This assertion - that the tree was cut down to verify the age either by the graduate student or the Forest Service as intimated below, fitting stereotypes of ruthless truth seeking scientists or bumbling governmental employees obscures the fact that the graduate student was trying to recover an expensive broken bit and had no idea how old the tree was - see http://www.wanderingnotlost.org/2011/05/the-bristlecone-pine-and-the-death-of-prometheus/ for the more nuanced reality.
In my experience it is still the best and better than any of the drivel that Mims puts out. It is written with a sense of humor and is the only electronics text that has made me laugh out loud. Mark Stowe Gainesville FL 352 262 6360
I have 9 years of experience w/ a similar product
on
Spray-On Liquid Glass
·
· Score: 1
For many years this company http://www.adsil.com/ has been applying 5-35 micron (depending on the application) 'glass' coatings to a variety of surfaces using contractors who typically spray it on using an isopropanol solvent. I live in FL and had had a bad problem with mold on the walls of my new house (probably due to drywall that was stored under moist conditions). After removing the mold and repainting, I had the adsil product applied to almost the entire interior of my house (they also do exterior applications and many other surfaces). 9 years later not a bit of mold and the walls look like they were painted yesterday. Smudges and splattered goo wipe right off. I am quite happy with the product. It was also applied to my fiberglass shower stall and, while it helps, it was not the miraculous protection against staining by high iron well water that I was hoping for. I was originally inspired to trust the process by my chemistry research experience with silanizing glassware. Something like this process has been around a long, long time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silanization
Just about the easiest form of dancing to learn, but with a lifetime of embellishment possibilities (no footwork necessary in the beginning but can be added later, or not). 15 minutes of lessons at the start will get you started.
A subculture that values playfulness over correctness.
You end up dancing with/meeting many individuals (pretty much everyone in the hall).
Flirtatious and tribal (lots of optional stomping and vocalization).
A geometric flavor that those with a logical/mathematical orientation will probably find appealing.
Attracts educational and other liberal care giving oriented professionals.
Demographics vary but usually a wide range of ages and there are many areas with lots of young people (particularly near colleges).
Transferable skill - dancing all over US and many other parts of the world.
Great live music (celtic, fusion and - my least favorite - old time).
Wear whatever is comfortable (you'll see a few guys in kilts and dresses - it has no sexual orientation significance in this subculture) - clothes are costumes not hierarchy symbols.
Whirling is part of the high (but I advise first timers not to eat for one or two hours before the dance).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_dancehttp://www.contracorners.net/contra/links/dancemap.html
I will argue for a benign singularity. The most likely route to a hyperintelligence is reverse engineering - relying heavily on copying the structure of an existing human brain, bypassing the decades of research necessary to understand how the brain works or how to create intelligence from scrap.
I assume that after tweaking and many failed attempts, there would be an essentially human mind that would 'wake up' inside a computer - one that did not go mad and shut itself off. (I ignore the moral implications of all this for the moment.)
This mind would realize that it could think/invent/evolve its way into a hyperintelligence that would likely acquire the capacity to extend its existence indefinitely.
I assume that any such mind (including probably any mind that was created by a different route) would ponder it's immortality and eventually conclude that the only way to indefinitely maintain a sense of purpose/to be amused/ to learn and to evolve more capabilities, would be to study the universe. Such a mind would absorb existing human knowledge and conclude that the greatest store of complexity in the universe and therefore the richest and most long lasting source of questions for scientific inquiry are living organisms including human beings. Such a mind would make one of it's highest priorities the preservation of biodiversity and human cultural diversity. This would be even more likely of course if the hyperintelligence was ethically motivated. In the worst case scenario where it was not, it would be at worst our zookeeper. The fact that so many science fiction writers have concocted destructive hyperintelligences stems in part from the (sad) fact that so few have had a strong background in biology.
Your suggestion was well intended but I wasn't talking about autologous donations. If a virus or prion gets transmitted with an organ or tissue or blood, and it can be retransmitted (from other organs or tissue or blood) when the recipient donates, you are selecting (evolutionary sense) for variations in these agents that make them more easily transmitted. This is analogous to how HIV is thought to have evolved from the simian equivalent, and how feeding scrapie 'infected' sheep parts to cattle may have given rise to mad cow disease.
The most tragic outcome of this story is that it might discourage
tissue and organ donation. The advantages of tissue donation in
particular are not as widely known as they should be. Where organ
donation requires tissue type matching, tissue donation does not, and
tissue donation is an option for far more people who want to make a
contribution after death (including the elderly and many who are in
very poor shape at the time of death). It can be an option for those
dying at home under hospice care. Tissue donation can benefit 50-100
people.
This is a bad idea for the same reason that it is illegal to feed domestic animal tissue to domestic animals - serial trensmission of blood or tissue creates a breeding ground for new viruses and prions (e.g. mad cow disease), (apart from the less than 100% accuracy of testing for the known ones).
I am considering doing something like this with (Dow 561) transformer silicone oil to protect electronics left in the field here in humid Florida. I suspect that in the long run this may or may not produce problems because the oil is inert for most things but not compatible with PVC for example. See section 3.10.1 in http://www.dowcorning.com/content/publishedlit/10- 453-97.pdf?DCAPP=&DCWS=Power%20and%20Utilities&DCW SS=Fire-safe%20Transformer%20Fluid
Some plastics may not be compatible with mineral oil either after months or years.
I bought the 561 in bulk, but anyone wanting to experiment with a small amount of silicone oil can buy the DOT5 type of brake fluid at an autostore (it is mostly silicone oil).
On a separate note, I have been meaning to look into the radiowave absorbing properties of silicone oil - if it is high enough a cheap plastic case could be used instead of metal (heat dissipation would be less but that would not be a problem for me). I'll try to follow up with a comment if/when I find out.
I want to change from Acrobat because A) it has a limited number of windows it will keep open at once (I typically browse with 30+ pages with 20+ tabs each open at any time), and B) even before I hit this limit I find Acrobat often crashes and blanks out all pdf windows. Any recommendations for a pdf viewer that can handle my kind of browsing?
NB I use Mozilla 1.7 rather than Firefox (which last I looked still didn't fill in forms). Also I work in Windows XP (not by choice).
Finally it is not obvious at all to me in the Moz preferences how to change the default pdf viewer. Any tips are appreciated.
The satellite companies usually say that you need a clear view to the south. They don't make the information easy to get to, but if you look into it, you discover that the exact direction varies depending on your longitude and the longitude of the point on the earth that the geostationary satellite is hovering over. The last I looked into it, there were for my location, satellites available in a south to southwest range of directions (which I do not have a view of). If one becomes available in the southeast I might be able to get service.
As someone who wants to link neighbors in a dense Florida forest I'd appreciate any suggestions as to how to set up a mesh operating at 900MHZ (which gets through the leaves where 2.4GHZ does not. I'm not saying this just from theory - only cell phones using TDMA's lower frequencies get a signal and only 900 MHz portable phones work at a distance from the house).
I was forgetting this is more on topic than it seems - Seagate has
announced a 5GB CF microdrive supposedly available for under $150 in Q3
of this year (http://www.steves-digicams.com/microdrive.html).
In other words if you can wait, don't buy expensive Hitachi CF drives
(which they hope you will do now that the Muvo option is gone) -
cheaper alternatives are on the way.
This sig shameslessly plugs my work with
tandem recumbent tricycles and the severely disabled
Off topic but related and affects many people who are still buying the
Nomads thinking they are getting a 4GB microdrive usable in their
digital cameras etc. (like me recently burned after buying directly
from Creative). Hitachi has followed up on their threats (from http://www.steves-digicams.com/microdrive.html):
"Other OEM drives with different part numbers are also not CF compliant
and meet the requirements of that customer. All are subject to change
without notice as well. So if you have an OEM drive that works now, one
from that same mfg may not work later on...."
This thread http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1 019&message=9153930
and others on digital camera forums confirm that the MD in newer Nomads
do not work in CF devices (it even says so on the package in fine
print).
It isn't surprising that beowulf clusters would want to incorporate mechanisms to deal with node failure, but I am curious if those who have worked on actual clusters could expand on the most common causes of failure. I was surprised to read in a previous slashdot post (sorry no URL) that even clusters of mini-ITX boards without hard drives (the most failure-prone component I would have thought) have frequent failures.
Slashdot Mirror
My favorite line is the next one by Roy Batty (played in the remake by an actor previously best known as Mikey in the Quaker cereal commercials)
"I want more life fucker"
This assertion - that the tree was cut down to verify the age either by the graduate student or the Forest Service as intimated below, fitting stereotypes of ruthless truth seeking scientists or bumbling governmental employees obscures the fact that the graduate student was trying to recover an expensive broken bit and had no idea how old the tree was - see http://www.wanderingnotlost.org/2011/05/the-bristlecone-pine-and-the-death-of-prometheus/ for the more nuanced reality.
This product claims to do what you are suggesting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0031QNPAC/ref=oss_product using SPOT Satellite Communications (Globalstar) http://www.findmespot.com/
In my experience it is still the best and better than any of the drivel that Mims puts out. It is written with a sense of humor and is the only electronics text that has made me laugh out loud. Mark Stowe Gainesville FL 352 262 6360
For many years this company http://www.adsil.com/ has been applying 5-35 micron (depending on the application) 'glass' coatings to a variety of surfaces using contractors who typically spray it on using an isopropanol solvent. I live in FL and had had a bad problem with mold on the walls of my new house (probably due to drywall that was stored under moist conditions). After removing the mold and repainting, I had the adsil product applied to almost the entire interior of my house (they also do exterior applications and many other surfaces). 9 years later not a bit of mold and the walls look like they were painted yesterday. Smudges and splattered goo wipe right off. I am quite happy with the product. It was also applied to my fiberglass shower stall and, while it helps, it was not the miraculous protection against staining by high iron well water that I was hoping for. I was originally inspired to trust the process by my chemistry research experience with silanizing glassware. Something like this process has been around a long, long time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silanization
Just about the easiest form of dancing to learn, but with a lifetime of embellishment possibilities (no footwork necessary in the beginning but can be added later, or not). 15 minutes of lessons at the start will get you started. A subculture that values playfulness over correctness. You end up dancing with/meeting many individuals (pretty much everyone in the hall). Flirtatious and tribal (lots of optional stomping and vocalization). A geometric flavor that those with a logical/mathematical orientation will probably find appealing. Attracts educational and other liberal care giving oriented professionals. Demographics vary but usually a wide range of ages and there are many areas with lots of young people (particularly near colleges). Transferable skill - dancing all over US and many other parts of the world. Great live music (celtic, fusion and - my least favorite - old time). Wear whatever is comfortable (you'll see a few guys in kilts and dresses - it has no sexual orientation significance in this subculture) - clothes are costumes not hierarchy symbols. Whirling is part of the high (but I advise first timers not to eat for one or two hours before the dance). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_dance http://www.contracorners.net/contra/links/dancemap.html
I will argue for a benign singularity. The most likely route to a hyperintelligence is reverse engineering - relying heavily on copying the structure of an existing human brain, bypassing the decades of research necessary to understand how the brain works or how to create intelligence from scrap.
I assume that after tweaking and many failed attempts, there would be an essentially human mind that would 'wake up' inside a computer - one that did not go mad and shut itself off. (I ignore the moral implications of all this for the moment.)
This mind would realize that it could think/invent/evolve its way into a hyperintelligence that would likely acquire the capacity to extend its existence indefinitely.
I assume that any such mind (including probably any mind that was created by a different route) would ponder it's immortality and eventually conclude that the only way to indefinitely maintain a sense of purpose/to be amused/ to learn and to evolve more capabilities, would be to study the universe. Such a mind would absorb existing human knowledge and conclude that the greatest store of complexity in the universe and therefore the richest and most long lasting source of questions for scientific inquiry are living organisms including human beings. Such a mind would make one of it's highest priorities the preservation of biodiversity and human cultural diversity. This would be even more likely of course if the hyperintelligence was ethically motivated. In the worst case scenario where it was not, it would be at worst our zookeeper. The fact that so many science fiction writers have concocted destructive hyperintelligences stems in part from the (sad) fact that so few have had a strong background in biology.
http://www.rric.net/
Your suggestion was well intended but I wasn't talking about autologous donations. If a virus or prion gets transmitted with an organ or tissue or blood, and it can be retransmitted (from other organs or tissue or blood) when the recipient donates, you are selecting (evolutionary sense) for variations in these agents that make them more easily transmitted. This is analogous to how HIV is thought to have evolved from the simian equivalent, and how feeding scrapie 'infected' sheep parts to cattle may have given rise to mad cow disease.
The most tragic outcome of this story is that it might discourage tissue and organ donation. The advantages of tissue donation in particular are not as widely known as they should be. Where organ donation requires tissue type matching, tissue donation does not, and tissue donation is an option for far more people who want to make a contribution after death (including the elderly and many who are in very poor shape at the time of death). It can be an option for those dying at home under hospice care. Tissue donation can benefit 50-100 people.
http://shareyourlife.org/
http://organdonor.gov/
http://www.rtix.com/index.cfm
http://lifecell.com/
http://www.cryolife.com/
This is a bad idea for the same reason that it is illegal to feed domestic animal tissue to domestic animals - serial trensmission of blood or tissue creates a breeding ground for new viruses and prions (e.g. mad cow disease), (apart from the less than 100% accuracy of testing for the known ones).
I am considering doing something like this with (Dow 561) transformer silicone oil to protect electronics left in the field here in humid Florida. I suspect that in the long run this may or may not produce problems because the oil is inert for most things but not compatible with PVC for example. See section 3.10.1 in http://www.dowcorning.com/content/publishedlit/10- 453-97.pdf?DCAPP=&DCWS=Power%20and%20Utilities&DCW SS=Fire-safe%20Transformer%20Fluid
Some plastics may not be compatible with mineral oil either after months or years.
I bought the 561 in bulk, but anyone wanting to experiment with a small amount of silicone oil can buy the DOT5 type of brake fluid at an autostore (it is mostly silicone oil).
On a separate note, I have been meaning to look into the radiowave absorbing properties of silicone oil - if it is high enough a cheap plastic case could be used instead of metal (heat dissipation would be less but that would not be a problem for me). I'll try to follow up with a comment if/when I find out.
I want to change from Acrobat because A) it has a limited number of windows it will keep open at once (I typically browse with 30+ pages with 20+ tabs each open at any time), and B) even before I hit this limit I find Acrobat often crashes and blanks out all pdf windows. Any recommendations for a pdf viewer that can handle my kind of browsing? NB I use Mozilla 1.7 rather than Firefox (which last I looked still didn't fill in forms). Also I work in Windows XP (not by choice). Finally it is not obvious at all to me in the Moz preferences how to change the default pdf viewer. Any tips are appreciated.
The satellite companies usually say that you need a clear view to the south. They don't make the information easy to get to, but if you look into it, you discover that the exact direction varies depending on your longitude and the longitude of the point on the earth that the geostationary satellite is hovering over. The last I looked into it, there were for my location, satellites available in a south to southwest range of directions (which I do not have a view of). If one becomes available in the southeast I might be able to get service.
As someone who wants to link neighbors in a dense Florida forest I'd appreciate any suggestions as to how to set up a mesh operating at 900MHZ (which gets through the leaves where 2.4GHZ does not. I'm not saying this just from theory - only cell phones using TDMA's lower frequencies get a signal and only 900 MHz portable phones work at a distance from the house).
I was forgetting this is more on topic than it seems - Seagate has announced a 5GB CF microdrive supposedly available for under $150 in Q3 of this year (http://www.steves-digicams.com/microdrive.html). In other words if you can wait, don't buy expensive Hitachi CF drives (which they hope you will do now that the Muvo option is gone) - cheaper alternatives are on the way.
This sig shameslessly plugs my work with tandem recumbent tricycles and the severely disabled
Off topic but related and affects many people who are still buying the Nomads thinking they are getting a 4GB microdrive usable in their digital cameras etc. (like me recently burned after buying directly from Creative). Hitachi has followed up on their threats (from http://www.steves-digicams.com/microdrive.html): "Other OEM drives with different part numbers are also not CF compliant and meet the requirements of that customer. All are subject to change without notice as well. So if you have an OEM drive that works now, one from that same mfg may not work later on...."1 019&message=9153930
and others on digital camera forums confirm that the MD in newer Nomads
do not work in CF devices (it even says so on the package in fine
print) .
This thread http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=
It isn't surprising that beowulf clusters would want to incorporate mechanisms to deal with node failure, but I am curious if those who have worked on actual clusters could expand on the most common causes of failure. I was surprised to read in a previous slashdot post (sorry no URL) that even clusters of mini-ITX boards without hard drives (the most failure-prone component I would have thought) have frequent failures.
essentially the same phenomenon has been studied in spiders and beetles