Comment Re:The real reason (Score 1) 244
What in the world do the mormons have to do with it?
Comment Re:Steam check-in (Score 1) 443
I'll second that. It's telling when paying customers would rather take risks with cracked software (malware, trojans, and virii?) than trust something like Steam. Unfortunately, since paying customers are paying customers, I don't think they'll get the message.
Comment Re:I think he is mostly right (Score 1) 763
So thought Kim Jong-il and Castro, who closed their countries to foreign trade and have essentially brought the dark ages to their nations. Please stay away from politics, before the Tea Party gets elected and we op in for a world of hurt.
Apples and oranges. The United States is the only nation on earth that could get away with closed borders and have anywhere near the standard of living we currently enjoy. Even with China's near meteoric economic growth, pulling the US GDP out of the world market would literally kill millions of jobs across the globe. Maybe a trial run is in order? See how China likes the shoe on the other foot?
Comment Need more data (Score 1) 384
As others have posted and others sill undoubtedly post, we need more information to give you the recommendation you want. Making some assumptions from your question, it sounds like you want to virtualize your workstation. For full baremetal performance, don't virtualize your primary OS. The technology isn't there yet, but VMWare is making huge strides with their VMView product. Set up properly, you can have CAD running in a virtual machine on a server with a thin client displaying the output with very respectable speeds.
For your application, it sounds like you need something like Virtual PC or VMWare Workstation. Virtual PC comes free with Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate. That's what I use and it allows me to have two or three VMs running XP for testing and/or risky web use. I haven't tried Ubuntu as a VM in virtual PC, but I have an ESXi server running, so I haven't bothered. I'm very happy with my setup, below:
- Server:
- Old HP x8400 workstation that I stuffed with 12GB of RAM and four WD1001FALS striped into one big array
- - Win 2k8 server for AD and file sharing (64GB primary drive, 2048GB secondary (whatever the max for ESXi is))
- - Windows Home server for client backups (80GB primary drive, 500GB secondary)
- - IIS server for local intranet / website testing (80GB drive)
- - Various XP machines for testing (revert to snapshot is nice!)
- - Various Linux flavors (Ubuntu desktop/server, Debian servers, etc).
- Primary Workstation:
- Newish Dell XPS 435 that I bought as a refurb for about 50% of retail (thank you slickdeals!)
- (2 x 60GB Agility 2 SSD in RAID 0 as primary drive, one 500GB Seagate as secondary/scratch disk, 9GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 465, etc)
- - Windows 7 Ultimate as primary OS
- - Two Windows XP Pro guests in Virtual PC
There's a lot of technology out there, so you may have to do some fiddling around yourself to see what works for you. It took me a few years to gather all the hardware together and work out how to build the software just right, but it works. I use my main rig for video (kids soccer, family vacations, birthdays, etc), photo slideshows, gaming, developing, etc, so performance was key. My setup isn't top of the line, but something close to bleeding edge while maintaining a budget. Virtualization is a tool. Find something that fits your needs, understanding each product's weaknesses and strengths and you will do just fine.
Submission + - Pilot refuses TSA full-body scan 2
another similar writes: Upping the ante for privacy advocates, ExpressJet co-pilot Michael Roberts caused a stir by refusing a full-body scan [Memphis Commercial Appeal] at Memphis International Airport. Privacy advocates have raised concerns we've covered several times this year. Their major concern seems to hinge on whether the images are stored or merely viewed in real-time. Roberts' concerns are broader, since he also refused the alternative manual pat-down procedure and chose to leave the airport.
To what extent do TSA efforts make you feel safer than before 9/11?
To what extent do TSA efforts make you feel safer than before 9/11?
Boeing 747 Recycled Into a Private Residence 239
Ponca City writes "Nicholas Jackson writes in the Atlantic about a woman who requested only curvilinear/feminine shapes for her new home and has purchased an entire Boeing 747-200. They transported it by helicopter to her 55-acre property in the remote hills of Malibu and after deconstructing it, had all 4,500,000 pieces put back together to form a main house and six ancillary structures including a meditation pavilion, an animal barn, and an art studio building. 'The scale of a 747 aircraft is enormous — over 230 feet long, 195 feet wide and 63 feet tall with over 17,000 cubic feet of cargo area alone and represents a tremendous amount of material for a very economical price of less than $50,000,' writes Architect David Hertz. 'In researching airplane wings and superimposing different airplane wing types on the site to scale, the wing of a 747, at over 2,500 sq. ft., became an ideal configuration to maximize the views and provide a self supporting roof with minimal additional structural support needed.' Called the 'Wing House,' as a structure and engineering achievement, the aircraft encloses an enormous amount of space using the least amount of materials in a very resourceful and efficient manner, and the recycling of the 4.5 million parts of this 'big aluminum can' is seen as an extreme example of sustainable reuse and appropriation. Interestingly enough, the architects had to register the roof of the house with the FAA so pilots flying overhead would not mistake it as a downed aircraft."
Submission + - China is now denying it will cut rare earth export (google.com)
ndogg writes: "China is denying that it will cut any exports of rare earths exports saying that the recent reports about such a move are completely groundless. However, they reserved the right to impose restrictions on mining, production, and exports based on output, demand, and sustainability."
Proving 0.999... Is Equal To 1 1260
eldavojohn writes "Some of the juiciest parts of mathematics are the really simple statements that cause one to immediately pause and exclaim 'that can't be right!' But a recent 28 page paper in The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast (PDF) spends a great deal of time fielding questions by researchers who have explored this in depth and this seemingly impossibility is further explored in a brief history by Dev Gualtieri who presents the digit manipulation proof: Let a = 0.999... then we can multiply both sides by ten yielding 10a = 9.999... then subtracting a (which is 0.999...) from both sides we get 10a — a = 9.999... — 0.999... which reduces to 9a = 9 and thus a = 1. Mathematicians as far back as Euler have used various means to prove 0.999... = 1."
Comment Re:naive? (Score 1) 271
The same technology that launches satellites launches MIRVs. The US doesn't necessarily want to contribute to China's ability to kill off its citizens.
What Tech Should Be In a Fifth-Grade Classroom? 325
theodp writes "While going about my day,' writes Slate's Linda Perlstein, 'I sometimes engage in a mental exercise I call the Laura Ingalls Test. What would Laura Ingalls, prairie girl, make of this freeway interchange? This Target? This cell phone? Some modern institutions would probably be unrecognizable at first glance to a visitor from the 19th century: a hospital, an Apple store, a yoga studio. But take Laura Ingalls to the nearest fifth-grade classroom, and she wouldn't hesitate to say, "Oh! A school!"' Very little about the American classroom has changed since Laura Ingalls sat in one more than a century ago, laments Perlstein, echoing a similar rant against old-school schooling by SAS CEO Jim Goodnight. Slate has launched a crowdsourcing project on the 21st-century classroom, asking readers to design a fifth-grade classroom that takes advantage of all that we have learned since Laura Ingalls' day about teaching, learning, and technology."
Submission + - Large Slow Airships could move buildings? (discovery.com) 1
Algorithmnast writes: Discovery has a short article on using large slow-moving airships to move large objects without the need to dismantle them.
The company mentioned, Skylifter, refers to the lifting ship as an "ariel crane", not a Thor weapon.
It could easily help move research labs to new parts of the Antarctic, or allow a Solar Tower to be inserted into an area that's difficult to drive to, like say a mesa in New Mexico?
The company mentioned, Skylifter, refers to the lifting ship as an "ariel crane", not a Thor weapon.
It could easily help move research labs to new parts of the Antarctic, or allow a Solar Tower to be inserted into an area that's difficult to drive to, like say a mesa in New Mexico?
Submission + - Star Wars trilogy as a paper animation (boingboing.net)
Mr.Intel writes: "Jeremy Messsersmith, a Minneapolis musician, has given the original trilogy new depth and pathos with his new video for his new song about Tatooine. While Lucas is busy announcing his plans for 3D, Jeremy made his video as 2D as possible: he used paper. And it's terrific."
Comment Re:Uh.. (Score 1) 2058
I realize they were in their "rights" legally and such to put out the neighbours fire and not his.. (from the TFA, they just sat there and made sure it didn't spread). But I mean, as a human, what the ****. Is there so little empathy?
Why couldn't they have put it out and then billed him? He probably would have been so happy he would have paid it. This reeks of callousness. What have "we" become (I'm not american, but I am a human, I think..)
I imagine that if the guy or his wife or kid were trapped in the house, they would have done something. Since it's just property, they were under no such humanistic constraint. Human compassion has to have limits, or we would go around trying to fix every injustice. So I say, "well done" on calling it right for such a tough situation.
Comment Re:Reality check (Score 1) 662
Comment Re:Reality check (Score 1) 662
Also don't forget about cosmic rays. Shielding colonists or an exploratory crew is also non-trivial. High energy protons do bad things to DNA and secondary radiation from hull penetration is bad stuff.
