In addition to technical solutions, you might want to investigate stem cell therapy to regrow or heal nerves in the spinal column. The technology is still in the early stages but has been show to improve motor and sensory function in some cases. Here's a recent review article from PloS that might be a starting point for you.
This paper has already been extensively critiqued. To me the biggest problem is that he didn't include any subscription journals.
Many intentionally flawed or nonsense papers have been submitted -- and published! -- to reputable journals in the past.
This latest demonstration by Bohannan just shows that the peer review system needs improvement. It does not show whether Open Access journals are better or worse than subscription journals in terms of quality and reliability of content.
I'm not a huge advocate of DRM or anything, but it seems like you should aim at the Apple/Android tablet market. Build or license a magazine app for content delivery. It'll let you control how much access your users get to the content -- can they save a copy? email it to someone? etc. -- while making it really convenient for your users to get the content delivered regularly and with minimum effort. I suppose you could try to do this on the desktop, but the mobile device world seems tailor-made to your needs, assuming your target audience usually owns mobile devices.
When I was around that age, I really enjoyed "The Boy Who Reversed Himself" by William Sleator. Pretty entertaining, and a nice introduction to the concept of higher-dimensional spaces.
One blindingly obvious way to cut down on fake and artificial reviews: only allow reviews from people who have actually purchased the product.
Amazon already highlights reviews by people who have purchased the product, so the functionality already exists. Why not take the next step and only allow those people to write reviews in the first place?
Alternately, Amazon could allow anyone to write a review, but would only calculate the star rating based on purchasers' reviews.
I'll second this. The Uni-ball Vision Elite Micro is 0.5mm and produces a reasonably fine line (depending on the paper). The ink doesn't bleed, it requires very little pressure, is quasi-waterproof, the pen won't leak if you take it on an airplane, and the writing experience has a great feel, not scratchy or uneven. It took me years to find this pen and now I never buy any other kind. Obligatory Amazon link: Package of 12.
Based on the description in the OP, this sounds like just a high temperature solid oxide fuel cell. There's nothing particularly revolutionary about that. It still emits carbon dioxide, and it still requires fuel. Presumably you would feed it with some kind of "carbon neutral" biofuel.
So my question is: why the hype? How is the "Bloom Box" any better than installing a traditional generator powered with biogas? From a practical perspective they seem to do roughly the same thing: take in fuel and spit out electricity and carbon dioxide.
True, the built-in Linux documentation is often lacking. But in spite of that, it's much, much better than the built-in help files for Windows or Mac.
No matter which OS I use, Google is always my first stop for technical help. The difference between them is that with Linux, I usually find a helpful site almost immediately (usually on the Ubuntu Forums). With Windows, the best help I can find is usually some obscure, confusing entry at the Microsoft Support website. Ick.
This isn't new: these terms are exactly the same as Verizon's current plans for Blackberry service. $30/month for the smartphone "data plan", plus an extra $30/month for tethering. And yes, they've always called it "unlimited", but it's always been capped at 5GB. I've been paying these rates for some time. It's annoying, but it's been going on for ages.
It's amusing to me that people are only getting outraged about this now because Verizon is selling a popular new phone that everyone wants to buy.
It's amazing they let you cross borders with books in your possession.
The problem is not crossing a border with a book you already own. The problem, for Amazon, is having the rights to sell a book in a different country. Plus higher wireless costs. Plus VAT. All in all, I'm surprised the price is bump is as small as 40%.
PC Pro has discovered.... an Amazon spokesperson confessed.
The OP summary is quite a troll. PC Pro hasn't "discovered" anything: all of this information was easy to find on the International Kindle website the day it was announced.
This may not be the source of your trouble, but in my experience 80% of conversion layout problems are due to fonts. If you run Linux or Mac, chances are that you're using fonts that are similar to, but different from, Windows fonts. The result? When the document is opened on a different OS, the necessary font substitutions cause spacing shifts and flow problems.
The solution I've found is to use only Times New Roman and Arial in a document where layout is important, because I know I can depend on every Windows user having those two fonts. Non-Windows users can get them as well -- for example, in Ubuntu you can install the msttcorefonts package to get the basic Windows fonts. Sure, if you can use PDF, go for it. But when you have to send a doc file, TNR/Arial is the way to go.
Sure, if you're really paranoid, get an NDA and expect to annoy and alienate plenty of clever people.
I used to feel the same way you do, but I quickly learned one key rule. If someone is technically proficient enough to give you the advice you want, they already have a hundred great ideas of their own that they are more interested in. They may agree that your idea is good, but clever people are nearly always more interested in their own projects.
And if a clever person is SO impressed by your idea that they're willing to put their own projects on hold, they will almost certainly want to work WITH you on it, not steal it from you. Which is pretty much what you're looking for, right? So don't worry about it.
Where did you hear that there is no native support for PDF's?
You can easily load PDF's to the Kindle.
These are not equivalent. "Native" support means that you could put a.pdf file directly on the Kindle (via USB), and the Kindle would be able to open it. What the Kindle actually does is, you can email a.pdf document to something@kindle.com, and Amazon's software will attempt to reflow and convert the.pdf document into.azw format. The Kindle does NOT support.pdf natively.
This python script creates a hash to make the Kindle think that.mobi files (Secure Mobipocket books, a competitor of Amazon's for this market) are native Amazon books. After you get a hash from kindlepid.py, you run kindlefix.py on your.mobi file with your hash, and it produces a.azw file which the Kindle then thinks is one of its own book formats.
This is incorrect in several ways. First, the non-DRMed.azw format is almost exactly the same as the non-DRMed.mobi format. It simply has a different extension. The encryption used for DRM may be different, but the Kindle is certainly capable of opening DRMed.mobi files natively. You can bet that Amazon is paying a licensing fee to Mobipocket.
Now, here's how mobipocket DRM works. Your device (Kindle, Bookeen, etc.) has a unique ID number. When you buy an ebook from a site (ie. Fictionwise), you input this ID which is then incorporated into the encryption of the file. Thus, that device will be able to open that file. Any file can be viewed by up to 6 different devices. For most devices, the ID is known to the user. With the Kindle and Amazon, all of the above is handled automatically, so the user does not NEED to know the ID when buying from Amazon.
The script in question, kindlepid.py, simply reads the ID number of the Kindle in question and prints it out for the user. It's worth noting that the official Mobipocket Desktop software version 6.0 could also do this, at least for the Kindle v1.
Now, using the ID, it is possible to buy encrypted.mobi ebooks from other vendors (ie. Fictionwise) with the Kindle added as an "approved" device. The Kindle can read these files, but won't unless a "read-approval" bit is flipped in the file. This can be done by a second script, kindlefix.py.
What's curious and kind of ridiculous about this situation is that if either of these scripts is circumventing DRM, it would be the second script, kindlefix. However, the DMCA takedown notice apparently targeted the FIRST script, kindlepid, which only prints information that you could already get using official Mobipocket software. That's why Amazon's whole approach in this case seems ridiculous at best.
In any case, I think that from Mobileread's point of view this was probably the best response.
Gwyddion is a very nice open-source tool for processing, analysis, and export of AFM/SPM data sets. I find that it has many more useful and advanced features than the crappy program that came with our lab's AFM. It can also open (but not save) almost every data format used by most AFM/SPM manufacturers. (You save in the native Gwyddion format, or export to png, jpeg, tiff, etc.)
A few quibbles: the UI is not very consistent, with some buttons having no menu counterparts and vice-versa. Also, it does not support batch processing, which is my most wished-for feature. Still, it is easily the best AFM/SPM analysis program I have ever used.
I second Perl Data Language. It's very good at fast calculation using large data sets. Also, if you need to do calculations or analysis involving many iterations (which is slow in Perl), you can write the code in C and inline it, doing the interface, analysis, and graphing in PDL.
The flip side is that some area of PDL are incomplete, harder to use, missing features, or redundant. Maybe it's just me, but it does sometimes feel like an immature language. Still, it is very helpful for many common tasks.
It's also taking a big chance, as both parties will probably be quite a bit more mature in a few years, and probably regret not getting something with lasting value, such as platinum or a finer grade of gold.... Good ones feel like some metal of the gods due to the massive weight for such a small piece. Not enough to get make your finger tired, but enough to surprise people who have only held gold.
Consider that iridium is much rarer, more valuable, and heavier than gold or platinum. It is also much harder and more resistant to scratches.
I don't know how easy it is to remove. Depending on how hard/brittle iridium is, it may be more like tungsten carbide (WC). A ring made of "uncuttable" WC can be easily and safely removed by breaking it using vise-grip pliers (like this).
Some quick research shows that iridium has a similar Young's Modulus to WC (~530 GPa and ~700 GPa respectively) and about double the tensile strength of WC (~600 MPa vs. ~350 MPa). So it might be removable in a similar fashion. Of course you should check by experiment if possible before any emergency comes up!
The ASUS EEE PC would probably fit the bill with a SD card as the storage media as well as a copy of the date on the EEE PC internal drive.
Bear in mind that most Eee PCs have a SSD, which is likely to lose its content within the given time frame.
I would suggest finding an Eee or other small, cheap laptop that has a hard drive (like this one). Take out the battery, but store the power adapter with it. Store several copies of the pictures on the drive to protect against bit-rot / bad sectors.
Make sure to install a flavor of *nix/BSD along with plenty of data processing and programming tools/software. Most likely some form of USB or Ethernet compatibility will exist in the future. Worst case scenario, you'll have to hack up your own custom protocol/driver and jury-rig a cable connection to a modern computer.
I think one also has to consider the risk/reward equation. Sure, it's POSSIBLE to alter or clone MBTA cards. But from the presentation, it appears that it took about $1000 worth of equipment, plus some non-trivial technical prowess, in order to do so. In return, what do you get? An unlimited subway card. It would take almost a year of daily travel just to recoup your investment. Most people just aren't willing to spend that much money and effort simply to get an unlimited subway card.
Thus, the MBTA and their card system provider probably won't fix this "problem" because they'll lose more money by making (expensive) system changes than through (unlikely) card hacking. Their apathy is justifiable, IMHO.
In contrast, the voting system is a case where the effect of hacks could be MUCH larger, and the incentive to hack is much greater. The threat to the system is very real and very large. In this case, apathy from the state and manufacturer is clearly unacceptable.
The point is this: take a modern, state-of-the-art hard drive full of Gutenberg-style vanilla ASCII e-books. Then take a generic used cheap-ass paperback book. Lock them both in a room for 50 years. Which one will still be readable at the end?
It's a rhetorical question, but I'll answer it anyway.
IF the electronics and bearings survive, and IF the platters don't get bit-rot, in 50 years there still won't be a computer capable of running and reading that hard drive. You might have to build one yourself from 50-year-old open standards and schematics.
Sure, you could copy your data to new media every few years. Make redundant copies in case one is lost or fried. Keep them in separate places. Don't type "rm -rf *" at the wrong time (or anything like that). In a few years? Do it again. And again. And again. Got to keep up with technology, right? It's a lot of work.
Of course the Eee is portable and everything else you want; the power brick works with international voltages, I believe. The built-in SSHD should work at any altitude, addressing concerns about high-altitude failure of standard hard drives.
The Eee has also got a built-in SD slot. I would suggest getting a bunch of SDHC cards (rather than thumb drives). For example, right now Newegg is selling a 4 GB SD card for $9.49 after a mail-in rebate. So: $400 for the Eee, plus $200 for 80 GB worth of SD cards, should allow you over 3GB of photos per week. And honestly, twenty SD cards are a heck of a lot easier to manage than an optical drive and twenty DVDs.
I just switched away from Windows for good, after years of dual-booting Windows and Linux because "some things I can only do with Windows." It wasn't even Vista that made me switch, I was still using XP.
I suddenly realized that I'd been using Linux continuously for a month, and I didn't need Windows for anything any more. Everything I need, (Ubuntu) Linux now does, and usually better than XP does it. Since I needed the hard drive space, I just went ahead and deleted Windows. No problem!
Ubuntu 7.10 has made Linux accessible enough, even, for the average user. If MS doesn't back down from Vista, I predict a big influx of new Linux users very soon.
Slashdot Mirror
In addition to technical solutions, you might want to investigate stem cell therapy to regrow or heal nerves in the spinal column. The technology is still in the early stages but has been show to improve motor and sensory function in some cases. Here's a recent review article from PloS that might be a starting point for you.
This paper has already been extensively critiqued. To me the biggest problem is that he didn't include any subscription journals.
Many intentionally flawed or nonsense papers have been submitted -- and published! -- to reputable journals in the past.
This latest demonstration by Bohannan just shows that the peer review system needs improvement. It does not show whether Open Access journals are better or worse than subscription journals in terms of quality and reliability of content.
I'm not a huge advocate of DRM or anything, but it seems like you should aim at the Apple/Android tablet market. Build or license a magazine app for content delivery. It'll let you control how much access your users get to the content -- can they save a copy? email it to someone? etc. -- while making it really convenient for your users to get the content delivered regularly and with minimum effort. I suppose you could try to do this on the desktop, but the mobile device world seems tailor-made to your needs, assuming your target audience usually owns mobile devices.
When I was around that age, I really enjoyed "The Boy Who Reversed Himself" by William Sleator. Pretty entertaining, and a nice introduction to the concept of higher-dimensional spaces.
Obligatory Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Reversed-Himself/dp/0140389652
I'm pretty sure Amazon already does this...
One blindingly obvious way to cut down on fake and artificial reviews: only allow reviews from people who have actually purchased the product.
Amazon already highlights reviews by people who have purchased the product, so the functionality already exists. Why not take the next step and only allow those people to write reviews in the first place?
Alternately, Amazon could allow anyone to write a review, but would only calculate the star rating based on purchasers' reviews.
I'll second this. The Uni-ball Vision Elite Micro is 0.5mm and produces a reasonably fine line (depending on the paper). The ink doesn't bleed, it requires very little pressure, is quasi-waterproof, the pen won't leak if you take it on an airplane, and the writing experience has a great feel, not scratchy or uneven. It took me years to find this pen and now I never buy any other kind. Obligatory Amazon link: Package of 12.
I would love to see the original, full resolution video. Could you upload it somewhere, or perhaps put it up on BitTorrent?
Also, what data sets did you use in the preparation of this movie? I would be interested to see the orbit specifications for all of these asteroids.
Based on the description in the OP, this sounds like just a high temperature solid oxide fuel cell. There's nothing particularly revolutionary about that. It still emits carbon dioxide, and it still requires fuel. Presumably you would feed it with some kind of "carbon neutral" biofuel.
So my question is: why the hype? How is the "Bloom Box" any better than installing a traditional generator powered with biogas? From a practical perspective they seem to do roughly the same thing: take in fuel and spit out electricity and carbon dioxide.
True, the built-in Linux documentation is often lacking. But in spite of that, it's much, much better than the built-in help files for Windows or Mac.
No matter which OS I use, Google is always my first stop for technical help. The difference between them is that with Linux, I usually find a helpful site almost immediately (usually on the Ubuntu Forums). With Windows, the best help I can find is usually some obscure, confusing entry at the Microsoft Support website. Ick.
This isn't new: these terms are exactly the same as Verizon's current plans for Blackberry service. $30/month for the smartphone "data plan", plus an extra $30/month for tethering. And yes, they've always called it "unlimited", but it's always been capped at 5GB. I've been paying these rates for some time. It's annoying, but it's been going on for ages.
It's amusing to me that people are only getting outraged about this now because Verizon is selling a popular new phone that everyone wants to buy.
It's amazing they let you cross borders with books in your possession.
The problem is not crossing a border with a book you already own. The problem, for Amazon, is having the rights to sell a book in a different country. Plus higher wireless costs. Plus VAT. All in all, I'm surprised the price is bump is as small as 40%.
PC Pro has discovered. ... an Amazon spokesperson confessed.
The OP summary is quite a troll. PC Pro hasn't "discovered" anything: all of this information was easy to find on the International Kindle website the day it was announced.
This may not be the source of your trouble, but in my experience 80% of conversion layout problems are due to fonts. If you run Linux or Mac, chances are that you're using fonts that are similar to, but different from, Windows fonts. The result? When the document is opened on a different OS, the necessary font substitutions cause spacing shifts and flow problems.
The solution I've found is to use only Times New Roman and Arial in a document where layout is important, because I know I can depend on every Windows user having those two fonts. Non-Windows users can get them as well -- for example, in Ubuntu you can install the msttcorefonts package to get the basic Windows fonts. Sure, if you can use PDF, go for it. But when you have to send a doc file, TNR/Arial is the way to go.
Sure, if you're really paranoid, get an NDA and expect to annoy and alienate plenty of clever people.
I used to feel the same way you do, but I quickly learned one key rule. If someone is technically proficient enough to give you the advice you want, they already have a hundred great ideas of their own that they are more interested in. They may agree that your idea is good, but clever people are nearly always more interested in their own projects.
And if a clever person is SO impressed by your idea that they're willing to put their own projects on hold, they will almost certainly want to work WITH you on it, not steal it from you. Which is pretty much what you're looking for, right? So don't worry about it.
Where did you hear that there is no native support for PDF's?
You can easily load PDF's to the Kindle.
These are not equivalent. "Native" support means that you could put a .pdf file directly on the Kindle (via USB), and the Kindle would be able to open it. What the Kindle actually does is, you can email a .pdf document to something@kindle.com, and Amazon's software will attempt to reflow and convert the .pdf document into .azw format. The Kindle does NOT support .pdf natively.
This python script creates a hash to make the Kindle think that .mobi files (Secure Mobipocket books, a competitor of Amazon's for this market) are native Amazon books. After you get a hash from kindlepid.py, you run kindlefix.py on your .mobi file with your hash, and it produces a .azw file which the Kindle then thinks is one of its own book formats.
This is incorrect in several ways. First, the non-DRMed .azw format is almost exactly the same as the non-DRMed .mobi format. It simply has a different extension. The encryption used for DRM may be different, but the Kindle is certainly capable of opening DRMed .mobi files natively. You can bet that Amazon is paying a licensing fee to Mobipocket.
Now, here's how mobipocket DRM works. Your device (Kindle, Bookeen, etc.) has a unique ID number. When you buy an ebook from a site (ie. Fictionwise), you input this ID which is then incorporated into the encryption of the file. Thus, that device will be able to open that file. Any file can be viewed by up to 6 different devices. For most devices, the ID is known to the user. With the Kindle and Amazon, all of the above is handled automatically, so the user does not NEED to know the ID when buying from Amazon.
The script in question, kindlepid.py, simply reads the ID number of the Kindle in question and prints it out for the user. It's worth noting that the official Mobipocket Desktop software version 6.0 could also do this, at least for the Kindle v1.
Now, using the ID, it is possible to buy encrypted .mobi ebooks from other vendors (ie. Fictionwise) with the Kindle added as an "approved" device. The Kindle can read these files, but won't unless a "read-approval" bit is flipped in the file. This can be done by a second script, kindlefix.py.
What's curious and kind of ridiculous about this situation is that if either of these scripts is circumventing DRM, it would be the second script, kindlefix. However, the DMCA takedown notice apparently targeted the FIRST script, kindlepid, which only prints information that you could already get using official Mobipocket software. That's why Amazon's whole approach in this case seems ridiculous at best.
In any case, I think that from Mobileread's point of view this was probably the best response.
All three seasons of the original Star Trek have been available streaming on Hulu for the past three or four months, at least. What's new about this?
Gwyddion is a very nice open-source tool for processing, analysis, and export of AFM/SPM data sets. I find that it has many more useful and advanced features than the crappy program that came with our lab's AFM. It can also open (but not save) almost every data format used by most AFM/SPM manufacturers. (You save in the native Gwyddion format, or export to png, jpeg, tiff, etc.)
A few quibbles: the UI is not very consistent, with some buttons having no menu counterparts and vice-versa. Also, it does not support batch processing, which is my most wished-for feature. Still, it is easily the best AFM/SPM analysis program I have ever used.
I second Perl Data Language. It's very good at fast calculation using large data sets. Also, if you need to do calculations or analysis involving many iterations (which is slow in Perl), you can write the code in C and inline it, doing the interface, analysis, and graphing in PDL.
The flip side is that some area of PDL are incomplete, harder to use, missing features, or redundant. Maybe it's just me, but it does sometimes feel like an immature language. Still, it is very helpful for many common tasks.
It's also taking a big chance, as both parties will probably be quite a bit more mature in a few years, and probably regret not getting something with lasting value, such as platinum or a finer grade of gold. ... Good ones feel like some metal of the gods due to the massive weight for such a small piece. Not enough to get make your finger tired, but enough to surprise people who have only held gold.
Consider that iridium is much rarer, more valuable, and heavier than gold or platinum. It is also much harder and more resistant to scratches.
I don't know how easy it is to remove. Depending on how hard/brittle iridium is, it may be more like tungsten carbide (WC). A ring made of "uncuttable" WC can be easily and safely removed by breaking it using vise-grip pliers (like this).
Some quick research shows that iridium has a similar Young's Modulus to WC (~530 GPa and ~700 GPa respectively) and about double the tensile strength of WC (~600 MPa vs. ~350 MPa). So it might be removable in a similar fashion. Of course you should check by experiment if possible before any emergency comes up!
(I got the above data from here, here, and here.)
The ASUS EEE PC would probably fit the bill with a SD card as the storage media as well as a copy of the date on the EEE PC internal drive.
Bear in mind that most Eee PCs have a SSD, which is likely to lose its content within the given time frame.
I would suggest finding an Eee or other small, cheap laptop that has a hard drive (like this one). Take out the battery, but store the power adapter with it. Store several copies of the pictures on the drive to protect against bit-rot / bad sectors.
Make sure to install a flavor of *nix/BSD along with plenty of data processing and programming tools/software. Most likely some form of USB or Ethernet compatibility will exist in the future. Worst case scenario, you'll have to hack up your own custom protocol/driver and jury-rig a cable connection to a modern computer.
I think one also has to consider the risk/reward equation. Sure, it's POSSIBLE to alter or clone MBTA cards. But from the presentation, it appears that it took about $1000 worth of equipment, plus some non-trivial technical prowess, in order to do so. In return, what do you get? An unlimited subway card. It would take almost a year of daily travel just to recoup your investment. Most people just aren't willing to spend that much money and effort simply to get an unlimited subway card.
Thus, the MBTA and their card system provider probably won't fix this "problem" because they'll lose more money by making (expensive) system changes than through (unlikely) card hacking. Their apathy is justifiable, IMHO.
In contrast, the voting system is a case where the effect of hacks could be MUCH larger, and the incentive to hack is much greater. The threat to the system is very real and very large. In this case, apathy from the state and manufacturer is clearly unacceptable.
It's a rhetorical question, but I'll answer it anyway.
IF the electronics and bearings survive, and IF the platters don't get bit-rot, in 50 years there still won't be a computer capable of running and reading that hard drive. You might have to build one yourself from 50-year-old open standards and schematics.
Sure, you could copy your data to new media every few years. Make redundant copies in case one is lost or fried. Keep them in separate places. Don't type "rm -rf *" at the wrong time (or anything like that). In a few years? Do it again. And again. And again. Got to keep up with technology, right? It's a lot of work.
Oh-- and while you're doing that...?
I'll be reading the paperback!
The Eee has also got a built-in SD slot. I would suggest getting a bunch of SDHC cards (rather than thumb drives). For example, right now Newegg is selling a 4 GB SD card for $9.49 after a mail-in rebate. So: $400 for the Eee, plus $200 for 80 GB worth of SD cards, should allow you over 3GB of photos per week. And honestly, twenty SD cards are a heck of a lot easier to manage than an optical drive and twenty DVDs.
...just as important as the Theory of Intelligent Falling.
I just switched away from Windows for good, after years of dual-booting Windows and Linux because "some things I can only do with Windows." It wasn't even Vista that made me switch, I was still using XP.
I suddenly realized that I'd been using Linux continuously for a month, and I didn't need Windows for anything any more. Everything I need, (Ubuntu) Linux now does, and usually better than XP does it. Since I needed the hard drive space, I just went ahead and deleted Windows. No problem!
Ubuntu 7.10 has made Linux accessible enough, even, for the average user. If MS doesn't back down from Vista, I predict a big influx of new Linux users very soon.