Transcript
Boss: I’m not an engineer, so this might be a dumb question. But why can’t we 3-D print a blockchain and HTML it into a bitcoin? Dilbert: Alice can answer that. Alice: I quit.
Comic for April 20, 2018
Video Game Stunt Tribute
A group of stunt actors perform a series of routines in the fighting styles of five video game series, Assassin’s Creed, Metal Gear, Witcher, Uncharted, and our personal fave, God of War. The sound design is a little over the top, but the fight choreography is spot on. (Thanks Micah!)
Searchable database: Find out how much Ohio State University pays its employees
Our Ohio State University salary database has been updated with 2017’s payroll details.
Find out what anyone employed by the university – faculty, staff, coaches, etc. – earns below. Some things to note:
If you want to see only 2017 data, make sure to enter that year.
To find out what the employee made in any year, check out the "Total" category. That includes all pay, not just the person’s base salary. For example, Urban Meyer’s 2017 base salary was $818,640, but his total pay was…
via Columbus Business News – Local Columbus News | Business First of Columbus
Searchable database: Find out how much Ohio State University pays its employees
Apple-owned FoundationDB open sources the core technology at the heart of iCloud
Apple-owned FoundationDB open sources the core technology at the heart of iCloud
Apple’s FoundationDB on Thursday announced that its namesake distributed datastore tech for organizations has been turned into an open-source project, allowing public-driven customization and expansion.
Source code is now available on GitHub, and developers can communicate with each other on official forums, the company said. FoundationDB is built to be deployed on hardware clusters, for instance making it easier to add machines or bounce back from device failures.
The open-source material represents the key-value store, on which “layers” can be added to scale functionality. The Github listing for the project calls it a “distributed database designed to handle large volumes of structured data across clusters of commodity servers.”
“By open sourcing the FoundationDB core, we expect the quantity and variety of layers to develop rapidly,” the company said. “All major development will be done in the open,” it added, noting that it has outlined a design document process and project governance it promises will offer input and transparency. The community is also expected to follow a code of conduct.
Apple now has a variety of open-source initiatives under its wing. Perhaps the best known is Swift, its programming language. While not strictly limited, the language is almost exclusively used for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS development.
FoundationDB was originally a multi-model NoSQL database, designed around a “core” database. The core database allowed for read or write transactions with multiple keys stored on any machine in the cluster. Apple purchased the company and all of its intellectual property in 2015 to expand on the iCloud infrastructure.
In the past year Apple has made a strong push to put Swift in colleges and high schools —mostly in the U.S., but internationally as well. The company has positioned the program as a way of boosting coding skills, even as it benefits from encouraging development for its products.
via AppleInsider
Apple-owned FoundationDB open sources the core technology at the heart of iCloud
TFB REVIEW: Sig Sauer P365 Pistol
As our regular readers like remind me, I am a staunch supporter of Austrian polymer firearms. I believe the term is “fanboy”, although I happen to think that term is a bit derogatory – “fan stud” is more appropriate. On top of my previous preference of pistols, TFB allows writers access to a wide variety […]
The post TFB REVIEW: Sig Sauer P365 Pistol appeared first on The Firearm Blog.
MySQL Workbench 8.0.11-rc has been released
Dear MySQL users,
The MySQL developer tools team announces 8.0.11 as our release candidate (RC) for MySQL Workbench 8.0.
For the full list of changes in this revision, visit
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/relnotes/workbench/en/changes-8-0.html
For discussion, join the MySQL Workbench Forums:
http://forums.mysql.com/index.php?152
The release is now available in source and binary form for a number ofplatforms from our download pages at:
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/tools/workbench/
Enjoy!
Nationwide Children’s Hospital reports new highs in tech licensing deals and income from 2017
Nationwide Children’s Hospital made a huge leap in commercialization efforts in 2017: It executed 18 licenses or options on its technology, compared with 12 in 2012 and nine in each of the previous three years. The hospital launched four new companies – and made a record $36.7 million income on past licensing deals.
via Columbus Business News – Local Columbus News | Business First of Columbus
Nationwide Children’s Hospital reports new highs in tech licensing deals and income from 2017
First look: Sonnet’s eGFX Breakaway Puck RX570 delivers on-the-go graphics power to MacBook Pro
Hands-On
First look: Sonnet’s eGFX Breakaway Puck RX570 delivers on-the-go graphics power to MacBook Pro
The Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Puck packs a Radeon RX570 GPU inside a portable, Thunderbolt 3-compatible package, offering MacBook users a take-anywhere graphics boost.
With the release of macOS 10.13.4 last month, Apple’s desktop platform provides support for external GPU boxes over Thunderbolt 3. The handy hardware can provide a much-needed graphics boost to a variety of Macs, including MacBook Pro.
What really makes this external GPU different from others is its diminutive size. We’d even go as far as to say that it is portable.
To make the Puck so small in size, Sonnet used an external power supply that is nearly as big as the Puck itself. Our model contains a Radeon RX570, so we know that it is a relatively power hungry card.
The power supply is capable of handling up to 220W, which it can also use to provide up to 85W of power to a Mac at the same time.
Specs
There are two different flavors of the eGFX Breakaway Puck. One rocking a Radeon RX 560, the other with a Radeon RX 570. We are testing out the latter, as it seems the former isn’t Mac compatible. Interestingly, the Radeon RX 560 worked with early macOS High Sierra beta builds, but that compatibility ended when full support for eGPU technology officially rolled out.
Regardless, in either configuration, the GPUs both come with 4GB of VRAM on board.
Three DisplayPort 1.4 ports and a single HDMI 2.0 port make up the external connectivity. All of these outputs are capable of 4K at 60Hz, allowing even a two-port 13-inch MacBook Pro with function keys to have a quartet of monitors. Of course, it has a Thunderbolt 3 port onboard as well, which is used to connect to your Mac — but no downstream connector.
A power supply and an OWC Thunderbolt 3 cable are included in the box, with no additional cables necessary.
Size and quality
When looking at the size, the Puck box measures roughly 6 inches-by-5.12 inches, standing 2 inches tall. Easy to move about or hide on your desk.
It is so compact that we would believe someone if they told us it was simply an external hard drive. When looking closely, a few things reveal the fact it is an eGPU. Looking in the side grills you see several copper heat spreaders and heat pipes. When looking through the grill on top, you can see the large fan that is used to cool the card and VRAM.
Obviously, the bevy of ports around back also reveal its true nature.
It is a shame the power supply is so monstrous, but I think I prefer the eGPU’s small size over an integrated power supply. That way I can offload the power brick to below my desk, giving me more usable space on top.
The body is largely plastic, with a metal grill on the top. It still retains quite a bit of weight, however, lending a premium feel.
More to come
We will be putting this eGPU through more exhaustive tests for our full review, but in our limited time with it we have been quite pleased with the performance.
If you are eager to pick one up for yourself you can find the Sonnet Radeon RX570 eGFX Breakaway Puck on Amazon for $599.
Do you plan on picking up an external GPU? Let us know in the comments!
via AppleInsider
First look: Sonnet’s eGFX Breakaway Puck RX570 delivers on-the-go graphics power to MacBook Pro
Legally Armed People Have a Murder rate similar to Japan
Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- Michigan Concealed Pistol License holders have an extremely low murder rate. Japan has a very low murder rate. Japan is also a very law-abiding culture.
The United States, as a whole, has a much higher murder rate than Japan. Within the United States, there is a law abiding culture that has a murder rate as low as Japan’s. That culture consists of gun owners who carry guns legally.
The FBI generally includes legally defined murder, which may be in the first or second degree, and non-negligent manslaughter, in the definition of murder for their statistics. A more precise definition might be “criminal homicide”.
In Michigan, the State Police are tasked with compiling crimes committed by people who have the Michigan Concealed Pistol License (CPL). The State Police Reports are available from 2003 to early 2017. The state police report list convictions of people for murder, and manslaughter, as well as a multitude of other offenses. From 2003 to 2017, there are 14 years of reports listing criminal convictions.
Criminal homicides are the most reliable crime statistics to track, and the most important for comparisons with other societies. While there are significant differences in definitions, reporting, and recording of crimes from nation to nation, murders, or criminal homicides, are more reliable than other crime statistics.
In the 14 years of Michigan annual police reports, there are 17 criminal homicide convictions recorded by the Michigan State Police (MSP), for people who had CPLs.
The number of active CPLs in Michigan for each year of the 14 annual reports was a little more difficult to find. The annual reports run from October 1 to September 30 of the following year. I found numbers in each annual report period, except for the period of October 1, 2014, to September 30 of 2015. For that period I interpolated from the March 2014 number of 430,000 to the November 2015 number of 488,000, to obtain 459,000. The numbers for the other years used were within the period for each report. Over the fourteen year span, a variation of a few months does not make much difference.
When looking at criminal homicide rates, the standard is to look at the number of homicides per 100,000 of the population per year. The total number of CPL – years came to 3,953,944. Over the 14 year period, individual CPLs had been active for a total of 3,953,944 years. There were 17 criminal homicide convictions of CPL holders in that period, averaging .43 criminal homicides per 100,000 CPL holders per year.
The entire Michigan population, over the same period, had an average of 6.2 criminal homicides per 100,000 people, or more than 14 times as many. Over the same period 2003-2016, the Japanese criminal homicide rate was .42 per 100,000 population.
Michigan Concealed Pistol Licenses are fairly easy to obtain. The same background check is used for the CPL as is used for ordinary people to buy from federally licensed dealers in the United States. The people with Concealed Pistol Licenses are not only able to own firearms but to legally carry them concealed and loaded with them nearly everywhere.
Yet, their criminal homicide rate is as low as the highly regulated Japanese.
International comparisons are always tricky. Many countries do not keep good statistics. Some countries actively ignore some murders to make their statistics look better. Others do not have the infrastructure to report and record crimes. Countries have different definitions of what a criminal homicide is.
In cases such as Michigan, the numbers of homicides among Concealed Pistol License holders is so tiny that it can vary enormously with just a few crimes. Fourteen years gives us a better picture, but it is still a small sample. There are five years with no convictions, five years with one conviction, two years with two convictions and two years with four convictions. The convictions do not mean the CPL holder used the CPL in the crime. They mean there was a criminal homicide conviction for someone with a CPL.
While not as well documented as the Michigan CPL, the Wisconsin CCW permit holders have a similarly low rate of criminal homicides. When I calculated the number in 2016, the criminal homicide rate for CCW permit holders in Wisconsin was .19 per 100,000. Wisconsin CCW permits are easier and cheaper to obtain than Michigan CPLs.
If, as those who wish a disarmed population claim, the mere presence of firearms makes criminal homicide more likely. How is it that those who not only own handguns but can legally carry them loaded most places, most of the time, have a criminal homicide rate as low as the Japanese?
The law abiding American gun culture is as responsible and law-abiding as Japanese culture.
Japanese culture is much more homogeneous than American culture. American culture has a wide diversity. Some subgroups, like American legal gun carriers, are very law abiding and responsible. Other American sub-groups are not. American culture is closer to an amalgam of world culture.
The world average intentional homicide rate was about 6.2 per 100,000 in 2012, very close to the average Michigan homicide rate over 2003 to 2016. The U.S. criminal homicide rate for the same year was 4.7. There are differences between “intentional homicide rate” and “criminal homicide rate”. The numbers show the U.S. to be on the low side of the average world rate.
If someone tells you that legal American gun owners are not murderers until they are, tell them that Japanese, without guns, are as likely to murder as legal American gun owners.
Where crimes of people with carry permits are documented, that population has extremely low crime rates. Crime rates as low as the populations of those countries with the lowest crime rates in the world.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
About Dean Weingarten
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
The post Legally Armed People Have a Murder rate similar to Japan appeared first on AmmoLand.com.
via AmmoLand.com
Legally Armed People Have a Murder rate similar to Japan
MySQL 8.0: From SQL Tables to JSON Documents (and back again)
One of the nice things about MySQL 8.0 is the ability to combine the relational and document models. As a developer, you can choose to work with traditional SQL tables, with schemaless JSON documents, or with both types at the same time. Here we show how to bridge SQL tables and JSON documents by using JSON functions. Enjoy!
First, let us create a simple SQL Table “employees” and insert some values:
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mysql> CREATE TABLE employees(id INT PRIMARY KEY, name VARCHAR(45), age INT); mysql> INSERT INTO employees(id, name, age) VALUES (1,‘John’, 34); mysql> INSERT INTO employees(id, name, age) VALUES (2,‘Mary’, 40); mysql> INSERT INTO employees(id, name, age) VALUES (3,‘Mike’, 44); |
And then we verify table content:
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mysql> SELECT * FROM employees; +——+——+——+ | id | name | age | +——+——+——+ | 1 | John | 34 | | 2 | Mary | 40 | | 3 | Mike | 44 | +——+——+——+ Query OK, 0 rows affected (0,00 sec) |
Ok, good. Nothing new so far.
From an SQL Table to a JSON Document
Here we use two JSON aggregation functions called JSON_ARRAYAGG() and JSON_OBJECT(). We simply select from employees and convert the result set into JSON like this:
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mysql> SET @jsonempl=(SELECT JSON_ARRAYAGG( –> JSON_OBJECT(“id”, id, “name”, name, “age”, age)) –> FROM employees); Query OK, 0 rows affected (0,00 sec) |
We now have a JSON Document referenced by the variable @jsonempl. Let us look at it using the JSON_PRETTY() function:
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mysql>SELECT JSON_PRETTY(@jsonempl); +—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-+ | JSON_PRETTY(@jsonempl) | +—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-+ | [ { “id”: 1, “age”: 34, “name”: “John” }, { “id”: 2, “age”: 40, “name”: “Mary” }, { “id”: 3, “age”: 44, “name”: “Mike” } ] | +—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-+ 1 row in set (0,00 sec) |
Nice!
We then drop the existing “employees” table:
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mysql>DROP TABLE employees; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0,00 sec) |
From a JSON Document to an SQL Table
Here we use the JSON table function called JSON_TABLE(). This function creates an SQL view on the JSON Document, i.e. a mapping between JSON and SQL. We then wrap a CREATE TABLE employees AS around it like this:
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mysql> CREATE TABLE employees AS –> SELECT * FROM JSON_TABLE(@jsonempl, “$[*]” –> COLUMNS (id INT PATH “$.id”, –> name VARCHAR(45) PATH “$.name”, –> age INT PATH “$.age”)) emps; Query OK, 3 rows affected (0,00 sec) Records: 3 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0 |
Again, we verify table content:
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mysql> SELECT * FROM employees; +——+——+——+ | id | name | age | +——+——+——+ | 1 | John | 34 | | 2 | Mary | 40 | | 3 | Mike | 44 | +——+——+——+ 3 rows in set (0,00 sec) |
Voilà , we are back where we started !
That’s it for now, and thank you for using MySQL!
via Planet MySQL
MySQL 8.0: From SQL Tables to JSON Documents (and back again)