MattPie

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/sci/celebrate-spocktoberfest-year.html Happy Spocktoberfest.

Yeah, noted up-thread. It just amuses me that the current-Republicans still claim him. BTW, the MVP of this thread for me has been TrueBluePhD. Thanks for the insights, it's fantastic to hear from someone that actually knows how this stuff works.

Speaking of Lincoln, this quote has been bouncing around the intertubes lately: http://dig.lib.niu.e...n1-lincoln.html That doesn't sound all that current-Republican to me.

Is this the zombie one or something else?

Install Linux for free! :) Check it out. There's a fair number of efforts out there that are trying to glean good data from sources like Twitter, Facebook, etc.

That was my thought too. Maybe they're playing the "we need our salary in quarters so we can do laundry" angle. At least Miller is somewhat dressed.

Just from the computer standpoint, what languages has she been trying to learn? C++ and Java, for instance, are very different than COBOL. Not just on the syntax, but the entire model and through process is different. I don't know COBOL, but some of the more script type languages might be something to try (Python and PHP are the first that come to mind). My complaint: I was in Buffalo from Saturday until last night, I got used to seeing my girlfriend and family on a regular basis. Ever done anything with Crowdsourcing? I know a few research groups in my company that are working with the concept. It seems like it'd be a parallel discipline to what you're talking about.

Irony because the rattlesnake originally signified British criminals sent to the colonies?

Stop fighting, today is Doan Deadline Day, is it not?

Yeah, you can tweak it to make the effect less pronounced, but the smart GMs are going to align the stars (no pun intended) to put together a super-team every few years. I'd rather see most teams trying to win every year and a fair amount of parity.

Not to be blunt, but that seems like a horrible idea. I'll use the Pens as an example. Let's say they sign Crosby, Malkin, and three of their other top guys for 10, 10, 10, 1, 1, 1. The first three years, they fill the rest in with scrubs and suck. Then in year 4, they have 5 superstars for peanuts and the entire cap space to woo Free Agents, say 10 guys at an average of 5M/yr. They've just built an all-star team, not even counting the likely high picks they drafted in years 1-3.

As a Sabres fan, I am better off than 4 years ago. I can watch games when I like via NHL GameCenter, more highlights are on youtube, and the teams fortunes are looking up.

You do see the irony in calling the IRA/UK issues 'CINO' while seemingly not allowing that 'MINOs' might be the ones perpetrating violence in the Arab world, right?

Granted. I'm guessing if someone had managed to stop the Conquistadors, the people of South America would be saying the same thing about that person. Religions seem to go thru a 'phase' where they're used to take over thine neighbor. Islam is 700 years behind the Christianity curve on that one, but otherwise pretty much on schedule.

Dude, too far. You might want to look a bit more at Christianity before saying stupid ###### like this. Re: Crusades, English civil war, etc.

As far as the economics go, if I remember my macroeconomics class from 1997 correctly, the way to grow the economy is to get money moving around. There's a concept of the multiplier, which says that every dollar spent gets re-spent a few times as it passes thru hands. I think the number for a modern economy is 3.6 or something like that. What the two sides are doing is approaching the same problem from two angles, trickle up and trickle down. On the surface, both would seem equal, since rich people buying more goods and services helps out the poor who provide them, or the poor buying more goods helps the companies those rich people own. The problem comes in with international trade (not that I think international trade is a bad thing, necessarily). The poor people are buying Chinese junk from Harbor Freight and Walmart, and the rich folks are buying German-built BMWs and going on vacations in other countries (or buying a Chinese Junk for their private yacht). Neither of those things are as good for the American economy as they could be. (Note: please don't read any connotation into 'rich' and 'poor', I'm just using them as concise and short terms for abstract groups of people.) Also note that government spending is NOT throwing money into a pit and burning it. It's paying salaries of largely American workers directly or indirectly. It's just another way to get money moving around. I should mention that my job is largely funded, although indirectly, by government spending. As it sits right now, if Congress doesn't do something about portions of the budget by January (which is unlikely), 10% of my (rather large) company will get laid off. Remember that when you call for reducing government spending, somewhere down the line someone is going to get laid off. I'm sure those people will go out and get great new jobs in the private sector though, right? There's tons of those, I hope. I'm not advocating that everyone should be on the government payroll or anything, or even that it's a great way to move money around, don't get me wrong. But as many posts above point out, everything has consequences.

This is *by far* the most important presidential election in the last four years, that's about it.

God no, why would I want to do that when I could wander into a store a few days later and buy one? :)

Please do, send them to the third world where the government doesn't help those in need and there's minimal regulations on anything. Remind them to be careful of what they eat and drink. Make sure you send them to Somalia too, it's a libertarian paradise! (that's a joke folks)

If there's an answer to that, the b00bs thread would shake it out. :)

Cup appearance is good for me. Hope, free-agent destination, etc.

Based on this, the Sabres are going to the finals this year. :)

Some hipster took it with Instagram?

Did they play a game in 2004 in the whites? I seem to rememeber Lorentz saying something like, "maybe this is a sign of what's to come."

I'm taking a Redhat Enterprise Linux training class next week. From the looks of it, it's very difficult if not impossible to use an Redhat Enterprise Linux laptop to take the class as the browser plugin doesn't want to install properly. Really guys? You couldn't test the software on your own operating system?