Comment: Logic: Techniques of Formal Reasoning (Score 1) 630
by Kalish & Montague
The book is very readable and a classic, to boot!
Comment: Edge service (Score 2, Interesting) 210
Where I live, AT&T has both Edge (2.5G) and 3G deployed - I only have the first gen iPhone so I cannot speak to 3G quality here, but over the past couple of months I have seen an improvement in 2G coverage and quality. My house used to be on the edge (hah!) of an Edge dead zone - but now we get nearly full bars and no missed calls.
Comment: Re:Good omens (Score 1) 366
I got "Nation" for Christmas, and am looking forward to reading it. But it's a collaborative work: if my claim is correct, it's exactly how Sir Pratchett could extend his useful time as a beloved author.
It was a joy to read to my daughter. However, I must be missing something, I don't recall Nation being a collaborative work. Do you have a pointer to the facts on this?
Do not mistake my remarks to be an attack on your hypothesis regarding creativity and Alzheimer's - I just think it may be a tad premature to be drawing conclusions at this point.
Comment: Re:Good omens (Score 1) 366
You have but to read Nation: no "serious flattening of creativity"
I wish him all the best - and selfishly wish that he continues to write.
Airline sacrificing goats to fix a Boeing 757?->
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Flower Skunk
Flower Skunk writes "There's a news story on Reuter's about a airline company in Nepal that sacrificed 2 goats to an Hindu god in order to fix two Boeing 757's with 'technical problems'. So..can someone recommend a god to sacrifice to in order to get an old, broken powerbook to work again?"
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Anthrax in Connecticut
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saxoholic
saxoholic writes "As my local news affiliate is reporting, anthrax has been found in Danbury, Connecticut, and two people have been infected. It appears the spores were contracted from cow and goat skins imported from Africa, which were used by the infected parties to build and restore African drums. Another news affiliate addresses it here. The form of anthrax is cutaneous skin anthrax."
Sony blames poor PS3 sales on Internet
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i_like_spam
i_like_spam writes "During a recent interview with GamePro, Sony's PR head, Dave Karraker, responded candidly to questions about the negative consumer perceptions of the PS3. He responded, 'I think a lot of this goes back to the proliferation of the Internet, where a very vocal minority can make a lot of noise and potentially alter perceptions of the masses, whether they are accurate or not.'
He also replied: 'A lot of the perceptions are not justified and seem fueled by people who don't have all the facts or have some kind of axe to grind. It is funny how myopic people can be when a new system comes along.'
There you have it, Sony's biggest quarterly loss in four years is due to inept consumers and FUD."
He also replied: 'A lot of the perceptions are not justified and seem fueled by people who don't have all the facts or have some kind of axe to grind. It is funny how myopic people can be when a new system comes along.'
There you have it, Sony's biggest quarterly loss in four years is due to inept consumers and FUD."
Computer science PhD is turnoff
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nbauman
nbauman writes "The prospects for PhDs in computer science look even more dismal. According to research done by Professor Richard Wiseman at the Edinburgh International Science Festival http://www.generationscience.co.uk/html/news_relea se.html, one of the worst pick-up lines is, 'I have a PhD in computing.' 100 members of the public took part in 500 speed dates. During the event, participants rated the attractiveness of their dates and indicated whether they would like to meet that person again. To uncover the best type of chat-up lines, researchers compared the conversations of participants rated as very desirable by their dates with those seen as especially undesirable. Those highly skilled in seduction encouraged their dates to talk about themselves in an unusual, quirky, way. The most memorable lines from the top-rated man and woman in the study illustrate the point. The top-rated male's best line was: 'If you were on Stars In Their Eyes, who would you be?', whilst the top-rated female asked: 'What's your favourite pizza topping?'. In contrast, failed Casanovas tended to be far less creative, employing old chestnuts like 'Do you come here often?' or struggling to impress with comments such as 'I have a PhD in computing'. "Whenever our couples spoke about films they really increased their chance of disagreement", commented Wiseman. "In contrast, conversations about travel tend to revolve around great holidays and dream destinations, and that makes people feel good and so appear more attractive to one another"."
Compressed air car from India could kill GM, EXXON
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vaporland
vaporland writes "This article in Business Week describes a car that runs on compressed air, ready for production in India. The fiberglass MiniC.A.T. runs on compressed air, and offers zero pollution and very low running costs. It is expected that US politicians will be able to easily refuel it by speaking into a hose located in the passenger compartment . . ."
Digital Trash More Valuable Than Gold, Copper Ore
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tcd004
tcd004 writes "Imagine sheer mountains of discarded Pentium III's, tractor trailers overflowing with discarded wall warts. Photojournalist Natalie Behring visited Guiyu, China and documented the world's biggest digital dump where, for $2 per day, the locals sort, disassemble and pulverize hundreds of tons of e-waste. The payoff is huge: computer waste contains 17 times more gold than gold ore, 40 times more copper than copper ore. But the detritus also leaches chemicals and metals into local water supplies."