Thursday, June 17, 2010
My Way News - BP comment about 'small people' causes anger
My Way News - BP comment about 'small people' causes anger: "We care about the small people.'"
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Libertarian - Wikiality, the Truthiness Encyclopedia
Libertarian - Wikiality, the Truthiness Encyclopedia
Libertarian = Republican - Jesus + pot + hot sexy gun-toting naked chicks.
Libertarian = Republican - Jesus + pot + hot sexy gun-toting naked chicks.
infite loops
http://www-user.slac.stanford.edu/jimstan/Infinity.htm
Utilizing Infinite Loops
Utilizing Infinite Loops
to Compute an Approximate Value of
Infinity
Jim Stanfield, co-founder, The Institute for Further Research
People criticize Al Gore for claiming to have invented the ‘Information Superhighway’ but we do owe him a debt of gratitude for inventing one of the most important concepts in all of computing, the Algorithm. But again, I digress.Jesus statue fire damages estimated at $700,000
Jesus statue fire damages estimated at $700,000
“I can’t believe Jesus was struck,” said his brother, who noted the giant Hustler Hollywood sign for the adult store across the street was untouched.
“I can’t believe Jesus was struck,” said his brother, who noted the giant Hustler Hollywood sign for the adult store across the street was untouched.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
MeeGo Needs Intel Investment To Succeed -- Operating Systems -- InformationWeek
MeeGo Needs Intel Investment To Succeed -- Operating Systems -- InformationWeek: 'From the perspective of most third-party developers, MeeGo remains an unknown and unproven quantity that is entering an already highly competitive and crowded landscape,' Ovum analyst Tony Cripps said in a report released Wednesday."
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Distributive Justice (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Distributive Justice (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Distributive justice is not an area where we can say an idea is good in theory but not in practice. If it is not good in practice, then it is not good in theory either.
Distributive justice is not an area where we can say an idea is good in theory but not in practice. If it is not good in practice, then it is not good in theory either.
Modern History Sourcebook: The 25 Points
Modern History Sourcebook: The 25 Points
The 25 Points 1920:
Gov. Brewer would no doubt approve...
The 25 Points 1920:
An Early Nazi Program
Gov. Brewer would no doubt approve...
4. Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed. Consequently no Jew can be a member of the race.
5. Whoever has no citizenship is to be able to live in Germany only as a guest, and must be under the authority of legislation for foreigners.
6. The right to determine matters concerning administration and law belongs only to the citizen. Therefore we demand that every public office, of any sort whatsoever, whether in the Reich, the county or municipality, be filled only by citizens. We combat the corrupting parliamentary economy, office-holding only according to party inclinations without consideration of character or abilities.
7. We demand that the state be charged first with providing the opportunity for a livelihood and way of life for the citizens. If it is impossible to sustain the total population of the State, then the members of foreign nations (non-citizens) are to be expelled from the Reich.
Brewer tells conflicting stories about dad's war effort
Brewer tells conflicting stories about dad's war effort
Gov. Jan Brewer said in a recent interview that her father died fighting Nazis in Germany. In fact, the death of Wilford Drinkwine came 10 years after World War II had ended
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Patriotism, Baseball, And An Atheist
Patriotism, Baseball, And An Atheist
Once again the conversation changed to current day when I asked how many celebrities we could name who enlisted for the current wars. Sadly, only one name could be answered by all in the room. Pat Tillman. Tillman turned down a $3.6 million contract with the Cardinals to enlist in the Army. That patriotism is so rare. He offered and eventually gave his life for his country.
Why is Pat Tillman so amazing? He was an atheist. For those of you who do not comprehend what is so special about that, he offered and gave his life, the only life that he believed he would ever have, to defend our country.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Linux: Linus On The Extensible Firmware Interface | KernelTrap
Linux: Linus On The Extensible Firmware Interface KernelTrap: "And don't get me wrong - the problem
with EFI is that it actually superficially looks much better than the
BIOS, but in practice it ends up being one of those things where it has
few real advantages, and often just a lot of extra complexity because of
the 'new and improved' interfaces that were largely defined by a
committee.
I think a lot of the 'new standards' tend to be that way. Trying to solve
a lot of problems and allow everybody to add their own features, instead
of just saying that it's better to just standardize the hardware.
For example, instead of ACPI, we could just have had standardized hardware
(and a few tables to define things like numbers of CPU's etc). It would
have been simpler for everybody. But no, people seem to think that it's
somehow 'better' to have wild and crazy hardware, and then have a really
complicated way of describing it - and driving it - dynamically."
with EFI is that it actually superficially looks much better than the
BIOS, but in practice it ends up being one of those things where it has
few real advantages, and often just a lot of extra complexity because of
the 'new and improved' interfaces that were largely defined by a
committee.
I think a lot of the 'new standards' tend to be that way. Trying to solve
a lot of problems and allow everybody to add their own features, instead
of just saying that it's better to just standardize the hardware.
For example, instead of ACPI, we could just have had standardized hardware
(and a few tables to define things like numbers of CPU's etc). It would
have been simpler for everybody. But no, people seem to think that it's
somehow 'better' to have wild and crazy hardware, and then have a really
complicated way of describing it - and driving it - dynamically."
Intel Kills Larrabee GPU, Will Not Bring a Discrete Graphics Product to Market - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
Intel Kills Larrabee GPU, Will Not Bring a Discrete Graphics Product to Market - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News: "Intel wasn’t able to make Larrabee performance competitive in DirectX and OpenGL applications, so we won’t be getting a discrete GPU based on Larrabee anytime soon. Instead, Intel will be dedicating its resources to improving its integrated graphics. We should see a nearly 2x improvement in Intel integrated graphics performance with Sandy Bridge, and greater than 2x improvement once more with Ivy Bridge in 2012."
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Texas board approves social studies standards that perceived liberal bias
Texas board approves social studies standards that perceived liberal bias
The new standards say that the McCarthyism of the 1950s was later vindicated -- something most historians deny -- draw an equivalency between Jefferson Davis's and Abraham Lincoln's inaugural addresses, say that international institutions such as the United Nations imperil American sovereignty, and include a long list of Confederate officials about whom students must learn.
The new standards say that the McCarthyism of the 1950s was later vindicated -- something most historians deny -- draw an equivalency between Jefferson Davis's and Abraham Lincoln's inaugural addresses, say that international institutions such as the United Nations imperil American sovereignty, and include a long list of Confederate officials about whom students must learn.
Q&A: Illegal Immigrants and the U.S. Economy : NPR
Q&A: Illegal Immigrants and the U.S. Economy : NPR
There are places in the United States where illegal immigration has big effects (both positive and negative). But economists generally believe that when averaged over the whole economy, the effect is a small net positive. Harvard's George Borjas says the average American's wealth is increased by less than 1 percent because of illegal immigration.
The economic impact of illegal immigration is far smaller than other trends in the economy, such as the increasing use of automation in manufacturing or the growth in global trade. Those two factors have a much bigger impact on wages, prices and the health of the U.S. economy.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Book of Odds
Book of Odds
your odds of dating a supermodel would be somewhere around one in 178,100. That’s not so good.
your odds of dating a supermodel would be somewhere around one in 178,100. That’s not so good.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
RAMMap
RAMMap: "Have you ever wondered exactly how Windows is assigning physical memory, how much file data is cached in RAM, or how much RAM is used by the kernel and device drivers? RAMMap makes answering those questions easy. RAMMap is an advanced physical memory usage analysis utility for Windows Vista and higher."
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Trusted Computing for Mac OS X
Trusted Computing for Mac OS X
At the time of this writing (October 2006), the newest Apple computer models, such as the MacPro and possibly the revised MacBook Pro and the revised iMac, do not contain an onboard Infineon TPM. Apple could bring the TPM back, perhaps, if there were enough interest (after all, it is increasingly common to find TPMs in current notebook computers), but that's another story.
At the time of this writing (October 2006), the newest Apple computer models, such as the MacPro and possibly the revised MacBook Pro and the revised iMac, do not contain an onboard Infineon TPM. Apple could bring the TPM back, perhaps, if there were enough interest (after all, it is increasingly common to find TPMs in current notebook computers), but that's another story.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Creativity linked to mental health - Startpage - Karolinska Institutet
Creativity linked to mental health - Startpage - Karolinska Institutet
"Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box," says Dr Ullén about his new findings.
"Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box," says Dr Ullén about his new findings.
Friday, May 14, 2010
InfoQ: Microsoft’s Experiments with Software Transactional Memory Have Ended
InfoQ: Microsoft’s Experiments with Software Transactional Memory Have Ended
I eventually shifted focus to enforcing coarse-grained isolation through message-passing, and fine-grained isolation through type system support a la Haskell’s state monad.
...
I took this path not because I thought TM had no place in the concurrency ecosystem. But rather because I believed it did have a place, but that several steps would be needed before getting there.
I eventually shifted focus to enforcing coarse-grained isolation through message-passing, and fine-grained isolation through type system support a la Haskell’s state monad.
...
I took this path not because I thought TM had no place in the concurrency ecosystem. But rather because I believed it did have a place, but that several steps would be needed before getting there.
Analysis: Why SAP Is Buying Sybase for $5.8B
Analysis: Why SAP Is Buying Sybase for $5.8B: "“With Sybase Unwired, the mobile apps can be written once and deployed on multiple mobile platforms” and “gives SAP the opportunity to develop new types of business applications for mobile devices.”
Yankee Group analyst Sheryl Kingstone points out “the fusion of cloud computing, application mobility and social media to transform the enterprise mobility space. This deal now gives SAP 2 out 3 in a single purchase.”"
Yankee Group analyst Sheryl Kingstone points out “the fusion of cloud computing, application mobility and social media to transform the enterprise mobility space. This deal now gives SAP 2 out 3 in a single purchase.”"
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Special Report: Can that guy in Ironman 2 whip IBM in real life? | Reuters
Special Report: Can that guy in Ironman 2 whip IBM in real life? | Reuters
Ellison says he learned that Sun's pony-tailed chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz, ignored problems as they escalated, made poor strategic decisions and spent too much time working on his blog, which Sun translated into 11 languages.
Ellison says he learned that Sun's pony-tailed chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz, ignored problems as they escalated, made poor strategic decisions and spent too much time working on his blog, which Sun translated into 11 languages.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Ezra Klein - Galbraith: The danger posed by the deficit ‘is zero’
Ezra Klein - Galbraith: The danger posed by the deficit ‘is zero’
EK: You think the danger posed by the long-term deficit is overstated by most economists and economic commentators.
JG: No, I think the danger is zero. It's not overstated. It's completely misstated.
EK: Why?
JG: What is the nature of the danger? The only possible answer is that this larger deficit would cause a rise in the interest rate. Well, if the markets thought that was a serious risk, the rate on 20-year treasury bonds wouldn't be 4 percent and change now. If the markets thought that the interest rate would be forced up by funding difficulties 10 year from now, it would show up in the 20-year rate. That rate has actually been coming down in the wake of the European crisis.
So there are two possibilities here. One is the theory is wrong. The other is that the market isn't rational. And if the market isn't rational, there's no point in designing policy to accommodate the markets because you can't accommodate an irrational entity.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Why AMD's notebook prospects are looking up
Why AMD's notebook prospects are looking up
The first quarter of 2010 saw the dawn of a new acronym and the start of a major shift in the PC hardware market—the move from integrated graphics processors to integrated processor graphics. In the former, the GPU is integrated into the chipset's northbridge, while in the latter, the CPU is in the same package or on the same die as the processor (e.g., Intel's Clarksdale and Arrandale 32nm parts, with in-package GPUs).
AMD doesn't have an IPG offering yet, but it doesn't yet need one. The thing that's making AMD attractive, apart from price (and price is a major factor), is that Intel's IPG just isn't that great. It's a lot better than it once was, but it's still no match for IGPs from NVIDIA or AMD.
The problem with having a not-so-great GPU in the same package as the processor die is that if you want to buy Intel's latest and greatest mobile CPU, you have to buy its GPU along with it. So you have to pay for this GPU that isn't very good and that you may not want, and then if you want real graphics performance you have to then go out and pay for an NVIDIA GPU to go with it (via Optimus or Apple's proprietary solution).
NVIDIA's Optimus is definitely a win-win for Intel, NVIDIA, and Intel users, because it gives Intel's customers the option of a better GPU that and a platform that can dynamically optimize its graphics performance to fit the running workload. But if you stack it up against a traditional CPU + IGP combination, like that which AMD offers, it's hard to imagine that all that all the shuffling graphics data back and forth between the GPU's private pool of DDR3 and the framebuffer that sits in system memory doesn't burn extra power.
The first quarter of 2010 saw the dawn of a new acronym and the start of a major shift in the PC hardware market—the move from integrated graphics processors to integrated processor graphics. In the former, the GPU is integrated into the chipset's northbridge, while in the latter, the CPU is in the same package or on the same die as the processor (e.g., Intel's Clarksdale and Arrandale 32nm parts, with in-package GPUs).
AMD doesn't have an IPG offering yet, but it doesn't yet need one. The thing that's making AMD attractive, apart from price (and price is a major factor), is that Intel's IPG just isn't that great. It's a lot better than it once was, but it's still no match for IGPs from NVIDIA or AMD.
The problem with having a not-so-great GPU in the same package as the processor die is that if you want to buy Intel's latest and greatest mobile CPU, you have to buy its GPU along with it. So you have to pay for this GPU that isn't very good and that you may not want, and then if you want real graphics performance you have to then go out and pay for an NVIDIA GPU to go with it (via Optimus or Apple's proprietary solution).
NVIDIA's Optimus is definitely a win-win for Intel, NVIDIA, and Intel users, because it gives Intel's customers the option of a better GPU that and a platform that can dynamically optimize its graphics performance to fit the running workload. But if you stack it up against a traditional CPU + IGP combination, like that which AMD offers, it's hard to imagine that all that all the shuffling graphics data back and forth between the GPU's private pool of DDR3 and the framebuffer that sits in system memory doesn't burn extra power.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Too Much | A Historic Breakthrough for U.S. Billionaires
Too Much | A Historic Breakthrough for U.S. Billionaires
In 2010 America, schools, students, and teachers share the pain. The heirs to our mega rich, meanwhile, don’t have to share anything
Announcing 500 billion digits of e...
Announcing 500 billion digits of e...
On February 20, 2010, I have sucessfully computed and verified the constant e to 500,000,000,000 decimal places.
On February 20, 2010, I have sucessfully computed and verified the constant e to 500,000,000,000 decimal places.
Saturday, May 08, 2010
PLoS ONE: The Newcomb-Benford Law in Its Relation to Some Common Distributions
PLoS ONE: The Newcomb-Benford Law in Its Relation to Some Common Distributions
An often reported, but nevertheless persistently striking observation, formalized as the Newcomb-Benford law (NBL), is that the frequencies with which the leading digits of numbers occur in a large variety of data are far away from being uniform. Most spectacular seems to be the fact that in many data the leading digit 1 occurs in nearly one third of all cases. Explanations for this uneven distribution of the leading digits were, among others, scale- and base-invariance. Little attention, however, found the interrelation between the distribution of the significant digits and the distribution of the observed variable. It is shown here by simulation that long right-tailed distributions of a random variable are compatible with the NBL, and that for distributions of the ratio of two random variables the fit generally improves. Distributions not putting most mass on small values of the random variable (e.g. symmetric distributions) fail to fit.
An often reported, but nevertheless persistently striking observation, formalized as the Newcomb-Benford law (NBL), is that the frequencies with which the leading digits of numbers occur in a large variety of data are far away from being uniform. Most spectacular seems to be the fact that in many data the leading digit 1 occurs in nearly one third of all cases. Explanations for this uneven distribution of the leading digits were, among others, scale- and base-invariance. Little attention, however, found the interrelation between the distribution of the significant digits and the distribution of the observed variable. It is shown here by simulation that long right-tailed distributions of a random variable are compatible with the NBL, and that for distributions of the ratio of two random variables the fit generally improves. Distributions not putting most mass on small values of the random variable (e.g. symmetric distributions) fail to fit.
Locus Online Perspectives » Cory Doctorow: Persistence Pays Parasites
Locus Online Perspectives » Cory Doctorow: Persistence Pays Parasites
Katherine Myronuk once told me, “All complex ecosystems have parasites.
Katherine Myronuk once told me, “All complex ecosystems have parasites.
The Moral Life of Babies - NYTimes.com
The Moral Life of Babies - NYTimes.com
The mental life of young humans not only is an interesting topic in its own right; it also raises — and can help answer — fundamental questions of philosophy and psychology, including how biological evolution and cultural experience conspire to shape human nature.
The mental life of young humans not only is an interesting topic in its own right; it also raises — and can help answer — fundamental questions of philosophy and psychology, including how biological evolution and cultural experience conspire to shape human nature.
Friday, May 07, 2010
255 National Academy of Sciences members, including 11 Nobel laureates, defend climate science integrity « Climate Progress
255 National Academy of Sciences members, including 11 Nobel laureates, defend climate science integrity « Climate Progress
there is nothing remotely identified in the recent events that changes the fundamental conclusions about climate change:
(i) The planet is warming due to increased concentrations of heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere. A snowy winter in Washington does not alter this fact.
(ii) Most of the increase in the concentration of these gases over the last century is due to human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.
(iii) Natural causes always play a role in changing Earth’s climate, but are now being overwhelmed by human-induced changes.
(iv) Warming the planet will cause many other climatic patterns to change at speeds unprecedented in modern times, including increasing rates of sea-level rise and alterations in the hydrologic cycle. Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide are making the oceans more acidic.
(v) The combination of these complex climate changes threatens coastal communities and cities, our food and water supplies, marine and freshwater ecosystems, forests, high mountain environments, and far more.
there is nothing remotely identified in the recent events that changes the fundamental conclusions about climate change:
(i) The planet is warming due to increased concentrations of heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere. A snowy winter in Washington does not alter this fact.
(ii) Most of the increase in the concentration of these gases over the last century is due to human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.
(iii) Natural causes always play a role in changing Earth’s climate, but are now being overwhelmed by human-induced changes.
(iv) Warming the planet will cause many other climatic patterns to change at speeds unprecedented in modern times, including increasing rates of sea-level rise and alterations in the hydrologic cycle. Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide are making the oceans more acidic.
(v) The combination of these complex climate changes threatens coastal communities and cities, our food and water supplies, marine and freshwater ecosystems, forests, high mountain environments, and far more.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Meet the New Frontline Bloggers: Security Contractors | Danger Room | Wired.com
Meet the New Frontline Bloggers: Security Contractors | Danger Room | Wired.com
“Our fundamental problem in Afghanistan is that we are fighting on behalf of a central government which is not considered legitimate by a vast majority of the population,”
“Our fundamental problem in Afghanistan is that we are fighting on behalf of a central government which is not considered legitimate by a vast majority of the population,”
Performance problem in AMD's Phenom II X6 under Linux - The H Open Source: News and Features
Performance problem in AMD's Phenom II X6 under Linux - The H Open Source: News and Features
Turbo Core and Turbo Boost interact with a system's power saving features, which clock down individual cores or the whole processor and decrease the voltage to reduce power consumption when a system is idle. Herein lies the problem with AMD's new processors in current Linux kernels: when their "Cool'n'Quiet" feature is enabled, Turbo Core processors no longer step up to their nominal speed, but operate at a slightly slower frequency.
The simplest workaround is to disable the "Cool'n'Quiet" feature. This requires users to fully disable the function in the board's BIOS set-up, or to instruct the kernel not to adapt clock speeds via cpufreq – the Fedora Linux distribution allows users to do this by stopping the "cpuspeed" daemon, while other distributions require users to blacklist the powernow-k8 kernel module, which is responsible for cpufreq in modern AMD CPUs. However, disabling the power saving features can increase an idle system's power consumption by 10 to 20 watts.
Why Intel Will Be a Mobile Loser
Why Intel Will Be a Mobile Loser
The mobile ecosystem is pretty much the same — trying to go against the ARM ecosystem is trying to reinvent the wheel. ABI Research says that ARM-based ultra-mobile devices will surpass x86-based devices by 2013 because, as Stacey wrote, “ARM has always had an advantage in mobile because the chips based on the instruction set were designed to sip power rather than glug it. That translates into a longer battery life and presumably a smaller form factor for the battery and end device.”
The mobile ecosystem is pretty much the same — trying to go against the ARM ecosystem is trying to reinvent the wheel. ABI Research says that ARM-based ultra-mobile devices will surpass x86-based devices by 2013 because, as Stacey wrote, “ARM has always had an advantage in mobile because the chips based on the instruction set were designed to sip power rather than glug it. That translates into a longer battery life and presumably a smaller form factor for the battery and end device.”
How Dr. Seuss would prove the halting problem undecidable
How Dr. Seuss would prove the halting problem undecidable
Geoffrey K. Pullum, Scooping the loop snooper: An elementary proof of the undecidability of the halting problem. Mathematics Magazine 73.4 (October 2000), 319-320.
No program can say what another will do.
Now, I won’t just assert that, I’ll prove it to you:
I will prove that although you might work til you drop,
you can’t predict whether a program will stop.
Geoffrey K. Pullum, Scooping the loop snooper: An elementary proof of the undecidability of the halting problem. Mathematics Magazine 73.4 (October 2000), 319-320.
No program can say what another will do.
Now, I won’t just assert that, I’ll prove it to you:
I will prove that although you might work til you drop,
you can’t predict whether a program will stop.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
U.S. Mobile Culture Still in Stone Ages, Survey Says - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership
U.S. Mobile Culture Still in Stone Ages, Survey Says - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership
Overall, the survey highlighted a growing interest in next-generation mobile services. More than half of respondents said they want mobile-to-voice-over IP, 40 percent want emergency alerts, and 30 percent want mobile banking. Countries with a progressive mobile culture are already reaping the benefits. In Austria, for instance, people can pay parking meters via text messaging
Overall, the survey highlighted a growing interest in next-generation mobile services. More than half of respondents said they want mobile-to-voice-over IP, 40 percent want emergency alerts, and 30 percent want mobile banking. Countries with a progressive mobile culture are already reaping the benefits. In Austria, for instance, people can pay parking meters via text messaging
If you can take a VDI instance "offline," then why don't you just always run it offline? ("Madden's Offline Paradox?") - Brian Madden - BrianMadden.com
If you can take a VDI instance "offline," then why don't you just always run it offline? ("Madden's Offline Paradox?") - Brian Madden - BrianMadden.com
So my central question is "In what circumstance is the View client mode useful?" Can anyone provide an example of why I want a datacenter-hosted VDI infrastructure that is also available offline? Can anyone tell me why I should do that instead of just running everything on the client? (And don't tell me it's for users who want to occasionally go offline, because again I'll say those users should use the client-based VM solutions 100% of the time and only run a much smaller datacenter-based VDI for the specific apps or connection scenarios that need it.)
So my central question is "In what circumstance is the View client mode useful?" Can anyone provide an example of why I want a datacenter-hosted VDI infrastructure that is also available offline? Can anyone tell me why I should do that instead of just running everything on the client? (And don't tell me it's for users who want to occasionally go offline, because again I'll say those users should use the client-based VM solutions 100% of the time and only run a much smaller datacenter-based VDI for the specific apps or connection scenarios that need it.)
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
SANS: Malware FAQ: Microsoft Windows UPnP vulnerabilities
SANS: Malware FAQ: Microsoft Windows UPnP vulnerabilities
UPnP provides a specification called the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) that allows devices to dynamically discover the services offered by each other. SSDP works on top of IP networks and is implemented using UDP. Walking through a typical scenario, the first step after powering on a device will be (per specification) to obtain an IP address. This is done either through DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), where a central server in the network is assigning IP addresses from a pool, or via AutoIP, if no DHCP is available. Using AutoIP, there is good change that the device will end up in the same network as the other, unmanaged devices. [ UPNP 2] Once an IP address is obtained, the device can talk via IP to other devices in the same network.
The next step for the device is to advertise its presence to the network. This is accomplished through SSDP Advertisements. These are UDP packets multicast via the 239.255.255.250:1900 multicast address. In this case, the protocol is called HTTPMU (HTTP Multicast over UDP). The target can of course be a unicast address as well, in which case HTTPU (HTTP over UDP) is spoken. There is an Internet Draft available that explains these HTTP [HTTP] extensions in more detail [GOLAND]. The number 1900 specifies the port that other devices need to bind to in order to receive these multicasts. The multicast address is assigned to SSDP by the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) and therefore essentially hardcoded. The UDP packet contains a simple HTTP header with the NOTIFY HTTP method and the type of the SSDP message, which in this case is the header field nts: with the value ssdp:alive . The header has more interesting fields, but within the scope of the discussion, only the Location: header is of interest. It specifies a location from which any interested party can download more information on the device sending the announcement.
UPnP provides a specification called the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) that allows devices to dynamically discover the services offered by each other. SSDP works on top of IP networks and is implemented using UDP. Walking through a typical scenario, the first step after powering on a device will be (per specification) to obtain an IP address. This is done either through DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), where a central server in the network is assigning IP addresses from a pool, or via AutoIP, if no DHCP is available. Using AutoIP, there is good change that the device will end up in the same network as the other, unmanaged devices. [ UPNP 2] Once an IP address is obtained, the device can talk via IP to other devices in the same network.
The next step for the device is to advertise its presence to the network. This is accomplished through SSDP Advertisements. These are UDP packets multicast via the 239.255.255.250:1900 multicast address. In this case, the protocol is called HTTPMU (HTTP Multicast over UDP). The target can of course be a unicast address as well, in which case HTTPU (HTTP over UDP) is spoken. There is an Internet Draft available that explains these HTTP [HTTP] extensions in more detail [GOLAND]. The number 1900 specifies the port that other devices need to bind to in order to receive these multicasts. The multicast address is assigned to SSDP by the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) and therefore essentially hardcoded. The UDP packet contains a simple HTTP header with the NOTIFY HTTP method and the type of the SSDP message, which in this case is the header field nts: with the value ssdp:alive . The header has more interesting fields, but within the scope of the discussion, only the Location: header is of interest. It specifies a location from which any interested party can download more information on the device sending the announcement.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Microsoft Education Competencies: Humor
Microsoft Education Competencies: Humor
Has a positive and constructive sense of humor. Can laugh at him/herself and with others. Is appropriately funny and can use humor to ease tension.
Has a positive and constructive sense of humor. Can laugh at him/herself and with others. Is appropriately funny and can use humor to ease tension.
Immigration and Social Security — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Immigration and Social Security — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Although the magnitudes cannot be precisely determined, the actuary has estimated that unauthorized immigrants paid as much as $13 billion in Social Security payroll taxes in 2007. About $1 billion in benefit payments were made based on unauthorized work (for example, survivor benefits paid to U.S. citizens who were dependents of deceased individuals who had made payments into the Social Security system while performing unauthorized work). Thus, undocumented immigrants improved Social Security’s cash flow by an estimated $12 billion in 2007.
Although the magnitudes cannot be precisely determined, the actuary has estimated that unauthorized immigrants paid as much as $13 billion in Social Security payroll taxes in 2007. About $1 billion in benefit payments were made based on unauthorized work (for example, survivor benefits paid to U.S. citizens who were dependents of deceased individuals who had made payments into the Social Security system while performing unauthorized work). Thus, undocumented immigrants improved Social Security’s cash flow by an estimated $12 billion in 2007.
Rest in Peas: The Unrecognized Death of Speech Recognition - robertfortner's posterous
Rest in Peas: The Unrecognized Death of Speech Recognition - robertfortner's posterous
The accuracy of computer speech recognition flat-lined in 2001, before reaching human levels. The funding plug was pulled, but no funeral, no text-to-speech eulogy followed. Words never meant very much to computers—which made them ten times more error-prone than humans. Humans expected that computer understanding of language would lead to artificially intelligent machines, inevitably and quickly. But the mispredicted words of speech recognition have rewritten that narrative. We just haven’t recognized it yet.
The accuracy of computer speech recognition flat-lined in 2001, before reaching human levels. The funding plug was pulled, but no funeral, no text-to-speech eulogy followed. Words never meant very much to computers—which made them ten times more error-prone than humans. Humans expected that computer understanding of language would lead to artificially intelligent machines, inevitably and quickly. But the mispredicted words of speech recognition have rewritten that narrative. We just haven’t recognized it yet.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
My Way News - Apple shutting Lala; `Cloud' music on horizon?
My Way News - Apple shutting Lala; `Cloud' music on horizon?
Apple has been hiring staff for its North Carolina data center, and in early April advertised on its website for a chief operating engineer.
Only about a dozen data centers in the world are larger than the 500,000-square-foot facility Apple has under construction, said Rich Miller, editor of Data Center Knowledge, a website that tracks such centers.
Other companies that have built structures of the same size are "major cloud computing players" such as Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc., he said. Apple currently has one data center in Newark, Calif. That facility covers about 150,000 square feet and is believed to power its MobileMe service of pushing e-mail and calendar events to devices
Number of Illegal Immigrants Plunges by 1M - CBS News
Number of Illegal Immigrants Plunges by 1M - CBS News
The Department of Homeland Security reported that illegal immigrant population dropped to 10.8 million in 2009 compared to 11.6 million in 2008. It was the second consecutive annual decline and the largest in at least three decades.
The Department of Homeland Security reported that illegal immigrant population dropped to 10.8 million in 2009 compared to 11.6 million in 2008. It was the second consecutive annual decline and the largest in at least three decades.
Louis Brandeis - Wikiquote
Louis Brandeis - Wikiquote
Through size, corporations, once merely an efficient tool employed by individuals in the conduct of private business have become an institution-an institution which has brought such concentration of economic power that so-called private corporations are sometimes able to dominate the state. The typical business corporation of the last century, owned by a small group of individuals, managed by their owners, and limited in size by their private wealth, is being supplanted by huge concerns in which the lives of tens or hundreds of thousands of employees and the property of tens of hundreds of thousands of investors are subjected, through the corporate mechanism, to the control of a few men. Ownership has been separated from control; and this separation has removed many of the checks which formerly operated to curb the misuse of wealth and power. And, as ownership of the shares is becoming continually more dispersed, the power which formerly accompanied ownership is becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few... [and] coincident with the growth of these giant corporations, there has occurred a marked concentration of individual wealth; and that the resulting disparity in incomes is a major cause of the existing depression.
Through size, corporations, once merely an efficient tool employed by individuals in the conduct of private business have become an institution-an institution which has brought such concentration of economic power that so-called private corporations are sometimes able to dominate the state. The typical business corporation of the last century, owned by a small group of individuals, managed by their owners, and limited in size by their private wealth, is being supplanted by huge concerns in which the lives of tens or hundreds of thousands of employees and the property of tens of hundreds of thousands of investors are subjected, through the corporate mechanism, to the control of a few men. Ownership has been separated from control; and this separation has removed many of the checks which formerly operated to curb the misuse of wealth and power. And, as ownership of the shares is becoming continually more dispersed, the power which formerly accompanied ownership is becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few... [and] coincident with the growth of these giant corporations, there has occurred a marked concentration of individual wealth; and that the resulting disparity in incomes is a major cause of the existing depression.
- Dissent, Liggett Co. v. Lee, 288 U.S. 517 (1933), at 565-67
Friday, April 30, 2010
Book of Odds - Are You A Believer?
Book of Odds - Are You A Believer?
A Harris poll the following November found the odds a person believes there is a God are 1 in 1.35 (74%), down from 1 in 1.27 (79%) in 2003.
A Harris poll the following November found the odds a person believes there is a God are 1 in 1.35 (74%), down from 1 in 1.27 (79%) in 2003.
Schneier on Security: Fun with Secret Questions
Schneier on Security: Fun with Secret Questions
Fun with Secret Questions
Ally Bank wants its customers to invent their own personal secret questions and answers; the idea is that an operator will read the question over the phone and listen for an answer. Ignoring for the moment the problem of the operator now knowing the question/answer pair, what are some good pairs? Some suggestions:
Q: Do you know why I think you're so sexy?
A: Probably because you're totally in love with me.Q: Need any weed? Grass? Kind bud? Shrooms?
A: No thanks hippie, I'd just like to do some banking.Q: The Penis shoots Seeds, and makes new Life to poison the Earth with a plague of men.
A: Go forth, and kill. Zardoz has spoken.Q: What the hell is your fucking problem, sir?
A: This is completely inappropriate and I'd like to speak to your supervisor.Q: I've been embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from my employer, and I don't care who knows it.
A: It's a good thing they're recording this call, because I'm going to have to report you.Q: Are you really who you say you are?
A: No, I am a Russian identity thief.
National_ID_Card.pdf (application/pdf Object)
National_ID_Card.pdf (application/pdf Object)
The Constitution does not explicitly provide a right to privacy, but in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965),
the Supreme Court held that “various guarantees create zones of privacy. The right of association
contained in the penumbra of the First Amendment,” and the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Ninth
Amendments were held to give people a right to privacy, and this doctrine has been used in many cases
since. However, there has been some debate over whether the constitutional right to privacy includes
the right to anonymity. Alan Dershowitz, for example, makes the argument that the right to privacy is
solely the right to control one’s personal information and its dissemination, not hide one’s identity. He
said, “American taxpayers, voters, and drivers long ago gave up any right of anonymity without loss of
our right to engage in lawful conduct within zones of privacy.”13 However, the Supreme Court has at
least intimated to a right to anonymous political speech under the First Amendment in a number of
cases.
The Constitution does not explicitly provide a right to privacy, but in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965),
the Supreme Court held that “various guarantees create zones of privacy. The right of association
contained in the penumbra of the First Amendment,” and the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Ninth
Amendments were held to give people a right to privacy, and this doctrine has been used in many cases
since. However, there has been some debate over whether the constitutional right to privacy includes
the right to anonymity. Alan Dershowitz, for example, makes the argument that the right to privacy is
solely the right to control one’s personal information and its dissemination, not hide one’s identity. He
said, “American taxpayers, voters, and drivers long ago gave up any right of anonymity without loss of
our right to engage in lawful conduct within zones of privacy.”13 However, the Supreme Court has at
least intimated to a right to anonymous political speech under the First Amendment in a number of
cases.
Microsoft's Windows Monopoly Now At Risk As Tablet Market Sprouts Without It
Microsoft's Windows Monopoly Now At Risk As Tablet Market Sprouts Without It
HP was dissatisfied with Windows as a tablet operating system, according to TechCrunch. Instead it will look at using Google Android, as well as its newly acquired WebOS. And the Courier just wasn't up to snuff. The era of touch devices that use styluses has long passed.
HP was dissatisfied with Windows as a tablet operating system, according to TechCrunch. Instead it will look at using Google Android, as well as its newly acquired WebOS. And the Courier just wasn't up to snuff. The era of touch devices that use styluses has long passed.
CHART OF THE DAY: Has Any Company Lost As Much Money On The Internet As Microsoft?
CHART OF THE DAY: Has Any Company Lost As Much Money On The Internet As Microsoft?
Last night Microsoft revealed that its Online Services Division lost $711 million in the first three months of this year. That's a jaw-dropping $2.8 billion loss annual run rate.
Last night Microsoft revealed that its Online Services Division lost $711 million in the first three months of this year. That's a jaw-dropping $2.8 billion loss annual run rate.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Q&A: HP's strategy chief on the Palm acquisition - Big Tech - Fortune Brainstorm Tech
Q&A: HP's strategy chief on the Palm acquisition - Big Tech - Fortune Brainstorm Tech
is is about the webOS and app development kits and the app space that they’re building up. It gives us a chance to really grow in a market that, standalone, is more than $120 billion and has grown 20% annually. We think it’s where a lot of the action is going to be in the next generation. The webOS is a modern, very capable operating system that is nicely differentiated
is is about the webOS and app development kits and the app space that they’re building up. It gives us a chance to really grow in a market that, standalone, is more than $120 billion and has grown 20% annually. We think it’s where a lot of the action is going to be in the next generation. The webOS is a modern, very capable operating system that is nicely differentiated
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The Sarcasmist - The World, brought to you by the Sarcasm Society
The Sarcasmist - The World, brought to you by the Sarcasm Society: "An immigrant rights group has convinced all immigrants to give back the jobs that were so ruthlessly ripped away from the bosom of Americans.
“We will be organizing the first ever Job Transfer Fair this summer. The way the fair will work is that a list of jobs currently held by immigrants will be posted in the auditorium, from which unemployed non-immigrants will be able to pick their new careers. The job lists will be broken down based on industry and the number of positions available in each.” said a representative of the immigrants’ rights group.
The Sarcasmist was able to obtain a short list of some of the lucrative jobs that will be available.
- Lawn trimmer
- Fruit picker
- Dish washer
- Housekeeping attendant
- Busboy"
“We will be organizing the first ever Job Transfer Fair this summer. The way the fair will work is that a list of jobs currently held by immigrants will be posted in the auditorium, from which unemployed non-immigrants will be able to pick their new careers. The job lists will be broken down based on industry and the number of positions available in each.” said a representative of the immigrants’ rights group.
The Sarcasmist was able to obtain a short list of some of the lucrative jobs that will be available.
- Lawn trimmer
- Fruit picker
- Dish washer
- Housekeeping attendant
- Busboy"
GM's Phony Bailout Payback - Reason Magazine
GM's Phony Bailout Payback - Reason Magazine: "he Obama administration put $13.4 billion of the aid money as 'working capital' in an escrow account when the company was in bankruptcy. The company is using this escrow money—government money—to pay back the government loan.
GM claims that the fact that it is even using the escrow money to pay back the loan instead of using it all to shore itself up shows that it is on the road to recovery. That actually would be a positive development—although hardly one worth hyping in ads and columns—if it were not for a further plot twist.
Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research, points out that the company has applied to the Department of Energy for $10 billion in low (5 percent) interest loan to retool its plants to meet the government's tougher new CAFÉ (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards. However, giving GM more taxpayer money on top of the existing bailout would have been a political disaster for the Obama administration and a PR debacle for the company. Paying back the small bailout loan makes the new—and bigger—DOE loan much more feasible."
GM claims that the fact that it is even using the escrow money to pay back the loan instead of using it all to shore itself up shows that it is on the road to recovery. That actually would be a positive development—although hardly one worth hyping in ads and columns—if it were not for a further plot twist.
Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research, points out that the company has applied to the Department of Energy for $10 billion in low (5 percent) interest loan to retool its plants to meet the government's tougher new CAFÉ (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards. However, giving GM more taxpayer money on top of the existing bailout would have been a political disaster for the Obama administration and a PR debacle for the company. Paying back the small bailout loan makes the new—and bigger—DOE loan much more feasible."
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Enemy Lurks in Briefings on Afghan War - PowerPoint - NYTimes.com
Enemy Lurks in Briefings on Afghan War - PowerPoint - NYTimes.com
“PowerPoint makes us stupid,” Gen. James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps, the Joint Forces commander, said this month at a military conference in North Carolina. (He spoke without PowerPoint.) Brig. Gen. H. R. McMaster, who banned PowerPoint presentations when he led the successful effort to secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005, followed up at the same conference by likening PowerPoint to an internal threat.
“It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,” General McMaster said in a telephone interview afterward. “Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”
“PowerPoint makes us stupid,” Gen. James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps, the Joint Forces commander, said this month at a military conference in North Carolina. (He spoke without PowerPoint.) Brig. Gen. H. R. McMaster, who banned PowerPoint presentations when he led the successful effort to secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005, followed up at the same conference by likening PowerPoint to an internal threat.
“It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,” General McMaster said in a telephone interview afterward. “Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”
Breathing While Undocumented - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com
Breathing While Undocumented - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com: "“A person is guilty of trespassing,” the law provides, by being “present on any public or private land in this state” while lacking authorization to be in the United States — a new crime of breathing while undocumented"
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Libertarian socialism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Libertarian socialism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "A key difference between libertarian socialism and free-market libertarianism is that advocates of the former generally believe that one's degree of freedom is affected by one's economic and social status, whereas advocates of the latter focus on freedom of choice. This is sometimes characterized as a desire to maximize 'free creativity' in a society in preference to 'free enterprise.'[24]
Libertarian socialists believe if freedom is valued, then society must work towards a system in which individuals have the power to decide economic issues along with political issues. Libertarian socialists seek to replace unjustified authority with direct democracy, voluntary federation, and popular autonomy in all aspects of life,[25] including physical communities and economic enterprises.
Many libertarian socialists argue that large-scale voluntary associations should manage industrial manufacture, while workers retain rights to the individual products of their labor.[26] As such, they see a distinction between the concepts of 'private property' and 'personal possession'. Whereas 'private property' grants an individual exclusive control over a thing whether it is in use or not, and regardless of its productive capacity, 'possession' grants no rights to things that are not in use.[27]"
Libertarian socialists believe if freedom is valued, then society must work towards a system in which individuals have the power to decide economic issues along with political issues. Libertarian socialists seek to replace unjustified authority with direct democracy, voluntary federation, and popular autonomy in all aspects of life,[25] including physical communities and economic enterprises.
Many libertarian socialists argue that large-scale voluntary associations should manage industrial manufacture, while workers retain rights to the individual products of their labor.[26] As such, they see a distinction between the concepts of 'private property' and 'personal possession'. Whereas 'private property' grants an individual exclusive control over a thing whether it is in use or not, and regardless of its productive capacity, 'possession' grants no rights to things that are not in use.[27]"
Format Document
Format Document: "13-2412. Refusing to provide truthful name when lawfully detained; classification
A. It is unlawful for a person, after being advised that the person's refusal to answer is unlawful, to fail or refuse to state the person's true full name on request of a peace officer who has lawfully detained the person based on reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing or is about to commit a crime. A person detained under this section shall state the person's true full name, but shall not be compelled to answer any other inquiry of a peace officer."
A. It is unlawful for a person, after being advised that the person's refusal to answer is unlawful, to fail or refuse to state the person's true full name on request of a peace officer who has lawfully detained the person based on reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing or is about to commit a crime. A person detained under this section shall state the person's true full name, but shall not be compelled to answer any other inquiry of a peace officer."
Bill Gates and Chad Holliday - Energy sector poised for innovation -- with the right spark
Bill Gates and Chad Holliday - Energy sector poised for innovation -- with the right spark: "And despite talk about the need for '21st-century' energy sources, federal spending on clean energy research -- less than $3 billion -- is also relatively small. Compare that with roughly $30 billion that the U.S. government annually spends on health research and $80 billion on defense research and development."
The Stones and the true story of Exile on Main St | Music | The Observer
The Stones and the true story of Exile on Main St | Music | The Observer: "the original version of Exile on Main St, in all its ragged, full-on, rock'n'roll swagger, is all we need. 'This is just a tree of life,' said Tom Waits, when he selected it as one of his all-time favourite records a few years back. 'This record is a watering hole.'"
Saturday, April 24, 2010
The Piranha Brothers
The Piranha Brothers: "They would select a victim and then threaten to beat him up if he paid the so-called protection money. Four months later they started another operation which the called 'The Other Operation'. In this racket they selected another victim and threatened not to beat him up if he didn't pay them. One month later they hit upon 'The Other Other Operation'. In this the victim was threatened that if he didn't pay them, they would beat him up. This for the Piranha brothers was the turning point."
Friday, April 23, 2010
Philosophy, et cetera: Libertarian vs. Utilitarian Justice
Philosophy, et cetera: Libertarian vs. Utilitarian Justice: "Libertarian and utilitarian theories of justice are, in many respects, diametrically opposed. Libertarians hold that the free market is inherently just, and redistributive taxation violates people’s property rights.[1] Utilitarians, by contrast, are fundamentally concerned with the promotion of human welfare. They hold that society ought to be organized in whatever fashion would best achieve this end – potentially justifying massive redistribution of wealth to the needy. The two theories also differ significantly in their temporal perspectives. Libertarian ‘entitlement theory’ understands justice to be a purely historical matter: “whether a distribution is just depends on how it came about.”[2] Utilitarianism, on the other hand, is purely forward-looking: justice is determined by what would have the best consequences for all concerned."
Newsvine - You Might Be A Teabagger if...
Newsvine - You Might Be A Teabagger if...: "If you are currently on Medicare and you're holding a sign that reads, 'I oppose government run healthcare', you might be a tea bagger."
Don't ignore the Tea Party's toxic take on history. - By Ron Rosenbaum - Slate Magazine
Don't ignore the Tea Party's toxic take on history. - By Ron Rosenbaum - Slate Magazine: "The muddled Tea Party version of history is more than wrong and fraudulent. It's offensive. Calling Obama a tyrant, a communist, or a fascist is deeply offensive to all the real victims of tyranny, the real victims of communism and fascism. The tens of millions murdered. It trivializes such suffering inexcusably for the T.P.ers to claim that they are suffering from similar oppression because they might have their taxes raised or be subject to demonic 'federal regulation"
McAfee Security Insights Blog » Blog Archive » An Update on False Positive Remediation
McAfee Security Insights Blog » Blog Archive » An Update on False Positive Remediation: "Of course many of you are asking how the faulty DAT made it past our quality assurance checks. The problem arose during the testing process for this DAT file. We recently made a change to our QA environment that resulted in a faulty DAT making its way out of our test environment and onto customer systems.
To prevent this from happening again, we are implementing additional QA protocols for any releases that directly impact critical system files. In addition, we plan to add capabilities to our cloud-based Artemis system that will provide an additional level of protection against false positives by leveraging an expansive whitelist of critical system files. (More details are available in an FAQ that was published Thursday night.)"
To prevent this from happening again, we are implementing additional QA protocols for any releases that directly impact critical system files. In addition, we plan to add capabilities to our cloud-based Artemis system that will provide an additional level of protection against false positives by leveraging an expansive whitelist of critical system files. (More details are available in an FAQ that was published Thursday night.)"
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Technology Review: Q&A: Paul Otellini
Technology Review: Q&A: Paul Otellini
Governments are best positioned to fund basic research. But there's been a decade-long erosion in the amount of that funding. It's now on a path to grow, and eventually the goal is to double it. But it takes a long time to do that. Secondly, we would like to see the R&D tax credit made permanent and returned to levels that are competitive with the rest of the world. Lastly, we have corporate tax rates that today are the second highest in the industrialized world.
Governments are best positioned to fund basic research. But there's been a decade-long erosion in the amount of that funding. It's now on a path to grow, and eventually the goal is to double it. But it takes a long time to do that. Secondly, we would like to see the R&D tax credit made permanent and returned to levels that are competitive with the rest of the world. Lastly, we have corporate tax rates that today are the second highest in the industrialized world.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
AlterNet: We're Living in a Kleptocracy: Fears of Socialism and Fascism Are a Distraction from the Naked Theft of Trillions
AlterNet: We're Living in a Kleptocracy: Fears of Socialism and Fascism Are a Distraction from the Naked Theft of Trillions: "If we were to take an honest look at America’s blasted landscape of “losers” and the far shinier, spiffier world of “winners,” we’d have to admit that it wasn’t signs of onrushing socialism or fascism that stood out, but of staggeringly self-aggrandizing greed and theft right in the here and now. We’d notice our public coffers being emptied to benefit major corporations and financial institutions working in close alliance with, and passing on remarkable sums of money to, the representatives of “the people.”"
Economic Scene - Yes, 47% of Households Owe No Taxes. Look Closer. - NYTimes.com
Economic Scene - Yes, 47% of Households Owe No Taxes. Look Closer. - NYTimes.com
Focusing on the statistical middle class — the middle 20 percent of households, as ranked by income — underlines this point. Households in this group made $35,400 to $52,100 in 2006, the last year for which the Congressional Budget Office has released data. That would describe a household with one full-time worker earning about $17 to $25 an hour. Such hourly pay is typical for firefighters, preschool teachers, computer support specialists, farmers, members of the clergy, mail carriers, secretaries and truck drivers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Taking into account both taxes and tax credits, the average household in this group paid a total income tax rate of just 3 percent. A good number of people, in fact, paid no net income taxes. They are among the alleged free riders.
But the picture starts to change when you look not just at income taxes but at all taxes. This average household would have paid 0.8 percent of its income in corporate taxes (through the stocks it owned), 0.9 percent in gas and other federal excise taxes, and 9.5 percent in payroll taxes. Add these up, and the family’s total federal tax rate was 14.2 percent.
Focusing on the statistical middle class — the middle 20 percent of households, as ranked by income — underlines this point. Households in this group made $35,400 to $52,100 in 2006, the last year for which the Congressional Budget Office has released data. That would describe a household with one full-time worker earning about $17 to $25 an hour. Such hourly pay is typical for firefighters, preschool teachers, computer support specialists, farmers, members of the clergy, mail carriers, secretaries and truck drivers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Taking into account both taxes and tax credits, the average household in this group paid a total income tax rate of just 3 percent. A good number of people, in fact, paid no net income taxes. They are among the alleged free riders.
But the picture starts to change when you look not just at income taxes but at all taxes. This average household would have paid 0.8 percent of its income in corporate taxes (through the stocks it owned), 0.9 percent in gas and other federal excise taxes, and 9.5 percent in payroll taxes. Add these up, and the family’s total federal tax rate was 14.2 percent.
Monday, April 19, 2010
America's Broadband Policy
America's Broadband Policy: "Talk given at SNW 2010 about three areas of policy -- broadband, cybersecurity, and copyright, and about the corruption of the process of policy making affecting each."
Defense Spending Is Much Greater than You Think | The Beacon
Defense Spending Is Much Greater than You Think | The Beacon: "the conclusion seems inescapable: the government is currently spending at a rate well in excess of $1 trillion per year for all defense-related purposes. Owing to the financial debacle and the ongoing recession, millions are out of work, millions are losing their homes, and private earnings remain well below their previous peak, but in the military-industrial complex, the gravy train speeds along the track faster and faster."
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Danny Westneat | Parsing the tea-party logic | Seattle Times Newspaper
Danny Westneat | Parsing the tea-party logic | Seattle Times Newspaper: "Did you know that total federal tax receipts, as a percentage of the size of the economy (gross domestic product), are now the lowest in 60 years?
You have to travel back to 1950 for a time when the feds sucked so little of the economy up in taxes. We now pay only 6.4 percent of GDP in individual income taxes, more than a third lower than 10 years ago. Corporate income taxes are the lowest since 1936."
You have to travel back to 1950 for a time when the feds sucked so little of the economy up in taxes. We now pay only 6.4 percent of GDP in individual income taxes, more than a third lower than 10 years ago. Corporate income taxes are the lowest since 1936."
Climategate Claptrap, II
Climategate Claptrap, II: "The tide of global warming denial is now rising as fast as global sea levels--and with as much credibility as Cook Little. Look at the deniers' greatest moment, Climategate, hailed by them as 'the final nail in the coffin' of 'the theory of global warming.' A patient study by the British House of Commons has pored over every e-mail from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and interviewed everyone involved. Its findings? The 'evidence patently fails to support' the idea of a fraud; the scientists have 'no case to answer'; and all their findings 'have been repeated and the conclusions have been verified' by other scientists. That's British for 'it was a crock.'
Yet a startling amount of denialism now, like Climategate, travels across the Atlantic from my country--Britain--to the United States. Yes, I know our accents make us sound instantly plausible, but it's time Americans knew who these Brideshead bull-scientists really are. Look, for example, at their doyen--a man named Christopher Monckton. He has been lauded by the Wall Street Journal, National Review and Rush Limbaugh for exposing the truth about global warming, and is used by the New York Times as a balancing voice against the claims of climate scientists. In fact, Monckton is an English aristocrat with no scientific training. He studied ancient Greece and Rome, and worked as a policy adviser for Margaret Thatcher."
Yet a startling amount of denialism now, like Climategate, travels across the Atlantic from my country--Britain--to the United States. Yes, I know our accents make us sound instantly plausible, but it's time Americans knew who these Brideshead bull-scientists really are. Look, for example, at their doyen--a man named Christopher Monckton. He has been lauded by the Wall Street Journal, National Review and Rush Limbaugh for exposing the truth about global warming, and is used by the New York Times as a balancing voice against the claims of climate scientists. In fact, Monckton is an English aristocrat with no scientific training. He studied ancient Greece and Rome, and worked as a policy adviser for Margaret Thatcher."
Friday, April 16, 2010
Top 400 Taxpayers | The Big Picture
Top 400 Taxpayers | The Big Picture: "Some of the data is quite astonishing:
• The top 400 U.S. individual taxpayers got 1.59% of the nation’s household income in 2007 — 3X the p% they got in the 1990s.
• The top 400 paid 2.05% of all individual income taxes in 2007.
• Only 220 of the top 400 were in the top marginal tax bracket.
• Average tax rate of the 400 = 16.6% — the lowest since the IRS began tracking the 400 in 1992.
• Minimum annual income to make the top 400 = $138.8 million.
• Top 400 reported $137.9 billion in income; they paid $22.9 billion in federal income taxes.
• 81.3% of income was from capital gains, dividends or interest. Salaries and wages? Just 6.5%.
• The top 400 list changes from year to year: 1992-2007, it contained 3,472 different taxpayers (out of a maximum 6400)."
• The top 400 U.S. individual taxpayers got 1.59% of the nation’s household income in 2007 — 3X the p% they got in the 1990s.
• The top 400 paid 2.05% of all individual income taxes in 2007.
• Only 220 of the top 400 were in the top marginal tax bracket.
• Average tax rate of the 400 = 16.6% — the lowest since the IRS began tracking the 400 in 1992.
• Minimum annual income to make the top 400 = $138.8 million.
• Top 400 reported $137.9 billion in income; they paid $22.9 billion in federal income taxes.
• 81.3% of income was from capital gains, dividends or interest. Salaries and wages? Just 6.5%.
• The top 400 list changes from year to year: 1992-2007, it contained 3,472 different taxpayers (out of a maximum 6400)."
2010 Report: Global manufacturing labor rates, trends and competitiveness | VentureOutsource.com
2010 Report: Global manufacturing labor rates, trends and competitiveness VentureOutsource.com
China had highest rate of labor force participation for persons ages 25 to 54. U.S. remains leading producer of manufactured goods. Largest labor force was combined EU-15 countries. Sweden had highest social insurance costs as a percent of manufacturing hourly compensation. Republic of Korea had largest increase in manufacturing labor productivity. Spain, Portugal only European countries with lower hourly manufacturing compensation costs than U.S.
China had highest rate of labor force participation for persons ages 25 to 54. U.S. remains leading producer of manufactured goods. Largest labor force was combined EU-15 countries. Sweden had highest social insurance costs as a percent of manufacturing hourly compensation. Republic of Korea had largest increase in manufacturing labor productivity. Spain, Portugal only European countries with lower hourly manufacturing compensation costs than U.S.
Researcher Throws A Wrench In IBM And HP’s Sensor Networks « Forbes.com's The Firewall
Researcher Throws A Wrench In IBM And HP’s Sensor Networks « Forbes.com's The Firewall
In a talk at the Black Hat security conference in Barcelona Thursday, Greek researcher Thanassis Giannetsos plans to present a new software tool that he and two colleagues have written that they say would allow a malicious hacker to penetrate a sensor network and change or delete data at will.
The researchers says their attack would allow an intruder to take control of a sensor network with just a laptop, an antenna, and their exploit written in Java. The tool attacks the routing layer, affecting protocols like Mint Route and MultiHopLQI to collect, redirect or delete data. "What you're trying to do is to destroy the tree of communication between sensors, to make all the nodes forward their data to you, not the base station,"
In a talk at the Black Hat security conference in Barcelona Thursday, Greek researcher Thanassis Giannetsos plans to present a new software tool that he and two colleagues have written that they say would allow a malicious hacker to penetrate a sensor network and change or delete data at will.
The researchers says their attack would allow an intruder to take control of a sensor network with just a laptop, an antenna, and their exploit written in Java. The tool attacks the routing layer, affecting protocols like Mint Route and MultiHopLQI to collect, redirect or delete data. "What you're trying to do is to destroy the tree of communication between sensors, to make all the nodes forward their data to you, not the base station,"
This is why he is my favorite president *joke* : funny
This is why he is my favorite president *joke* : funny: "Four U.S. presidents are caught in a tornado that hits a state funeral they're all attending and are whirled off to Oz. They finally make it to the Emerald City and come before the Great Wizard.
'What brings you before the great Wizard of Oz?'
Jimmy Carter steps forward timidly: 'I've come for some courage.' 'No problem!' says the Wizard. 'Who is next?'
Ronald Reagan steps forward, 'Well…I…I think I need a heart.' 'Done,' says the Wizard. 'Who comes next before the great and powerful Oz?'
Up steps George W. Bush, who says, 'I'm told by the American people that I need a brain.' 'Not a problem!' says the Wizard. 'Consider it done.' There is a great silence in the hall.
Bill Clinton is just standing there, looking around, but doesn't say a word. Irritated, the Wizard finally asks, 'What do you want?' 'Ummm,' he says quietly, 'is Dorothy around?'"
'What brings you before the great Wizard of Oz?'
Jimmy Carter steps forward timidly: 'I've come for some courage.' 'No problem!' says the Wizard. 'Who is next?'
Ronald Reagan steps forward, 'Well…I…I think I need a heart.' 'Done,' says the Wizard. 'Who comes next before the great and powerful Oz?'
Up steps George W. Bush, who says, 'I'm told by the American people that I need a brain.' 'Not a problem!' says the Wizard. 'Consider it done.' There is a great silence in the hall.
Bill Clinton is just standing there, looking around, but doesn't say a word. Irritated, the Wizard finally asks, 'What do you want?' 'Ummm,' he says quietly, 'is Dorothy around?'"
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Infosys lands deal to manage Microsoft's internal IT services | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com
Infosys lands deal to manage Microsoft's internal IT services Between the Lines ZDNet.com
Microsoft has outsourced its internal IT services—help desk, desk-side services, infrastructure and application support—to Indian outsourcing firm Infosys.
Microsoft has outsourced its internal IT services—help desk, desk-side services, infrastructure and application support—to Indian outsourcing firm Infosys.
Culinary Flags | TrendLand -> Fashion Blog & Trend Magazine
Culinary Flags | TrendLand -> Fashion Blog & Trend Magazine: "series of flags, savoring the culinary delights of each country"
Individualist anarchism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Individualist anarchism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "'If I go through life free and rich, I shall not cry because my neighbor, equally free, is richer. Liberty will ultimately make all men rich; it will not make all men equally rich. Authority may (and may not) make all men equally rich in purse; it certainly will make them equally poor in all that makes life best worth living.'"
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "'La propriété, c'est le vol' ('property is theft')"
Inside Apple's automatic graphics switching
Inside Apple's automatic graphics switching: "Intel's latest stable of mobile processors—Core i3, i5, and i7—all include integrated graphics in the same package as the CPU. Dubbed Intel HD, this integrated graphics processor is designed primarily for efficiency. While its performance is far better than the previous GMA950, for instance, it still wouldn't be classified as good for 'performance' graphics in any sense of the term in common usage."
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
1024-bit RSA encryption cracked by carefully starving CPU of electricity -- Engadget
1024-bit RSA encryption cracked by carefully starving CPU of electricity -- Engadget
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/%7Evaleria/research/publications/DATE10RSA.pdf
claim they can break it simply by tweaking a device's power supply. By fluctuating the voltage to the CPU such that it generated a single hardware error per clock cycle, they found that they could cause the server to flip single bits of the private key at a time, allowing them to slowly piece together the password.
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/%7Evaleria/research/publications/DATE10RSA.pdf
claim they can break it simply by tweaking a device's power supply. By fluctuating the voltage to the CPU such that it generated a single hardware error per clock cycle, they found that they could cause the server to flip single bits of the private key at a time, allowing them to slowly piece together the password.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Our view on education: Texas school board seeks to rewrite your kids' textbooks - USATODAY.com
Our view on education: Texas school board seeks to rewrite your kids' textbooks - USATODAY.com: "Texas school board seeks to rewrite your kids' textbooks"
Nine Myths About Socialism in the United States | The Smirking Chimp
Nine Myths About Socialism in the United States The Smirking Chimp
As Senator Patrick Moynihan used to say "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But everyone is not entitled to their own facts."
The fact is that the US is not really all that generous to our working and poor people compared to other countries.
As Senator Patrick Moynihan used to say "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But everyone is not entitled to their own facts."
The fact is that the US is not really all that generous to our working and poor people compared to other countries.
Microsoft Ushers in the Next Generation of the Social Phone With KIN, a New Windows Phone: Microsoft, Sharp, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone unveil KIN, a new Windows Phone designed for broadcasting and sharing everyday moments.
Microsoft Ushers in the Next Generation of the Social Phone With KIN, a New Windows Phone: Microsoft, Sharp, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone unveil KIN, a new Windows Phone designed for broadcasting and sharing everyday moments.
Microsoft Corp. today announced KIN, a new Windows® Phone designed specifically for people who are actively navigating their social lives. Brought to life through partnerships with Verizon Wireless, Vodafone and Sharp Corporation, KIN is designed to be the ultimate social experience that blends the phone, online services and the PC with breakthrough new experiences called the Loop, Spot and Studio. KIN will be exclusively available from Verizon Wireless in the U.S. beginning in May and from Vodafone this autumn in Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
... simple interface, which is designed to help people publish the magazine of their life by making the people and stuff they love the focus rather than menus and icons. ....
Microsoft Corp. today announced KIN, a new Windows® Phone designed specifically for people who are actively navigating their social lives. Brought to life through partnerships with Verizon Wireless, Vodafone and Sharp Corporation, KIN is designed to be the ultimate social experience that blends the phone, online services and the PC with breakthrough new experiences called the Loop, Spot and Studio. KIN will be exclusively available from Verizon Wireless in the U.S. beginning in May and from Vodafone this autumn in Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
... simple interface, which is designed to help people publish the magazine of their life by making the people and stuff they love the focus rather than menus and icons. ....
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Animals without oxygen and their implications for the evolution of life « Culturing Science – biology as relevant to us earthly beings
Animals without oxygen and their implications for the evolution of life « Culturing Science – biology as relevant to us earthly beings: "Life can survive without oxygen.
Danovaro, R., Dell’Anno, A., Pusceddu, A., Gambi, C., Heiner, I., & Kristensen, R. (2010). The first metazoa living in permanently anoxic conditions BMC Biology, 8 (1) DOI: 10.1186/1741-7007-8-30"
Danovaro, R., Dell’Anno, A., Pusceddu, A., Gambi, C., Heiner, I., & Kristensen, R. (2010). The first metazoa living in permanently anoxic conditions BMC Biology, 8 (1) DOI: 10.1186/1741-7007-8-30"
Human genome at ten: Life is complicated : Nature News
Human genome at ten: Life is complicated : Nature News: "For example, transcription factors encoded in the urchin embryo's genome are first activated by maternal proteins. These embryonic factors, which are active for only a short time, trigger downstream transcription factors that interact in a positive feedback circuit to switch each other on permanently. Like the sea urchin, other organisms from fruitflies to humans organize development into 'modules' of genes, the interactions of which are largely isolated from one another, allowing evolution to tweak each module without compromising the integrity of the whole process. Development, in other words, follows similar rules in different species.
'The fundamental idea that the genomic regulatory system underlies all the events of development of the body plan, and that changes in it probably underlie the evolution of body plans, is a basic principle of biology that we didn't have before,' says Davidson."
'The fundamental idea that the genomic regulatory system underlies all the events of development of the body plan, and that changes in it probably underlie the evolution of body plans, is a basic principle of biology that we didn't have before,' says Davidson."
Personal genomes: The case of the missing heritability : Nature News
Personal genomes: The case of the missing heritability : Nature News: "Epigenetics, changes in gene expression that are inherited but not caused by changes in genetic sequence, confuses things further. Feeding a mouse a certain diet, for example, can alter the coat colour not only in its children, but also in its children's children11. Here, the expression of a coat-colour gene is controlled by a type of DNA modification called methylation, but it's not completely clear how that methylation pattern is 'remembered' by the next generation. The idea that grandma's environment could affect future generations is controversial — and such effects would have been included in the heritability normally attributed to genes."
US tax bite smaller than other nations' / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com
US tax bite smaller than other nations' / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com: "But wage and payroll taxes are just part of the picture. Add in sales taxes, capital gains taxes, property taxes, and corporate taxes, and the US sends 28 cents of every dollar of output to the government. That still matches Japan for the lowest ratio of tax revenue to gross domestic product (GDP) among the G-7 nations. France and Italy score highest."
Palin: America does not need ‘this snake oil science stuff’ | Raw Story
Palin: America does not need ‘this snake oil science stuff’ | Raw Story: "'We should create a competitive climate for investment and for renewables and alternatives that are economical and doable and none of this snake oil science stuff that is based on this global warming, Gore-gate stuff that came down where there was revelation that the scientists, some of these scientists were playing political games.'"
Saturday, April 10, 2010
If we can’t make mistakes, then we can’t do science | Serendipity
If we can’t make mistakes, then we can’t do science | Serendipity: "Science is a process that compensates for the human failings of the people who engage in it, by continually questioning evidence, re-testing ideas, replicating results, collecting more data, and so on. Mistakes are made all the time. Individual scientists screw up. If they don’t make mistakes, they’re not doing worthwhile science"
oftwominds: Tyranny of the Majority, Corporate Welfare and Complicity
oftwominds: Tyranny of the Majority, Corporate Welfare and Complicity: "Everyone earning 10%-20% of that sum loudly applauds 'sticking it to the rich' (the Tyranny of the Majority in full flower) while failing to note that the truly wealthy--the ones who don't have any earned income because they don't work in salaried jobs, the ones who own roughly half the nation's productive assets--pay nothing but a slice of their unearned income--much of which is protected by various tax breaks."
Friday, April 09, 2010
Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: Mathematics Reveal Universal Properties Of Old Rope
Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: Mathematics Reveal Universal Properties Of Old Rope: "Mathematics Reveal Universal Properties Of Old Rope
Mathematicians prove that a three-stranded rope is always 68% the length of its component strands, regardless of the material from which it is made."
Mathematicians prove that a three-stranded rope is always 68% the length of its component strands, regardless of the material from which it is made."
How “Dirty” MP3 Files Are A Back Door Into Cloud DRM
How “Dirty” MP3 Files Are A Back Door Into Cloud DRM
A list of which music services are selling clean MP3 files without embedded personal information, and which aren’t, is here. Apple, LaLa (owned by Apple) and Walmart embed personal information. Amazon, Napster and the rest have resisted label pressure to do so.
A list of which music services are selling clean MP3 files without embedded personal information, and which aren’t, is here. Apple, LaLa (owned by Apple) and Walmart embed personal information. Amazon, Napster and the rest have resisted label pressure to do so.
IEBlog : A Closer Look at Internet Explorer 9 Hardware Acceleration Through Flying Images
IEBlog : A Closer Look at Internet Explorer 9 Hardware Acceleration Through Flying Images
We redesigned the core of Internet Explorer 9 to be hardware accelerated. Internet Explorer 9’s display rendering subsystem uses the GPU for all graphics and text on web pages. Internet Explorer 9 moves graphics work that has traditionally occurred on the general purpose CPU to faster, more specialized hardware. Internet Explorer 9’s JavaScript engine takes advantage of multiple-processor cores to background compile JavaScript into machine code. Internet Explorer 9 uses modern processor instruction sets across the entire product. Taken together, these changes enable computations to occur faster and in parallel, freeing the CPU to spend time performing other operations
We redesigned the core of Internet Explorer 9 to be hardware accelerated. Internet Explorer 9’s display rendering subsystem uses the GPU for all graphics and text on web pages. Internet Explorer 9 moves graphics work that has traditionally occurred on the general purpose CPU to faster, more specialized hardware. Internet Explorer 9’s JavaScript engine takes advantage of multiple-processor cores to background compile JavaScript into machine code. Internet Explorer 9 uses modern processor instruction sets across the entire product. Taken together, these changes enable computations to occur faster and in parallel, freeing the CPU to spend time performing other operations
Why does everything suck?: Steve Jobs Has Just Gone Mad
Why does everything suck?: Steve Jobs Has Just Gone Mad
3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
AMD announces Turbo CORE for upcoming desktop CPUs
AMD announces Turbo CORE for upcoming desktop CPUs
Servers need power optimization even more than desktops, although in the server space it's more critical to underclock than it is to overclock (underutilization is a huge problem in datacenters).
Servers need power optimization even more than desktops, although in the server space it's more critical to underclock than it is to overclock (underutilization is a huge problem in datacenters).
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Cincinnati Magazine
Cincinnati Magazine: "but what really gets to me with these tea-partiers and these Palin people is when I’m demonized for saying people should have health care. You know, Bubba in the Ku Klux Klan should not lose his house because his wife gets breast cancer. We should take better care of American people. And that makes me a communist? Well, OK. I don’t understand how that makes me a communist. I like my fellow countrymen and women. I want them to be healthy. I think it helps the country get better results. Less crime, better output at the factory, everyone gets more, you live better, so what’s the problem? “Well if the government does it, they screw up everything else.” Oh, let’s see, you know you’re ripping on the Marines, that’s interesting. So the marines suck. FDIC, that blows. SEC, doesn’t work. Medicaid, that sucks. The Air Force, NASA—awful. When people put down the government, [and say] “they can’t get anything right.” Shut up. Move. Go away. Or stop complaining, and let’s fix it. What’s your solution? “More tax cuts.” Oh, OK. Cool. “No government!” Excellent, who’s going fix the roads? Who’s my local cop. Blackwater? You know, it’s the lack of real solutions that gets to me, so when these people get mad at me it’s like OK, fine. Give me a set of solutions that’s compassionate, that takes care of my countrymen. And that gets us forward. “Well….” Right, I know. Just more anger. More unsigned letters, misspelled."
Monday, April 05, 2010
Windows Server Division WebLog : Windows Server 2008 R2 to Phase Out Itanium
Windows Server Division WebLog : Windows Server 2008 R2 to Phase Out Itanium: "Windows Server 2008 R2 will be the last version of Windows Server to support the Intel Itanium architecture. SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010 are also the last versions to support Itanium."
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Let Over Lambda
Let Over Lambda: "Clearly lisp procedures are not functions. Lisp procedures can return non-static values, that is you can call them multiple times with the same arguments and receive different return values each time. As in our examples from previous chapters, lisp procedures can store state by closing over variables."
Thursday, April 01, 2010
I.B.M’s Bid to Woo Software Start-Ups - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
I.B.M’s Bid to Woo Software Start-Ups - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
James Corgel, general manager for developer relations in I.B.M.’s software group, is largely to nurture a new wave of start-ups that “amplify and fit into the Smarter Planet framework.”
The I.B.M. software will be made available to the start-ups as a cloud service, which they can tap into over the Web.
Besides software, start-ups can also get one-on-one sessions with I.B.M. scientists and coaching on sales and marketing tactics. “More and more, people are asking us how to build a business,” Mr. Corgel said.
James Corgel, general manager for developer relations in I.B.M.’s software group, is largely to nurture a new wave of start-ups that “amplify and fit into the Smarter Planet framework.”
The I.B.M. software will be made available to the start-ups as a cloud service, which they can tap into over the Web.
Besides software, start-ups can also get one-on-one sessions with I.B.M. scientists and coaching on sales and marketing tactics. “More and more, people are asking us how to build a business,” Mr. Corgel said.
2BL.org: Ted Chan's Blog for Business and Social Impact: Cloud Computing: Cost structure and pricing strategies
2BL.org: Ted Chan's Blog for Business and Social Impact: Cloud Computing: Cost structure and pricing strategies
According to GigaOM, wholesale bandwidth costs have fallen from 20% to 40% in the past year, continuing a trend of rapid decline
According to GigaOM, wholesale bandwidth costs have fallen from 20% to 40% in the past year, continuing a trend of rapid decline
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