I don't know how many "peak oilers" are also "PETA-loving Peak Oil blabbering tree huggers", but most of the reasonable arguments for peak oil I have read mention that exact point early on - that oil is used to produce almost everything we consume, including whatever needs to be manufactured to save our collective bacon. See, that point actually compounds the problem. So pointing it out actually *strengthens" their arguments. Sheesh,

that heat is a clear indication of the amount of solar energy available. allowing it to convert to heat before capturing it would tremendously lossy. I also can't imagine how one might capture the heat energy effectively while still allowing traffic to pass over the road, so I'm skeptical about "a lot less expensive"

it's called the throwbot http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=321

I was simply amazed to see this cloud formation until I read about the rocket launch at Vandenberg earlier that evening http://www.flickr.com/photos/peaqoud/2152740519/in/set-72157601528841883/

About 10 minutes ago, and multiple times every day.

Ah, that makes sense. thanks. Still, it seems like a common enough issue to at least warrant a "labs" option to reject such self-addressed messages from non-gmail servers.

At least 75% of my spam is addressed as though it was sent from *my* gmail account. Of course, it's easy to set up a filter to reject all such spam, but then I lose the ability to send reminder messages to myself. Seems like it would be extraordinarily simple for google to outright reject messages that claim to be sent from their servers that in fact were not. I sure wish they would!

Perfect answer. I've worked with several folks like Jim over the years, and consider myself to be in the same vein. Yes, we can and will write documentation if we have management that requires it. But we'd much rather be having fun solving problems, and wise management will make sure that is what we are doing most of the time. Right now I work for a very small research company - the entire tech staff is two engineers (not "software engineers" - computer vision & robotics) plus two programmers. Our code is messy and poorly commented with no documentation - we get away with this because it is research grade code, and because our team is so small. We (the engineers) understand it just fine. The poor programmers who must port it to other languages simply have to put the blinders on and copy the functionality. We could document the code to death, but that wouldn't be any substitute for the fundamental knowledge in physics, statistics and algorithms required to *really* understand the code. When and if we grow into a production environment where many people will have to support (and understand) the code, I trust our management will be wise enough to hire other folks to do the bulk of the documentation, with help as necessary from the engineers. Because there will always be more profitable things for us to be doing, which we actually enjoy.

Amen! The phrase "Moore's Law" irritates me to no end. I understand that it is the common vernacular, but it is almost always misused here on /. "Moore's Law" was simply an observation that has remained remarkably consistent over time. And it had nothing to do with cost or "computing power" - just that the number of transistors per unit area double roughly every 18 months. There is no "Law" to be followed or violated! Sheesh!

Our government accrued tens of billions of dollars when auctioning off the analog TV spectrum. They set aside a portion of these funds to pay for the coupon program in order to ensure that no cost (or minimal cost) would be incurred for the citizenry, who OWNS the spectrum and all rights associated with it. It is not a welfare program, and no citizen should feel guilty or ashamed for making use of it, regardless of their motivation.

Age != maturity

I'm sure you had plenty of loops in your code. They were just hidden via the use built in functions. Not that that's a bad thing.... just saying. You have to understand the mechanics of the calculations to use them properly, and over-reliance on built in functions can make it too easy to talk out of your ass.

Yeah that's a poorly informed comment. C is a freeware language. And it is used in virtually every embedded system on earth... like the control system for the laser that cuts your cornea at the neighborhood lasik shop. No doubt R is staggeringly less mature than C, but the fact that it is free has no bearing on its quality.

But you have to be very good, and before you try, you have to put in enough time at a company that you become indispensable. Then you will find yourself in a position where you are likely to be able to dictate terms of your work life within reasonable boundaries. I've managed to arrange 4 day/32 hr schedules at two separate companies. Neither company was thrilled about it, and both made it clear that my advancement in the company would cease while I was not working full time. I did this for several years and it was *awesome*. Ever do your grocery shopping on a Monday afternoon? Or go for a hike in a typically mobbed location and find it completely empty on a Thursday morning? It's powerful stuff. If you can afford it, and you're comfortable with putting your career on pause, go for it! But, again, you have to be very good, and you have to be willing to walk over the issue when you bring it up to management. Good luck!