This is _survival_ for Intel. The Cell processors have already gotten the game console business locked in. Apple could switch to the cell processor and supply a mature OS and a loyal user base. That really could be threatening for Intel-so Intel has a _huge_ incentive to cut a deal with Apple. I'd suspect that Microsoft has already cut some kind of deal with Intel. The user interface of Linux is a lot better than it used to be-but the real threat of Linux on a cell is performance. If Apple produced a machine, Intel would have to deal with a desktop machine with a better interface _and_ better performance _and_ a distribution channel. Intell just bought substantial time to deal with the Cell this way.
Actually, it is worse than that. The Labour party could get only 22.6% of the vote in the EU election. The EU election uses proportional representation, but the Labour Party still has a huge funding and organizational advantage over the competition due to the role of the Labour party in government. Labour and the Conservatives didn't even get a majority of the EU vote _taken together. I don't think we saw a huge shift in voted opinion between last year and this year towards Labour-this just shows that most British voters don't really get a voice in government with the first-past-the-post system. The UK Parliament lacks real legitimacy at this point as truly a Democratic institution.
African-Americans did worse in any objective IQ test, and it was an objective fact that was always true, and seemingly would always be true
That point wasn't made in the Gates article, but in an article on Gate's IQ obsession that the Gates article linked to. Anyhow, that other author has also suggested that intelligence enhancing technology might be especially helpful for Africans. For example, just getting adequate iodine in the diet could have the gap in IQ between many African countries and the west-but becaus IQ is such a taboo topic, it is also taboo to look at how to deal with an IQ gap.
Relativity I would give you. The Laser? I can easily imagine the laser-or something equivalently dramatic-winning a prize of the type were suggesting. For example, if you had a prize for high density, removable memory, what sort of things would folks come up with?
I'm not arguing against the existance of the Nobel prize-it was one of the great achivements of the early 1900's-but these results oriented prizes have some serious advantages and they can reward folks much earlier in their careers.
The thing is: stuff like the Methuselah mouse prize goes beyond politics. The Nobel has a problem in that 1) folks tend to get Nobel prizes when they are old
(so it doesn't facilitate their work) 2) a lot of the awards are very subjective 3) There is political aspect here-I can believe
folks don't get a nobel just because they
aren't well liked by their peers.
The Methuselah Mouse prize doesn't have that kind of problem.
I would also add to this the Methuselah Mouse Prize-which is a prize for making a mouse live the longest. What is especially interesting about the MM prize is that it is a continuous prize that will constantly have a higher bar-and will never expire.
Computers and communications systems are one of the most effective tools for keeping dictators in check-and one of the most valuable pieces of infrastructure a school can have. Furthermore, if there is going to be _any_ significant trade with the outside, communications infrastructure and computers can greatly improve the terms of trade for the third world.
I worked for Sun in the late 80's/early 90's. At that point, McNeally had the trust and respect of a lot of bright folks. I don't think that is the case any more. When I've interviewed folks that have more recently come of Sun-it just isn't like it was in the old days.
It is more than cost. AIG, Enron, Anderson, Worldcom all used the leverage they had over H-1b employees to facilitate illegal business practices. Not that any of those companies actually made money. But, I suspect the how affair was awfully gratifying to the base instincts of the managers involved.
My observation is the exact opposite. H-1b/L-1 have been used largely to faciliate job export from the US(and help companies like Enron, Anderson, Worldcom, AIG to avoid regulations).
The issue is incentives. If lawyers make more money-and have more social prestige, then folks go into that profession. Bill can't get what he wants because he's established a bad rep--and is making it worse.
Actually, Microsoft emerged in large part because of changes to copyright laws. AT&T and IBM thought they would reap the benefits from those changes-but quite obviously-they were wrong.
Bill was from the start a lawyer's kid. He got more political after his anti-trust problems. Legal tricks were always part of his thing.
"From 1996-1998, 28% of new hiring for programmer jobs went to H-1b workers. That rose to 50% in 1999 and according to some expert estimates, 90% in 2001.
As a result, by 2002, there were over 463,000 H-1b workers employed in US information technology programming jobs--a job category with fewer than 3 million workers in total. (And that figure doesn't include people who recently used guest worker programs to obtain green cards and workers using other guest worker visas.)
Between the 17.2 percent decline in information technology jobs and the expansion of guest worker visas, over 1,000,000 American computer professionals were permanently out of work."
I think the IEEE figures are low and don't include underemployment(i.e. a BSEE works at Walmart). I know lots of talented IT folks that are grossly underemployed. Gates is just blowing smoke.
The minute an Indian kid gets an H-1b visa, he's gotten an asset he can use. If those visas were auctioned off, their value would be around $50K each. Why is the government giving them away for free? this is just corporate welfare.
It is more than saving money. Gates seems to want to be surrounded by folks over whom he has a lot of control. An H-1b worker can be sent home any time their employer feels like it.
Some of the more interesting areas for robotics involve really small clients. When you are dealing with these small clients, weight and power consumption become major issues in ways they just aren't in the PC world. I would be interested in seeing a forth-based implementation of the client for this robotics platform-or at least use of one of the smaller embedded versions of Linux.
What is the problem with just waking folks up say once a month just long enough for their immune system to kick in? Also would they necessarily "wake" or just go from hibernation to regular sleep?
I understand that this would remove some of the advantage you get in areas like oxygen consumptino from hybernation-but it would seem like there would still be a big advantage.
Mother's maiden name was commonly used for veification of credit card acounts when I worked in that field 10 years ago. With Name, DOB, SSN, Mother's Maiden name, credit card number, expiration date and verification number it was possible to hijack a credit card.
Simply put, you need to have "stuff" in order to build anything, and planets like Mars and the Moon have lots of that stuff.
So does the asteroid belt-and its already broken up for you and in an evironment where energy is accessible. Which elements are you thinking are available on planetary surfaces that aren't available in the belt?
That said, you can still obtain some resource from asteroids, but that means you have to run out to them and set up camps on those asteroids to carve up the resources for the space stations you are talking about, or simply start building the settlements themselves right there. You still got planetary settlement then, regardless of where you ship the metal & minerals afterward.
Why wouldn't this be done robotically?
In short, I don't see a way that you can avoid settlements on the Moon or Mars in the next 500-1000 years, and any manufactured worlds (like an O'Neil colony) would have to at least have a symbiotic relationship with miners living on dirt with gravity.
Again, why wouldn't this be done robotically? It also isn't clear to what extent you can't get these elements from the belt as necessary.
The big issue I have with the GPL is it doesn't prevent companies from using GPL code in-house and then preventing employees/consultants that modified that code from releasing that code(i.e. the companies can still bind employees via confidentiality agreements). That tends to bias the GPL towards groups of people that are organized as larger governmental organizations and larger businesses--who don't face the same practical responsibilities as smaller companies do. The RPL was invented to solve that problem(i.e. the RPL _reqires_ a company to release changes even if the resulting code is only used in house-it is considerably more viral than the GPL).
I'm glad the GPL exists. It was a great start. The the FSF legal staff are great folks. However, when I write code, I'd rather not give a free ride to companies that don't want to release their own code. In a practical sense that means offering the companies option to buy a regular commercial license if you release under the RPL because the RPL is so dang viral it will scare their attorneys.
That said, we probably need to think of some different ways of rewarded inventors internationally than intellectual property. Very little of the wealth of IP filters down to inventors/artists. Most of that wealth gets locked down into large, corporate structures.
I think that Open Source can help greatly with international economic development. That may mean giving some countries a free ride on IP to start-but that might help correct some of the excesses of the colonial era. What needs to be the overriding goals are creating a sustaineable world that works for everyone- and opening new frontiers.
Sun's stock has been in the crapper for years. I don't see that they've created any jobs for Americans for some time now(sure a few have gotten hired-more have gotten discarded).
I used to work at Sun(search for rburns-that's me). Sun management _could_ have listened to the folks at Sun that were telling them Open Source would be the wave of the future. They chose not to-and instead in violation of their own principles went whining to politicians to get various kinds of corporate welfare-that was supposed to help their company and create jobs for Americans-and didn't.
Stevenson near where I live set up a free wifi mesh with funding from the local chamber of commerce. I can easily believe that by putting this sort of stuff in you can increase property values by more than enough to warrent the investment. Folks that don't like this-well they can buy property in a city that doesn't provide taxpayer supported wifi. This stuff is for a city infrastructure just like free drinking fountains-or free sidewalks. Probably one of the best things a city can do to spur economic development.
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This is _survival_ for Intel. The Cell processors have already gotten the game console business locked in. Apple could switch to the cell processor and supply a mature OS and a loyal user base. That really could be threatening for Intel-so Intel has a _huge_ incentive to cut a deal with Apple. I'd suspect that Microsoft has already cut some kind of deal with Intel. The user interface of Linux is a lot better than it used to be-but the real threat of Linux on a cell is performance. If Apple produced a machine, Intel would have to deal with a desktop machine with a better interface _and_ better performance _and_ a distribution channel. Intell just bought substantial time to deal with the Cell this way.
Actually, it is worse than that. The Labour party could get only 22.6% of the vote in the EU election. The EU election uses proportional representation, but the Labour Party still has a huge funding and organizational advantage over the competition due to the role of the Labour party in government. Labour and the Conservatives didn't even get a majority of the EU vote _taken together. I don't think we saw a huge shift in voted opinion between last year and this year towards Labour-this just shows that most British voters don't really get a voice in government with the first-past-the-post system. The UK Parliament lacks real legitimacy at this point as truly a Democratic institution.
And the US government wonders why the US has a $600 Billion annual trade deficit.
That point wasn't made in the Gates article, but in an article on Gate's IQ obsession that the Gates article linked to. Anyhow, that other author has also suggested that intelligence enhancing technology might be especially helpful for Africans. For example, just getting adequate iodine in the diet could have the gap in IQ between many African countries and the west-but becaus IQ is such a taboo topic, it is also taboo to look at how to deal with an IQ gap.
Relativity I would give you. The Laser? I can easily imagine the laser-or something equivalently dramatic-winning a prize of the type were suggesting. For example, if you had a prize for high density, removable memory, what sort of things would folks come up with?
I'm not arguing against the existance of the Nobel prize-it was one of the great achivements of the early 1900's-but these results oriented prizes have some serious advantages and they can reward folks much earlier in their careers.
The thing is:
stuff like the Methuselah mouse prize goes beyond politics. The Nobel has a problem in that
1) folks tend to get Nobel prizes when they are old
(so it doesn't facilitate their work)
2) a lot of the awards are very subjective
3) There is political aspect here-I can believe
folks don't get a nobel just because they
aren't well liked by their peers.
The Methuselah Mouse prize doesn't have that kind of problem.
I would also add to this the Methuselah Mouse Prize-which is a prize for making a mouse live the longest. What is especially interesting about the MM prize is that it is a continuous prize that will constantly have a higher bar-and will never expire.
Computers and communications systems are one of the most effective tools for keeping dictators in check-and one of the most valuable pieces of infrastructure a school can have. Furthermore, if there is going to be _any_ significant trade with the outside, communications infrastructure and computers can greatly improve the terms of trade for the third world.
I worked for Sun in the late 80's/early 90's. At that point, McNeally had the trust and respect of a lot of bright folks. I don't think that is the case any more. When I've interviewed folks that have more recently come of Sun-it just isn't like it was in the old days.
It is more than cost. AIG, Enron, Anderson, Worldcom all used the leverage they had over H-1b employees to facilitate illegal business practices. Not that any of those companies actually made money. But, I suspect the how affair was awfully gratifying to the base instincts of the managers involved.
My observation is the exact opposite. H-1b/L-1 have been used largely to faciliate job export from the US(and help companies like Enron, Anderson, Worldcom, AIG to avoid regulations).
That might work, but you'd need a tax of 50K/H-1b.
The issue is incentives. If lawyers make more money-and have more social prestige, then folks go into that profession. Bill can't get what he wants because he's established a bad rep--and is making it worse.
Actually, Microsoft emerged in large part because of changes to copyright laws. AT&T and IBM thought they would reap the benefits from those changes-but quite obviously-they were wrong.
Bill was from the start a lawyer's kid. He got more political after his anti-trust problems. Legal tricks were always part of his thing.
"From 1996-1998, 28% of new hiring for programmer jobs went to H-1b workers. That rose to 50% in 1999 and according to some expert estimates, 90% in 2001.
As a result, by 2002, there were over 463,000 H-1b workers employed in US information technology programming jobs--a job category with fewer than 3 million workers in total. (And that figure doesn't include people who recently used guest worker programs to obtain green cards and workers using other guest worker visas.)
Between the 17.2 percent decline in information technology jobs and the expansion of guest worker visas, over 1,000,000 American computer professionals were permanently out of work."
I think the IEEE figures are low and don't include underemployment(i.e. a BSEE works at Walmart). I know lots of talented IT folks that are grossly underemployed. Gates is just blowing smoke.
The minute an Indian kid gets an H-1b visa, he's gotten an asset he can use. If those visas were auctioned off, their value would be around $50K each. Why is the government giving them away for free? this is just corporate welfare.
Enron, Anderson, AIG were all H-1b intensive companies-your pattern holds.
It is more than saving money. Gates seems to want to be surrounded by folks over whom he has a lot of control. An H-1b worker can be sent home any time their employer feels like it.
Some of the more interesting areas for robotics involve really small clients. When you are dealing with these small clients, weight and power consumption become major issues in ways they just aren't in the PC world. I would be interested in seeing a forth-based implementation of the client for this robotics platform-or at least use of one of the smaller embedded versions of Linux.
What is the problem with just waking folks up say once a month just long enough for their immune system to kick in? Also would they necessarily "wake" or just go from hibernation to regular sleep?
I understand that this would remove some of the advantage you get in areas like oxygen consumptino from hybernation-but it would seem like there would still be a big advantage.
Mother's maiden name was commonly used for veification of credit card acounts when I worked in that field 10 years ago. With Name, DOB, SSN, Mother's Maiden name, credit card number, expiration date and verification number it was possible to hijack a credit card.
So does the asteroid belt-and its already broken up for you and in an evironment where energy is accessible. Which elements are you thinking are available on planetary surfaces that aren't available in the belt?
That said, you can still obtain some resource from asteroids, but that means you have to run out to them and set up camps on those asteroids to carve up the resources for the space stations you are talking about, or simply start building the settlements themselves right there. You still got planetary settlement then, regardless of where you ship the metal & minerals afterward.
Why wouldn't this be done robotically?
In short, I don't see a way that you can avoid settlements on the Moon or Mars in the next 500-1000 years, and any manufactured worlds (like an O'Neil colony) would have to at least have a symbiotic relationship with miners living on dirt with gravity.
Again, why wouldn't this be done robotically?
It also isn't clear to what extent you can't get these elements from the belt as necessary.
I'm glad the GPL exists. It was a great start. The the FSF legal staff are great folks. However, when I write code, I'd rather not give a free ride to companies that don't want to release their own code. In a practical sense that means offering the companies option to buy a regular commercial license if you release under the RPL because the RPL is so dang viral it will scare their attorneys.
That said, we probably need to think of some different ways of rewarded inventors internationally than intellectual property. Very little of the wealth of IP filters down to inventors/artists. Most of that wealth gets locked down into large, corporate structures.
I think that Open Source can help greatly with international economic development. That may mean giving some countries a free ride on IP to start-but that might help correct some of the excesses of the colonial era. What needs to be the overriding goals are creating a sustaineable world that works for everyone- and opening new frontiers.
I used to work at Sun(search for rburns-that's me). Sun management _could_ have listened to the folks at Sun that were telling them Open Source would be the wave of the future. They chose not to-and instead in violation of their own principles went whining to politicians to get various kinds of corporate welfare-that was supposed to help their company and create jobs for Americans-and didn't.
So why should we listen to these guys at all?
Stevenson near where I live set up a free wifi mesh with funding from the local chamber of commerce. I can easily believe that by putting this sort of stuff in you can increase property values by more than enough to warrent the investment. Folks that don't like this-well they can buy property in a city that doesn't provide taxpayer supported wifi. This stuff is for a city infrastructure just like free drinking fountains-or free sidewalks. Probably one of the best things a city can do to spur economic development.