Yeah, I remember the same sort of stuff from Usenet - where do they think RTFM came from? This question isn't even bad.

How many libraries of congress/libraries of congress is it?

Ha, I love this. My gut reaction is to call you delusional, but upon further inspection I must call you brilliant. Your Noam Chomsky quote is great too.

F--k... Bruce Perens? What the heck are you up to these days, man? Wait a second, I'll just click on your webpage and find out...

With all the /. users saying "this is going to be pointless," and "it's already easy enough as it is," this is sure to be a hit.

Red balloons really piss SkyNET off. You don't want to make SkyNET angry.

Yeah! Those jerks should get back to coding! I'm not paying them to goof off!

I didn't see this already mentioned, but the Wikipedia page on Aminoglycosides mentions that these aminoglycoside antibiotics are already being investigated to treat cystic fibrosis because of their ability to make a cell "skip" the "termination codon." It says that a compound called gentamicin does this. So, these drugs are already being investigated for similar purposes. Maybe that'll speed the approval/testing of these things for HIV! It seems like somebody must already have an idea of what kinds of side effects will be encountered. This sounds like some pretty awesome stuff...

I have new hope for Slashdot and the Internet in general.

I agree. I've seen one or two of these things before and it usually seems like it'll turn into more of a social playground than a training environment.

I can understand how this might allow med students to practice diagnosing something, but the OPs point about it being more valuable than resuscitating a dummy in real life seems way off. They will never be able to teach something that requires a specific physical action in a simulated world. For instance, you have to actually practice CPR on something that resembles a human in order to truly understand how to do CPR. You have to actually practice placing the defibrillator paddles on a human form, you can't just right click and select "defibrillate."

Now maybe if we had a Matrix-style brain jack...

I dream of the day that we see the article titled: "A Windows distro needing Linux to install?!?!"

This is great! I'm building some home automation hardware and wanted something to serve up control software webpages. For a little over a year I've been putting all my computers into sleep when I leave to conserve power and I was dreading going back to the old mode of operation. I considered modding my WRT54G to have a USB port-serial port, then adding a webserver, but this seems like the perfect solution.

Good timing!

It's a trap!

For everybody taking this seriously, this is a joke about an Internet meme.

http://xkcd.com/467/

I was very impressed by my one major experience with the Marines. They were generally a smart, efficient and professional bunch. My experience with them was in Iraq while I was doing coding/engineering stuff for them. I'm active duty Air Force, in the acquisitions career field (project/contract management), so that is where my opinion was coming from.

I guess, part of the problem with the civilian workforce and the contractor workforce is the way our contracting and incentives work out. I've met some S-H civilians, but I've met some plain S ones too, and I've heard the stories. Perhaps if there was more flexibility in the hiring/firing system, more ability to get contractors other than General Dynamics and the major defense contractors, etc, it'd make more sense (even money-wise) to shift these jobs. As it is, a lot of your points and the other points in this thread make good sense.

Hopefully, we'll see a joint cyber-command here soon, getting together the best geeks from all the services and putting them to work building the tools they need to defend/attack computers.

The fitness level of the Marines was awesome, I wish we could bring more of that to the Air Force, and the rest of the country for that matter.

I get the impression that you think this is an awful shame. Do you think we need programmers that take an oath to support and defend the Constitution? Do you think programmers need to maintain the high standards of fitness required by the Marines? I guarantee you that wearing a uniform makes it harder to code (it's much easier in flip flops and shorts).

It's unlikely that those civilians are actually paid $120k, but you're right that they make more than $14k. I think that (in many cases) it's an awful shame to have folks working in an office who are willing and able to run out into a field in the middle of nowhere and setup comms.

Militaries are built to go out and accomplish a mission. Pay somebody else to stay home and accomplish it.