I think a big part of this fine is because the show in question aired at 9:00 in the Central and Mountain time zones. Considering the climate, I think CBS would have been wise to tone it down or move it to a later slot. I personally am quite anti-censorship. If you don't want to see it, don't watch it. If you don't want your kids to watch it, then you need to take parential initiative. But I watched the clip and read the description, and I can understand where people who are very offended by that type of material are coming from. If I had young kids, I don't think I'd want them stumbling across that, especially if I weren't there to discuss with them the consequences of teenage orgies. Still, I can't say that I agree with the FCCs actions.
As a physics major at MIT, I think I'm qualified to comment on this one. Technically, you probably don't have the time to do this kind of thing. However, by sacrificing sleep and working diligently, you make time for crazy projects. If you don't take time to have at least one fun, non-academic project/activity you will go crazy. It's well worth the time for self-preservation alone.
The people over at F-Secure seem to think it's too early for any real damage assesment. Their arguement makes a lot of sense. -- From the weblog:
So far today we haven't received any significant Nyxem damage reports.
Vast majority of the machines infected by Nyxem are home computers. Nothing will happen on them until people get home from work and boot up their machines. Half an hour later the damage starts. The user won't realise what's going on until an hour or two later, when it's already late Friday night. The full scope of the problem won't come to light until during the weekend or early next week.
We'd like to think that they whole problem was avoided and everybody cleaned up their machines in time. But unfortunately that's probably not true.
When I was in elementary school, our chess club used Chessmates to help younger players learn. It's a Win 9x piece of software, but it is great. It has 10 levels of play, easy being really easy and hard actually being pretty tough. More importantly, it has great tutorials illustrating various tactics. There are animated characters who guide you through the various skills, complete with puzzles, and when you master something it generates a nice printable certificate. (Example: to illustrate a fork, a handsome prince has to choose between saving a damsel in distress and a treasure chest from a dragon. May sound a bit silly, but it's really effective. And throughout the program Wigby the Wizard can give hints and help.) It's a great program for younger kids.
Maybe it's just me, but doesn't the phrase "live podcast" contradict itself? The files are recorded, posted online, linked to by an RSS feed, and then downloaded by the listener. Some podcasts could certainly be posted quickly, but they can't be live. (Just another case of buzzword hype, IMHO.)
Every one knows you can tap trees for energy. Can you say maple syrup? Let's see electricity make pancakes extra delicious. (And I suppose you could probably develop a syrup powered generator too...but that's a project for another day.)
But on a more serious note, where do people think that energy is coming from? Any energy that the tree has (whether it's in moving sap or the wood itself) came from the sun. It seems to me that this is a pretty roundabout way to extract solar power.
The lack of Inkwell support is an issue, but I more importantly question the screen. As far as I know, there's no way to switch between Portrait and Landscape mode. TFA certainly doesn't mention this capablity, and after playing around with my PowerBook for a few minutes, OSX doesn't seem to naitively support that kind of orientation change. That's a big issue as it removes one of the cornerstones of Tablet fuctionality.
No discussion of Python literature can be complete without mentioning Mark Pilgrim's Dive into Python, which is an excellent way to get to know the Python language. It's free for download in a variety of formats. Two caveats however, being that 1) it hasn't been updated in about a year and a half and 2) it assumes that you already have a pretty good grasp of programming in some other language. But if you've you got some coding experience and want to take a serious look at what Python has to offer, this is a great book full of nice examples (with the code available for download as well).
Obiviously the patent office needs to return to the example set in early 20th century Europe (e.g. Bern). They were hiring people like Einstein to examine patents. I don't see the USPTO working to recuit brilliant young physicists.
From TFA, 3rd Picture Caption
The 10 Samsung laptops in the temporary installation will be manned from 0700 to 1900 by Google employees from across the organisation, with some flown in especially to help out. --
It would appear that Google has been flying in their more attractive employees. (Or maybe if I worked for Google I'd look like that too.)
I couldn't agree more. I almost always have my laptop with me (12" PowerBook). It's small and light enough that it fits into the bag of some sort which I am inevitably carrying. I also have an iPod (on which I store music and my calendar). My address book resides on my phone.
If I need to make a call or find a place (assuming I'm not horribly lost and in need of Google Maps) I use my cell phone. To listen to music, or just make a quick check to see when/where I need to be and what I need to do, I use my iPod. It's convenient to be able to listen to music while I walk and figure out what I'm supposed to do when I get there all on one elegant device. If I need e-mail or a web browser, I just pull out my laptop, which gives me near infinte flexibility (assuming a wireless connection).
If I happen to need to use two of those functions at once, well I can do that. That also gives me the flexibilty to take only the tools I need. For me, several gadgets prove to be more useful/flexible than I unified one.
I had the privilage of attending the awards last night for the first time. It was a ton of fun. My friends and I threw about a half ream of paper airplanes from the balcony and of course got some good laughs from the prizes that others have mentioned. But by far the most disturbing event of the night was the 2003 Biology Prize winner again showing his (first ever) documentation of of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. http://www.nmr.nl/deins815.htm
If any one is in the Cambridge/Boston area this Saturday there is a free lecture at MIT during which the laureates will describe more about their research.
Note: This may well be the only time that "homosexual necrophilia" has been used in a non-troll/. post.
This reminds me of a Dilbert Cartoon -- Wally to PHB: I don't understand how the new reorganization will help us "focus on our core business." Did our core business change? Or are you saying that *every* reorg prior to this was a misdirected failure?
PHB: Wally, when a car gets a flat tire, what do you do?
Wally: Well, if I'm you, I rotate the tires and drive home. -- I think that pretty much says it all.
With Google's book-scanning program set to resume in earnest in the northern autumn, copyright laws that long preceded the Internet look to be headed for a digital-age test.Does a season have a direction?
I believe that they mean to indicate that it will begin during Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere (September-December).
As the article points out, this brings the question Pluto's "planet" status to the fore. It never really fit in with the other 8 planets to begin with (compostion, relation to the ecliptic, etc.), but now that both a larger Kuiper Belt Obeject and one with a moon have been discovered, the pure scientist in me hopes that it would be possible to push everyone back towards the idea that there are only 8 planets in our solar system.
Read the article. It's worth it just to see the term "plutinos" suggested as a common name for KBOs.
Windows will certainly be usable with less. Most of the GUI "eye-candy" in XP fails to be useful, not to mention less than aesthetically pleasing. The first thing that I do when I reinstall Windows (after patching it all up an installing Firefox) is to set it back to the Windows Classic theme. All of the eye candy inflates the sys reqs. I can't see myself sticking with the new Vista GUI either.
In order to achieve 50 nanokelvin, you have to use "laser and evaporative cooling techniques". The article failed to explain how that worked, so here it goes.
Temperature is essentially a measurement of the average kinetic energy (energy of motion) of a bunch of atoms/molecules. So when you're working with small samples of gas, cooling it down is essentially slowing it down. In laser cooling, a laser with a material-specific frequency is shown towards a sample of gas which is moving toward it. The photons striking the gas are absorbed and then re-emitted. Some of the kinetic energy goes into the re-emitted photons and therefore the gas sample cools.
Evaporative cooling is similar to what you'd expect. The gas sample is placed into an inverted "cone". (Note: Not a physical container, but made of lasers and magnetic fields.) The faster moving atoms/molecules move upwards and out while the slower moving ones settle to the bottom. The end result is a supercooled gas at the bottom of your "cone".
I am not a physicist, but this is how it was explained to me by one of Ketterle's grad students. I went on a tour of the lab a week before this discovery was made. Surprisingly, it was a sweltering 90 degrees in the room.
The Britney phenomenon is nothing new, and if history is any indication, she's not going away anytime soon. She was the top search last year as well. In 2001 and 2002 she was the most searched for woman.
If you RTFA, you'll discover that the judge's name is S. Jay Plager. It seems to me that someone whose opinion is guaranteed to be "Plager"-ism isn't the best person to be judging an intellectual property case.
I've been waiting for the day when microwaves would be interoperable worldwide. Now I can make popcorn or EasyMac anywhere!
Re:What is special about prime numbers?
on
Fun with Prime Numbers
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I do not 'get' what is interesting or useful about prime numbers.
Prime numbers are useful in encyption, but those are very large primes that are difficult to factor. To a mathematician, prime numbers are fascinating. The distribution of primes, which is specifially random but generally predictable (check out the MathWorld article for more details) is of particular interest.
For example, the Riemann Zeta Function of n, which is the infinite sum of all terms k^(-n)[k varies from one to infinity], is expressable as the infinite product (1-p1^(-n))*(1-p2^(-n))*(1-p3^(-n))... [where pn is the nth prime number]. This is a mind-boggling connection. For example Zeta(2)= (pi^2)/6 = (1 + 1/2 + 1/4 +1/8...)= ((1-2^(-2))*(1-3^(-2))*(1-5^(-2))...)
There is therefore a connection between pi and the distribution of the primes. Math is crazy stuff.
"We have very high standards for our performance at Intel, for a variety of reasons. The memo was in reference to our performance and (said) that we could improve our performance and we should improve our performance."
How many times can you say performance?
Well, the blog, whether for better or worse, has now officially ended. It was at the least a thought provoking look at personal privacy and copyright in the ever growing digital world.
Slashdot Mirror
I think a big part of this fine is because the show in question aired at 9:00 in the Central and Mountain time zones. Considering the climate, I think CBS would have been wise to tone it down or move it to a later slot. I personally am quite anti-censorship. If you don't want to see it, don't watch it. If you don't want your kids to watch it, then you need to take parential initiative. But I watched the clip and read the description, and I can understand where people who are very offended by that type of material are coming from. If I had young kids, I don't think I'd want them stumbling across that, especially if I weren't there to discuss with them the consequences of teenage orgies. Still, I can't say that I agree with the FCCs actions.
As a physics major at MIT, I think I'm qualified to comment on this one. Technically, you probably don't have the time to do this kind of thing. However, by sacrificing sleep and working diligently, you make time for crazy projects. If you don't take time to have at least one fun, non-academic project/activity you will go crazy. It's well worth the time for self-preservation alone.
The people over at F-Secure seem to think it's too early for any real damage assesment. Their arguement makes a lot of sense.
--
From the weblog:
So far today we haven't received any significant Nyxem damage reports.
Vast majority of the machines infected by Nyxem are home computers. Nothing will happen on them until people get home from work and boot up their machines. Half an hour later the damage starts. The user won't realise what's going on until an hour or two later, when it's already late Friday night.
The full scope of the problem won't come to light until during the weekend or early next week.
We'd like to think that they whole problem was avoided and everybody cleaned up their machines in time. But unfortunately that's probably not true.
When I was in elementary school, our chess club used Chessmates to help younger players learn. It's a Win 9x piece of software, but it is great. It has 10 levels of play, easy being really easy and hard actually being pretty tough. More importantly, it has great tutorials illustrating various tactics. There are animated characters who guide you through the various skills, complete with puzzles, and when you master something it generates a nice printable certificate. (Example: to illustrate a fork, a handsome prince has to choose between saving a damsel in distress and a treasure chest from a dragon. May sound a bit silly, but it's really effective. And throughout the program Wigby the Wizard can give hints and help.) It's a great program for younger kids.
Maybe it's just me, but doesn't the phrase "live podcast" contradict itself? The files are recorded, posted online, linked to by an RSS feed, and then downloaded by the listener. Some podcasts could certainly be posted quickly, but they can't be live. (Just another case of buzzword hype, IMHO.)
Every one knows you can tap trees for energy. Can you say maple syrup? Let's see electricity make pancakes extra delicious. (And I suppose you could probably develop a syrup powered generator too...but that's a project for another day.)
But on a more serious note, where do people think that energy is coming from? Any energy that the tree has (whether it's in moving sap or the wood itself) came from the sun. It seems to me that this is a pretty roundabout way to extract solar power.
The lack of Inkwell support is an issue, but I more importantly question the screen. As far as I know, there's no way to switch between Portrait and Landscape mode. TFA certainly doesn't mention this capablity, and after playing around with my PowerBook for a few minutes, OSX doesn't seem to naitively support that kind of orientation change. That's a big issue as it removes one of the cornerstones of Tablet fuctionality.
No discussion of Python literature can be complete without mentioning Mark Pilgrim's Dive into Python, which is an excellent way to get to know the Python language. It's free for download in a variety of formats. Two caveats however, being that 1) it hasn't been updated in about a year and a half and 2) it assumes that you already have a pretty good grasp of programming in some other language. But if you've you got some coding experience and want to take a serious look at what Python has to offer, this is a great book full of nice examples (with the code available for download as well).
Obiviously the patent office needs to return to the example set in early 20th century Europe (e.g. Bern). They were hiring people like Einstein to examine patents. I don't see the USPTO working to recuit brilliant young physicists.
From TFA, 3rd Picture Caption
The 10 Samsung laptops in the temporary installation will be manned from 0700 to 1900 by Google employees from across the organisation, with some flown in especially to help out.
--
It would appear that Google has been flying in their more attractive employees. (Or maybe if I worked for Google I'd look like that too.)
The answer is 42. I could have told you that without even knowing the question!
I couldn't agree more. I almost always have my laptop with me (12" PowerBook). It's small and light enough that it fits into the bag of some sort which I am inevitably carrying. I also have an iPod (on which I store music and my calendar). My address book resides on my phone.
If I need to make a call or find a place (assuming I'm not horribly lost and in need of Google Maps) I use my cell phone. To listen to music, or just make a quick check to see when/where I need to be and what I need to do, I use my iPod. It's convenient to be able to listen to music while I walk and figure out what I'm supposed to do when I get there all on one elegant device. If I need e-mail or a web browser, I just pull out my laptop, which gives me near infinte flexibility (assuming a wireless connection).
If I happen to need to use two of those functions at once, well I can do that. That also gives me the flexibilty to take only the tools I need. For me, several gadgets prove to be more useful/flexible than I unified one.
More info on the lecture
MIT (77 Massachusetts Ave.)
Room 10-250
1:00 PM
http://web.mit.edu/bookstore/www/events/#ig
I had the privilage of attending the awards last night for the first time. It was a ton of fun. My friends and I threw about a half ream of paper airplanes from the balcony and of course got some good laughs from the prizes that others have mentioned. But by far the most disturbing event of the night was the 2003 Biology Prize winner again showing his (first ever) documentation of of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. http://www.nmr.nl/deins815.htm
/. post.
If any one is in the Cambridge/Boston area this Saturday there is a free lecture at MIT during which the laureates will describe more about their research.
Note: This may well be the only time that "homosexual necrophilia" has been used in a non-troll
This reminds me of a Dilbert Cartoon
--
Wally to PHB: I don't understand how the new reorganization will help us "focus on our core business." Did our core business change? Or are you saying that *every* reorg prior to this was a misdirected failure?
PHB: Wally, when a car gets a flat tire, what do you do?
Wally: Well, if I'm you, I rotate the tires and drive home.
--
I think that pretty much says it all.
With Google's book-scanning program set to resume in earnest in the northern autumn, copyright laws that long preceded the Internet look to be headed for a digital-age test. Does a season have a direction? I believe that they mean to indicate that it will begin during Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere (September-December).
As the article points out, this brings the question Pluto's "planet" status to the fore. It never really fit in with the other 8 planets to begin with (compostion, relation to the ecliptic, etc.), but now that both a larger Kuiper Belt Obeject and one with a moon have been discovered, the pure scientist in me hopes that it would be possible to push everyone back towards the idea that there are only 8 planets in our solar system. Read the article. It's worth it just to see the term "plutinos" suggested as a common name for KBOs.
Windows will certainly be usable with less. Most of the GUI "eye-candy" in XP fails to be useful, not to mention less than aesthetically pleasing. The first thing that I do when I reinstall Windows (after patching it all up an installing Firefox) is to set it back to the Windows Classic theme. All of the eye candy inflates the sys reqs. I can't see myself sticking with the new Vista GUI either.
In order to achieve 50 nanokelvin, you have to use "laser and evaporative cooling techniques". The article failed to explain how that worked, so here it goes. Temperature is essentially a measurement of the average kinetic energy (energy of motion) of a bunch of atoms/molecules. So when you're working with small samples of gas, cooling it down is essentially slowing it down. In laser cooling, a laser with a material-specific frequency is shown towards a sample of gas which is moving toward it. The photons striking the gas are absorbed and then re-emitted. Some of the kinetic energy goes into the re-emitted photons and therefore the gas sample cools. Evaporative cooling is similar to what you'd expect. The gas sample is placed into an inverted "cone". (Note: Not a physical container, but made of lasers and magnetic fields.) The faster moving atoms/molecules move upwards and out while the slower moving ones settle to the bottom. The end result is a supercooled gas at the bottom of your "cone". I am not a physicist, but this is how it was explained to me by one of Ketterle's grad students. I went on a tour of the lab a week before this discovery was made. Surprisingly, it was a sweltering 90 degrees in the room.
The Britney phenomenon is nothing new, and if history is any indication, she's not going away anytime soon. She was the top search last year as well. In 2001 and 2002 she was the most searched for woman.
If you RTFA, you'll discover that the judge's name is S. Jay Plager.
It seems to me that someone whose opinion is guaranteed to be "Plager"-ism isn't the best person to be judging an intellectual property case.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
I've been waiting for the day when microwaves would be interoperable worldwide. Now I can make popcorn or EasyMac anywhere!
I do not 'get' what is interesting or useful about prime numbers.
...)= ((1-2^(-2))*(1-3^(-2))*(1-5^(-2))...)
There is therefore a connection between pi and the distribution of the primes. Math is crazy stuff.
Prime numbers are useful in encyption, but those are very large primes that are difficult to factor. To a mathematician, prime numbers are fascinating. The distribution of primes, which is specifially random but generally predictable (check out the MathWorld article for more details) is of particular interest.
For example, the Riemann Zeta Function of n, which is the infinite sum of all terms k^(-n)[k varies from one to infinity], is expressable as the infinite product (1-p1^(-n))*(1-p2^(-n))*(1-p3^(-n))... [where pn is the nth prime number]. This is a mind-boggling connection. For example Zeta(2)= (pi^2)/6 = (1 + 1/2 + 1/4 +1/8
"We have very high standards for our performance at Intel, for a variety of reasons. The memo was in reference to our performance and (said) that we could improve our performance and we should improve our performance." How many times can you say performance?
Well, the blog, whether for better or worse, has now officially ended. It was at the least a thought provoking look at personal privacy and copyright in the ever growing digital world.