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The spacecraft is in an incredibly hostile environment. Who's to say that there *wasn't* ECC and it's just that it's Hamming code wasn't enough to compensate for the error - it would make sense: as the hardware ages, the device leaves the solar system, the errors start getting closer and closer to the limits of error correction until one day - bam, even with error correction it slips through the net and ends up as a bad bit in memory.

Technically, this is possible (but incredibly rare) on even the greatest error correction in the world. Error correction is a statistical function, that says that the *chances* of an error occuring are 2^8, or 2^16 or whatever.

And, from my coding theory class, Voyager's signal was originally something ludicrous like a (24,12,8) code even when it was nearby. (This presentation, especially the final slide, appears to confirm that: http://www-math.cudenver.edu/~wcherowi/courses/m6409/mariner9talk.pdf).

ECC is a probability function - the probability of a bit error going undetected is significantly reduced compared to, say, just sending the data and hoping for the best. But reduced does not mean eliminated. Not all errors can be detected and only a small portion of those can be corrected. But that still leaves room for an error that goes uncorrected, undetected and ends up in RAM without anyone noticing until they do a full bit-by-bit check - the same as your 25+ years newer technology harddrive, Ethernet connection, computer bus, etc. There's no such thing as guaranteed data delivery - but we make the chances of an error slipping through so infinitesimally small that it doesn't affect normal, everyday operation. For instance, a corrupt download with an SHA-1 checksum would be seen as valid approximately one in every 2^160 transactions. Small, but not impossible by a long stretch considering how many downloads occur each day.

Voyager didn't have the luxury of Megabytes of RAM to hold extraneous checksum data, Megahertz of CPU to check everything that came in at line speed, or a broadcast technology that could keep a Gbit data rate going all the time. They made compromises and, later, changed the ECC algorithms as more and more errors could theoretically creep in. We just had a run of bad luck that meant a single bit was out, that's all. And that's even assuming it's not a hardware failure anyway. I think Voyager did pretty damn well, running for decades after it's supposed operational time. And a one-bit error on a random chance is pretty damn minor - let's just hope it wasn't inside anything too critical, like the communications routines.

This appears to be my keyboard layout... including the <> key in the same location as I have, which is odd, because I could have sworn that the <> key was on the wrong side in all the pictures I found. Maybe I'm just confused.

I'm at work using a standard American keyboard, so I'm unable to examine my keyboard and clear up the confusion... :(

The truth is Einstein was not a healthy man.

First off his wife helped him come up with the e=mc^2 theory, yet she received no credit for it.

In the original publishing of the theory in 1905 she was credited with co-author credits

Einstein himself spoke to her as an equal in respect to science. He all but admits to collaborating with her on his 1905 papers which made him famous.

In a 1901 letter he refers to the theory of relativity as our work

Another small piece of Einstein history that few people know is the terms of his divorce from his first wife (The woman mentioned above) was that she received all prize money when he wins a Nobel prize for the theory of relativity. He agreed to this and in fact Einstein never saw any of the money when he won the Nobel prize.

Einstein awarded Nobel PrizeAfter seven nominations, Albert wins the 1921 medal for physics. He gives the prize money to Mileva, per their 1919 divorce agreement. It is the smallest cash award since the Nobel Prize was created, worth about $348,000 (in 2003 USD).

Sorry, I canâ(TM)t link to it but it is in the PBS timeline.

The kicker is that after his divorce from the woman who helped make him famous, the guy married his cousin. Yup, his COUSIN!!!!

cousin fucker

So there you have it folks, the man so many think of as a symbol of modern science not only stole ideas (or at the very least refused to acknowledge getting help) from his wife but also decided that it would be fun to screw his cousin.

For the uninformed.

The ' isn't that far from the # and makes sense when seen in context with the s/l typo. However, after reviewing the german keyboard, I see that the s/l was actually a missing letter, and not a misspelling.

I would bet the average German Internet user knows how to do that. It's pretty easy when the key is on your keyboard: http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~tphillip/GermanKeyboar dLayout.html

The truth is Einstein was not a healthy man.

First off his wife helped him come up with the e=mc^2 theory, yet she received no credit for it.

In the original publishing of the theory in 1905 she was credited with co-author credits

Einstein himself spoke to her as an equal in respect to science. He all but admits to collaborating with her on his 1905 papers which made him famous.

In a 1901 letter he refers to the theory of relativity as our work

Another small piece of Einstein history that few people know is the terms of his divorce from his first wife (The woman mentioned above) was that she received all prize money when he wins a Nobel prize for the theory of relativity. He agreed to this and in fact Einstein never saw any of the money when he won the Nobel prize.


Einstein awarded Nobel PrizeAfter seven nominations, Albert wins the 1921 medal for physics. He gives the prize money to Mileva, per their 1919 divorce agreement. It is the smallest cash award since the Nobel Prize was created, worth about $348,000 (in 2003 USD).


Sorry, I can't link to it but it is in the PBS timeline.

The kicker is that after his divorce from the woman who helped make him famous, the guy married his cousin. Yup, his COUSIN!!!!

cousin fucker

So there you have it folks, the man so many think of as a symbol of modern science not only stole ideas (or at the very least refused to acknowledge getting help) from his wife but also decided that it would be fun to screw his cousin.

The truth is Einstein was not a healthy man.

First off his wife helped him come up with the e=mc^2 theory, yet she received no credit for it.

In the original publishing of the theory in 1905 she was credited with co-author credits

Einstein himself spoke to her as an equal in respect to science. He all but admits to collaborating with her on his 1905 papers which made him famous.

In a 1901 letter he refers to the theory of relativity as our work

Another small piece of Einstein history that few people know is the terms of his divorce from his first wife (The woman mentioned above) was that she received all prize money when he wins a Nobel prize for the theory of relativity. He agreed to this and in fact Einstein never saw any of the money when he won the Nobel prize.


Einstein awarded Nobel PrizeAfter seven nominations, Albert wins the 1921 medal for physics. He gives the prize money to Mileva, per their 1919 divorce agreement. It is the smallest cash award since the Nobel Prize was created, worth about $348,000 (in 2003 USD).


Sorry, I can't link to it but it is in the PBS timeline.

The kicker is that after his divorce from the woman who helped make him famous, the guy married his cousin. Yup, his COUSIN!!!!

cousin fucker

So there you have it folks, the man so many think of as a symbol of modern science not only stole ideas (or at the very least refused to acknowledge getting help) from his wife but also decided that it would be fun to screw his cousin.

The truth is Einstein was not a healthy man.

First off his wife helped him come up with the e=mc^2 theory, yet she received no credit for it.

In the original publishing of the theory in 1905 she was credited with co-author credits

Einstein himself spoke to her as an equal in respect to science. He all but admits to collaborating with her on his 1905 papers which made him famous.

In a 1901 letter he refers to the theory of relativity as "our work"

Another small piece of Einstein history that few people know is the terms of his divorce from his first wife (The woman mentioned above) was that she received all prize money when he wins a Nobel prize for the theory of relativity. He agreed to this and in fact Einstein never saw any of the money when he won the Nobel prize.


Einstein awarded Nobel PrizeAfter seven nominations, Albert wins the 1921 medal for physics. He gives the prize money to Mileva, per their 1919 divorce agreement. It is the smallest cash award since the Nobel Prize was created, worth about $348,000 (in 2003 USD).


Sorry, I can't link to it but it is in the PBS timeline.

The kicker is that after his divorce from the woman who helped make him famous, the guy married his cousin. Yup, his COUSIN!!!!

cousin fucker

So there you have it folks, the man so many think of as a symbol of modern science not only stole ideas (or at the very least refused to acknowledge getting help) from his wife but also decided that it would be fun to screw his cousin.

Gentoo has a LiveCD or pick a closer mirror.

I can't vouch for it though, I had their 1.4 LiveCD, but one of the Apple updates broke it and I haven't bothered to try again.

-- Sex Toys...

You would have done better to say "Freemasonry".

Francmasonry looks to me like a spanish/romainian group -- probably pseudo-masonic.

And yes, we (Freemasons) do tend to use long abbreviations, D.O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.M. wouldn't be a message (see: Freemasons cipher)

What you're seeing in the obits are most likely his masonic credentials.

... Celebrities in Cognitive Science

CC.

That's basically quantum encryption. It can be done (and the equipment to do it is available commercially) such that any evesdropper has only .25^n chance of not being detected, where n is any number you want.

I have a set of powerpoint slides available here that I used for a seminar on the subject; there are a few typos but they should give you the basic idea.

Here's a computer science Master's thesis that was done on solving the rubik's cube. And here's the accompanying presentation.

Here's a computer science Master's thesis that was done on solving the rubik's cube. And here's the accompanying presentation.

Start here.

And you have missed the point completely. For one, the link you provided is the main page to the US Supreme court, so I'm not sure as to what that was supposed to prove one way or another. Secondly, the issue at hand was the nationwide count, not the Florida count, and in that case, Gore most definitely got more votes than Bush. To the tune of over half a million. Final vote count listings can be found here.

I also found this which sums things up rather well. Bush won the election, but he did not have more total votes, which was the assertion being made.

Although you make a very good point, and I would tend to agree with you, I have to quibble. You said "Composers haven't introduced new semi-tone notes, located between B and B-flat." However, there is a (very interesting) movement in music currently called microtonal music, and composers are doing just what you say they aren't, writing music using notes between B and B-flat, and anywhere else they want to put them.

Burglars have successfully sued homeowners for falling through a roof and injuring themselves whilst breaking into said house.

I believe this is a pseudo-urban-legend. Check this article. Scroll down to where it says "Tales of the Absurd". It says:

Ronald Reagan recounted how a cat burglar sued a homeowner for injuries incurred while falling through the homeowner's skylight. When the real case was identified, it turned out that the plaintiff was not a cat burglar at all. He was a high school student who had been sent to retrieve athletic equipment stored on the roof of the school and had fallen through a skylight that had been painted black.

And in a similar vein, this page says:

This particularly news story pointed out that the burglars were mere children, which made it even worse. The facts were these: a group of high school students were playing soccer (or whatever) near their school gym on a weekend. The gym --the entire school -- was closed. They managed to kick the ball up on the roof of the gym. Enterprising boys, they climbed up on the roof, which was clearly forbidden by posted signs. On the roof was a skylight, which had been painted over in the same color as the rest of the roof. The boys didn't notice the skylight, walked on it, and fell through it. THey were injured. The school was held liable for creating a hazard by painting over the skylight: even one of the maintenance staff who had walked on it during school hours would have risked the boys' fate.

A google search on the subject turns up MANY references to a case like this in California where a cat burglar fell through a painted skylight and won. Depending on which item you read he won either because the insurance company settled or because the jury felt the school had failed to make itself safe to burgle. Nobody, not even the article I linked to, provides specifics so one could verify that facts independently. I didn't even get a hit on snopes.

Another interesting hit a I did get is here. An analysis of california's 1996 prop 213 which refers, vaguely, to this court case. Again no specifics are given.

... except there are plenty of men in biology. You may see biology as a "girly" subject, but I guarantee you male biologists don't.

Look, not only are fewer women starting CS programs, their dropout rates are higher than for men -- about the only academic track for which this is true. There is obviously a real problem here.

There will probably always be more female interior decorators than (straight) male, and more male mechanics than female. Fine. I buy that. But CS is, by its nature, pretty gender-neutral; it doesn't really fit into the stereotypes for either sex except the one that says, "Boys like computers and girls don't," which is a circular argument.

I've said this before, but part of the reason I don't buy that stereotype is because at both the school where I got my Bachelor's degree in math and the school where I'm currently studying for my Master's in CS, the math and CS programs have a mujch higher ratio of female to male students than most schools do -- about 50/50 in the first case, 40/60 in the second -- and the levels of satisfaction with, and completion of, the program seem to be about equal among students of both sexes.

Why is that? Well, I suspect that the main reason is that both schools are located on a commuter campus that caters largely to working adults. We're not talking about boys and girls here; we're talking about men and women. The average undergrad age is late twenties, and average grad student age is thirty or so; these are people who have moved past stupid stereotypes like "girls don't like computers" or (for both sexes) "smart isn't sexy."

Having such a well concealed room at the end of a completely impassable tunnel which in turn is blocked by two huge stone doors screams: "DO NOT ENTER! DANGER!" to anyone who's not blinded by the belief in our science.

Actually, richly stocked and securely guarded tombs meant to the ancient egyptians that their eternal spirits would continue to enjoy a luxurious existence even after death. The only threat present to ancient graverobbers was the potential of pulling their own arms off (Bender style) while trying to move those slabs without heavy machinery.

Why can't we just leave things as they are?

<technologyrant>Blah blah blah</technologyrant>

Time Travel Ad

I think we've been here before, several times during succesive agrarian, industrial & other revolutions.

Which part of "demand for them falls; they retrain and do other things; there's a modicum of structural unemployment until they find other things to do; there's some individual hardship but society adjusts fairly smoothly" were you unable to dream up for yourself?

Now, where's that confounded Stocking Loom

...you should use those that are funny too.

Seriously, comparing it to... stealing xeroxed practice exams would be a better analogy.
Not a very good one, though. Ahem.
Someone please Re: and help me out here! :-)