I have the same problem with Amazon. My wife likes current events, politics, biographies and modern novels. I like science fiction, fantasy, classics, and computer non-fiction. Amazon's engine must go crazy trying to rationalize all those choices and some of its recommendations are pretty funny.
Having easy access to calculators, I have lost the ability to be facile with mental arithmetic. Stripped of calculating devices I have to resort to pencil and paper even for simple things. I think that if you don't use a particular facility it atrophies, whether it's muscles or mental skills.
Google is an indexing system. I've gotten lazy in using other, more painful, indexing systems. I'm not sure that is a big loss.
Having been a member since the early 60s I can recommend the club. I have bought at least 1,000 books from them. When I first started you could get a hardback for $2.50, now they are $15.00 or so. They don't always keep a great back catalog but if you stick with them over the years you'll be able to build a nice collection. They added they web site a few years ago but I still go to Amazon for comments first.
When we were porting System V to the ETA 10 supercomputer (a short vector machine) one of the hardware engineers came running over one day with the devastating news that the vector square root instruction didn't work on all the test machines. We gravely told him that we would take all of them out of of the Unix kernel.
Many years ago I found Brian Lawrence's product life cycle site: http://www.coyotevalley.com/ He has one of the simplest, cleanest and most flexible processes I've ever used. I even managed to explain it and get upper management to use it!
http://www.e1.greatlakes.com/fm200/jsp/index.jsp FM200 is in every datacenter that I know that cares about equipment/data. Halon is illegal, water is unthinkable.
In 1979 word processing mostly meant typewriters with a few very high end electronic word processing units. I worked for one of the word processing companies with the job to build a central file server. Such a simple idea today, but the issues of hooking up what were essentially electric typewriters with cassette or diskette storage to a computer was daunting back then.
As always happens, half-way into the job we had a huge trade show. The CEO wanted to show 16 wordprocessing units hooked to one file server. This was the sort of company where you got fired if you said no. Our VP dutifully set up the hardware on a stage. There were 16 young attractive ladies at the keyboards instructed to run a cheat script where they would bring up a document, make changes and save it on the server. On another station the changed document would magically appear.
It was amazing to see the whole demo going well in front of a standing-room only crowd. Unfortunately, no one told the CEO that it was all fake. In a burst of huge enthusiasm he took a big hedge clippers out of his briefcase and cut the (dummy) cords to demonstrate the multi-user nature of the product.
Naturally, all 16 operators continued to perfectly run their scipts, busily typing away.
Wasn't it a short story in Heinlein's The Man Who Sold the Moon where D.D. Harriman financed the first moon shot by getting a studio to shoot a movie on the moon?
With all the debate over which media will provide the best storage for the future, a thought struck me. The brain stores information as a type of standing wave in the electro-chemical currents. Has the net gotten complicated enough that all information is circulating out there somewhere? Considering all the cross-links and pirated sources I have a feeling that everything is always out there more than once.
Slashdot Mirror
In towns in central Iowa there's a standard saying about Des Moines: "They ruined seven or eight good farms when they built Des Moines."
Prepare three envelopes.
Heimatsicherheitshauptamt :-(
The Mayo Clinic says that there are health problems even if everything is done correctly: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/tattoos-and-piercings/MC00020
How do you blind a [ethnic group]? Put a windshield in front of him/her.
I have the same problem with Amazon. My wife likes current events, politics, biographies and modern novels. I like science fiction, fantasy, classics, and computer non-fiction. Amazon's engine must go crazy trying to rationalize all those choices and some of its recommendations are pretty funny.
Having easy access to calculators, I have lost the ability to be facile with mental arithmetic. Stripped of calculating devices I have to resort to pencil and paper even for simple things. I think that if you don't use a particular facility it atrophies, whether it's muscles or mental skills. Google is an indexing system. I've gotten lazy in using other, more painful, indexing systems. I'm not sure that is a big loss.
Having been a member since the early 60s I can recommend the club. I have bought at least 1,000 books from them. When I first started you could get a hardback for $2.50, now they are $15.00 or so. They don't always keep a great back catalog but if you stick with them over the years you'll be able to build a nice collection. They added they web site a few years ago but I still go to Amazon for comments first.
Mercury delay line. Welcome to the 1950's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory
Actually, in the 50s Chrysler did have a record player as an option.
http://www.roadkillontheweb.com/arp.html
How does the saying go? Don't throw stones at an armed man. Don't stand next the the guy throwing stones at an armed man.
When we were porting System V to the ETA 10 supercomputer (a short vector machine) one of the hardware engineers came running over one day with the devastating news that the vector square root instruction didn't work on all the test machines. We gravely told him that we would take all of them out of of the Unix kernel.
Under communism man oppresses man, under capitalism it's the other way around.
http://www.dumblaws.com/> For a sterling set of examples of laws to repeal. This will leave you shaking your head.
Many years ago I found Brian Lawrence's product life cycle site: http://www.coyotevalley.com/ He has one of the simplest, cleanest and most flexible processes I've ever used. I even managed to explain it and get upper management to use it!
Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics
http://intuitor.com/moviephysics/index.html
http://www.e1.greatlakes.com/fm200/jsp/index.jsp
FM200 is in every datacenter that I know that cares about equipment/data. Halon is illegal, water is unthinkable.
It was called the "bonephone" and was retailed by Sharper Image.
I've used Stonestreet One eval units for a similar purpose. Nice documentation and easy to work with.
m l
http://www.stonestreetone.com/products/index.ht
In 1979 word processing mostly meant typewriters with a few very high end electronic word processing units. I worked for one of the word processing companies with the job to build a central file server. Such a simple idea today, but the issues of hooking up what were essentially electric typewriters with cassette or diskette storage to a computer was daunting back then.
As always happens, half-way into the job we had a huge trade show. The CEO wanted to show 16 wordprocessing units hooked to one file server. This was the sort of company where you got fired if you said no. Our VP dutifully set up the hardware on a stage. There were 16 young attractive ladies at the keyboards instructed to run a cheat script where they would bring up a document, make changes and save it on the server. On another station the changed document would magically appear.
It was amazing to see the whole demo going well in front of a standing-room only crowd. Unfortunately, no one told the CEO that it was all fake. In a burst of huge enthusiasm he took a big hedge clippers out of his briefcase and cut the (dummy) cords to demonstrate the multi-user nature of the product.
Naturally, all 16 operators continued to perfectly run their scipts, busily typing away.
Wasn't it a short story in Heinlein's The Man Who Sold the Moon where D.D. Harriman financed the first moon shot by getting a studio to shoot a movie on the moon?
With all the debate over which media will provide the best storage for the future, a thought struck me. The brain stores information as a type of standing wave in the electro-chemical currents. Has the net gotten complicated enough that all information is circulating out there somewhere? Considering all the cross-links and pirated sources I have a feeling that everything is always out there more than once.