I Like Pi

Raspberry Pi, that is.

I know I'm late with this - it's not remotely news anymore to anyone who's in the know, but if you haven't heard about the Raspberry Pi project over in Jolly Olde England, then you need to read up.
This is a project trying to get kids to learn how to code (that's how to program computers, folks, it's not like they're teaching them Morse Code or Semaphore or the Secret Handshake of the Freemasons or anything!) and it has resulted in the creation of a fully-functional computer in a package about the size of an Altoids case or a cigarette pack. It's pretty amazing - it runs a couple flavors of Linux, can put out 1080p HD TV video, and is an all around brilliant product as those guys over there in the UK say all the time - like Harry Potter and that red-haired kid in the movies and all the guys on the Guinness commercials and everything.
So one of the really cool things is that the computer comes with nothing ready for it - you're supposed to learn how to write programs to make it do whatever you want - but you'll be able to share your programs and get programs from other people all over the world using this little machine that only costs something like $35 (yes, that's really Thirty Five Dollars) for the whole shebang other than the external connections you'll need like a keyboard and mouse and your TV for a monitor since it has HD output built in for that.

So just take my advice and run over to the Raspberry Pi website to find out about it and then you should go ahead and order one and learn about coding instead of just being a user of other people's codes like most of the Excel jockeys I know who couldn't write a program or even a macro in Visual Basic to save their lives or analyze their data, but it's not that hard and you can get a real sense of accomplishment and admiration for the coders who put out all those applications you use every day to do your jobs and all that.


Posted by Gyro Gearloose

Related Posts:

IP v6 is on the way - with Big Brother

Another Agency to Police the Internet?

That's NOT Hacking!

IPv6 May Not Be Necessary

The Great Steve Jobs
We Didn't Start the Fire!
It's Ba-ack .... 
RIP Dennis Ritchie

It's Atlantis All Over Again

1. Atlantis was destroyed by an underwater volcano eruption in pre-classical times.
2. The Greek island of Santorini is the remnant of that destruction.
3. That same volcano is showing signs of an imminent eruption.
4. Much of Greece will be lost physically (not just fiscally) when this volcano erupts.

An American scientist from Georgia Tech has been monitoring the movements of the caldera of this volcano for several years. His data indicate an imminent eruption of vast proportions. When that happens, there will be significant loss of life as well as likely interruptions of power and communications in the whole of Europe and Asia Minor.

When will our scientific and political overlords deign to inform the public of this danger? Why won't they issue warnings and evacuation notices?
Has the Greek government taken out huge insurance policies on the area on the Eve of Destruction, hoping to pay off its debts in its wake?
We'll report back when we have more information.

Posted by Listener 43

Related Posts:
Dynamite and Denial
The Earth's Rotation Is At Risk

At Least We Still Have Strong And Close Allies!

As if we didn't know that president 0bama is challenged when speaking without a teleprompter, and that he doesn't know an ally from an enemy, here's a great video to show just how clueless this twobit banana republic strongman wannabe really is.
Why is it that we have to count on Denmark - our great ally - to expose this crap? Can't ABC, CBS, CNN, or any of the various NBC flavors handle a simple job of reporting any more. Oh, sorry, that was probably best left as a rhetorical question.



Posted by Lewis Cannon

Related Posts:
Parsing the Prez
Parsing the Prez
Parsing the Prez #2
Parsing the Prez #3
Congress Is In Recess When I Say It's In Recess 
Remember - I Told You So!

SETI Channels Philip K. Dick

1. SETI (with the help of the TED Foundation) is asking you to do its job.
2. They've turned the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence into a computer game.
3. By using crowd-sourced pattern-recognition, they're hoping to find artifacts of attempted communication from other civilizations.

No longer content to harness "spare" CPU cycles from home enthusiasts, SETI's leadership is reaching out for active help with their SETI Live program. They're asking us to find the unexpected patterns in images from radio telescopes around the world, much like the game played in the classic novel, Time Out Of Joint, by Philip K. Dick.
What's next - will the Armed Forces start recruiting via video games?

Posted by Procrustes 17

Related Posts:
The US Navy: Channeling Andre Norton

Results Are Still UnCERNtain

1. Scientists at CERN's LHC had reported clocking neutrinos at speeds faster than light.
2. Without radical changes to all of currently-understood physics, this simply didn't make sense.
3. CERN called for other labs to examine their experiment and help to find the flaws - if there were any.
4. CERN is now claiming to have found two separate problems in the setup of this experiment - one that would overstate the speed, and another that would understate it.

Bowing to pressure from Listener 43, I'm posting a quick response to all this brouhaha, in spite of the fact that nothing has really been determined at this point.
It still seems likely to me that this whole mis-measurement was foisted upon the scientific world as a distraction - a red herring, as it were - to keep other, competing labs from making any progress in their search for the Higgs boson. CERN has consistently seemed to mislead their "colleagues" (read competitors) as to the likelihood of finding the Higgs in various energy levels, and I, for one, see no reason not to think this is simply more of the same.

Still, time will tell (how's that for a punnish ending?)

Posted by Procrustes 17

Related Posts:
CERN, Cosmic Rays, and Cover-Ups
CERN to Hide Higgs Boson
CERN's LHC Wants Your CPU Cycles
Slowly I CERN ... Step By Step ... Inch By Inch ...
Trying to disCERN the Truth
OOTing Out the Higgs Boson at CERN
Finally conCERNed About Facts
Still Playing The unCERNtainty Card
CERN Boosts Their Beams

CERN Boosts Their Beams

1. CERN plans to boost the energy of the beams at the LHC from 4.5 to 5.0 TeV per beam.
2. They anticipate that a year of experiments at these higher energies should let them find - or rule out - the Higgs boson.
3. They're still publicizing the 124-126 GeV range as the hiding place for the elusive particle.

It seems incredible that anyone is bothering to believe these folks anymore. Several months ago, confirmation of the Higgs boson was just around the corner, and now they're planning on a full year of higher energy experiments to either pin it down or rule it out.

In spite of these higher energies, they are still not running at the top levels for which the LHC was designed. Purportedly, this is to avoid "burning out the power interconnects" - something which one would expect to have been included in the design for those top power levels.

Again, it seems odd that the CERNers are telling everyone where they're looking, and at what energy levels they'll be running these experiments. Does anyone else smell fish? Red herring, to be precise?

This all make me wonder if maybe these LHC folks aren't quite the braniacs they represent themselves to be.
Posted by Procrustes 17

Related Posts:
CERN, Cosmic Rays, and Cover-Ups
CERN to Hide Higgs Boson
CERN's LHC Wants Your CPU Cycles
Slowly I CERN ... Step By Step ... Inch By Inch ...
Trying to disCERN the Truth
OOTing Out the Higgs Boson at CERN
Finally conCERNed About Facts
Still Playing The unCERNtainty Card

The Russians Can't Get To Mars, So They'll Drill In The Ice On Earth

1. Russian space probes headed for Mars typically disappear into space or crash into the ocean.
2. Russia recently suffered just such a mishap with the Phobos-Grunt probe.
3. Russian scientists are now drilling into the deepest fresh water lake in Antarctica.
4. They anticipate finding new (to humanity at least) life-forms which have adapted to the high-pressure, low-light, high-oxygen environment.

Why are the Russians drilling in the same place that countless movie and TV producers have found ideal for an alien threat locale?
Why do they insist on drilling into a place where any life they encounter will either be harmed by its contact with Earth-normal conditions, or are likely to cause harm to Earth-normal life?
Why was there a long period of radio silence between the on-site Russian announcement of the impending breakthrough and resumed contact regarding the progress if the drilling?
What happened in those intervening days?

We will continue to monitor the situation, and report back here as more information is acquired.

Posted by Listener 43

Related Posts:
Russians, Asteroids, and Mars
The Search for XT Artifacts is On
Water, Mars, Saturn, and Technocrats
Another Search Is On!  
Russian Space Crystals
Are Russian Space Troubles From Beyond Mars?