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User: Jerry

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  1. Re:Don't let facts get in the way of good fun on Getting The Public To Listen To Good Science · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What James Burke pointed out was that the difference between Science and Humanities is that Science is involved with discovering that which has never been known before, while Humanities is merely the re-arrangement of previously expressed thoughts.

    A friend of mine was working toward a Masters in English. I was working toward a Masters in Biochemistry. After the graduation we compared our theses. Hers was 350 pages and took her one year to write. Mine was 52 pages long. She asked how I could get by "so easily" with only a 52 page thesis. I showed her one page on which was the elucidation of a new chemical which was a non-toxic, broad-spectrum anti-biotic active at 1 mg/L, 3-Amino-3,4-diHydrox-carbostyril. (It's been over 40 years, I hope I remembered that correctly!) "See that page?", I asked. "It took a full year to be able to write that one page alone".

    While the pharmaceuticals looked at that compound they did not market it because they discovered that my research was public domain because the Welch Foundation Research grants (The Grape people) are all public domain.

    I also pointed out that if ANY other researcher published ahead of me I would have to go back to square one and start over because my work would no longer have been original. (The only way she would have to start over was if she was caught plagiarizing but then she could never start over unless another school accepted her, which is doubtful.)

  2. Re:Yeah, but can you 'prove' it? on Getting The Public To Listen To Good Science · · Score: 1

    That sound good but it is far from reality.

    About 20 years ago NOVA put out a documentary called "Do Scientists Cheat?" and the data they presented showed that 48% of all scientific output, from student research papers to PhD theses, contained deliberate abuses of facts. By false inclusion, omissions, manipulations, cooking, trimming, etc., the "researchers" produced reports that "proved" their hypotheses. Only a few of the deceptions were caught by peer review or replication, which makes the vaunted "safeguards" of science worthless... at least 48% of the time. Scientists were sloppy, lacked objectivity, inserted their personal biases, and were under constant pressure to publish or have their career die. NOVA found that even reviewers suppressed papers that were not, as we say today, politically correct, or didn't agree with the currently accepted paradigm, sometimes for no other reason than personal advantage because they were researching in the same field as the submitter of the paper. Then there is what happens when science goes political: no matter which side of the issue one is on there are "whistle blowers" on both sides. Some of the misdeeds in the NOVA documentary were revealed by whistle blowers. One was uncovered by a scientist, Dr Prague, when he was casually reading a published research paper and happened to remember that a previous report by that researcher had IDENTICAL percentages in a particular summary.

    Sadly, after being hailed as heroes, the two government researchers who uncovered much of the misdoings and around whom NOVA built the documentary, were assigned to worthless dead end positions in remote places. IIRC, one was sent to Alaska and the other to North Dakota. The careers of both were destroyed for pointing out that even scientists let human frailties affect their "scientific method". One of the other whistle blowers was interviewed in another update to that first documentary and said that she would never blow the whistle again because it destroyed her research career and the guilty parties got off with a hand slap.

    We won't be seeing another investigation into fraud in scientific reserch any time soon. There is TOO MUCH MONEY AND POLITICS involved in research and the grant tail is wagging the science dog, on which ethics has become just an annoying flea.

  3. Re:Make a U-Turn on Open US GPS Data? · · Score: 1

    I've encountered this using my Garmin 350.

    It computes a course and if you deviate it will first try to get you back on the course it originally computed, hence the U-turn messages. Keep going and pretty soon it will calculate a new course from where you are that won't involve a U-turn. Unless, of course, you drove onto a dead end street. (That doesn't meet a swamp! :0)

  4. No, it won't. They'll import HB1's .... on Increased US Broadband Adoption Could Create 2.4 Million Jobs · · Score: 1

    to fill those jobs that they can't export, and at half the hourly rate American workers would take.

    After all, the lawyers have video seminars training employers on exactly how to avoid hiring expensive American workers and get only HB1 folks. Meanwhile, Gates and the other greedy multi-nationals will continue to spout the smoke screen about how it is impossible to find American workers who have "the necessary skills" as the bribe their congressional sock puppets to pass more bills to continue to allow such practices.

  5. Alltel has a 1.8MB satellite wireless broadband on In-Home Wireless Vs. Mobile Broadband · · Score: 1

    My next door neighbor gave up on configuring VISTA on his brand new laptop so he brought it over and asked me to do it. He also had a device about the size of a small cellphone with TWO usb connectors. His laptop has only three USB connectors and he had an optical mouse in the third. The installation of the wireless was straight forward and simple. Insert the CD and run setup.exe. When the installation app tells you to do so, insert the wireless USB connectors. A monitor panel appears. Click the big round green button marked "disconnected" and in a few sections it is marked "Connected" and the graph starts displaying download speeds versus time.

    Good News:
    The Alltel satellite wireless gives my neighbor the ability to connect to the Internet from ANYWHERE within the satellite's footprint in the Northern Hemisphere at no extra charge. He and his wife were going to visit relatives in Idaho in a couple months and I cautioned him about satellite shadows as he drives through the mountains in that region. He should expect to lose the connection when a mountain blocks the line of sight to the satellite, unless it picks up a reflection from the side of the mountain on the opposite side of the valley between them.

    The wireless was receiving well from inside my house and at times reached very close to the 1.8MB download speed. For most websites it was just as fast as my RR 10MB broadband. However, when I went to sites heavy with graphics or with a video the difference became obvious. But, if I weren't into downloads of Linux ISOs and development tools the 1.8MB would be fast enough for most things.

    The bad news:
    With the satellite wireless attached he can't use any other USB devices unless he gets a USB port extender.
    The wireless device comes only with Windows or Mac installation software, and I didn't get an opportunity to see if I could connect to it using any of my Linux tools.

    It cost them $172 to buy the "package", sans, installation, and their monthly bill will be $62. I pay $85 for 70 channels of cable TV and a 10MB Internet connection, but my connection is stuck at home. Alltel allows only one connection at a time, but I'm sure some Windows guru can activate an IPFORWARD type service to allow other laptops to connect via an Ethernet cable.

    Unplug it without doing the "safely remove hardware" and you could damage the device.

    Concerning VISTA:
    Although VISTA was "pre-installed" it wasn't configured. The configuration process was much too complicated for my neighbor to accomplish, which is why he gave up and asked if I would do it for him. VISTA's menu structure was much too confusing to be of much help for him. The date and time were wrong and he had no clue about how to set it. The "security" feature which asks permission to run EVERY application (including windows apps, at least for the first time) is annoying and useless. He would have no clue about which program should be allowed to run and which shouldn't. It's like having no security at all and its only purpose is to get Microsoft off the hook for being responsible for the inevitable infections.

    I deactivated Norton, IFC and "Defender", and installed FireFox, ThunderBird, AGV and ZoneAlarm. I removed the demoware and trialware (including Office 2007) and installed OpenOffice. I cleaned up his screen and rebooted.

    With all the apps that "call home" removed and the desktop cleaned up his VISTA installation started responding fairly well. Not as fast as my PCLinuxOS on a 3GHz CPU with 2GB of RAM, but his Acer dual core 64 2MHz CPUs with 2GB of RAM running VISTA was acceptably fast.... IF it can remain so.

    My last words to him were "DON'T EVER RUN IE7 and DON'T EVER RUN OUTLOOK".

    Oh, did I mention that it crashed once while running IE7 (which was forced by a hardwired call from Miro) and locked up once during the required reboot following the removal of one of the demoware apps. On the subsequent reboot it defaulted to the "Run Windows normally" option and appeared to come up and run fine for the rest of the session.

  6. Re:If comcast want'sto do this on Comcast Defends Role As Internet Traffic Cop · · Score: 1

    No.

    The ISPs, cable companies and baby bells were given $200 BILLION to lay optical cables over 15 years ago.
    http://www.newnetworks.com/scandalquotes.htm

    Had they fulfilled their end of the bargain we wouldn't be having bandwidth problems today. Then they couldn't claim they were throttling p2p and other down loaders to "preserve bandwidth".

    It's time some public interest group sued them for breach of promise and force them to complete their end of the agreement.

  7. Innovation has been redefined on 'Innovation In a Flash' Is a Myth · · Score: 1

    Doing all that research was too time consuming and expensive. Corporations have found a shortcut: file IP patents for prior art and rely on their deep pockets to over come any legal challenges, except that most interested parties cannot afford to the legal costs to challenge. So corporations win by default.

  8. Re:Not very on A Torrid Tale of Plagiarizing Paleontologists · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You wish.

    NOVA did an investigation several years ago called "Do Scientists Cheat". Their investigation followed up on whistle blowing by two NSF scientists. The result was an estimate that 48% of all published reports use cooked, trimmed or totally falsified data.

    There are at least three methods which supposedly guard against bad science:
    1) Peer review
    2) Replication
    3) "Scientific Method"

    None of them work well and abuses go undetected more often than not.

    Neither work

  9. Re:heh on RIAA Wants $1.5 Million Per CD Copied · · Score: 1

    And this link (http://opensecrets.org/industries/indus.asp?Ind=B02) shows that as far as the Entertainment Industry is concerned the Dems took in 70% of the quarter of a Billion in "campaign contributions" during since 1990. And they call the Reps the "part of big business".

    They both have sold out. A pox on both of their houses.

  10. Re:Great news on Sun Buys MySQL · · Score: 2, Informative

    Another advantage of PostgreSQL is that it's SQL syntax is 95% or more compatible with Oracle's.

    I am using QT4/C++ with PostgreSQL/Oracle. The source uses compiler defines to select the relevant database and to make appropriate changes in syntax for things like nested CODE/DECODE, etc. It can compile unchanged on either Linux or Windows and runs the same way on both, with identical look & feel. I use MS VS 2003 on Windows and QDevelop or Kate on Linux.

    IMO, for all light to medium (and some heavy) applications PostgreSQL is more than adequate. It is a LOT easier to maintain and is auto-tuning. It's license precludes any corporation from buy out PostgreSQL and taking control of it, although corporations can utilize it with their proprietary extensions to make a specialized product.

  11. Switching from FUD to LIES... on Firefox Struggling to Compete as Corporate Browser · · Score: 1

    So FF can't be automatically updated?

    I'm running 2.0.0.11 and on my Tools->Options->Advanced->Update dialog I have AUTOMATIC UPDATES checked. I also have it watch to see if any addons could be broken by the update. We run Windows at work but FF is the default browser for all 500 employees.

  12. Re:The Internet "used" to be owned by the people on ISPs To Filter Traffic For Copyright Holders? · · Score: 1

    Na. We idiot" have to stay around and balance out the comments made by imbeciles like you.

    By the way, expenses like doctors fees are taken out before health insurance companies compute profits.

  13. Re:The Internet "used" to be owned by the people on ISPs To Filter Traffic For Copyright Holders? · · Score: 1

    We have the best Congress money can buy. That's because most are paid off. The "contributions" to their "Campaign War Chest" can be converted to personal use if they decide to retire, effectively making such contributions a bribe.

    They have also paid themselves off by voting for themselves a health package you and I cannot have or afford -- ALL health services prepaid with NO excluded services and rendered with NO deductibles and NO caps. 100% Socialized health care. After they retire at FULL salary with annual 10% cost of living increases their health insurance continues on as is and in force at no cost until they die, then the FULL retirement package transfers to the spouse until she/he dies.

    The only people with power to influence the vote in Washington these days are the Lobbyists of major corporations. Our pitiful emails and letters are ignored or responded to with form letters with fake signatures.

  14. The Internet "used" to be owned by the people on ISPs To Filter Traffic For Copyright Holders? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    but the corporations have stolen it, with the help of soulless politicians who want "change", aka campaign "contributions".

    I want change, alright. I want the greedy IP companies thrown off OUR web and send them back to their brick and mortar. Give the web back to the people and educational institutions and companies that don't try political and USPTO lock downs.

    While we are at it, let's pull health insurance companies grubby hands off of health care. Take profit out of health care. That some should profit on the suffering of the sick and injured, and others even INCREASE their suffering, is detestable, but politicos from BOTH parties are happy with it, as long as they get their campaign "contributions".

    Then, let's shut down the check advance folks. 450+% interest! They feed on the poor and make the Mafia look like a charitable organization. They've replaced Louie the Leg Breaker with law enforcement to do their dirty work. The credit card companies are not much better. 35% interest? Diverting payments to the lower interest rate loans when the higher interest rate loans are older is simply theft. and hair trigger interest rate increases? Politicos from BOTH parties are happy with it, as long as they get their campaign "contributions".

  15. In 2003 the Linux share was 3.2% of the ... on Is Apple Killing Linux on the Desktop? · · Score: 3, Informative

    desktop market. Since then the number of folks using Linux on the desktop has certainly increased:
    http://www.itfacts.biz/linux-desktop-market-share-to-reach-6-in-2007/723

    It was predicted to be 6% in 2007 and I'd wager that is pretty close.

    Of course, that doesn't count Linux users like myself who purchase through the retail channel only once out of every 4 downloads, and the much larger number who only download free copies of Linux. This "0.6%" also never takes into account the fact that a single download of a Linux distro is often installed on more than one computer.

    So, all this report is comparing is the retail channel sales of Mac, the only way one can get it, with the retail channel sales of Linux, which is usually the choice of last resort among Linux users.

  16. Here's what Microsoft bought .... on Microsoft Paid Novell $356 Million in '07 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A "confession" by Ron Hovsepian that "Linux" contains Microsoft IP, even though Microsoft has yet to prove any infringements exist.

    How? By paying Microsoft a ROYALTY for each copy of SLES that it sells Novell is making an implied statement that its distro contains MS IP.

    Ballmer called the payments "an IP bridge". He could have said the payments were an admission of guilt.

    Microsoft has a problem though. They've been claiming that Linux violates their IPs for several years now. The law requires that they inform infringers of the exact infringements so that damages can be mitigated. Microsoft has not done that.

  17. Trekkies, DON'T DISPAIR! There is another source . on Startrek.com Shutting Down · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/

    and it includes D.C. Fontana and many of the original Startrek series crew.

    The episodes are free, and some extend old story lines.

    Over all, very enjoyable!

  18. Re:I have another bill that should be passed on Anti-P2P College Bill Moving Through House · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Where in the Constitution does it say that Congress has the power to outlaw a purely personal activity?


    When your "purely personal" activity infringes on the Constitutional right others to be secure in their person and property.

    I don't care what you smoke, drink, inject, sniff or screw, as long as your activity only harms you and no one else.

    If it were only possible to bring back from the dead a person MURDERED by a driver using a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, or one smoking pot, or sniffing glue, or using meth, or whatever. But no, we have to bury the innocent and support the drunk in jail for a few months or years, if he gets convicted. Then he's out free and others have their lives and property at risk again.

  19. Re:Air Wolf on Predator-Style Helmets Allow Pilots to See Through Planes · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What part of " the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." don't you understand?

    IF "the right of the people" in the 2nd Amendment doesn't mean you and I then it doesn't mean you and I in the first and freedom of speech is a myth ready to be repealed by some facists or Marxist judge.

    Some Federaljudges disagree with your. (http://www.mcsm.org/indivright.html)

    The part about "well regulated" is being upheld also in the fact that assult weapons, grenade launchers, and other military weapons for offensive purposes are still prohibited from individual ownership.

    So, your assertion that the 2nd Amendment only applies as a collective right to the National Guard or Police is not supported by the courts or by the phrase "right of the people".

    Disarming the people only makes them more likely to be victims of those who ignore gun laws anyway. Since Britian outlawed guns in 1997 the number of gun crimes have doubled. http://www.crimeinfo.org.uk/servlet/factsheetservlet?command=viewfactsheet&factsheetid=102&category=factsheets

    Now the British lawmakers are going after bb-guns! Because home owners now have to resort to bats, golf clubs and kitchen utensils to defend themselves from ARMED intruders laws are being proposed to outlaw kitchen knives! There are cases on record where home owners are begin arrested for defending their home and themselves and the police are appearing as witnesses for the intruders after they sue the home owner for injuries suffered while they attempted to rob the home owner. Is that insane enough for you?

    Trade the 2nd Amendment for security and you will have neither the 2nd NOR the 1st nor any other admendment.

    The words of the Declaration of Independence still apply:
    "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

    Did you notice that the Right enumerated (and expanded upon by the BIll of Rights) are UNALIENABLE RIGHTS. That means they cannot be taken away nor can they be voluntarily surrendered or given up.

  20. Re:Microsoft shut them down on OpenDocument Foundation Closes · · Score: 1

    Isn't it obvious?

    They took the money and ran.

  21. Re:Roads on the moon? on Japanese Probe Returns First HD Video of the Moon · · Score: 1

    If you ZOOM IN you'll see that it is made of tiny pixels.

  22. Re:Translation? on MLB Fans Who Bought DRM Videos Get Hosed · · Score: 1

    This is the "free crack" phase of peddling dope.

    After Brits get addicted to watching NFL, if ever, then comes the ads and fees.

  23. It's NEVER too late to UPGRADE to XP !! on Vista Runs Out of Memory While Copying Files · · Score: 1

    Just about everyone is.

  24. Re:American Agri-business Versus DOD on Pentagon Urges Space-Based Solar Power · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is impossible to switch to Ethanol. The Ethanol industry's own data (each gallon of Ethanol produced yields an excess of 17,000 BTUs. 125,000 BTU/gal Gasoline / 17,000 BTU/gal excess = 7) shows that it takes SEVEN gallons of Ethanol to replace ONE gallon of Gasoline. The average yield of Corn is 135 Bu/acre and each Bushel of Corn yields 2.68 Gal of Ethanol. To replace Gasoline with Ethanol made from Corn grown in the US would require 44 Million MORE acres of agricultural land than the TOTAL acres of agricultural land available in the US.

    Add to that the fact that it is limited to one crop per growing season, is a mono-culture highly susceptible to natural or artificial pathogens, drought, floods and hail and you have what is probably the least desirable energy source of all.

    What is pushing the Ethanol industry? Corn ethanol subsidies totaled $7.0 billion in 2006 for 4.9 billion gallons of ethanol. That's $1.45 per gallon of ethanol (and $2.21 per gal of gas replaced). There are 17 NEW Ethanol plants being built in Nebraska because of those subsidies.

    What makes the WHOLE THING A TOTAL DISASTER is that Ethanol is NOT the path or even a bridge to energy independence. It is merely a drain on the Federal treasury driven by greed and corruption.

  25. Re:They must love FUD on Ballmer Suggests Linux Distros Will Soon Have to Pay Up · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Novell has publicly denounced MS' claims about this.


    Hovsepian lies.

    It's NOT what they SAY that counts, it's what they DO.

    And what Novell does is to continue to PAY MICROSOFT A ROYALTY for each copy of SLES that it sells. Ballmer called that payment the "IP Bridge":
    http://www.novell.com/linux/microsoft/press-conference_transcript.html
    And you'll see, as well, an economic commitment from Novell to Microsoft that involves a running royalty, a percentage of revenue on open source software shipped under the agreement. .... and we're going to make clear that IP, the patent bridge, the IP bridge is an important thing.

    That royalty payment says that NOVELL "BELIEVES" that Linux contains MS IP, even though there has been no proof of such a claim.

    Why did Novell do this? Hovsepain claims he couldn't sell SUSE against Windows, which is probably a true statement about his sales ability, but I believe he had $308M other reasons, and a hope that Microsoft's legal pressure on other distros would force FOSS users to move to SLES and pay for it.