Rubik's Cube Stuck Position

Hmmm... can't get out of this one.

What do you do when you end up with something like this that doesn't fit the existing frameworks?

The off-top yellows aren't where I want them :(

Why Windows Computers Slow Down

Here's a good question - do Windows virtual machines slow down?

If I install a Windows VM on my Mac, will I see it slow down like Dells and HPs do? Forget Lenovos, they're slow to start with.

Africa's Next Top Model

So, you also saw the Economist rave about the fabulous investing opportunity in Africa's gyms.

Idiots! Why not tell us how to get in? What mutual funds are interested?

How to Tell if You're Safe?

Here's a Google search that didn't give me a good hit :

how to know what activity on your network was initiated outside of your network?

Know the answer?

How about an instructable on this?

perl debugger on Cygwin Cannot Handle Backspace

What's a brother to do?

  DB<1> p @prims
Unrecognized character \x08; marked by <-- HERE after UT}  @prin<-- HERE near column 104 at (eval 8)[/usr/lib/perl5/5.14/perl5db.pl:640] line 2.
 at (eval 8)[/usr/lib/perl5/5.14/perl5db.pl:640] line 2
        eval '($@, $!, $^E, $,, $/, $\\, $^W) = @saved;package main; $^D = $^D | $DB::db_stop;
print {$DB::OUT}  @prinms;

;' called at /usr/lib/perl5/5.14/perl5db.pl line 640
        DB::eval called at /usr/lib/perl5/5.14/perl5db.pl line 3436
        DB::DB called at /usr/lib/perl5/5.14/perl5db.pl line 9566
        DB::fake::at_exit() called at /usr/lib/perl5/5.14/perl5db.pl line 9137
        DB::END() called at (eval 8)[/usr/lib/perl5/5.14/perl5db.pl:640] line 2
        eval {...} called at (eval 8)[/usr/lib/perl5/5.14/perl5db.pl:640] line 2

It got prinms because it didn't interpret the backspace correctly.. Hmmm...
Turns out to be the fault of the freaking xterm - Go to "Main Options" and uncheck "Backarrow Key (BS/DEL)" and all is well. Why can't they get linux/cygwin to just work??

Why Would the Vacuum Level Vary?

Go to slide 12 of Lecture 25 : https://nanohub.org/resources/5829/download/2009.03.11-ECE606-L25.pdf (video : https://nanohub.org/resources/5749/about)

Textbooks say that the Fermi level shouldn't vary at equilibrium. Really? There's no intuitive explanation why. And with respect to what?

Then, on this slide, he's showing the Vacuum level varying. How can that be? The vacuum level should be an absolute. According to his diagram, an electron can be taken to the vacuum level on the left, so it's no free and then moved to the vacuum level on the right - for which, truly no energy should be necessary, and yet, it would now have gained kinetic energy. WT*??

Here's what I would do : make it clear in the beginning what the students should leave with, don't put bullet points saying what topics you're going to cover. In the case of Schottky barriers :

1. They are majority carrier devices - and give the intuitive explanation.
2. Remind students that the Fermi level is above the bottom of the conduction band.
3. Why does it need to be MET-n? Why not MET-p? 
4. Tell us how to think about it - why is Al-n one type (ohmic or schottky) and Al-p the other?

Slide 9 is another masterpiece - pulling a rabbit out of a hat. What the h is Nc? We've gotten used to Nd and Na and ni. Why be like this and upset the OCDs?

On the metal side - a sea of electrons. On the N-type - free electrons. When you do p-n, the electrons diffuse over to the P side and you get ionized donors on the N side. So, what happens in the case of Metal-N? Why would you have ionized donors like the the case of the classic pn junction? Explain man!! For the record, Streetman isn't any better. Now you know why Google and Apple rake it in while the Semi companies keep struggling - just poor education, due to which the researchers use trial-and-error methods to advance the state of the art.. Pity.

How to Serve Folders on Windows PC Through XAMPP Without Changing DocumentRoot

A complete failure of the online community.

Why no set of clear instructions to make a directory like "C:\User\Me\Videos" available on LAN through 192.168.1.100:PORTNUM/Videos?

Changing the DocumentRoot in httpd.conf works, but that's the wimp approach..

Come on smart people :)

And when you're done with that one, why doesn't my cheezy LG phone that only uses WiFi not get there with 192.168.1.100:PORTNUM saying DNS lookup failed? The iPad doesn't have a problem..