One of the resaons that Ubuntu is so popular is that there is a large community of people willing to help on the Ubuntu Forums. From noobs to people setting up clusters, someone will be willing to help you. It's one of the distro's greatest strengths.
http://ubuntuforums.org/
Another site had this to say: "The ridge builder works by temporarily "puffing" or raising the fingerprint ridges. I'm fairly sure it sounds like something you wouldn't want to use on a daily basis.
Maybe you could use it once, get some clear prints, then use those to build a latex model of your finger print. You could get your access and comment on the insecurity of their biometrics at the same time!
I haven't been impressed with FoxIt. Yes, I like the speed, but on some pdfs, its rendering isn't the greatest. Things look faded or blocky when they shouldn't. As much as I hate the bloat, Adobe doesn't have this problem.
If you've ever had calculus, you'll realize that at some point, putting together enough discrete intervals creates something that is for all intents and purposes, continuous.
You must also remember that a computer simulation doesn't have to work exactly the same way as the human brain. If it can accurately reproduce human characteristics to such an extent that we can't tell the difference between it and a human, then how would we know? And why would we care?
Read some Kurzweil - I recommend 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. It'll give you something to think about.
Most browsers save bookmarks in html or xml format. It would be easy to whip up a perl script to parse that and delete duplicates. Probably not too much harder to convert them all to the same format for easy importing.
What you need to pick up really depends on what kind of work you want to do in the field. There are absolutely people with little understanding of biology all over. They typically do things like optimize and translate code or tweak algorithms for biologists. To move up to more interesting problems, though, you'll have to teach yourself quite a bit of biology and chemistry.
My advice is to start with the basics. Pick up a college-level Intro to Biology textbook and learn the relevant stuff: Biological molecules, Natural selection and evolution, basic Genetics - the whole pathway from gene -> protein -> enzyme.
These kinds of concepts are the foundations of biology that you need to understand before you can get into the hardcore stuff.
If you enjoy chem, keep going through it too - finish general chemistry and work your way up through some organic chemistry and biochemistry. Structural and computational Biochemistry is HUGE right now, and you can definitely choose to go more of a chem path, if that's what floats your boat.
MIT OpenCourseWare has whole sections devoted to Biology, Chemistry, and Biological Engineering. It's probably worth checking out, if nothing else, to guide you to some topics to look more closely at.
Lastly, I'm going to encourage you to do your homework and make the jump. Both Universities and corporations are salivating over anyone with knowledge in both the life and computer sciences that can help bridge the gap between the two. (I should know - I'll be working on my PhD in Computational Biology starting this fall)
It would be easy to extend this idea and set up a web cam to stream images of the background to your desktop. It could be full video, but for better performance, I think I'd just prefer using a time delay to keep it current (say, 2 minutes?). That would keep your background up to date with any subtle changes in the background (natural light, movement of objects, etc). Optionally, a motion sensor could be used that would trigger an update every time you tilted your monitor.
Sure, it's nothing but eye candy, but if implemented correctly and efficiently, it could be uber-cool.
One more crazy idea - incorporate two micro-cameras and 3d glasses with a tracking device. This would allow several things. First of all, the objects in the background could really appear to be in the background (and all of your icons/programs/videos could be cooler, too). Also, by monitoring the position of your head in relation to the monitor, the cameras and background image could be shifted to make the illusion of transparency even more complete.
Implementing this would definitely be worth ultra-double bonus points (and probably a PhD).
If you're interested in computational biology or bioinformatics, you'll have it made in either academia or industry. With the genomic revolution looming, people who can apply their knowledge of CS and algorithms to biological/biomedical problems are in HUGE demand.
Feel free to replace biology with biochemistry, molecular biology, or biomedical engineering degrees, as your particular tastes warrant.
Wow - you mean all Microsoft employees aren't corporate drones out to steal your money? Here's your proof, Slashdot.
And most of the thing that Martin says make a lot of sense. I definitely agree that Linux is still a niche product. For web servers, research institutions, and hardcore geeks, Linux may be the flavor of choice. Like it or not, though, Windows is still easier to use for most people.
This is partially due to market share (it's what people are used to) and partially because they've simplified and hidden key components that 90% of people will never touch. MS has also shown a lot of responsiveness in their efforts to get standards-compliance built into their browsers and their focus on increased security lately (now that the market demands it).
I sincerely hope that Linux becomes user-friendly, more widely adopted and makes a run at the market. I absolutely believe that free (as in speech) software is better. I just think Microsoft takes far too much crap around here for doing what all businesses do - playing the market and trying to make money.
Yep - the denial was reported earlier today on several sources:
br /
http://billboardradiomonitor.com/radiomonitor/news/business/digital/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_ id=1000777229
Wait a minute here. A professor actually offers interesting assignments and an incredible learning experience, and you would complain because your grade isn't based on regurgitating dry powerpoint lectures?? I've had enough of those, thanks.
Sign me up - I'd take this class any day.
I can attest to this!
on
Hacking Vodka
·
· Score: 3, Funny
After reading this site last week, myself and a couple of friends decided to take the "Brita Challenge". To my complete amazement it worked better than I ever could have hoped.
I hate vodka typically, and the 9-dollar "Kamchakta" vodka that we bought burned like a mofo, and smelled like ass. After filtering it several times, it loses all of those impurities (that some might call 'flavor'), and is much more palatable.
Our findings were that 4 filtrations were plenty, and that it took much less time than the other site claims. We were able to filter a 1.75 L bottle of vodka 6 times in well under an hour.
We surmise that if you stuck 3 or 4 filters together in one long pipe, you could have one hell of a filtration system, and do it quickly too. With a little bit of advertising on collegehumor.com, you could be a thousandare, easy!!
To recap:
1) Filter Cheap Vodka
2) ????
3) Profit!!!
Online applications clearly have many benefits, especially with the recent surge in broadband, but adoption and support has been slow in coming. Why is this?
Well, I think many companies are hesitant to move to online platforms, though, because they feel that it's a security risk. Putting sensitive data on a closed intranet seems safer in many ways, especially to those unfamiliar with encrpytion and other modern security measures.
I'd argue that we have a bias towards the truth. This is a community of skeptical, highly intelligent people who don't fall for bullshit or partisan rhetoric.
Slashdot Mirror
One of the resaons that Ubuntu is so popular is that there is a large community of people willing to help on the Ubuntu Forums. From noobs to people setting up clusters, someone will be willing to help you. It's one of the distro's greatest strengths. http://ubuntuforums.org/
Here's a link to a place selling Ridge Builder: http://www.tritechusa.com/fingerprint/LC-RB.htm It's light on the details, though, so I'm still not sure how it works or if it's safe.
Another site had this to say: "The ridge builder works by temporarily "puffing" or raising the fingerprint ridges. I'm fairly sure it sounds like something you wouldn't want to use on a daily basis.
Maybe you could use it once, get some clear prints, then use those to build a latex model of your finger print. You could get your access and comment on the insecurity of their biometrics at the same time!
I haven't been impressed with FoxIt. Yes, I like the speed, but on some pdfs, its rendering isn't the greatest. Things look faded or blocky when they shouldn't. As much as I hate the bloat, Adobe doesn't have this problem.
Adium is based on gaim. All they did was add a pretty interface.
Opera 8.50 (Win32): 3.7MB (that's the largest Opera Win32 final release ever, FWIW)
Firefox 1.0.6 (Win32): 4.7MB
Because in this age of 200GB harddrives, that extra meg really makes a difference.
A comparison of post-installation size, or better yet, memory usage during program execution, would be far more enlightening.
I'd like all of that too. And a pony, while you're at it.
I think the distro you're looking for is Ubuntu.
If you've ever had calculus, you'll realize that at some point, putting together enough discrete intervals creates something that is for all intents and purposes, continuous.
You must also remember that a computer simulation doesn't have to work exactly the same way as the human brain. If it can accurately reproduce human characteristics to such an extent that we can't tell the difference between it and a human, then how would we know? And why would we care?
Read some Kurzweil - I recommend 'The Age of Spiritual Machines'. It'll give you something to think about.
Most browsers save bookmarks in html or xml format. It would be easy to whip up a perl script to parse that and delete duplicates. Probably not too much harder to convert them all to the same format for easy importing.
FWIW, this prof is at the University of Missouri (in Columbia, MO).
Gee - you'd think the submitter could RTFA...
What you need to pick up really depends on what kind of work you want to do in the field. There are absolutely people with little understanding of biology all over. They typically do things like optimize and translate code or tweak algorithms for biologists. To move up to more interesting problems, though, you'll have to teach yourself quite a bit of biology and chemistry.
My advice is to start with the basics. Pick up a college-level Intro to Biology textbook and learn the relevant stuff: Biological molecules, Natural selection and evolution, basic Genetics - the whole pathway from gene -> protein -> enzyme. These kinds of concepts are the foundations of biology that you need to understand before you can get into the hardcore stuff.
If you enjoy chem, keep going through it too - finish general chemistry and work your way up through some organic chemistry and biochemistry. Structural and computational Biochemistry is HUGE right now, and you can definitely choose to go more of a chem path, if that's what floats your boat.
MIT OpenCourseWare has whole sections devoted to Biology, Chemistry, and Biological Engineering. It's probably worth checking out, if nothing else, to guide you to some topics to look more closely at.
Lastly, I'm going to encourage you to do your homework and make the jump. Both Universities and corporations are salivating over anyone with knowledge in both the life and computer sciences that can help bridge the gap between the two. (I should know - I'll be working on my PhD in Computational Biology starting this fall)
Posted about this the other day, adding some ways to extend it:
It would be easy to extend this idea and set up a web cam to stream images of the background to your desktop. It could be full video, but for better performance, I think I'd just prefer using a time delay to keep it current (say, 2 minutes?). That would keep your background up to date with any subtle changes in the background (natural light, movement of objects, etc). Optionally, a motion sensor could be used that would trigger an update every time you tilted your monitor.
Sure, it's nothing but eye candy, but if implemented correctly and efficiently, it could be uber-cool.
One more crazy idea - incorporate two micro-cameras and 3d glasses with a tracking device. This would allow several things. First of all, the objects in the background could really appear to be in the background (and all of your icons/programs/videos could be cooler, too). Also, by monitoring the position of your head in relation to the monitor, the cameras and background image could be shifted to make the illusion of transparency even more complete.
Implementing this would definitely be worth ultra-double bonus points (and probably a PhD).
How hard is it to use coral links? Editors - why aren't you automatically append ".nyud.net:8090" to any url? How hard is that, really?.
Sigh...
If you're interested in computational biology or bioinformatics, you'll have it made in either academia or industry. With the genomic revolution looming, people who can apply their knowledge of CS and algorithms to biological/biomedical problems are in HUGE demand.
Feel free to replace biology with biochemistry, molecular biology, or biomedical engineering degrees, as your particular tastes warrant.
I still use a 16 MB card, you insensitive clod!!
Slashdot could relatively easily go XHTML/CSS compliant. Several sites, including alistapart.com, have shown this.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/slashdot/
C'mon - HTML 3.2?!?! That's ridiculous.
Wow - you mean all Microsoft employees aren't corporate drones out to steal your money? Here's your proof, Slashdot.
And most of the thing that Martin says make a lot of sense. I definitely agree that Linux is still a niche product. For web servers, research institutions, and hardcore geeks, Linux may be the flavor of choice. Like it or not, though, Windows is still easier to use for most people.
This is partially due to market share (it's what people are used to) and partially because they've simplified and hidden key components that 90% of people will never touch. MS has also shown a lot of responsiveness in their efforts to get standards-compliance built into their browsers and their focus on increased security lately (now that the market demands it).
I sincerely hope that Linux becomes user-friendly, more widely adopted and makes a run at the market. I absolutely believe that free (as in speech) software is better. I just think Microsoft takes far too much crap around here for doing what all businesses do - playing the market and trying to make money.
Yep - the denial was reported earlier today on several sources:s /business/digital/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_ id=1000777229
br / http://billboardradiomonitor.com/radiomonitor/new
Wait a minute here. A professor actually offers interesting assignments and an incredible learning experience, and you would complain because your grade isn't based on regurgitating dry powerpoint lectures?? I've had enough of those, thanks. Sign me up - I'd take this class any day.
Mod parent up. This is exactly the philosophy that OSS advocates should be using.
Here's a great little intro to Sterling Engines, for those who have never heard of one.
After reading this site last week, myself and a couple of friends decided to take the "Brita Challenge". To my complete amazement it worked better than I ever could have hoped.
I hate vodka typically, and the 9-dollar "Kamchakta" vodka that we bought burned like a mofo, and smelled like ass. After filtering it several times, it loses all of those impurities (that some might call 'flavor'), and is much more palatable.
Our findings were that 4 filtrations were plenty, and that it took much less time than the other site claims. We were able to filter a 1.75 L bottle of vodka 6 times in well under an hour.
We surmise that if you stuck 3 or 4 filters together in one long pipe, you could have one hell of a filtration system, and do it quickly too. With a little bit of advertising on collegehumor.com, you could be a thousandare, easy!!
To recap:
1) Filter Cheap Vodka
2) ????
3) Profit!!!
Shouldn't this one be filed under "Your Rights Offline?
Just saying is all...
Online applications clearly have many benefits, especially with the recent surge in broadband, but adoption and support has been slow in coming. Why is this?
Well, I think many companies are hesitant to move to online platforms, though, because they feel that it's a security risk. Putting sensitive data on a closed intranet seems safer in many ways, especially to those unfamiliar with encrpytion and other modern security measures.
I'd argue that we have a bias towards the truth. This is a community of skeptical, highly intelligent people who don't fall for bullshit or partisan rhetoric.