In the six or so millennia of human history that we have decent archeological and written records- the Jewish-Christian-Islam religious triad is a late-comer. Egypt and Mesopotomia each had a fairly stable pantheon going for 3-4 thousand years or more. Why was there a lot of religous flux for the millennia 600 BCE - 400 CE and then things fossilize again? Frank Herbert looks at another religious upheaveal in the far future, and millennia-old organizations behind the scenes.
I suspect that would be fertile ground for exploration of the Dune Universe. That is the major historical event in Dune history (I forget about 2000 years earlier). It laid the ground for the new organizations like the Guild, Bene Gesserit, Ix, Empires etc.
The Dune website said this is the title of third volume. I presume it covers Paul's childhood, goes more into depth about the Emperor's machinations, and the reason for awarding Arakis to the Attredies. The book has been finished and is in editing.
The new prequels are worh reading once for their elaboration of the Dune universe. However they lack depth and sublty. The original series you could get more out of it re-reading it several times because there was a lot of texture and under-explained background.
This is the same as Kubrick's space odyssey versus the sequel. Kubrick explained little- just presented imagery and action. 2010 explained everything and took the mystery out of it.
Computers will be at least tens faster in 2005 and a hundred times faster by 2010. Remember the first photorealistic creature was the water monster in Abyss in 1989; people went goo-goo over 18 minutes of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, and the past couple years have full feature length GC films. Just wait and see new wonders.
Some of the much touted materials technology
progress while others are commercial lemons.
Successes are silicon chips, optical cable,
and screen displays. Lemons are hi-T superconductors and buckyballs.
Reasonable science fiction, but weak story telling. The plot is plausible. The special effects are reasonably good for Y2K (but may look hokey in a couple years).
I almost walked out of the theatre when I heard the starting narration. A sign of very bad story telling is have to begin with a lecture. Then came Stamp's hokey philosophizing.
The university I work for at let the author collect one-third of the revenues, with another third going to the department and a third to the university. This was onerous to drive most good ideas out of the university environment. I'd suggest a better division would be at least 50% for the author and the remainder for the others.
Another idea is to start a company, but allow the university to by 10% for a year's salary of the employee.
Ironically Stanford University showed little interest in the student and staff projects that eventually became Sun MicroSystems, CISCO and Yahoo when offered a cut.
If the stuff is so valuable that it is worth
fighting over, then start a company and move on.
I've seen hundereds of students do this.
Its fairly easy to get startup resources in
today's tech environment. Any previously written
stuff at the university is probably have to morph considerably to achieve commercial standards.
Geology now a digital science
on
Volcano Cowboys
·
· Score: 3
The romance of geological field work in remote and exciting places is pretty much history save for a few lucky geologists. Most geology is now these days. Much volcanology is done with seismic sensors or radar topographic maps that done in front of a CRT. Geoscientists put sensors out in orbit or on ships, collect and analyze as much data as current computer systems allow- about five terabytes for a typical oil prospect. VOlcanoes are monitored with seismic sensors and very sensitive satellite radar topographic maps.
The three third parties that have made it past
one percent of the national point in the past 20 years- Anderson, Perot, and Nader- have all been personality driven. The parties themselves wane without a demagog. I suspect, however, we may be hearing more from the Greens, because they capture progressivism even without Nader.
Companies I worked for generally require to jump to a radically new product from a new company a price/performance increase of five times,
sometimes ten. 2-3X for an established vendor. Because in this business if you just WAIT 6-12 months without chnaging vendors, you are going to see that kind of increase.
Why do three major religions, nominally followed by half the world's population have this as one of their primary commandments? Not because they have to beat you with a stick to keep you in their religion. No it is because when you over-glorify limited things such as hi-tech, you'll ultimately be let down. Its just a tool- make good use of it- but don't be blinded by it.
I remember my parents getting excited about television and my grandparents about automobiles. When it is matter-of-fact to us, it doesn't dazzle us- We just use it.
Journalist have to fill up their thousand words trying to get the readers attention. So they manufacture novelty and sensationalism like this religion article. Overblown.
software gurus = revival preachers
on
Death March
·
· Score: 2
We are "sinners" when it comes to writing good software and suspect there are better answers out there. The some software guru comes by with some senstational slant. Sounds good for a while, then we drift back into out bad habits.
The first publicly available transmeta laptop released last week got mediocre <A HREF=http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,3 9486,00.html> benchmarks </A>. In fairness, Transmeta replies that current benchmark programs may be inadequate, because the first pass does morphing.
Slashdot Mirror
In the six or so millennia of human history that we have decent archeological and written records- the Jewish-Christian-Islam religious triad is a late-comer. Egypt and Mesopotomia each had a fairly stable pantheon going for 3-4 thousand years or more. Why was there a lot of religous flux for the millennia 600 BCE - 400 CE and then things fossilize again? Frank Herbert looks at another religious upheaveal in the far future, and millennia-old organizations behind the scenes.
I suspect that would be fertile ground for exploration of the Dune Universe. That is the major historical event in Dune history (I forget about 2000 years earlier). It laid the ground for the new organizations like the Guild, Bene Gesserit, Ix, Empires etc.
The Dune website said this is the title of third volume. I presume it covers Paul's childhood, goes more into depth about the Emperor's machinations, and the reason for awarding Arakis to the Attredies. The book has been finished and is in editing.
The new prequels are worh reading once for their elaboration of the Dune universe. However they lack depth and sublty. The original series you could get more out of it re-reading it several times because there was a lot of texture and under-explained background.
This is the same as Kubrick's space odyssey versus the sequel. Kubrick explained little- just presented imagery and action. 2010 explained everything and took the mystery out of it.
I thought the patent office was getting strict about only granting gene patents that were part of a *proven* medical function.
Computers will be at least tens faster in 2005 and a hundred times faster by 2010. Remember the first photorealistic creature was the water monster in Abyss in 1989; people went goo-goo over 18 minutes of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, and the past couple years have full feature length GC films. Just wait and see new wonders.
Some of the much touted materials technology
progress while others are commercial lemons.
Successes are silicon chips, optical cable,
and screen displays. Lemons are hi-T superconductors and buckyballs.
Reasonable science fiction, but weak story telling. The plot is plausible. The special effects are reasonably good for Y2K (but may look hokey in a couple years).
I almost walked out of the theatre when I heard the starting narration. A sign of very bad story telling is have to begin with a lecture. Then came Stamp's hokey philosophizing.
>Anything we coded for a class was usually >trivial and not worth licensing.
When I was in school, student projects became the Sun-I microcomputer, first CISCO router, SGI geometry engine, and Yahoo directory.
None of great interest to the parent university.
The university I work for at let the author collect one-third of the revenues, with another third going to the department and a third to the university. This was onerous to drive most good ideas out of the university environment. I'd suggest a better division would be at least 50% for the author and the remainder for the others.
Another idea is to start a company, but allow the university to by 10% for a year's salary of the employee.
Ironically Stanford University showed little interest in the student and staff projects that eventually became Sun MicroSystems, CISCO and Yahoo when offered a cut.
If the stuff is so valuable that it is worth
fighting over, then start a company and move on.
I've seen hundereds of students do this.
Its fairly easy to get startup resources in
today's tech environment. Any previously written
stuff at the university is probably have to morph considerably to achieve commercial standards.
The romance of geological field work in remote and exciting places is pretty much history save for a few lucky geologists. Most geology is now these days. Much volcanology is done with seismic sensors or radar topographic maps that done in front of a CRT. Geoscientists put sensors out in orbit or on ships, collect and analyze as much data as current computer systems allow- about five terabytes for a typical oil prospect. VOlcanoes are monitored with seismic sensors and very sensitive satellite radar topographic maps.
Its at $40, 13:30 EST. It was planned at $14,
and opened at $21. Fly high, penguins, fly.
Gore has slight edge, being V.P. However Bush/Cheney resurrects Bush Sr. from eight years ago, so is also continuity.
The three third parties that have made it past
one percent of the national point in the past 20 years- Anderson, Perot, and Nader- have all been personality driven. The parties themselves wane without a demagog. I suspect, however, we may be hearing more from the Greens, because they capture progressivism even without Nader.
Companies I worked for generally require to jump to a radically new product from a new company a price/performance increase of five times,
sometimes ten. 2-3X for an established vendor. Because in this business if you just WAIT 6-12 months without chnaging vendors, you are going to see that kind of increase.
I suggest the election will have a similar amount of interest. And be duller.
A lot of us aren't mature enough to go out in the world alone!
You should hear BillG giggle when gets L. Tovald
to fall on his back in the parking lot.
(Or in deep pie?)
Carl Sagan said that there is a secret code buried
deep in the digits of pi, placed there by the
Builders of the Universe.
Why do three major religions, nominally followed by half the world's population have this as one of their primary commandments? Not because they have to beat you with a stick to keep you in their religion. No it is because when you over-glorify limited things such as hi-tech, you'll ultimately be let down. Its just a tool- make good use of it- but don't be blinded by it.
I remember my parents getting excited about television and my grandparents about automobiles. When it is matter-of-fact to us, it doesn't dazzle us- We just use it.
Journalist have to fill up their thousand words trying to get the readers attention. So they manufacture novelty and sensationalism like this religion article. Overblown.
We are "sinners" when it comes to writing good software and suspect there are better answers out there. The some software guru comes by with some senstational slant. Sounds good for a while, then we drift back into out bad habits.
The first publicly available transmeta laptop released last week got mediocre <A HREF=http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,3 9486,00.html> benchmarks </A>. In fairness, Transmeta replies that current benchmark programs may be inadequate, because the first pass does morphing.