Two possible solutions for you: 1) Choose plain-text format for out-going mail.
(In Outlook 2000, Tools -> Options -> Mail Format tab -> Plain text in first drop-down box. 2) Edit -> Paste special -> text
The second option is probably the one you want. Not as simple as Ctrl-v, though.
The problem at hand is the number of ways of arranging five or six particular letters (as is the case for the Jumbles(R) puzzles in some newspapers).
Your numbers are those for the number of distinct six- and five-letter orderings from all 26 letters, allowing repetition.
As noted by a burried AC post, the numbers for the problem at hand are 6! and 5!, giving an increase in the number of permutations of a factor of six (assuming all the letters are distinct, which is less likely with the longer jumbles, but whatever).
When you start out, don't market yourself to people who need data recovery and $699. There is a large market of people who just need help with everyday computer things like installing printers, learning how to get their pictures off their fancy digital camera, burning CDs, setting up e-mail accounts in Outlook, etc.
A few non-repair services you should consider: *1 hour of one-on-one help with digital photography. Before the class begins, skim the manual or fiddle with the camera. Teach them how to operate the camera in the full auto mode. Mention, but do not show them any neat advanced features like video, continuous-shooting, etc. Show them how to get the pictures onto their computer. Using whatever image-editing program they have, show them how to do very basic editing (depending on the customer, this may only be how to crop and maybe remove red-eye). Also, show them how to either burn a CD or transfer the files to a memory card for printing. You could also show them how to print photos on their computer, if time allows. *Backup services: There are two options here. The first is to simply copy the whole hard drive with Norton Ghost or another disk-imaging program. This is the most comprehensive, but probably isn't necessary for most users. The other option is to make a list of things to backup like favorites, Outlook personal folders, data files (search for word, excel, powerpoint, audio files, and pictures from a digital camera). Modem or ethernet drivers are important to backup as well. *Installation: Cable modem, printer, wireless access points. Most people don't want to read the manuals. Let them pay you to do so. *Computer check-up: run Spybot Search and Destroy (or ad-aware). Run Windows update and get all the relevant updates. Update the video drivers if any member of the household is a gamer. Then, defrag the hard drive and backup important files. *Reinstalling Windows: If they haven't upgraded to Windows XP, they are going to have to reinstall Windows 98 every so often. Find out what programs they use, make sure they have the install disks, back up the data files, and then reinstall it for them. Or upgrade them to Windows XP.
Looks like another great service. I like the fact that replies are automatically stripped of your real e-mail address.
The only reason SpamGourmet made me nervous was that I was afraid the company might fold. It looks like this might be the case with this company as well. Also, I need professional-looking e-mail addresses to give out when looking for work or sending out resumes.
In general, I think it is preferable to err on the side of being too cold because adding more clothing is always an option. Shorts are not acceptable business attire at many offices, so someone that finds 72 a little too hot is just out of luck. I personally have more trouble concentrating when it is hot.
It may be easier to just go to white-listing or have some people go to a pay per e-mail thing (or spend computational time on protein-folding, as suggested earlier).
When asked to help, reply, "Sure, let me give you my card." Hand them business cards with twice the hourly rate you would want printed on them (say $50/hr). To stay the good guy, mention that you give friends and relatives and relatives of friends half off.
Then, if you get work, you are at least getting a decent rate. Also, you might accidently establish a nice profitable side business.
If you still get more work than you want, subcontract with some unemployed computer science graduates. (Or tech savvy high school students, after all, most home computer problems are pretty simple.)
Thank you very much for the reference to SpamGourmet. It looks like a great service.
I'd suggest a combination of the SpamGourmet solution and my earlier proposal.
My proposal has the downside of revealing my address to anyone clever enough to realize it. (Which is not a problem once you start whitelisting, but whitelisting is a little drastic.)
On the other hand, I'm a little skittish relying on an ad-supported site for all my e-mail contacts. Also, there are many people I don't want to give an address to with the domain "spamgourmet.com" (sending out resumes, etc.). Less importantly, anyone you send mail will get your real e-mail address in the From: field, so whitelisting may eventually become necessary, too.
The "no-brainer-mode" is depending upon security through obscurity, but changing to the advanced mode with prefixes doesn't seem like too much trouble.
Currently, my spam situation is easily manageable (5 a day or so); I don't even have to use any filtering yet. However, if it gets worse, I think I'll set up a new e-mail address and sign up for automated services with spamgourmet addresses and give out "name([password])@domain.com" addresses to real people.
In addition to your whitelist, you can have a rotating password to include in e-mails from new contacts that will be filtered into a folder to decide whether you want to put the address on your whitelist. You can change the non-whitelist password whenever spammers get a hold of it.
This sounds like a lot of trouble, but it is actually pretty easy to implement with the current e-mail system. Here's how:
My address is "person@site.com". Give your e-mail address as person(foo)@site.com. This mail will show up as to "foo". Before applying your whitelist, filter mail to foo into your approve/disapprove folder or your inbox. If it is from someone you trust, add their address to the whitelist. Otherwise, shift to putting another password in parentheses and notify those people on your whitelist that still use that password to move on. This is also a convenient way to track who sends you spam. Register with the site's name in parentheses.
You get the benefits of a disposable e-mail address without the overhead.
Thank you for pointing out that americanos doesn't translate like I thought it did. I took French in school, and the online dictionary I used just translated americano as American.
An interesting sidenote is that I don't think English has a concise way of saying people from one of the Americas (North, Central, or South). We use the terms North-American, South-American, and Central-American, but there isn't a good way to say from any of the above. I really don't think of it as a natural grouping. (Also, if you just mention North Americans and South Americans, does that imply Central American, too?)
If you had to translate "Estadounidences" into English, what word would you use, though? United-States-ian is just so clunky.
Also, as this site points out http://www.yourspanishtutor.org/sbp19-trickst ers.h tml , estadounidences and estadounidense both ignore other countries that are united states.
My general point is that since there is no good substitute in English for "American" to refer to someone from America, people shouldn't seek out an insult where none was intended. English is an inconsistent language: http://pw1.netcom.com/~rlederer/arc_ceng.htm Usin g American to refer to ourselves doesn't mean ignoring that other people are from North and South America; it just means that referring to people from the USA comes up so much more for us than referring to people from either North or South America that it is easier to use American to refer to citizens of the USA. Why attribute to malice/arrogance what can be attributed to laziness/brevity?
I'm not sure what you are referring to when you say someone missed that "America isn't a country."
I'll assume you are referring to people talking about Americans when referring to people from the United States of America. I've heard a reasonable number of people refer to the use of American as a sign of American arrogance. However, what else would you call Yankees or Yankee things? United-States-ian? In French, people from the US are referred to as Americains, and I think citizens of the US are referred to as Americanos in Spanish. It's just more convenient than the alternatives. (I'm okay being referred to as a Yankee, but it is informal. Also, would you say Yankish arrogance instead of American arrogance?;) )
Also, the reason I predict Europe federalizing power and not the Americas is that a governmental framework is already in place that encourages centralization of power in the EU. A single currency requires coordinated monetary policy, and just look at how far the interstate commerce clause has been extended in the US.
However, the slip was understandable in this case given that for the purposes of space exploration and research Europe acts as if it were a single country through the ESA.
Also, calling Europe a country is really just extrapolating based upon current trends. EU member states have given a surprising amount of sovereignty away to the union as a whole, and the current setup looks like it invites a gradual erosion of national sovereignty in favor of centralized power.
Of course, significant cultural differences may slow unification, but increased immigration rates needed to compensate for falling native birth rates may quickly reduce cultural differences between European countries.
I expect the EU to essentially be a single country within my lifetime.
Do Europeans forsee an inevitable centralization of power until the EU acts like a central country, or is there a limiting factor to centralization that I missed?
Take pictures of the circuit box. Get some bids from electricians to do the necessary work. Present the bids to your boss.
Don't resign in this economy unless you already have another job lined up.
You can seek protection under OSHA Whistleblower protection as described at this site: http://www.osha.gov/as/opa/worker/whistle.h tml
You have a right to refuse work that puts you in imminent danger (I think this situation qualifies) if you follow the guidelines given here: http://www.osha.gov/as/opa/worker/refuse.html
I hope your boss lets you get professional help, but consider following the steps given at the above websites if your boss doesn't. It is not the ideal situation, but it will let you keep your job until you can find another one. Good luck.
hundreds, sometimes thousands of generations?
on
Mutating Animations
·
· Score: 1
I think this is oversimplified. The number of generations necessary to find an acceptably good solution depends on many factors, most importantly population size and problem complexity (of course).
My experience with genetic algorithms is that with a reasonable initial population, the majority of progress occurs withing the first few generations. Were you refering to individual fitness evaluations instead of generations? Even so, given a reasonably optimized initial population, and a quick method for approximating fitness (or at least weeding out poor candidates), I would expect useful results could be had in a handful generations with a small population size (ten or so), so maybe a hundred or two hundred evaluations of individuals.
If you are referring to genetic programming, rather straightforward genetic algorithms, I am not sure how many iterations that would take, I haven't any practical experience with them.
In terms of games adjusting to playing style, I would expect other types of learning algorithms to be more useful, though.
There are some printers that have a book setting, and they print the right pages and then show an animation of where to put the printed pages to make everything work out right.
However, now that I think about it, you can just print all the even pages in reverse order, and then feed that stack face down into the input tray and then print the odd pages in normal order. I had mistakenly thought that you had to take different steps when printing an odd number of pages instead of printing an even number of pages. I feel a little silly now. Anyway, a very nice printer.
I've had a Samsung ML-1430 for a few months now, and I am very pleased with it. It prints quickly and with good quality. Even with the toner-saving feature on, the text is clear and crisp.
It prints quickly. It's at least as fast as most copiers. Also, if you don't have enough paper, it just stops printing until you add more and then it automatically starts printing. Likewise, if you try to print something while it is off, it will start printing automatically when you turn it on (at least under Windows XP).
I just have one small complaint. There is not an easy way to duplex (or print in book format - whatever you want to call it). You have to figure out whether to print the odd pages or even pages reversed, and figure out which to reverse.
To some degree, ignorance of geography is simply rational ignorance. In the vast majority of instances in which knowing the location of Hungary would be beneficial, an American will get a chance to consult a map first. Knowing it is Eastern-Europish will usually be sufficient.
On the other hand, I agree that the US educational system does a poor job with history and describing life outside the US. I wonder how many of my classmates even know what a value-added tax is.
However, there are many educational areas that could be improved. Should we teach more about global politics, or make sure students understand basic probability, statistics, and combinatorics? Probability and stats are probably more likely to be of discernable benefit to the students.
I agree that the value of being able to access the web for blind/visually-impaired people far exceeds the monetary value of the potential transactions. However, before mandating accessibility, a cost/benefit analysis should still be done before deciding how much accomodation should be made.
And the post you were criticizing meant that only a couple extra customers would be gained for the companies he was designing sites for by making them accessible. For a small to medium sized business, this is probably a reasonable estimate. At some point, the cost to society outweighs the benefit of extra accessibility.
Also, taking into account how effective a good faith effort would likely be is a reasonable part of that assessment.
Perhaps a more creative solution is needed. For instance, as an alternative to providing an accessible website, a company could pay for the maintenance of an toll free number blind people could call to have the site read to them by trained staffers. There could be a pay-for-use system for the companies that opt for this. For many companies, this could result in cost-savings while still making the information accessible, and without forcing drastic changes in design.
This issue is a little like the question of how much a life is worth. When it comes to medical spending, many people say that a life is priceless, and saving one is worth any cost. However, suggest reducing the speed limit by ten or fifteen miles per hour, and see how far that gets you with the same people. Indirectly, they are paying for convenience with traffic fatalities. How much is that convenience worth in dollars? Similarly, how much is accessibility of a given website actually worth to the visually-impaired, and who should shoulder the cost of making the site accessible?
You are comparing apples and, well, brocolli or something, you've escaped the whole fruit category.
First of all, the assumption that only males 15-64 work is erroneous. The very same CIA web site provides a number of 1.3 million for the labor force. I can understand missing that. However, for the US you then transition from the GDP/(number of people in labor force) to average income. While those two measures are related, they certainly aren't comparable.
"This is the first time you've said this to me." Read his earlier post in this thread again. You just weren't reading closely. Look for the text "then home [how] come the UN had to set up a food for oil program?"
Finally, why did you use the number of people working as the sample space? First of all, it's not terribly useful. High unemployment of unskilled workers creates an improvement in that economic measure. More importantly, it doesn't speak to your original claim "Iraqi and Kuwaiti citizens on average make more $ than American citizens on average." You didn't say "working citizens," just citizens. An important factor confounding an evaluation of your original claim is that over half of the Kuwaiti population is non-nationals, and thus not citizens. (1.16 million out of 2.11 million).
The numbers did not work out.
Given your haphazard method of analysis, it is inappropriate to blame anyone else for not following your math. vicious_sloth deserves an apology.
Actually, I have one more bone to pick. "Face it, We just have a greater population of slaves than these countries do." What basis do you have for making this statement, other than some antipathy for the US? What's the income line for being a slave? Or was the term not meant seriously, and just used for inflammatory effect?
Real slavery still exists. See this site: http://www.freetheslaves.net/edpack/edpack_ 1.pdf Is there a problem with the income disparity in the US? Yes. Is the cure worse than the disease? I don't know. I am afraid it might be, but it is an issue about which reasonable people can disagree. However, income disparity does not equal slavery, and your frivolous use of the term belittles the suffering of the estimated 27 million slaves in the world today. (Source is the website cited above.)
I am not the author of the post you responded to, but I felt compelled to comment.
Plagiarism, in the most commonly used sense, is taking credit for someone else's words or ideas. Since he posted as an anonymous coward, he is unable to take credit. Therefore, he didn't commit plagiarism in the usual sense.
He deserves the lesser charge of failure to cite. As long as we are throwing out accusations, I would accuse you of libel http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=libel , but since he's an AC, I can't claim that it damages his reputation. Hmm, never mind.:)
"every compound that contains stereocenters is enantiomeric"
#start nitpicking As a chemist, I have to nitpick. Meso compounds, such as 2,3-butanediol, are not enantiomeric. Likewise, 3-methyl-2-pentene has two stereocenters, but has E and Z stereoisomers, not an enantiomer pair. The defining characteristic of an enantiomer is that the mirror image of the molecule is nonsuperimposable on the original molecule.
At least one source metions an earlier stop date for manufacture of PCBs: "The manufacture of PCBs was stopped in the U.S. in 1977 because of evidence they build up in the environment and can cause harmful health effects." http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts17.html Also, "During the 1970s, federal legislation2 mandated the elimination of PCBs from distribution in commerce; however, the use of PCBs in existing equipment was, for economic reasons, allowed to continue for the useful or normal life of the equipment as long as specific conditions were met." http://www.llnl.gov/es_and_h/hsm/doc_14.14/ doc14-1 4.html#toc3
I can't speak to the lifespan of the existing equipment (transformers, in this case).
I agree - it's profiling. I read what you said: "You have a beard, you have glasses, you fit the profile of what someone has said to look for. That fits under the the Supream Courts ruling for racial [emphasis added] profiling."
How do glasses and a beard fit under the Supreme Court rulings on racial profiling?
Profiling itself has not been deemed illegal. Police/federal screeners are free to use any "reasonable" cause in determining who to search. Specific protections are provided against racial profiling in Title IV of the Civil Rights Act. I know of no protections against searches motivated by suspicion of glasses or beards.
I think gender and age profiling in airport security are needed. I fit the general description of whom they should be worried about: male in his early twenties. It will be an inconvenience to me, but it is the most prudent course of action. Otherwise, to achieve the same degree of safety, much more money will have to be spent searching women and the elderly for the sake of appearances.
The profiling in the airports is fundamentally different from the racial profiling in traffic stops. First, it focuses on a group that has not been the focus of a pattern of discrimination: young males (pretty much regardless of race: Guys my age are much more prone to do stupid things). Second, the inconvenience is much less. Third, it is not the result of irrational prejudice, but of a rational allocation of limited resources.
If I can be charged higher insurance rates simply because of my age and gender, why can't it take me five more minutes to get through airport security? Both are inconvenient to me personally, but are rational.
"And yes, if I am getting the "treatment" 80% of the time I fly, I would sue. It takes time out of my day, it makes me want to fly less, it affects my mindset. It makes me grumpy, and that is not a good thing." Would it really make you feel better if everyone else had to go through the 'treatment' just as often? What, misery loves company?
"After all, if you did not want to sue, the KKK would still be loving the site of the "coloreds" walking out to an outhouse rather then getting the same treatment that every person has a right for." First, note that the suits brought in the civil rights movement were for much more serious matters than making you grumpy. Second, what is your argument, that lawsuits hastened the introduction of indoor plumbing for blacks? Sorry, I couldn't resist that one. I assume you are talking about the court cases that established that separate facilities for different races were inherently unequal. Procurring access to decent education falls under what I consider a need to sue. Saving 15 minutes at the airport at the expense of less effective security is what I consider not justifying a lawsuit. It simply should not be that big of a deal.
"Which are you?" -The one smart enough to not enter the casino.
i) human memory is not a fixed capacity. It varies with how much you make use of it.
It is not inherently fixed, but it is inherently limited. The number of viable, meaningful, interconnections in the brain is large, but finite. It's like human strength; it is variable, but there is a rough natural limit. No one (without weird modification) will be able to benchpress 2,000 lbs. I imagine memory would be similar; you might increase your memory an order of magnitude (or two? - maybe, maybe not) but that's just a larger stack of media. Theoretically, the guy's question could be answered. Sorry, nitpick. I agree with the rest of your post, though.
Slashdot Mirror
Two possible solutions for you:
1) Choose plain-text format for out-going mail.
(In Outlook 2000, Tools -> Options -> Mail Format tab -> Plain text in first drop-down box.
2) Edit -> Paste special -> text
The second option is probably the one you want. Not as simple as Ctrl-v, though.
The problem at hand is the number of ways of arranging five or six particular letters (as is the case for the Jumbles(R) puzzles in some newspapers).
Your numbers are those for the number of distinct six- and five-letter orderings from all 26 letters, allowing repetition.
As noted by a burried AC post, the numbers for the problem at hand are 6! and 5!, giving an increase in the number of permutations of a factor of six (assuming all the letters are distinct, which is less likely with the longer jumbles, but whatever).
When you start out, don't market yourself to people who need data recovery and $699. There is a large market of people who just need help with everyday computer things like installing printers, learning how to get their pictures off their fancy digital camera, burning CDs, setting up e-mail accounts in Outlook, etc.
A few non-repair services you should consider:
*1 hour of one-on-one help with digital photography. Before the class begins, skim the manual or fiddle with the camera. Teach them how to operate the camera in the full auto mode. Mention, but do not show them any neat advanced features like video, continuous-shooting, etc. Show them how to get the pictures onto their computer. Using whatever image-editing program they have, show them how to do very basic editing (depending on the customer, this may only be how to crop and maybe remove red-eye). Also, show them how to either burn a CD or transfer the files to a memory card for printing. You could also show them how to print photos on their computer, if time allows.
*Backup services: There are two options here. The first is to simply copy the whole hard drive with Norton Ghost or another disk-imaging program. This is the most comprehensive, but probably isn't necessary for most users. The other option is to make a list of things to backup like favorites, Outlook personal folders, data files (search for word, excel, powerpoint, audio files, and pictures from a digital camera). Modem or ethernet drivers are important to backup as well.
*Installation: Cable modem, printer, wireless access points. Most people don't want to read the manuals. Let them pay you to do so.
*Computer check-up: run Spybot Search and Destroy (or ad-aware). Run Windows update and get all the relevant updates. Update the video drivers if any member of the household is a gamer. Then, defrag the hard drive and backup important files.
*Reinstalling Windows: If they haven't upgraded to Windows XP, they are going to have to reinstall Windows 98 every so often. Find out what programs they use, make sure they have the install disks, back up the data files, and then reinstall it for them. Or upgrade them to Windows XP.
Looks like another great service. I like the fact that replies are automatically stripped of your real e-mail address.
The only reason SpamGourmet made me nervous was that I was afraid the company might fold. It looks like this might be the case with this company as well. Also, I need professional-looking e-mail addresses to give out when looking for work or sending out resumes.
I thought standard room temperature was 70F.
In general, I think it is preferable to err on the side of being too cold because adding more clothing is always an option. Shorts are not acceptable business attire at many offices, so someone that finds 72 a little too hot is just out of luck. I personally have more trouble concentrating when it is hot.
It may be easier to just go to white-listing or have some people go to a pay per e-mail thing (or spend computational time on protein-folding, as suggested earlier).
When asked to help, reply, "Sure, let me give you my card." Hand them business cards with twice the hourly rate you would want printed on them (say $50/hr). To stay the good guy, mention that you give friends and relatives and relatives of friends half off.
Then, if you get work, you are at least getting a decent rate. Also, you might accidently establish a nice profitable side business.
If you still get more work than you want, subcontract with some unemployed computer science graduates. (Or tech savvy high school students, after all, most home computer problems are pretty simple.)
Thank you very much for the reference to SpamGourmet. It looks like a great service.
I'd suggest a combination of the SpamGourmet solution and my earlier proposal.
My proposal has the downside of revealing my address to anyone clever enough to realize it. (Which is not a problem once you start whitelisting, but whitelisting is a little drastic.)
On the other hand, I'm a little skittish relying on an ad-supported site for all my e-mail contacts. Also, there are many people I don't want to give an address to with the domain "spamgourmet.com" (sending out resumes, etc.). Less importantly, anyone you send mail will get your real e-mail address in the From: field, so whitelisting may eventually become necessary, too.
The "no-brainer-mode" is depending upon security through obscurity, but changing to the advanced mode with prefixes doesn't seem like too much trouble.
Currently, my spam situation is easily manageable (5 a day or so); I don't even have to use any filtering yet. However, if it gets worse, I think I'll set up a new e-mail address and sign up for automated services with spamgourmet addresses and give out "name([password])@domain.com" addresses to real people.
In addition to your whitelist, you can have a rotating password to include in e-mails from new contacts that will be filtered into a folder to decide whether you want to put the address on your whitelist. You can change the non-whitelist password whenever spammers get a hold of it.
This sounds like a lot of trouble, but it is actually pretty easy to implement with the current e-mail system. Here's how:
My address is "person@site.com". Give your e-mail address as person(foo)@site.com. This mail will show up as to "foo". Before applying your whitelist, filter mail to foo into your approve/disapprove folder or your inbox. If it is from someone you trust, add their address to the whitelist. Otherwise, shift to putting another password in parentheses and notify those people on your whitelist that still use that password to move on. This is also a convenient way to track who sends you spam. Register with the site's name in parentheses.
You get the benefits of a disposable e-mail address without the overhead.
Thank you for pointing out that americanos doesn't translate like I thought it did. I took French in school, and the online dictionary I used just translated americano as American.
t ers.h tml
n g American to refer to ourselves doesn't mean ignoring that other people are from North and South America; it just means that referring to people from the USA comes up so much more for us than referring to people from either North or South America that it is easier to use American to refer to citizens of the USA. Why attribute to malice/arrogance what can be attributed to laziness/brevity?
;)
An interesting sidenote is that I don't think English has a concise way of saying people from one of the Americas (North, Central, or South). We use the terms North-American, South-American, and Central-American, but there isn't a good way to say from any of the above. I really don't think of it as a natural grouping. (Also, if you just mention North Americans and South Americans, does that imply Central American, too?)
If you had to translate "Estadounidences" into English, what word would you use, though? United-States-ian is just so clunky.
Also, as this site points out
http://www.yourspanishtutor.org/sbp19-tricks
, estadounidences and estadounidense both ignore other countries that are united states.
My general point is that since there is no good substitute in English for "American" to refer to someone from America, people shouldn't seek out an insult where none was intended. English is an inconsistent language: http://pw1.netcom.com/~rlederer/arc_ceng.htm
Usi
--Patrick Warf, proud United-States-ian
I'm not sure what you are referring to when you say someone missed that "America isn't a country."
;) )
I'll assume you are referring to people talking about Americans when referring to people from the United States of America. I've heard a reasonable number of people refer to the use of American as a sign of American arrogance. However, what else would you call Yankees or Yankee things? United-States-ian? In French, people from the US are referred to as Americains, and I think citizens of the US are referred to as Americanos in Spanish. It's just more convenient than the alternatives. (I'm okay being referred to as a Yankee, but it is informal. Also, would you say Yankish arrogance instead of American arrogance?
Also, the reason I predict Europe federalizing power and not the Americas is that a governmental framework is already in place that encourages centralization of power in the EU. A single currency requires coordinated monetary policy, and just look at how far the interstate commerce clause has been extended in the US.
Okay, the writing is a little sloppy.
However, the slip was understandable in this case given that for the purposes of space exploration and research Europe acts as if it were a single country through the ESA.
Also, calling Europe a country is really just extrapolating based upon current trends. EU member states have given a surprising amount of sovereignty away to the union as a whole, and the current setup looks like it invites a gradual erosion of national sovereignty in favor of centralized power.
Of course, significant cultural differences may slow unification, but increased immigration rates needed to compensate for falling native birth rates may quickly reduce cultural differences between European countries.
I expect the EU to essentially be a single country within my lifetime.
Do Europeans forsee an inevitable centralization of power until the EU acts like a central country, or is there a limiting factor to centralization that I missed?
Take pictures of the circuit box. Get some bids from electricians to do the necessary work. Present the bids to your boss.
h tml
Don't resign in this economy unless you already have another job lined up.
You can seek protection under OSHA Whistleblower protection as described at this site:
http://www.osha.gov/as/opa/worker/whistle.
You have a right to refuse work that puts you in imminent danger (I think this situation qualifies) if you follow the guidelines given here: http://www.osha.gov/as/opa/worker/refuse.html
I hope your boss lets you get professional help, but consider following the steps given at the above websites if your boss doesn't. It is not the ideal situation, but it will let you keep your job until you can find another one. Good luck.
I think this is oversimplified. The number of generations necessary to find an acceptably good solution depends on many factors, most importantly population size and problem complexity (of course).
My experience with genetic algorithms is that with a reasonable initial population, the majority of progress occurs withing the first few generations. Were you refering to individual fitness evaluations instead of generations? Even so, given a reasonably optimized initial population, and a quick method for approximating fitness (or at least weeding out poor candidates), I would expect useful results could be had in a handful generations with a small population size (ten or so), so maybe a hundred or two hundred evaluations of individuals.
If you are referring to genetic programming, rather straightforward genetic algorithms, I am not sure how many iterations that would take, I haven't any practical experience with them.
In terms of games adjusting to playing style, I would expect other types of learning algorithms to be more useful, though.
There are some printers that have a book setting, and they print the right pages and then show an animation of where to put the printed pages to make everything work out right.
However, now that I think about it, you can just print all the even pages in reverse order, and then feed that stack face down into the input tray and then print the odd pages in normal order. I had mistakenly thought that you had to take different steps when printing an odd number of pages instead of printing an even number of pages. I feel a little silly now. Anyway, a very nice printer.
I've had a Samsung ML-1430 for a few months now, and I am very pleased with it. It prints quickly and with good quality. Even with the toner-saving feature on, the text is clear and crisp.
It prints quickly. It's at least as fast as most copiers. Also, if you don't have enough paper, it just stops printing until you add more and then it automatically starts printing. Likewise, if you try to print something while it is off, it will start printing automatically when you turn it on (at least under Windows XP).
I just have one small complaint. There is not an easy way to duplex (or print in book format - whatever you want to call it). You have to figure out whether to print the odd pages or even pages reversed, and figure out which to reverse.
However, I still give it a strong recomendation.
To some degree, ignorance of geography is simply rational ignorance. In the vast majority of instances in which knowing the location of Hungary would be beneficial, an American will get a chance to consult a map first. Knowing it is Eastern-Europish will usually be sufficient.
On the other hand, I agree that the US educational system does a poor job with history and describing life outside the US. I wonder how many of my classmates even know what a value-added tax is.
However, there are many educational areas that could be improved. Should we teach more about global politics, or make sure students understand basic probability, statistics, and combinatorics? Probability and stats are probably more likely to be of discernable benefit to the students.
I agree that the value of being able to access the web for blind/visually-impaired people far exceeds the monetary value of the potential transactions. However, before mandating accessibility, a cost/benefit analysis should still be done before deciding how much accomodation should be made.
And the post you were criticizing meant that only a couple extra customers would be gained for the companies he was designing sites for by making them accessible. For a small to medium sized business, this is probably a reasonable estimate. At some point, the cost to society outweighs the benefit of extra accessibility.
Also, taking into account how effective a good faith effort would likely be is a reasonable part of that assessment.
Perhaps a more creative solution is needed. For instance, as an alternative to providing an accessible website, a company could pay for the maintenance of an toll free number blind people could call to have the site read to them by trained staffers. There could be a pay-for-use system for the companies that opt for this. For many companies, this could result in cost-savings while still making the information accessible, and without forcing drastic changes in design.
This issue is a little like the question of how much a life is worth. When it comes to medical spending, many people say that a life is priceless, and saving one is worth any cost. However, suggest reducing the speed limit by ten or fifteen miles per hour, and see how far that gets you with the same people. Indirectly, they are paying for convenience with traffic fatalities. How much is that convenience worth in dollars? Similarly, how much is accessibility of a given website actually worth to the visually-impaired, and who should shoulder the cost of making the site accessible?
A voltage can be applied, just no current passes through. Think of it as a weirdly-shaped capacitor.
You are comparing apples and, well, brocolli or something, you've escaped the whole fruit category.
_ 1.pdf
First of all, the assumption that only males 15-64 work is erroneous. The very same CIA web site provides a number of 1.3 million for the labor force. I can understand missing that. However, for the US you then transition from the GDP/(number of people in labor force) to average income. While those two measures are related, they certainly aren't comparable.
"This is the first time you've said this to me."
Read his earlier post in this thread again. You just weren't reading closely. Look for the text "then home [how] come the UN had to set up a food for oil program?"
Finally, why did you use the number of people working as the sample space? First of all, it's not terribly useful. High unemployment of unskilled workers creates an improvement in that economic measure. More importantly, it doesn't speak to your original claim "Iraqi and Kuwaiti citizens on average make more $ than American citizens on average." You didn't say "working citizens," just citizens. An important factor confounding an evaluation of your original claim is that over half of the Kuwaiti population is non-nationals, and thus not citizens. (1.16 million out of 2.11 million).
The numbers did not work out.
Given your haphazard method of analysis, it is inappropriate to blame anyone else for not following your math. vicious_sloth deserves an apology.
Actually, I have one more bone to pick. "Face it, We just have a greater population of slaves than these countries do." What basis do you have for making this statement, other than some antipathy for the US? What's the income line for being a slave? Or was the term not meant seriously, and just used for inflammatory effect?
Real slavery still exists. See this site:
http://www.freetheslaves.net/edpack/edpack
Is there a problem with the income disparity in the US? Yes. Is the cure worse than the disease? I don't know. I am afraid it might be, but it is an issue about which reasonable people can disagree. However, income disparity does not equal slavery, and your frivolous use of the term belittles the suffering of the estimated 27 million slaves in the world today. (Source is the website cited above.)
I am not the author of the post you responded to, but I felt compelled to comment.
:)
Plagiarism, in the most commonly used sense, is taking credit for someone else's words or ideas. Since he posted as an anonymous coward, he is unable to take credit. Therefore, he didn't commit plagiarism in the usual sense.
He deserves the lesser charge of failure to cite. As long as we are throwing out accusations, I would accuse you of libel http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=libel
, but since he's an AC, I can't claim that it damages his reputation. Hmm, never mind.
"every compound that contains stereocenters is enantiomeric"
/ doc14-1 4.html#toc3
#start nitpicking
As a chemist, I have to nitpick. Meso compounds, such as 2,3-butanediol, are not enantiomeric. Likewise, 3-methyl-2-pentene has two stereocenters, but has E and Z stereoisomers, not an enantiomer pair. The defining characteristic of an enantiomer is that the mirror image of the molecule is nonsuperimposable on the original molecule.
At least one source metions an earlier stop date for manufacture of PCBs:
"The manufacture of PCBs was stopped in the U.S. in 1977 because of evidence they build up in the environment and can cause harmful health effects."
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts17.html
Also,
"During the 1970s, federal legislation2 mandated the elimination of PCBs from distribution in commerce; however, the use of PCBs in existing equipment was, for economic reasons, allowed to continue for the useful or normal life of the equipment as long as specific conditions were met."
http://www.llnl.gov/es_and_h/hsm/doc_14.14
I can't speak to the lifespan of the existing equipment (transformers, in this case).
#end of nitpick
I agree - it's profiling. I read what you said:
"You have a beard, you have glasses, you fit the profile of what someone has said to look for. That fits under the the Supream Courts ruling for racial [emphasis added] profiling."
How do glasses and a beard fit under the Supreme Court rulings on racial profiling?
Profiling itself has not been deemed illegal. Police/federal screeners are free to use any "reasonable" cause in determining who to search. Specific protections are provided against racial profiling in Title IV of the Civil Rights Act. I know of no protections against searches motivated by suspicion of glasses or beards.
I think gender and age profiling in airport security are needed. I fit the general description of whom they should be worried about: male in his early twenties. It will be an inconvenience to me, but it is the most prudent course of action. Otherwise, to achieve the same degree of safety, much more money will have to be spent searching women and the elderly for the sake of appearances.
The profiling in the airports is fundamentally different from the racial profiling in traffic stops.
First, it focuses on a group that has not been the focus of a pattern of discrimination: young males (pretty much regardless of race: Guys my age are much more prone to do stupid things).
Second, the inconvenience is much less.
Third, it is not the result of irrational prejudice, but of a rational allocation of limited resources.
If I can be charged higher insurance rates simply because of my age and gender, why can't it take me five more minutes to get through airport security? Both are inconvenient to me personally, but are rational.
"And yes, if I am getting the "treatment" 80% of the time I fly, I would sue. It takes time out of my day, it makes me want to fly less, it affects my mindset. It makes me grumpy, and that is not a good thing."
Would it really make you feel better if everyone else had to go through the 'treatment' just as often? What, misery loves company?
"After all, if you did not want to sue, the KKK would still be loving the site of the "coloreds" walking out to an outhouse rather then getting the same treatment that every person has a right for."
First, note that the suits brought in the civil rights movement were for much more serious matters than making you grumpy.
Second, what is your argument, that lawsuits hastened the introduction of indoor plumbing for blacks? Sorry, I couldn't resist that one. I assume you are talking about the court cases that established that separate facilities for different races were inherently unequal. Procurring access to decent education falls under what I consider a need to sue. Saving 15 minutes at the airport at the expense of less effective security is what I consider not justifying a lawsuit. It simply should not be that big of a deal.
"Which are you?"
-The one smart enough to not enter the casino.
People with beards aren't a protected class. Neither are people with glasses (needing glasses alone is not considered a disability).
And don't sue if you don't have to. Sheesh.
i) human memory is not a fixed capacity. It varies with how much you make use of it.
It is not inherently fixed, but it is inherently limited. The number of viable, meaningful, interconnections in the brain is large, but finite. It's like human strength; it is variable, but there is a rough natural limit. No one (without weird modification) will be able to benchpress 2,000 lbs. I imagine memory would be similar; you might increase your memory an order of magnitude (or two? - maybe, maybe not) but that's just a larger stack of media. Theoretically, the guy's question could be answered. Sorry, nitpick. I agree with the rest of your post, though.