The article is more pop-science to advance some specific agenda. First it claims they are equal, but then the article says "Hyde says that suggests that cultural and social factors, not gender alone, influence how well students perform on tests.". The article doesn't say gender or sex doesn't matter -- just that gender alone doesn't influence it. Like, "duh!". Diet, culture, genetics...sure, they influence -- but the fact is that gender does enter into performance. There nonsense statistic that even though girls used to do less well, and now still do 7% less well on the SAT, now its because more girls are taking the SAT -- so its not because they girls don't do better -- but because more of them take it?! Right...I believe that -- but they didn't count the boys with dark hair! That would shift it by 32% in reverse! Or is it the blue eyes?...
What seems to be the case is that there is a greater spread of distribution among males than among females. Anyone above at or above some 'midpoint' takes the test -- the males who are less intelligent than the average female don't take the SAT -- but the highest scorers (among whites, apparently) are males -- not females. Just that females are closer to average. Well in any field, if they try to employ people above average in that field, then since more females would cluster near average, they would hire more males from the top. Now why this is reversed in asian families is anyone's guess -- but there are "class" differences, where class=members of sex female, or members of sex male. There are societal expectations in each culture for each sex. That still does not mean males = females. Nor does it imply that sex-discrimination isn't occurring. There are other data that would need to be collected.
So what from Windows Vista(2006) isn't in Windows2008? The big problem with Vista was all the drivers that were degraded in order to downgrade AV content at some future point when everyone has switched to BluRay and DVD's are no longer a viable option. That and an abusive security model.
So is it the case that these problems haven't gone into the code base for future Windows releases?
You typed (in stereotypical manner, no less): "In other words -- if girls don't want to study science them please, for the love of science, don't try to make them. I sincerely believe that statistically, men are better at science than women. There are enough objectively identifiable differences between the sexes to justify such a statement. (The same could be said for races, too.)".
It's been found in other countries that such differences are not based in biology but in social expectations. In come European countries, quotas were needed, *for a time*, until the sex-stigma of certain fields was eliminated for a new generation -- once the new generation was raised in a gender-balanced environment, the supposed "preference" for girls avoiding math and science went away.
There's also a general effect of societal power imbalance on cognitive function. Studies have shown that when people are made to feel "subordinate", their cognitive function declines. While those who feel dominant show no such decline. It's also the case that many men (only men) need to "win" in their field (implying that someone else must lose) and that seeing the other lose stimulated men's reward centers. This was related to testosterone levels and was not duplicable in women.
However, the affect of subordination on cognitive function seem to hold across both sexes. So there's a circularly feeding pattern in place.
That's the reasoning behind 'quotes' and affirmative action -- it's not going to necessarily make the current generation that much better off, but it provides normalization for the next generation.
So much for "ecode" keeping a table straight...(sigh)
The part most interesting -- is that 90% of Americans (making $117K/year) saw spending power decline by 4%. While the richest.01% -- went up by an astounding 22.2%... Gotta love that tax cut Bush fed in to the highest earners at the beginning of his term -- of course national debt nearly tripled to over 9Trillion...but hey...we just keep watering down the dollar by issuing more "shares"...no one will notice that prices are going up....*cough*.
So Dell's primary business is selling laptop insurance?
I don't think so...
OTOH -- if that stolen laptop is from Dell -- better make sure you never call up for support on it. Dunno about other laptop vendors, but Dell's been getting keeping close track of machines purchased by companies -- what company owns them, who is calling on their behalf...etc.
If all laptop vendors did that, it seems it might drop the worth of stolen laptops, since they are not notoriously reliable and long-lived.
It depends on what it is -- but my parents charged me interest on a loan I took out from them. They got better rates than in the bank, I got better rates than the bank -- we both won. But if they just loaned me the money with no payback to them -- that wouldn't be a win-win.
Money is like electricity -- you can use it to get things done. It's not the same type of thing as "love" or a relationship w/parents or family.
It's good to keep relationships "clean" -- so neither side feels they are being "put upon".
I think my dad sold my sister their previous car, as well. What, oh..I forgot, parents are just supposed to give their kids a car these days?
But these things totally depend on the specific situation.
If your parents are in the market for an "X" and you are going to sell your "X" in good condition and think they'd be fine w/X, what's the problem with both parties getting a good deal?
It's not about materialism -- its about not using people at every single step. You gift when it is from the heart -- not because of "automatic" rules about what you should do.
But then -- this is how my parents raised me -- you may have had a different upbringing -- so you have to do what works in your family. Geez....can't believe you'd even have the rudeness to criticize someone on their dealings with their parents -- you don't have any idea about their situation. It may be exactly how the parents trained them and what the parents would want -- so my comment to you would be "you'd have the person violate their parents wishes?!?"
Trickle down effect of a Bush neocon government. How will this "trickle down" to the rest of the industry and states? This law sounds seriously messed up if allowed to stand.
A PI should have no business on my machine -- in fact, that'd be a good reason *not* to go to a licensed repair shop -- because they will likely be required to search it -- if not already, in the near future.
For people who have had 'depot' repair warranties -- you have to send the computer in to them to be repaired. But possibly worse -- does this mean if a business (like Dell) is based in Texas, they need to require all computers that they repair to be searched as well?
Certainly, this will raise the cost of computer repairs so much as to make them near 'throw-aways' (like the cheap ones aren't already?).
A company like Dell, it seems would have to relocate its repair business outside of the state if they want to remain competitive.
If you live in Texas, will it become illegal to service your own computer -- will you need a PI license to buy spare computer parts? How about the legality of shipping your computer out-of-state for repair -- is that, or will that also be illegal? Perhaps they'll have "border" searches at airports and highways to check contents of all laptops and computers entering the state?
This is all the neocons' fantasy movement toward a socialist police state. It figures it would start in Bush's home state. That state is probably the strongest base of neocons -- I wonder how long California will last, or if it can, against the Orange-County/SoCal neocons. Hopefully the their anti-gay-marriage thing will fail horribly and they'll pack up and all move to Texas...
Re:probably best to roll your own, & MS-WinSer
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Volume snapshots looks to be closest, but it sure doesn't look even close to the functionality and ease-of-use as the Vista version. In Vista Business, Enterprise or Ultimate, there is an extra tab under file properties called "Previous Versions". There's a picture at http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/06/30/vista-previous-versions-shadow-copy-vs-recycle-bin/. Not sure how it is implemented, but it is contingent on having "free" disk space to allow old copies to be 'kept'.
I'm not sure any of the Linux file systems would easily support this.
Sometimes it's not about what you "can do", but how easily you can do it. I wanted something I could hand to my folks who know nothing about OS's, or file systems, and it would "just work" -- but I certainly wouldn't want to curse them with Vista if avoidable.
It looks real slick, but I don't know how it is implemented in practice. It would not be acceptable to store a full copy of the file every 3 hours -- preferably not even on every change -- but on some 'delta' mechanism going back from the current version, only storing new copies if more than "N%" had changed.
I could see having a 1MB file, with 1 change every 1024 bytes in each of 1024 versions -- and ideally it would only take 2MB, + book-keeping. Dunno if that is how the Vista version works, but its an ease-of-use issue. I'm still surprised Linux doesn't have a generic 'compress' tag to allow compression on top of any filesystem (at least as much as one can add an encryption layer over most filesystems).
The subtlety that the French law turns on, I believe who owns the name of the object. It's complete caca, but but is an important distinction. If someone resold LVMH's toilet water as 'toilet water' (no label), then there would be no issue. It's when you use the name on the product.
I'm not sure how else you refer to an item without using its name. But having rules about language -- who may say what (some countries have official bodies to rule on grammar and word usage!;^/ ). But I think part of the problem is most that Americans don't know how to finesse the French Court system. A plaintiff needs to engage a judge (in France) into *wanting* to help them to provide a solution. It's not strictly about fine points of law.
I suspect French companies are uniformly better at this than US entities/companies. An adversarial system is a poor way at achieving a just, fair or equitable solution. It's one of the worst -- as it hinges on who "argues" better, and has little to do with the merits of either side of the issue. Thus, lawyers in the US are exalted above common sense -- solely because they argue a "stance" more effectively. This isn't "justice", it's a friggin debate game.
Furthermore -- I'm pretty sure that French courts don't have the same idea of "precedence" that US court verdicts carry. That may be changing under pressures from non-local (non-French, usually) plaintiffs. But that pressure has always existed. In a way, its more about who better convince the judge to take their side. Unless US companies start employing local lawyers of great skill *and* social standing, we'll likely continue to lose -- since the French don't respect the US-standard of whoever argues better is 'right'.
It makes compliance difficult -- and the easiest thing to for a US company to do? Don't do business in France. If the French people get to a point of feeling their system needs change, they will change it. But their system is in place to protect its local citizenry, first. International "rights", will almost always be (and maybe should always be) a secondary consideration. Otherwise, you've simply put your country and culture up for sale to the highest bidder (who hires the best arguer(s)).
eBay can appeal and win -- if they finesse the courts properly -- but it may take some time. Meanwhile, I'd suspend operations there or have people selling there agree to some French-approved conditions in order to be able to list products in France. That would hopefully protect one's but enough -- if one asked the French government for help in setting standards, and assuring that the standards are implementable such that the listing company is not held to blame for violations.
L.
Re:RAID10 is stupid, RAID0 or RAID5 or no RAID
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I've found Raid0 to be faster.
Nightly backups, provide security for catastrophic failures. Yeah, for as often as it happens, a few extra hours to restore from backup is worth it. I think that's once in the past 15 years. But I also don't wait for drives to fail -- I upgrade them every few years like you're supposed to.
But I have room for 4 drives -- so to "move up", a RAID0+1 system would do nothing -- so RAID5 seems like a logical step up.
Nothing beats nightly incremental backups, especially if you are on a budget. As for RAID10 -- that won't protect against a software catastrophe (virus; rm -fr / tmp/* ) -- versioned nightly backups are alot more flexible.
The backup disks can be big/slow S/ATA, and the working disks can be 15K-SAS. Depends on where you want to put your money -- me, I put the speed into the SAS-based disks (and they still aren't as fast as I'd like). But SAS drives -- to waist 50%? Not cheap.
However, if a client is paying...then, 0+1 or 5+spare might be reasonable...but I'd still prefer an automated backup -- Windows Server has file versioning -- don't know of any freeware product that does the same.
Guess one might have to go with Microsoft if one wants that type of reliability. (*cough*, ducking)
Yup -- same here. After avoiding 100Mb-T based NAS units for years, I finally see one that offered 1Gb. It was VERY unimpressive.
With a 2x750G, 7200RPM-SATA RAID-0, read was 12MB/s, and writes were about 9-10MB/s. It used ext3 as a file system, but don't know what the OS was (would guess linux, but dunno where else ext3 might be).
It went back to Fry's and I haven't tried it since. That was a few months ago. I don't know why but most of the consumer NAS's I've seen are crap for speed. With a linux server box, no RAID, and PATA, my Windows client I can get 20-30MB/s over CIFS. Windows NFS performance isn't that good. Oddly enough -- Linux as-client CIFS isn't that great either -- but haven't figured out why, since NFS-client Linux is about the same as CIFS a Win client.
Fastest CIFS transfers have been ~70-75MB/s (not sustained). NFS
What I'd really like is to find an auto-versioning file system that automatically keeps around older copies of files (and when I need space, I can either manually delete older copies, or use a FIFO algorithm to get rid of oldest copies. So far, the only thing I've seen that does that is Windows Server -- that would greatly increase my "servers" cost (the software would cost more than the machine!)...
Any one know of file-systems that allow that other than on Windows Server?
L.
probably best to roll your own, & MS-WinServ20
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Unless you don't care about speed.
I've been unimpressed with NAS speed claims -- only recently, I found one with a 1G ethernet connection -- but it didn't need it -- with a 2x750G, 7200RPM SATA RAID-0, read was 12MB/s, and writes were about 9-10MB/s. It used ext3 as a file system, but don't know what the OS was (would guess linux, but dunno where else ext3 might be).
It went back to Fry's and I haven't tried it since. That's about the speed I got on a laptop drive... about 7 years back... Not too impressive.
But what I'd like to know -- is finding one that does auto-versioning of the files you copy to it -- so if you want to restore, you can choose which version to go back to.
Any file-systems/programs that allow that other than Windows Server?
There are some who think Barack picking someone older & more experienced might tend to give the platform more balance in some voters' minds who are concerned about his youth or inexperience. Hey...maybe Barack and McCain could run against uh...never mind.
But having both candidates 'identical' is not good strategy -- he should pick someone who is different from himself, H. Clinton might have been a good choice if there wasn't so much drama about her. An older, say 48-53-ish, white, female, maybe another Hollywood or pop-culture refugee. Hey, Madonna fits the description, hitting the half-century mark this coming August 16th, but I don't think she'd want to slum in D.C. Oooh...Daryl Hanna! -- don't know about her qualifications, but trying to live off the grid, she'd be a good environmental choice.
Need someone to shore-up the numbers from the the Non-College-Educated (NCE), (W)hite-(M)ale group, where Barack seems to be weakest.
It's interesting how NCE, W-W are less threatened of Barack than their male counterparts. Maybe they don't look at Barack as "competition"? Whereas the men in that group somehow feel Barack, especially as someone who's part black, maybe feel more threatened by the concept of someone with any black-heritage moving beyond the working-class into the professional world? I.e. if blacks are seen to be "culturally and economically" less well-off, and less-advantaged than whites, conceivably, then black men would be less likely to be competing for "C.E." or (W)hite - C)ollar / professional jobs -- and more so for NCE, "B)lue-C." jobs. With traditional roles of male as bread winner paired with competition for the same job positions, that could set the stage for a 40-ish, half-black candidate, "jumping ahead" to a C.E.(Harvard no less!)/W-Collar/Prof. job (especially a potential president) generating 'fear and resentment'. He's not even the presidential Morgan Freeman type....hmmm....
That's a hard one to address for those that have internalized fixed hierarchies and take it as a competition thing. Sad too, since I'm sure Barack will be much better for those workers and their jobs than another devotee of Reagan-Voodoo Economics (cut taxes to the rich, while upping government spending to give impression of trickle-down benefits to the lower 90%; oh, and ignore that growing red number over behind the curtain...)
I think Colin Powell would be a bad choice -- especially for Barack. Do we need another 'warrior' as VP? From either party? I wonder if Condie could be reprogrammed? Sigh....John Edwards? Any Kennedy's left?
I hope he has some character and interest...but everything is on such a tightrope right now. I don't buy that Obama is that far ahead in the polls -- not for a moment. The polling the last several elections seems to often magnify differences (one way or the other) with final vote tallies being closer and easily subject to reversals.
I really think there needs to be a bit more flexibility in rating -- maybe at least a 1-10 scale... There are times when a +5 insightful just doesn't say it...
So you would rather the government take in more money? And the hope that they actually put it back into the 'rebate' program?
Uh -- what you wanna bet if you got the government involved in taking in tax and giving rebates, that the cost of the program would be about 10x what it would be by applying the 'economic stimulus' more directly.
I suppose ultimately will have to see how this plays out -- why not directly charge a 'resource consumption' tax. Anyone who's more than X% the norm pays extra tax? By putting it on employers, it's obviously a japanese cultural remanent where the employer was considered partial 'care taker' of the employee. Might work there, but in the US, the employer would get rid of the employee(s) that are causing the increased economic burden, all other things being equal.
Everyone knows that task-switch 'thrashing' wastes CPU time. Context switches cost time.
However, it's not a binary decision. If the task switch time is *small* compared to the work done, then it can become a saver. If I find myself 'blocked' on a particular task -- I'm more efficient to switch to something else and continue to make forward progress. I often will find that answers to previous "stick-points" will either just appear or pop out of my mind when I am not directly thinking about it -- I let my 'non-conscious brain "mull over" the problem in background.
Trying to pressure an answer out of my brain when the answer just isn't cooked yet results in lots of wasted time and cakes that go flat rather than rise.
So the key is finding the task rate appropriate for the tasks at hand and the individual. That will be different for each person -- you can't tell someone ok, if this will take more than 5 minutes, switch -- that may be non-productive -- since different people do task switching at widely differing rates.
But forcing one to stick on a subject until 'solved' is the quickest way to a slow, bad or non-solution.
Too bad some pinhead, Machiavellian, Dilbert manager types are clueless when it comes to how minds work. They think the world works like a 'machine', because they perceive themselves to work that way. Not only do they not know what is best for others, but they don't know themselves either.
It's the country's leadership. Bush has set the example and millions are following his.... I hate to use this word....especially here on slashdot...but by the standards of Bush's supporters (pseudo Christians) the word is 'evil'. He has become and taken on the worst traits of the United State's enemies -- he has become the enemy -- and most certainly, he is the most dangerous enemy of the United States we have ever encountered.
Bush has kidnapped people off the streets and held them for years without being allowed communication and without even being told why they are being held (so how can they deny it?). It has been shown multiple times that they have held, abused, and tortured people who were not guilty. A German citizen was abducted, then transferred to 'torture-friendly' countries (at least Kabul, Baghdad, and Macedonia) where he was tortured and drugged with PCP & LSD-like substances to break down his will -- all under Bush's "Rendition" program. Five months later he was released when they realized they had the wrong guy!
A Canadian was returning home from vacationing in Tunisia. While on layover in JFK, he was abducted by US officials as an enemy combatant. At first he was held in a domestic military prison, but when Canadian officials started pressing to be able to see and talk to him, he was surreptitiously flown to Syria where held for over a year while Canadian officials were stonewalled. He was tortured and beaten multiple times with shredded electrical cable to unconsciousness. Syrian officials initially tried to keep his location hidden because they knew he was being tortured, but within a few weeks Canadians had located him and he was released. He was never charged, and Canada assigned an investigative commision. After 3 years of investigation [2006], they said categorically, he had not and was not associated with terrorists nor was a threat to the government in any way.
Right now, over 700 'enemy combatants' are being held in Guantanamo, alone, where Bush has maintained the right to hold them "forever" -- without charges, proof, or being allowed to contact anyone while being tortured in many imaginative ways. Many have been held for 3, 4 even 5 years and were kidnapped out of homes, off of streets -- never charged and with no proof of any crime.
So why would companies or conservative leaning courts thing that 'evidence' of some 'violation' is needed to assign a Draconian sentence --- "to make an example", "to send a message" to all terrorists, wrong doers and file sharers that the US will hunt you down, guilty or not, and make you pay.
As for Bush -- he needs to be removed from office, so yesterday, with prejudice by official powers to try to give some reassurance to the world that our system isn't completely broken and to "send a message" and "make an example" to his followers, that his actions and his example are not acceptable in our society.
This nonsense, in my perhaps non-objective view, seems to have gotten considerably worse since Bush has been in office.
It's a "leadership" thing. If the leader of our country can kidnap people off the streets with no charges, and no proof, then hold them for years without actual proof of wrong doing (in some cases, to release them years later after finding they had the wrong guy), then doesn't this set an example for the rest of the nation?
The idea that upon gaining power, you fire everyone who is not slavishly loyal to you and your "party" -- that's always been considered nepotism, discrimination, corruption. It's something dictators did in their countries -- placing their nephew, or their niece's brother-in-law, etc....all to keep in 'in the family -- maybe even the mafia did things this way -- you were in or out based on your blood. With Bush -- its based on your past political record and who you know. Nothing to do with ability to do the job, or fairness. He has set the example for the nation to follow. I was *SHOCKED*, when early on, he removed long time US representatives to some function of the 'americas'...and replaced them with novice bush-conservatives that had no experience.
Now, it's considered 'normal', to not need proof -- if you are not against the "bad thing", then you are obviously "for it" because you are a criminal. Normal restrictions of law -- things that corporations wouldn't try in normal times have jumped -- because -- again -- the example. Bush comes in and claims wide sweeping powers that have never been part of law or the constitution. He just grabs and no one who has the ability to stop him is willing to say "no". He gets what he wants by taking it acting as if it is his "divine" right to have had it in the first place. Why should he ask? It's his. He's the monarch of the States. So laws move toward the 'extremes' of sanity -- oh, someone was smoking pot in your parking lot -- sorry we are confiscating your store. What? You didn't know your tenants were growing pot? Don't you conduct surprise inspections on them on a regular basis? That's your fault. Confiscate.
Latest -- Bush tells EPS dude to put CA in its place because (his words) "why should I help them? they didn't vote for me" (he actually said that when CA was being gouged on the spot energy market, paying 100-1000 times as much as normal market rates. When that happens at 'gas stations', you can bet the government moves toward controlling 'gouging', but when it happens to a state? Neh...
Things have become very 'tit-for-tat' -- across the board and through-out society. In nearly every negative behavior Bush has demonstrated, from lower-academic performance, and poor communication skills, to tromping on whoever he feels like -- and pushing past the boundaries of legality because it is his right -- he's on a mission from God. He must replace every person he c)an with someone loyal to the neo-conservatives.
This was the plan laid out in the 80's -- when christian groups found it wasn't enough just to get leaders elected. They needed their people appointed to every possible government position. You see it in CA, where several county court houses are refusing to perform marriages -- of any sort, as long as gays are able to marry. Fertility doctors who refuse to do embryo implantation because the parents are both women. All of these "professional" and "official" positions being "religionized".
So of course we see court cases that would be stopped in their tracks if we had a government "of the people", but who get to run amok causing damage for years until they randomly run up against someone who hasn't been replaced or somehow 'got a conscience'. Meanwhile, while Bush is in office suspending normal rule of law, Corporate raiders find they can get away with many tactics of questionable legality or things that are outright "illegal" and not supported by the constitution. The burden of proof of crime has been put by the wayside -- we can threaten and prosecute -
Ah, but a door/lock isn't designed to require an active-two way handshake.
Your door isn't assigning me an IP address on your network.
Sorry -- I assume that an open network means I can use it as a non-threatening/non-attacking guest.
You *walk* into the lobby of some businesses -- like Kaiser -- they even have signs saying the WiFi is provided as a convenience.
It's rare to have a sign as well as an open net. Also, unlike the breaking and entering -- the presumption is that you are there to "take" something -- not just use the bathroom and leave.
On a net, the accessing of the net is the point -- there is no ulterior motive to attack the property or contents of the owner or commit any illegal act.
I was thinking about energy replacement mechanisms -- what can replace fossil fuels so large electrical plants run by big corporations can continue to leach money off of the general public while returning no useful research. Why -- they can build nuclear! Vs. Solar that people can install on their home and no longer be attached to 'the corporation', even 'windpower' is more likely to be distributed in production and ownership than any fossil fuel plant -- nuclear is the perfect way to help corporations currently using fossil fuels to move into the future -- so it makes perfect sense that McCain would want to back those efforts -- instead of solar cells that people could just 'own' -- because corporations haven't figured out a way to charge for sunlight (yet?)...
If we could figure out ways to transform sunlight to energy, our energy needs would be met long term -- but nuclear? It's a dead end -- look up the expected fuel reserves of Uranium, Thorium and whatever else they might try to use -- by current estimates, the world is feeling a pinch in Uranium as well. Are we sitting on nuclear deposits or will we be fighting against some nuclear sheiks in 50 years?
The beginnings of a fission-fuel shortage is already starting to show in prices and futures. Same boat there as oil. Just another way to expend a limited fuel resource while corporations charge excessive money for something that could conceivably, eventually be had for 'free'.
Going nuclear is about as intelligent as eliminating the federal gas tax for the summer to 'relieve' oil prices. Uh...it won't.
What if it is in the best interest of some and not others? Do they hold a vote or poll?
What is "best"? By what criteria is "best" measured? Is it written or documented? Who decides? Again, vote or poll?
Seems perfectly ripe for abuse.
Is it in the public's interest to know, say hypothetically in the US, if a presidential candidate, on a mission from God, corrupted a presidential vote to get into office after he is already in office? What is better -- knowing that the system is corruptible/flawed? Or having it stay secret so the public maintains faith in the electoral system and working behind the scenes to make sure it doesn't happen again (possibly successfully, possibly not).
Slashdot Mirror
The article is more pop-science to advance some specific agenda. First it claims they are equal, but then the article says "Hyde says that suggests that cultural and social factors, not gender alone, influence how well students perform on tests.". The article doesn't say gender or sex doesn't matter -- just that gender alone doesn't influence it. Like, "duh!". Diet, culture, genetics...sure, they influence -- but the fact is that gender does enter into performance. There nonsense statistic that even though girls used to do less well, and now still do 7% less well on the SAT, now its because more girls are taking the SAT -- so its not because they girls don't do better -- but because more of them take it?! Right...I believe that -- but they didn't count the boys with dark hair! That would shift it by 32% in reverse! Or is it the blue eyes?...
What seems to be the case is that there is a greater spread of distribution among males than among females. Anyone above at or above some 'midpoint' takes the test -- the males who are less intelligent than the average female don't take the SAT -- but the highest scorers (among whites, apparently) are males -- not females. Just that females are closer to average. Well in any field, if they try to employ people above average in that field, then since more females would cluster near average, they would hire more males from the top. Now why this is reversed in asian families is anyone's guess -- but there are "class" differences, where class=members of sex female, or members of sex male. There are societal expectations in each culture for each sex. That still does not mean males = females. Nor does it imply that sex-discrimination isn't occurring. There are other data that would need to be collected.
-l
So what from Windows Vista(2006) isn't in Windows2008? The big problem with Vista was all the drivers that were degraded in order to downgrade AV content at some future point when everyone has switched to BluRay and DVD's are no longer a viable option. That and an abusive security model.
So is it the case that these problems haven't gone into the code base for future Windows releases?
Is Win2008 Direct10.X based for game support?
You typed (in stereotypical manner, no less): "In other words -- if girls don't want to study science them please, for the love of science, don't try to make them. I sincerely believe that statistically, men are better at science than women. There are enough objectively identifiable differences between the sexes to justify such a statement. (The same could be said for races, too.)".
It's been found in other countries that such differences are not based in biology but in social expectations. In come European countries, quotas were needed, *for a time*, until the sex-stigma of certain fields was eliminated for a new generation -- once the new generation was raised in a gender-balanced environment, the supposed "preference" for girls avoiding math and science went away.
There's also a general effect of societal power imbalance on cognitive function. Studies have shown that when people are made to feel "subordinate", their cognitive function declines. While those who feel dominant show no such decline. It's also the case that many men (only men) need to "win" in their field (implying that someone else must lose) and that seeing the other lose stimulated men's reward centers. This was related to testosterone levels and was not duplicable in women.
However, the affect of subordination on cognitive function seem to hold across both sexes. So there's a circularly feeding pattern in place.
That's the reasoning behind 'quotes' and affirmative action -- it's not going to necessarily make the current generation that much better off, but it provides normalization for the next generation.
-l
So much for "ecode" keeping a table straight...(sigh)
The part most interesting -- is that 90% of Americans (making $117K/year) saw spending power decline by 4%. While the richest .01% -- went up by an astounding 22.2%... Gotta love that tax cut Bush fed in to the highest earners at the beginning of his term -- of course national debt nearly tripled to over 9Trillion...but hey...we just keep watering down the dollar by issuing more "shares"...no one will notice that prices are going up....*cough*.
The figures were for 2006 income published in early May in the Wall Street Journal.
The stats I copied from the article were:
So Dell's primary business is selling laptop insurance?
I don't think so...
OTOH -- if that stolen laptop is from Dell -- better make sure you never call up for support on it.
Dunno about other laptop vendors, but Dell's been getting keeping close track of machines purchased by companies -- what company owns them, who is calling on their behalf...etc.
If all laptop vendors did that, it seems it might drop the worth of stolen laptops, since they are not notoriously reliable and long-lived.
It depends on what it is -- but my parents charged me interest on a loan I took out from them. They got better rates than in the bank, I got better rates than the bank -- we both won. But if they just loaned me the money with no payback to them -- that wouldn't be a win-win.
Money is like electricity -- you can use it to get things done. It's not the same type of thing as "love" or a relationship w/parents or family.
It's good to keep relationships "clean" -- so neither side feels they are being "put upon".
I think my dad sold my sister their previous car, as well. What, oh..I forgot, parents are just supposed to give their kids a car these days?
But these things totally depend on the specific situation.
If your parents are in the market for an "X" and you are going to sell your "X" in good condition and think they'd be fine w/X, what's the problem with both parties getting a good deal?
It's not about materialism -- its about not using people at every single step. You gift when it is from the heart -- not because of "automatic" rules about what you should do.
But then -- this is how my parents raised me -- you may have had a different upbringing -- so you have to do what works in your family. Geez....can't believe you'd even have the rudeness to criticize someone on their dealings with their parents -- you don't have any idea about their situation. It may be exactly how the parents trained them and what the parents would want -- so my comment to you would be "you'd have the person violate their parents wishes?!?"
Busybodies! Hrmph. :-)
The law provides for fines of knowing use of someone who is not licensed.
But the law also is focused on those who call themselves "Security Services personnel" -- guards, those who do investigations (PI's).
I'm not sure how people are getting this applies to computer repairs....the security personnel must also be licensed to carry a gun....
This doesn't seem to be the run-of-the-mill computer repair situation. Maybe if you are investigating 'fraud' in a company...but, beyond that --
Someone want to 'enlighten' me how this applies to normal (i.e. not looking for forensic evidence of illegal activities) computer repair ops?
Trickle down effect of a Bush neocon government. How will this "trickle down" to the rest of the industry and states? This law sounds seriously messed up if allowed to stand.
A PI should have no business on my machine -- in fact, that'd be a good reason *not* to go to a licensed repair shop -- because they will likely be required to search it -- if not already, in the near future.
For people who have had 'depot' repair warranties -- you have to send the computer in to them to be
repaired. But possibly worse -- does this mean if a business (like Dell) is based in Texas, they need to require all computers that they repair to be searched as well?
Certainly, this will raise the cost of computer repairs so much as to make them near 'throw-aways' (like the cheap ones aren't already?).
A company like Dell, it seems would have to relocate its repair business outside of the state if they want to remain competitive.
If you live in Texas, will it become illegal to service your own computer -- will you need a PI license to buy spare computer parts? How about the legality of shipping your computer out-of-state for repair -- is that, or will that also be illegal? Perhaps they'll have "border" searches at airports and highways to check contents of all laptops and computers entering the state?
This is all the neocons' fantasy movement toward a socialist police state. It figures it would start in Bush's home state. That state is probably the strongest base of neocons -- I wonder how long California will last, or if it can, against the Orange-County/SoCal neocons. Hopefully the their anti-gay-marriage thing will fail horribly and they'll pack up and all move to Texas...
Volume snapshots looks to be closest, but it sure doesn't look even close to the functionality and ease-of-use as the Vista version.
In Vista Business, Enterprise or Ultimate, there is an extra tab under file properties called
"Previous Versions". There's a picture at http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/06/30/vista-previous-versions-shadow-copy-vs-recycle-bin/.
Not sure how it is implemented, but it is contingent on having "free" disk space to allow old copies to be 'kept'.
I'm not sure any of the Linux file systems would easily support this.
Sometimes it's not about what you "can do", but how easily you can do it. I wanted something I could hand to my folks who know nothing about OS's, or file systems, and it would "just work" -- but I certainly wouldn't want to curse them with Vista if avoidable.
It looks real slick, but I don't know how it is implemented in practice. It would not be acceptable to store a full copy of the file every 3 hours -- preferably not even on every change -- but on some 'delta' mechanism going back from the current version, only storing new copies if more than "N%" had changed.
I could see having a 1MB file, with 1 change every 1024 bytes in each of 1024 versions -- and ideally it would
only take 2MB, + book-keeping. Dunno if that is how the Vista version works, but its an ease-of-use issue. I'm still surprised Linux doesn't have a generic 'compress' tag to allow compression on top of any filesystem (at least as much as one can add an encryption layer over most filesystems).
??
L.
The subtlety that the French law turns on, I believe who owns the name of the object. It's complete caca, but but is an important distinction. If someone resold LVMH's toilet water as 'toilet water' (no label), then there would be no issue. It's when you use the name on the product.
I'm not sure how else you refer to an item without using its name. But having rules about language -- who may say what (some countries have official bodies to rule on grammar and word usage! ;^/ ). But I think part of the problem is most that Americans don't know how to finesse the French Court system. A plaintiff needs to engage a judge (in France) into *wanting* to help them to provide a solution. It's not strictly about fine points of law.
I suspect French companies are uniformly better at this than US entities/companies. An adversarial system is a poor way at achieving a just, fair or equitable solution. It's one of the worst -- as it hinges on who "argues" better, and has little to do with the merits of either side of the issue. Thus, lawyers in the US are exalted above common sense -- solely because they argue a "stance" more effectively. This isn't "justice", it's a friggin debate game.
Furthermore -- I'm pretty sure that French courts don't have the same idea of "precedence" that US court verdicts carry. That may be changing under pressures from non-local (non-French, usually) plaintiffs. But that pressure has always existed. In a way, its more about who better convince the judge to take their side. Unless US companies start employing local lawyers of great skill *and* social standing, we'll likely continue to lose -- since the French don't respect the US-standard of whoever argues better is 'right'.
It makes compliance difficult -- and the easiest thing to for a US company to do? Don't do business in France. If the French people get to a point of feeling their system needs change, they will change it. But their system is in place to protect its local citizenry, first. International "rights", will almost always be (and maybe should always be) a secondary consideration. Otherwise, you've simply put your country and culture up for sale to the highest bidder (who hires the best arguer(s)).
eBay can appeal and win -- if they finesse the courts properly -- but it may take some time. Meanwhile, I'd suspend operations there or have people selling there agree to some French-approved conditions in order to be able to list products in France. That would hopefully protect one's but enough -- if one asked the French government for help in setting standards, and assuring that the standards are implementable such that the listing company is not held to blame for violations.
L.
I've found Raid0 to be faster.
Nightly backups, provide security for catastrophic failures. Yeah, for as often as it happens, a few extra hours to restore from backup is worth it. I think that's once in the past 15 years.
But I also don't wait for drives to fail -- I upgrade them every few years like you're supposed to.
But I have room for 4 drives -- so to "move up", a RAID0+1 system would do nothing -- so RAID5 seems like a
logical step up.
Nothing beats nightly incremental backups, especially if you are on a budget. As for RAID10 -- that won't protect against a software catastrophe (virus; rm -fr / tmp/* ) -- versioned nightly backups are alot more flexible.
The backup disks can be big/slow S/ATA, and the working disks can be 15K-SAS. Depends on where you want to
put your money -- me, I put the speed into the SAS-based disks (and they still aren't as fast as I'd like).
But SAS drives -- to waist 50%? Not cheap.
However, if a client is paying...then, 0+1 or 5+spare might be reasonable...but I'd still prefer an automated
backup -- Windows Server has file versioning -- don't know of any freeware product that does the same.
Guess one might have to go with Microsoft if one wants that type of reliability. (*cough*, ducking)
L.
Yup -- same here. After avoiding 100Mb-T based NAS units for years, I finally see one that offered 1Gb. It
was VERY unimpressive.
With a 2x750G, 7200RPM-SATA RAID-0, read was 12MB/s, and writes were about 9-10MB/s. It used ext3 as a file system, but don't know what the OS was (would guess linux, but dunno where else ext3 might be).
It went back to Fry's and I haven't tried it since. That was a few months ago. I don't know why but most of
the consumer NAS's I've seen are crap for speed. With a linux server box, no RAID, and PATA, my Windows client I can get 20-30MB/s over CIFS. Windows NFS performance isn't that good. Oddly enough -- Linux as-client CIFS isn't that great either -- but haven't figured out why, since NFS-client Linux is about the same as CIFS a Win client.
Fastest CIFS transfers have been ~70-75MB/s (not sustained). NFS
What I'd really like is to find an auto-versioning file system that automatically keeps around older copies of files (and when I need space, I can either manually delete older copies, or use a FIFO algorithm to get rid of oldest copies. So far, the only thing I've seen that does that is Windows Server -- that would greatly increase my
"servers" cost (the software would cost more than the machine!)...
Any one know of file-systems that allow that other than on Windows Server?
L.
Unless you don't care about speed.
I've been unimpressed with NAS speed claims -- only recently, I found one with a 1G ethernet connection -- but it didn't need it -- with a 2x750G, 7200RPM SATA RAID-0, read was 12MB/s, and writes were about 9-10MB/s. It used ext3 as a file system, but don't know what the OS was (would guess linux, but dunno where else ext3 might be).
It went back to Fry's and I haven't tried it since. That's about the speed I got on a laptop drive ... about 7 years back... Not too impressive.
But what I'd like to know -- is finding one that does auto-versioning of the files you copy to it -- so if you want to restore, you can choose which version to go back to.
Any file-systems/programs that allow that other than Windows Server?
L.
There are some who think Barack picking someone older & more experienced might tend to give the platform more balance in some voters' minds who are concerned about his youth or inexperience. Hey...maybe Barack and McCain could run against uh...never mind.
But having both candidates 'identical' is not good strategy -- he should pick someone who is different from himself, H. Clinton might have been a good choice if there wasn't so much drama about her. An older, say 48-53-ish, white, female, maybe another Hollywood or pop-culture refugee. Hey, Madonna fits the description, hitting the half-century mark this coming August 16th, but I don't think she'd want to slum in D.C. Oooh...Daryl Hanna! -- don't know about her qualifications, but trying to live off the grid, she'd be a good environmental choice.
Need someone to shore-up the numbers from the the Non-College-Educated (NCE), (W)hite-(M)ale group, where Barack seems to be weakest.
It's interesting how NCE, W-W are less threatened of Barack than their male counterparts. Maybe they don't look at Barack as "competition"? Whereas the men in that group somehow feel Barack, especially as someone who's part black, maybe feel more threatened by the concept of someone with any black-heritage moving beyond the working-class into the professional world? I.e. if blacks are seen to be "culturally and economically" less well-off, and less-advantaged than whites, conceivably, then black men would be less likely to be competing for "C.E." or (W)hite - C)ollar / professional jobs -- and more so for NCE, "B)lue-C." jobs. With traditional roles of male as bread winner paired with competition for the same job positions, that could set the stage for a 40-ish, half-black candidate, "jumping ahead" to a C.E.(Harvard no less!)/W-Collar/Prof. job (especially a potential president) generating 'fear and resentment'. He's not even the presidential Morgan Freeman type....hmmm....
That's a hard one to address for those that have internalized fixed hierarchies and take it as a competition thing. Sad too, since I'm sure Barack will be much better for those workers and their jobs than another devotee of Reagan-Voodoo Economics (cut taxes to the rich, while upping government spending to give impression of trickle-down benefits to the lower 90%; oh, and ignore that growing red number over behind the curtain...)
I think Colin Powell would be a bad choice -- especially for Barack. Do we need another 'warrior' as VP? From either party? I wonder if Condie could be reprogrammed? Sigh....John Edwards? Any Kennedy's left?
I hope he has some character and interest...but everything is on such a tightrope right now. I don't buy that Obama is that far ahead in the polls -- not for a moment. The polling the last several elections seems to often magnify differences (one way or the other) with final vote tallies being closer and easily subject to reversals.
-l
I really think there needs to be a bit more flexibility in rating -- maybe at least a 1-10 scale...
There are times when a +5 insightful just doesn't say it...
So you would rather the government take in more money? And the hope that they actually put it back into the 'rebate' program?
Uh -- what you wanna bet if you got the government involved in taking in tax and giving rebates, that the cost of the program would be about 10x what it would be by applying the 'economic stimulus' more directly.
I suppose ultimately will have to see how this plays out -- why not directly charge a 'resource consumption' tax. Anyone who's more than X% the norm pays extra tax? By putting it on employers, it's obviously a japanese cultural remanent where the employer was considered partial 'care taker' of the employee. Might work there, but in the US, the employer would get rid of the employee(s) that are causing the increased economic burden, all other things being equal.
Oh yeah?
Cool -- start writing code with zero defects, zero errors, zero bugs.
I'm glad you'll comply...
But you just said "any manner"....you ignored my concerns about "ability" --
so no problem, right?
Let us know how that works out for you...
I'm sure the gov would love to oversee Win7 development -- they want to make sure the necessary back doors are included with no bugs this time.
Everyone knows that task-switch 'thrashing' wastes CPU time. Context switches cost time.
However, it's not a binary decision. If the task switch time is *small* compared to the work done, then it can become a saver. If I find myself 'blocked' on a particular task -- I'm more efficient to switch to something else and continue to make forward progress. I often will find that answers to previous "stick-points" will either just appear or pop out of my mind when I am not directly thinking about it -- I let my 'non-conscious brain "mull over" the problem in background.
Trying to pressure an answer out of my brain when the answer just isn't cooked yet results in lots of wasted time
and cakes that go flat rather than rise.
So the key is finding the task rate appropriate for the tasks at hand and the individual. That will be different for each person -- you can't tell someone ok, if this will take more than 5 minutes, switch -- that may be non-productive -- since different people do task switching at widely differing rates.
But forcing one to stick on a subject until 'solved' is the quickest way to a slow, bad or non-solution.
Too bad some pinhead, Machiavellian, Dilbert manager types are clueless when it comes to how minds work. They think the world works like a 'machine', because they perceive themselves to work that way. Not only do they not know what is best for others, but they don't know themselves either.
So why would companies or conservative leaning courts thing that 'evidence' of some 'violation' is needed to assign a Draconian sentence --- "to make an example", "to send a message" to all terrorists, wrong doers and file sharers that the US will hunt you down, guilty or not, and make you pay.
As for Bush -- he needs to be removed from office, so yesterday , with prejudice by official powers to try to give some reassurance to the world that our system isn't completely broken and to "send a message" and "make an example" to his followers, that his actions and his example are not acceptable in our society.
This nonsense, in my perhaps non-objective view, seems to have gotten considerably worse since Bush has been in office.
It's a "leadership" thing. If the leader of our country can kidnap people off the streets with no charges, and no proof, then hold them for years without actual proof of wrong doing (in some cases, to release them years later after finding they had the wrong guy), then doesn't this set an example for the rest of the nation?
The idea that upon gaining power, you fire everyone who is not slavishly loyal to you and your "party" -- that's always been considered nepotism, discrimination, corruption. It's something dictators did in their countries -- placing their nephew, or their niece's brother-in-law, etc....all to keep in 'in the family -- maybe even the mafia did things this way -- you were in or out based on your blood. With Bush -- its based on your past political record and who you know. Nothing to do with ability to do the job, or fairness. He has set the example for the nation to follow. I was *SHOCKED*, when early on, he removed long time US representatives to some function of the 'americas'...and replaced them with novice bush-conservatives that had no experience.
Now, it's considered 'normal', to not need proof -- if you are not against the "bad thing", then you are obviously "for it" because you are a criminal. Normal restrictions of law -- things that corporations wouldn't try in normal times have jumped -- because -- again -- the example. Bush comes in and claims wide sweeping powers that have never been part of law or the constitution. He just grabs and no one who has the ability to stop him is willing to say "no". He gets what he wants by taking it acting as if it is his "divine" right to have had it in the first place. Why should he ask? It's his. He's the monarch of the States. So
laws move toward the 'extremes' of sanity -- oh, someone was smoking pot in your parking lot -- sorry we are confiscating your store. What? You didn't know your tenants were growing pot? Don't you conduct surprise
inspections on them on a regular basis? That's your fault. Confiscate.
Latest -- Bush tells EPS dude to put CA in its place because (his words) "why should I help them? they didn't vote for me" (he actually said that when CA was being gouged on the spot energy market, paying 100-1000 times as much as normal market rates. When that happens at 'gas stations', you can bet the government moves toward controlling 'gouging', but when it happens to a state? Neh...
Things have become very 'tit-for-tat' -- across the board and through-out society. In nearly every negative behavior Bush has demonstrated, from lower-academic performance, and poor communication skills, to tromping on whoever he feels like -- and pushing past the boundaries of legality because it is his right -- he's on a mission from God. He must replace every person he c)an with someone loyal to the neo-conservatives.
This was the plan laid out in the 80's -- when christian groups found it wasn't enough just to get leaders elected. They needed their people appointed to every possible government position. You see it in CA, where several county court houses are refusing to perform marriages -- of any sort, as long as gays are able to marry. Fertility doctors who refuse to do embryo implantation because the parents are both women. All of these "professional" and "official" positions being "religionized".
So of course we see court cases that would be stopped in their tracks if we had a government "of the people", but who get to run amok causing damage for years until they randomly run up against someone who hasn't been replaced or somehow 'got a conscience'. Meanwhile, while Bush is in office suspending normal rule of law, Corporate raiders find they can get away with many tactics of questionable legality or things that are outright "illegal" and not supported by the constitution. The burden of proof of crime has been put by the wayside -- we can threaten and prosecute -
Ah, but a door/lock isn't designed to require an active-two way handshake.
Your door isn't assigning me an IP address on your network.
Sorry -- I assume that an open network means I can use it as a non-threatening/non-attacking guest.
You *walk* into the lobby of some businesses -- like Kaiser -- they even have signs saying the WiFi is provided
as a convenience.
It's rare to have a sign as well as an open net. Also, unlike the breaking and entering -- the presumption is
that you are there to "take" something -- not just use the bathroom and leave.
On a net, the accessing of the net is the point -- there is no ulterior motive to attack the property or contents of the owner or commit any illegal act.
I was thinking about energy replacement mechanisms -- what can replace fossil fuels so large electrical plants run by big corporations can continue to leach money off of the general public while returning no useful research. Why -- they can build nuclear! Vs. Solar that people can install on their home and no longer be attached to 'the corporation', even 'windpower' is more likely to be distributed in production and ownership than any fossil fuel
plant -- nuclear is the perfect way to help corporations currently using fossil fuels to move into the future -- so it makes perfect sense that McCain would want to back those efforts -- instead of solar cells that people could just 'own' -- because corporations haven't figured out a way to charge for sunlight (yet?)...
If we could figure out ways to transform sunlight to energy, our energy needs would be met long term -- but nuclear? It's a dead end -- look up the expected fuel reserves of Uranium, Thorium and whatever else they might try to use -- by current estimates, the world is feeling a pinch in Uranium as well. Are we sitting on nuclear deposits or will we be fighting against some nuclear sheiks in 50 years?
The beginnings of a fission-fuel shortage is already starting to show in prices and futures. Same boat there as oil. Just another way to expend a limited fuel resource while corporations charge excessive money for something that could conceivably, eventually be had for 'free'.
Going nuclear is about as intelligent as eliminating the federal gas tax for the summer to 'relieve' oil prices. Uh...it won't.
Which members of the public?
What if it is in the best interest of some and not others? Do they hold a vote or poll?
What is "best"? By what criteria is "best" measured? Is it written or documented?
Who decides? Again, vote or poll?
Seems perfectly ripe for abuse.
Is it in the public's interest to know, say hypothetically in the US, if a presidential candidate, on a mission from God, corrupted a presidential vote to get into office after he is already in office? What is better -- knowing that the system is corruptible/flawed? Or having it stay secret so the public maintains faith in the electoral system and working behind the scenes to make sure it doesn't happen again (possibly successfully, possibly not).
Hypothetically, that is...*innocent look*...
linda