EdEarl

I agree. Unfortunately, whoever replaces them on the ballot will more than likely be a carbon copy. And, I can see no significant change as long as the voters focus on many divisive issues.

There is nothing to turn off inside a magnet, which is made of atoms (e.g., iron) just like everything else. In a permanent magnet these atoms align into small magnetic domains that reinforce each other and make a large permanent magnet. If you heat a permanent magnet the atoms will rearrange so they point in many directions and the magnetism will seem to disappear, because the domains cancel instead of reinforce. You can do a similar thing by putting two bar magnets together N-S and S-N poles, so they stick together instead of repel. Their total magnetism is reduced because the magnetic lines flow through the magnets, instead of into the air around them. Magnetism is a force field, not a power field. You can turn the field of an electromagnet on and off, because electricity causes the field, but there are no particles called poles. Photons are the electromagnetic field carrier, and turning an electromagnet on and off creates photons of various wave lengths depending on how fast the switching occurs. This method can be used to make photons for radio waves.

This sounds like a homework question, which we do not answer for people. In other words, you should try to do it yourself. It is hard to compare 100000 of something to 5000 of something unless you use a ratio.

The US public is outraged and disgruntled with the political system. Unfortunately, the voters have many pet issues that divide them into an ineffective morass. Some people focus on the abortion issue, some on illegal immigration, some on gun control, some on social policy, etc. Politicians have purposefully divided the country geographically into congressional districts to help assure incumbents will be reelected. In other words, a congressman who campaigned for abortion rights and no gun control, helps to draw his congressional district to assure there are voters who favor his campaign issues. Thus, the country has been polarized on issues, and the Tea Party subset has arisen; they seem to be insistent on their way or war. The politicians whom they elected are, I hope, merely playing the political game to assure their share reelection. However, without the money from businessmen who fund campaigns, politicians aren't likely to be reelected. Thus, I think, the politicians will play to the public a while, and then end the government shutdown and let the country get on with its business. That doesn't mean that I like the way the country is being run by business men, I don't. I think the politicians and business men are doing stupid things. And, clearly the Tea Party people don't like it either. I think most people are outraged for one reason or another. We just don't have a consensus to make a voting block big enough and for long enough to force the government into doing things differently.

Poems and songs helped to reduce the number of errors in historic stories, because the rhyme and rhythm make changes difficult and aid memory.

Mac OS and MS DOS are not used much anymore. DOS was strictly single threaded and did not support concurrency. Mac OS 9 did not support full multitasking (concurrent operations) but may have supported multiple users in some way. I've not used a Mac. Linux and Unix were always multitasking systems that supported concurrent operations. There are also mobile operating systems used by phones and tablets, and a few other operating systems such as the one on HP Tandem systems, BSD, and others. You may want to just lump operating systems into single thread and multithread.

OK, the Federal Government has changed the distribution of its employees, and hires more professional, administrative and technical people. And, I'll grant you that comparing pay for jobs in those categories may not be greater for Federal Employees than other sectors. And, the pay differential for working east and west coast doesn't appear to offset the cost of living. In the Midwest, where I live a Wall-mart employee often cannot get a full time job, because the company does not want to pay for benefits, and they pay only a bit above minimum wage, about $8,50. Just about all federal employees are better paid. A school teacher here, who has a masters degree, makes about $40,000, which is a more than a federal clerk makes, about the same as a Federal technical employee, but quite a bit less than administrative and professional workers. Thus, it depends on where the private, state, or local job is located whether Federal employees are paid higher or lower than their counterparts. But, the minimum wage employees are paid less, especially ones that cannot get full time jobs. Any category Federal employee is more able to take a few days unpaid vacation than any minimum wage worker.

I do not understand this question. Is it related to your original post in this thread? Is it an unrelated question about the Planck constant h? Or, is it something else? If it is unrelated to the topic in this thread, then the moderators will probably be happier if you open another thread to ask the question. In any case, please clarify the question.

Perhaps they will be throttled by their political backers, the business men who do not want the economy to tank. I agree that the Tea Party is stupid/evil, and Republicans are seeking their vote. However, politicians often play the game without being stupid, and will bow to the will of business men, after they score Tea Party points.

Lets talk about the lower paid ranks, that make up the majority of government employees, even if salaries are exactly the same as private, state and local employees, federal health and retirement benefits are much better than the others, with rare exceptions. Lawyers are at the top of the pay scale, and that is picking an unrepresentative data point.

Not much of interest in the 2013 elections. Obama may have to give in to the Republicans in the House. This shutdown shows the public that the republicans are against his health care program. Next year, the stakes are higher because the entire House will run in the elections and 33 of the 100 senators. Federal employes are well paid compared to most state, local and privately employes; thus, I'm not too concerned about them having an unpaid holiday (a furlough). I doubt it will last very long. The hardest hit will be poor people who may get a retirement check late, and maybe some other scenarios. Although, how it works out is yet to be decided by congress. This is political theater to get the attention of the public. It will be interesting to see who makes what points.

No. 9.98857^34 = 9.9885734 134 = 1 134 is not equal to 1*34, it is 1*1*1*1... (34 multiplications). Use a calculator to calculate 12, 15 and 110. 9.98857 is nearly 10, and 1034 is a huge number 10000000... (34 zeros in all). Adding 4.777 changes the value very little. The same is true for adding 9.9885734 and 4.777. Use a calculator to calculate 9.988575 and 105; their values will be closer to each other than they are to 5. imatfaal gave a good answer to your question.

Trustworthy politician is an oxymoron.

Generally that is true, but there are interpreters of machine code, usually called emulators, that interpret binary instructions that are not easy to read, and their assembly language might be more difficult than C as well.

In addition, I'd like to add that computers are now doing things that people use their brains to do, such as facial recognition, voice recognition, driving a car, playing chess, playing Jeopardy, etc.

The mirror test for dogs is of questionable value, because dogs are very scent oriented compared to visually oriented. Moreover, in some cases an animal may not recognize a mirror, yet may still be self aware. I'm sure blind people are self aware, but they cannot recognize a mirror. Like many physiological tests, the mirror test is a limited tool. Moreover, the mind is complex, and measuring any quality of it can lead to confounding results. Some things cannot be measured, for example pain. Doctors ask patients to describe their pain, and must rely on that testimony. People have a sense of self-awareness and consciousness, but an accurate definition eludes us.

Different relationship to physical brain-states than what? This quote seems to be an incomplete thought, that I do not understand.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipboard_%28computing%29 http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_programs/where-is-the-clipboard-on-windows-7/3bf718eb-5c47-e011-90b6-1cc1de79d2e2

Your library should have access to acm, ieee, and other papers, but it may take a while to get copies sent via snail mail. How about, "The benefits, disadvantages, and strategies for deploying distributed file systems." Additional Hints: 1. Why are distributed file systems needed? Multinational game files and corporate databases. 2. In what ways may files be distributed, e.g., whole files, columns, rows, as updated, index, or others? 3. What kinds of synchronization problems will occur, and how may they be resolved? What does it mean to lock a row (record). 4. How do access methods affect applications using distributed files. Consider indexing, hashing, and searching. 5. How do distributed files affect applications. Does an application always need to know about distributed files? 6. How do applications affect distributing files. Would tax collections and distributions in Germany affect the same in Australia. 7. What happens when two programs need to update the same row and column and that row-column is distributed (copied) into several files. Also consider files on the Mars Curiosity Rover and similar ones at NASA on Earth. Your imagination can be a great help. Don't forget the mind experiments.

A server farm or multiprocessor can use distributed files, but another topography is files distributed across long distances with perhaps several multiprocessor server farms. Although interconnect topology is important and related, saleha's latest question was limited to distributed files.

I am not an expert in distributed file systems, but I can help you analyze the issues. I will use the Socratic method. 1. Why are distributed file systems needed? 2. In what ways may files be distributed, e.g., whole files, columns, rows, as updated, index, or others? 3. What kinds of synchronization problems will occur, and how may they be resolved? 4. How do access methods affect applications using distributed files. 5. How do distributed files affect applications. 6. How do applications affect distributing files. 7. What happens when two programs need to update the same row and column and that row-column is distributed (copied) into several files. Answer or partly answer these questions, and I'll ask additional questions. Read papers, but also do thought experiments of running imaginary applications that access files in various distributed configurations, be sure to consider multiple applications running at the same time.

We don't do homework for people. If you want help, please at least try to do the problem for yourself.

Neither, no interest, no practical value to me. The hover board has been discussed here before, you can search for that discussion. To start a discussion of the solar skateboard, I recommend you decide how big a motor you want, and how much area you need in solar cells to power it. A square meter of sunlight provides about 750 watts of power. The most efficient solar cells (not on the market) are about 45% efficient. Thus, you can get a maximum of 750 watts * 45% power per square meter of solar collector, but not today. With available solar cells you might get half that much power per square meter, and that requires the cells to be pointed directly at the sun at all times and bright sunshine.

jduff, Now you quote me and add your own statements in the post. That is dishonest, even though you put your statements in red, you do not identify them as yours. I said that people can read the website and make up their own mind whether they have done a good job. Your statements in color red, extracted into the above quote, conclude things the web site does not say. Whether the site is junk science or not, people may conclude for themselves.

Your characterization of the integrity of this project is incorrect IMO. The web site and its FAQ are available for everyone to read and judge for themselves; fortunately, they need no rely on your biases.