I don't know about anyone else, but I have spent more sleepless nights playing nethack then any other 3d rendered, first person shooter.
What?! Has someone realized my dream of a 3d first person nethack? Imagine the thrill of encountering a fully raytraced @, or &, or x while traversing the tunnels.
Switzerland is cozy, but not the most free. Today's headline news here: Massive police operation to prevent Davos protests. A quote: "The cantonal government has already rejected permission for a demonstration by anti-globalisation protestors during the summit. " Not sounding too free is it?
It's worse if you're a foreigner and it's next to impossible to become a Swiss citizen.
And innovative people? Remember Orson Welles' s famous quote that 500 years of Swiss democracy and peace had produced nothing
more than the cuckoo clock.
While you're writing checks, send one to Russ Feingold (D-WI), the cosponsor of McCain's campaign finance bill. He's one of the few politicians I really like.
This reminds me of something from my intro psych class. One study showed that non-depressed people are overly optimistic, mildly depressed people view the world accurately, and severely depressed people are overly pessimistic. So the mildly depressed cubicle workers are the ones who recognize the true meaninglessness of their existence.
The majority of species which have ever existed have gone extinct. Extinction is a "natural" phenomenon. The RATE of extinction today is the highest ever seen on the planet. Whether you consider this "natural" or not depends on whether you consider humans part of the "natural" world; ie, it's a moot point.
So, why should humans prevent the extinction of other species? For the same reasons we geeks want to emulate defunct game consoles and preserve old computer systems, only moreso. Humans have never made a machine as complicated as the simplest microbe, let alone a mammal. We have a lot to learn by studying how other species work. By letting other species go extinct, we're throwing out 4 billion years of evolution tweaking the source code of life. Even humans' closest relatives, the bonobos, are endangered and we share > 98% of our DNA with these guys. Pretty damn shortsighted.
One useful step in that direction is JSTOR. They have digitized the entire contents of over 100 leading journals in a range of academic fields, and made their abstracts searchable as well. Unfortunately, you or your library must subscribe to get at the goodies.
Another advantage of a 4 year college is that you can change your major if you decide CS isn't for you. I started college (Harvey Mudd College) thinking I'd get my degree in CS, but within a year I realized that I didn't enjoy CS. I switched to math and now I'm studying biology in grad school. You probably won't know if you like philosophy, or physics, or history if you're never exposed to it.
Slashdot Mirror
Region coding is just an example of how large corporations want free trade... as long as it doesn't cut into their profits.
What?! Has someone realized my dream of a 3d first person nethack? Imagine the thrill of encountering a fully raytraced @, or &, or x while traversing the tunnels.
It's worse if you're a foreigner and it's next to impossible to become a Swiss citizen.
And innovative people? Remember Orson Welles' s famous quote that 500 years of Swiss democracy and peace had produced nothing more than the cuckoo clock.
While you're writing checks, send one to Russ Feingold (D-WI), the cosponsor of McCain's campaign finance bill. He's one of the few politicians I really like.
This reminds me of something from my intro psych class. One study showed that non-depressed people are overly optimistic, mildly depressed people view the world accurately, and severely depressed people are overly pessimistic. So the mildly depressed cubicle workers are the ones who recognize the true meaninglessness of their existence.
So, why should humans prevent the extinction of other species? For the same reasons we geeks want to emulate defunct game consoles and preserve old computer systems, only moreso. Humans have never made a machine as complicated as the simplest microbe, let alone a mammal. We have a lot to learn by studying how other species work. By letting other species go extinct, we're throwing out 4 billion years of evolution tweaking the source code of life. Even humans' closest relatives, the bonobos, are endangered and we share > 98% of our DNA with these guys. Pretty damn shortsighted.
One useful step in that direction is JSTOR. They have digitized the entire contents of over 100 leading journals in a range of academic fields, and made their abstracts searchable as well. Unfortunately, you or your library must subscribe to get at the goodies.
--bitemysquirrel