The best book that I've read in a long time is William Hertling's techno thriller Avogadro Corp. It's fast-paced, exciting, and chillingly thought-provoking. If you have a block of time, like a plane ride, it's perfect. If you have somewhere to be in a couple hours, you might consider waiting to start it because you won't be able to put it down.
Here's my "official" review of it:
William Hertling sets "Avogadro Corp" in modern day Portland, Oregon. Avogadro Corp is a thinly veiled fictional Google, with AvoMail as key aspect of the story. While "Avogadro Corp" is the first in a series of three (so far), it easily stands alone as a terrific, and stunningly believable, account of how the first sentient artificial intelligence might accidently arise. In a man vs. machine conflict, our protagonist David Ryan, as a contemporary Dr. Frankenstein, battles to destroy the thing he creates. A majority of the characters are well-developed and distinct; the ones that are a bit one-dimensional are minor characters. The pace of the book is quite fast with only a few tangential story arcs to mentally maintain. In fact, I made the "mistake" of starting the book at bedtime; I was finished by lunch the next day. I simply could not put it down.
David Ryan, a software engineer at Avogadro Corp, is working on a recommendation engine for their flagship product, AvoMail. The recommendation engine, Email Language Optimization Program (ELOPe), is designed to provide suggestions for better wording for your outgoing emails so that the recipient is more receptive. When the project is in jeopardy of being cancelled, David inserts a hidden self-preservation directive into ELOPe and allows it to autonomously rewrite outgoing emails related to the project. Once ELOPe begins redirecting corporate funds and arming itself in offshore floating data centers, David and coworker Mike set about trying to take down ELOPe with the help of I-trust-paper-not-computers internal auditor Gene.
One aspect of Hertling's novel that I found intriguing was that by never revealing the internal motivation of ELOPe, you too are brought on this journey of how to destroy the "ghost in the machine." Also, as a resident of Portland, I enjoyed that the book was set here and incorporates its coffee culture.
Yeah we need to end Patent Busing. Why should a patent have to go all the way across town to the same type of schools I moved to get away from? I doubt the parent was trolling. It was an obviously misunderstood attempt at humo(u)r referencing School Desegregation because of the typo in the GP (busing instead of busting).
I planted one Annoy-a-tron in the boss's car at lunch. On the way back, it made the 12 kHz buzz just as he was braking, followed by "What was that?" It was great!
Another will be planted in his cube this evening.
Tomorrow should be pretty entertaining because he'll hear the sounds during the commute and again throughout the day.
I think the only way it could be better is if I were able to somehow sew one into the lining of his coat...
Unfortunately, that's not the case. Aside from appointment of the director and approving compensation above about $170k, the university had little to do with the management of the lab. The lab has all the same monkeys (minus about a dozen highly compensated ones), just in different trees.
In my opinion, a lot of the problems are related to an academic mentality. At university, an excellent researcher/professor is made department chair. This works because it's only a part time gig. They still do their regular stuff. When you make an excellent researcher a manager, it doesn't work. They aren't trained for it. They don't have the requisite skills, and, often, they want to go back to just being a researcher. Los Alamos gets a great deal of its managers from within. So when you have a crop of marginal first level managers, the least marginal move up. [Don't get me wrong, they're still brilliant, just not great managers.]
Another problem with the lab [that doesn't look like it's going to change yet], it that compensation has less to do with what you are capable of, but rather how long you've had your degree. So the lab has a lot of people who are (in my opinion) just taking up oxygen getting paid way too much. While established hotshots with relatively newly minted degrees are getting paid peanuts. It's basically a tenure system.
I've been using Linux full time since '97. I'm no crazy kernel hacker, but I've done my share of development. Although Ubuntu is the first Debian based distro I've used, it's by far my favorite. I started with RedHat, then SuSE, was with Mandrake for quite some time, then Gentoo, now Ubuntu. The two main reasons why I love Ubuntu are:
Package Management
Sudo
The package management has all the ease of Gentoo's 'emerge,' but without the compiling. Plus, you don't have to worry about something breaking as often. One thing I used to hate about the old RedHat/Mandrake package management was that you'd try to install an rpm, only to be told you don't have its dependencies, you'd get those, and then you'd have new dependencies to track down. I'm told yum has fixed that, but I haven't bothered to look. I know it's much better with up2date on the RHEL4 side, but it still feels less polished than Synaptic.
Before Ubuntu, I'd never really used sudo, but now I find it difficult to go back. To me, it's just a cleaner way to do system administration, and it certainly helps promote never logging in as root. All of the system administration is sudo oriented, whereas ini RHEL4 you still need to know the root password. On a machine with shared administration, it just seems more clumsy.
I know distribution choices can be a touchy subject, but I definitely prefer Ubuntu. The whole system just feels cleaner. As a more experienced user, I like it because it stays out of my way and lets me get my work done as quickly and painlessly as possible.
As long as I'm going to lust over a BMW, it might as well be the K 1200 R. I'll give up the extra 4 HP for something that I think looks better and doesn't have to have expensive fairings replaced when I lay it down to avoid that old lady crossing the street.
It's been my experience that Oracle not only wants you to use their database for ALL your databasing tasks, but their products for all your tasks. Their database is quite good, IMO not appropriate for everything, but still good. I have no problems with their database. My problems are with their other products. The have certainly taken Microsoft's "embrace and extend" to "embrace, extend, and crapify." My direct experience with this were three products: their application server, their portal, and their IDE. I happily have not used any in the last 14 months, so they might have gotten better, but I doubt it. Their app server is an extension of Orion, though slower, less stable, out of date, and harder to configure. Same thing with their IDE, just substitute JBuilder for Orion. Though from what I've heard from my old collegues, their portal is actually making progress, it's still a pain in the arse. But management thinks, "It's got Oracle on the box, it must be good."
I really fear what's going to happen when the PeopleSoft merger is completed. I hope they don't crapify it too.
Thanks for your insight on HP, especially because I'm starting a new job w/ them in a week and a half. I'll be on the consulting side. I'm not so concerned about the layoffs--I grew up in Kansas City where Sprint lays off half their workforce every quarter just to make their numbers (then hires most of them back in different departments at higher salaries). You get used to callous companies after a while.
Personally, I'd rather have a promotion w/o pay raise even with worth stock options than the insulting 1% raise I had last year (one of the reasons I switched to HP). At least the promotion and stock options are some sort of recognition that you're doing well. Sometimes the recognition isn't enough, but it's certainly better than busting your ass and no one saying thanks (another reason).
Stupid policies--I used to work for a government contractor. I've seen way worse. Regardless of whatever stupid policies they may have, HP is in business to make money, whereas the government contractor was in business to spend money--usually none of it for the first 10 months and all of it in the last two (or they won't get as much next year). So at least w/ HP, their policies will go away if they're negatively affecting the bottom line.
That's nothing. The bubonic plague is actually relatively common (as plagues go) in New Mexico...
Those mice are probably on a cross country trip to join their brethren.
The parent is correct. It's been shown many times that users don't read.
This sort of change will only add non-value added time to releasing warnings while offering virtually no error proofing. Something like a drop down with the full text of the warning would be a slightly better solution.
This seems extremely wasteful. Surely in larger cities there must be groups that are willing to take these machines off your hands, throw Linux on them and donate them to the corner cafe as a public machine.
Seems to be a good project for a (G)LUG as an installfest, get the newbies more experience, etc.
Here's a 2002 article from Mobile Review that discusses that studies regarding cell phones and avionics. And they are seriously considering permitting cell phone and wifi usage in flight, as indicated by this article from December.
This pueblo is on the border of cell service in this area, regardless of provider. Any cell service at all will be sketchy, at best. If I recall correctly, signal begins/ends about a mile east of this pueblo.
A couple years ago I spent several weeks traveling throughout Jordan. Jordan is very westernized and a good deal of the store fronts and street signs are in both English and Arabic (a great way to pick up additional Arabic). A substantial portion of the population speaks English as well.
In preparation, I used the ArabicNow series. It helped, a little. I found it much easier to learn from my traveling companion who was fluent--living in Saudi until you're 12 will do that, I suppose. She and I worked on my basic Arabic pretty consistently for a couple months. I found that when I was there, I had a pretty good passive understanding of the language. I picked up as much (if not more) in the few weeks there than I did in the several months of prep.
Slashdot Mirror
The best book that I've read in a long time is William Hertling's techno thriller Avogadro Corp. It's fast-paced, exciting, and chillingly thought-provoking. If you have a block of time, like a plane ride, it's perfect. If you have somewhere to be in a couple hours, you might consider waiting to start it because you won't be able to put it down.
Here's my "official" review of it:
William Hertling sets "Avogadro Corp" in modern day Portland, Oregon. Avogadro Corp is a thinly veiled fictional Google, with AvoMail as key aspect of the story. While "Avogadro Corp" is the first in a series of three (so far), it easily stands alone as a terrific, and stunningly believable, account of how the first sentient artificial intelligence might accidently arise. In a man vs. machine conflict, our protagonist David Ryan, as a contemporary Dr. Frankenstein, battles to destroy the thing he creates. A majority of the characters are well-developed and distinct; the ones that are a bit one-dimensional are minor characters. The pace of the book is quite fast with only a few tangential story arcs to mentally maintain. In fact, I made the "mistake" of starting the book at bedtime; I was finished by lunch the next day. I simply could not put it down.
David Ryan, a software engineer at Avogadro Corp, is working on a recommendation engine for their flagship product, AvoMail. The recommendation engine, Email Language Optimization Program (ELOPe), is designed to provide suggestions for better wording for your outgoing emails so that the recipient is more receptive. When the project is in jeopardy of being cancelled, David inserts a hidden self-preservation directive into ELOPe and allows it to autonomously rewrite outgoing emails related to the project. Once ELOPe begins redirecting corporate funds and arming itself in offshore floating data centers, David and coworker Mike set about trying to take down ELOPe with the help of I-trust-paper-not-computers internal auditor Gene.
One aspect of Hertling's novel that I found intriguing was that by never revealing the internal motivation of ELOPe, you too are brought on this journey of how to destroy the "ghost in the machine." Also, as a resident of Portland, I enjoyed that the book was set here and incorporates its coffee culture.
For what it's worth, I thought it was funny.
Another will be planted in his cube this evening.
Tomorrow should be pretty entertaining because he'll hear the sounds during the commute and again throughout the day.
I think the only way it could be better is if I were able to somehow sew one into the lining of his coat...
by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31, @01:31PM
It will take 10,000 days to code anything useful.
Another, although not as funny, reference to Jambi from Pee-wee's Playhouse.
Me without my mod points... I actually found this quite funny rather than offtopic. I guess the moderators never watched Pee-Wee's Playhouse.
In my opinion, a lot of the problems are related to an academic mentality. At university, an excellent researcher/professor is made department chair. This works because it's only a part time gig. They still do their regular stuff. When you make an excellent researcher a manager, it doesn't work. They aren't trained for it. They don't have the requisite skills, and, often, they want to go back to just being a researcher. Los Alamos gets a great deal of its managers from within. So when you have a crop of marginal first level managers, the least marginal move up. [Don't get me wrong, they're still brilliant, just not great managers.]
Another problem with the lab [that doesn't look like it's going to change yet], it that compensation has less to do with what you are capable of, but rather how long you've had your degree. So the lab has a lot of people who are (in my opinion) just taking up oxygen getting paid way too much. While established hotshots with relatively newly minted degrees are getting paid peanuts. It's basically a tenure system.
Alternate (amd64)
Alternate (i386)
Alternate (powerpc)
Desktop (amd64)
Desktop (i386)
Desktop (powerpc)
Server (amd64)
Server (i386)
Server (powerpc)
The package management has all the ease of Gentoo's 'emerge,' but without the compiling. Plus, you don't have to worry about something breaking as often. One thing I used to hate about the old RedHat/Mandrake package management was that you'd try to install an rpm, only to be told you don't have its dependencies, you'd get those, and then you'd have new dependencies to track down. I'm told yum has fixed that, but I haven't bothered to look. I know it's much better with up2date on the RHEL4 side, but it still feels less polished than Synaptic.
Before Ubuntu, I'd never really used sudo, but now I find it difficult to go back. To me, it's just a cleaner way to do system administration, and it certainly helps promote never logging in as root. All of the system administration is sudo oriented, whereas ini RHEL4 you still need to know the root password. On a machine with shared administration, it just seems more clumsy.
I know distribution choices can be a touchy subject, but I definitely prefer Ubuntu. The whole system just feels cleaner. As a more experienced user, I like it because it stays out of my way and lets me get my work done as quickly and painlessly as possible.
As long as I'm going to lust over a BMW, it might as well be the K 1200 R. I'll give up the extra 4 HP for something that I think looks better and doesn't have to have expensive fairings replaced when I lay it down to avoid that old lady crossing the street.
I really fear what's going to happen when the PeopleSoft merger is completed. I hope they don't crapify it too.
Personally, I'd rather have a promotion w/o pay raise even with worth stock options than the insulting 1% raise I had last year (one of the reasons I switched to HP). At least the promotion and stock options are some sort of recognition that you're doing well. Sometimes the recognition isn't enough, but it's certainly better than busting your ass and no one saying thanks (another reason).
Stupid policies--I used to work for a government contractor. I've seen way worse. Regardless of whatever stupid policies they may have, HP is in business to make money, whereas the government contractor was in business to spend money--usually none of it for the first 10 months and all of it in the last two (or they won't get as much next year). So at least w/ HP, their policies will go away if they're negatively affecting the bottom line.
That's nothing. The bubonic plague is actually relatively common (as plagues go) in New Mexico... Those mice are probably on a cross country trip to join their brethren.
But, having dealt with government systems, I can understand your point.
This sort of change will only add non-value added time to releasing warnings while offering virtually no error proofing. Something like a drop down with the full text of the warning would be a slightly better solution.
Seems to be a good project for a (G)LUG as an installfest, get the newbies more experience, etc.
Anyone out there doing this??
Nothing like compiling your free-as-in-speech and free-as-in-beer software with an IPA.
Here's a 2002 article from Mobile Review that discusses that studies regarding cell phones and avionics. And they are seriously considering permitting cell phone and wifi usage in flight, as indicated by this article from December.
I think a space arena is a great idea. Who wouldn't want to go to the JAXA space arena for Super Bowl CXI??
Experiance [sic], however, is not the best spell checker.
I will check on my way home tonight to verify.
Here is a topo map (albeit from 1977) of the area. Hopefully this will help in offering him insight on setting up the network.
I saw this as "Outsource Telemarking" and thought, "Why would someone want someone else to ski for them?? Doesn't that take all the fun out of it?!?"
They'll never be able to find you...
Pickler, Where the hell are you?? --Weiss
In preparation, I used the ArabicNow series. It helped, a little. I found it much easier to learn from my traveling companion who was fluent--living in Saudi until you're 12 will do that, I suppose. She and I worked on my basic Arabic pretty consistently for a couple months. I found that when I was there, I had a pretty good passive understanding of the language. I picked up as much (if not more) in the few weeks there than I did in the several months of prep.