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Comment Re: Obvious that he crashed on purpose (Score 1) 185

I'm a student pilot (only 5 hrs in), and even *I* know you don't bail on a plane like that when there are other options. From that altitude, he had a plethora of options, the #1 being to glide to a nearby airport and land it just fine, another would be to glide it to one of those roads and setting it down fine. Another to find a relatively flat area, like the one if eventually crashed in, and set it down, even if it's a little rough. Things that bother me, in addition to what's already mentions:

What is he looking at out his door? Is he trying to hit a pre-planned mark? He kept looking, as if he was searching for something specific.
Why didn't he use his radio? Assuming I still jump, if my call is heard, even if I don't hear a response, potential rescuers know an approximate location and how many souls on board. Hell, they might be in the air before I'm even on the ground.

Whole thing stinks. If he staged it, which I highly suspect, it puts ALL of general aviation at risk, not just his own license, because it reflects poorly on all of us and could result in stricter licensing requirements in the future.

Comment Certifications (Score 1) 472

I'd suggest getting one of the bigger certifications, like a CCNA. My CCNA is lapsed, and has been for a decade now, but I put "former CCNA" on my resume, and it seems to trigger whatever resume-scanning apps the larger corporations are using. I've done IT for some small shops, where it was a matter of knowing someone who knew someone, and some larger shops, where it's a matter of the software triggering on "CCNA" and handing it off to a live person. And once the recruiter comes calling with phone and in-person interview opportunities, it's what you know, not how formal a setting you learned it in.

Comment GB-PVR (Score 1) 536

I've tried A LOT of PVR software over the years, and MythTV (via Mythbuntu) is what I'm currently using. That said, if you're looking for a Windows solution to run under XP, I found GB-PVR to be about an excellent choice. There are a ton of plugins available as well, so I'd say it is at least as full-featured as MythTV. If you insist on running Windows on your PVR, you could do much worse.

*disclaimer* I've not tried Media Center under Windows 7. I did try it under Vista and found it somewhat lacking.

Math

New Pattern Found In Prime Numbers 509

stephen.schaubach writes "Spanish Mathematicians have discovered a new pattern in primes that surprisingly has gone unnoticed until now. 'They found that the distribution of the leading digit in the prime number sequence can be described by a generalization of Benford's law. ... Besides providing insight into the nature of primes, the finding could also have applications in areas such as fraud detection and stock market analysis. ... Benford's law (BL), named after physicist Frank Benford in 1938, describes the distribution of the leading digits of the numbers in a wide variety of data sets and mathematical sequences. Somewhat unexpectedly, the leading digits aren't randomly or uniformly distributed, but instead their distribution is logarithmic. That is, 1 as a first digit appears about 30% of the time, and the following digits appear with lower and lower frequency, with 9 appearing the least often.'"
Education

Princeton Boasts Its Kindle Project Is Noblest 116

theodp writes "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, what's the noblest Amazon Kindle DX project of all? While other universities announced similar programs, Princeton is boasting its project is unique in that it will focus on sustainability by reducing the amount of electronic-reserve course materials that students print. Under the pilot program, $60,000 will reportedly be used to provide 50 lucky Princeton students with $489 Kindle DX devices loaded with materials for three courses. In a FAQ, students are told not to worry about 'this time of severe economic constraints' — Princeton and Amazon have managed to tap into a fund specifically endowed to support sustainability projects to provide Kindles at no cost. In addition to a $30,000 grant from the High Meadows Foundation, which is headed by Princeton alum Carl Ferenbach (who, coincidentally, serves on the Board of Trustees of the Environmental Defense Fund with the wife of Amazon Director John Doerr), a matching amount will be provided by Princeton alum Jeff Bezos' Amazon. The E-reader Pilot Program has more information."

Comment Microsoft Update (Score 1) 835

I personally have seen on several dozen systems an issue where the system performance will degrade quite significantly after Microsoft Update is installed over Windows Update. The resolve in these cases is as simple as turning off Microsoft Update. This is NOT turning off automatic updates. To revert back to Windows Update, you need to have the Microsoft Update website in front of you and then click on "Change Settings". From here, you will see a section:

To stop using Microsoft Update
If you no longer want to install updates using this website, you can disable the supporting software on your computer.

You can still get updates from the Windows Update website by visiting the site or by turning on automatic updating on your computer. However, you will not be able to get updates for products other than Windows.

Disable Microsoft Update software and let me use Windows Update only

Clicking to disable, applying and then restarting the system seemed to be enough to get the systems out of their zombie like state. I believe the issue falls with the way the system is constantly scanning for updates that may be available.

Feed Science Daily: Where Have All The Dolphins Gone This Summer? (sciencedaily.com)

Researchers from the wildlife conservation charity Marinelife are extremely concerned about what it is NOT seeing this summer in the Bay of Biscay. The BDRP surveys have detected more than 20 species of whale and dolphin in the Bay of Biscay and counted over a hundred thousand animals. However, this summer there has been a very obvious and worrying dearth of sightings, which is significant given that the Bay of Biscay is of European importance for dolphins and other cetaceans.

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