Archive for August, 2009

The Immortal Turritopsis Jelly Fish

28 Aug 2009 at 15:51

Terry Moore

Uncategorized

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This is pretty interesting.

Once it reaches sexual maturity, Turritopsis looks like a tiny, transparent, many-tentacled parachute (only about 5mm in diameter) that floats freely in warm ocean waters. But when times get tough, Turritopsis can turn into a blob, anchor itself to a surface, and undergo a sort of reverse methamorphosis back to its youthful form as a stalk-like polyp. That’s like a butterfly turning back into a caterpillar. Scientists, who first described this phenomenon [pdf] in the 1990s, believe Turritopsis can repeat its life cycle indefinitely.

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Amazing Hole in One

28 Aug 2009 at 15:45

Terry Moore

Sports

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Just watch..

The Linux Desktop

27 Aug 2009 at 22:51

Terry Moore

Linux

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OSNews.com has an interesting article asking the question “Is the Linux Desktop Too Much Like Windows, Mac OS.”  Maybe, but is it a bad thing, I don’t think so.  In order for linux to continue to grow in popularity and to be adopted by regular day to day users there needs to be a certain level of crossover.  This crossover will allow new users to be able to start using Linux from day one and with very little frustration.  But I do think that each desktop environment needs to continue to innovate and to stand out on its own.  KDE has started to do this with KDE 4.x but at the same time continues to have a “start” button to allow users to get to their applications.  By doing this a Windows user that has never used KDE instinctively clicks on that icon to start navigating the OS and away they go.  Gnome is similar with a large button that has the word Applications on it.  Sure it maybe on a menu bar at the top of the screen but it still doesn’t get much clearer then that.

Flu season is here, N1H1!!!! Ahhhh!!!!

27 Aug 2009 at 14:06

Terry Moore

Health

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medicalThe vice president of the company that I work for sent an email today stating the new flu policy for the upcoming flu season.  Basically it gave some good information that we should all be doing anyway such as:

•    Engage in thorough and frequent hand washing. Be sure to use soap and water or alcohol-based solutions.
•    Cover all coughs and sneezes. Try not to cough or sneeze into your hands, but if you do, wash your hands immediately with soap and water. If you have children, you know they are taught at school to cough/sneeze into the inside bend of their elbow.
•    Do not come to work if you are sick.
•    Do not send children to school or day care centers if they are sick and do not bring them to the office if they are sick or if their schools have been closed due to the flu outbreak.
•    Contact a health care provider if you have been exposed to someone who has been diagnosed with the flu or if you develop flu-like symptoms — fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue.

Which then lead to the some one who buys in to the FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) of the media. She sent the VP and everyone else an article written by the USA Today with the headline written in scary 36 point bold font that 30,000-90,000 people are expected to die this year from N1H1.  Wow that a lot, right?  I’m scared!  At least I was (not really) until you break down those numbers:

  • Total US population is approx. 304,059,724
  • Number of deaths: 2,426,264
  • Death rate: 810.4 deaths per 100,000 population
  • Heart disease: 631,636
  • Cancer: 559,888
  • Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 137,119
  • Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 124,583
  • Accidents (unintentional injuries): 121,599
  • Diabetes: 72,449
  • Alzheimer’s disease: 72,432
  • Influenza and Pneumonia: 56,326
  • Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 45,344
  • Septicemia: 34,234

Septicemia!!!! I don’t even know what that is but there is about the same chance of me dying from it this year.  (OK I do now http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepsis )

You may contract N1H1, but your odds of dying from it pretty slim.  In the words of John Stossel “Give me a break”

Happy Birthday Linux

25 Aug 2009 at 12:07

Terry Moore

Linux

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linux-penguin

To the greatest example of world collaboration for a great good, at least in the computer world, I wish you a happy 18th birthday Linux. This is the post that Linus posted on the comp.os.miux Usernet group

Hello everybody out there using minix —

I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things) .

I’ve currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I’ll get something practical within a few months, and I’d like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won’t promise I’ll implement them : – ).

Linus (torvalds@klaava.helsinki.fi)

PS.  Yes — it’s free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that’s all I have : – (.

Here is Wired.com’s article of the history of the Linux kernel

Tech Support Cheat Sheet

24 Aug 2009 at 20:03

Terry Moore

Cartoon

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Enough said!

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