As someone who did not study math in higher education but now wants to learn more it is quite difficult to find out which math text books have the best content. Would someone please suggest some books and authors of great texts I can then search for?

I would ideally like to build up a bookshelf of great maths texts to go alongside the computing books I already have.

If the entity serving the content does not refrain from allowing advertisers to annoy users then they are unlikely to have either users or revenue. I think that the key idea behind the browser extension I linked to in TFA is an interesting one. It could be used as a kind of RBL blocking the most unpopular advertising practices. In time advertisers might find this an important type of feedback when AB testing.

There still is another way, there always has been. If browser extensions such as the one I linked to take off perhaps it will occur to advertisers that their reputation is important. Despite running AdBlock I still do see ads, just not the attention seeking disruptive ones. I really do want the sites I like to make money. Real time black hole lists forced those using email to advertise to think again. I expect this browser extension idea will make online advertisers rethink their approach. Eventually. In the mean time break out the popcorn for the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

While I am not the developer of the extension in TFA I did find the idea interesting. Even if this implementation fails it seems likely to me that this idea is a logical escalation in the online ad arms race. If the idea gains traction it will be just a matter of time before a decent implementation emaerges. The reaction from Google should be interesting if a Chrome extension appears.

The thing about this point is that advertisers seem not to have understood this basic concept yet. I have no idea of the quality of the browser extension I linked to in TFA. However the idea that an extension could be used to automate the deliberate poisoning of advertisers collected user data seems to be a powerful one. In my view this is a logical next step in the user vs advertiser arms race.

I'm entirely happy that drugs such as Flunitrazepam (AKA Rohypnol, roofies etc.) with limited use outside of hospital inpatients are restricted to prescription only. While it is reasonable to desire freedom to put what you want into your own body it is also reasonable for society to restrict some classes of drug that are often used to assist with date rape and other crimes. This is not statism and is quite different from the control of recreational drugs. Regardless of where the recreational drug debate ends up there will always be some restricted drugs.

I disagree this has all the makings of a PR disaster. As Gnome has of late not been winning any friends with it's treatment of end users and developers a cashflow issue caused by mismanagement is the last thing the foundation needs. Especially as this issue could easily be reported as wilful misuse of foundation funds by a misandrist board director regardless of the truth of the situation.

I would advise explaining exactly what happend fully and frankly as soon as possible to prevent the public reaching the wrong conclusion

Then why have you hit a cashflow crisis because of it?

Then I go back to my prior point "The GNOME Foundation will work to further the goal of the GNOME project: to create a computing platform for use by the general public that is completely free software" Funding gender outreach activities has nothing to do with creating, supporting or promoting free software. If your outreach activities cause a cashflow crisis for your main reason for existence then perhaps they are ill advised. Perhaps the Gnome organisation should simplifiy it's activities to concentrate on the software which is it's sole reason for existing.

Yet it is doing just that which seems to have caused the funding issue

Which ignores that GSOC that is funded by a rich multinational company and not a software foundation that sought donations for the stated aim of developing software and not outreach programs.

Yes there is. Quoting the Gnome foundation charter from the wiki "The GNOME Foundation will work to further the goal of the GNOME project: to create a computing platform for use by the general public that is completely free software" Funding gender outreach activities has nothing to do with creating, supporting or promoting free software. Despite having heavily used Gnome software in the past I would not now be willing to provide funds to an organisation which spends at least a quarter of its revenue on activites which are irrelevant to its stated aims.

I think this is what happens when a project lets directors with an axe to grind onto the board. While I hated Gnome three throughout the couple of months I used it I would like to see the project continue. I currently use E17 and will probably compile a newer Enlightenment build sometime in my copious spare time. I abandoned Enlightenment a decade ago but it seems to be going through a resurgence at the moment. Gnome might be passing through a rough patch right now but it may be great again at some point in the future.

Like the parent poster I could easily donate these days but I won't if the project wastes money on an activist directors pet project. If I am going to donate money to a free software project I would much prefer to see the money spent on software development, software support, and software promotion.

If this isn't rapidly nipped in the bud Chrome will soon be known as a hotbed of Malware, credit card fraud, bank fraud and porn ads to general users. Once it has this reputation it will be very difficult to get users to continue using it.

I am part way through renovating a property in the UK and have used LED fittings thoughout. The switching power supply does seem to be the difficult part for manufacurers of LED lighting in the UK, and is also the main difference between the expensive fittings and the cheap ones. Most of the lights available have broadly similar LED light units consiting of one or more high power LEDs attached to a large heat sink. Power supply quality varies wildly with some manufacturers using what looks like the smallest cheapest PSU they could find on AliExpress. With more and more companies introducing products into the market I would recommend going to actually look at a light in a shop making sure you take one out of the box to see if a decent PSU is attached before buying anything. PSU failure will probably be the largest cause of LED light mortality.

I have had to support battery powered printers on building sites. They all suck in this environment as dusty environments damage the print engine mechanism and printheads. Most models of battery powered printer are inkjets designed to be lightweight and portable. The print engine is generally not designed for a high lifetime page count and is unlikely to last in OP's situation even without dust. Consumables will be expensive for this type of printer and availabilty is unlikely to be long term as manufacturers do not expect these devices to last. These printers are also extremely sensitive to paper condition and quality. In my experience paper cockled by humidity will not feed. Dusty environments cause feed rollers to fail sooner than usual. Feed roller spares for short lifespan printers are often difficult to obtain even from the specialist suppliers I have access to.

I can. I have quoted for this type of work in the UK before. I went to have a look at the kit first before quoting and did so knowing that the job was more complicated that it initially appeared. The people wanting to dispose of the equipment wanted to dispose of it through an auction house specialising in selling unwanted corporate assets in bulk. They wanted to get rid of it quickly and as they did not understand what needed to be done thought the job would be fast and cheap.

I found racks of working servers, disk arrays, standard PC's as well as lots of dead equipment, individual drives and older UNIX equipment. Most of the kit could be wiped with standard utilities, but the UNIX equipment and dismantled kit would take much more time so my quote allowed for this. The company chose to go with a very cheap data deletion specialist who used a minimum wage employee armed with a PC wiping CD. Of course this would not boot anything not running an Intel processor so they simply didn't bother with that kit. It didn't have drivers for disk arrays so these were missed too. As the amount paid didn't allow sufficient time to connect up to all of the drives not in a PC they didn't bother with these either. All of the kit went straight to auction from there.

I read the report from the company wiping the machines which stated that their deletion routines were successful in the summary then went on to explain in highly technical language what had not been done and why in the rest of the report. Managers would be highly unlikely to understand what had not been done from this, but would probably assume that the kit was sent out in a clean state. The contractor had actually stated what had been wiped and what had been missed, just not in an understandable format and so were probably not liable for a data breach. I pointed out that they had not wiped any of the UNIX kit and had sent a complete readable set of financial data to be sold at auction. I have yet to hear back from them.

Managers simply don't understand this area and are easy prey for the unscrupulous. They will usually choose the cheapest quote.