Generally, the question of faith is beyond scientific explanation. See, when I was much younger than today, I was an atheist, one that could scientifically "prove the non-existence of God". Later I learned more, and my cosmological physics whiz-bang could certainly fascinate and confuse your average church-going old granny, but I couldn't fool myself: I realized that what I knew wasn't proof, really, that God didn't create the universe.
And quantum mechanics took care of absolute determinism, so.... I had to realize that faith just works on a different plane, that I couldn't attack anymore, BECAUSE I knew enough (astro)physics. I had enough depth to understand that I can't see beyond a certain point in time and space.
If you ask the greatest minds in physics today, they all will have an opinion about the existence of God - some will believe in it, some won't, but neither side would think they can prove their or disprove the opposite side. Great minds are humble (no comparison with me, please:o) ). There are, and have been, enough great God-believing physicists, that you at least have to wonder if there's something wrong with the concepts of atheism.
So, your recommendation would be to cause oh lets just say a 10-15% decline in global GDP because it *MIGHT* help
A cleaner industry, and a focus on renewable energy and energy conservation, would not cause a decline in GDP, but an increase: it would be an industrial boom, like the IT and internet was, but more sustained.
There would be some industrial branches that would be negatively affected, namely the petrol and carbon industry, and countries that rely mostly on mineral oil production, for its' revenues, but western countries, Japan, China and India would actually profit from a nascent "new energy" industry.
...I find Hawking's life an immense inspiration. Rock on dude, show the world what a man can do, even if almost completely paralized! FTW!
Re:No mention of DRM
on
Is Vista a Trap?
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· Score: 3, Informative
Thanks, but I don't need anyone correcting me with something that's wrong. Microsoft has full prerogative in deciding what their OS does with regards to DRM. No law mandates the use of DRM, so it's purely Microsoft's choice.
Your "correction" is also wrong in another way: it's not just the music industry that has a stake in Vista's DRM - the movie industry is just as, if not more, interested in that "feature" of Vista.
I read the article earlier today, and while I thought it was very well written, I couldn't help but feel disappointed that the single most loathable feature of Vista, wasn't even mentioned, not even in a perfunctory way.
I know I am a minority, but for me Fair Use is a big issue. Sadly, Vista has completely opened the doors to DRM on the desktop. Well, not on mine.
This is as good a time as any, to ask the question: if I, liging in Finland, host this (or other such "offending") code on my server, and in my country the DMCA doesn't appy, can the MPAA send me take down notices?
I guess they could, but probably wouldn't go to the trouble of doing so, as the best they can hope is to receive a "Well, just suck it up!" from me. Now that I think of it, I kinda wish they sent me such a notice:o)
How about instructions coding for beings which will evolve the ability to perceive and describe such mathematical concepts? The constants themselves would degrade, but the instructions for these capabilities would confer real evolutionary advantages and would be passed on for generations, and improved over time.
I wasn't actually thinking about that information being useful, but put there just so that we could, once we developed the genetic tech, find out the hidden, deliberate message, and find out that way that we had some really smart ancestors. I remember reading this short novell, about this interstellar race that has brought life to Earth, and left clues about that (like, for example, the occurance of solar and moon eclipses), and how we humans then took all those clues for granted and never made much of them.
If we found Euler's constant in our genes (in a recess of the generic makeup, which doesn't change (if such even exists)) that would be a dead giveaway that we had ancestors that could hack the stuff.
There are people who theorize that life on Earth has been "imported" by an intelligent space-faring race from a distant star (space fiction is not my element, so cut me some slack, ok), then you should better start looking for clues in our own DNA. The first few digits of pi, or the Euler constant, or a fibonacci series, that would be kinda cool.
Disclaimer: personally, I don't believe in this theory, but I am open to everything. Always keep an open mind.
This might be the ultimate spying device: hook up a tiny camera or mike to a pigeon and command it to fly to the window of an embassy, the Pentagon, etc.
Of course, political assassinations via C4 bombs delivered by pigeons might be a possibility, too. Or, biological/chemical agent delivery to otherwise protected areas...
I am having some tiny chills running down my spine.
The Bismarck battleship had a bug also: when the main turrets would fire, the aiming radars would be disabled. That's no joke when you're in the midst of a battle and everyone of those large caliber shells counts.
As I understand, the radars would be disabled by the vibrations of the turret cannons firing.
Not a software bug, but bug nonetheless, and you do wonder how did this battleship pass testing.
I think it is important that a document format is humanly-readable and understandable, so that one can get at least some idea of the layout of a document by reading the content of the file. I understand very well when he says "memory dump in angle brackets".
Besides, anything that is humanly-"parsable", can be parsed by software, while the other way around is not usually the case.
I really don't care who that person is, or who he was. I will judge his arguments based on the arguments only. Even if he is Lucifer himself, that doesn't make his arguments any less or more valid.
Learn to avoid ad-hominen attacks, learn to argue the issue and not hte person. That's the only way to get some value from the clash of opinions.
Folks, Swedes are not angels. They are people just like you and me. Yes, there is no RIAA or MPAA in Sweden (yet), but that doesn't mean that there aren't wealthy and powerful people who are pushing their profit-driven agenda, there.
The same is true for my country, Finland. Yeah, it's where Linus was born and raised, but it doesn't make it heaven on earth. For example, we have our share of corrupt CxOs, don't worry.
Slashdot Mirror
Generally, the question of faith is beyond scientific explanation. See, when I was much younger than today, I was an atheist, one that could scientifically "prove the non-existence of God". Later I learned more, and my cosmological physics whiz-bang could certainly fascinate and confuse your average church-going old granny, but I couldn't fool myself: I realized that what I knew wasn't proof, really, that God didn't create the universe.
:o) ). There are, and have been, enough great God-believing physicists, that you at least have to wonder if there's something wrong with the concepts of atheism.
And quantum mechanics took care of absolute determinism, so.... I had to realize that faith just works on a different plane, that I couldn't attack anymore, BECAUSE I knew enough (astro)physics. I had enough depth to understand that I can't see beyond a certain point in time and space.
If you ask the greatest minds in physics today, they all will have an opinion about the existence of God - some will believe in it, some won't, but neither side would think they can prove their or disprove the opposite side. Great minds are humble (no comparison with me, please
So, your recommendation would be to cause oh lets just say a 10-15% decline in global GDP because it *MIGHT* help
A cleaner industry, and a focus on renewable energy and energy conservation, would not cause a decline in GDP, but an increase: it would be an industrial boom, like the IT and internet was, but more sustained.
There would be some industrial branches that would be negatively affected, namely the petrol and carbon industry, and countries that rely mostly on mineral oil production, for its' revenues, but western countries, Japan, China and India would actually profit from a nascent "new energy" industry.
That's all I wanted to say on the subject.
...I find Hawking's life an immense inspiration. Rock on dude, show the world what a man can do, even if almost completely paralized! FTW!
Thanks, but I don't need anyone correcting me with something that's wrong. Microsoft has full prerogative in deciding what their OS does with regards to DRM. No law mandates the use of DRM, so it's purely Microsoft's choice.
Your "correction" is also wrong in another way: it's not just the music industry that has a stake in Vista's DRM - the movie industry is just as, if not more, interested in that "feature" of Vista.
I read the article earlier today, and while I thought it was very well written, I couldn't help but feel disappointed that the single most loathable feature of Vista, wasn't even mentioned, not even in a perfunctory way.
I know I am a minority, but for me Fair Use is a big issue. Sadly, Vista has completely opened the doors to DRM on the desktop. Well, not on mine.
This is as good a time as any, to ask the question: if I, liging in Finland, host this (or other such "offending") code on my server, and in my country the DMCA doesn't appy, can the MPAA send me take down notices?
:o)
I guess they could, but probably wouldn't go to the trouble of doing so, as the best they can hope is to receive a "Well, just suck it up!" from me. Now that I think of it, I kinda wish they sent me such a notice
How about instructions coding for beings which will evolve the ability to perceive and describe such mathematical concepts? The constants themselves would degrade, but the instructions for these capabilities would confer real evolutionary advantages and would be passed on for generations, and improved over time.
I wasn't actually thinking about that information being useful, but put there just so that we could, once we developed the genetic tech, find out the hidden, deliberate message, and find out that way that we had some really smart ancestors. I remember reading this short novell, about this interstellar race that has brought life to Earth, and left clues about that (like, for example, the occurance of solar and moon eclipses), and how we humans then took all those clues for granted and never made much of them.
If we found Euler's constant in our genes (in a recess of the generic makeup, which doesn't change (if such even exists)) that would be a dead giveaway that we had ancestors that could hack the stuff.
There are people who theorize that life on Earth has been "imported" by an intelligent space-faring race from a distant star (space fiction is not my element, so cut me some slack, ok), then you should better start looking for clues in our own DNA. The first few digits of pi, or the Euler constant, or a fibonacci series, that would be kinda cool.
Disclaimer: personally, I don't believe in this theory, but I am open to everything. Always keep an open mind.
This might be the ultimate spying device: hook up a tiny camera or mike to a pigeon and command it to fly to the window of an embassy, the Pentagon, etc.
Of course, political assassinations via C4 bombs delivered by pigeons might be a possibility, too. Or, biological/chemical agent delivery to otherwise protected areas...
I am having some tiny chills running down my spine.
The Bismarck battleship had a bug also: when the main turrets would fire, the aiming radars would be disabled. That's no joke when you're in the midst of a battle and everyone of those large caliber shells counts. As I understand, the radars would be disabled by the vibrations of the turret cannons firing. Not a software bug, but bug nonetheless, and you do wonder how did this battleship pass testing.
I think it is important that a document format is humanly-readable and understandable, so that one can get at least some idea of the layout of a document by reading the content of the file. I understand very well when he says "memory dump in angle brackets". Besides, anything that is humanly-"parsable", can be parsed by software, while the other way around is not usually the case.
I really don't care who that person is, or who he was. I will judge his arguments based on the arguments only. Even if he is Lucifer himself, that doesn't make his arguments any less or more valid. Learn to avoid ad-hominen attacks, learn to argue the issue and not hte person. That's the only way to get some value from the clash of opinions.
Folks, Swedes are not angels. They are people just like you and me. Yes, there is no RIAA or MPAA in Sweden (yet), but that doesn't mean that there aren't wealthy and powerful people who are pushing their profit-driven agenda, there. The same is true for my country, Finland. Yeah, it's where Linus was born and raised, but it doesn't make it heaven on earth. For example, we have our share of corrupt CxOs, don't worry.