thoughts on philosophy and science

Synopsis
I recently upgraded my router from Debian Sarge (3.1) to Debian Etch (4.0). Debian is a fairly ideal platform for building routers. It includes all the software you need. The packaging is fantastic and most of it integrates fairly well. The Debian infrastructure is unsurpassed and so are its ideals. Here, I will share with you the steps required to build a professional router. I will also point out bugs and problems I had during the installation. Places where Debian could provide better integration and be more seamless.

Motivation

In school, your studies inevitably boil down the the following:

While most schools are good at giving you the theoretical picture, most of it has nothing to do with reality. After graduation you realize that theory is only one part of the puzzle and for many, the least important, as only a small portion of engineers spend their time designing.

GDP

IMF interactive charts

Balance of Payments (Trace Deficit)

Economic Indicators
Index of Leading Economic Indicators

Emplyment and Inflation Statistics

Deficit/Budget

The economy and the housing crash is on everybody's mind these days and it's getting plenty of media coverage. I couple of weeks ago Bush published his draft FY2009 budget and I had a question. Is it possible for the government to provide free housing for all of its citizens?

As a promise to a friend, I said I would publish my goal list for last year as an example of well.... goal setting. I explained that by merely writing a goal down, for me at least, they have a way of coming to life and coming true. I get a strange courage when I see them on paper (computer screen), because they become real to me. (I wonder if this works for grander goals, like 'start a business', or 'make $1m this year', 'conquer small African country and name after myeslf'.)

The problem most people have is making the choice of what gadgets to carry with them. Already carrying an mp3 player and a cell phone is cumbersome. That is a compromise of what you could be carrying, thus there is a push towards greater integration of function into devices.

The best solution, functionally, is a laptop. It is the general, all purpose, everything available platform. But it's cumbersome, too. And it doesn't make for a good cell phone and is not as portable as a cell phone (concealability, culture trend, cost, etc.)

Introduction
I originally wrote this in college, a couple of years ago. I wrote how solid state drives would improve computer performance and wanted to update this article now that multi-core processors and solid state harddrives (SSD) have become a reality.

Just some notes I made on green living. Not particularly interesting, but I wanted to keep them so I might as well publish.

Goal: No impact living, which means living in an environment without having any impact, positive or negative. This also means energy and oil independence and foreign independence. This has the benefit of reducing pollution and smog, mitigating global warming, reducing habitat destruction and creating a more robust economy.

Solution: Reduce energy usage, waste, consumption, be a selective consumer, and use only renewable resources.

Introduction
After completing my research on real devices, I was ready to tackle power systems. I chose to start at the top and work my way down to the details. This article discusses power systems from a top level view and then explains how to design a power distribution network. We don't consider power system design, feedback or control here. The focus will be on the power distribution network. Almost everything I talk about here I learned from my colleagues.