Humodour

So, from Tanenbaum's graph, which I'm pretty sure IS inflation adjusted, he comes up with some maths, which I think is really descriptive:

You know what - I'm not sure. I thought it was, since the author of the graph is Andrew S. Tanenbaum - somebody who knows maths and logic absolutely inside out, being a world-famous computer science professor. But hey, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and provide a Dow Jones plot which I KNOW is inflation adjusted. You're not going to like it, because it again reinforces the notion that Republicans of the past 25 or so years have been neutral through to terrible for the stock market, while Democrats have been good for it - even fixing the Republican screw ups. http://www.macrotrends.org/1319/dow-jones-100-year-historical-chart You can drag with the left-mouse button to zoom into the years corresponding to the presidential terms you're interested in. Note also: "Historical data is inflation-adjusted using the headline CPI." Now, are you really going to sit there and tell me "IT DOESN'T MATTER - THERE WILL BE A CRASH UNDER OBAMA" without the slightest bit of evidence beside your disdain for the man? Come on mate, give credit where it is due and accept that Obama and the Democrats have been a good thing for the USA and will continue to be.

Hey, that sounds like what Mitt Romney said to your Hispanic population!

What I want to know is why do people think Obama would be any better for the economy no matter the circumstances, when all he's done is follow in Bush's footsteps. Rubbish. Ever taken a look at the performance of the US stock markets under Obama and compared them to Bush? Turns out that Democratic presidents are better with the economy than recent Republican ones have been. We're talking Bush Senior, Clinton, Bush Junior and Obama here. Reference: http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2012/Pres/Maps/Oct24.html#item-8

I think Obama is probably VERY happy about the fiscal cliff, and will do everything he can to make sure that no compromise is reached. And here is why: The fiscal cliff will cancel the Bush era tax cuts and cut defense spending. Which is excellent since Bush's tax cuts and the USA's defence spending account for the majority of the USA's debt growth. Some progressive policies will take the axe. And I imagine that the Democrats will re-institute the truly important ones at their next convenience.

Then you were mistaken. Go on?

Really? I thought Stephen Harper had made Canada the 51st US state?

No, you really didn't. When did you last use Linux? If it was 2 years ago or more, you should take another look, just as Valve has with Steam. Currently, Ubuntu has its own open source drivers and if you've got integrated Intel graphics then from memory those drivers are really good and open source. But if you want the full capability of your discrete graphics processor, it's best to use the drivers which nVidia and AMD supply for Linux. To use these drivers all you do is select a checkbox in Ubuntu. Windows 7 is still fast - heck it ought to be, as I have an SSD and a sex-core computer. Still, there is latency when I open folders and files and applications and web sites and such. Latency that doesn't seem to exist on Ubuntu. Which is curious because one of the reasons I upgraded to an SSD was precisely to see if the I/O bottleneck was response for the latency. It was a bit. But Windows seems to be just slow by nature. Where 'slow' still means "pretty damn fast, but not visibly immediate".

I'll let you know if I ever discover such a place. But at a guess they are talking about the Northern Territory: http://en.wikipedia....rgency_Response Australia consistently has the 1st or 2nd highest human development index in the world: http://en.wikipedia....man_development We're not too good at press freedom (largely because Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd controls over 70% of it), but we still rank 30th (near the UK and well ahead of the USA): http://en.wikipedia....s_Freedom_Index And Australia is considered the 3rd most free economy in the world, after Hong Kong and Singapore - doing business here is easy, stable, and transparent: http://en.wikipedia....conomic_Freedom We definitely do have problems with our treatment of indigenous Australians. The early British settlers to Australia treated the locals just the same way the Americans treated their local Indians: by butchering them and raping them. And subsequent natural born Australians continued this behaviour for a long time. The indigenous population has never really recovered from being wiped out by the common 'flu, then being hunting targets, then being slaves, then being paid in cigarettes and beer, then being thrown lots of guilt money and positive discrimination clauses in every aspect of life. Still, the horrors of British colonisation of aboriginal Australians do slowly abate as each generation of indigenous Australians grows up with equality, opportunity, education, and technology. The local conservative party - the Liberals - still tend to treat them like scum, however. What concerns me about modern day Australia is a) how stupid thw conservatives (Liberals) are becoming - the same way the USA's conservatives have become bat**** crazy, and b) how censorship-happy both the Labour party and the Liberal party are - they're all about warrant-less wire-tapping and deep packet inspection. **** 'em. Bastard ****.

So As a human full of doubt I'd ask myself if my country was a wee bit crazy if the rest of the world was laughing at us. I'd suggest ignoring Volourn. He is a laughing stock around here. You're spot on about Europeans - they've a bigger economy than the US and more political capital. Anybody who looks at Europe, goes "oh, they're in recession so they're down and out" has no conception of long-term thinking. Do countries in recession never leave recession or something? O.o Still, it doesn't matter. The GOP and their ilk will rant about how because the EU is having rough times, the USA must be superior! Nah. Europe will recover, and the USA's economy and population will never grow faster than China's or India's or Brazil's or Indonesia's or... it goes on. The USA was at the peak of its power about a decade ago and has been rolling downhill ever since. The fact is, the world is now vastly multipolar and the USA matters only insofar as China or India or Europe matter - they're all interlinked. Which is to say: the USA still matters. For instance, a country which still accounts for a full 20% of all the world's greenhouse gas pollution emissions still matters. Holy ****, this is awesome! Interestingly, Puerto Rico votes overwhelmingly for the Democrats and would continue to do so if a Democrat president gave them statehood. Yet another reason I don't think the conservatives will win 2016. The GOP have scared off the growth demographics of young people and hispanics.

I hope you're not agreeing with me because I am saying the exact opposite: you don't need to go to university to learn programming. =p You need to go to university to learn maths, computer science, and critical thinking. Programming is something more primal and mechanical than those highly useful academic concepts things - and it is something which cannot be taught well institutionally without draining away the spirit of the profession. You learn programming by programming. Repeatedly. Over a long period of time (years).

I find Australia almost like a Police state, your laws are strict. No weed, no taking cheese into the country and apparently very strict on DUI. No exceptions from what people who have immigrated have told me? We're big on evidenced-based (not ideological) policy. That means we absolutely ban DUI because of the high collision and fatality rate associated with it - just as we vigorously enforce low speed limits on roads for the same reason). On the other hand, you're welcome to bring cheese to Australia. Just declare it at quarantine. There are usually no hassles getting foods through - including cheese. We're not a police state. We're one of the freest countries in the world - well ahead of South Africa and the USA. Marijuana laws however, come from the conservative prudes. They are not evidence-based and need to be reformed. Where I live, in Canberra, the territory is very progressive and all I can get for possessing less than 28 grams is a small fine - if that. A few other states are like this. But some, like NSW and QLD can also be very harsh on marijuana. So it varies, but on the whole Australians are marijuana prudes. Still, Australia's annual prevalence rate for marijuana use is only slightly behind that of Italy, New Zealand, Canada, and the US (that is: Australia smokes a lot of weed).

Cheers to the yanks for legalising marijuana in some states. There are many things which Australia is ahead of the US on. Drug law reform on a state level clearly isn't one of them. It is as if our politicians are waiting for the USA to make a move before they'll ever consider doing so. Cowards. Well, here it is. Now hurry up Australia. Legalise zee weed.

My experiences mirror yours. I think it is fairly common. That said, university is absolutely invaluable. Everyone wanting to be a decent programmer really must attend university and study physics, maths, engineering, or computer science. Python and PyGame (SDL + more) are a really good way to get the kid into real, genuine game programming in a simple, intuitive and industrially used programming lanauge. Python is object oriented, among other things. It reads like clean pseudocode. But I tend to think that any (game) programmer is hopeless if they don't understand embedded programming and computer architecture (e.g. bit packing). E.g.: http://inventwithpython.com/blog/2010/09/01/the-top-10-pygame-tutorials/

In other news, nVidia and Valve are accelerating their work on Linux. Steam for Linux is expected to come out for the public early next year, opening with over 20 games. I've been using Ubuntu 12.10 for 2 weeks or so now and it has been running flawlessly. When I dual-boot to Windows 7 to play a Steam game these days, I notice how slow and unresponsive Win 7 is. I didn't think I would.

That's an interesting insight into your mind. Congratulations, USA. =) Oh, and Guard Dog, Obama is winning the popular vote.

Buy him an Arduino starter kit and tell him to Google ****. Arduino tutorials are EVERYWHERE (including YouTube), and they're damn fun. The language is C. You can buy 3G cellular SMS and web surfing modules for Arduino, as well as WiFi, ZigBee, ethernet, touch screen, etc. http://store.arduino.cc/ww/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=185 You don't learn programming from a school - it's something you have to teach yourself, with encouragement and theory from others (e.g. IRC, forums. Google search). Sometimes the theory comes from school I guess, like Big O notation and whatnot.

Nexus 10 - the tablet collaboration between Google and Samsung. It runs the latest version of Android and blows the iPad away.

[... some ignorant comments followed by some more ignorant comments ...] Krezack, How much CO2 do humans produce on Earth and how much is produced naturally? I don't know - I'm not a climate scientist? Are you a climate scientist? No? Then why don't we ask the climate scientists? "This overwhelming consensus [that humans are causing global warming] among climate experts was confirmed by an independent study that surveyed all climate scientists who have publicly signed declarations supporting or rejecting the consensus position. It found that 97-98% of climate experts support the consensus. Moreover, the study found that the small number of scientists rejecting the consensus had published, on average, around half as many papers each as the large majority of scientists accepting the consensus position." [1] Well there we have it. No, you are a damn denialist. You are denying that humans are causing global warming against the overwhelming weight of peer-reviewed evidence across the globe - and citing some inaccurate predictions of a single science communicator (who by the way has been bang on the money on many things) you don't like to disparage the professionalism of all scientists. A typical tactic of deniers. You won't find a single genuine scientific organisation which states that global warming is not happening. Even the Koch brothers couldn't convince the scientists they paid off to state that global warming isn't happening. Leave this thread. Dishonesty is not welcome in it. To those reading this thread, I will not respond further to Hiro's denialist manipulations, but he says that the evidence and consensus don't exist. I offer them to you to read over all you want and see for yourself that they do (but, as compared to Hiro's lack of knowledge, this knowledge involves actual scientific facts and data, so will require some thoughtful processing - which I concede is more difficult than writing this evidence off and running with one's simplistic gut feeling that humans pumping record amounts of pollution into the skies isn't doing anything): http://www.npr.org/2011/06/21/137309964/climate-change-public-skeptical-scientists-sure [1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/07/scientific-consensus-climate-change http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2012/05/scientific-concensus-stronger-than-scientists-though/ http://www.ucsusa.org/ssi/climate-change/scientific-consensus-on.html http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-scientific-consensus-intermediate.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change#Scientific_consensus The science and data: http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/contents.html

My post had plenty of empathy towards the deaths caused - I said as much and was absolutely sincere. To read anything else into what I posted is paranoia. I particularly have empathy towards the many, many more who will die in the future as storms like these pummel the USA, Caribbean, and the world with increasing severity and frequency as global warming accelerates in line with accelerating greenhouse gas emissions. My post did not have empathy towards people who deny global warming is a threat or don't care. To them I definitely have anti-empathy. They are scum slowly killing the rest of us; especially those in the world least capable of protecting against the damage and least responsible for causing the damage of global warming - the poor. Between 54 and 74 Haitians were killed by Sandy.

Then you probably shouldn't have posted all the other drivel. Open your ****ing eyes. Even when the **** fits the fan far more frequently than it ever has before, you'd still rather go "oh, that's horrible!" than ask "Why did this happen? Is there something we are doing that is worsening weather systems like this or making them more frequent?" Pathetic. People died. That makes it the perfect time to ask "Why? Is there something society can do in the short, medium, or long-term to prevent deaths in the future?" The answer is yes, and even if it were no, the question WOULD STILL BE WORTH ASKING. Cross-thread quoting of JFSOCC to provide some statistical data of intense weather system frequency to hammer home the point: http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2007/hurricanefrequency.shtml http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atlantic_hurricane_records#Number_of_tropical_storms_and_hurricanes_per_season

Really? And is this view informed by peer-reviewed science or your gut feeling?

Really? REALLY?! There is a HUGE scientific consensus that global warming is very real and very bad. But hey, what would scientists know? It's not like they study the Earth's atmosphere, water table, chemistry, and physics or anything. You mean most of the information from non-scientists has an agenda. Gorgon, you're spreading harmful disinformation by implying that both sides have an agenda. The global scientific consensus has no other agenda than telling the truth. And the truth they are telling you is: global warming is real, near, and catastrophic. The interesting thing is that all the engineers know this as well. Ask any country's professional engineering society what their stance on global warming is, and do they factor it into their design and planning decisions? The answers will be yes it is happening, and yes, they do.

But don't worry guys, global warming is a conspiracy. And if it isn't, rising global average temperatures don't have any relation to the frequency and severity of intense weather system formation or anything. And even if they did, there's nothing we can do to stop polluting the atmosphere. And if if there was, I like to buy lots of crap I don't need so piss off! Sandy is horrible - I don't mean to diminish the death and loss caused by it in any way. Over a dozen people have died already. But people need to see it as one of a wide array of wake-up calls that say "BUSINESS AS USUAL IS NOT ACCEPTABLE."