You just inadvertently demonstrated precisely why E-mail is interesting, but not good to try and base any conclusions on.

To take your example, that statement could mean, "Tweak your algorithm to arrive at our predetermined conclusion.", as you seem to imply.

It may also mean: "Your algorithm does not arrive at the anticipated conclusion. Could you check to make sure that the inputs were correct, and that it's functioning properly?"

It might also mean "Your algorithm didn't produce the level of warming we expected. We need you to re-work it to account for [some factor]"

Out of context, "the level of warming we expected" produced by the algorithm might be way too high or way too low. So anyone can derive whatever "expectation" you want from it. If you want to take an email like that and make it into proof that the science is cooked, go ahead. Of course, that's not very scientific.

Instead of a 'deleted' flag, you can use a create timestamp and an end timestamp, for tables that must maintain a modification history. The one record that has an end timestamp in the indefinite future is the current one, all the changes are tracked, and there's no hackery with 'deleted' flags or current record indicators, and so then it becomes just a matter of 'where current_timestamp between create_timestamp and end_timestamp'.

You also get the benefit of a continuous history of the modifications, which gives you point-in-time ability, definitely an advantage over a simple flag.

Getting your aircraft out of a flat spin when your engines are stalled, as was the case with Maverick and Goose's ill-fated hop that day, is next to impossible whether your aircraft has thrust-vectoring or not.

Thrust vectoring would have helped them if the stall was caused by insufficient speed at too-high an angle of attack, in that it could have prevented the stall, but once the stall occurs, thrust vectoring ceases.

Is the machine 'sleeping' or 'hibernating'? Because my Wii stays connected to the network when it's 'asleep', too. Doesn't sound like they 'invented' anything, just implemented a slick way to do something interesting.

I'm sure people will scoff, but think about it. With SQL you will get logic, types, and structures. It's in basically plain English, so no bizarre lexical structures to get in the way. No compiler necessary, and the tools a student would need are cheap and plentiful. All the school has to do is provide access to a database server.

After all, data is what's at the heart of so many applications.

The point of learning C++ or Java is to get at data in the first place, so that would seem like a logical place to start. Unlike scheme, it also has practical use in the real world.

Is 'twat' the past tense of tweet?

Why do you care about uptime statistics on a laptop?

When I went from Kubuntu 8.10 to 9.04, it automatically removed that package. I tried the plasmoid, but it was a buried shovel, as it provided no means to actually configure the network settings. I had to use iwconfig from the shell. I finally ended up using wicd, which I am very pleased with.

At any rate, KNemo is this new thing, and it hardly qualifies as Alpha, let alone something that should have been in a release. Avoid it at all costs.

With Amarok, yeah, my iPod was mounted and all, and still nothing. So they suck now. I switched to RhythmBox, which I don't like as much, but at least it plays nice with my iPod, and doesn't obscure it. Wrong turn there, Amarok team.

I swear, is TrollTech outsourcing to Slovenia?

How about we find a few apps that work and improve upon them, instead of replacing them with something that barely works?

I'm talking specifically about replacing the network management app that worked with this KNemo piece of shit that doesn't work at all.

And how come Amarok no longer works with iPods?

Speaking of which, can anyone tell me what happened to the tagging facility in Dolphin? After moving to Kubuntu 9, it seems to have disappeared.

SUsE 5.2

I remember reading so much about how tough Linux could be to get up and running, but I remember how easy it was. I was up and using it within an hour or two.

I remember how psyched I was that it breathed new life into an older computer that I had. I was hooked.

I guess you could use KDE, because none of those work.

You joke, but the Chinese actually have this. They have the capability, at least in theory, to disconnect the entire country from the larger internet.

Yeah, but when you go into a more tradtional UNIX, you know where to look for things, there's only a handful of variations.

When you go into MacOS, and look in all the traditional places, the files aren't there, or when they are, it's obvious from looking at the contents that they aren't used in at all the same way.

I had a buddy who had a problem with his Mac, and I said to myself, "Well, it's just BSD, so I can figure it out." It was laid out like BSD, but I couldn't make heads or tails of what it was doing with it all.

They definitely, would, but they have legacy support issues around HPUX.

If you wanted to buy a bunch of brand-new HP big iron, they would definitely steer you towards RHEL or something along those lines.