Interesting. The fairly large medical clinic at my university is also an all-Apple environment. (Even the TV screens in the lobby run a looped Keynote presentation.) There must be a good set of patient-management apps in the medical space for OS X. I've seen the login screen my doctor uses, but I can't remember the name of the app offhand.
If you go to the main MPlayer site, rather than the MPlayerOSX site, you'll see that they've released a much newer version only a few weeks ago (04/09/2006):
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html
Also interesting, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current president of Iran, is an engineer. He was even a professor of engineering at IUST:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad
Back to China, from what I understand, most of the senior members in the Chinese executive have postgraduate degrees in either science or engineering. Completely different from most western countries, dominated by lawyers.
The software for several critical safety components on planes, e.g. TCAS (the automated collision avoidance indicator system), is open for inspection and independently validated by the FAA.
In case anyone doubts the fake eggs story, here's a photo of one of the phony eggs:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/photo/2004-12/28/content _2387255.htm
The shell is made from calcium carbonate and the internals are mixed up (there's no defined yolk) and made from a mixture of gelatine, starch, alum, and a variety of other things.
If you read the actual article, they address this (even using a sh*t-related metaphor):
"Don VanCleave, president of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores, says blame lies with "an absolute, gigantic cesspool of really bad bands.""
If anyone wants to contact the lawyer responsible for filing this distasteful lawsuit, perhaps to voice your opinion of his conduct, here is his contact information:
Just FYI... you might find this interesting. The finger and moon metaphor was not invented by Wilson and Shea for the Illuminatus trilogy. It's from an ancient Buddhist text called the Surangama Sutra:
"You are still clinging to your mind to listen to the Dharma; you fail to realize the Dharma nature. This is like a man pointing a finger at the moon to show it to others who should follow the direction of the finger to look at the moon. If they look at the finger and mistake it for the moon, they lose sight of both the moon and the finger. Why? Because the bright moon is actually pointed at; they mistake the finger for the bright moon and are not clear about brightness and darkness."
This metaphor is one of the classic passages where the Buddha lets his followers know that using their own eyes and mind to discover the world and how it works is more important than blindly following anything he's said. This attitude is one of the many reasons Buddhists have no trouble with evolution.
Why the anger? ("good-time rock-and-roll plastic-banana piece-of-crap brand of American Buddhism") I'm not American, by the way.
There just aren't any mainstream schools of Buddhism that support a Creationist or Intelligent Design viewpoint. I know that might sound difficult to accept, but if you took the time to learn about the religion you would understand why. I gave one explanation in my post; Wikipedia has another good explanation that looks at it from a different perspective:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_evolutio n
Or Google for "buddhism evolution". Take the time to do some reading about the religion. You'll see why you've misunderstood what the Dalai Lama's book was trying to say.
You're really misrepresenting the Dalai Lama's main point. You're also seriously misrepresenting Buddhist thought.
There are no prominent Buddhist thinkers or leaders who question evolution. That includes the Dalai Lama. One of the core parts of Buddhist thought is that clinging (Tanha) to disproven ideas is a path to suffering (Dukkha). The Buddha taught that we should be prepared alter or discard even his teachings as new information came to light. This is one of the more significant ways in that Buddhism differs from other religious traditions. The Buddha used the metaphor of a raft on a stream; as we travel down the stream, our scenery changes; once we reach the destination, we should even be prepared to discard the raft (his teachings) entirely. For this reason, and several others (such as the importance of samma ditthi, or right thought), Buddhists are very open to scientific discovery and learning. Virtually without exception, they would be dismayed to hear the Dalai Lama's writings used to prop up Creationism or Intelligent Design.
As for the Dalai Lama's book, his central message is to avoid thinking of humans mechanistically. It is not an endorsement of supernatural intervention.
Most digital audio is not filtered below 20 Hz. That's a myth that persists for a variety of reasons. In the days of vinyl, audio was consistently high-pass filtered because even with the standard RIAA equalization, deep bass produced excessively large grooves.
Microphones are sometimes filtered to remove rumble, but in cases where the lowest frequencies are important, such as movie soundtracks, the lowest frequencies are generally preserved, subject to limitations of the equipment, such as AC coupling capacitors.
Placing a filter at 20 Hz also has potentially audible drawbacks since the phase shift of the filter will easily extend an octave higher (40 Hz).
I can't really comment on western Europe; haven't travelled through there in 11 years. All I meant to say is that in Africa and the Middle East, Nescafe is perceived as a premium brand. Generic coffee grounds are almost always cheaper wherever you go (being a commodity), but people in these regions nevertheless prefer Nescafe for intangible reasons, largely marketing and partly as a perceived token of Western culture, in the same way that many choose Coke over locally produced drinks. Like all marketing, it's all a construction, but it is somewhat ironic that what many perceive as a premium brand because of its Western association is not at all considered a premium brand in much of the Western world.
This is true in many countries. Nescafe seems to be almost ubiquitous across much of Africa and the Middle East (and I'd probably guess elsewhere too though my travels haven't taken me much beyond these regions). Even in Turkey, a country *famous* for its Turkish coffee, if you ask for coffee without being more specific, you'll get Nescafe. It's an interesting testament to the power of marketing or the appeal of things perceived as part of Western culture. The irony is, in North America, you're unlikely to find Nescafe anywhere except vending machines.
You're wrong. $129 is the full price for Tiger, not the upgrade price. I've installed the retail box Tiger on a blank, unformatted hard drive. No problems.
Also worth mentioning is that Tiger has no "activation" requirements, so you can install that $129 OS on all the machines in your household. (Yes, this violates copyright, but that's beside the point -- and Apple does offer a discounted "family pack" as well.) With XP you have to buy multiple copies of the OS for multiple machines, and there is no "family pack" option.
I agree with you on the amortization expenses. Most people ignore them, and they're one of the major costs of owning a vehicle.
Amortization is also one of the major reasons to purchase a used car. If you run the numbers, it's most cash-effective to purchase a 6-8 year old used vehicle. You can further improve your costs by choosing a used vehicle that had a relatively low selling price when new (more expensive vehicles depreciate at basically the same percentage per year, which works out to more dollars per year in absolute terms) and choosing a vehicle with a good reliability record as measured by independent agencies like Consumer Reports, the Lemon-Aid Guides, or even JD Power.
The prior poster is also underestimating insurance costs. $700-800/yr is closer to the average insurance costs for a 30 year old American. (You need to carry liability; it's financial suicide not to in our litigious society.) Of course, having a used car lets you save significantly on collision and comprehensive or omit them entirely if you choose.
Be careful with this. In the US, believe it or not, if you don't have insurance and end up in the emergency room, you don't pay the same amount as someone who has insurance. Usually you end up paying the hospital's top rate for the procedure, which is far more than someone with even cheap, high-deductible insurance would pay.
It doesn't make a lot of rational sense -- why should people who often can't afford insurance pay the highest prices? -- but it is an artifact of the way the system is designed. Hospitals set a high fee by default and then negotiate steep discounts with insurance companies. Individuals don't get these same discounts. Recently, there have been plenty of articles in the Wall Street Journal about this and other aspects of health care economics.
You're right, fundamental CS research would be funded by the NSF, in an ideal world.
The problem is that things haven't worked that way in the real world, not for a long time. Since the late '70s there has been an assumption that DARPA will fund the bulk of CS fundamental research. Partly because of that, is has historically been *very* difficult to get a grant approved by the NSF for CS research unless it's very targeted towards the pure end of the research spectrum. Computer architecture (except very low-level engineering), graphics, human-computer interaction, even databases, etc. are all fields that the NSF has been reluctant to fund because by their nature, even the basic research has an "applied" component.
Without an increase in NSF funding, the DARPA cuts are going to devastate many areas of CS research. It's really disheartening.
It's Trebuchet MS. It is a very nice typeface, especially for on-screen use because of its large x-height. For some reason it suffers a bit of horizontal optical compression when viewed with ClearType on an XP machine. It looks particularly nice on MacOS X.
As far as I know, there is only one OS X rootkit, "Opener." That particular kit is more of a proof of concept anyway than an actual threat, since it requires admin rights to install (thus cannot be installed without the user's consent) and is not coupled with any known remote exploit.
If you're aware of any real rootkits spreading for OS X, let me know, I'd be interested in hearing about them.
In any case, the Linux/BSD Rootkit.nl checking tool has been available for OS X for a long time now, if you're genuinely concerned or looking for another layer of security.
As far as I know, Warren Buffett is still the world's second richest man. His wealth does not fluctuate as much as several of the other contenders, so it is possible that the rankings change temporarily.
The only advantage TeX has in typesetting quality is its multiline composer. People who have written peer-reviewed research papers related to this (e.g. one of David Salesin's current grad students, whose name escapes me at the moment) have pointed out that the actual difference in a document set with a multiline composer versus a proper single line composer is surprisingly small. Single line composers get a bad rap because the algorithm used in Word is terrible. Granted, TeX is superior in this regard, but it is not radically better.
Using multiple fonts in TeX is nowhere near trivial. I've never managed to get the complete Adobe Minion, including expert sets and small caps, installed properly in TeX without screwed up kerning, even using the command-line font install utility. I spent literally two days working on it. There's a reason virtually every TeX document out there uses either Computer Modern or Times Roman, even in the humanities where equation support is irrelevant. It's nearly impossible for average people to install new fonts.
I like TeX, I really do. I used LaTeX for my thesis because it was the best tool at the time. But I wouldn't do it again.
The easy way around this, of course, is to leave your equations in raw TeX until a few days before the paper submission deadline, then convert them, when the equations are unlikely to change.
Not ideal, but not really a big hassle either. The continual TeX/LaTeX edit then compile then view then edit then compile then view cycle bothers me more than using clipping services to get equations in a real WYSIWYG word processor with quality typography (granted, without TeX's multiline composer, but with automatic ligatures and easy use of multiple fonts).
You can set up an OS X clipping service to take a TeX equation and transform it immediately into an embedded EPS or PDF without leaving your main application. This works for Mellel as well. There's nothing better than TeX for equations anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting. The fairly large medical clinic at my university is also an all-Apple environment. (Even the TV screens in the lobby run a looped Keynote presentation.) There must be a good set of patient-management apps in the medical space for OS X. I've seen the login screen my doctor uses, but I can't remember the name of the app offhand.
If you go to the main MPlayer site, rather than the MPlayerOSX site, you'll see that they've released a much newer version only a few weeks ago (04/09/2006): http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html
For OS X users, there's also a Dashboard widget for Remind: http://nick.vargish.org/software/remindwidget/
Also interesting, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current president of Iran, is an engineer. He was even a professor of engineering at IUST: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad Back to China, from what I understand, most of the senior members in the Chinese executive have postgraduate degrees in either science or engineering. Completely different from most western countries, dominated by lawyers.
The software for several critical safety components on planes, e.g. TCAS (the automated collision avoidance indicator system), is open for inspection and independently validated by the FAA.
In case anyone doubts the fake eggs story, here's a photo of one of the phony eggs: http://news.xinhuanet.com/photo/2004-12/28/content _2387255.htm
The shell is made from calcium carbonate and the internals are mixed up (there's no defined yolk) and made from a mixture of gelatine, starch, alum, and a variety of other things.
If you read the actual article, they address this (even using a sh*t-related metaphor):
"Don VanCleave, president of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores, says blame lies with "an absolute, gigantic cesspool of really bad bands.""
firm@sorbaralaw.com
I haven't been able to find this specific lawyer's email address yet.
J. Greg Murdoch
Sorbara, Schumacher, McCann LLP.
(519) 576-0460
alternate telephone number: (519) 836-1510
Don't harass the man, but don't be afraid to exercise your constitutional right to free speech either.
"You are still clinging to your mind to listen to the Dharma; you fail to realize the Dharma nature. This is like a man pointing a finger at the moon to show it to others who should follow the direction of the finger to look at the moon. If they look at the finger and mistake it for the moon, they lose sight of both the moon and the finger. Why? Because the bright moon is actually pointed at; they mistake the finger for the bright moon and are not clear about brightness and darkness."
This metaphor is one of the classic passages where the Buddha lets his followers know that using their own eyes and mind to discover the world and how it works is more important than blindly following anything he's said. This attitude is one of the many reasons Buddhists have no trouble with evolution.
There just aren't any mainstream schools of Buddhism that support a Creationist or Intelligent Design viewpoint. I know that might sound difficult to accept, but if you took the time to learn about the religion you would understand why. I gave one explanation in my post; Wikipedia has another good explanation that looks at it from a different perspective: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_evolutio n
Or Google for "buddhism evolution". Take the time to do some reading about the religion. You'll see why you've misunderstood what the Dalai Lama's book was trying to say.
There are no prominent Buddhist thinkers or leaders who question evolution. That includes the Dalai Lama. One of the core parts of Buddhist thought is that clinging (Tanha) to disproven ideas is a path to suffering (Dukkha). The Buddha taught that we should be prepared alter or discard even his teachings as new information came to light. This is one of the more significant ways in that Buddhism differs from other religious traditions. The Buddha used the metaphor of a raft on a stream; as we travel down the stream, our scenery changes; once we reach the destination, we should even be prepared to discard the raft (his teachings) entirely. For this reason, and several others (such as the importance of samma ditthi, or right thought), Buddhists are very open to scientific discovery and learning. Virtually without exception, they would be dismayed to hear the Dalai Lama's writings used to prop up Creationism or Intelligent Design.
As for the Dalai Lama's book, his central message is to avoid thinking of humans mechanistically. It is not an endorsement of supernatural intervention.
Most digital audio is not filtered below 20 Hz. That's a myth that persists for a variety of reasons. In the days of vinyl, audio was consistently high-pass filtered because even with the standard RIAA equalization, deep bass produced excessively large grooves. Microphones are sometimes filtered to remove rumble, but in cases where the lowest frequencies are important, such as movie soundtracks, the lowest frequencies are generally preserved, subject to limitations of the equipment, such as AC coupling capacitors. Placing a filter at 20 Hz also has potentially audible drawbacks since the phase shift of the filter will easily extend an octave higher (40 Hz).
I can't really comment on western Europe; haven't travelled through there in 11 years. All I meant to say is that in Africa and the Middle East, Nescafe is perceived as a premium brand. Generic coffee grounds are almost always cheaper wherever you go (being a commodity), but people in these regions nevertheless prefer Nescafe for intangible reasons, largely marketing and partly as a perceived token of Western culture, in the same way that many choose Coke over locally produced drinks. Like all marketing, it's all a construction, but it is somewhat ironic that what many perceive as a premium brand because of its Western association is not at all considered a premium brand in much of the Western world.
This is true in many countries. Nescafe seems to be almost ubiquitous across much of Africa and the Middle East (and I'd probably guess elsewhere too though my travels haven't taken me much beyond these regions). Even in Turkey, a country *famous* for its Turkish coffee, if you ask for coffee without being more specific, you'll get Nescafe. It's an interesting testament to the power of marketing or the appeal of things perceived as part of Western culture. The irony is, in North America, you're unlikely to find Nescafe anywhere except vending machines.
You're wrong. $129 is the full price for Tiger, not the upgrade price. I've installed the retail box Tiger on a blank, unformatted hard drive. No problems. Also worth mentioning is that Tiger has no "activation" requirements, so you can install that $129 OS on all the machines in your household. (Yes, this violates copyright, but that's beside the point -- and Apple does offer a discounted "family pack" as well.) With XP you have to buy multiple copies of the OS for multiple machines, and there is no "family pack" option.
I agree with you on the amortization expenses. Most people ignore them, and they're one of the major costs of owning a vehicle. Amortization is also one of the major reasons to purchase a used car. If you run the numbers, it's most cash-effective to purchase a 6-8 year old used vehicle. You can further improve your costs by choosing a used vehicle that had a relatively low selling price when new (more expensive vehicles depreciate at basically the same percentage per year, which works out to more dollars per year in absolute terms) and choosing a vehicle with a good reliability record as measured by independent agencies like Consumer Reports, the Lemon-Aid Guides, or even JD Power. The prior poster is also underestimating insurance costs. $700-800/yr is closer to the average insurance costs for a 30 year old American. (You need to carry liability; it's financial suicide not to in our litigious society.) Of course, having a used car lets you save significantly on collision and comprehensive or omit them entirely if you choose.
It doesn't make a lot of rational sense -- why should people who often can't afford insurance pay the highest prices? -- but it is an artifact of the way the system is designed. Hospitals set a high fee by default and then negotiate steep discounts with insurance companies. Individuals don't get these same discounts. Recently, there have been plenty of articles in the Wall Street Journal about this and other aspects of health care economics.
The problem is that things haven't worked that way in the real world, not for a long time. Since the late '70s there has been an assumption that DARPA will fund the bulk of CS fundamental research. Partly because of that, is has historically been *very* difficult to get a grant approved by the NSF for CS research unless it's very targeted towards the pure end of the research spectrum. Computer architecture (except very low-level engineering), graphics, human-computer interaction, even databases, etc. are all fields that the NSF has been reluctant to fund because by their nature, even the basic research has an "applied" component.
Without an increase in NSF funding, the DARPA cuts are going to devastate many areas of CS research. It's really disheartening.
It's Trebuchet MS. It is a very nice typeface, especially for on-screen use because of its large x-height. For some reason it suffers a bit of horizontal optical compression when viewed with ClearType on an XP machine. It looks particularly nice on MacOS X.
If you're aware of any real rootkits spreading for OS X, let me know, I'd be interested in hearing about them.
In any case, the Linux/BSD Rootkit.nl checking tool has been available for OS X for a long time now, if you're genuinely concerned or looking for another layer of security.
As far as I know, Warren Buffett is still the world's second richest man. His wealth does not fluctuate as much as several of the other contenders, so it is possible that the rankings change temporarily.
The only advantage TeX has in typesetting quality is its multiline composer. People who have written peer-reviewed research papers related to this (e.g. one of David Salesin's current grad students, whose name escapes me at the moment) have pointed out that the actual difference in a document set with a multiline composer versus a proper single line composer is surprisingly small. Single line composers get a bad rap because the algorithm used in Word is terrible. Granted, TeX is superior in this regard, but it is not radically better. Using multiple fonts in TeX is nowhere near trivial. I've never managed to get the complete Adobe Minion, including expert sets and small caps, installed properly in TeX without screwed up kerning, even using the command-line font install utility. I spent literally two days working on it. There's a reason virtually every TeX document out there uses either Computer Modern or Times Roman, even in the humanities where equation support is irrelevant. It's nearly impossible for average people to install new fonts. I like TeX, I really do. I used LaTeX for my thesis because it was the best tool at the time. But I wouldn't do it again.
The easy way around this, of course, is to leave your equations in raw TeX until a few days before the paper submission deadline, then convert them, when the equations are unlikely to change. Not ideal, but not really a big hassle either. The continual TeX/LaTeX edit then compile then view then edit then compile then view cycle bothers me more than using clipping services to get equations in a real WYSIWYG word processor with quality typography (granted, without TeX's multiline composer, but with automatic ligatures and easy use of multiple fonts).
You can set up an OS X clipping service to take a TeX equation and transform it immediately into an embedded EPS or PDF without leaving your main application. This works for Mellel as well. There's nothing better than TeX for equations anyway.