There are some open source CAM programs, but none of them are really good enough to replace something like MasterCAM at this point.

There's a list of programs on the linuxcnc.org wiki, here: http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?Cam

Incidentally, if you want to help finance the web hosting for this project, and you happen to need web hosting as well, use this link: http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?80098

It's just the definition of an operating system, that's all.

The OS is there to provide a standardized (for that OS - not necessarily across OSes) interface to hardware resources. This includes memory, disk space, CPU time, and of course user interface hardware.

If there were no OSes, everyone would have to include e.g. filesystem software within any program that wanted to use the disk drive. The whole point of Windows was to insulate the programmer from the hardware - you use the same GDI calls whether you have a Diamond, 3dFX, Number Nine, or Matrox card (back in the old days). The driver and OS insulate the application from the specifics of talking to the hardware.

Video games are a bit of a special case, because they are the most performance-limited applications most people see. For most applications, there should be no need to know anything about the hardware implementation - only its capabilities (resolution, color depth, etc). The OS API should insulate the programmer from having to know the details of the underlying hardware. For specific applications though, where the highest performance is needed, the application needs to just reserve the hardware resources and ask the OS to get out of the way. Databases need this for memory and disk management, and video games need this for graphics hardware. There shouldn't be a need for a browser to get to this level.

Funny.

I think that's the first Buckaroo Banzai signature I've seen on Slashdot :)

Now that's funny.

I had a professor who said it like this:

Math is the only pure science
Physics is chunky math
Chemistry is wet physics
Biology is gooey chemistry

(or something like that)

(most SSD are 2.5", not 3.5")

PCIe "hard drives" already exist.

Here's a 1TB model: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227500
There are others in 250GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities.

I doubt that the cost goes down much though. The PCIe interface chip isn't free, and neither is the card bracket. The PC board itself is also much larger, and has to be thicker than those used on most hard drives. The cost differences are probably a wash.

Well yes, that's the point.

It would be better to ban lobbying outright.

A distant second place, and actually better in some ways, is to make public EVERY WORD that lobbyists and elected officials exchange.

I realize that this would affect both supposedly "bad" and supposedly "good" lobbyists equally, and that's just fine with me. Neither should have the opportunity to influence our policymakers the way they do now.

They should make a law that requires transcripts of all discussions with lobbyists to be published.

And define a lobbyist as "anyone who claims to represent the opinions of anyone else".

Actually, this is the case with private insurance as well.

In the course of debate, people have talked about how the insurance companies are necessary to keep the cost of medical care low. In fact, it makes no real difference what the actual caregivers receive, it only matters how much the insurance company pays out.

Profit = income - expenses.

The insurance companies lower expenses by not approving treatments, as well as contracting lower payments for treatment. There was a recent report (I don't have a link) discussing the effect of low insurance contract rates on the rates for everyone else. The gist of it was that the low rates the insurance companies pay for services are subsidized by the much higher rates others pay. When everyone has insurance the rates will have to increase, because there will no longer be a pool of high-paying uninsured.

I think what people keep forgetting is that we have a system that rewards companies (hospitals, doctors, insurance) for not making people well. In my view, hospitals shouldn't be for-profit institutions. I'd generalize that actually, any business that isn't necessary in the ideal case should not be for profit. (think fire departments - the best case for a fire department is if they can educate people and prevent fires) There's an incentive to create or prolong problems when your business is based on treating those problems.

From the article:

Note that they explicitly say that the rock did not cool on the surface, where it would have cooled quickly. Therefore, it's very likely that it did not come from an eruption of Olympus Mons.

A few people have said it already, but I'd like to reiterate:

Don't expect software to be able to do this for you. Tax laws change every year, both federal and state. Requirements for corporate filings change every year. Payroll requirements change every year (withholding amounts for FICA, FUTA, unemployment, health insurance requirements, etc).

I have an S-corp, but I don't do any of this myself.

I have a payroll service that costs $50 or so per month. For that cost, they do direct deposit, tax withholding, and also file quarterly 941 forms and prepare W-2s at the end of the year. All deductions are calculated by them, and their guarantee is that if they make a mistake, they take liability for it - ie, they'll pay any penalties or interest that arise as a result.

I have a lawyer who charges less than $200/year to prepare corporate filings. Additionally, they provide me with a list of changes to corporate laws over the course of the year. They highlight anything that may be important for me as a small business owner.

I have a CPA who prepares the corporate tax return. I do the day-to-day accounting (I happen to have Peachtree for Windows, I couldn't find anything open source or Linux based in 2000 when I started this business), but the CPA checks things over and prepares the corporate return and shareholder K-1 forms. This costs about $1000/year.

Overall, I pay roughly $2000/year for all of these services. I think this is well worth it, since I not only don't have to spend the time actually doing this work, but I also don't have to spend the time learning how I need to do it differently every year. I also get some measure of effective insurance, at least with the payroll company, since they are responsible for any mistakes they might make (they haven't made any yet).

I note that most of the question was really directed at legal questions. You can certainly get boilerplate contracts from several places. You may want to find a local lawyer and have them write you one. Get a confidentiality agreement, a subcontractor agreement, and a contract for services (that you provide). Once you have those, you can essentially reuse them for future contracts. There aren't a lot of requirements for meeting minutes (though one thing you should watch out for is that you are required to send a notice of shareholder meetings some 30 days before they're scheduled, or you need to have a "waiver of notice" form signed by all the shareholders. Of course this may not be true in your state) - just a list of people present, a very simple list of topics covered (summaries of the conversation are good, but are not necessary), and the dated signatures of the corporate secretary and president, who in my state can't be the same person.

The bottom line is that there is a lot of expertise needed to do these things right and keep up with all the annual changes. The cost of hiring experts is not that high, so it should be pretty close to a no-brainer.

- Steve

Well, most of it is stupid, but as an example, I now know that if I want to create an explosive device, I need to use smaller than 28 gauge wire - so I should stick to 30 or, just to be safe, 36-gauge.

That type of breeder reactor isn't the only alternative.

Try this one instead:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_fast_reactor

The IFR (Integral Fast Reactor) would be able to extract 99% of the energy in the fuel, rather than the 1% we get from the types of reactor used today.

There's a big difference between admitting to a bug that you can fix with a low/no-cost firmware upgrade, and admitting to a bug which requires a massive recall, and announcing to the market you'll be charging them more for '486 chips until you pay for the replacements.

There, fixed that for you.

Android is software, not hardware. There is no guarantee that you will be able to write drivers, because not all manufacturers will give you datasheets without an NDA. There's no guarantee that you would get the source code to hardware drivers, since those can be non-GPL (resulting in a tainted kernel, but who cares, right?).

Unlike Android, OpenMoko is software and hardware.

You can also run Android on the OpenMoko hardware if you like (or Debian, or at least two other tailored distributions).

To the others asking, yes, the all the hardware is also open-source. You can download a pdf file with the schematics, and Pro/E models of the case. I asked Sean about "source" files for the schematics, and they haven't released them as yet. They're in Orcad, which is a multi-thousand dollar PCB design package. The gerber files for PCB manufacture are also not available (though I think they're in the pdf as well, so you'd at least get some good hints on layout there).

All software, including hardware emulators, is available online. Additionally, and what really sets them apart, is that you can get complete documentation from the manufacturers of every part they use - the processor, RF components, memory chips, etc. That's one thing that took a lot of time, and really restricted their design.

It's too bad Sean didn't mention the downsizing last week at the Embedded Systems Conference, but I guess that would have been pretty depressing to hear anyway.

- Steve