World: r3wp

mental faculties reach a peak in one's early 20s

I don't think, that's true either. I can do many things better and 
faster now, than 20 years ago, when I was in my early 20ies. I can 
program a lot faster and with fewer errors now than back then. Now 
and then I try a computer game on my Amiga, that I haven't touched 
in 20 years. I can finish games now, I couldn't figure out back then. 
My reactions might be a bit slower now, even if I'm not really sure 
about that either. But I solve the puzzles better now. Many years 
of practise has also made me a better piano player now, than 20 years 
ago.


I don't know, where that saying come from, but I can't see it being 
true.

the two are not synomyous.

See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4995546/Old-age-begins-at-27-as-mental-powers-start-to-decline-scientists-find.html

Clearly skills that require training improve with time eg. programming.

27 Is around the age that most people would have had most of their 
children throughout history, so it makes a lot of sense that evolutionary 
selection wouldn't have cared much after that

Eh?  I thought you wrote about that it was FUD

That you get dumber starting in your twenties, yes

But the start of the breakdown of the body in general around 20 is 
well known

Also, the deterioration of the brain is not the only that happens. 
It was found recently that neurons are not static after that age, 
but keep growing

I more often find it harder to find words now than 20 years ago. 
But I know more words today, so it's mayby logical. Languages never 
was my big thing, and my english really sucked, especially when I 
was a teen. I don't understand, what they mean by "mental faculties 
reach a peak in one's early 20s". Sure, if they measure on people, 
who don't exercise their brain after school-years, then they'll see 
that. It's the same, if they measure muscular abilities for someone, 
who used to do physical exercise and then became lazy.

My spelling was better when I was a kid, but I think the older you 
get, your brain gets filled with all sorts of junk, diminishing your 
capacity to see the right answer in simplistic matters like spelling, 
or perhaps you care less about it, because you realize how important 
or non-important it is to get right, saving brain power.

I'm a way better programmer now, more thanks to various thinking 
techniques, than to specific learning about algorithms. I'm better 
at leaving a problem alone when I know it will take days to solve, 
if I bruteforce it. "Wiser birds" and such.

I think if I went back to university and took the same courses again 
that I did back then (but have forgotten all about), I would do a 
lot better in them.

Today in my 30's, I feel my brain is developing a whole lot more 
than in my 20's. Even my short-term memory is improving.

Perosnally, I'm not convinced by these brain shrinking theories. 
I quote from Tony Buzan (The Mind Mapping Man) :


Recent research has shown that in a normal, healthy brain (that is, 
one in a healthy, aerobically fit body in which the brain is used 
well) there is no apparent loss of brain cells; only a growth in 
the interconnections, and therefore multiple intelligences of  that 
brain!


As the 20th Century ended, biologists at Princeton University came 
up witht the discovery ... that parts of the human brain can generate 
thousands of new brain cells, everyday


I can't find the original scientific reference - Google only guided 
me to http://biology.about.com/library/weekly/aa102199.htm

Yes, that's the recent stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP-0Nce5oTQ&eurl=http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit&feature=player_embedded


the recently deceased crunchpad ... a browser OS touch driven tablet.

Browser OS touch driven tablet .. now deceased due to internal faults.

http://www.techcrunch.com/

Sorry ... http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/30/crunchpad-end/


Still this does give us a glimpse on how we might use a browser OS 
...

Sad...I had hopes for this device

Same here - was planning on getting one.

Very sad, and more sad, this is the most common reality of technology 
(esp. hardware).

Could probably use my tablet like this :)

http://llvm.org/devmtg/2009-10/

Lots of new information from a developer meeting about LLVM.

So, FreeBSD and Cray are using LLVM too. It seems more and more interesting.

for me LLVM support for REBOL is usefull marketing.  even if cyphre's 
compiler is better.  :-)

http://www.grace.de/

Nice, but 6000Û is quite a lot.

Google Public DNS: http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/

Thanks, Ashley! Are there any concerns using Google public DNS?

Privacy, I guess

Yes, they admit that. The only protection is that Google promises 
not to do anything with it, but who knows.

Also: "Note, however, that because nameservers geolocate according 
to the resolver's IP address rather than the user's, Google Public 
DNS has the same limitations as other open DNS services: that is, 
the server to which a user is referred might be farther away than 
one to which a local DNS provider would have referred. This could 
cause a slower browsing experience for certain sites."

Well, I will try it for a while and see, how it goes. Thanks for 
explanations.

opendns is quite slow for us in the pacific ... wonder if this will 
be better.

8.8.8.8 .. Chinese lucky numbers :)

http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/11/30/daily69.html

No more Crunchpad, or marketing ploy?

same information as on tuesday above ?

This one states that the device will be launched anyway by the tech 
partner who ran off with the device.

That seemed to be pretty much their plan. We're in for another good 
legal soap opera

http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=10008&tag=nl.e540

techcrunch's tablet ... law suits already flying around.

aahhh this once was "Tech News"  those where the good days of internet. 
 :-D

http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/outerspace/internet-article.html

a few funny exerpts:

Some video clips - and at least one full-length video movies - are 
already available on the network.


it was still a marxist entity:   "It does not take kindly to unsolicited 
advertisements; use electronic mail to promote your product and you 
are likely to be inundated with hate mail "


a different scale... that of thousands:    "There are no TV Guides 
to sort through the 5,000 discussion groups or the 2,5OO electronic 
newsletters or the tens of thousands of computers with files to share."

And people didn't know 0 from o on a keyboard :-)

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18272-google-demonstrates-quantum-computer-image-search.html

Another platform to port R3 to.

http://etherpad.com/

Etherpad going to be released as open source.

Hey, that's quite nice. Easier to use than Google Wave.

it has been released already afaik.

http://code.google.com/p/etherpad/

but maybe, they just created the space for the project and files 
are not there yet?

well, they say you can just hg clone https://etherpad.googlecode.com/hg/
etherpad

If you use Wikipedia sometimes (or are interesting in ClimateGate), 
read this:

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/12/23/lawrence-solomon-wikipedia-s-hockey-stick-wars.aspx

And "Top 10 Reasons Not to Donate to Wikipedia"

http://www.mywikibiz.com/Top_10_Reasons_Not_to_Donate_to_Wikipedia

Wikipedia: Interesting... I'm going to cross-check if local chapters 
a better suited for a donation