The related statistic is the power density. IIRC, the words "equivalent to a nuclear reactor" were being thrown around at that point.

1985, although my first computing experience was BASIC on a TRS80 when I was 6-8. Friend of mine had an Apple IIc. Not quite sure of the implications to my geek cred there, though.

We used an 8088 for our course. The term, IIRC, is SBC (or single-board computer).

Yeah, I use Debian stable for its package stability in a lab environment. I liked Debian because it tried to do less than Ubuntu (which is good when you need to set up custom gear and know how it's done), and uses apt. I use FreeBSD on my home server because I like ZFS and the Ports collection and can't stand (Open)Solaris. I've grown to dislike Solaris for anything that requires extra software installs/compiles. ZFS is still a wonderous and "magic" filesystem, though.

Honestly, my experiences with Ubuntu lead me to liken it to Solaris 10 (from an admin's perspective) - so much work is spent on getting everything to work out of the box that when you have something you need to change, there's two stages of learning: how to configure it normally, and where the OS puts random crap. Getting LDAP authentication to work is taking a lot longer than it should be because I have to test configs against Solaris 10 (for our supply of UltraSparc workstations).

As someone who's not posting as AC, the system would like me to use preview before submit.

It's an assistantship. At least at my (public state) university, an assistantship means that your tuition is waived (fees are not) and you're paid for work based on a % of hours you are expected to work. There are administrative variants, teaching (where the pool of grad assistants come from), and research--the difference is where the budget comes out of and what kind of work you're doing.

Research assistants are funded by whoever's heading the research (so you're reviewing papers, doing applied work that's being paid for by someone else, etc). Administrative covers higher-level tasks that you don't want to pay a civil servant for, but don't want the people doing it to change every semester. Teaching assistantships are where you get the pool of grading-slaves.

In my department, TAs and administrative work comes from the department funding. My university has a glut of foreign students (my lab is comprised of mostly Indians) who can't actually work anywhere else but on campus, so every position (even non-related ones) gets applied for by them. Which then frustrates the heck out of the people offering the job because they have to at least sift through the 50+ non-qualified students to get anyone on the position.

IAAGS (I am a grad student)

More likely that some other geek builds their own design to the same spec.

Yeah, that's what I tell everyone about the Nook's screen (prefer the Nook b/c of its format support)--just like paper.

I thought HL:Episode 3 was one of the four horsemen.

I suddenly find myself with an urge to evacuate this small grassy area.

Although with the B&N hardware, what you're looking for is the contract to publish on their storefront -- the tools to package the text are all available from other vendors.

There's one for technical publications -- It's SCIgen.

Incorrect in my experience (from a technical standpoint): an OEM Windows install key will just work with an actual windows install CD/DVD (although for XP you need a genuine OEM CD--which Newegg sold). Now, legally, you are correct -- OEM licenses are not transferable from box to box.

I'm reminded of Robert Aspin's Time Scout series, which basically took time travel as a form of tourism and also used for anthropological study.

I'll see your Amdahl's Law, and raise you Gustafson's Law.