Putting aside the time I spent on farms, I learned what a plow looked like in history class and social studies and science class. (This was in suburbia, mind you.) It's a piece of technology that has had profound impact on how we interact with the Earth and each other. Misuse of new plow technology played a large role in creating the Depression-era dust bowl (thus science), which forced a rather important diaspora (history). This is only one small example, though one that Americans are likely to be familiar with.
I'm not sure where you're getting your estimates of external frame pack weight. If you look at REI, the (men's) external-frame packs they sell (online, at least) run about 6 pounds. It's a good chunk of weight, but nothing too terrible. Internal frame packs can run a bit more, of course, but you gain some mobility.
Another reason this would be a nonstarter is if the suspension of the load means it moves more. If you're already in a precarious situation, having your pack move is a good way to fall. At the very least you end up exerting a lot more energy compensating for it. Mind you, I'm talking about rather difficult hiking here; if you're walking down a road it's not a problem. I could, however, see this being a problem when one runs.
I can't speak for the/average/ slashdotter, but I can carry a backpack that heavy (at least towards the low end... the 84 pound pack is quite far over 1/2 of my body weight). I've gone hiking with that much stuff. Remember -- more weight means more exercise! I assume, since I'm female and reasonably light for my height, there are quite a few people around here who can carry more, with the help of a good pack. Carrying weight in a well-constructed, well-adjusted, well-fitting backpack isn't the same sort of thing as carrying it in your arms. The weight rests on your hips, so strong legs and reasonable balance are the primary requirements.
There is a lot of variety in "CS" degrees, which is a good thing to keep in mind. I graduated with one, but took almost entirely math and CS theory courses. I'd probably fall right into the "useful mathematician" category you've got there.:) In terms of mathematicians, you might have your best shot with people who've done a fair bit of combinatorics. I've found it very useful, myself.
Greyhound tickets work better if the buses are working -- both busses and planes pulled out of NO several days before the hurricane. This is a lot of why there were so many tourists stranded -- they simply didn't have any way to leave. (Many hotels then kicked them out in the streets for "liability reasons".)
Interestingly, not everyone knew how severe the hurricane was supposed to be. News travels slowly when you don't have a TV or net.
People stayed for a variety of reasons, but mostly because they had no choice/car. Interestingly, if you walk, the freeways (at least on one side, I'm not sure about the other) are one of the worst places to be, because they are flooded early and often.
>They're too damn busy for the "little stuff", but not to busy to cross the street to write me a ticket for riding my bike on an empty sidewalk.
They're apparently also not too busy to walk across a deserted plaza to try to write me a ticket for STANDING straddling my bike. (I didn't have a kickstand, and I was picking up the campus newspaper -- it was the easiest way to hold the bike up, as it was unevenly loaded.)
> It should, seeing how you're Canadian and would have to grow a set of balls before going into combat.
Eh? Canada has a military, and a rather good one too, I'm told. They're not in Iraq because they already sent their entire block of deployable troops to Afghanistan. Remember them?
> However, the word's use is so common that it's true origins as an insult really don't matter any more.
Maybe this is true where you live, but it is VERY rare in the circles I socialize and work in. Seriously, this is the only swear word I know that will actually offend many of the people I know. (Most of these people are not exactly thrilled about "dick" either, and will usually only use it to make fun of certain US political figures.) I understand that UK speakers are using it differently. Still, it might be a smart word to avoid in some situtations, in the interest of avoiding rather violent misunderstandings.
>One notable hole in Google's research lineup has been privacy.
They've hired at least one theory/crypto person that I know. I don't know what he's working on, but it's at least concievable that it's privacy-related. I think it's mostly that Google isn't that public about their research. Perhaps they'll be publishing more in the future.
Privately funded stem cell research is still 100% OK. Getting federal funding for OTHER things that the same insitution is functionally impossible, I'm told. Still hearsay, but it certainly makes a lot more sense, and I've heard it from reputable sources. I'm on a paper deadline, so I don't have time to look it up for you, sorry.
They're just precomputing hashes, from what I can see. There's nothing that stops you from doing it for a very large number of inputs and storing the results. If you want to get a collision using that precomputation, however, it'll be a lot harder on SHA-1 than on MD-5, even given the new attacks on it. (If you're curious about the attacks, look at this years' CRYPTO papers. Professor Wong and her team have come out with some great stuff.) Preimage attacks will probably still be difficult on SHA-1, as the new results don't signifigantly impact the property of preimage-resistance (from what I saw of the attacks in the talks).
The upshot is: (1) yes, you can do this, it's just brute-force; (2) it's not as easy with MD-5.
Err... most pills work by preventing ovulation. In fact, they all do, AFAIK. For example, I've been on the pill for 5+ years now, and I think I've had one ovulation, tops (there's a peculiar pain that some women get, called mittlesmertz, so they can tell when they're ovulating), and that was associated with antibiotics. If (and this is VERY unlikely) you do get a zygote, it's also less likely to implant when you're on the pill, because your body "thinks" it's already preggo. This is not "how it works", though!
BTW, the medical definition of pregnancy requires implantation. That's probably a much, much better time to pick something, if you've going to pick a line. You might want to rule our ectopic pregnancies as well,
The mouse pads themselves rock: they make great (and durable!) portable writing surfaces, and are good to put between a hot laptop and sensitive legs (they dissapate heat to other places quite quickly). If you find these, hang on to them, because someone will be able to use em.
Actually, if you look, it's the same researcher who headed up both pieces of work. The whole idea behind CAPCHA is that if someone breaks it, we get some cool piece of technology out of the deal. This certainly counts as cool, but it's explicit labeling -- you still have to run it by actual people to get the labels.
Xerox? Xerox doesn't just have one line of business. They've spun off some of their other lines, but maintain a large/controlling interest in em. They make a lot of stuff that attaches to computers in one way or another, and their spinoffs make even more. Ever hear of PARC? Depix?
Err... I'm not sure if there's a difference in the PhD-hiring process or not, but my fiance's going to start work at google Any Week Now (after he defends), and he didn't have massive scary interviews. He had a quick phone screen, a phone interview with HR where they started telling him all the reasons he would want to move to CA, and then went out for an interview in CA so they could show him all the goodies and see if he'd want to work with the people there. They also offered him quite a decent wage.
It looks more likely that Google is geared towards hiring PhDs. They seem to treat it as a massive screeening technique -- if you survive a PhD at a top school, you almost certainly are inventive, creative, hardworking, and reasonably articulate.
Dry mouth is a major cause of tooth decay and (I believe) gum disease. Saliva is good. This probably helps avoid that nasty saliva-dried-up-bacteria-taking-over-mouth thing.
From reading the flag code, you're not supposed to reproduce the flag on anything but, well, the flag. For example, on armed forces uniforms, it's backwards. On/., it has different stripes. Same difference -- it's actually following the code of respectfulness for the flag.
Granted, I don't know if this was their intention or not, but I wouldn't carp about it.
Heh. I must be really boring -- I don't do any of those. (Unless you count rock climbing with ropes or some of the hiking I do as "extreme". Salsa dancing is only "extreme" in the amount of skin some people show.)
Not that I did the same thing*cough*, but I met a PhD student working in the same lab when I was in high school... he told me that all of that was going to come back and bite me in the butt in the 2nd year of my PhD. He was right: I overcommitted, and had a semester of living hell, since I actually needed to pay attention to things for the first time.
>Honestly, yellow doesn't go with anybody's skin tone. Well, very few.
I know several people who have pronounced red undertones to their skin, and look incredible in many shades of yellow, especially saffron. I wish I could pull it off!
>Now if they can learn to make synthetic greens...
Well, I looked around, and Gemesis seems to be selling (as in "I can buy them right now") blues and pinks. I wouldn't be surprised if greens were not that long behind.
Me, I'd go for a nice blue... that certainly goes with my skin tone.
Slashdot Mirror
Putting aside the time I spent on farms, I learned what a plow looked like in history class and social studies and science class. (This was in suburbia, mind you.) It's a piece of technology that has had profound impact on how we interact with the Earth and each other. Misuse of new plow technology played a large role in creating the Depression-era dust bowl (thus science), which forced a rather important diaspora (history). This is only one small example, though one that Americans are likely to be familiar with.
Lea
I'm not sure where you're getting your estimates of external frame pack weight. If you look at REI, the (men's) external-frame packs they sell (online, at least) run about 6 pounds. It's a good chunk of weight, but nothing too terrible. Internal frame packs can run a bit more, of course, but you gain some mobility.
Lea
Another reason this would be a nonstarter is if the suspension of the load means it moves more. If you're already in a precarious situation, having your pack move is a good way to fall. At the very least you end up exerting a lot more energy compensating for it. Mind you, I'm talking about rather difficult hiking here; if you're walking down a road it's not a problem. I could, however, see this being a problem when one runs.
Lea
I can't speak for the /average/ slashdotter, but I can carry a backpack that heavy (at least towards the low end... the 84 pound pack is quite far over 1/2 of my body weight). I've gone hiking with that much stuff. Remember -- more weight means more exercise! I assume, since I'm female and reasonably light for my height, there are quite a few people around here who can carry more, with the help of a good pack. Carrying weight in a well-constructed, well-adjusted, well-fitting backpack isn't the same sort of thing as carrying it in your arms. The weight rests on your hips, so strong legs and reasonable balance are the primary requirements.
Lea
It doesn't. It does, however, look like riding your bike (if you squint just right), which is prohibited.
Lea
There is a lot of variety in "CS" degrees, which is a good thing to keep in mind. I graduated with one, but took almost entirely math and CS theory courses. I'd probably fall right into the "useful mathematician" category you've got there. :) In terms of mathematicians, you might have your best shot with people who've done a fair bit of combinatorics. I've found it very useful, myself.
Lea
Greyhound tickets work better if the buses are working -- both busses and planes pulled out of NO several days before the hurricane. This is a lot of why there were so many tourists stranded -- they simply didn't have any way to leave. (Many hotels then kicked them out in the streets for "liability reasons".)
Interestingly, not everyone knew how severe the hurricane was supposed to be. News travels slowly when you don't have a TV or net.
People stayed for a variety of reasons, but mostly because they had no choice/car. Interestingly, if you walk, the freeways (at least on one side, I'm not sure about the other) are one of the worst places to be, because they are flooded early and often.
Lea
>They're too damn busy for the "little stuff", but not to busy to cross the street to write me a ticket for riding my bike on an empty sidewalk.
They're apparently also not too busy to walk across a deserted plaza to try to write me a ticket for STANDING straddling my bike. (I didn't have a kickstand, and I was picking up the campus newspaper -- it was the easiest way to hold the bike up, as it was unevenly loaded.)
> It should, seeing how you're Canadian and would have to grow a set of balls before going into combat.
Eh? Canada has a military, and a rather good one too, I'm told. They're not in Iraq because they already sent their entire block of deployable troops to Afghanistan. Remember them?
Lea
> However, the word's use is so common that it's true origins as an insult really don't matter any more.
Maybe this is true where you live, but it is VERY rare in the circles I socialize and work in. Seriously, this is the only swear word I know that will actually offend many of the people I know. (Most of these people are not exactly thrilled about "dick" either, and will usually only use it to make fun of certain US political figures.) I understand that UK speakers are using it differently. Still, it might be a smart word to avoid in some situtations, in the interest of avoiding rather violent misunderstandings.
Lea
Ah, thank you. I was just going to make that correction.
Lea
>One notable hole in Google's research lineup has been privacy.
They've hired at least one theory/crypto person that I know. I don't know what he's working on, but it's at least concievable that it's privacy-related. I think it's mostly that Google isn't that public about their research. Perhaps they'll be publishing more in the future.
Lea
Privately funded stem cell research is still 100% OK. Getting federal funding for OTHER things that the same insitution is functionally impossible, I'm told. Still hearsay, but it certainly makes a lot more sense, and I've heard it from reputable sources. I'm on a paper deadline, so I don't have time to look it up for you, sorry.
Lea
They're just precomputing hashes, from what I can see. There's nothing that stops you from doing it for a very large number of inputs and storing the results. If you want to get a collision using that precomputation, however, it'll be a lot harder on SHA-1 than on MD-5, even given the new attacks on it. (If you're curious about the attacks, look at this years' CRYPTO papers. Professor Wong and her team have come out with some great stuff.) Preimage attacks will probably still be difficult on SHA-1, as the new results don't signifigantly impact the property of preimage-resistance (from what I saw of the attacks in the talks).
The upshot is: (1) yes, you can do this, it's just brute-force; (2) it's not as easy with MD-5.
Lea
Err... most pills work by preventing ovulation. In fact, they all do, AFAIK. For example, I've been on the pill for 5+ years now, and I think I've had one ovulation, tops (there's a peculiar pain that some women get, called mittlesmertz, so they can tell when they're ovulating), and that was associated with antibiotics. If (and this is VERY unlikely) you do get a zygote, it's also less likely to implant when you're on the pill, because your body "thinks" it's already preggo. This is not "how it works", though!
BTW, the medical definition of pregnancy requires implantation. That's probably a much, much better time to pick something, if you've going to pick a line. You might want to rule our ectopic pregnancies as well,
Lea
The mouse pads themselves rock: they make great (and durable!) portable writing surfaces, and are good to put between a hot laptop and sensitive legs (they dissapate heat to other places quite quickly). If you find these, hang on to them, because someone will be able to use em.
Lea
Actually, if you look, it's the same researcher who headed up both pieces of work. The whole idea behind CAPCHA is that if someone breaks it, we get some cool piece of technology out of the deal. This certainly counts as cool, but it's explicit labeling -- you still have to run it by actual people to get the labels.
Xerox? Xerox doesn't just have one line of business. They've spun off some of their other lines, but maintain a large/controlling interest in em. They make a lot of stuff that attaches to computers in one way or another, and their spinoffs make even more. Ever hear of PARC? Depix?
Lea
Go team postdocs, go!
Err... I'm not sure if there's a difference in the PhD-hiring process or not, but my fiance's going to start work at google Any Week Now (after he defends), and he didn't have massive scary interviews. He had a quick phone screen, a phone interview with HR where they started telling him all the reasons he would want to move to CA, and then went out for an interview in CA so they could show him all the goodies and see if he'd want to work with the people there. They also offered him quite a decent wage.
It looks more likely that Google is geared towards hiring PhDs. They seem to treat it as a massive screeening technique -- if you survive a PhD at a top school, you almost certainly are inventive, creative, hardworking, and reasonably articulate.
Lea
Dry mouth is a major cause of tooth decay and (I believe) gum disease. Saliva is good. This probably helps avoid that nasty saliva-dried-up-bacteria-taking-over-mouth thing.
Lea
From reading the flag code, you're not supposed to reproduce the flag on anything but, well, the flag. For example, on armed forces uniforms, it's backwards. On /., it has different stripes. Same difference -- it's actually following the code of respectfulness for the flag.
Granted, I don't know if this was their intention or not, but I wouldn't carp about it.
Lea
Heh. I must be really boring -- I don't do any of those. (Unless you count rock climbing with ropes or some of the hiking I do as "extreme". Salsa dancing is only "extreme" in the amount of skin some people show.)
Lea
Not that I did the same thing*cough*, but I met a PhD student working in the same lab when I was in high school... he told me that all of that was going to come back and bite me in the butt in the 2nd year of my PhD. He was right: I overcommitted, and had a semester of living hell, since I actually needed to pay attention to things for the first time.
Lea
>Honestly, yellow doesn't go with anybody's skin tone. Well, very few.
I know several people who have pronounced red undertones to their skin, and look incredible in many shades of yellow, especially saffron. I wish I could pull it off!
>Now if they can learn to make synthetic greens...
Well, I looked around, and Gemesis seems to be selling (as in "I can buy them right now") blues and pinks. I wouldn't be surprised if greens were not that long behind.
Me, I'd go for a nice blue... that certainly goes with my skin tone.
Lea