Get him an Apple II GS. Can I see a show of hands of the geeks out there who first started learning how to Program on an Apple II? I know i did. BASIC comes with the thing, and Logowriter and Pascal are good for showing the basic routines of Programming. And it really is amazing what you can do with the little buggers, Woz is the man!
Actually, until about the 7th Century AD, all text was read aloud, wether you were actually reading to somone else or not. This was a hold over from the fact that most texts were originally stories that were told around the hearth or campfire.
I dont know what Adobe is trying to pull here. E-books have very few advantages over regular books. Regular books are durable, portable, use no power, and can last for a very long time if kept properly. E-books are not portable, without special equipment, are not durable, as they break down with the media they a printed on at a much faster rate, if i get a book wet, i can still read the text, if i get my laptop wet, good luck. One of the few advantages E-books have is that they are easily copied. Adobe should be ashamed of themselves for taking a freely available text from project gutenburg and making it non free. Thats like converting a document i made from palin text to word and suddenly microsoft owns all the rights to my work. Adobe does not own the rights to the story, they own the rights to the format. Theres a big difference. if i want to copy text or read it aloud, tough beans to adobe, they dont own the intellectual property. What if paper manufacturers suddenly decided you couldnt print something on their paper without their permission? When will this insanity end? I would say that this treatment justifies pirating the book, but its already freely available from gutenberg.
the 90 years wont shrink for a very good reason, its alot harder to colonize space and other planets than it is to colonize a continent. The americas had a hospitible climate, the air was breatheable, the water was fresh, food was easily growable etc. None of these things is true in space. Secondly, there was a very bovious reason for colonization, money. gold at first, then indiginous items. It takes time to develop marketable items that can only be found in space, on other planets etc. These processes cannot be speeded up by the advance of technology, period. It would be trivial to colonize the americas today, with planes, ships etc, the continents could be colonized in weeks practically. The fact that space is as hard to get to to us technologically as the americas were when they were first being colonized will make our timeline similar to theirs
written by Erika
Donald, a staffer at the Pacific Bell Internet Call Center:
Well as of the publishing of that article, its now Erika Donald, former staffer at the Pac Bell Internet call center. You speak out against big brother and you dissapear.
If Britain has such a great history of Freedom, then why did my ancestors have to sail across the atlantic 500 years ago looking for freedom?
If your ancestors were sailing across the atlantic 500 years ago, then they werent british. It was mainly spanish at this time, spain being the world naval power until 1588 when they were defeated by the brits. an interesting segue, It was almost 90 years between the first "landing" in the new world and the first permanent settlement (1580's). This is something that space entusiasts should keep in mind while wondering why we dont have any cities on the moon yet. We've got probably another 60 years before that happens. The fact that there is a "settlement" of sorts in the International space statin is amazing in and of itself, its about 50 years ahead of schedule.
Unfortunately satirewires website was configured to only handle users of netscape, and so was slashdotted when greater than 14 people tried to access it
What happens if/when wolfram goes out of buisness, and i cant just call them up for a new serial? Or more likely, what happens when wolfram stops oficially supporting 4.0 and stops giving out new serials? They force me to stop using a product i legally paid for and wish to continue using. Most of us live in moderately free societies such that we should not be forced to upgrade a product against our will. And seriously, does wolfram need to know every time your drive dies or you buy a new one? Thats not information that they have a right to be privy to. What happens if you buy a really crappy drive, and you have to reformat it a bunch of times, is wolfram going to continue to happily give out 20 licences to you? I highly doubt it. They know exactly how many times youve migrated, and if that number gets too high, you get cut off. I stand by my original post.
This is completely off topic, but Wolfram sucks, mathematica 4.0 is so paranoid about piracy that i cant use my legally purchased copy anymore. The following was originally posted under the EFF-DCMA examples request the other day. I know this will probably hurt my Karma, but this really pisses me off
I purchased Mathematica 4.0 100% legally. It is a student version, but it is fully functional. When I first purchased it wolfram demanded that I enter an ID generated by the program, as well as a CD identifier key into their website, which then spit out a serial so i could use it. So far so good. Until I purchased a new Hard drive. apparently, the cd generates a unique key based on your hard drive, no unique key, program no work. Sure, I probably could call up wolfram and ask for a new serial, but do i really need to tell them when i've purchased a new hard drive? Oh, and the kicker is the program will not run off the CD except as a reader. I dont know how they do it, i can set the date back to when i purchased it and it still wont work off the CD, even though after i first bought it it had a 2 week "register or else" fully functional version on it. My advice, dont buy any software that wolfram makes.
You and that hot chick from high school, she still wont go out with you.
How many nukes would a missile defence umbrella stop and at what efficiency?
0, the defense department has no nuclear missle defense umrella. Give it 500 billion dollars and it will be happy to build you one with 100% efficiency right away.
If I was cleanly severed in half and survived, how long before my body dies from being unable to relieve itself?
About a week
What quantity of LSD (insert any other drug) would be needed to get an elephant high?
It is unknown wether elephants experience highs the same way humans do, but if they do, a dose of approximately 10 times the normal human dose would do it
If Microsoft finally developed the perfect OS, what would it's next killer app be?
If youre interested in spaceflight, and want to help get the average Joe sixpack (you) there as soon as possible, consider donating to the X-Prize foundation. The foundation has set out a ten million dollar prize for the first vehicle that can successfully reach outer space with two people aboard and do it again within two weeks. Click here for more information about joining.
I purchased Mathematica 4.0 100% legally. It is a student version however, but it is fully functional. When I first purchased it wolfram demanded that I enter a n Id generated by the program, as well as a CD identifier key into their website, which then spit out a serial so i could use it. So far so good. Until I purchased a new Hard drive. apparently, the cd generates a unique key based on your hard drive, no unique key, program no work. Sure, I probably could call up wolfram and ask for a new serial, but do i really need to tell them when i've purchased a new hard drive? Oh, and the kicker is the program will not run off the CD except as a reader. I dont know how they do it, i can set the date back to when i purchased it and it still wont work off the CD, even though after i first bought it it had a 2 week "register or else" fully functional version on it. My advice, dont buy any software that wolfram makes.
Will we treat our robots as we used to treat our women?
Not until we can start having sex with the robots. Frankly, a robot can be designed so as to only have the minimal intelligence needed for cooking, cleaning etc, and no more. A robot would have to be specifically programmed to have feelings or to desire rights etc. That programming can simply be left out. Does an automobile assembly robot have feelings? No. But it does perform a specific task very well without complaint. Ultimately we need somone to do some work for us, work that humans find repetitive or dangerous or boring. In the past and even now that need was filled by slaves or wage slaves. Mechanization allowed many of those former slaves to be freed and has created the whole issue of civil liberties. There may be robots in the future who pass the turing test, but those will be the acception rathe rthan the rule, most will be programmed to perform a secific task, no more and no less. Of course its hard to keep a robot barefoot and pregnant;-)
Yes, the X-33 is still being funded, but just barely. If you look at the history of the space shuttle, it was concieved in the 60's started construction in the 70's and finally flew in the 80's. Venturestar started in 1996. Dont expect anything to start flying until at least 2015. Anything that is flown before that date is considered ahead of schedule to me, regardless of what "official" schedules are.
he bottom line is that alternative fuel will not be used to its potential until it becomes cheaper than traditional power.
You forgot to add that it will never become chaper than traditional power unless omone starts buying it now. Any technology needs its early adopters to get off the ground. Look at HDTV, is it worth paying $10000 for a new TV? A few people might say yes, and this drives the price down as more competition pops up and economies of scale drive the price down. Same for power technology, Wind power started in the 1970's as a potential power technology, but it was damn expensive, like 30-40 cents a kWh, while conventional coal power was on the order of 3-6 cents a kWh. Some people though the technology was good, and they bought it anyways. Now Wind power is about the same cost as coal power, maybe a little more expensive, and adoption of wind is starting to take off. Wind power installations have grown about 30% a year for the last couple of years and even more as prices come down further. My point is that the fact a commercial installation of wave power has finally become a reality is a big boost for the technology. Even if its more expensive now, the very fact that people are buying into it is a good sign. If enough do, eventually the price will come down, after all, waves are free, coal and oil are not. At the point that wave energy becomes cheaper to install than a new coal power plant, the technology will take of. It may take 20 years to get things ramped up, but it will happen.
That still sounds like awfully lots of energy, and I don't think we are going to harvest that much energy from the ocean -- ever. I dont know the exact numbers, but id wager dollars to donuts that the worlds energy consumption in 1900 was probably.1% of what it is today. In another hundred years we could be easily using the energy equivalent of the wave energy in all the worlds oceans, and having.1% of that energy coming directly from the ocean itself. Never underestimate the doubling power of technology
Re:Not nearly enough power to worry about delivery
on
Wave Driven Generators
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· Score: 2
Heres a better Idea. Take a look at a map of oh say Europe. Youll notice that to the south of europe is a large body of water, locally known as "The Mediterranean Sea" Youll also note that this sea has an entrance only about 15 miles wide. Place a dam across this 15 mile gap, and you'd have enough power to light up Europe. Plus the med is situated east-west, so it gets some damn strong curents flowing through the pillars of hercules.
Actually, the northern plains tend to be very windy. In fact north dakota has enough wind energy to provide the entire US power supply. Minnesota has a deal with its power company to instal 400MW of wind turbines in return for being able to store nuclear waste at its prarie Island plant. By comparason, the nuclear power plant puts out about 1000 MW, so 2/5 of a nuclar power plants worth of wind energy.
Im worried about what happens to documents after the subscription runs out, will you still be able to read them? will you have to keep subscribing indefinitely in order to keep reading your work? What happens if I like office 10 more than oofice 11 or 12 or 15, will MS force me to upgrade? I used Word 5.1a for the mac for 5 years because it was and still is superior to anything microsoft offers. All MS needed to do was improve the grammar checker and spelling dictionary and 5.1a would still be the best word processor out there. I think MS is just trying to force people to upgrade, moreso than they already have of course.
Thats because in stars the light is emmitted in certain wavelenghts that are known on earth. when the star is moving, those wavelengths shift slightly, and the speed can be measured by the amount of shift. On the other hand, electrons protons etc dont emit any light, they merely reflect it, and in order to get around the doppler shift thing, all subatomic particles have to do is emit on all wavelenggths, so theres no way to tell how theyve shifted. On the other hand, it would be interesting to say accelerate a proton to a given velocity then try to take a picture of it, I wonder what would happen? It might just turn into a streak on the photograph no matter what your resolution.
Slashdot Mirror
Ever spend 4 hours poring over code and suddenly realize youre wearing a bra? I hate it when my roommates play tricks on me
Well as of the publishing of that article, its now Erika Donald, former staffer at the Pac Bell Internet call center. You speak out against big brother and you dissapear.
If your ancestors were sailing across the atlantic 500 years ago, then they werent british. It was mainly spanish at this time, spain being the world naval power until 1588 when they were defeated by the brits. an interesting segue, It was almost 90 years between the first "landing" in the new world and the first permanent settlement (1580's). This is something that space entusiasts should keep in mind while wondering why we dont have any cities on the moon yet. We've got probably another 60 years before that happens. The fact that there is a "settlement" of sorts in the International space statin is amazing in and of itself, its about 50 years ahead of schedule.
I purchased Mathematica 4.0 100% legally. It is a student version, but it is fully functional. When I first purchased it wolfram demanded that I enter an ID generated by the program, as well as a CD identifier key into their website, which then spit out a serial so i could use it. So far so good. Until I purchased a new Hard drive. apparently, the cd generates a unique key based on your hard drive, no unique key, program no work. Sure, I probably could call up wolfram and ask for a new serial, but do i really need to tell them when i've purchased a new hard drive? Oh, and the kicker is the program will not run off the CD except as a reader. I dont know how they do it, i can set the date back to when i purchased it and it still wont work off the CD, even though after i first bought it it had a 2 week "register or else" fully functional version on it. My advice, dont buy any software that wolfram makes.
um, if 99% of the routers go down, 100% of the world will not still be connected.
You and that hot chick from high school, she still wont go out with you.
How many nukes would a missile defence umbrella stop and at what efficiency?
0, the defense department has no nuclear missle defense umrella. Give it 500 billion dollars and it will be happy to build you one with 100% efficiency right away.
If I was cleanly severed in half and survived, how long before my body dies from being unable to relieve itself?
About a week
What quantity of LSD (insert any other drug) would be needed to get an elephant high?
It is unknown wether elephants experience highs the same way humans do, but if they do, a dose of approximately 10 times the normal human dose would do it
If Microsoft finally developed the perfect OS, what would it's next killer app be?
If youre interested in spaceflight, and want to help get the average Joe sixpack (you) there as soon as possible, consider donating to the X-Prize foundation. The foundation has set out a ten million dollar prize for the first vehicle that can successfully reach outer space with two people aboard and do it again within two weeks. Click here for more information about joining.
Not until we can start having sex with the robots. Frankly, a robot can be designed so as to only have the minimal intelligence needed for cooking, cleaning etc, and no more. A robot would have to be specifically programmed to have feelings or to desire rights etc. That programming can simply be left out. Does an automobile assembly robot have feelings? No. But it does perform a specific task very well without complaint. Ultimately we need somone to do some work for us, work that humans find repetitive or dangerous or boring. In the past and even now that need was filled by slaves or wage slaves. Mechanization allowed many of those former slaves to be freed and has created the whole issue of civil liberties. There may be robots in the future who pass the turing test, but those will be the acception rathe rthan the rule, most will be programmed to perform a secific task, no more and no less. Of course its hard to keep a robot barefoot and pregnant ;-)
You forgot to add that it will never become chaper than traditional power unless omone starts buying it now. Any technology needs its early adopters to get off the ground. Look at HDTV, is it worth paying $10000 for a new TV? A few people might say yes, and this drives the price down as more competition pops up and economies of scale drive the price down. Same for power technology, Wind power started in the 1970's as a potential power technology, but it was damn expensive, like 30-40 cents a kWh, while conventional coal power was on the order of 3-6 cents a kWh. Some people though the technology was good, and they bought it anyways. Now Wind power is about the same cost as coal power, maybe a little more expensive, and adoption of wind is starting to take off. Wind power installations have grown about 30% a year for the last couple of years and even more as prices come down further. My point is that the fact a commercial installation of wave power has finally become a reality is a big boost for the technology. Even if its more expensive now, the very fact that people are buying into it is a good sign. If enough do, eventually the price will come down, after all, waves are free, coal and oil are not. At the point that wave energy becomes cheaper to install than a new coal power plant, the technology will take of. It may take 20 years to get things ramped up, but it will happen.