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This isn't 'How to Think Like A Computer Scientist', but rather 'Introducing Programming with Python'. It's a good introductory text for learning Python. However programming is a v…

Diatomaceous earth (DE) does the job. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Diatomaceous_...

You're right, there's no reason to try to correct the 20% of the population that believes the Sun revolves around the Earth. It's a lost cause; you win.

Which is at odds with the (correct) definition of MTTF as a rate-based calculation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure_rate The person that wrote the Wikipedia article you refere…

Your statement was: "A RAID0 over three disks has about 1/3 the MTBF of a single disk." This is incorrect, the MTTF and MTBF are not significantly changed. Assuming you meant failu…

Mirasol is my favorite of the upcoming display technologies for mobile devices. I was starting to think that the display would never see the light of day (pun intended), until I ca…

Mirasol is my favorite of the upcoming display technologies for mobile devices. I was starting to think that the display would never see the light of day (pun intended), until I ca…

Yeah, a closed source application installed as root, with the express purpose of accessing your webcam and microphone. What could go wrong?

tl;dr: For RAID0 arrays there is a non-linear increase in the probability of failure, but the MTTF/MTBF doesn't change much.

While the probability of failure is nearly a function of the number of drives, the MTBF/MTTF calculations do not work that way. For example, if there were a probability of 5% that …

You'll probably find this interesting reading on the internal architecture of SSDs: http://www.denali.com/wordpress/index.php/dmr/2010/02/02/ssd-interfaces-and-performance-effects …

I back up several times a day, automatically. I've run RAID arrays for years with no problems, but all drives eventually fail. An SSD is internally a RAID0 that can be up to 16 wid…

It really depends on the platform and requirements. On a desktop, a three-drive RAID0 provides about the same performance, and gives you nearly 40x the storage for a given price-po…

Make friends with spiders and house centipedes. They are the natural enemies of most every house pest, including bedbugs, and mostly harmless to people. The enemy of my enemy is my…

Fedora, for example, already does this with UUIDs and the smolt project. A UUID is generated on installation and used for the 'ping'. The user opts-in at first boot, and the softwa…

That seems to be a misunderstanding of the nature of a UUID. Simply replacing the model with the UUID provides no tracking in this use case, as it's a single purpose reference.

Model numbers? Isn't that why UUIDs were created? Unique identifier, and anonymous: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/UUID

So women are only permitted to search for men? No lesbians allowed? After the eHarmony lawsuit and $500,000 payout, you'd think dating sites wouldn't want to repeat that disaster.

As background, from WikiPedia: "On November 13, 2006, Sun released much of Java as open source software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). On May 8, 2007, Sun…

I actually have no problem with Apple's prices. People don't buy a Rolls-Royce because it's a car, they buy it because it's a Rolls-Royce. Comparing the purchase price or mpg to a …

My comment was in reply to the author's statement that "sharing a copyrighted design is theft". This is clearly false.

Why does everyone forget that copyrighted content can be shared if the license allows it? Copyright does not automatically prohibit sharing. http://creativecommons.org/about/ http:…

It's a joke. If you're not using v4l, then you're rolling your own. So you either have to fix it yourself, or hold it upside down. :)

Regressive is the term used here for describing property taxes. While not entirely appropriate, for the sake of communication commonly agreed upon terminology is used by politician…

They neglected the impact of property taxes, which are regressive (independent of income). Here in NJ for example, my property taxes are now at 25% of my income, and that's before …