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| Notice: GeekPress is back up and running, thanks to Paul! It's still a not-so-serious tech news blog, but the format is significantly looser. Diana, having given up programming for philosophy, has her own philosophical blog NoodleFood. More of her work can be found at DianaHsieh.com. |
| 188 Linux Distributions ... And Counting |
| 1:28:09 am mst / 3 February 2001 found by paul / filed in operating systems / source TechWeb 36 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| There are currently 188 Linux distributions, of which 28 are derived from Red Hat Linux. The "color-followed-by-noun" naming convention appears popular among international distributions -- examples include Blue Point and Red Flag (from China), as well as Black Cat (from Russia). (Thanks to Geeknews.org for the link.) |
| It won't be long until the BBspot parody article, "Number of Linux Distributions Surpasses Number of Users" becomes true... |
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| Math geeks save XFL jocks |
| 4:22:44 am mst / 3 February 2001 found by paul / filed in business / source NY Times 59 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| The new startup (some would say upstart) XFL football league was having trouble working out its league schedule. They had a number of complex constraints to meet (e.g., each team had to play the others in its own division twice and in the other division twice, specific teams had to be away on certain weeks due to scheduling conflicts at their home stadiums, certain games had to start in certain time zones on specific days, etc.) Finally, the league consulted a pair of mathematicians at the University of Vermont who were able to help them. |
| There hasn't been any response to the mathematicians' requests for stock options or tickets to the championship game, but at least they got their fees plus some free footballs. Overall, a fun read. |
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| War on drugs targets tech |
| 11:03:49 am mst / 3 February 2001 found by diana / filed in legal / source ZDNet 47 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| A new report on the Drug War blames technology for the flow of drugs into this country. But Lewis Koch argues that blaming technology is absurd and that we have lost the war on drugs. He hints that legalization may be the best option. |
| It always boggles my mind that people who think that alcohol prohibition was terrible then support the drug war in the same breath. |
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| Success 'Ads' Up For These Teens |
| 1:19:24 pm mst / 3 February 2001 found by paul / filed in business / source Wired 135 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| A pair of teenagers who met online created an internet startup with an unusual business model: "Make more money than you can spend". They launched ClickZen.com at the height of the dot-com crash with $280 in cash and a $800 bank loan. But by sticking to their business model, instead of racking up crippling debt like most internet startups, their projected first year earnings will be $1.5 million. |
| The best line was from their account representative, who has never met them in person: "At first I always wondered why I couldn't get a hold of them during the day... Then I realized they were in school, and that their laptops were stored in their lockers." |
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| Why Bad Beliefs Don't Die |
| 2:13:30 pm mst / 3 February 2001 found by paul / filed in culture / source Skeptical Inquirer 146 hits / 1 comment / 0 e-mails |
| In this interesting essay, psychologist Gregory Lester argues that the reason the many people are reluctant to discard false beliefs (e.g., astrology, creationism, etc.) despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary is because of the special survival role that beliefs play in our psychologies. He also gives some excellent advice on how best to approach discussions and debates with others who hold false-but-tenacious belief systems. |
| I found it interesting that the author is a part-time faculty member in the theology department at a Catholic university. I imagine he must have developed a lot of real-life experience on this topic! |
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| Neural-Net Gender Test |
| 8:58:48 pm mst / 3 February 2001 found by paul / filed in fun / source TheSpark 268 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| The same people who brought you the hilarious StinkyMeat Project are offering this online gender quiz, which uses a neural-net method of determining your gender based on your answers to questions. (Link from kuro5hin.) |
| Although some of the questions seem cryptic, so far the test seems pretty accurate! |
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| How to Destroy Your Credibility At Work |
| 11:07:58 pm mst / 3 February 2001 found by diana / filed in humor / source Daily Radar 414 hits / 1 comment / 0 e-mails |
| Just eight easy steps to destroy your credibility and burn your bridges at work, with helpful pictures! |
| read 1 comment |
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