Yeah. I cancelled my cable modem account and went with a hot, new Wi-Fi provider called Default. Don't know who runs it, but there just about everywhere and don't send me a bill!;-)
Coming from the deliberately-synthesized school of chemistry, I was surprised when I sat on a PhD committee recently, and asked the student what the sponge did with the chemical she was discussing. I got a blank stare from the student, and one of the committee members told me that nobody knows, and the natural-product researchers just pick an organism, puree it (or some part of it), make separations, then try them on anything they'd like to cure/killl, and see what works.
This is not even half of the whole drug design process! It is, however, a great way that we get a good lead compound for further studies. To really analyze the effectiveness of a compound as a drug, you'd have to add a bit more than this oversimplified approach... molecular modeling studies and QSAR would be important, a database and literature search in the process as well (find out if anyone's come across anything remotely similar and what difficulties they've encountered), and we haven't even gotten to the Phase I, II, and III Clinical Trials, yet!
All in all, the whole process of going from finding a compound in pureed sea squirt to being stocked in your local pharmacy shelf is going to take about 15 years and something on the order of $1 billion, if you're lucky. And people wonder why drugs cost so much?
But articles such as this serve a purpose. For one, they stress the need for additional spending on pharmaceutical research, because generally, curing cancer and alzheimer's makes people feel good. And for another, the article points out the need to take care of our environment, not necessarily in the sense of complete, left-wing, liberal, untouched save-the-world kind of attitudes. But more in the sense of, "we don't want to kill off anything that could be potentially economically useful and/or save lives," kind of sense.
Now that we're beginning to understand genomics, it's becoming a lot easier to synthesize complex biomolecules. If we can identify the genes that are involved in making the proteins that go into how certain organisms produce a particular compound, we can modify those genes, put them in a particular order, then place those same genes into a bacterium and let nature do our dirty work for us!;-)
Hmm, looking at Google Mobile's website, I see a few interesting things:
First, It looks like Google is just using their.mobi domain to point to a subdirectory under their google.com domain. So why have the damn domain in the first place.
Second, look at the URL for Mobile Gmail (m.gmail.com). Instead of a four-letter TLD (.mobi), wouldn't it have been much easier to create a single-letter TLD (.m)? Does ICANN have more than two collective brain cells at all?!?!
We're going to take a step back about 20-30 years, but instead of smoking vs. non-smoking sections on flights, we're going to see cell phone talking vs. non-cell phone talking sections.
Kind of a sad day in the history of the internet when MySpace wins a Webby Award. Shouldn't, "Breakout of the Year," in fact be, "Broken HTML of the Year?"
What's the equivalent of the Razzies for websites?
A lot of teenagers in the 1980s and early 1990s used to have lots of their own, personally-recorded cassette tapes, filled mainly with music that they recorded off of the radio. Lots of them would then share these tapes by dubbing them on friends' cassette recorders and such. Not a whole lot different than the modern way of sharing via the internet; one friend buys a CD and lets their friends listen to it... they like it, and they can use the internet to share the material.
For some reason, the RIAA still hasn't quite figured this out, or actually, they probably have, but think that this classifies as, "piracy."
A stingy old spammer who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness was determined to prove wrong the saying, "You can't take it with you."
After much thought and consideration, the old spammer finally figured out how to take at least some of his money with him when he died. He instructed his wife to go to the bank and withdraw enough money to fill two pillow cases. He then directed her to take the bags of money to the attic and leave them directly above his bed. His plan: When he passed away, he would reach out and grab the bags on his way to heaven.
Several weeks after the funeral, the deceased spammer's wife, up in the attic cleaning, came upon the two forgotten pillow cases stuffed with cash.
"Oh, that darned old fool," she exclaimed. "I knew he should have had me put the money in the basement."
Can we start by getting rid of MySpace? That seems to be huge waste of space and bandwidth, and with 60 million subscribers, would definitely cut down on the internet's bloat.
is not worry about raising the real age limit of MySpace. Raise the average maturity level of MySpace users. I've known people that are 25-30 that use MySpace and act like 13-year-olds!
It's actually quite obvious that this MA legislator is simply doing this for vote-whoring, nothing more. He really doesn't care if this gets passed or not, or if this thing gets passed but eventually thrown out of court. He's just in this so that he can use the current buzzwords of the day: "MySpace", "pedophilia", "child safety",... these things seem to sell newspapers, and get parents really excited,... enough that they're willing to vote for this guy for, "doing the right thing," and, "making a valiant attempt," at solving these problems.
I'm still waiting for the sequel to Spaceballs: The Movie! When is that coming out? I heard Mel Brooks was working on it, too,... something like, Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money!
Despite the implications of this statement, what it probably really involves is paying off a student or two to sniff out and inform on filesharing activity, either by running RIAA apps or just manual searching. It wouldn't be the first time they've used this method.
Actually, what probably went on is that the xxAA went to some of the hundreds of thousands of students that they caught illegally downloading music, and offered them amnesty if they would provide some inside information about how their university's network is set up. So now they've got the students, in their eyes, violating the law twice: once to download illegally, and again to snoop around the university network and spy on the filesharing activity. Wonderful! Sick bastards.
Maybe they just plugged in so to speak. With free open wireless being made more available in higher ed, all it takes someone sitting on/near campus with a laptop to be on the network. No need for paying off an insider. How they identified file sharing on the lan is a different matter.
Actually, a lot of schools nowadays have started to require some type of software and access code to access their wi-fi network. About 90% of the schools I have visited in the past two years have had closed wi-fi networks.
Slashdot Mirror
$29.99 a month for cable TV?!?! Where do you live?! Sign me up for this cable company!
Yeah. I cancelled my cable modem account and went with a hot, new Wi-Fi provider called Default . Don't know who runs it, but there just about everywhere and don't send me a bill! ;-)
I for one welcome our new mind-reading overlords!
This is not even half of the whole drug design process! It is, however, a great way that we get a good lead compound for further studies. To really analyze the effectiveness of a compound as a drug, you'd have to add a bit more than this oversimplified approach ... molecular modeling studies and QSAR would be important, a database and literature search in the process as well (find out if anyone's come across anything remotely similar and what difficulties they've encountered), and we haven't even gotten to the Phase I, II, and III Clinical Trials, yet!
All in all, the whole process of going from finding a compound in pureed sea squirt to being stocked in your local pharmacy shelf is going to take about 15 years and something on the order of $1 billion, if you're lucky. And people wonder why drugs cost so much?
But articles such as this serve a purpose. For one, they stress the need for additional spending on pharmaceutical research, because generally, curing cancer and alzheimer's makes people feel good. And for another, the article points out the need to take care of our environment, not necessarily in the sense of complete, left-wing, liberal, untouched save-the-world kind of attitudes. But more in the sense of, "we don't want to kill off anything that could be potentially economically useful and/or save lives," kind of sense.
Now that we're beginning to understand genomics, it's becoming a lot easier to synthesize complex biomolecules. If we can identify the genes that are involved in making the proteins that go into how certain organisms produce a particular compound, we can modify those genes, put them in a particular order, then place those same genes into a bacterium and let nature do our dirty work for us! ;-)
We're going to take a step back about 20-30 years, but instead of smoking vs. non-smoking sections on flights, we're going to see cell phone talking vs. non-cell phone talking sections.
This sounds like any nerd's wet dream! A beowulf cluster of panties!
view data
Just because our President is dumb as a doorknob, can't speak, and looks like a chimpanzee in a flightsuit, doesn't mean all of us are stupid,...
Does this answer your question?
What's the equivalent of the Razzies for websites?
For some reason, the RIAA still hasn't quite figured this out, or actually, they probably have, but think that this classifies as, "piracy."
Has CowboyNeal filed the trademarks for the "/" and the "." yet? One would think that would be an excellent money-making opportunity for slashdot.
Imagine what a beowulf cluster of these things could do?
I heard that they're going to replace the blue men with the Ambiguously Gay Duo!
A stingy old spammer who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness was determined to prove wrong the saying, "You can't take it with you." After much thought and consideration, the old spammer finally figured out how to take at least some of his money with him when he died. He instructed his wife to go to the bank and withdraw enough money to fill two pillow cases. He then directed her to take the bags of money to the attic and leave them directly above his bed. His plan: When he passed away, he would reach out and grab the bags on his way to heaven. Several weeks after the funeral, the deceased spammer's wife, up in the attic cleaning, came upon the two forgotten pillow cases stuffed with cash. "Oh, that darned old fool," she exclaimed. "I knew he should have had me put the money in the basement."
Can we start by getting rid of MySpace? That seems to be huge waste of space and bandwidth, and with 60 million subscribers, would definitely cut down on the internet's bloat.
is not worry about raising the real age limit of MySpace. Raise the average maturity level of MySpace users. I've known people that are 25-30 that use MySpace and act like 13-year-olds!
It's actually quite obvious that this MA legislator is simply doing this for vote-whoring, nothing more. He really doesn't care if this gets passed or not, or if this thing gets passed but eventually thrown out of court. He's just in this so that he can use the current buzzwords of the day: "MySpace", "pedophilia", "child safety",... these things seem to sell newspapers, and get parents really excited,... enough that they're willing to vote for this guy for, "doing the right thing," and, "making a valiant attempt," at solving these problems.
Has Ric Romero seen this report yet?
I'm still waiting for the sequel to Spaceballs: The Movie ! When is that coming out? I heard Mel Brooks was working on it, too,... something like, Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money!
If it involves Tom Cruise eating a placenta, it might actually be good! ;-)
Actually, what probably went on is that the xxAA went to some of the hundreds of thousands of students that they caught illegally downloading music, and offered them amnesty if they would provide some inside information about how their university's network is set up. So now they've got the students, in their eyes, violating the law twice: once to download illegally, and again to snoop around the university network and spy on the filesharing activity. Wonderful! Sick bastards.
Actually, a lot of schools nowadays have started to require some type of software and access code to access their wi-fi network. About 90% of the schools I have visited in the past two years have had closed wi-fi networks.