friends

MOSA

[Aug. 29th, 2008|02:25 am]

Hi,

as most of you here are interested in compilers, I'd like to show you
an interesting new project.
MOSA - Managed Operating System Alliance

MOSA also includes a compiler. Not in the "classical" way, more a big
compiler framework. So it includes a JIT, an AOT, etc.

Москва: Утро 29 авг, Пт

[Aug. 29th, 2008|07:02 am]

пасмурно, небольшой дождь, температура +13..+15 С, давление 737..739 мм рт.ст., ветер Юго-Западный, 4 м/с

Москва: День 29 авг, Пт

[Aug. 29th, 2008|07:02 am]

пасмурно, без осадков, температура +18..+20 С, давление 736..738 мм рт.ст., ветер Юго-Западный, 4 м/с

Москва: Вечер 29 авг, Пт

[Aug. 29th, 2008|07:02 am]

пасмурно, небольшой дождь, температура +14..+16 С, давление 735..737 мм рт.ст., ветер Южный, 3 м/с

Москва: Ночь 30 авг, Сб

[Aug. 29th, 2008|07:02 am]

пасмурно, без осадков, температура +11..+13 С, давление 734..736 мм рт.ст., ветер Юго-Западный, 2 м/с

More Timing Precision Enhancements

[Aug. 29th, 2008|02:44 am]

syn_hackers_org

Okay, so my last post on timing precision was interesting, but then I went back and started doing more thinking and I found a few ways to get even better precision out of a typical timing attack. Let’s look at a real world HTTP request and response:

Packet: 1, Time: 0.000000 DNS Query

Packet: 2, Time: 0.101079 DNS Response

Packet: 3, Time: 0.103195 SYN

Packet: 4, Time: 0.147479 SYN+ACK

Packet: 5, Time: 0.147536 ACK

Packet: 6, Time: 0.147801 HTTP request

Packet: 7, Time: 0.327528 ACK

Packet: 8, Time: 0.825132 TCP segment HTTP response

Packet: 9, Time: 0.826323 HTTP Response

Packet 10, Time: 0.826416 ACK

Now normally a timing attack would encompass this entire mess, but really we are only interested in a few time slices. We can completely disregard the DNS request and indeed up until the seventh packet, which is the acknowledgment that the packet was received (when we know that our packet has arrived and is in the process of being served up). That right there shaves 1/3 of a second off of my example (this was a real example, btw).

And again, when we are receiving the response, we don’t actually care about the last two packets, only the 8th packet (the returned data). The difference between packet 7 and 8 is what we are actually interested in. By combining this technique with the previous one about finding the exact time the packet arrived by calculating the precision you can identify exactly when the 6th packet arrived, and not just when you got your ACK in the 7th packet. The ACK is important but it gives you a slightly skewed result since it is a timestamp based on when you received it and not based upon when it was sent, unlike the Date: HTTP header that you receive in the 8th packet.

If you don’t look at the packet level information you are introducing up to 1/3rd of a second out of only .826 seconds on the first request, and still a few extra milliseconds extra even if you discount the DNS request. Point being there are certainly some enhancements to be made to the old timing attacks of yesteryear. Looks like a tool waiting to be made…

........................................................................................

[Aug. 29th, 2008|06:52 am]

krata

[	Current Mood	\|	Спааать хочу и не спится..	]
[	Current Music	\|	За тебя я умру, без тебя не могу..	]

Конечно же,я ничего не сдала...Зато вечер был более или менее нормальным. По крайней мере он не был похож на сто предыдущих.Я соскучилась по сильным людям..Наверное,я сама слаба,поэтому мне так не хватает их..Но..Я уже давно не встречала сильных людей.Я не встречала людей,которые бы мне нравились полностью.Очень давно.
Ощущение,будто хожу по замкнутому кругу.Я иду и иду.Но ничего важного не происходит. Нет встречи,нет всплеска эмоций,нет смеха,нет слез.Пустота.И тишина. Но это не так уж и плохо..Я живу по стишку..

Кто сказал "ожидание-скука"?
Это радость далеких надежд...

Путин в интервью SNN

"...Когда образовался Советский Союз, то решением Сталина эти территории окончательно закрепили за Грузией. Сталин, как известно, был грузином по национальности.

Так что те, кто настаивают на том, чтобы эти территории и дальше принадлежали Грузии — сталинисты — они отстаивают решение Иосифа Виссарионовича Сталина".

[Aug. 29th, 2008|06:42 am]

norlink

Development Release: PC-BSD 7.0 Beta 1

[Aug. 29th, 2008|06:19 am]

syn_distrowatch

Kris Moore has announced the availability of the first beta release of PC-BSD 7.0, a user-friendly desktop operating system based on FreeBSD 7.0: "The PC-BSD team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of PC-BSD version 7-BETA1! This release marks the first PC-BSD based on FreeBSD 7-STABLE and....

Через пробки в "скорой", или когда появится в Советском районе детский травмпункт

[Aug. 29th, 2008|09:09 am]

syn_academinfo

Больше полугода назад в травмотологии ЦКБ СО РАН перестали оказывать помощь детям: родителей с их покалеченными чадами отправляли в городскую детскую больницу на Красном. Вся правобережная часть Советского района (а это около 60 000 человек, где не менее 15% – дети до 18-ти) оказалась без детской травмотологии накануне лета, когда случаи травм у детей так часты... Лето прошло, мамы возили детей в город, но что детская травматология в Академгородке, появится ли?

The Man On Your Street

[Aug. 29th, 2008|12:35 am]

syn_devnullorg

MP3 blog Systems of Romance has posted a copy of an LP by 4AD band The Happy Family. The album, The Man On Your Street came out in 1982; it was somewhat less monochromatically gothic than the average 4AD band of the time, and even quite funky in places (the post-punks, it seems, did like a good groove). The band was fronted by a young student named Nicholas Currie, from whom the world would be hearing more over the next few decades.

(via imomus) ¶ music momus mp3s 4ad [no comments]

[ljcom] r6601: LJSUP-2742

[Aug. 29th, 2008|12:28 am]

Committer: janine

LJSUP-2742

Allow Basic communities to use this page.

U   trunk/htdocs/manage/account/adsettings.bml
U   trunk/htdocs/manage/payments/adsettings.bml.text.local

( Read more... )

Kernel prepatch 2.6.27-rc5

[Aug. 28th, 2008|06:11 pm]

syn_lwnheadline

2.6.27-rc5 is out. "The most
exciting (well, for me personally - my life is apparently too boring for
words) was how we had some stack overflows that totally corrupted some
basic thread data structures. That's exciting because we haven't had those
in a long time. The cause turned out to be a somewhat overly optimistic
increase in the maximum NR_CPUS value, but it also caused some
introspection about our stack usage in general." More excitement
can be found in the
full changelog.

Comcast To Cap Data Transfers At 250 GB In October

[Aug. 29th, 2008|12:10 am]

JagsLive writes with this story from PC Magazine: "Comcast has confirmed that all residential customers will be subject to a 250 gigabyte per month data limit starting October 1. 'This is the same system we have in place today,' Comcast wrote in an amendment to its acceptable use policy. 'The only difference is that we will now provide a limit by which a customer may be contacted.' The cable provider insisted that 250 GB is "an extremely large amount of data, much more than a typical residential customer uses on a monthly basis. ... As part of our pre-existing policy, we will continue to contact the top users of our high-speed Internet service and ask them to curb their usage,' Comcast said Thursday. 'If a customer uses more than 250 GB and is one of the top users of our service, he or she may be contacted by Comcast to notify them of excessive use,' according to the AUP."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Development Release: Pardus Linux 2008.1 Beta

[Aug. 29th, 2008|04:01 am]

syn_distrowatch

Ekin Meroğlu has announced the first beta release of Pardus Linux 2008.1: "We're happy to announce Pardus 2008.1 Beta, the first beta for the upcoming Pardus 2008.1. Some of the highlights are: a new version of Network Manager with ad-hoc, 802.1x and connection sharing capabilities; the new stable....

Meeting on 27th June 2008

[Aug. 22nd, 2008|02:33 am]

lj_lj_advisory

Meeting on 27th June 2008 (minutes not yet approved by Advisory Board)

Members Attending

Danah Boyd, Jen Brady, Esther Dyson, Brad Fitzpatrick, Zafar Khashimov, Larry Lessig

Management Attending

Andrew Paulson, Matthew Berardo, Sergei Komarov, Edward Shenderovich, Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, Marina Pustilnik

Apologies

Annelies van den Belt

1. Approval of minutes from meeting of 25th April 2008 in San Francisco
* Agreed
2. Welcome to new members
* The two new user representatives made short introductions and welcomed on the board following their elections in May
3. User policy update
* The revised policy relating to the publishing of inappropriate content online where the legality was borderline was discussed. An update to the policy was circulated and discussed – The statement which Management circulated was agreed.
* It was suggest that contact should be made with relevant NGOs who will be able to advise on issues surrounding the publication of potentially illegal material – Management to pursue
* Discussion on communities that promote potentially harmful lifestyle choices was discussed. A research project was proposed which would look into this issue in more detail. The results of this project should be available by end of summer – Management to pursue
4. Account structure
* Discussion followed the potential changes to the LiveJournal account structure which were discussed at the previous meeting. Concerns were expressed regarding the reaction from users about displaying advertising in Basic Accounts. Management emphasized that nothing was cast in stone and final agreement would only be reached after thorough consultation with users – Management to develop further plans in light of comments from Board

o Board members suggested that more information be given on the financial position of LiveJournal to justify the proposed changes - Management said they would consider but emphasized that LiveJournal had wide range of views on the relevance of LiveJournals’ financial position in relation to this issue.

5. Advisory Board communications

o Board members expressed concern about the proliferation of LiveJournal official communities – Management made clear that refining these was an important part of plan to update LiveJournal

6. Any other business

o Board members asked at which point it would be appropriate to discuss issues relating to the account structure in public – Management asked members to respect confidentiality of discussion until after public announcement.

7. Next meeting

o Advisory Board General Meeting –November, San Francisco (TBC)

Post script – the date and venue of the Advisory Board General Meeting has been changed due to scheduling issues.

Meeting on 25th April 2008

[Aug. 22nd, 2008|02:31 am]

lj_lj_advisory

Meeting on 25th April 2008 (minutes approved June 27, 2008)

Members Attending

danah boyd, Esther Dyson, Brad Fitzpatrick

Management Attending

Andrew Paulson, Matthew Berardo, Jonathan Kim, Sergei Komarov, Edward Shenderovich, , Benjamin Wegg-Prosser

Apologies

Larry Lessig

1. General introduction
* Background papers to role and remit of the advisory board – Board members to feedback comments

2. Account Structure

o Proposed changes to LiveJournal Account structure discussed. Various options considered – Management to work up more detailed proposals for user consultation
o Board members suggested any new account structure should be developed in tandem with new experimental advertising formats – for example – allow users to select / influence the advertising they see – Management to investigate

3. Technology Outlook
* Discussion took placed on state of LiveJournal technology infrastructure. Management to consider comments and update users on technology issues when appropriate
* New co-location facility for LiveJournal discussed.
4. Policy review
* Non-photographic images of minors – revise policy to one which focuses on legality, emphasize extent to which material is screened (friends only / flagging etc) - Management to revise and release
* Pro-ana – revise policy to one where support is being actively given and promoted; Management to revise and release
* Convene a working party to develop LJ’s thought leadership position on this issue – Board members to develop in conjunction with Management

5. User elections
* Existing members agreed to release statements endorsing election process – Board members to return comments.

6. Next meeting
* June conference call – Management to agree date

Links for 2008-08-28

[Aug. 28th, 2008|10:05 pm]

syn_taint_org

Dublin’s new M50 electronic toll tags : what a mess! there are no less than 8 tag operators and a bewildering array of prices and penalties. typical
(tags: ireland dublin m50 tolls roads pricing)
Sustained IO on EBS == No Bueno : worrying stats for Amazon EBS data throughput, dropping from 160 MB/s to a rather paltry 42.4 MB/s
(tags: amazon ebs ec2 speed networking hosting benchmarks)
MXLogic on the economics of spam : Sam Masiello of MXLogic works out that phishers may be netting a 7300% profit margin; this is why spam’s not going away. mind you he does this by believing Gartner figures, which is never a good idea
(tags: sam-masiello mxlogic via:tzink phishing spam money)

Hashing Email Addresses For Web Considered Harmful

[Aug. 28th, 2008|11:01 pm]

cce writes "The MicroID standard, despite getting thrashed soundly by Ben Laurie two years ago, has since been recommended by the DataPortability Project and published on the user profiles of millions of users at Digg and Last.fm. MicroID is basically a hash calculated using a user's profile page URL and registered email address, producing a token that makes the email address vulnerable to dictionary attacks. To see how easy it was to crack these tokens, I conducted a small study, choosing 56,775 random Digg users, and cracking the email addresses of 14,294 of them (25%) using just their MicroID, username, and a list of popular email domains. Digg has more than 2 million users, and that means half a million of them — mostly people who had never heard of MicroID, and had probably not logged in for a long time — had their email addresses exposed to this trivial attack. I also applied this attack to Last.fm (19%) and ClaimID (34%). Digg and Last.fm have since removed support for MicroID, but the lesson is clear: don't publish a hash of my email address online, guys!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

В мире имен

[Aug. 29th, 2008|02:42 am]

r_l

Что, жиды, прищурились?

2 comments|Leave a comment

The Magic Carwash

[Aug. 28th, 2008|11:20 pm]

syn_mdehaan

Here's another photo from last weekend.

The moral of the story is that carwashes are not an opportunity to get your car clean. They are an opportunity to crank up your radio and take weird pictures.

Поэзия целительства

[Aug. 28th, 2008|11:24 pm]

syn_sfreaks

                                        Я поэт, зовусь Незнайка, 
                                        От меня вам балалайка!

					Приходи к нему лечиться
					И корова, и волчица,
					И жучок, и червячок,
   					И медведица!


                                    © Н.Н. Носов и К.И. Чуковский

В последнее время я с восторгом и азартом неофита открываю для себя новый увлекательный мир народной медицины. Как и положено неофиту, стремлюсь поделиться своей радостью с окружающими.

Люди, ранее меня вступившие в этот дивный мир, а то и живущие в нем всю свою сознательную жизнь, обычно относятся к этому спокойнее: для них оно привычный компонент жизни.

Но есть те, которые даже в привычном находят источник вдохновения.

Сегодня – о газете «Бабушка» - «всеукраинской газете-целительнице», как она себя скромно именует. К сожалению, я не видел это чудо в бумаге и не уверен, существует ли оно в печатном виде вообще. Но в сети оно феерично.

Я заранее приношу извинения за обилие гиперссылок. Боюсь, что без них мне бы не поверили, а то и отнесли бы, чего доброго, авторство отдельных перлов (как поэтических, так и рецептурных) на мой счет. А я этого, право, не заслуживаю, будучи лишь скромным собирателем.

Примеры народной поэзии в сочетании с народным лечением – ( Read more... )

All the news that's fit to print

[Aug. 28th, 2008|11:08 pm]

lj_news

Basic Accounts
As we noted in our last News post, as of today users will be able to downgrade their account to Basic through the Manage Account page. In addition, visitors who are not logged in to LiveJournal will now be seeing ads on Basic accounts and communities; the experience of logged-in users will not change.

Paid Account Sale
We are having a paid account sale starting today through September 30, 2008. During that period, you can purchase a 12 month block of paid time and receive a 20% discount – this paid time can be added to any account, or purchased as a gift for your favorite LJ-friend. For full details, see our Paid Account Sale page.

Announcing lj_advisory
We are pleased to announce the creation of the

lj_advisory community, set up so you can find news and information related to the activities of the Advisory Board. We recognize that it has taken us a while to get this community up and running, and that has caused some frustration. From now on, we will post topics which will be discussed by the Advisory Board prior to the date of the meeting and summaries of meetings after they occur. Throughout the year, the Advisory Board may also post requests for opinions on topics which may be discussed at future meetings. This is the official community for communication with the Advisory Board – comments will be read by Advisory Board members who will respond as they feel appropriate.

RTE + Opera and Safari = <3
RTE stands for Rich Text Editor, which is the default method of posting entries from the Post an Entry page. Our Rich Text Editor is based on the open-source FCKeditor code. It allows you to make links or LiveJournal user tags, insert photos or videos, and format your entries without needing to know HTML. That is, unless you use Opera or Safari as a browser, in which case you couldn't use the RTE.

That will be changing today. We are pleased to announce that the RTE has been upgraded to the latest version of the FCK code, which includes support for Opera and Safari! In addition, many of the bugs in the old version have been fixed. If you've been using RTE, you will most likely need to clear your browser's cache in order to use the new version.

<strike> vs. <b>
Last year we changed the visual display of deleted and suspended usernames from a line through the username to a bold font. This had the effect of making the name unclickable - which meant that no one could easily determine whether the username had been deleted or suspended. We've reversed this display, returning deleted and suspended usernames to a struck-through and clickable state.

Flash Fiction Contest Update
The deadline to submit your flash fiction entry to "Quick Tales," LiveJournal's partnership with Caferati in India is fast approaching. Users who wish to find out more about this exciting contest should take a look at our

india_writing community. Be quick! Entries must be received by midnight, September 7th, 2008 and the contest is open to all who have a mailing address in India, regardless of where they currently reside or citizenship.

Release #37

[Aug. 28th, 2008|10:25 pm]

lj_lj_releases

Release #37 is released.

This release will also be discussed in

news. Please use this thread only for technical or functional aspects of the release.

Notable changes:

The RTE editor has been greatly improved, and is now using the latest (2.6.3) version of FCKEditor. This means that modern versions of Firefox, IE, Opera, and Safari should all work. Please comment with any problems that you find. Please clear your cache before trying this feature as it might not properly detect updated javascript files.
Basic accounts are back, as discussed in lj_2008 and news in recent weeks. Logged-out visitors will now see ads on Basic journals but the experience for logged in users will not change.
We're bringing strikethrough back. Last year we changed the visual display of deleted and suspended usernames from a hyperlink with a line through the name to a non-hyperlinked bold font representation. We've reverted this change, returning deleted and suspended usernames to a struck-through and clickable state.
New comment subscriptions are no longer displaying empty comment strings.
LJ names with leading or trailing underscores are no longer automatically eligible to rename their account for free. In these cases, a support request is now required in order to request a free rename.

Black Screens For Unauthorized Copies of Windows

[Aug. 28th, 2008|10:10 pm]

arcticstoat writes "In a bid to deter people from using pirate versions of Windows XP, Microsoft is now updating its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) tool to introduce a few uncomfortable niggles for users of pirated versions of Windows. These include replacing the desktop wallpaper with a black screen every 60 minutes, although you can still replace it with your wallpaper of choice in the intervening period. As well as this, copies of Windows deemed to not be genuine will also have a translucent watermark above the system tray, which Microsoft calls a 'persistent desktop notification.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

StackOverflow Podcast #19

[Aug. 28th, 2008|09:02 am]

syn_joelspolsky

This week's StackOverflow Podcast is up: episode 19.

Jeff and I spent some time talking about the home page for StackOverflow. What goes there? What does it mean to vote on a question?

We also talked about Aaron Swartz's article on How to Launch Software. Big-bang launches can be disasters (viz.: cuil); quiet, gentle launches without announcements where you slowly build can work a lot better (viz.: Gmail). Will StackOverflow's launch overwhelm our servers and underwhelm our audience?

Not loving your job? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

Re:Software Pipelining

[Aug. 28th, 2008|09:36 pm]

On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:49:49 +0530, Jatin Bhateja wrote:

> It's a combination of loop unrolling and instruction scheduling. e.g

Thank you, but I know how software pipelining is working. :-)

My question was if also a significant performance increase for RISC

Re: Semantic difference of source files

[Aug. 28th, 2008|09:35 pm]

On Aug 28, 9:35 am, Jatin Bhateja <jatin_bhat...@mentor.com> wrote:

> >I propose that in addition to comparing modification dates, we
selectively
> >compare AST's (if the source file is newer). At the very least this
allows
> >the programmer to modify style, layout and comments without requiring any

Re: question on register spill behavior [Aug. 28th, 2008|09:34 pm]

BX <bxin@acm.org> writes:
> I am not so on top of the inner workings of the register spill
>behavior. Can the spill code be placed in an inner scope of where the
>register is defined? An example,
>
>


>x = ..  //suppose it's allocated a register

Re: Native/VM languages

[Aug. 28th, 2008|09:33 pm]

Kevin Stoodley, also of IBM, presented this basic thesis at CGO 2006
in New York, though he generalized it to all languages.

His key points were

1. dynamic compilers can generate code for the precisely the chipset
being used. Most compilers generate code aimed at the common subset of

ЦИГИ – целевой институт гравитационных исследований

Товарищи ученые, Доценты с кандидатами!

[Aug. 28th, 2008|09:49 pm]

syn_sfreaks

Юрий Иванов

Зарегистрирован: 10.07.2005
Сообщения: 646
Откуда: Ижевск

Добавлено: Пт Авг 29, 2008 12:07 am Заголовок сообщения:

Эксперимент СТРУНА на околоземной орбите (тема ушла в Оффтопик) – одно из будущих направлений работы ФИАН. Более точного способа определения отличий ускорений падения различных тел, скорее, всего не будет. Грядущее неотвратимо, как бы этому не препятствовали сегодня. Рано или поздно необходимость пересмотра дел в науке дойдет и до нашего президента Дмитрия Медведева.

Ой вы там доиграитесь...

[livejournal] r14179: Hack to have HTML editor work nicely wit...

[Aug. 28th, 2008|10:05 pm]

Committer: henrylyne

Hack to have HTML editor work nicely with FCK and not delete entries.

U   trunk/htdocs/js/rte.js
U   trunk/htdocs/stc/fck/editor/js/fckeditorcode_gecko.js
U   trunk/htdocs/stc/fck/editor/js/fckeditorcode_ie.js

( Read more... )

Cost-Effective Server Room Air Conditioning?

[Aug. 28th, 2008|09:21 pm]

at0mic26 writes "I am currently tasked with finding a cost effective solution to our 30+ degree Celsius server room. The only air conditioning currently provided is a single duct pipe from one of two air conditioner units. I was thinking of stealing air from the second air conditioning unit with some sheet metal work, but it likely will not be sufficient — and would not have tolerance for both AC units being offline for any amount of time. An ideal supplemental portable AC unit is what I am after, however I'm finding it cost prohibitive, with $600+ humidity controlled AC unit, plus 20 amp socket requirement, plus contract work to make a hole in the wall for outside drainage so that the unit does not flood the place. What sort of successful cheaper air conditioning solutions have you come up with?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Дістав Київстар з його сайтом mms.kyivstar.net

[Aug. 28th, 2008|09:07 pm]

lj_ua_telecom

Колись я писав про проблеми з сайтом. З того часу нічого не змінилось. Ось докази:

[ljcom] r6600: LJSUP-2739

[Aug. 28th, 2008|09:16 pm]

Committer: janine

LJSUP-2739

Disable vertical editorials.

U   trunk/htdocs/explore/index.bml

( Read more... )

[livejournal] r14178: LJSUP-2739

[Aug. 28th, 2008|09:14 pm]

Committer: janine

LJSUP-2739

Disable vertical editorials.

U   trunk/cgi-bin/LJ/Widget/VerticalContentControl.pm
U   trunk/htdocs/admin/verticals/editorials/add.bml
U   trunk/htdocs/admin/verticals/editorials/index.bml

( Read more... )

[Aug. 29th, 2008|01:23 am]

natan

две, всего две вещи меня интересуют беспеременно - неужели у феломены только 2 пары туфель и настоящая ли у феломены сумка louis vuitton.
купила в соседнем магазине странный набор - мешок для стирки белья, куриную ногу, спрей для блеска волос, килограмм пыльных яблок фуджи и желтую вазу из какого-то санфаянса за 139 рублей.
шипит аспирин в стакане.
эх, да что бы вы понимали в любви, коммунизме и космосе.

SL(3,R)/SL(3,Z)

[Aug. 28th, 2008|09:21 pm]

lj_ru_math

Интересует как выглядит объект SO(3)\SL(3,R)/SL(3,Z) на бесконечности. Можно как-то просто понять как там этот касп (каспы?) устроены геометрически. Как описывается граница на бесконечности? Размерность кажется 5, если правильно посчитал. Можно это модулярное многообразие себе как-то бодро представлять как в размерности 2?

спасибо!

Газету в Дагестане обвиняют в экстремизме

[Aug. 28th, 2008|08:50 pm]

syn_bbc_russia

Следователи провели обыски в редакции дагестанской газеты "Черновик" и на квартирах журналистов и изъяли статьи известной российской журналистки и писательницы Юлии Латыниной, перепечатанные газетой, для выяснения наличия в них признаков экстремизма.

Новосибирск: Утро 29 авг, Пт

[Aug. 29th, 2008|01:05 am]

малооблачно, без осадков, температура +15..+17 С, давление 740..742 мм рт.ст., ветер Южный, 3 м/с

Новосибирск: День 29 авг, Пт

[Aug. 29th, 2008|01:05 am]

облачно, без осадков, температура +23..+25 С, давление 738..740 мм рт.ст., ветер Южный, 4 м/с

Новосибирск: Вечер 29 авг, Пт

[Aug. 29th, 2008|01:05 am]

облачно, без осадков, температура +22..+24 С, давление 736..738 мм рт.ст., ветер Южный, 1 м/с

Новосибирск: Ночь 30 авг, Сб

[Aug. 29th, 2008|01:05 am]

малооблачно, без осадков, температура +17..+19 С, давление 736..738 мм рт.ст., ветер Южный, 2 м/с

Гебня и наследники

[Aug. 28th, 2008|08:31 pm]

lj_dolboeb

Купил на днях сорокинский «Сахарный Кремль» — изданный в «АСТ» то ли сиквел, то ли приквел к «Дню опричника».
Рецензенты, называющие книгу "сборником рассказов", похоже, не читали ни самой книги, ни даже её выходных данных.
На самом деле, это кондовейший роман, композиционно повторяющий «Норму» один в один. Но я не об этом.

Ещё в «Дне опричника» меня заинтриговала сюжетная линия о происхождении Государя. Там почти прямым текстом сказано, что Россию 2020-х годов возглавил один из сыновей Патрушева (в романе троекратно поминается "упокойный" государев батюшка Николай Платонович). Меж тем, мировая практика — как тоталитарных, так и демократических режимов — не слишком много знает случаев, когда бы сын руководителя службы госбезопасности становился главой государства. В дореволюционной российской истории таких прецедентов вообще не было, в советской — тем паче.

Читая «День опричника», я ненадолго задержался мыслью на этом сюжетном ходе. Но после очередной отсылки в «Сахарном Кремле» стало уже интересно. Я поднапрягся и вспомнил название государства, руководимого сыном главы КГБ.
( Read more... )

на грани оффтопа - от животных к самостоятельной науке

[Aug. 28th, 2008|08:55 pm]

lj_ljnauka

//это перепечатка моего собственного текста (я скопировал несколько первых абзацев, но решил не кидать все сразу - дабы не перегружать ленту); написано как под впечатлением от нескольких разговоров в форумах на тему "зачем ученым резать животных", так и от недавнего обновления Игорем Ивановых популярного раздела про LHC на "Элементах".

На мой взгляд, здесь есть проблема куда более широкая - которая достаточно четко проявляется при дискуссиях с людьми, считающих что пора прекратить “издеваться над мышами” и что надо бы поискать альтернативные методы. А мышей резать только тогда, когда нет другой альтернативы и когда от эксперимента есть реальная польза в ближайшей перспективе.

Проблема в том, что(судя по моему опыту) многие люди просто не видят разницу между прикладными, медицинскими и фундаментальными исследованиями и не понимают для чего вообще нужны научные исследования в области биологии; ситуация отчасти напоминает ту, которая сложилась вокруг физики высоких энергий - мало кто понимает зачем же именно нужен тот коллайдер.

Считается что эксперименты оправданы потому, что они дают практический выход в виде новых лекарств; однако это не совсем так. Точнее даже совсем не так. Настоящей целью научных исследований является накопление данных и описание окружающего мира численными моделями. А вот уже полученные в ходе исследований модели применяются в практических задачах - причем часто так, как никто и не предполагал.

Последнее дополнение - критически важно. Нельзя “взять и придумать лекарство от СПИД-а” или “вакцину от рака” просто поставив такую задачу перед лабораториями; это все равно что поставить перед племенем южноамериканских туземцев задачу долететь до Луны (для начала неплохо бы разобраться что из себя представляет Луна и как рассчитать траекторию полета; для этого вначале надо научится решать дифференциальные уравнения, развить геометрию и еще сотню разных дисциплин - бесконечно далеких от желтого диска в небе).

Разнообразные шарлатаны, конечно, предложат едва ли не бессмертие и универсальное лекарство от геморроя-простуды-обморожений-язвы желудка-гинекологических заболеваний прямо сейчас… но на то они и шарлатаны, чтобы использовать непонимание науки и ее целей широкими массами.

Окружающий мир слишком сложен для того, чтобы ставить задачи “в лоб” - например растений и их частей (корни, листья, цветки) слишком много для простого перебора их в качестве лекарства от какой-то болезни. А изучение оптических свойств материалов (оптика: линзы, системы линз, микроскоп) и химических реакций позволило те же медицинские задачи решать - потому что появились более полные модели (люди узнали про существование микроорганизмов), лучшие методы исследований (те же микроскопы и химическое оборудование) и сама задача стала более конкретной.

Не просто “найти средство, которое снимет отек”, а “найти блокатор гистаминовых рецепторов, который обладает достаточно высокой избирательностью”. В этом отношении очень показательно сравнение аннотаций к лекарствам и разным шарлатанским средствам: в первых описано как это работает, во вторых перечислены обещания производителя вида “эффект удивляет”.

Разница между этими подходами - она основана как раз на той совокупности знаний, которая накоплена в самых разных областях и по большей части без привязки к конкретным задачам. Наука - это процесс накопления знаний; шаманство - это попытки решить задачу “в лоб” или создать иллюзию ее решения.

Возвращаясь к тому, с чего началось - к использованию животных в исследованиях. Помимо того, что на мышах/кроликах тестируют новые препараты, а хирурги учатся на собаках и свиньях - на всей этой живности еще и строится новая картина мира. читать дальше… »