician level people in the business, but not very many in R&D.
My job is basically involved with improving public safety, for which I get paid the same as my American coworkers with similar degrees and seniority, and I get the exact same benefits.
Anyway, I guess I said all that to say this: H1B has flaws, granted, and it might very well need reformation, but the program does reach into other industries and it's worth considering the impact on them as well.
I've always kind of thought that it didn't really matter what you did to make a living, it's what you did with your time off that made you who you are.
My grandmother used to ask me if I loved my work and if it was fun. I'd always say I liked it, but it wasn't what I'd call "fun." Eventually I started saying "Work that's fun, that's a hobby. Work you wouldn't do if you weren't paid for it, that's a job."
Anyway, I guess my advice would be to not automatically assume that what you do for eight hours a day or whatever is necessarily who you are. I know PhDs that cheerfully drive cabs for a living: they never confused the job with their life. So find something that can fund what you really find worthwhile.
It's true for anybody with a technical background: they don't want engineers, physicists, etc.
I work for a small engineering company, and I always wondered why people there would say in our weekly meetings "I've got jury duty, should be back before lunch." Turns out that most of the technical people there have had the same experience: when the lawyers find out what you do/what you're trained for, you're booted and fast.
I've been told it's because technical people think logically and aren't as easily swayed by the lawyers, who often rely on surging emotions to win their case. But I think too it's because of our natures: as a juror you're not supposed to do any external research on your own. But suppose it's a case about a collapsed bridge and you're a civil engineer on the jury. Are you going to be able to resist? Or for those of us with some background in physics, if you were on a jury for a traffic accident, could you resist pulling out the ol' conservation of momentum, 2D mechanics, etc.? Maybe we're just harder to control.
That's a good point, but I guess what I was thinking was that Poindexter could raise the point that if it's really that easy that anyone can do it, that TIA is required so that the powers that be know when they're doing it and what they're collecting. Theoretically, "they" should be the terrorists, but seeing as we don't always know who the terrorists are before they do anything, "they" really means "everybody" in TIA.
So the argument he could use then would be that terrorists could be using a similar approach, and point to this reporter's efforts as proof of its feasibility.
It could provide him and his supporters with some evidence as to why they need such a system. Something along the lines of "hackers" (to be written as "terrorists" in the PowerPoint presentation) being able to find high-ranking DoD personnel even at home, only goes to prove we need to keep tabs on everyone.
I'm not a fan of the proposed system either, but this kind of protest might do exactly the opposite of what they intended it for.
Don't know if you're serious/joking, but here's my $.02 anyway...
My cat would have to agree with you. When she was a kitten she'd sit on my lap and be absolutely transfixed by the cat on the screen. Then the Darkness fell, and she was completely unimpressed with the DOS/Windows machines I ran after that. Then I switched to FreeBSD, and I think I really made her day when I came across a similar program that ran under X. It was nice to see her, years later, still able to be hypnotized by it.
When I read the headline this morning I thought it was going to be entirely from scratch, but the article says that they're "just" (like it's not still amazing we can do this) going to take an existing organism, and strip it of most of its DNA until they get down to the bare minimum required to sustain life. So I don't know if I'd necessarily call it "creating" life, because it seems to be more of the same modifying existing life people have been doing for a while now.
Very good to hear. I love my FreeBSD desktop dearly, and one of the last ties I had to enabling Linux compatibility was a release version of Opera. So far I have yet to find a better combination of
low-profile,
high speed, and
functionality
in a single browser.
Most of the other browsers I've come across were of the "choose any one of the above" variety. I've found niche uses for all of them, but Opera was the best choice on a old P75 for me.
Well, the Navy's current favourite paint-replacement is the applique, basically like a plastic wallpaper for planes and ships. Pretty easy to apply, very good weight advantages (paint can account for 800 lbs. on an average fighter because of all the repaints). 'Course, they haven't figured out how to get it off completely yet...the last I saw the scheme was to use lasers and dry ice to alternately heat and cool the applique until it basically flaked off.
Humph. Lasers and dry ice. Throw in a couple of dancers and you could sell tickets.
Depends on the contract I think. Most of the stuff I've done goes like this: the government is given rights to use the software, but the company keeps control of the source code and can license it any way it sees fit unless the contract specifically says otherwise.
So in this kind of contract, if the company wants to make their business model revolve around the GPL, they're free to do so (government can't tell them how to market).
'Course, that's mostly for development geared towards eventual commercial deployment, other contracts will vary.
I kind of think they do need to prove themselves. They lost the Joint Strike Fighter contract in part because of arrogance, because they thought that the DoD would give it to them just so there'd be some competition (Lockheed having been awarded the last one, F-22 was it?). Nothing new's scheduled for a while in terms of new aircraft, and now they're scrambling.
Other than the UAVs, they don't have a lot in the works right now, I think they need to come up with something, and fast.
NIST also participates in the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Program, like all the other federal agencies. They all post SBIR topics once or twice a year, and any U.S. based small business can submit proposals for funding.
Looking for something to do? The DoD and the NSF have their SBIR topics out; you can get more information here. There's always some interesting software development (and not just a few LAN/WAN) topics to check out.
Lawyers are a pretty clever bunch...they'll find a way to reach them, somehow (U.S. assets, etc.).
Like others have said though this isn't limited to the U.S., lots of countries have a long long reach, or at least try to. France, Canada, India, many others have poked and prodded around the edges, with varying degrees of success. And not just copyright issues brings 'em out: content policing and taxation are popular motives too.
When I was taking my instrumentation Physics class back in grad school, I was told it was Baby "n" Connector; apparently to everybody there except me if you looked at how it connects you can see a lower-case n there.
I haven't had too much success with the Adobe drivers of any version, but what I did find to work (most of the time) was to just use another PS printer driver, check the "Print To File" box, and then rename the ".prn" file to a ".ps" file. I use the old Textronix Phaser 740 colour printer driver, seems to work pretty well...sometimes better than Acrobat on the same file.
As far as GS versions go, I'm using 7.04 (GSView 4.2), and it seems to work fairly well.
One question I've had for a while...if cooking is basically a chemical reaction, and chemical reactions can be reversed, does that mean that there's a chemistry of "uncooking?" Imagine the untapped millions of $ available to you if you can show people how to unburn their pot roast!
Re:The problem of magnitude
on
Genome
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· Score: 2
Reminds me of something I think was from Hawking's Brief History of Time. He was talking about how people were sometimes amazed that the universe evolved "just so" and supported life. Hawking wrote that we shouldn't be surprised if we look around at a universe that supports our existence, otherwise we wouldn't be here to be surprised. Maybe the same can be said for evolution.
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I'm a Canadian living in Texas for the time being. Every time a local asks me what I think of it I never miss a chance to say I like their "cute little state."
Basically in both cases the default configuration is to be nonlethal, but it wouldn't take a whole lot to change that in a hurry.
Thanks for the reminder! Also worth mentioning...I found his website, and was pleased to see he's got an online subscription service running for new DragonRealm material. For those in the know about Dragonrealm, he hints that Shade might be making a comeback...
I'd also recommend Richard A. Knaak, probably better known 'round here for his Dragonlance stories and books, but he also did a series a while back that was really well done. Can't remember the name of the series (anyone remember the main character Bedlam? anyone?), but they were excellent.
You're right-it was only a few weeks ago a friend of mine had a similar thing happen to them, although for him it was a debit card. Apparently the gas station had a little gizmo between the card swiper and the actual debit card unit, so that when the victim swipes their card it keeps a local copy of the info. By the time he got home they'd taken more than two thousand from his account.
A lot of posters have commented on the fact that those that are really interested in science and engineering will tough it out, regardless of how the pay goes. So far in my life I've found that to be true.
I grew up in a small town, and when I was in high school I was really passionate about chemistry. I talked to my chem teachers about chemistry, and they told me flat out, "find something else, you'll never be able to support yourself the way you'd like." When I neared the end of my high school days, and everybody and their dog was asking me what I was going to do next, if I said "engineer" I'd get something like "you mean the guys who drive trains? Don't have to go to school for that you know!" and if I said "physicist" I got "you mean like a gym teacher?" As I said, it was a pretty small town. :)
Anyway, no matter what I said, it always involved some kind of science (usually physics). And I'd always hear "You know, you'll never make as much as your Dad." But I went through with physics anyway, because I liked it. I liked the idea of getting trained in the whole scientific process, giving me the mental toolset that basically lets me handle just about anything thrown at me.
So here I am a few years later. My Dad, the blue collar worker, still makes more than me. My cousin who had similar interests in science but was pushed into business, makes more than I do and he's ten years younger. Do I wish my background had proved a little more lucrative? You bet. Would I have changed studies, knowing then what I know now? No way.
I'm here in the U.S. on the H1B. What follows is just my personal situation, i.e. probably different to a large degree to most everyone else on the visa.
I'm not in IT, I'm in physics, in a very un-glamourous branch of materials science. I went to grad school for this, and off the top of my head I can think of about 2 other graduate-level programs worldwide for my particular brand of voodoo. There's plenty of technician level people in the business, but not very many in R&D.
My job is basically involved with improving public safety, for which I get paid the same as my American coworkers with similar degrees and seniority, and I get the exact same benefits.
Anyway, I guess I said all that to say this: H1B has flaws, granted, and it might very well need reformation, but the program does reach into other industries and it's worth considering the impact on them as well.
My grandmother used to ask me if I loved my work and if it was fun. I'd always say I liked it, but it wasn't what I'd call "fun." Eventually I started saying "Work that's fun, that's a hobby. Work you wouldn't do if you weren't paid for it, that's a job."
Anyway, I guess my advice would be to not automatically assume that what you do for eight hours a day or whatever is necessarily who you are. I know PhDs that cheerfully drive cabs for a living: they never confused the job with their life. So find something that can fund what you really find worthwhile.I work for a small engineering company, and I always wondered why people there would say in our weekly meetings "I've got jury duty, should be back before lunch." Turns out that most of the technical people there have had the same experience: when the lawyers find out what you do/what you're trained for, you're booted and fast.
I've been told it's because technical people think logically and aren't as easily swayed by the lawyers, who often rely on surging emotions to win their case. But I think too it's because of our natures: as a juror you're not supposed to do any external research on your own. But suppose it's a case about a collapsed bridge and you're a civil engineer on the jury. Are you going to be able to resist? Or for those of us with some background in physics, if you were on a jury for a traffic accident, could you resist pulling out the ol' conservation of momentum, 2D mechanics, etc.? Maybe we're just harder to control.
That's a good point, but I guess what I was thinking was that Poindexter could raise the point that if it's really that easy that anyone can do it, that TIA is required so that the powers that be know when they're doing it and what they're collecting. Theoretically, "they" should be the terrorists, but seeing as we don't always know who the terrorists are before they do anything, "they" really means "everybody" in TIA.
So the argument he could use then would be that terrorists could be using a similar approach, and point to this reporter's efforts as proof of its feasibility.It could provide him and his supporters with some evidence as to why they need such a system. Something along the lines of "hackers" (to be written as "terrorists" in the PowerPoint presentation) being able to find high-ranking DoD personnel even at home, only goes to prove we need to keep tabs on everyone.
I'm not a fan of the proposed system either, but this kind of protest might do exactly the opposite of what they intended it for.My cat would have to agree with you. When she was a kitten she'd sit on my lap and be absolutely transfixed by the cat on the screen. Then the Darkness fell, and she was completely unimpressed with the DOS/Windows machines I ran after that. Then I switched to FreeBSD, and I think I really made her day when I came across a similar program that ran under X. It was nice to see her, years later, still able to be hypnotized by it.
I'll miss OS/2, even with all of its warts.When I read the headline this morning I thought it was going to be entirely from scratch, but the article says that they're "just" (like it's not still amazing we can do this) going to take an existing organism, and strip it of most of its DNA until they get down to the bare minimum required to sustain life. So I don't know if I'd necessarily call it "creating" life, because it seems to be more of the same modifying existing life people have been doing for a while now.
Very good to hear. I love my FreeBSD desktop dearly, and one of the last ties I had to enabling Linux compatibility was a release version of Opera. So far I have yet to find a better combination of
- low-profile,
- high speed, and
- functionality
in a single browser. Most of the other browsers I've come across were of the "choose any one of the above" variety. I've found niche uses for all of them, but Opera was the best choice on a old P75 for me.Well, the Navy's current favourite paint-replacement is the applique, basically like a plastic wallpaper for planes and ships. Pretty easy to apply, very good weight advantages (paint can account for 800 lbs. on an average fighter because of all the repaints). 'Course, they haven't figured out how to get it off completely yet...the last I saw the scheme was to use lasers and dry ice to alternately heat and cool the applique until it basically flaked off.
Humph. Lasers and dry ice. Throw in a couple of dancers and you could sell tickets.Seriously, it's a nice looking machine, but if I'm leaning in that direction I'd probably lean all the way and get the real deal. Nice try, though.
So in this kind of contract, if the company wants to make their business model revolve around the GPL, they're free to do so (government can't tell them how to market).
'Course, that's mostly for development geared towards eventual commercial deployment, other contracts will vary.
Other than the UAVs, they don't have a lot in the works right now, I think they need to come up with something, and fast.
Looking for something to do? The DoD and the NSF have their SBIR topics out; you can get more information here. There's always some interesting software development (and not just a few LAN/WAN) topics to check out.
Like others have said though this isn't limited to the U.S., lots of countries have a long long reach, or at least try to. France, Canada, India, many others have poked and prodded around the edges, with varying degrees of success. And not just copyright issues brings 'em out: content policing and taxation are popular motives too.
Better living through Slashdot...
When I was taking my instrumentation Physics class back in grad school, I was told it was Baby "n" Connector; apparently to everybody there except me if you looked at how it connects you can see a lower-case n there.
As far as GS versions go, I'm using 7.04 (GSView 4.2), and it seems to work fairly well.
One question I've had for a while...if cooking is basically a chemical reaction, and chemical reactions can be reversed, does that mean that there's a chemistry of "uncooking?" Imagine the untapped millions of $ available to you if you can show people how to unburn their pot roast!
Reminds me of something I think was from Hawking's Brief History of Time. He was talking about how people were sometimes amazed that the universe evolved "just so" and supported life. Hawking wrote that we shouldn't be surprised if we look around at a universe that supports our existence, otherwise we wouldn't be here to be surprised. Maybe the same can be said for evolution.