Evolution's Third Replicator?

This article argues that we are seeing a new form of evolution emerging, after genes and memes.

WE HUMANS have let loose something extraordinary on our planet - a third replicator - the consequences of which are unpredictable and possibly dangerous.

What do I mean by "third replicator"? The first replicator was the gene - the basis of biological evolution. The second was memes - the basis of cultural evolution. I believe that what we are now seeing, in a vast technological explosion, is the birth of a third evolutionary process. We are Earth's Pandoran species, yet we are blissfully oblivious to what we have let out of the box.

• Evolution's third replicator: Genes, memes, and now what?

Use Relative Paths in Your Batch Files

If you haven't come across this already, this could be handy in the future. Simply use the special variable "%~dp0" without the quotes to refer to the current path where the batch file is located. This is different from using "." or "%CD%", which refers to your current path, i.e. the location that you are calling the batch file from.

For example, say you have this batch file in C:\TEMP\cur.bat

@echo off

echo Batch file location: %~dp0
echo Your current path: %CD%

If your prompt is currently sitting at C:\, and run the batch file with the command "TEMP\cur.bat", the output would look like this:

Batch file location: C:\Temp\
Your current path: C:\

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How to Fix Missing Network, Clock, Volume, and Power System Icons on Vista

For some reason, after a reboot of Vista, some of my system icons were missing. I wasn't able to simply re-enable them in the notification area, but a registry edit found here fixed it:

The problematic issue can happen if Windows group policy disables the Clock, Network, Power (or Battery), and Volume icons, or the registry keys related to notification area icons have corrupted. To re-enable and restore the check boxes, and hence user able to restore these system icons on notification area, the policies have to be turned off, and the registry keys reset, cleared or fixed.

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