Smokin' Averatec: DC Connector problem

I have an Averatec 3250, running Gentoo. A couple of weeks ago, the thing started smoking, that is, there was black smoke coming out of the back of it, while I was websurfing! And the thing didn't even shut off!

Well anyway, I found out that this not unusual for averatecs. The problem was with the DC power connector.

I had to open the whole damn thing up first (finding all the screws is terribly confusing, please, if you're gonna do this, email me or find out somehow where all the screws are before you try, this is a good source for instructions). Then I had to remove the DC connector, which is on the rear-right of the laptop. I unsoldered the stuff off of it, and I re-soldered it back together.

Again, this site has pretty good, clear instructions on how to do this.

Greenness in a city

Just read this article. It's terribly written, but the point is nice. I think Bombay should be careful not to completely de-green-ify itself. After all, no one wants to live in an ugly place. If no one wants to live there, then who's gonna invest, right?

I'm sure this idea could use more development. I'd love to read any comments.

I'm on facebook!

Yes it's true. I've finally been convinced, against my own free will, to get a facebook account. So now all you losers that use that shit can contact me!!

Do me a favor and write on my wall, so it at least looks like I have some friends.

My profile is right here

Just found this on the net!!

Click here and scroll down to the section titled "Students with a PERFECT SCORE".

Yeh, that's me ;-D

Can we CREATE LIFE???

This is yesterday's news (literally), but I thought it was worth mention.

These guys simulated an entire lifeform (virus) on a digital computer. That is, they actually simulated every single atom in a virus, and a surrounding drop of water, of a super computer. Now here's why I think this is some real food for thought:

Say we define life in a way that makes it separate from its medium. That is, say we call ourselves the interactions and contained information in each of the particles that make us up, and we call our medium the physical particles that do make us up. This way, life is separate from the medium on that it exists.

In that case, what these guys did could actually be seen as creating life... right? Or no? I mean all the interactions and information are there, only the medium is different.

And say we think that we have souls, emotions, a conciousness, whatever we want to call it; then would a lifeform that's simulated on a digital computer also have these things? SOUL? EMOTIONS? CONCIOUSNESS? WHATEVER?

Another question, even more important: If turn off the computer or end the process on which the lifeform is being simulated, then are we killing something that was alive?

And the last, less important, question: Can we think of ourselves as simulations?

My new Apple-like notebook desktop

I just modified my desktop to look like Apple OSX by following these instructions. I'm running Gentoo with KDE 3.4.1 (waiting for 3.5.x to get marked stable).