Domain: amazon.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to amazon.com.
Comments · 40,271
-
For those denying GW
I think things like this speak for themselves:
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/photos/antarctica-gallery/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/07/mongolian-herders-feel-change-in-climate.html
http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Masters-Arctic-Ice/dp/B000R7I4AE
Masters of the Arctic Ice recently had a showing on PBS, and it was really disturbing to see that not only is the Western ice shelf melting, but the Eastern shelf is also showing signs of rapid deterioration from the bottom, and not from the top.
If both shelves go, it will put the ocean water levels up by approximately sixty feet or more world-wide.
-
"I don't consider myself unattractive"
Lol. Sounds like your problem is that you are doing things half assed. You need attractive pictures up (Take really good ones, and get them rated on HotOrNot to get an idea.) You need a genuinely interesting or funny profile conveying personality. You need to be confident without being arrogant. And you will get women/girls initiating conversation/pokes/etc. On POF, I get alot of ethnic curvy ladies for some reason. On OK, it's more of a mix.
:PBut realize that girls get lots of messages. And the really attractive ones get flooded! Just ask any girl with an account. My girlfriends tell me about all kind of crazy creepy msgs. Hilarious stuff, but scary if you are girl.
Anyway, you have to do something to set yourself apart if you want women to start hitting on you. It is possible with the right attitude and work. Of course being rich and famous is a nice shortcut!
;)Check out The Game by Neill Strauss. Great book if you need help. May change your life.
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Penetrating-Secret-Society-Artists/dp/0060554738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314285708&sr=8-1 -
Re:Diagnosis Criteria
1. Psychoanalysis is a WILDLY unpopular form of treatment. Classical analysis has the patient seeing the analyst three times a week or more for years, and is almost never covered by insurance.
2. It's not really possible to do double-blind tests of any talk therapy, any more than it's possible to do double-blind tests of surgical procedures - the practitioner is deeply involved in the treatment. Psychoanalysis is also very difficult or impossible to manualize, which is the next best thing to a double-blind trial of a psychological treatment.
3. That having been said, check out Wilma Bucci's work examining psychoanalysis from a cognitive science perspective. Nancy Andreasen also did some work with PET scans examining the effects of psychoanalysis in the 90's; I'm not sure where that line of inquiry is today.
-
Very enterprising.Very enterprising.
Reminds me of "Market Forces" (by Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon among others).
Kind of like venture capital firms, but competing for would-be regimes in sovereign states instead of startup businesses.
Rather plausible.A coup in Cambodia. Guns to Guatemala. For the men and women of Shorn Associates, opportunity is calling. In the superheated global village of the near future, big money is made by finding the right little war and supporting one side against the other–in exchange for a share of the spoils.
Oh, and the "death match" road warrior duels to make Partner in a firm didn't hurt the story any.
:-) -
Re:Result of Truancy Laws
I certainly wouldn't expect a fifth grader to be mature enough to make such life critical choices on his own.
And that's why your fifth graders will never, ever learn to make good choices on their own, while my fifth grader (yes, my child really is in fifth grade) will. I know that referencing books written by pastors is a sure-fire way to get modded to oblivion here on
/., but if you really think that forcing your kids to do what you think is wise is the best way of bringing them up, then I strongly suggest you read this book for a different take...and no, I don't get kickbacks, etc. from the author, publisher or anyone else. -
Re:2 analog sticks
The most important spec for me is that they dropped Pro Duo support in favor of a new proprietary format. Which is bullshit it's the same memory with a slightly different plastic molding (and probably slightly different pinning). Maybe they'll come out with one of these in PSVita sooner rather than later.
-
Software not studied enough
Software isn't studied much in humanities or social science although the new software studies people look like they are doing interesting stuff:
-
Software not studied enough
Software isn't studied much in humanities or social science although the new software studies people look like they are doing interesting stuff:
-
Software not studied enough
Software isn't studied much in humanities or social science although the new software studies people look like they are doing interesting stuff:
-
Re:Dude, I don't wanna shit all over your question
I've heard some good things about CWNP. I don't know about getting their certs but their study guide seems to do a good job of covering the fundamentals.
-
Re:No Problemo?
P.S. JPL has still NOT updated their data on Comet ELENIN.
It's been two weeks now.
Please excuse my personal 'paranoic' attitude. But you get that sort of think after 27 years in the infantry where some people really ARE 'out to get you'.
It's just that, from an Intell staff puke perspective, when a source of information goes 'quiet' there's a reason for it. What that reason is is up to conjecture.
One of the classic reasons would be that JPL, i.e., the current Obama Administration as manifested by NASA and JPL, doesn't want to cause any sort of 'panic' that might interfere with BAU.
[NOTE: Why am I suddenly reminded of how the government behaved in 2012? While they're preparing their 'golden parachute', they let the rest of the world go about its normal life....up to the point where it's blatantly obvious to EVERYONE that they're in serious deep kimchee....and it's too late to do anything about it for themselves. Whereas if the government had kept the people apprised, they might have been able to save themselves.]
My point is that after two week of silence and feedback to JPL about their silence, my suspicious nature is beginning to think that it's not a matter of either item 1 (above), equipment failure, or of item 2 (above) incompetence.
That leaves the distinct possibility of item 3 (above)....there's something going on that they don't want the rest of US to know about.
Hopefully, they'll update their web-site today or tomorrow with ACCURATE & RELIABLE—please pardon my slipping back into Intell staff-puke mode—information.
Otherwise, if they don't or they provide inaccurate data, I'd recommend that everyone start paying VERY CLOSE attention to what's going on. See if Comet ELENIN is on course as JPL projected last June. And if not—if it's going to come a lot closer to Earth than JPL projected—.....well.....as the Boy Scout credo goes....
Be Prepared.....
P.P.S. When is the last time you read Lucifer's Hammer
-
Re:Reality...
The research has shown that there is not a statistically significant difference between intelligence or physical ability among races, when you control for social, economic, and other factors.
I'd like to see the research that demonstrates any such thing. Especially when there's plenty of research that shows the opposite.
-
Re:No
Books, the authoritative source on factual information.
-
Re:If it was anyone other than Ridley Scott
The only version of Blade Runner available on blu-ray, for example, is his "directors cut"--where he makes little changes like having Roy Batty politely say "I want more life, Father" instead of "I want more life FUCKER!" when he kills Tyrell.
Sure, if all you bought was the "Final Cut" Blu-Ray rather than this version which was the workprint, original theatrical, original director's and Final Cut versions. Did you even bother to do 2 seconds of research before making your stupid claim?
-
Re:Kindle DX
The Kindle DX has a screen size of 9.7".
-
Re:Radio Allergy
Read the Conqueror trilogy.
-
Re:Figures
The Transformer is nice and well worth the $400. But you were specific at under $300, capacitive screen and dual core CPU so that would be the Viewsonic gTablet: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EPV7TK at $270. I have one of each and they are very nice. I was going to load cyanogen on the gTablet but my wife likes it as it is with Android 2.2. Maybe upgrade it later.
-
Visual thinking
What's not well appreciated yet is that the human brain is mostly visual, and so is human thought. It's also the most powerful way to organize memory. The primacy of "The Word," of language-type coding, diverts us from this reality. Yet linguistic meaning is based on image schemas which are predominantly visuo-spatial. However, there is some evidence that in humans some aspects of linguistic thought have been brought into rough parity with the visuo-spatial in terms of dedicated support in the brain.
-
Re:Google account required?
Please tell me you're joking or just uninformed. Sideloading the Amazon app store couldn't get easier.
1) Go to Amazon, give them your mobile number.
2) Open device settings, click Applications.
3) Make sure "Unknown sources" is checked.
4) If it wasn't acknowledge the "Attention" dialog box.
5) Check for the SMS from Amazon
6) Open the link to download the app.
7) Open notifications and click the app.
8) Click install.
9) Open the app.
10) Sign in.
So... I don't know that it "couldn't get easier". I think it's fairly easy for me, but I wouldn't want to imagine my Mom trying to do all that. -
Re:No FISMA.
Thanks. I had only read the parent to that and hadn't yet dug into the whitepaper.
Your quote confirms what I suspected might be the case: FISMA low with medium being pursued. Interesting...
-
Re:Google account required?
Please tell me you're joking or just uninformed. Sideloading the Amazon app store couldn't get easier.
And what do you know... Amazon also has Bing Search & Maps.
-
Re:Google account required?
Please tell me you're joking or just uninformed. Sideloading the Amazon app store couldn't get easier.
And what do you know... Amazon also has Bing Search & Maps.
-
science fiction strikes again.
Funny enough, these floating communities designed to be outside any country were predicted back in 1971 by Poul Anderson in The Byworlder.
-
Re:Nice, but maybe irrelevant.
Some years ago, someone figured out that it was possible to abuse the C++ template system into doing arbitrary computations at compile time.
Are you thinking of Andrei Alexandrescu and the template metaprogramming stuff he describes in Modern C++ Design? I can't say I've needed most of the techniques, but the simpler ones such as compile-time assertions and policy classes are really handy.
they could have been including support for multithreading.
Show me a way C++ can support multithreading without requiring a particular implementation at the ABI level and I'll get on board. For now, though, policy classes work a lot better for me, since I could be using pthreads or GNU pth or eCos or FreeRTOS or whatever Windows uses or whatever else hasn't been written yet, and all I have to do is make sure the associated policy class is up to spec, then feed it to the template and let inlining and the optimizer take care of the rest.
-
Re:thanks for whoring quants
The House of Representatives is 100% Republocrat.
Republocrats favor bigger government, more federal concentration of power, a bigger military industrial complex
Either your definition or your percentage needs revision.
-
Re:How much?
Have you seen how much Amazon want for an EC2 instance it not exactly cheap. But I could see somebody using cloud servers to host controlling nodes in a big zombie network. You know as a way to isolate yourself and as a quick and dirty way to move over your products to buyers. http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/#pricing
-
Re:thanks for whoring quants
Highly recommended, these two books (get them as audiobooks if you want hours of driving amusement, education and horror). Just for perspective (one that is not in these books, or anywhere else that I know of - I thunk it up with my own little brain), this whole scenario can be seen as a classic tech bubble - the technology being the application of algorithms and various other forms of computer technology to technical stock trading. This bubble began back in the early 1970s, and happened to hit critical mass just when everything else was happening - the housing bubble, etc. Since this tech bubble lived in the second order space of the financial economy that sits on top of the first-order "real-world" economy, it got boosted out of sight by the multiplier of the two.
The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It
In case /. gets a nickel if you actually buy a copy from Amazon by linking from here: The Quants
- it all started with the guy who figured out how to make card counting work in Vegas and Atlantic City ...
and ...
Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System---and Themselves
Too Big to Fail -
Re:thanks for whoring quants
Highly recommended, these two books (get them as audiobooks if you want hours of driving amusement, education and horror). Just for perspective (one that is not in these books, or anywhere else that I know of - I thunk it up with my own little brain), this whole scenario can be seen as a classic tech bubble - the technology being the application of algorithms and various other forms of computer technology to technical stock trading. This bubble began back in the early 1970s, and happened to hit critical mass just when everything else was happening - the housing bubble, etc. Since this tech bubble lived in the second order space of the financial economy that sits on top of the first-order "real-world" economy, it got boosted out of sight by the multiplier of the two.
The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It
In case /. gets a nickel if you actually buy a copy from Amazon by linking from here: The Quants
- it all started with the guy who figured out how to make card counting work in Vegas and Atlantic City ...
and ...
Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System---and Themselves
Too Big to Fail -
Re:Tamrac- Great for Traveling
Tamrac is great. I've used this one for about 5 years now, fits all my expensive electronics in one carry-on bag for traveling. http://www.amazon.com/Tamrac-3380-Photo-Laptop-Backpack/dp/B000XXBMCY
-
Re:Covers
Some have. For some reason, they rarely turn out to be very good, and some are downright impossible to listen to. For example, if you are at all familiar with Jefferson Starship/Starship, I dare you to listen to this album: http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Hits-Of-The-80s/dp/B000VB9WSO/
First of all, anything they did after changing their name from Jefferson Airplane is downright impossible to listen to . So even the original recordings were awful IMO. But that album was recorded in 2007, so most, if not all, of the songs were recorded 20+ years later. On top of that, I don't think any of the members that were on the 2007 recording were in the band in the 80's, or it was only one member at best. And, no, I won't take that dare.
-
Lowepro Pro Roller x100
Not the cheapest option, but this rollaboard is also a backpack -- it's basically a backpack inside of a rollaboard, so you get the best of both worlds, plus a bonus that if you buy a bunch of stuff while traveling, your one bag turns into two. I recently purchased it for business travel, and couldn't be happier.
http://www.amazon.com/Lowepro-Pro-Roller-x100-Camera/dp/B0027JM3B6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313439687&sr=8-2 -
Re:Covers
Some have. For some reason, they rarely turn out to be very good, and some are downright impossible to listen to. For example, if you are at all familiar with Jefferson Starship/Starship, I dare you to listen to this album: http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Hits-Of-The-80s/dp/B000VB9WSO/
-
Amazon Basics
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002VPE1WK/ - AmazonBasics Backpack for SLR camera is my standard airplane travel bag. Holds my D90 with two or three spare lenses, gps, backup usb harddrive, and a 10inch netbook with power cables. Still has room for travel docs and a snack.
-
Re:How thoughtful...
One bag is just easier to keep up with than two. I'm not going to think "well, even though it's easier for someone to steal one of my bags, at least they'll only get $2500 worth of equipment from me instead of $5000". I'm going to keep track of my stuff and make damn sure they get none of it.
I shoot Q&As and celebrity events at film conventions. Free time occurs in spurts between movies, not at the end of the day, so leaving my laptop in my car or in a hotel room just doesn't work. And there's simply not room for me to hold two larger bags in a theater seat; one I can put behind my legs as the film starts and whip it out when the credits end.
I really liked this bag when I saw it at the SXSW trade show this year:
http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-NG-2475-Explorer/dp/B000FJ2OTGIt would hold two camera bodies and a few lenses along with a 15" laptop, but it wouldn't hold a 17" MacBook Pro. I haven't found a similar one that would hold a slightly larger laptop.
-
Re:Stick with two bags
That just doesn't work for me. When I'm at conventions, I don't have ready access to a car or hotel room. Free time happens in spurts during the day, between events, and that's when I need the laptop. And I might need the camera at any time.
I really liked this bag when I saw it at the SXSW trade show this year:
http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-NG-2475-Explorer/dp/B000FJ2OTG
It would hold two camera bodies and a few lenses along with a 15" laptop, but it wouldn't hold a 17" MacBook Pro.Does anyone know of a similar-looking bag that could hold a slightly larger laptop?
-
Any bags like this?
I really liked this bag when I saw it at the SXSW trade show this year:
http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-NG-2475-Explorer/dp/B000FJ2OTG
It would hold two camera bodies and a few lenses along with a 15" laptop, but it wouldn't hold a 17" MacBook Pro.Does anyone know of a similar-looking bag that could hold a slightly larger laptop?
-
Re:Lowepro Fastpack 350
Second the vote for the Fastpack 350.
We were looking for something for travel, and this did just what we were looking for. My husband's 17" ACER laptop even fit in there, albeit it was a snug fit (i.e., we tore the flimsy zipper extender tag off while zipping it up...but it fit, and it wasn't going anywhere!). Lots of room for a couple of lenses, external flash and cables, even with the bulky battery extender/grip installed on the Canon Rebel. What I liked best is that we could stow the camera with a long-ish lens attached (our longest is 200mm and there was plenty of room to spare), and it was all well supported and cushioned. Interior partitions are adjustable to allow you to fit your gear. Quick access to both camera and laptop compartments for airport security too
;)As for the tripod/monopod - we got an extra slim/short version and stuck it in the laptop area for day trips. It stuck out the top a bit and looked kinda goofy, and wouldn't have been good to hike with (the tripod would dig into your back if you were wearing it as a proper backpack, instead of just over one shoulder), but it was a workaround that we found useful. It would be nice if they added some tripod straps, tho...
-
Targus XL
I just ordered a Targus XL for a 17" laptop + some large tools (multimeter, hand tools). I haven't received it yet, so I can't speak firsthand, but from what I've seen online it may be big enough for you. You might want to look into it further.
-
Re:Mountain Smith packs rock
Seconded, for the quality of the gear. I don't need the camera capability, so I use the Explore pack, bought from Sierra Trading Post for about 1/2 retail. Extremely pleased with the fit and function, after having tried probably 15+ other packs in the past ten years.
-
Re:Dear Valve:
I already own TFC. I bought it with the Half Life Anthology
Around late 2005 - early 2006. Also got Blue Shift and Opposing Force (which I think is one of the best of the original three, if not the best).
I've played Enemy Territory. I really enjoyed Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Enemy Territory was pretty boss back in the day, but it doesn't have conc jumping.
-
Re:This manufacturer may have changed the numbers.
That selfish polluting bastard!
Yeah, think of all the burnt plastic used to make these. And all the trees cut down to print Dan Brown's drivel... why couldn't he just have died and faded into obscurity like the rest of the 15th century
-
Yeah, your iPhone 4 is more like $650 to replace.
That's true. If you loose your iPhone mid-contract, you're going to have to replace it, which would run you about $650.
-
Re:Questions
There are kits to convert some phones to inductive charging, normally involving replacing the battery cover (like this for the Blackberry Bold) or maybe a case for the device (like this for the iPhone4) with the inductive receiver coil in it. I'm sure you could cannibalise one of those or similar for the parts you need to integrate it into an alternative device.
-
Re:Questions
There are kits to convert some phones to inductive charging, normally involving replacing the battery cover (like this for the Blackberry Bold) or maybe a case for the device (like this for the iPhone4) with the inductive receiver coil in it. I'm sure you could cannibalise one of those or similar for the parts you need to integrate it into an alternative device.
-
A Radical Challenge
You know, I first got started programming when I happened upon a left hand basic cartridge with an Atari 400 for $5 at a garage sale. It came with an attachable floppy disk drive that was DOA. Countless hours would be spent with a small black and white TV with me writing procedures. Should the power turn off, all that work was lost.
Despite growing up below the poverty line working on farms, I was able to go to college with enough grants based on need. This is where our paths diverge ... and I would not automatically assume that my four year degree at the University of Minnesota would make me a better programmer than yourself or anyone who taught themselves to code. But the important point of this is that when I interview (and I've held interviews for programmers to come onto my team many times) the interviewer is looking for you to prove that you will be a self motivated asset to the team. If you can put MIT or some prestigious school, they often lower their required threshold of proof. If you put U of MN there is still proof required -- after all there are some ~50k students at the U of MN and as such it would be entirely possible for some idiot to be herded through with the other cattle. So they just need to make sure I am not this idiot -- or at least not in the area they need me for. Now, when you have institution to back up your claim of skills, the proof requirement quickly becomes insurmountable.
So I will issue you a challenge and I will target the Ruby language and Rails framework. This probably isn't the best option for a job seeker (I think some Java with maybe Spring Framework would be better suited for a position) but this could result in proof. If you want reading material for any of these steps, I recommend the Pragmatic Programmer series on Ruby and Ruby on Rails (used it is quite cheap but here is a free alternative).
Step One: Learn Ruby. Ruby is a functional language that is very simple and easy to learn but difficult to completely master. The flexibility of the language seems to continually leave me with more and more options at my disposal. From mixins to domain specific languages, it just keeps on giving. I'm guessing with your background you're going to notice that some things in Ruby are slow. This is okay. As computers have gotten beefier, programmers have sacrificed performance and (to a large degree) memory in order to make code easier to maintain and write.
Step Two: Learn Rails. Rails is a very extensive framework that is again easy to learn. That tutorial should show you how to master concepts like quickly creating a CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) application for a blog or recipes (I forget). From here you have to use your imagination. Make something that is CRUD or some mutation of CRUD to demonstrate that you know how to utilize and extend this concept. You might use census data and experiment with new UI toys like Processing or HTML5's Canvas element. I think if you have access to some mildly interesting data that building a site you'd like to share would be a great idea (even if it is just in CRUD format). But get it to a state where you're proud of it.
Step Three: Github. Put your source on Github.
Step Four: Host your project on Heroku. You might buy a domain name if you're open to $12/year. I don't know how far you want to take this part. But get it so that people can access it.
Now once you've iterated over that a bunch -
A Radical Challenge
You know, I first got started programming when I happened upon a left hand basic cartridge with an Atari 400 for $5 at a garage sale. It came with an attachable floppy disk drive that was DOA. Countless hours would be spent with a small black and white TV with me writing procedures. Should the power turn off, all that work was lost.
Despite growing up below the poverty line working on farms, I was able to go to college with enough grants based on need. This is where our paths diverge ... and I would not automatically assume that my four year degree at the University of Minnesota would make me a better programmer than yourself or anyone who taught themselves to code. But the important point of this is that when I interview (and I've held interviews for programmers to come onto my team many times) the interviewer is looking for you to prove that you will be a self motivated asset to the team. If you can put MIT or some prestigious school, they often lower their required threshold of proof. If you put U of MN there is still proof required -- after all there are some ~50k students at the U of MN and as such it would be entirely possible for some idiot to be herded through with the other cattle. So they just need to make sure I am not this idiot -- or at least not in the area they need me for. Now, when you have institution to back up your claim of skills, the proof requirement quickly becomes insurmountable.
So I will issue you a challenge and I will target the Ruby language and Rails framework. This probably isn't the best option for a job seeker (I think some Java with maybe Spring Framework would be better suited for a position) but this could result in proof. If you want reading material for any of these steps, I recommend the Pragmatic Programmer series on Ruby and Ruby on Rails (used it is quite cheap but here is a free alternative).
Step One: Learn Ruby. Ruby is a functional language that is very simple and easy to learn but difficult to completely master. The flexibility of the language seems to continually leave me with more and more options at my disposal. From mixins to domain specific languages, it just keeps on giving. I'm guessing with your background you're going to notice that some things in Ruby are slow. This is okay. As computers have gotten beefier, programmers have sacrificed performance and (to a large degree) memory in order to make code easier to maintain and write.
Step Two: Learn Rails. Rails is a very extensive framework that is again easy to learn. That tutorial should show you how to master concepts like quickly creating a CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) application for a blog or recipes (I forget). From here you have to use your imagination. Make something that is CRUD or some mutation of CRUD to demonstrate that you know how to utilize and extend this concept. You might use census data and experiment with new UI toys like Processing or HTML5's Canvas element. I think if you have access to some mildly interesting data that building a site you'd like to share would be a great idea (even if it is just in CRUD format). But get it to a state where you're proud of it.
Step Three: Github. Put your source on Github.
Step Four: Host your project on Heroku. You might buy a domain name if you're open to $12/year. I don't know how far you want to take this part. But get it so that people can access it.
Now once you've iterated over that a bunch -
Re:From Hell's gate I stab at thee
I present a comparably cheap but better solution as it allows you to both hide and distort facial features. Another option would be to use a paper mask as you could put what ever face you wanted on it and frame someone else since we all know pictures never lie.
-
From Hell's gate I stab at thee
May I present the latest in facial recognition software defense. The $0.25 solution.
-
Re:GPS does not equal mapping.
You apparently don't know what GPS actually is, because GPS has nothing to do with bird-eye views nor comparing alternate routes. All GPS does is tell you the time and where on the planet you are.
Routing and mapping are not exclusive to GPS.
It's pretty obvious in context that "GPS" here means "a GPS receiver for automotive navigation". It's kind of a layman's shorthand and is in fact a very common usage of the term. For instance, go to Amazon and type "GPS" in the search box. Something tells me that when someone asks: "Can I borrow your pen?" you reply: "I don't know, can you?"
-
renaissance-man to nuclear-physicist...
"Grey goo" today is about as likely as a renaissance inventor building a thermonuclear weapon.
Focusing on just "today" is rather short sighted.
Let's look at the timeline from renaissance-man to nuclear-physicist:
It took about 200 years to go from the simple phsyics like the pendulum (Galileo, 1581) to the discovery of oxygen (Lavosier, 1778).
It took another 120 years to invent quantum theory (Planck, 1897).
Another 35 years to find the neutron (Chadwick, 1932).
15 years to the atom bomb (Trinity, 1945).
7 years to fusion (thermonuclear) (Ivy Mike, 1952).Oh, and just for fun, about 40 years later the Human Genome project kicked off (1989).
Our species has a knack for figuring out small things.
As for nano tech, it's hard for me to believe we'll be blindly stumbling about at "renaissance inventor level" even 10 years from now.Our species also has a knack for being short sighted and focusing only on "today"
:-(A closing thought for you: "grey goo" doesn't have to be a long-term stable system to be a serious problem; suppose it "just" eats the world's food crops for a year (think blight + major famine) and then, if we're "lucky", fades away.
Here's an interesting read for you The Windup Girl (Paolo Bacigalupi) about destabilized ecosystems. Imagine some MBA's in Monsanto saying, "You know, if we release genetic plant 'malware' we could own the planet! Of course we would control it. What could go wrong?"
Most of the posts I see here assume well-intentioned non-malicious researchers.
People haven't hesitated to crash the economy to line their pockets.
Why would the ecosystem be any different?