exactly what i was going to say. In hospital we would wipe equipment (such as a heart monitor) with 'Alcowipe', if we were out of these Alco-gel on disposable cloth.
The germs that were on your laptop are probably dead by now. But i understand that these things can play on your mind. Any alcohol on a cloth will do, Vodka or whiskey... but for some reason i most associate the oder of Gin with Mac.
The only foreseeable problem is that when workmates smell the booze you will have to convince them that you were not of work with the 'Six Pack Flu'
It's important to remember that no one is claiming that an English company (no matter how large) invented a computer, It's important to remember that there was different business culture in those days, companies would build there own garages to service their delivery vehicles. Or their own telephone engineers to build the internal communications within an office complex, building a computer would have been seen as extension of that. To me the idea if Lyons building the first business computer is no more surprising than say a playing card company becoming Nintendo.
Lyons tea shops are all but gone, but if you ever visit England and what a taste of what they were like try visiting a WIMPY (Founded by J.Lyons & Co) and have a Tea and toasted tea cake.
i remember over 15 years ago they did a documentary about the staff of scientists that worked at Chernobyl. They would regularly go down into the burnt our plant... really quite close to the core and really pressing their luck with the amount of exposure to radiation. recently there was a catch up documentary... and there was some expectation that a above average amount would have had or died of cancer. Interestingly it far higher average of heart attacks that was commonly excepted to have been induced the every day high stress of knowing that you are walking a razors edge with radiation.
I don't think that any doctor doubts the causative link between stress and disease, but i think stress has greater impact your heart rather than cell division.
of course this is a matter of effected odds, any one who says that you can stop cancer with positive thinking is just a nut.
its' true. so called 'nerd' and science types get girlfriend when they start getting paid jobs... not when they are at college.
But i think that it is so tied up in the identity of the scene (let's be honest... science type stuff is a social order rather than a pure meritocracy)that the guy who has no girlfriend... or seeming no interest in social interaction of that type becomes a near ideal state.
an identity need cliches, and qualities. in this case it is an accidental quality.
As for the chair... i would say that i would surprise him with the choice. he has to spend 8+ hours a day in it. and he cant tell you if it isn't working out as it is a gift. if he is a 'nerd' type he will appreciate the utility of the result more than the fun of the surprise.
This is of course a problem of semantics. The terms discovered and invented are posed as distinctly different, when they are not. You pose the question as an âeither/orâ(TM) problem.
Discovered: is universal
Invented: is cultural.
Things can be both.
Therefore âfireâ(TM) (or mathematics) as a cultural application can be invented, and at the same time there natural universal constants are discovered.
Prediction is easy; you just follow trends to their logical conclusions. Nothing in these predictions goes out on a limb; things like Dinners Club already had credit cards and computers that did the subtracting from an account. It's no leap to say all money will end up this way.
Of Course like any good psychic, it's important to remind people of your successes. Arthur C. Clark (RIP) never spent that much time explaining some of his predictions about how we would have mass whale farms in the Atlantic by the year 2000.
Everyone knows the sort of stuff that will happen in the next half century based on what happening now.... Quantum Computers, Computer beats Turing Test, Bio Feedback, Merging of Technology and Organic Matter, Middle Management Begins to be replace by machines (as was manual labour in the last 50 years) and so on. But the real trick is to correctly gauge how it will change human society. That was so funny about those futurama type exhibits that transposed 50's sensibilities on people of the year 2000. That is perhaps why someone like Philip K. Dick was a genius, in that he actually gauged a changing, decentring, human sensibility.
I would recommend that you check out this book, It's published by the MIT press, and i have seen that sugested reading on many of the courses at MIT. It details the experiences of an engineering student at MIT.
But to some up, if you thrive in hyper competitive environment, if you can give up your social life for hard work, if you can stay ahead of the curve and get a lot of A's, if you got the 'forwardness' to network and put yourself in front of people... You will find the funding from a company.
For that matter how much is the music industry paying the postal services now they are using frictionless digital alternatives. Or how much did they reimburse musicians and recording technicians when they switched over to sequenced and programed instruments.
Slashdot Mirror
The fact that a technological society has buried something in a catacomb that deep and that strong isn't warning enough?
exactly what i was going to say. In hospital we would wipe equipment (such as a heart monitor) with 'Alcowipe', if we were out of these Alco-gel on disposable cloth. The germs that were on your laptop are probably dead by now. But i understand that these things can play on your mind. Any alcohol on a cloth will do, Vodka or whiskey... but for some reason i most associate the oder of Gin with Mac. The only foreseeable problem is that when workmates smell the booze you will have to convince them that you were not of work with the 'Six Pack Flu'
It's important to remember that no one is claiming that an English company (no matter how large) invented a computer, It's important to remember that there was different business culture in those days, companies would build there own garages to service their delivery vehicles. Or their own telephone engineers to build the internal communications within an office complex, building a computer would have been seen as extension of that. To me the idea if Lyons building the first business computer is no more surprising than say a playing card company becoming Nintendo. Lyons tea shops are all but gone, but if you ever visit England and what a taste of what they were like try visiting a WIMPY (Founded by J.Lyons & Co) and have a Tea and toasted tea cake.
i remember over 15 years ago they did a documentary about the staff of scientists that worked at Chernobyl. They would regularly go down into the burnt our plant... really quite close to the core and really pressing their luck with the amount of exposure to radiation. recently there was a catch up documentary... and there was some expectation that a above average amount would have had or died of cancer. Interestingly it far higher average of heart attacks that was commonly excepted to have been induced the every day high stress of knowing that you are walking a razors edge with radiation. I don't think that any doctor doubts the causative link between stress and disease, but i think stress has greater impact your heart rather than cell division. of course this is a matter of effected odds, any one who says that you can stop cancer with positive thinking is just a nut.
its' true. so called 'nerd' and science types get girlfriend when they start getting paid jobs... not when they are at college. But i think that it is so tied up in the identity of the scene (let's be honest... science type stuff is a social order rather than a pure meritocracy)that the guy who has no girlfriend... or seeming no interest in social interaction of that type becomes a near ideal state. an identity need cliches, and qualities. in this case it is an accidental quality. As for the chair... i would say that i would surprise him with the choice. he has to spend 8+ hours a day in it. and he cant tell you if it isn't working out as it is a gift. if he is a 'nerd' type he will appreciate the utility of the result more than the fun of the surprise.
IQ test prove one of two things: 1. That your smart. 2. That IQ test don't work.
'The Beach'!! i wonder if Kramer will sue?
This is of course a problem of semantics. The terms discovered and invented are posed as distinctly different, when they are not. You pose the question as an âeither/orâ(TM) problem. Discovered: is universal Invented: is cultural. Things can be both. Therefore âfireâ(TM) (or mathematics) as a cultural application can be invented, and at the same time there natural universal constants are discovered.
Prediction is easy; you just follow trends to their logical conclusions. Nothing in these predictions goes out on a limb; things like Dinners Club already had credit cards and computers that did the subtracting from an account. It's no leap to say all money will end up this way. Of Course like any good psychic, it's important to remind people of your successes. Arthur C. Clark (RIP) never spent that much time explaining some of his predictions about how we would have mass whale farms in the Atlantic by the year 2000. Everyone knows the sort of stuff that will happen in the next half century based on what happening now.... Quantum Computers, Computer beats Turing Test, Bio Feedback, Merging of Technology and Organic Matter, Middle Management Begins to be replace by machines (as was manual labour in the last 50 years) and so on. But the real trick is to correctly gauge how it will change human society. That was so funny about those futurama type exhibits that transposed 50's sensibilities on people of the year 2000. That is perhaps why someone like Philip K. Dick was a genius, in that he actually gauged a changing, decentring, human sensibility.
I would recommend that you check out this book, It's published by the MIT press, and i have seen that sugested reading on many of the courses at MIT. It details the experiences of an engineering student at MIT. But to some up, if you thrive in hyper competitive environment, if you can give up your social life for hard work, if you can stay ahead of the curve and get a lot of A's, if you got the 'forwardness' to network and put yourself in front of people... You will find the funding from a company.
For that matter how much is the music industry paying the postal services now they are using frictionless digital alternatives. Or how much did they reimburse musicians and recording technicians when they switched over to sequenced and programed instruments.
It would take 5 guys 6 days to do Stalingrad