I don't think it's fair to say they held the world back. It's just that no one bothered coming up with better explanations than theirs for quite some time.
Kind of like how in 1,000 years people will look at the way we explain many things as quaint, antiquated and ignorant.
Galileo lay down the chief elements of his mechanics in Dialog on the Two Chief Systems of the World (1632), which was supposed to be an objective debate between the Copernican and Ptolemaic system. Unfortunately, Galileo put the Pope's favorite argument in the mouth of one of the characters, then proceeded to ridicule it. Galileo suddenly lost favor with the church, and was forced to recant his Copernican views and put under house arrest.
I'm not defending the church, but unless you're fireproof it's probably never a good idea to ridicule an authority that can easily have you killed for some phoney-baloney religious reason.
Sounds good, thanks for the info. I have the XP/8GB SSD version, so that would probably fill the entire drive, plus the SSD can be a bit sluggish from time to time. I wonder if it's possible to boot Windows 7 off an SD card (and swap OSes)? I have no real reason to do so, it just might be fun.
I'm running a netbook (AspireOne) with pretty much the same hardware as your laptop, so _maybe_ Windows 7 would would run for me. How much disk space does it take up?
Could you make it so it displays for a full two minutes on my cell phone display, locking out all other functions, every time I turn it on? That would be awesome!
Maybe that's what they can do with this game warning, every time you start the game you're forced to watch the publisher logo, the developer logo, the ATI/nVidia logo, the design studio logo, two previews for titles "coming soon!" and then this warning! It would be just like going to the movies!
Surprise, surprise! People who may already exhibit signs of anger or aggression may be drawn to such games. The games don't cause the anger or aggression. Such people may also be at greater risk for showing increased anger or aggression.
That's from a psychologist. Why can't the lawmakers figure it out?
Maybe it's technically better, but your suggestion uses passive language. There's no real subject and makes for a bad headline from a news perspective, kind of like "Man struck" (by what, or by whom?)
The article's original "Experiment resolves century-old optics mystery" headline is probably best because it's active, avoids the scientist/researcher/experimentalist/alchemist problem and gets all the important information in there.
Since the early 20th Century physicists have known that light carries momentum, but the way this momentum changes as light passes through different media is much less clear. Two rival theories of the time predicted precisely the opposite effect for light incident on a dielectric: one suggesting it pushes the surface in the direction light is travelling; the other suggesting it drags the surface backwards towards the source of light. After 100 years of conflicting experimental results, a team of experimentalists from China believe they have finally found a resolution.
Weilong She and his colleagues from Sun Yat-Sen University have studied the effect of light at the interface of air and a silica filament and they find that light exerts a push force on the surface (Phys Rev Lett 101243601) "This paper is a beautiful piece of work and may become one of the classic papers on the momentum of light" said Ulf Leonhardt a researcher in transformation optics at the University of St Andrews, UK.
The authors suggest this finding could now pave the way for new applications like highly efficient fusion using laser 'compression'.
100 year riddle
Hermann Minkowski had proposed in 1908 that light momenta is proportional to a material's refractive index then the following year, another German theorist, Max Abraham proposed the opposite -- momentum is inversely proportional to a material's refractive index.
It was suggested that this debate should be resolved experimentally but it proved to be notoriously difficult to record the momentum of light in a dielectric. In the seventies it seemed like the mystery was finally solved using a simple experiment involving an air-water interface. Conservation of momentum inferred that if Minkowsi was right, the water surface would compress slightly as light rays pass through, but if Abraham was correct it would bulge. A bulge was witnessed and Abraham was declared the victor.
Unfortunately, later in the same year further analysis showed the bulge to be the result of an unrelated optical effect; the debate was once again thrown open.
21st Century makeover
She and colleagues have now finally overcome these difficulties by replacing the water surface with a nanometre silica filament. "We report direct observation of a push force on the end face of the silica filament exerted by the outgoing light" said She. Given this result, Minkowski has been declared the new winner and light momenta is directly proportional to the material it is travelling through. "The experiment represents a modern form of a beautifully simple idea" said Leonhardt.
One application that may spring from this knowledge is a more precise technique for laser-induced inertially-confined fusion: a method of producing fusion energy by compressing a fuel capsule made to high density. A series of incoherent laser beams incident on a transparent dielectric ball in a vacuum would cause it to shrink under pressure to achieve nuclear fusion.
Mansud Mansuripur from the University of Arizona recognizes the potential of radiation pressure for inertially-confined fusion but he warns that She and colleagues have only considered electromagnetic pressure without taking account of mechanical forces. "A correct accounting for the deformation of the silica filament in the reported experiments would have required a complete balancing of the momenta" he said.
Good point... maybe there's something else that triggers the venom release? Like some kind of "hunting mode" brain chemical? Unfortunately this animal is so elusive they know very little about it.
I'm with you... sometimes too much technology can just ruin the game for viewers. Keep it simple, the glowing line is kind of helpful but really, after watching a few games and learning the rules, I think I can figure it out for myself. And glowing grass? Maybe an advertiser's dream come true, but bad for all the reasons you mentioned.
Any hockey fans remember that awful glowing puck the NHL tried out 10 years ago, because apparently some people had trouble following the puck? Here's a hint: look where the action is, and there you will find the puck. As well, the camera operators are skilled professionals - trust that they will be centred on it, unless the clock is stopped.
The puck's tech is actually kind of cool, although I remember the way it left streaks across the ice looked like someone set "mouse trails" to maximum on a computer desktop.
I had the same thought. Maybe it's an evolutionary dead end or something.
From TFA:
"The fossil record shows that some other now-extinct mammal groups also had so-called dental venom delivery systems. So this might have been a more general ancient mammalian characteristic that has been lost in most modern mammals, and is only retained in a couple of very ancient lineages."
How you managed "+1 Informative" is beyond me. Did you mod yourself up with one of your other identities?
I admitted in my post that I don't understand the topic, then made a conjecture based on what it seemed to be saying to me. I also made a value judgment that I am sick to death of articles about WoW like it's the only gaming news ever worth reporting on Slashdot. I then invited criticism/correction.
You can call me retarded, say my post was unrelated to the topic, even though it was absolutely related to the topic, I don't care. It just shows that you have a superiority complex, good for you, hope that serves you well in the real world. Enjoy eating your teeth when someone finally gets sick of your shit. Or maybe you're a passive-aggressive, who gets back at others by peeing in the water cooler. Whatever, fill your boots.
And P.S. if you want to act like a know-it-all post some links. Otherwise you're a troll.
Thank you! Your reply was exactly what I was hoping for, you helped me understand the topic a bit more. It was technical enough for me, remember, I am not a software engineer and I am also apparently retarded.
I know there are 10 million WoW subscribers, showing online RPGs can be a massive cash cow. But I really don't care. There are still millions of other gamers out there with zero interest in grinding for gear and guild drama and I'm sure this article has other applications for gaming than simply better WoW servers.
Anyone have any ideas? The article is extremely technical in nature but it seems to be suggesting ways to take the load off the client, possibly lowering system requirements for people to take part in dynamic virtual worlds. Oh wait, doesn't Second Life already do that?
I don't see a lot new here, it still seems to operate on the assumption that a trade-off will always have to be made between whiz-bang graphics and greater interactivity between players. But hey, I'm no software engineer.
And can we please see some articles in here that aren't somehow connected to WoW?
And that's why your opinion is irrelevant. Please purchase a trade paperback version, support the creators of the original content, then try again.
Sorry to be harsh. I did the same thing. But after reading the electronic versions, I understood what all the fuss was about and went and got a paperback version so I could enjoy the writing and admire the artwork without sitting in front of a computer, and also so Moore and Gibbons received whatever royalties they still get from the sales of their original work. They deserve it.
I imagine someone will release this movie, eventually. Warner will pay off Fox, or hold their nose and come up with some kind of royalties deal. But the funny thing is, after reading the graphic novel three times now, I don't really care if I see the movie or not. I know it will look cool, and the story might even be OK crammed into two-and-a-half hours, but the graphic novel will always be superior because it was never about plot.
SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!!!!
The ridiculous ending makes that clear. Even the characters can't believe it actually happens. The book, at its core, is about different kinds of characters and how they cope with the ugly world around them. The character development which happens in the book will never translate well to movie format.
So, sorry to flame you, but please, if you haven't already, go buy a copy of Watchmen and support the original creators. Otherwise it's like not voting and then complaining about the government. You know, like half of North America does.
I know it's old hat now, but when I first encountered the marines in Half-Life I was impressed by how they tried to flank you, how they would run from grenades, how they would try and flush you out from your cover and how they would rarely ever chase you to encounter the business end of your shotgun in the classic "player runs around the corner and shoots pursuers" ambush.
The Far Cry baddies were also pretty good.
I found the programming for the Unreal 2004 bots to be pretty good, too. On the higher settings they rarely did anything idiotic.
And finally the Black and White creature programming had to be the most entertaining. Training my creature to fling his poo at the enemy and eat villagers is a highlight of gaming for me.
But as many other posters have pointed out, it's not really AI, it's elaborate scripting tricks. True AI would be as unpredictable as a human being's responses.
Because it's easier to sit around on your ass and complain and mutter ominously about job losses while holding out your hand than it is to get up, lose some metaphorical weight and breathe some new life into the industry by - GASP - doing something different. Especially when your lobby group is intimately acquainted with the government.
Reminds me of an old joke:
Q: Why do they bury prairie farmers only two feet underground?
A: So they can still get their hands out.
Substitute "entertainment industry executives" for "farmers" and the joke gets new life. See? Even I can do it!
Really, why? It's simple. Open machine. Put in coffee and water. Flip switch. Wait. Enjoy. Why build a convoluted contraption to do something so simple? I know that's not the slashdot way, but c'mon. What's next? An open-source potato peeler that allows you root access to your root vegetables?
Good points. It's easier for police/secret police to pick on individuals rather than take on a larger media organization. It's also easier for them to bend the rules and get away with it if a larger organization is watching.
On the flip side, it's easier for Joe Blogger to make libelous statements or violate his country's laws without realizing the full implications of what he is doing.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think it's fair to say they held the world back. It's just that no one bothered coming up with better explanations than theirs for quite some time.
Kind of like how in 1,000 years people will look at the way we explain many things as quaint, antiquated and ignorant.
To expand on your comment, it wasn't just Galileo's pro-Copernican views which got him in trouble:
Galileo lay down the chief elements of his mechanics in Dialog on the Two Chief Systems of the World (1632), which was supposed to be an objective debate between the Copernican and Ptolemaic system. Unfortunately, Galileo put the Pope's favorite argument in the mouth of one of the characters, then proceeded to ridicule it. Galileo suddenly lost favor with the church, and was forced to recant his Copernican views and put under house arrest.
I'm not defending the church, but unless you're fireproof it's probably never a good idea to ridicule an authority that can easily have you killed for some phoney-baloney religious reason.
Sounds good, thanks for the info. I have the XP/8GB SSD version, so that would probably fill the entire drive, plus the SSD can be a bit sluggish from time to time. I wonder if it's possible to boot Windows 7 off an SD card (and swap OSes)? I have no real reason to do so, it just might be fun.
I'm running a netbook (AspireOne) with pretty much the same hardware as your laptop, so _maybe_ Windows 7 would would run for me. How much disk space does it take up?
psychologist > politician
Both may make statements for political reasons, but the former has qualifications, while the latter has none.
If something is conceived that is not actually alive, does that make it an inaccurate conception?
Could you make it so it displays for a full two minutes on my cell phone display, locking out all other functions, every time I turn it on? That would be awesome!
Maybe that's what they can do with this game warning, every time you start the game you're forced to watch the publisher logo, the developer logo, the ATI/nVidia logo, the design studio logo, two previews for titles "coming soon!" and then this warning! It would be just like going to the movies!
Thanks for the link. From your article:
Surprise, surprise! People who may already exhibit signs of anger or aggression may be drawn to such games. The games don't cause the anger or aggression. Such people may also be at greater risk for showing increased anger or aggression.
That's from a psychologist. Why can't the lawmakers figure it out?
Shouldn't there be a Darth Vader mask involved somewhere in this scenario?
Maybe it's technically better, but your suggestion uses passive language. There's no real subject and makes for a bad headline from a news perspective, kind of like "Man struck" (by what, or by whom?)
The article's original "Experiment resolves century-old optics mystery" headline is probably best because it's active, avoids the scientist/researcher/experimentalist/alchemist problem and gets all the important information in there.
I am putting the grammar nazi hat away now.
Since the early 20th Century physicists have known that light carries momentum, but the way this momentum changes as light passes through different media is much less clear. Two rival theories of the time predicted precisely the opposite effect for light incident on a dielectric: one suggesting it pushes the surface in the direction light is travelling; the other suggesting it drags the surface backwards towards the source of light. After 100 years of conflicting experimental results, a team of experimentalists from China believe they have finally found a resolution.
Weilong She and his colleagues from Sun Yat-Sen University have studied the effect of light at the interface of air and a silica filament and they find that light exerts a push force on the surface (Phys Rev Lett 101243601) "This paper is a beautiful piece of work and may become one of the classic papers on the momentum of light" said Ulf Leonhardt a researcher in transformation optics at the University of St Andrews, UK.
The authors suggest this finding could now pave the way for new applications like highly efficient fusion using laser 'compression'.
100 year riddle
Hermann Minkowski had proposed in 1908 that light momenta is proportional to a material's refractive index then the following year, another German theorist, Max Abraham proposed the opposite -- momentum is inversely proportional to a material's refractive index.
It was suggested that this debate should be resolved experimentally but it proved to be notoriously difficult to record the momentum of light in a dielectric. In the seventies it seemed like the mystery was finally solved using a simple experiment involving an air-water interface. Conservation of momentum inferred that if Minkowsi was right, the water surface would compress slightly as light rays pass through, but if Abraham was correct it would bulge. A bulge was witnessed and Abraham was declared the victor.
Unfortunately, later in the same year further analysis showed the bulge to be the result of an unrelated optical effect; the debate was once again thrown open.
21st Century makeover
She and colleagues have now finally overcome these difficulties by replacing the water surface with a nanometre silica filament. "We report direct observation of a push force on the end face of the silica filament exerted by the outgoing light" said She. Given this result, Minkowski has been declared the new winner and light momenta is directly proportional to the material it is travelling through. "The experiment represents a modern form of a beautifully simple idea" said Leonhardt.
One application that may spring from this knowledge is a more precise technique for laser-induced inertially-confined fusion: a method of producing fusion energy by compressing a fuel capsule made to high density. A series of incoherent laser beams incident on a transparent dielectric ball in a vacuum would cause it to shrink under pressure to achieve nuclear fusion.
Mansud Mansuripur from the University of Arizona recognizes the potential of radiation pressure for inertially-confined fusion but he warns that She and colleagues have only considered electromagnetic pressure without taking account of mechanical forces. "A correct accounting for the deformation of the silica filament in the reported experiments would have required a complete balancing of the momenta" he said.
About the author
James Dacey is a reporter for physicsworld.com
Good point... maybe there's something else that triggers the venom release? Like some kind of "hunting mode" brain chemical? Unfortunately this animal is so elusive they know very little about it.
I'm with you... sometimes too much technology can just ruin the game for viewers. Keep it simple, the glowing line is kind of helpful but really, after watching a few games and learning the rules, I think I can figure it out for myself. And glowing grass? Maybe an advertiser's dream come true, but bad for all the reasons you mentioned.
Any hockey fans remember that awful glowing puck the NHL tried out 10 years ago, because apparently some people had trouble following the puck? Here's a hint: look where the action is, and there you will find the puck. As well, the camera operators are skilled professionals - trust that they will be centred on it, unless the clock is stopped.
The puck's tech is actually kind of cool, although I remember the way it left streaks across the ice looked like someone set "mouse trails" to maximum on a computer desktop.
I had the same thought. Maybe it's an evolutionary dead end or something.
From TFA:
"The fossil record shows that some other now-extinct mammal groups also had so-called dental venom delivery systems. So this might have been a more general ancient mammalian characteristic that has been lost in most modern mammals, and is only retained in a couple of very ancient lineages."
How you managed "+1 Informative" is beyond me. Did you mod yourself up with one of your other identities?
I admitted in my post that I don't understand the topic, then made a conjecture based on what it seemed to be saying to me. I also made a value judgment that I am sick to death of articles about WoW like it's the only gaming news ever worth reporting on Slashdot. I then invited criticism/correction.
You can call me retarded, say my post was unrelated to the topic, even though it was absolutely related to the topic, I don't care. It just shows that you have a superiority complex, good for you, hope that serves you well in the real world. Enjoy eating your teeth when someone finally gets sick of your shit. Or maybe you're a passive-aggressive, who gets back at others by peeing in the water cooler. Whatever, fill your boots.
And P.S. if you want to act like a know-it-all post some links. Otherwise you're a troll.
Thank you! Your reply was exactly what I was hoping for, you helped me understand the topic a bit more. It was technical enough for me, remember, I am not a software engineer and I am also apparently retarded.
I know there are 10 million WoW subscribers, showing online RPGs can be a massive cash cow. But I really don't care. There are still millions of other gamers out there with zero interest in grinding for gear and guild drama and I'm sure this article has other applications for gaming than simply better WoW servers.
Anyone have any ideas? The article is extremely technical in nature but it seems to be suggesting ways to take the load off the client, possibly lowering system requirements for people to take part in dynamic virtual worlds. Oh wait, doesn't Second Life already do that?
I don't see a lot new here, it still seems to operate on the assumption that a trade-off will always have to be made between whiz-bang graphics and greater interactivity between players. But hey, I'm no software engineer.
And can we please see some articles in here that aren't somehow connected to WoW?
Don't forget the Aerosmith jokes about "love in an elevator."
I downloaded all of the comics
And that's why your opinion is irrelevant. Please purchase a trade paperback version, support the creators of the original content, then try again.
Sorry to be harsh. I did the same thing. But after reading the electronic versions, I understood what all the fuss was about and went and got a paperback version so I could enjoy the writing and admire the artwork without sitting in front of a computer, and also so Moore and Gibbons received whatever royalties they still get from the sales of their original work. They deserve it.
I imagine someone will release this movie, eventually. Warner will pay off Fox, or hold their nose and come up with some kind of royalties deal. But the funny thing is, after reading the graphic novel three times now, I don't really care if I see the movie or not. I know it will look cool, and the story might even be OK crammed into two-and-a-half hours, but the graphic novel will always be superior because it was never about plot.
SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!!!!
The ridiculous ending makes that clear. Even the characters can't believe it actually happens. The book, at its core, is about different kinds of characters and how they cope with the ugly world around them. The character development which happens in the book will never translate well to movie format.
So, sorry to flame you, but please, if you haven't already, go buy a copy of Watchmen and support the original creators. Otherwise it's like not voting and then complaining about the government. You know, like half of North America does.
I know it's old hat now, but when I first encountered the marines in Half-Life I was impressed by how they tried to flank you, how they would run from grenades, how they would try and flush you out from your cover and how they would rarely ever chase you to encounter the business end of your shotgun in the classic "player runs around the corner and shoots pursuers" ambush.
The Far Cry baddies were also pretty good.
I found the programming for the Unreal 2004 bots to be pretty good, too. On the higher settings they rarely did anything idiotic.
And finally the Black and White creature programming had to be the most entertaining. Training my creature to fling his poo at the enemy and eat villagers is a highlight of gaming for me.
But as many other posters have pointed out, it's not really AI, it's elaborate scripting tricks. True AI would be as unpredictable as a human being's responses.
Because it's easier to sit around on your ass and complain and mutter ominously about job losses while holding out your hand than it is to get up, lose some metaphorical weight and breathe some new life into the industry by - GASP - doing something different. Especially when your lobby group is intimately acquainted with the government.
Reminds me of an old joke:
Q: Why do they bury prairie farmers only two feet underground?
A: So they can still get their hands out.
Substitute "entertainment industry executives" for "farmers" and the joke gets new life. See? Even I can do it!
Really, why? It's simple. Open machine. Put in coffee and water. Flip switch. Wait. Enjoy. Why build a convoluted contraption to do something so simple? I know that's not the slashdot way, but c'mon. What's next? An open-source potato peeler that allows you root access to your root vegetables?
Bravo! That put a big smile on my face. Your analysis is dead-on. If I had mod points...
Good points. It's easier for police/secret police to pick on individuals rather than take on a larger media organization. It's also easier for them to bend the rules and get away with it if a larger organization is watching.
On the flip side, it's easier for Joe Blogger to make libelous statements or violate his country's laws without realizing the full implications of what he is doing.
Crap. There goes my short story idea.