As I actually have to PAY for electricity, and I don't like to contribute to global warming, I DO shut my PC down when not in use, like when asleep or I leave my two story basement (bottom floor is actually underground) to go drinking.
One of the things I love about Linux is I'll shut it down at night (unless I have a big download), reboot the next morning and it's exactly how it was when I shut it down, with apps and documants I had open the previous night open when I start it.
I guess few people know of this feature, since y'all are so proud of the fact that you don't have to reboot.
Windows is a pain in the ass. Every time you boot it, you have to reopen all your apps and documents, and its registry is a little bigger.
Sorry, why is this modded as a troll? Mean-spiritedness aside, there are some great points in this post (mod half Troll, half Insightful).
What's the purpose of leaving a computer on for hours and hours at a time when you know you're not going to use it? Do you do the same thing with the oven in your kitchen or the lights around your house? I agree with the parent - turn things off when you don't need them. Sheesh.
Do you keep your money in a bank? Have you ever used a credit card? Shopped at a supermarket? Almost any kind of company that runs a massive billing system or deals with huge inventories uses mainframes to process data and generate reports. I used to think they were dead, too, but there's still a large market for "big iron".
Actually, I went from dual 22" monitors to a single 30" monitor at work, and can never go back. They really do help productivity, and the cost difference between the 30" and dual 22" isn't all that much.
I'm sure all these kids have computers at home, probably running XP. Given that, Microsoft publishes Visual Studio Express, which is a free download for hobbyists. They could download it and play around with it at home. It supports C#, VB, etc. - so pick a language of the day and try something. It would be an excellent place to start.
Last time Sirius did a channel update, they sent out a nice laminated card with a channel listing, so you could easily look and see what happened to all your favorite channels. They didn't do that for the recent channel update.
Never been to India, huh? Traffic is almost always so bad that sometimes it's faster to just get out of the car or auto and walk. Even when the roads are empty, their ancient Ambassador cars (some brand whose design hasn't changed in 40 years) can't go much faster than about 35mph without feeling like they are going to fall apart. I think (hope) this will be a huge hit in India.
Electronic voting machines are not built to the same standards as ATMs or electronic slot machines. Why? Who knows. Maybe it's because there's no money involved. Sad, really.
no, covering the surface of the Earth with solar panels... is not practical, feasible or desirable).
We've already covered massive swaths of it with roofs. Just go to Google maps and look at your nearest suburb. See how much surface area all those roofs cover? It's not a stretch to imagine that someday every roof could host photovoltaic tiles instead of shingles (or whatever). I'd have them installed today, except the estimate for my house was over $35k:(
Actually, C# requires true boolean logic inside 'if', 'while', etc statements which means the "democratvotes % 3" would cause a compiler error. Something like "Can't implicitly convert an 'int' to a 'bool'". Believe me, I saw this error about 1000x when making the transition from C/C++ to C#:-)
It took me about 6 minutes to create a "Hello World" app and deploy it to my Windows Mobile Smartphone, then run it.
And it doesn't take a lot of money, either. Go google "Dev Studio Express" and you can find a lite version of Microsoft's Developer Studio, and you can also download the different Windows Mobile SDKs if you look around.
In my experience, only about 25% of CS majors actually enjoy the raw problem solving involved in a true CS related career (read - technical coding and design). Working in firmware, most of the folks I work with solve problems that require tight, fast, and efficient code that often requires practical application of theory.
However, a lot of the people I work with are dead weight. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but that's the truth. They're CS by training, but they don't get the same tiny little adrenaline rush by fixing some bug or speeding up some algorithm by a significant percentage. Those folks would rather be in management roll (which often requires technical knowledge and 'people skills') or in a higher level design roll, which often requires quite a bit of the in-the-trenches experience.
My advice to you? After reading your short paragraph, you sound like someone who should also have a degree in management. Combine a CS degree with an MS degree and you could lead teams using both the higher level technical skills you learned as a CS major (some love of the maths must have driven you in to this field, right??) and using the MS degree you could take a broader management approach and pull the two together and have a really promising career that doesn't involve a lot or programming.
Me personally? Give me a problem and a hardware set, and if I can't write a proof that the problem can't be efficiently solved on said hardware, then I'll deliver a solution that works. CS to the core. W00T! Good luck, anonymous reader, because by asking the question you have you've probably already advanced your potential more than most who find themselves in your shoes and refuse to admit that they may have not chosen wisely according to their own personal desires.
Here's an interesting little bit that was on Nova Science Now the other night explaining (in a fun way) about the Wisdom of the Crowds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-FonWBEb0o
To the best of my ability to read, we just spent a few million dollars so that we could learn the direction the wind was blowing. At one point. On a rock. A rock very, very far away from here. Where no humans fly, boat, or do anything else which benefits in the slightest from wind directional data. I watched a PBS show about the Phoenix lander, and they briefly discussed this instrument. The reason they need to know if the wind is blowing has to do with the soil sample collection. They don't want to scoop a sample and attempt to move the sample bucket above the lander if the wind is blowing. Doing that would risk dropping dust and dirt from the sampler on to the top of the lander. Oh, and you did know that this lander will be digging down and actually analyzing samples before you posted, right?
I watched the landing live via NASA TV on the web - http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html - and they did an AWESOME job. Why didn't you just tune in to that? I don't have cable TV or anything, but was able to watch the exact same thing my father was watching on his TV at home (he was watching the NASA TV channel via DirectTV satellite). Funny thing is that I called him to make sure he wasn't missing it, and it appeared that the webcast was about 40 seconds delayed compared to the satellite TV broadcast.
After all our own civilization has pretty much lost interest in anything beyond putting up more geostationary TV transmitters. Only because it's outrageously expensive and really really hard to keep people alive in space. If space travel were as cheap and easy as a walk in the park, we'd be EVERYWHERE.
It's not high prices, but availability that has been killing my home brewing. I've had to make several substitutions in my recipes now (like use Cascade hops instead of Kent Golding). And yes, prices have gone way up, but aren't over the moon yet. I don't have the same buying power as a large brewery, so I can't get hops or other ingredients cheaply anymore. It's affected the cost of a 5 gallon batch enough that it's getting close to the break even point of buy the beer vs. brew the beer. But, I do it as a hobby and not for the cost savings, so that's more of an interesting way to look at the data rather than something that will affect whether or not I brew or buy.
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I think they can search an artificial limb for drugs and such. Would similar rules apply here?
As I actually have to PAY for electricity, and I don't like to contribute to global warming, I DO shut my PC down when not in use, like when asleep or I leave my two story basement (bottom floor is actually underground) to go drinking.
One of the things I love about Linux is I'll shut it down at night (unless I have a big download), reboot the next morning and it's exactly how it was when I shut it down, with apps and documants I had open the previous night open when I start it.
I guess few people know of this feature, since y'all are so proud of the fact that you don't have to reboot.
Windows is a pain in the ass. Every time you boot it, you have to reopen all your apps and documents, and its registry is a little bigger.
Sorry, why is this modded as a troll? Mean-spiritedness aside, there are some great points in this post (mod half Troll, half Insightful). What's the purpose of leaving a computer on for hours and hours at a time when you know you're not going to use it? Do you do the same thing with the oven in your kitchen or the lights around your house? I agree with the parent - turn things off when you don't need them. Sheesh.
Do you keep your money in a bank? Have you ever used a credit card? Shopped at a supermarket? Almost any kind of company that runs a massive billing system or deals with huge inventories uses mainframes to process data and generate reports. I used to think they were dead, too, but there's still a large market for "big iron".
Funny you mention that - this link was the straw that broke the camel's back and drove me to install flash block.
Actually, I went from dual 22" monitors to a single 30" monitor at work, and can never go back. They really do help productivity, and the cost difference between the 30" and dual 22" isn't all that much.
I'm sure all these kids have computers at home, probably running XP. Given that, Microsoft publishes Visual Studio Express, which is a free download for hobbyists. They could download it and play around with it at home. It supports C#, VB, etc. - so pick a language of the day and try something. It would be an excellent place to start.
No more pot for you.
Last time Sirius did a channel update, they sent out a nice laminated card with a channel listing, so you could easily look and see what happened to all your favorite channels. They didn't do that for the recent channel update.
Never been to India, huh? Traffic is almost always so bad that sometimes it's faster to just get out of the car or auto and walk. Even when the roads are empty, their ancient Ambassador cars (some brand whose design hasn't changed in 40 years) can't go much faster than about 35mph without feeling like they are going to fall apart. I think (hope) this will be a huge hit in India.
...a presidential pardon in 85 days.
Electronic voting machines are not built to the same standards as ATMs or electronic slot machines. Why? Who knows. Maybe it's because there's no money involved. Sad, really.
no, covering the surface of the Earth with solar panels ... is not practical, feasible or desirable).
We've already covered massive swaths of it with roofs. Just go to Google maps and look at your nearest suburb. See how much surface area all those roofs cover? It's not a stretch to imagine that someday every roof could host photovoltaic tiles instead of shingles (or whatever). I'd have them installed today, except the estimate for my house was over $35k :(
Actually, C# requires true boolean logic inside 'if', 'while', etc statements which means the "democratvotes % 3" would cause a compiler error. Something like "Can't implicitly convert an 'int' to a 'bool'". Believe me, I saw this error about 1000x when making the transition from C/C++ to C# :-)
...that's 1600lbs that could have been used to lift more fun stuff in to space.
I bet the first thing I'd turn it into would be a brick.
It took me about 6 minutes to create a "Hello World" app and deploy it to my Windows Mobile Smartphone, then run it. And it doesn't take a lot of money, either. Go google "Dev Studio Express" and you can find a lite version of Microsoft's Developer Studio, and you can also download the different Windows Mobile SDKs if you look around.
10.
In my experience, only about 25% of CS majors actually enjoy the raw problem solving involved in a true CS related career (read - technical coding and design). Working in firmware, most of the folks I work with solve problems that require tight, fast, and efficient code that often requires practical application of theory. However, a lot of the people I work with are dead weight. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but that's the truth. They're CS by training, but they don't get the same tiny little adrenaline rush by fixing some bug or speeding up some algorithm by a significant percentage. Those folks would rather be in management roll (which often requires technical knowledge and 'people skills') or in a higher level design roll, which often requires quite a bit of the in-the-trenches experience. My advice to you? After reading your short paragraph, you sound like someone who should also have a degree in management. Combine a CS degree with an MS degree and you could lead teams using both the higher level technical skills you learned as a CS major (some love of the maths must have driven you in to this field, right??) and using the MS degree you could take a broader management approach and pull the two together and have a really promising career that doesn't involve a lot or programming. Me personally? Give me a problem and a hardware set, and if I can't write a proof that the problem can't be efficiently solved on said hardware, then I'll deliver a solution that works. CS to the core. W00T! Good luck, anonymous reader, because by asking the question you have you've probably already advanced your potential more than most who find themselves in your shoes and refuse to admit that they may have not chosen wisely according to their own personal desires.
Here's an interesting little bit that was on Nova Science Now the other night explaining (in a fun way) about the Wisdom of the Crowds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-FonWBEb0o
Personally, I think he deserves some of what you said, even if you meant it as a joke. His foundation is doing some remarkable work in this world.
I watched the landing live via NASA TV on the web - http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html - and they did an AWESOME job. Why didn't you just tune in to that? I don't have cable TV or anything, but was able to watch the exact same thing my father was watching on his TV at home (he was watching the NASA TV channel via DirectTV satellite). Funny thing is that I called him to make sure he wasn't missing it, and it appeared that the webcast was about 40 seconds delayed compared to the satellite TV broadcast.
It's not high prices, but availability that has been killing my home brewing. I've had to make several substitutions in my recipes now (like use Cascade hops instead of Kent Golding). And yes, prices have gone way up, but aren't over the moon yet. I don't have the same buying power as a large brewery, so I can't get hops or other ingredients cheaply anymore. It's affected the cost of a 5 gallon batch enough that it's getting close to the break even point of buy the beer vs. brew the beer. But, I do it as a hobby and not for the cost savings, so that's more of an interesting way to look at the data rather than something that will affect whether or not I brew or buy.
It seems like we see a new RIAA related story every day.