On May 14, he gave a talk entitled "All Questions Answered" for the Case Western Alumni Association. Does anyone here think he really answered all the questions? In other words, isn't it possible you folks are taking this a bit too literally?
Seems to me we just need to wait for 10.1 to see if the touchscreen is really the issue. Of course, if it is, then the wait for Flash to come to Android might be indefinite.
So, I've been using LabMeeting and BibDesk on my Macs. But since I've got a Droid now, I'm still trying to figure out the best way to read all my papers on that device, and probably an iPad when it comes out. Since Flash is not supported, LabMeeting won't work. Obviously, BibDesk is not supported right now. In fact, I'm guessing most of the sites/programs mentioned in this discussion won't work.
So? The only solution I can think of so far to store all my PDF's "in the cloud" is Google Docs or Dropbox. Dropbox might be the winner here, especially since you can get the revision history service. It's not free, but it's cheap enough to be worth it.
The big news here is that Verizon is clearly not going to carry the iPhone anytime soon. A few months ago, Verizon and Apple were "in talks". So, what happened? That's the most interesting part about this story. You guys are burying the lead.
I haven't seen one post refer to the fact that a prerequisite for Biochemistry is Organic Chemistry. If Biochemistry is not a med school requirement, it should be - and therefore, so should Orgo. Med students get about 5 minutes of biochem in 1st year classes, usually in a class like Human Physiology. Biochemistry is the foundation for all of medicine. I wouldn't argue with folks who say it is not absolutely necessary to take Orgo to "do well" in Biochem. I agree - you can get by without Orgo. However, students who take Orgo generally have a much better grasp of biochemistry.
Hey, a smug post on/. What else is new? First, Samsung and Phillips both have players under $100 that upconvert to 1080p. Last time I checked, those companies were not Chinese. Second, "near high-definition" can really mean anything. Sure, a true HD signal has more information than a DVD. I assume the poster knows this already. Upconverted DVD's, in my actual experience, are "near" in the sense that a 128 kbs is "near CD quality". Sure there's more detail in a HD-signal, but if you sit back at a normal viewing distance, like most people actually do in their homes, the differences are not that substantial. And let me say that I have a Samsung 46" HDTV (LNT4661F). I was one of the early adopters to the DVD format (got my first player in 1998 for $500). It was a gigantic leap forward for home video. HD-DVD, Blu-Ray are great, but a format war is a PITA. For now, I get along with an upconverting DVD player, and HD television. I'll wait until the war is over.
Traffic equation. I think it's well-known by engineers. But hey, we're more practical than mathematicians any day of the week (and especially at rush hour).
Matlab won't be replaced any time soon. There are too many m-files out there that would have to be ported. Sage would need to apply the equivalent of all the commonly used toolboxes. I routinely use Image Processing, Spline, and Statistics, and am thinking about getting the Image Acquisition toolbox to control CCD cameras from the major manufacturers. Matlab is well supported by industry - just like LabView. If these guys from UW think they will replace Matlab, they are way off the mark. For academics, Matlab is actually insanely cheap for what it does. Time is more important than money, if you're doing research. Matlab would have to be much more expensive than it is for me to switch to something else.
There are audiophiles and then there are audioobsessivecompulsivefiles. I'll happily admit to being an audiophile, but I don't spend thousands on stereo equipment. On the contrary, I spend quite a bit of money on DIY audio. I've built my own speakers. My own D/A converter. Eventually I'll build my own amplifier. (I'm working up to the high voltages!) Is this so I can improve the sound quality? Well, in theory, but it's really more about the hobby. At least, I'm learning about electronics. The problem with most audiophiles is that they don't know enough about electronics to know that they're being taken for a ride.
I agree with you. Eckel's point that concurrency can make Python "slowness" irrelevant is a good one, but it's even better if we substitute Haskell for Python, or maybe functional programming, in general. Haskell is a hard language to learn, no doubt. But I am trying, for exactly the same reason Eckel thinks Python can be improved. With Haskell there is already a path to "simple concurrency", or at least, simpler than will be the case for dynamic languages like Python.
Finally, a sensible person. You realize that what you were paying the premium for was exclusivity - being cool. At least, you can admit it. Apple did nothing wrong, and I think people should stop whining. If it had been $399 from the get go, lines would have been 2-3 times as long, and many of those early buyers may have been out of luck finding an iPhone - look at the Wii.
No, that's not right. Most scientists get paid by the university from a combination of grant money and university funds. Grad students in science almost universally are funded by the PI (Principal Investigator), who are, in turn, funded by the government or some industry source. The only students who may "pay to do research" are 1) undergrads and 2) some Masters students, however, they rarely do as much work as PhD students or postdocs (who are also funded by the PI). Moreover, much of the infrastructure in a lab is originally acquired by startup funds, which are given by the university. Try doing research without hoods, incubators, centrifuges, refrigerators, microscopes, etc. It's not so easy. So, to the original poster of the question, the university pretty much owns the research. If you want to own your research, start a company.
OTOH, Opera is somewhat limited because certain popular extension are only written for Firefox these days, for example, the del.icio.us Firefox plugin is really nice, and Google Docs & Spreadsheets does not support Opera. This is not Opera's fault, of course, but in the end that doesn't really matter. I recently switched to Opera, because I was sick and tired of the Firefox memory leak issues, and I have been mostly happy. Opera has some nifty features that Firefox doesn't (to my knowledge), such as the speed dial and quick searching from the url bar. However, there are several times, I've had to "Identify as Firefox" to get a website to work, and one can only take so much of this inconvenience. I must say, several years ago Firefox was in the same boat, and I made due, because I hated IE. So, I will try to stick with Opera, and hope it becomes more widely supported. I hope Firefox doesn't get too comfortable.
The article says that mp3's represent less than 10% of the original music. Huh? Yeah, mp3 is a lossy format, but does anyone associated with this article know anything about compression algorithms? The problem does not stem from mp3 - we need only look to the source of displeasure - the extreme dynamic range compression of CD's themselves. That is what has changed in the last 10 years. And who can we blame for this? The very same music producers that are complaining about the strawman that is mp3. Data compression is not the real issue here. The real culprit is the music compression designed to make everything sound as loud as possible.
As to the assertion that only 10% of the music is represented. Let me refute that now. The bit rate of uncompressed wav is about 1400 kbs, so 10:1 (data) compression gives roughly 128 kbs. Now, if you listen to an mp3 at 128 kbs, tell me is only 10% of the music represented? What does that even mean? The "10%" figure is so ambiguous, it could mean anything to anyone. Same with "listening through a screen door". I have seen very few double-blind or ABX listening tests comparing compression formats, but the few that exists always show that, while people have some ability to detect differences at 128 kbs (on normal audio systems), it's definitely not obvious to the casual listener. And that's probably 99% of the crowd buying mp3's.
"Parallelism? That's one of the things functional style makes sense for. Big deal *shrugs*"
Big deal? Yep, big deal. Programming hasn't really changed for decades. This shift to parallelism is the biggest thing on the horizon, and any "future language" had better come equipped. Haskell...and I'll throw in Erlang...appear to be the two most important > languages that will influence the paradigm shift. Lisp? Yeah, I have nothing against Lisp, although I don't know it well. It's not pure. It's not statically typed. It seems to me those are disadvantages to parallelism. As I alluded to earlier, the future may not be Haskell - but it will look something like it. (Maybe with uglier syntax, though.)
Slashdot Mirror
On May 14, he gave a talk entitled "All Questions Answered" for the Case Western Alumni Association. Does anyone here think he really answered all the questions? In other words, isn't it possible you folks are taking this a bit too literally?
>>Vi >>You really should use emacs >>emacs >>You really should use vim
Seems to me we just need to wait for 10.1 to see if the touchscreen is really the issue. Of course, if it is, then the wait for Flash to come to Android might be indefinite.
So, I've been using LabMeeting and BibDesk on my Macs. But since I've got a Droid now, I'm still trying to figure out the best way to read all my papers on that device, and probably an iPad when it comes out. Since Flash is not supported, LabMeeting won't work. Obviously, BibDesk is not supported right now. In fact, I'm guessing most of the sites/programs mentioned in this discussion won't work. So? The only solution I can think of so far to store all my PDF's "in the cloud" is Google Docs or Dropbox. Dropbox might be the winner here, especially since you can get the revision history service. It's not free, but it's cheap enough to be worth it.
We already know how tall women will be in the 25th century. Doesn't anyone remember Erin Gray?
The big news here is that Verizon is clearly not going to carry the iPhone anytime soon. A few months ago, Verizon and Apple were "in talks". So, what happened? That's the most interesting part about this story. You guys are burying the lead.
I haven't seen one post refer to the fact that a prerequisite for Biochemistry is Organic Chemistry. If Biochemistry is not a med school requirement, it should be - and therefore, so should Orgo. Med students get about 5 minutes of biochem in 1st year classes, usually in a class like Human Physiology. Biochemistry is the foundation for all of medicine. I wouldn't argue with folks who say it is not absolutely necessary to take Orgo to "do well" in Biochem. I agree - you can get by without Orgo. However, students who take Orgo generally have a much better grasp of biochemistry.
Yeah, I think we got it.
Hey, a smug post on /. What else is new? First, Samsung and Phillips both have players under $100 that upconvert to 1080p. Last time I checked, those companies were not Chinese. Second, "near high-definition" can really mean anything. Sure, a true HD signal has more information than a DVD. I assume the poster knows this already. Upconverted DVD's, in my actual experience, are "near" in the sense that a 128 kbs is "near CD quality". Sure there's more detail in a HD-signal, but if you sit back at a normal viewing distance, like most people actually do in their homes, the differences are not that substantial. And let me say that I have a Samsung 46" HDTV (LNT4661F). I was one of the early adopters to the DVD format (got my first player in 1998 for $500). It was a gigantic leap forward for home video. HD-DVD, Blu-Ray are great, but a format war is a PITA. For now, I get along with an upconverting DVD player, and HD television. I'll wait until the war is over.
Traffic equation. I think it's well-known by engineers. But hey, we're more practical than mathematicians any day of the week (and especially at rush hour).
Matlab won't be replaced any time soon. There are too many m-files out there that would have to be ported. Sage would need to apply the equivalent of all the commonly used toolboxes. I routinely use Image Processing, Spline, and Statistics, and am thinking about getting the Image Acquisition toolbox to control CCD cameras from the major manufacturers. Matlab is well supported by industry - just like LabView. If these guys from UW think they will replace Matlab, they are way off the mark. For academics, Matlab is actually insanely cheap for what it does. Time is more important than money, if you're doing research. Matlab would have to be much more expensive than it is for me to switch to something else.
Damn! I should have known everyone would beat me to the Robocop reference.
I like that you got modded +5 for being funny. I didn't know using LaTex was considered humorous.
There are audiophiles and then there are audioobsessivecompulsivefiles. I'll happily admit to being an audiophile, but I don't spend thousands on stereo equipment. On the contrary, I spend quite a bit of money on DIY audio. I've built my own speakers. My own D/A converter. Eventually I'll build my own amplifier. (I'm working up to the high voltages!) Is this so I can improve the sound quality? Well, in theory, but it's really more about the hobby. At least, I'm learning about electronics. The problem with most audiophiles is that they don't know enough about electronics to know that they're being taken for a ride.
I see where you're going - and I like it...How about "Porn, Blogs, and MP3"?
Damn! You took my line.
Our youth culture has shifted from "Sex, Drugs, & Rock'n Roll" to "Porn Sites, Blogs, & Forums". Yeah, that's about right.
I agree with you. Eckel's point that concurrency can make Python "slowness" irrelevant is a good one, but it's even better if we substitute Haskell for Python, or maybe functional programming, in general. Haskell is a hard language to learn, no doubt. But I am trying, for exactly the same reason Eckel thinks Python can be improved. With Haskell there is already a path to "simple concurrency", or at least, simpler than will be the case for dynamic languages like Python.
http://nontroppo.org/timer/kestrel_tests/
Finally, a sensible person. You realize that what you were paying the premium for was exclusivity - being cool. At least, you can admit it. Apple did nothing wrong, and I think people should stop whining. If it had been $399 from the get go, lines would have been 2-3 times as long, and many of those early buyers may have been out of luck finding an iPhone - look at the Wii.
He must have been kidding, as I saw only one pair of () in his comment.
No, that's not right. Most scientists get paid by the university from a combination of grant money and university funds. Grad students in science almost universally are funded by the PI (Principal Investigator), who are, in turn, funded by the government or some industry source. The only students who may "pay to do research" are 1) undergrads and 2) some Masters students, however, they rarely do as much work as PhD students or postdocs (who are also funded by the PI). Moreover, much of the infrastructure in a lab is originally acquired by startup funds, which are given by the university. Try doing research without hoods, incubators, centrifuges, refrigerators, microscopes, etc. It's not so easy. So, to the original poster of the question, the university pretty much owns the research. If you want to own your research, start a company.
OTOH, Opera is somewhat limited because certain popular extension are only written for Firefox these days, for example, the del.icio.us Firefox plugin is really nice, and Google Docs & Spreadsheets does not support Opera. This is not Opera's fault, of course, but in the end that doesn't really matter. I recently switched to Opera, because I was sick and tired of the Firefox memory leak issues, and I have been mostly happy. Opera has some nifty features that Firefox doesn't (to my knowledge), such as the speed dial and quick searching from the url bar. However, there are several times, I've had to "Identify as Firefox" to get a website to work, and one can only take so much of this inconvenience. I must say, several years ago Firefox was in the same boat, and I made due, because I hated IE. So, I will try to stick with Opera, and hope it becomes more widely supported. I hope Firefox doesn't get too comfortable.
The article says that mp3's represent less than 10% of the original music. Huh? Yeah, mp3 is a lossy format, but does anyone associated with this article know anything about compression algorithms? The problem does not stem from mp3 - we need only look to the source of displeasure - the extreme dynamic range compression of CD's themselves. That is what has changed in the last 10 years. And who can we blame for this? The very same music producers that are complaining about the strawman that is mp3. Data compression is not the real issue here. The real culprit is the music compression designed to make everything sound as loud as possible. As to the assertion that only 10% of the music is represented. Let me refute that now. The bit rate of uncompressed wav is about 1400 kbs, so 10:1 (data) compression gives roughly 128 kbs. Now, if you listen to an mp3 at 128 kbs, tell me is only 10% of the music represented? What does that even mean? The "10%" figure is so ambiguous, it could mean anything to anyone. Same with "listening through a screen door". I have seen very few double-blind or ABX listening tests comparing compression formats, but the few that exists always show that, while people have some ability to detect differences at 128 kbs (on normal audio systems), it's definitely not obvious to the casual listener. And that's probably 99% of the crowd buying mp3's.
"Parallelism? That's one of the things functional style makes sense for. Big deal *shrugs*" Big deal? Yep, big deal. Programming hasn't really changed for decades. This shift to parallelism is the biggest thing on the horizon, and any "future language" had better come equipped. Haskell...and I'll throw in Erlang...appear to be the two most important > languages that will influence the paradigm shift. Lisp? Yeah, I have nothing against Lisp, although I don't know it well. It's not pure. It's not statically typed. It seems to me those are disadvantages to parallelism. As I alluded to earlier, the future may not be Haskell - but it will look something like it. (Maybe with uglier syntax, though.)