An Argument For No Other Life
on
Rare Earth
·
· Score: 2
I forget who I'm paraphrasing, but I've heard a convincing argument for the absense, or extreme rarity of other intelligent life in our galaxy. It goes something like this:
In 20,000 years, humans have gone from banging rocks together to reaching escape velocity.
Earth has been capable of supporting intelligent life for way longer than 20,000 years, and the galaxy has been around for much longer than Earth.
Even if faster-than-light travel is impossible, at a mere 100,000 light-years across, a single intelligent race around at the time of the dinosaurs could have colonized the whole galaxy many times over by now.
Which sounds the most likely?
a.) Intelligent life is either very rare in our galaxy or unique to Earth, or b.) Intelligent life is abundant and coincidentally developing at more-or-less the same level everywhere, or c.) Intelligent life is abundant, but Earth is in the lead development-wise.
Perhaps there is a forth option, but without one, option 'a' is the simplest and , therefore, most likely to be correct.
With all those sex sites on the net, you'll make much more money licensing the technology of using porn to cause arousal. While nose picking may be just as common as masturbation, there is way more money in the latter.
Besides, think of the lawsuits from Kleenex if you're invention catches on and results in a drop in tissue sales.
Speaking as someone who routinely uses, and actively advocates the use of, both Windows and Linux together, I have several suggestions:
First, don't make excuses for Linux's weaknesses. You may have students who criticize, quite rightly, the current Linux desktop. Rather than defend it, accept the criticism and move on. You don't want your students to make their conclusions about Linux based on how it looks on the surface.
Second, as you're planning with database services, show them the benefits of Samba and Apache. If any of your students are responsible for admining servers they should be able to relate to these services as well. One point of caution though: They'll be used to using GUI's to administer services and may be turned off by the idea of editing text configurations. I have explained, with great success, that good text configs don't obfuscate your options. Sometimes the most powerful options are buried in GUI's. In a text file, the option you want is just '/option' away.
Lastly, and most importantly, your students will need to know where to get help in the future. Some like to read books, so introduce them to O'Rielly's animal farm (as I like to call it). There's also web and IRC locations support options. Remember that the Linux community has won awards for support, so you want to play that up. Linux support is one of those free things where you actually get more than you paid for. Be sure, however, to advise on where to ask what level of question. Newbie questions often get ridiculed on IRC, for example.
Good luck with your class. I would suggest that once you've put together your materials, you may want to submit a follow-up story. Perhaps you'll plant the seed for a class LUG's can offer all over.
There's no consequential difference between computer technology and old analog equivalents.
On the off chance that your post isn't some kind of subtle, ironic humor that has eluded me, there's a huge differences between computer technology and analog in the situation: economy, obedience, and networking.
Now that you've got a network of surveillance cameras, is it cheaper to have humans watch them or computers? Computers can do the work 24 hours a day, do the work faster, and do the work without distraction.
Ask a computer to do something that is morally questionable, like restroom surveillance, and it'll do what you tell it. Try getting human operators to do that.
If a human operator spots someone suspicious on camera, they probably don't know who they are to look up further details. If they do know the suspect, they still need to interface with a computer to access additional information (e.g., any outstanding warrants). A computer can handle all these things automatically:
1. Camera gives computer location and face. 2. Face matches DMV record, gives address, SS#, etc. 3. Records from DMV connect to law enforcement, warrants found, law enforcement dispatched.
All that while suspect is still in front of same camera. Try expecting that performance from analog face recognition. No consequential difference, indeed!
And you think the People in Charge (tm) have a problem with that?
Did you know that there is a company in Texas (I've forgotten their name) that has the copyright on a Standardized Municipal Code in use across the US and that they don't allow licensees (i.e., cities) to publish it. In many places, if you want to read your city's laws, you need to pay for a license or go down to city hall and read their copy. I swear I'm not making this up.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. That'll be $20 for your copy.
Is Slashdot picking out robots for their subscription-based geek retirement community? If so, I'd like to change my vote. I don't think Maximillian would make very good company.
True. But to those with an agenda, an instance is enough for a trend and a point is enough for a line.
If you want to draw a line in a direction that suits your vision, one point is better than two.
You can draw a line given one point and infer a trend from a single instance. I just wouldn't trust anyone who does. That was the point I meant to make.
your comet cursor has expired, would you like to update?
I saw this. Didn't know anything about Comet Cursor, so I declined to update it. I'm pretty sure it was a Javascript triggered dialog box rather than a browser window. My general rule of thumb is to not upgrade anything I'm not aware of having in the first place. Kept me out of trouble more often than it's gotten me into it.
Lenny Bruce had a better idea until the Post Office changed their rules. In his famous book, "Steal This Book," he suggested that you attach postage paid reply materials to something heavy, like a brick, and send it back.
Apparently, so many people did this, that the Post Office said that the postage paid reply cards and envelopes couldn't be attached to anything. That, however, doesn't stop you from trying to make the envelop as heavy as possible. I'd avoid using white powder though;)
I'm surprised it's not higher. I would think that more than 25% of the coders use Word as well.
I've had courses where I was required to submit papers, having used Word to create them.
The usefulness of these figures reminds me of a Monty Python skit:
Presenter: "This graph represents 51% of the population. This graph represents 64% of the population. And this graph represents 78% of the population." Reporter (to audience): "Telling figures, indeed."
You can bet that they aren't web hosting...they've probably just created a shell company to try and gain more the of the market share from Rio.
I guess I'm just surprised that they haven't tried to go through Harrah's...one would think there would have to be some linkage to a 'physical' company.
Harrah's operates the Rio. The whois records probably reflect the result of the legal action.
If you rely on other people to tell you about the world around you, they will "manipulate your world view" whether they mean to or not. Most of the time, some aspect of what you're told will be wrong; and you'll never know the difference.
In this respect, there is no difference between the newspaper, tv, slashdot, and your closest and dearest friend. Most people, most of the time, disseminate information that is less than 100% true. All you can do is filter out people doing it deliberately. For bonus points, try to find two sources that agree before you start repeating it.
A representative from Area51/Microsoft will be ringing your doorbell shortly. If you want to live, you'll do as he tells you...
Rats. I should have realized when you mentioned DARPA that they'd have a way to track me down, it being, originally, their network. Hang on, got to answer the door. BRB...
Having formerly been a DARPA contractor, I thought their interpretation of DARPA was hilarious.
Oh, man! Are you telling me that was fake? How do I know that your post isn't part of a wider conspiracy to hide the Real Truth(tm) about cloning? Just to be sure, I'm gonna keep my tin-foil hat on for a bit longer.
Re:comes down to story, not writing
on
Review: Showtime
·
· Score: 2
what in the previews or in your previous experience with Hollywood movies made you think you'd be seeing a ringing expose of The Truth?
I think the same could be said for most media. In fact, you're last sentence reminded me of being suckered by The X-Files a couple of times with their "truth revealing" episodes. The second time reminded me of the following saying:
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
If you plan to watch a movie or television show expecting something more than mindless entertainment, prepare to be disappointed. Then, you can be happily surprised when you get more. I think Hollywood looks much better through pessimistic lenses.
I hope that the FCC is headed in a direction toward defining Internet Service as something distinct from Cable or Telephone Services.
Each service should have its own rules based solely on what is right for that service. Then, if companies bundle services, they should be required to play by the rules for both simultaneously.
Example: If you are providing telephone service, which you must unbundle for competitors, and you decide to offer Internet service over the same platform, then combined regulations should require that you provide unbundled access to competitors wishing to provide Internet service as well.
If cable companies have a monopoly over their network by regulation, and there is no defined rules for Internet service, then there is no combination of rules to require that it be open.
If we want Cable providers to offer a choice, we should seek an FCC/Congress definition of Internet service that is akin to Long Distance Telephone service. With such a definition, people who own the wire into your house would have to give you a choice of providers and be required to allow interconnection.
Slashdot Mirror
I forget who I'm paraphrasing, but I've heard a convincing argument for the absense, or extreme rarity of other intelligent life in our galaxy. It goes something like this:
In 20,000 years, humans have gone from banging rocks together to reaching escape velocity.
Earth has been capable of supporting intelligent life for way longer than 20,000 years, and the galaxy has been around for much longer than Earth.
Even if faster-than-light travel is impossible, at a mere 100,000 light-years across, a single intelligent race around at the time of the dinosaurs could have colonized the whole galaxy many times over by now.
Which sounds the most likely?
a.) Intelligent life is either very rare in our galaxy or unique to Earth, or
b.) Intelligent life is abundant and coincidentally developing at more-or-less the same level everywhere, or
c.) Intelligent life is abundant, but Earth is in the lead development-wise.
Perhaps there is a forth option, but without one, option 'a' is the simplest and , therefore, most likely to be correct.
I may get a patent for the way I pick my nose!
With all those sex sites on the net, you'll make much more money licensing the technology of using porn to cause arousal. While nose picking may be just as common as masturbation, there is way more money in the latter.
Besides, think of the lawsuits from Kleenex if you're invention catches on and results in a drop in tissue sales.
Speaking as someone who routinely uses, and actively advocates the use of, both Windows and Linux together, I have several suggestions:
First, don't make excuses for Linux's weaknesses. You may have students who criticize, quite rightly, the current Linux desktop. Rather than defend it, accept the criticism and move on. You don't want your students to make their conclusions about Linux based on how it looks on the surface.
Second, as you're planning with database services, show them the benefits of Samba and Apache. If any of your students are responsible for admining servers they should be able to relate to these services as well. One point of caution though: They'll be used to using GUI's to administer services and may be turned off by the idea of editing text configurations. I have explained, with great success, that good text configs don't obfuscate your options. Sometimes the most powerful options are buried in GUI's. In a text file, the option you want is just '/option' away.
Lastly, and most importantly, your students will need to know where to get help in the future. Some like to read books, so introduce them to O'Rielly's animal farm (as I like to call it). There's also web and IRC locations support options. Remember that the Linux community has won awards for support, so you want to play that up. Linux support is one of those free things where you actually get more than you paid for. Be sure, however, to advise on where to ask what level of question. Newbie questions often get ridiculed on IRC, for example.
Good luck with your class. I would suggest that once you've put together your materials, you may want to submit a follow-up story. Perhaps you'll plant the seed for a class LUG's can offer all over.
There's no consequential difference between computer technology and old analog equivalents.
On the off chance that your post isn't some kind of subtle, ironic humor that has eluded me, there's a huge differences between computer technology and analog in the situation: economy, obedience, and networking.
Now that you've got a network of surveillance cameras, is it cheaper to have humans watch them or computers? Computers can do the work 24 hours a day, do the work faster, and do the work without distraction.
Ask a computer to do something that is morally questionable, like restroom surveillance, and it'll do what you tell it. Try getting human operators to do that.
If a human operator spots someone suspicious on camera, they probably don't know who they are to look up further details. If they do know the suspect, they still need to interface with a computer to access additional information (e.g., any outstanding warrants). A computer can handle all these things automatically:
1. Camera gives computer location and face.
2. Face matches DMV record, gives address, SS#, etc.
3. Records from DMV connect to law enforcement, warrants found, law enforcement dispatched.
All that while suspect is still in front of same camera. Try expecting that performance from analog face recognition. No consequential difference, indeed!
the Constitution is illegal to distribute!
And you think the People in Charge (tm) have a problem with that?
Did you know that there is a company in Texas (I've forgotten their name) that has the copyright on a Standardized Municipal Code in use across the US and that they don't allow licensees (i.e., cities) to publish it. In many places, if you want to read your city's laws, you need to pay for a license or go down to city hall and read their copy. I swear I'm not making this up.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. That'll be $20 for your copy.
Is Slashdot picking out robots for their subscription-based geek retirement community? If so, I'd like to change my vote. I don't think Maximillian would make very good company.
It's always good when the submitted story is more up-to-date than the site it links to. The current press release" on the site is dated August, 2000.
Could this story be submitted by an insider? Hmmm... I know, I know, Slashdot != "investigative journalism"
port 80 was Apache 2.0
port 8080 was Apache 1.3
Want to test it under load? Just follow up with the URL. I'm sure many here will accomodate you.
But a trend is not a random line. It is a vector
True. But to those with an agenda, an instance is enough for a trend and a point is enough for a line.
If you want to draw a line in a direction that suits your vision, one point is better than two.
You can draw a line given one point and infer a trend from a single instance. I just wouldn't trust anyone who does. That was the point I meant to make.
An instance does not a trend make.
Only one point is required to draw a line through it.
your comet cursor has expired, would you like to update?
I saw this. Didn't know anything about Comet Cursor, so I declined to update it. I'm pretty sure it was a Javascript triggered dialog box rather than a browser window. My general rule of thumb is to not upgrade anything I'm not aware of having in the first place. Kept me out of trouble more often than it's gotten me into it.
but how do you change the volume or turn it off???
Simple: To increase volume, don't take out trash. To lower volume, buy flowers. To turn off, don't wash for a few days.
Abbie Hoffman, not Lenny Bruce :)
You're right. My bad.
Lenny Bruce had a better idea until the Post Office changed their rules. In his famous book, "Steal This Book," he suggested that you attach postage paid reply materials to something heavy, like a brick, and send it back.
;)
Apparently, so many people did this, that the Post Office said that the postage paid reply cards and envelopes couldn't be attached to anything. That, however, doesn't stop you from trying to make the envelop as heavy as possible. I'd avoid using white powder though
I'm surprised it's not higher. I would think that more than 25% of the coders use Word as well.
I've had courses where I was required to submit papers, having used Word to create them.
The usefulness of these figures reminds me of a Monty Python skit:
You can bet that they aren't web hosting...they've probably just created a shell company to try and gain more the of the market share from Rio.
I guess I'm just surprised that they haven't tried to go through Harrah's...one would think there would have to be some linkage to a 'physical' company.
Harrah's operates the Rio. The whois records probably reflect the result of the legal action.
Well, nice try. I'd bet (pun intended) that the information from whois, before Harrah's took the domains, was probably more obtuse.
Harrah's operates the Rio; they probably took over the domains as part of the story.
My first thought was the same as yours, but the information seems to reflect the results of Harrah's legal actions.
Of course, even if the whois information isn't accurate, the money going to the sites had to go somewhere. Follow the money.
but that's what newspapers are for right?
If you rely on other people to tell you about the world around you, they will "manipulate your world view" whether they mean to or not. Most of the time, some aspect of what you're told will be wrong; and you'll never know the difference.
In this respect, there is no difference between the newspaper, tv, slashdot, and your closest and dearest friend. Most people, most of the time, disseminate information that is less than 100% true. All you can do is filter out people doing it deliberately. For bonus points, try to find two sources that agree before you start repeating it.
A representative from Area51/Microsoft will be ringing your doorbell shortly. If you want to live, you'll do as he tells you...
...
Rats. I should have realized when you mentioned DARPA that they'd have a way to track me down, it being, originally, their network. Hang on, got to answer the door. BRB
NO CARRIER
Cool, If we could get AOL to send these out, I'll have a collection of jar openers to go with my coasters.
Having formerly been a DARPA contractor, I thought their interpretation of DARPA was hilarious.
Oh, man! Are you telling me that was fake? How do I know that your post isn't part of a wider conspiracy to hide the Real Truth(tm) about cloning? Just to be sure, I'm gonna keep my tin-foil hat on for a bit longer.
I think the same could be said for most media. In fact, you're last sentence reminded me of being suckered by The X-Files a couple of times with their "truth revealing" episodes. The second time reminded me of the following saying:
If you plan to watch a movie or television show expecting something more than mindless entertainment, prepare to be disappointed. Then, you can be happily surprised when you get more. I think Hollywood looks much better through pessimistic lenses.
Of the Seven Dwarfs, the only one who shaved was Dopey. That should tell us something of the wisdom of shaving.
Nah. Just too dumb to grow facial hair.
I might spend as much as $1 more for this new fan design, but I wouldn't spend twice as much.
I'd spend twice as much if it'll last twice as long. Maybe three times as much if it'll cut the ambient noise level down by 10 decibels or more.
I hope that the FCC is headed in a direction toward defining Internet Service as something distinct from Cable or Telephone Services.
Each service should have its own rules based solely on what is right for that service. Then, if companies bundle services, they should be required to play by the rules for both simultaneously.
Example: If you are providing telephone service, which you must unbundle for competitors, and you decide to offer Internet service over the same platform, then combined regulations should require that you provide unbundled access to competitors wishing to provide Internet service as well.
If cable companies have a monopoly over their network by regulation, and there is no defined rules for Internet service, then there is no combination of rules to require that it be open.
If we want Cable providers to offer a choice, we should seek an FCC/Congress definition of Internet service that is akin to Long Distance Telephone service. With such a definition, people who own the wire into your house would have to give you a choice of providers and be required to allow interconnection.