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There are several interesting links between the Royal Mint and Neal Stephenson's ( Slashdot Interview) Baroque Cycle , including references to Hooke and Newton, to whom the quotation "standing on the shoulders of giants", which is engraved around the edge of £2 coins, is ascribed. The Trial of the Pyx, which forms part of the plot, exists, and has been carried out ever since 1282.

It is sad to see geeks deriding what is, in essence, an alpha of A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. This is hardware that is plentiful for many things (it is more capable than the computers we were using less than ten years ago), and that, judging by the people involved (Seymour Papert, Alan Kay), will come with great software, too. I live in a third world (although not miserable) country, where poor people can climb the social ladder. Hopefully a thing like this laptop will help more people do it.

obligatory refresher

Hmmm, not quite Van Eck Phreaking ...but close

(refresher)

- You're a gargoyle.

In Hardwired, Walter Jon Williams talked about CNC machines spitting out custom firearms.

It is already the case that one can, with some skill and difficulty, make a reasonable firearm using desktop machine tools.

Sherline, maker of the preeminent hobbyist desktop lathe and mill, is already shipping turn-key desktop CNC machines, based around linux boxes.

Technical Video Rental rents out DVDs on how to build firearms from scratch.

All these trends are accelerating, and about to converge.

In 20 years, no matter what the politicians say, gun control is going to be DEAD.

A linux box + a $1k three axis desktop mill + some scraps of steel + HEAP.sourceforge.net = downloadable firearms.

Not quite the same, but Neal Stephenson set up a wiki called metaweb to discuss and correct errors in his book, Quicksilver...

I would also look for prior art in Alexa's existing patents and public software. In the latter case, I believe zBubbles, Alexa Internet's comparison shopping tool from 1999/2000, did dynamic linking from pages to products, going so far as to insert product links (bubbles) into pages as the user visits them.

Here's a description of zBubbles from the Motley Fool, 3 Jan 2000:

After you download zBubbles, whenever you visit a commerce site that the software is programmed to compare against, a small icon in the corner of your Web browser changes color. Then, next to the product that you're viewing, small Z icons appear. When you click an icon, a "bubble" pops up to cover one-fifth of your screen. The bubble shows you where else you can buy the product, or related products, and it links to websites that may offer a cheaper price or even a better product. The bubble also tells you if Amazon sells the product and, if it does, you can buy the product from Amazon without leaving the site you're visiting. (It also links to customer product reviews housed on Amazon.)

The cards are the Liebniz Archives which were found on the sub.

The other gold was melted down to fight for justice against future holocausts.

Trust in Liebniz - http://www.metaweb.com/

Questions like this are being answered at Neal's Metaweb site. Much more info there than you'll see in an interview response.

Much of that is already answered in this Metaweb article.

And he reminds the /. editor of a Neal Stephenson story because Wilkins actually features quite prominently in Cryptonomicon (Stephenson makes Wilkins the author of the fictional tome from which the book takes its title) and in Quicksilver (and therefore in the rest of the Baroque Cycle books). Daniel Waterhouse, one of the chief heros/protagonists, is a protege of Wilkins's.

You can find a lot more about the real (in addition to Stephenson's historical fiction version) Wilkins at Stephenson's metaweb.

Quicksilver didn't cover Newton's broader--today we'd call them non-scientific--interests as deeply as The System of the World most likely will. Half-cocked Jack versus Newton The Exchequer ought to be good!

Mediawiki, the code base the Metaweb uses, has several features that minimize the damage done by link spammers. The first is watchlists - anyone who uses the Metaweb can set up a watchlist so that they are notified when there's a change to one of their favorite pages. Link spammers usually hit someone's favorite page, and that someone undoes the damage in a few minutes to a few hours.

Mediawiki also allows administrators to lock pages from edits (the front page is locked), and to ban IP addresses. And, like any Wiki, anyone can roll back changes to a page.

The combination - peer review, notification of changes, and tools that make it easier to undo damage than to create it - combined with a (small) community of active users, means that while link spammers have hit us, the damage gets undone quickly enough that we're not worth it.

--Pat / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu

I'm not a huge Moore fan, btw. I've only seen Bowling for Columbine, but found it entertaining and thought-provoking (in spite of the creative editing).

See this for a brief explanation; follow the links there for more detail.

I have read both books now with my laptop sitting nect to me, so I can research some concept he has mentioned in passing, or to fact check something he mentiones in detail for truth.

The conclusion I have come to, he gets the overall correct, and makes up the fine points.

Checkout the annotations for Quicksilver

This is based on a real person. He states that it is one of those "too wierd to make up" type things.

One of the, if not major, then most enigmatic characters in both the books of the Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon is Enoch Root. A person(?) with an unnaturally(?) long lifetime. The tiny bits of information that Stephenson dishes out throughout Cryptonomicon and now in both Quicksilver and The Confusion are enough to drive anyone mad :). The Confusion has at least one, uncharacteristically lucid explanation that is worth reading. There has grown up a sizeable following, online, of other readers who are trying to piece together the puzzle of Enoch Root. Here are some links for those who are interested. LINKS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

What's up with Enoch Root
Neal Stephenson Wiki

Metaweb - A wiki about the Cryptonomicon/Quicksilver Universe, with contributions fro Mr. Stephenson

I'm one of the Metaweb administrators; I am also a Wikipedia administrator. The two sites run the same software - Mediawiki - but have different goals.

For a summary of the differences, see the Metaweb vs Wikipedia FAQ

The Metaweb currently has extensive annotations on Quicksilver, many written by Neal, but also many contributed by readers. I hope that any Slashdot readers who are interested in The Confusion and would like to annotate the book will participate on the Metaweb.

--Pat / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu

I'm one of the Metaweb administrators; I am also a Wikipedia administrator. The two sites run the same software - Mediawiki - but have different goals.

For a summary of the differences, see the Metaweb vs Wikipedia FAQ

The Metaweb currently has extensive annotations on Quicksilver, many written by Neal, but also many contributed by readers. I hope that any Slashdot readers who are interested in The Confusion and would like to annotate the book will participate on the Metaweb.

--Pat / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu

I'm one of the Metaweb administrators; I am also a Wikipedia administrator. The two sites run the same software - Mediawiki - but have different goals.

For a summary of the differences, see the Metaweb vs Wikipedia FAQ

The Metaweb currently has extensive annotations on Quicksilver, many written by Neal, but also many contributed by readers. I hope that any Slashdot readers who are interested in The Confusion and would like to annotate the book will participate on the Metaweb.

--Pat / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu

Didn't see it mentioned so, The Metaweb is Stephenson's wiki about Quicksilver (presumably information on the rest of the trilogy will be added). It's very interesting, has all kinds of information on the people and ideas in the book. Especially the annotations, add a lot of interesting background and details.

Didn't see it mentioned so, The Metaweb is Stephenson's wiki about Quicksilver (presumably information on the rest of the trilogy will be added). It's very interesting, has all kinds of information on the people and ideas in the book. Especially the annotations, add a lot of interesting background and details.

Only in the UK. The US release is today.