Slashdot Mirror

I'm a mathematician. I have a degree from a London university in mathematical and computational sciences. That doesn't make me an astrophysicist or an expert. Never claimed that. In fact, it makes me really crap at arithmetic, spreadsheets and quite a lot of shit (like modern voting, which I refuse to partake in).

As a mathematician, the maths is infallible. What you're mistaking is the assumptions you plug into the numbers that you put into the maths, their source, accuracy, reliability, variability, and that they reflect any kind of reality or that the equations will give you an answer that's useful. Welcome to maths.

The Drake equation IS the maths. It's that simple. What's not simple is the numbers you plug into it.

Drake says, if you plug in what are in my opinion reasonably accurate numbers from the observable universe, that there's life out there to a virtual certainty. But, actually, it also plops out of the equations that the chances of ever coinciding with them in a universe in our entire existence is incredibly miniscule.

The Fermi paradox is really that if you plug in other numbers, you can get a conclusion that we should have ALREADY been visited and then jumps to a second conclusion that this can't be true (which is a bizarre thing to assume given the timescales that come out of such things).

Both the same. Different assumptions. Produce differing results. That, through the haze of personal interpretation, can be taken to be anything from absolute bollocks to virtual certainty. But there's a reason that the Fermi "paradox" doesn't get quite as much press as simple Drake equations.

Find your most reliable set of numbers from sources you believe. Plug them into Drake. See what you get out. Fermi lies almost at the extreme of estimates for the variables. And makes several other assumptions (i.e. that aliens haven't visited us ever since we turned up, which has varying definitions of "visited", "us" and "turned up").

Hint: A mathematician doesn't dig out the equations and source data until he's dead certain. I'm not, as pointed out. But the maths is there for you to read and Fermi is basically "Ner, ner, we think you're wrong cos, look, we can fiddle the numbers to mean they should have knocked on the door last Wednesday". It doesn't mean that you can prove either wrong or right (proof is a HUGE word in mathematics), they're both mathematically-correct given the assumptions taken. Whether those assumptions are reasonable or bullshit is a matter of personal choice, but run the numbers yourself and convince yourself:

http://www.classbrain.com/artm...

I recall seeing this mentioned in old survival books from the 1970s. The common practice is to dig a hole in the ground, put a container in it, stretch a plastic sheet over it, secure it around the edges, weigh it in the middle, and wait. Voila, water in the container through condensation.

Here, I did a quick search and found it explained and diagremmed: http://www.classbrain.com/artteenah/publish/water_in_the_desert.shtml

Only one? Bah... the US has two of some time zones. That should definitely count for something...

"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

If I had to design logos for my company based on holiday themes, what do you think I would do when I came across Veteran's Day?

The Poppy is a universal symbol for Veterans/Rememberence/Armistice Day.

When your installation is this large, then in-house support becomes the cheaper solution.

Indiana has over a million students. If we figure there are over 2000 schools, then the Linspire solution costs over $1 million per year.

For less money, Indiana could choose Fedora or Debian, and hire their own department of people to support Linux, as well as customize it to exactly what they want in their schools.

Also, by going with a client-server approach, they could save even more money, in both initial cost, and ongoing support costs.

Either Indian has money to burn, or Linspire has great sales people, or somebody has connections.

Finally, let's not forget that Linspire is a Qt-based desktop (Qt running on top of Linux, like the Mac desktop runs on top of BSD). That's okay if Indiana schools stick to using only GPL'd software. But if Indiana chooses to run any proprietary Qt-based software, then it must be based on Trolltech's proprietary-licensed version of Qt, which means that Indiana will then be stuck with a single supplier (Trolltech) for their Linux desktops. Experience has taught us that that's not a good situation to be in.

The Congress shall have Power...

...To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;