DanielMarkham - Slashdot User

Submission + - My Favorite Moon: Iapetus (whattofix.com)

Submitted by

Daniel Markham

on Wednesday July 18, 2007 @12:52PM

Daniel Markham writes: "Saturn's moons are some of the strangest moons in the solar system. Out of all of this weirdness, Iapetus strikes me as one of the strangest. It's got an odd mix of colors, is oddly shaped, and has the big freaking wall or ridgeline running down the middle of it. Makes it look like a moon with a screw top.

Since some of the original Cassini pictures were released a couple of years ago, there's been a lot of speculation about Iapetus because of the wierdness of the images coming back. Some are calling it The Great Wall of Iapetus

Now comes news that the mystery of the Great Wall might have been solved. Scientists at JPL are saying that Iapetus might be one of the oldest moons in the solar system, and because of radioactive decay, the moon could have shrunk, forming the ridgeline.

The jury is still out, however. One thing is for certain: the more public speculation and involvement in the story, the more interest there is in NASA and the Cassini mission. Cassini is tasked with another close fly-by of walnut-shaped, Pac-Man-looking Iapetus in September. Let's hope for something that keeps the public interested."

Submission + - Christopher Hitchens vs Bush Adviser on God (whattofix.com)

Submitted by

Danie Markham

on Saturday July 14, 2007 @04:02PM

Danie Markham writes: "In the Washington Post on Saturday, Christopher Hitchens and Michael Gerson go at it over the existence of God. Gerson's title is "What Atheists Can't Answer". Hitchens puts up a great counter-attack with "An Atheist Responds"

I've tried to jazz up the conflict a bit and take apart each argument and analyze them. Aside from the shameful attempt at publicizing my blog, is there anything to be learned from comparing the two arguments? Specifically, are certain arguments so old as to be useless in the discussion about God's existence (the presence of evil, religious people do bad things, I believe just because, etc).

Hitchens and many atheists seem to feel mankind as a species has evolved to the point that we need to give up silly superstitious beliefs and walk with full vision into our future. Relgious folk such as Gerson seem to feel that such talk is hardly new, is hardly more evolved, and lacks substance. Has the argument evolved? Granted, simple superstitions such as Gods causing eclipses and thunder storms have long since passed for most humans, but many educated and intelligent people believe in something outside their own cosmos. Is the evolution of God into more obscure parts of our science a sign that God is almost dead? Or are we beginning to realize that the concept of God is simply a concept of anything outside our understanding — something that will always remain outside our reach? It's the weekend, and it's time for some Epistemology Smackdown for Nerds. I've got twenty bucks on Hitch!"

Submission + - Sixty Years of UFO Sightings -- Any Conclusions? (whattofix.com)

Submitted by

DanielMarkham

on Monday June 25, 2007 @06:18PM

DanielMarkham writes: "Sixty years ago this month a salesman flying a light plane in the Pacific Northwest spotted what he called "flying saucers". The name stuck, and over the next six decades the world went through all kinds of gyrations as we tried to come to grips with just whatever the heck is going on up there.

So aside from making lots of money for various "In Search Of" and "Unsolved Mysteries" shows, what progress, if any, have we made on the issue? The usual quote from skeptics is "where's the physical evidence?", but we have many simultaneous sighting and radar contacts on record. True believers insist on a governmental cover-up of massive proportions, which, to put it mildly, seems highly improbable.

Are there some conclusions we can reach? Is sixty years of sightings enough to reach any kind of conclusions at all?"

Submission + - Should IT Workers be Workaholics? Or Europeans? (whattofix.com)

Submitted by

Daniel Markham

on Wednesday June 06, 2007 @10:15AM

Daniel Markham writes: "Several new stories broke this week, from the report that IT workers in Europe mostly don't think their jobs depend on performance to the report that says a third of all Americans don't take all of their vacation time. The number of workaholics chapters is growing in the states — these are 12-step programs for people who work too much.

IT, especially in America, is famous for long hours and little sleep. Isn't this the way it's supposed to be? Or should be be taking a month off every year like the Europeans do? Is IT like working in a union shop making widgets waiting for the weekend, or is it more like being a doctor?

As for me, when I was in my 30s I stopped thinking about my time as either being "working" or "not-working" . Those names simply do not make any sense. It's like when you went to school and thought your time was either "learning" or "not learning". Once you grow the heck up, you realize you should be learning all the time. There should never be a time when you are not learning — what, are you planning on becoming a squash? The same goes for working — you should have some point in life, some purpose. Sure, your 8-hour-day might not relate directly to that purpose, but if that's the case, then you should be spending your free time making sure you get that fixed — going to night school, getting certified, whatever.

"

Submission + - Space: Kill NASA and Really Explore Space (whattofix.com)

Submitted by

Daniel Markham

on Tuesday June 05, 2007 @10:49PM

Daniel Markham writes: "Has NASA outlived it's usefulness? As a space fan, I remember all the promises made over the years about where we were going: a dozen-shuttle space fleet with launches every week, a lunar base, spaceflight for everyone. None of that is happening, however, and perhaps it's time for us to rethink whether or not we're getting what we're paying fo.

Do we have a National Telescope Agency to handle research by telescopes? Do we have a National Ocean Agency for all science that happens on the ocean? Then why have a Space Agency that owns all space science?

"

Submission + - Secrets of the Web Monkey Ninja Warriors (whattofix.com)

Submitted by

Daniel Markham

on Saturday June 02, 2007 @01:18PM

Daniel Markham writes: "Writing technology content on your blog? Creating a new web media site? Trying to gain readership? This says that you can learn a lot about what works and what doesn't work by watching monkeys. Is there a secret sect of web monkey ninja warriors? Do primates offer a clue as to what sells and what doesn't? Do the secrets actually work? How many of these web monkey ninja warrior rules do you follow on a regular basis?

I've been in web programming ever since the web came out. I tell folks, half-jokingly, that I should have gotten into online pornography: that's where the money is. I wouldn't start an online Hustler magazine — that's not my style — but I do think that any online media company has to consider the power of the human form in selecting their content. There is a reason why there are sites called "Hot or not" are hot. We suckers will troop over there regularly to get a good look at what the other monkeys are getting.
"

Submission + - Will Finding Mars Life Threaten the Space Program?

Submitted by

Daniel Markham

on Sunday May 27, 2007 @01:20PM

Daniel Markham writes: "Everybody assumes that when life is finally found in outer space, say on Mars, that this will be a good thing for the Space Program. But looking at our history with funding battles for space exploration, there's a compelling case to be made that finding life on Mars would be the worst thing possible for manned space exploration. The case is made here, and includes some twists and turns you might not expect, such as LBJ's decision to slowly strip space funding to pay for Vietnam and domestic programs."

Submission + - Did Walt Disney Cause Global Warming?

Submitted by

DanielMarkham

on Friday May 25, 2007 @10:35AM

DanielMarkham writes: "As technology wonks, we deal with more and more complex systems. People, however, have a natural tendency to want to deal in simple concepts. When we apply simple concepts to complex systems, we get sub-optimal results.

Over on WhatToFix, there is an article asking if Walt Disney caused Global Warming. Aside from the amount of CO2 given off by the Disney theme parks, the question is whether animating and personalizing animals in cartoons leads people to consider animals as equivalent to humans.

How many of us talk to users who say "the computer isn't happy with my typing" or some other such anthropomorphic statement? Markham asks the question of just where do these simplistic metaphors help political discussions, and where do they hurt it? As technology impacts the political world more and more, such questions are going to become critical for us to understand, whether it's Global Warming, DRM, or net taxes, this issue is here to stay."

Submission + - Is Modeling Science?

Submitted by

DanielMarkham

on Friday May 18, 2007 @11:31PM

DanielMarkham writes: "I've been watching the flame wars on Global Warming on Slashdot for a few months now. In an effort to ask a simple question without all the flame wars, is modeling science? That is, is creating a computer model the same as coming up with a new law of physics?

I've just got through posting a blog entry in which I make the case that the types of modeling we read about in the news is not science at all, or science as we know it.

This topic has all the nerd stuff you could ever want. Cellular Automata, Turing Tests, Philosophy of Science, nature of chaotic systems, modeling complex software systems in UML. If I've missed something, I'm sure you guys will let me know about it and I appreciate the critique. So what say you? Is modeling science or not? Can we at least agree on this point?"

Submission + - HOWTO Peer-to-Peer VPN Windows XP

Submitted by pc1oad1etter on Friday February 23, 2007 @12:54PM

pc1oad1etter writes: I want to set up a secure VPN between two Windows XP boxes, but I want to see better security than what PPTP provides. I want this to be a direct connection between the two computers, with no hardware appliance managing the VPN and no third server setting up the connection. A couple of options have emerged:

OpenVPN

TheGreenBow IPSec VPN Client

Now for some questions:

What other options are there?

Is it possible to put PPTP over SSH or SSL and make it more secure? (Would having TCP over TCP be a problem here?)

What pitfalls should I watch out for with TheGreenBow or OpenVPN?

Journal SPAM: Interpretation Of Dreams 5

Journal by mercedo on Friday February 23, 2007 @12:38PM

I often have the similar dream which is I am chased by someone or something that is superior to me. Then at some point I can get away with their chase after I was able to fly.

I was struck by the mook that was being displayed in a bookshelf at the entrance of some supermarket. The title of the book was 'The Interpretation Of Dreams' In a cover seven dreams are interpretted as follows.

Submission + - Open source apps vendor drops attribution goes GPL

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Friday February 23, 2007 @12:20PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Open source applications vendor, Alfresco, has dropped its MPL+Attribution license and elected to go 100% GPL. While infrastructure companies like Red Hat and MySQL have long pursued such a license strategy, Alfresco becomes the first commercial open source vendor to completely GPL its enterprise content management application. The company's license model is very similar to Red Hat's RHEL/Fedora model. The move comes after months of sometimes rancorous debate as to whether MPL+Attribution constitutes an approved OSI license or not. It remains to be seen how Alfresco competitors like Microsoft Sharepoint and Documentum will respond to an innovative, enterprise-class ECM system...that just so happens to be free."

Zune Sales Not So Bad After All 366

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 29, 2006 @11:03PM from the on-second-thought dept.

pyrbrand writes "Despite the iFanboy jabber that Zune sales were horrific, CNN has a story to the contrary. Turns out Zune was the #2 Digital Audio player in its first week of sales. Not a bad start for the challenger to the iPod throne. As others have pointed out the Amazon sales rank may have been thrown off by Zune sales being divided between the three colors."

Journal Journal: BANNED: It's Been a While

Journal by eno2001 on Tuesday November 14, 2006 @02:11PM

I think my recent comments that have sparked moderation and comment activity (not much compared to some from my illustrious past as T4$), have activated yet another IP ban. I'm a bit too busy these days to play with ways to get around it though... so I'll be seeing you after the ban is lifted. That is, unless I get some time. I also might post some JEs in reponse to anything that you folks post...

Journal Journal: GAMING: Leander by Psygnosis 5

Journal by eno2001 on Tuesday November 14, 2006 @11:41AM

Doesn't ANYONE remember what must have been the greatest game ever in 1991? Leander! A 2D platform game for the Amiga and Atari ST. I was hoping that it would get ported to DOS when I saw that Psygnosis ported Lemmings. Unfortunately it appears that Leander just perished. I REALLY want to play this game again, but unfortunately at every attempt, I've been foiled. The Amiga discs aren't readable on a PC. The Atari version is somewhat lacking compared to the Amiga one. The disk images I

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