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Clark Withholds $60 Million Pledge to Stanford
vocaljess writes: "In an op-ed piece in Friday's New York Times (which you have to register to read, blah blah blah), Netscape creator Jim Clark has announced that he will withhold $60 million he had pledged to donate to Stanford University to build a center for biomedical engineering and science. He states "I believe our country risks being thrown into a dark age of medical research. Biologists are at the threshold of the most important set of discoveries in history, and rather than teach and lead, our politicians react and follow a conservative few. This legislative action will cause the United States to miss a revolution in biology.""
this news OLD. Which isn't really what the word 'news' means.
I've seen this attitude so many times I'll bite.
I'll head to Europe... but I'll be taking my share of the high tech stuff with me. The people who want to create a Christian Sharia can do so with the technology it creates. Historically, that's the dark ages of Europe, although I'm sure we can find it in our hearts to let you live at least as well as the Amish today.
But no TV or radio or telephones, damn it, because there's nothing in the Good Book about electrons. No remote power generation, no internal combustion engines, no antibiotics.
This sounds harsh, but we're not the ones who are trying to make this an "all or nothing" proposition.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Hmmmm. I've ben to the UK, and they are "ahead" in cell phones in as much as they are all GSM, no old analog system left (or maybe none was deployed, thus the quick uptake on the newer system). It was also nice that they run their GSM at about 900Mhz so it works through walls and plants and stuff way better then here. Land line phones didn't seem any more advanced. Did you notice differently?
They didn't seem any more advanced in PDAs, in fact I think I saw fewer PDAs there then here (that was about two years ago though). So what seemed more advanced when you were there?
TVs didn't seem a bit different, but I didn't spend any real amount of time watching them, I was out at the pubs. The beer there I can state is clearly more advanced then ours. So how did their TV seem more advanced then ours?
A lot of CDMA phones (esp Nokia's) have that. I assume in part because Nokia already devloped it for the EU market. My friend with a Nokia didn't use any of it (other then storing phone numbers).
I can see some advantage to that. I was worried that my "GSM-1900" Nokia had gotten destroyed a few years ago when it (and I) accidentally fell into a hot tub. Actually a not-so-hot-tub at that moment. However after letting it dry all night it was pretty much OK for the next two years (until Sprint switched to CDMA). The vibrating battery decided to "do it's thing" about a half dozen times that night. I was sure it was destroyed, but it was OK too.
The same integration is happening here too, but I only know one person that has one. At least they are now smaller then a PDA plus the phone, at least in most cases.
Hmmm, I'm not sure that counts as being more advanced. I think it is just because they tied the scan freq to the AC freq (not surprising, we did too). So they got a different set of tradeoffs.
I do own one set of PAL DVDs, and they don't seem to make me uncomfortable, but I guess I'm getting a 60Hz physical refresh, with only 50Hz of new frames spread over it (it only looks odd for long smooth shots, like panning shots following walking).
Hmmmm. I've ben to the UK, and they are "ahead" in cell phones in as much as they are all GSM, no old analog system left (or maybe none was deployed, thus the quick uptake on the newer system). It was also nice that they run their GSM at about 900Mhz so it works through walls and plants and stuff way better then here. Land line phones didn't seem any more advanced. Did you notice differently?
GSM phones work at two frequencies - 900MHz and 1800MHz (the US is 1900MHz). There was a large analog infrastructure, but this has gone (or will be gone very shortly). The reasons for this have been rehashed here several times, but in the UK the caller pays for the call which has lead to something like >80% of the population with a mobile. Mobile numbers are obviously mobile numbers too - in the UK they start with 07, compared to 01 or 02 for land lines, and 08 and 09 for special rates (from free to expensive). In the US I believe that the owner of the cellphone has to pay a proportion if people call. I know the reasons, but it always comes as a surprise to Europeans when they find this out.
I'm not sure about landline phones either - I can't think of any obvious way that they are different. Ditto PDAs.
TV in the UK is available in widescreen (if you get digital signals via satellite or cable). I don't know if that is the case in the US.
Our pubs are infinitely more advanced, and so is the beer. How do you drink that stuff over there?
Ah! Yes, I knew about the call-ee pays (and in fact that land line costs are normally per call too right? it is normaly "free" in a "local calling area" here). I just hadn't really thought much about it. Of corse that would make cell phones more popular.
Yes, most cell phones here cost the person with the cell phone. There are exceptions, many systems now have the "first incoming minute free" (Sprint). Some do incoming calls free (NexTel -- maybe only with some plans). Most do cost though.
I also didn't know about all mobile numbers starting with 07. I'm not sure how important that is, but it is interesting.
Not really, there are a few HDTV stations (on-air in some places, on digital satellite for HBO, and I think Showtime). HDTV sets are not popular though. Nor are "normal" widescreen sets (which are mostly used for DVDs). There are "widescreen" broadcasts of shows on HBO, but they are normal NTSC broadcasts with black bars (-- including Band of Brothers, my TiVo is set already...)
I don't. At least not the mass market crap. The microbrews are pretty good though (some local restaurants and pubs brew their own). Even some of the "mass market microbrews" aren't bad. None of the mass market "microbrew" stuff was as nice as the the warm ale from the pubs the locally brewed stuff is as good as what I had in the UK (but not better).
Plus sometimes I visit places that stock wonderful imports.
Go ahead... I dare you to find an ICE COLD soda in London!
It can't be done.
These freaks try to serve Coke to you warm! If you order Coke in a restaurant you have to request ice, and even then they only give you TWO CUBES OF ICE!?
Ok, but get this. Besides selling warm Coke. They do not sell Mountain Dew anywhere!!!
It's hard to imagine a place on earth which does not have the Dew, but it exists in Europe. The really weird thing is that they run Mt. Dew advertisements on TV, but they've air brushed out the Dew logos and put in Pepsi. It's FREAKY!
The only explanation I could come up with is that Mt. Dew tastes even worse warm than Coke does.
The United States will never lose an edge to Europe in the tech market as long as we have plentiful stocks of ICE COLD Mountain Dew and Coca-Cola!
How do you drink that stuff over there?
We serve it cold!
(rimshot)
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
This is a DVD of a TV show (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), so I'm not sure it was filmed at 24fr/sec rather then slapped onto beta tape at 60fr/sec. I'm not really sure how they "film" TV shows though.
I would own the US version if there was one. It is likely I'll buy the US version when Fox, UPN, and WB settle out on who gets how much of the money from it. Then I can stop using the crappy "world" DVD player.
P.S. did you mean 24/sec to 50/sec to 60/sec? I'm watching a PAL disc on a NTSC device, not NTSC on PAL.
The US public transportation system sucks in part to the passenger trolley systems being bought by GM, for the purpose of tearing them down. GM and allies bought over 100 trolley systems. This eventually resulted in federal antitrust charges, which they were found guilty of. The judge was sympathetic and fined the companies involved $5000, and the executives responsible were fined $1 each.
-J5K
The libertarian solution to the failures of capitalism is to apply more capitalism til the failures are fixed.
Why do you think our TV industry (VHS/NTSC) isn't compatible with the rest of the world
Um, because we invented it and did it first? Same reason we have a different electrical standard? Whe you're the first place to roll something out, you're stuck with the first mistakes,too -- the second guy to do something has a better chance to get it right.
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.