For a man who does not have cancer, aliens seem like a better investment.
Wow, if all researchers only focused on the diseases they had, I guess you'd see a lot more sick people in medical school. Plus, there'd be a lot higher turnover rate in the field.
A little precaution and some good judgement and you are fine. I personally think we should work on the stuff you can't help getting infected with.
Think about people other than yourself. How does a baby choose to be born to an AIDS-infected mother? How does the nurse or police officer choose to get pricked by an AIDS-tainted syringe? I really hope that you and your loved ones are never sexually assaulted and especially not victimized by someone infected with AIDS. And I really hope that science finds a cure for AIDS because it's a horrible disease that no one deserves to suffer, no matter if their behavior was responsible for their contraction.
Because the networks & 24/7 news channels require viewers to stay-tuned through the commercials, they highlight the sensational and avoid the tedious. Stories that discuss the actual workings of government are commercial poison. This is a fundamental weakness of the medium of broadcast journalism.
You're right about the glasses deal. They could just produce the infra-red lights and package them with clips that can attach to a hat or elastic bands to wrap around the frames of glasses.
This guy has seriously just handed out some expensive R&D to Nintendo for free.
While the sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory has failed to attain the massive online popularity that its predecessor currently enjoys, it is an excellent team-based first-person-shooter. An SDK has been released that promises to bring community-developed mods and maps that should help keep the game interesting for years to come.
As a superpower, the US would love to define the rules of engagement with the enemy, but unfortunately as the gaming industry has evolved internationally, we can no longer expect that our enemies will attack us using one of the Quake or Doom engines. Increasingly these foreign gaming forces are dominating US FPS teams on digital battlefields rendered using the Counterstrike engine. Fortunately to this date, the most menacing Counterstrike forces are based in friendly European nations. Should Al Qaida attack us on a Counterstrike map, it is likely that our European allies would lend a hand.
Nonetheless, consider these risks associated with our Quake-based homeland defense strategy:
Fata1ity seems like a patriot, but what if he were to switch sides?
Our framerate depends on video cards designed domestically, but are built in Asia. State-sponsored sabotage of our video card hardware could reduce us to 5 fps newbs when a critical spawn point is at risk of capture.
Much of our video card driver code is closed-source and written by overseas programmers. How are we to tell if they've implemented transparent wall-hacks or hit-box visual assists only available to insurgents?
With the growing popularity of console gaming among American youngsters, tomorrow's digital soldiers will be unaccustomed to the brutal gore of frags and gibs in real online combat.
Thanks for posting the link about the Russian RTG's. After reading it, however, I'm not convinced that these portable nuclear reactors will be of such a great concern.
For starters,
these generators are planned to provided electricity for population centers, not remote lighthouses and the such. So the likelyhood that they could be forgotten is unlikely since they'd provide power to tens of thousands of homes. Their absence would be noticed quickly. Also, since this is private enterprise, there's a commercial interest in keeping track of the generators. Even if the country using them or the producing company goes kaput, others will step in to recycle and re-use them.
The Russian RTG article linked above also included this tidbit-
It takes no less than 900 to 1000 years before RHSs reach a safe radioactivity level.
When I think of nuclear power, I remember stats about the waste requiring 10,000+ years before it decomposes to a safe level. Of course, I don't have any confidence about what humans will be doing in 10k years, so I wouldn't want to deposit that waste anywhere. But 1000 years? I can imagine there are places we could safely bury this waste and it won't come into human contact within 1000 years.
The Russian RTG example doesn't really provide stats on deaths associated with these miniature reactors. It doesn't take long, though, to find fatality stats regarding fossil-fuel energy production. In light of global warming, wars over petroleum, and rising fuel costs, I am eager to see nuclear adopted in the US.
iTunes doesn't work with anything other than an iPod...
The downloads from the iTunes STORE don't work on other mp3 players. iTunes itself will support loading music on 3rd party mp3 players. I used to connect my 1st Gen Rio mp3 player and manage its meager 32mb of music with iTunes.
I like this a lot. One thing that would be important would be for your bank's website to decrypt the string and ask you to verify what the purchase is and the vendor. Otherwise, Malware on the client PC could exchange the copy-and-paste value for that of $30,000 for a bag of rocks sold in the Ukraine. Buyer arranges delivery.
Big companies make these mistakes from time to time. They salivate over a goal. They see a picture of what they want, and they'll engage MILLIONS of dollars to attain the dream.
Sadly, while obsessing on what the company wanted, it never did a reality check, "Does this deliver the dream of the consumer?" -- was never asked.
We saw this with the CueCat, DIVX, and the Zune. Amazon got suckered into paying some third party to create this device with the hope that bunches of people will pay them $9.99 for books. That isn't any dream I've had in the past 30 years.
It solves several pain-points for the company (shipping, printing, etc.), but not much for the reader willing to shop used book stores.
I am also curious about the MIT girl. The broadcast media hugely exaggerated the story from the beginning then slowly throughout the day they backpeddelled their original descriptions of how it went down. I can only assume the lack of follow-up is because they don't want to have to say, "Well, we originally said she had a circuit board with wires and putty on it, but in fact it was just some flashing leds and wires."
These guys have echelon. They probably are managing the puppet strings of the botnet herders. They sit on unimaginable brute force supercomputing power. And when things get difficult, they can always pick a lock, enter a home, and install a keylogger.
Consider this scenario:
A hardware vendor contracts out to a software firm to write drivers for their device. Maybe it's an ethernet card chipset. The software developer is an NSA front operation. They code a real-time keylogger that adds-in keystroke data to packets going out over the wire. The packets go to the desired recipient server, but with echelon, the NSA can collect them nonetheless. Oh, but wouldn't we see this ourselves in our own surveillance of our packets? Might be that the code activates on specific targets by remote command. Man-in-the-middle altering of packets travelling from a popular website like google heading to the targets computer triggers the hidden keylogger to reply with collected info.
The biggest vote of confidence in Linux is that Walmart even sells it.But that doesn't mean it's a sign of quality. Forget thee not of the Wii knockoffs that Walmart is selling.
Install a listening device in an embassy meeting room. Records many weeks of conversations. Does not broadcast. Also has a radio receiver.
Prior to an electrical storm, drop a package on the roof using a rapid-descent parachute. It looks like a chimney or AC unit, with a large pole on top that functions as a lightening rod. The box sends a signal to the inside recorder that tells it to broadcast a burst of encrypted data to the box then when lightening hits the pole, it becomes a plasma attenna that can broadcast the data over a long distance. Oh, and the electricity from the lightening powers the whole operation. Then the box self-destructs on the roof.
I think this CNET article is irresponsible for giving credit to some un-pictured mythical switch on Data's leg while not acknowledging the tractor-beam shutdown switch Obi-Wan Kenobi flipped. That sucker filled his whole palm and was mounted on a ledge with a 1000' drop-off.
Here's a photo.
I would hope that a civilization that is able to travel faster than light, that is possibly thousands to millions of years ahead of us, has grown beyond the need to eat other living things.
More optimistically, I am hoping they have grown feeble of mind through centuries of dependence on super-sophisticated technologies. As it happens, some of them begin searching for their creator(s) and come across Earth. We play a gambit where we tell them we are even more sophisticated and evolved than they are and take credit for creating THEM in the first place. At which point, we demand oral from their entire population. Oh, and they have like three, soft, mouths.
I guess things have evolved in America from us being able to point fingers at other countries and criticize them as monsters because they torture people. Now we can only criticize them because they torture more people than us.
Congress wouldn't have been upset if China would have outsourced torture like the US does by sending the 'dissident' to an Egyptian torture facility. Perhaps the CIA could knock down the trade deficit by managing the outsourcing of torture for China...
62% were dead beats and only 12% paid a price competitive with download services.
You're right. 62% of Radiohead's fans weren't going to pay for this album. If the band would have stuck with the major label distribution model, then they would have pocketed a small percent of the 12% people were willing to spend on the album. Radiohead's strategy isn't simply motivated by the greedy record labels. It's also motivated by the cheapskate music fans who are pirating music on the internet.
The whole PC gaming thing never made much sense to me. You can spend $500 on a console that performs as well as a computer at 3 times the cost
Console gaming stagnates. The graphics, physics, networking stays the same for each 'generation' of consoles, which is a lot longer than in the PC gaming industry. The console manufacturers would like to stretch those generations out forever because it means less R&D for them each year. Sony is pleased as punch that the PS2 is still bringing them in licensing revenue from R&D they paid off before the millenium.
PC gaming is for people who want the newest and best. They want control over their gaming experience. They want to create and share maps. If you don't see the value in these things, then a traditional TV resolution gaming environment is more than sufficient for your entertainment requirements.
The best hardware for the price is always, always 'top-of-the-line minus ONE'.
I fully agree with this generalization, but sometimes you can go a few notches below the 'top-of-the-line' and still get huge performance. The best thing I found in the article is their recommendation of the AMD 4000 ($75.00 @ NewEgg) cpu over the higher end 5600s and 6000s. Using the 'minus-one' strategy, I planned on replacing my Athlon XP 3200 system with one based on the Athlon 64 M2 5200 ($119.00 @ NewEgg). So this article is giving me confidence going with a processor that's $50 cheaper.
Slashdot Mirror
For a man who does not have cancer, aliens seem like a better investment.
Wow, if all researchers only focused on the diseases they had, I guess you'd see a lot more sick people in medical school. Plus, there'd be a lot higher turnover rate in the field.
Seth
A little precaution and some good judgement and you are fine. I personally think we should work on the stuff you can't help getting infected with.
Think about people other than yourself. How does a baby choose to be born to an AIDS-infected mother? How does the nurse or police officer choose to get pricked by an AIDS-tainted syringe? I really hope that you and your loved ones are never sexually assaulted and especially not victimized by someone infected with AIDS. And I really hope that science finds a cure for AIDS because it's a horrible disease that no one deserves to suffer, no matter if their behavior was responsible for their contraction.
Seth
Because the networks & 24/7 news channels require viewers to stay-tuned through the commercials, they highlight the sensational and avoid the tedious. Stories that discuss the actual workings of government are commercial poison. This is a fundamental weakness of the medium of broadcast journalism.
Printed is the only hope.
Seth
You're right about the glasses deal. They could just produce the infra-red lights and package them with clips that can attach to a hat or elastic bands to wrap around the frames of glasses.
This guy has seriously just handed out some expensive R&D to Nintendo for free.
Seth
A friend / co-worker I knew had a book of poetry.
Sorry to break this to you, but your co-worker friend is a homo.
Seth
While the sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory has failed to attain the massive online popularity that its predecessor currently enjoys, it is an excellent team-based first-person-shooter. An SDK has been released that promises to bring community-developed mods and maps that should help keep the game interesting for years to come.
Seth
Your MD5 wouldn't have helped in this scenario. The code base was altered it seems.
Seth
Nonetheless, consider these risks associated with our Quake-based homeland defense strategy:
Seth
Wal*Mart has tv ads that only mention the iPod. (That made me wonder if they've jumped the shark.)
No way has WalMart jumped the shark. It's as hip as it's always been. As proof, they're the exclusive outlet for the new album by the Eagles.
Seth
Right, like I typed, 'population centers.' That's what you've quoted here.
Seth
Thanks for posting the link about the Russian RTG's. After reading it, however, I'm not convinced that these portable nuclear reactors will be of such a great concern.
For starters, these generators are planned to provided electricity for population centers, not remote lighthouses and the such. So the likelyhood that they could be forgotten is unlikely since they'd provide power to tens of thousands of homes. Their absence would be noticed quickly. Also, since this is private enterprise, there's a commercial interest in keeping track of the generators. Even if the country using them or the producing company goes kaput, others will step in to recycle and re-use them.
The Russian RTG article linked above also included this tidbit-
It takes no less than 900 to 1000 years before RHSs reach a safe radioactivity level.
When I think of nuclear power, I remember stats about the waste requiring 10,000+ years before it decomposes to a safe level. Of course, I don't have any confidence about what humans will be doing in 10k years, so I wouldn't want to deposit that waste anywhere. But 1000 years? I can imagine there are places we could safely bury this waste and it won't come into human contact within 1000 years.
The Russian RTG example doesn't really provide stats on deaths associated with these miniature reactors. It doesn't take long, though, to find fatality stats regarding fossil-fuel energy production. In light of global warming, wars over petroleum, and rising fuel costs, I am eager to see nuclear adopted in the US.
Seth
iTunes doesn't work with anything other than an iPod...
The downloads from the iTunes STORE don't work on other mp3 players. iTunes itself will support loading music on 3rd party mp3 players. I used to connect my 1st Gen Rio mp3 player and manage its meager 32mb of music with iTunes.
Seth
I like this a lot. One thing that would be important would be for your bank's website to decrypt the string and ask you to verify what the purchase is and the vendor. Otherwise, Malware on the client PC could exchange the copy-and-paste value for that of $30,000 for a bag of rocks sold in the Ukraine. Buyer arranges delivery.
Seth
Big companies make these mistakes from time to time. They salivate over a goal. They see a picture of what they want, and they'll engage MILLIONS of dollars to attain the dream.
Sadly, while obsessing on what the company wanted, it never did a reality check, "Does this deliver the dream of the consumer?" -- was never asked.
We saw this with the CueCat, DIVX, and the Zune. Amazon got suckered into paying some third party to create this device with the hope that bunches of people will pay them $9.99 for books. That isn't any dream I've had in the past 30 years.
It solves several pain-points for the company (shipping, printing, etc.), but not much for the reader willing to shop used book stores.
Seth
I am also curious about the MIT girl. The broadcast media hugely exaggerated the story from the beginning then slowly throughout the day they backpeddelled their original descriptions of how it went down. I can only assume the lack of follow-up is because they don't want to have to say, "Well, we originally said she had a circuit board with wires and putty on it, but in fact it was just some flashing leds and wires."
Seth
These guys have echelon. They probably are managing the puppet strings of the botnet herders. They sit on unimaginable brute force supercomputing power. And when things get difficult, they can always pick a lock, enter a home, and install a keylogger.
Consider this scenario:
A hardware vendor contracts out to a software firm to write drivers for their device. Maybe it's an ethernet card chipset. The software developer is an NSA front operation. They code a real-time keylogger that adds-in keystroke data to packets going out over the wire. The packets go to the desired recipient server, but with echelon, the NSA can collect them nonetheless. Oh, but wouldn't we see this ourselves in our own surveillance of our packets? Might be that the code activates on specific targets by remote command. Man-in-the-middle altering of packets travelling from a popular website like google heading to the targets computer triggers the hidden keylogger to reply with collected info.
Done with the today's conspiracy concept.
Seth
The biggest vote of confidence in Linux is that Walmart even sells it.But that doesn't mean it's a sign of quality. Forget thee not of the Wii knockoffs that Walmart is selling.
Seth
Install a listening device in an embassy meeting room. Records many weeks of conversations. Does not broadcast. Also has a radio receiver.
Prior to an electrical storm, drop a package on the roof using a rapid-descent parachute. It looks like a chimney or AC unit, with a large pole on top that functions as a lightening rod. The box sends a signal to the inside recorder that tells it to broadcast a burst of encrypted data to the box then when lightening hits the pole, it becomes a plasma attenna that can broadcast the data over a long distance. Oh, and the electricity from the lightening powers the whole operation. Then the box self-destructs on the roof.
Seth
I think this CNET article is irresponsible for giving credit to some un-pictured mythical switch on Data's leg while not acknowledging the tractor-beam shutdown switch Obi-Wan Kenobi flipped. That sucker filled his whole palm and was mounted on a ledge with a 1000' drop-off. Here's a photo.
Seth
I would hope that a civilization that is able to travel faster than light, that is possibly thousands to millions of years ahead of us, has grown beyond the need to eat other living things.
More optimistically, I am hoping they have grown feeble of mind through centuries of dependence on super-sophisticated technologies. As it happens, some of them begin searching for their creator(s) and come across Earth. We play a gambit where we tell them we are even more sophisticated and evolved than they are and take credit for creating THEM in the first place. At which point, we demand oral from their entire population. Oh, and they have like three, soft, mouths.
Seth
I guess things have evolved in America from us being able to point fingers at other countries and criticize them as monsters because they torture people. Now we can only criticize them because they torture more people than us.
Seth
Congress wouldn't have been upset if China would have outsourced torture like the US does by sending the 'dissident' to an Egyptian torture facility. Perhaps the CIA could knock down the trade deficit by managing the outsourcing of torture for China...
Seth
62% were dead beats and only 12% paid a price competitive with download services.
You're right. 62% of Radiohead's fans weren't going to pay for this album. If the band would have stuck with the major label distribution model, then they would have pocketed a small percent of the 12% people were willing to spend on the album. Radiohead's strategy isn't simply motivated by the greedy record labels. It's also motivated by the cheapskate music fans who are pirating music on the internet.
Seth
The whole PC gaming thing never made much sense to me. You can spend $500 on a console that performs as well as a computer at 3 times the cost
Console gaming stagnates. The graphics, physics, networking stays the same for each 'generation' of consoles, which is a lot longer than in the PC gaming industry. The console manufacturers would like to stretch those generations out forever because it means less R&D for them each year. Sony is pleased as punch that the PS2 is still bringing them in licensing revenue from R&D they paid off before the millenium.
PC gaming is for people who want the newest and best. They want control over their gaming experience. They want to create and share maps. If you don't see the value in these things, then a traditional TV resolution gaming environment is more than sufficient for your entertainment requirements.
Seth
The best hardware for the price is always, always 'top-of-the-line minus ONE'.
I fully agree with this generalization, but sometimes you can go a few notches below the 'top-of-the-line' and still get huge performance. The best thing I found in the article is their recommendation of the AMD 4000 ($75.00 @ NewEgg) cpu over the higher end 5600s and 6000s. Using the 'minus-one' strategy, I planned on replacing my Athlon XP 3200 system with one based on the Athlon 64 M2 5200 ($119.00 @ NewEgg). So this article is giving me confidence going with a processor that's $50 cheaper.
Seth