So I got on Amazon and read the first few pages of the prequel to the reviewed book, called "The Trousers of Reality" (link below). I found it so disjoint and jargon-ridden that I came here to ask: Am I missing something? I don't want to bash a book I haven't read fully -- maybe it really is a good book -- but try reading the first few pages for yourself. I belong to the author's target audience, and I can follow the words, but I came away from the chapter on "themes and direction" having very little idea what thoughts the author is trying to communicate.

If anyone here has read it, could you comment if the entire book reads like that, and if this sequel is the same?

http://www.amazon.com/The-Trousers-Reality-Volume-Working/dp/190721500X/ref=cm_rdp_product

You might try recruiting some midden workers. The queen should be able to spawn some.

Thanks for taking questions. Take business travelers who have a laptop with builtin 802.11, and a 4G card for when they are not around an open access point. With switchboard, they would be able to use the 4G network even when they are connected to the 802.11 and observe increased speeds. That sounds like something a lot of people would use.

Do you consider this to be your target market, or something else?

Give me control of the Spice and I'll control the universe.

Well... the article does seem to make it pretty clear which side of the line they are on...

Reminds me of Sagan's "atmospheric beasts", the floaters, sinkers and hunters he imagines in the second episode of Cosmos (see around 53:13) -- though TFA is talking about microorganisms on Earth not postulating life on other planets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftpVA04_IFc

As a college professor, you have to teach new things to people who already know everything. That does sound really hard to do.

The clack router is a little old but it's a great idea:

http://yuba.stanford.edu/vns/clack/

There might be too much abstraction for someone first starting out, though.

15 Years of Stuff That Matters -- Phew, glad that's over!

Could someone with a knack for photoshop re-color the water in the picture to a nice blue color, with a caption saying both images are photoshopped? The "original" definitely looks photoshopped, but I admit I wasn't looking for it and I didn't notice until someone pointed it out. To see the the same photo with a sparkling blue river would be a great reminder that we have to keep our skepticism active at all times.

There is also research to suggest that ants connect colonies together using Steiner trees, which are related to minimum cost spanning trees. Network engineers are familiar with these since they're used in the protocol of the same name to prevent layer 2 loops. Now we discover they have a TCP-like throttling mechanism. Next we'll decode a colony as HTTP and figure out they're just playing farmville.

Also: Deborah Gordon (one of the authors of the paper) has an enjoyable book on her harvester ant research called "Ants at work: how an insect society is organized". In it, she talks about other forms of ant communication at a colony level and on an ant-to-ant level. This research isn't in the book since the book is older. Recommended if you have an interest in ants and their colonies and don't know where to start. Check your local library.

How do you determine if this writer was American or English? (Pause) -- That's correct, it's time for a horse race!

They're out of the gates, and "American Author" sprints into an early lead!

American: 1
English: 0

Ah, an obstruction in the track! "English Expositor" got its hoof stuck on a sodding large crumpet and is now clomping along alone like a Billy No-Mates! With such a slowdown, it may never catch up, just like the train schedule!

American: 2
English: 0

But wait, "American Author" has smelled the crumpet and is circling back to investigate! It looks like the rider is shouting to "American Author" at the top of his lungs that its going the wrong way, but he refuses to use his riding crop or otherwise take action to correct the problem.

Now "European Expositor" is gaining ground fast! A more in-depth genealogy analysis may very well reveal that Bob is, in fact, his uncle!

American: 2
English: 1

"European Expositor" has shaken off its handicap and they're on the home stretch! They're neck and neck across the finish line -- it's a tie!

American: 2
English: 2

To finish the story, the riders then dismounted and decided to play a tiebreaker match of football. It ended in another tie, one team scoring two touchdowns and the other netting twelve goals.

The title of this piece on Slashdot was:

Twitter: 'We Promise To Not Be a Patent Troll'

However, I don't see in any of the three links where twitter made the statement: "We Promise To Not Be a Patent Troll".

It is really not appropriate to use quotation marks when paraphrasing. It's not only unfair to the person you're allegedly quoting, it's also misleading to your readers.

Enjoying the science fiction references in this thread more than the discussion stemming from the article.

Ah, but the whole Asimov universe was rich in the metal that mattered.

"Dors!"