For better or worse, a convicted felon loses about half of the constitutional rights enjoyed by regular citizens. The lost rights including voting, the right to bear arms, some free speech, the right of free association, some rights to privacy. They keep some like fair trial, uncruel punishment, etc. The state can and does gradually restore some rights over time.
This becomes more of an issue as US prison populations soar to over 1% actively incarcerated and 4% formerly incarcerated. Some ethnic groups have as many as 20% ex-felons, or a large class with restricted political rights. Could cause friction in the future.
College learning is a social experience. The professors at MIT, whom you do have access to, will be the ones who have written the textbooks (you'll be using the drafts that will be years ahead of those in bookstores). You'll be surrounded by nerds, all with 150+IQs. That is a mind-blowing experience. OF course you can be timid, not soak this up, and end up with the same result as State U.
This doesn't guarantee you a better paying job than somewhere else. However there is more to life than money. I found four years in nerd heaven/hell to be well worth it.
The change from most high schools where you are one of the top nerds to MIT where you are just an average nerd is so overwhelming that takes months to adjust.
MIT has a metaphor for this: "A MIT education is like taking a sip from a firehose."
BeOS was a courageous effort in designing a new OS from the ground up for multimedia and networks. This stuff had been grafted less efficiently on earlier OS. Look at MS-Windows for a prime example of inferior technology winning (at the moment).
Apple talked with Be before NeXT when looking for help in reviving Apple a few years ago. The talks collapsed when the price was too high, although I recall it similar to the 400 million for NeXT. Both Be and NeXT were as valuable to Apple for former Apple execs who knew how to run computer companies as well as their technologies.
The Galileo probe, hobbled by a broken attenna,
was a "success" too. Even though it only has
2% of its planned data transmission capacity,
it has lasted three times longer than planned
and still returns fantastic pictures of Jupiter's
moons.
Ditto, for Mars. Three of the last five probes
blew up. However, the little pathfinder robot
and the current surveyor orbitor are returning
great pictures.
What ever happened to the International Space Station?
Russia squandered the billions NASA contracted
out for their modules. The space shuttle is
launching this week to keep the tiny piece already
in ordit from falling into the atmosphere.
Whomever copies texts into the future and causes their preservation wins. Each century it may be a different institution. If the LOC doesn't perform this function, then is becomes irrelevant.
In the late 70s and early 80s UNIX enjoyed an explosive growth in technical capabilities because it was in a similar position to Linux- almost public domain with lots of hackers improving it. Then lots of companies adopted BSD as their operating system- making it proprietary and incompatible. (Sun, DEC, SGI, VAX, Convex, Cray...)
Astronomy has long tradition of homebrew research
on
Democratizing Space
·
· Score: 1
Look at who writes the articles in Sky and Telescope magazine. Look at who discovers new comets and supernovea. There is a lot of sky out there, lots of interested amateurs, too few professional positions.
Traditionally the original data outside of press releases is the for the use of the principal investigator. This allows them priority publication in reward for years of prepatory work. After a year, the data is generally freely available at the cost of copying, and the competence of the data archive centre (sometimes not too competent).
There are exceptions depending on principle investigator. Lot of Mars pathfinder imagery was posted on the web within days of its acquisition.
It had been thought you need original data resolution to do the best astronomical research. However, several near disasters in space probes proved otherwise. First, when the main attenna on the Galileo Jupiter probe failed, the backup attenna was nearly a hundred times slower. However, with reprogrammed compression, the probe gets about 70% of its originally planned capacity. Galileo re-orbits a major moon about every month and in the meantime slowly transmits the several dozen pictures it records each pass. Galileo is now on a triple extended mission, because it had survived five years beyond its original two year design time. The slow transmission time however gobbles up large fraction of the deep space net resources.
The first three years of the Hubble Space was a similar situation. The mis-focused mirror required computer post-processing refocusing. This works in some astronomical cases, but fails elsewhere. The reprocessed pixels aren't as good as you'd like.
Faster change in great-grandparents time
on
Faster
·
· Score: 1
At the turn of the last century, people had to deal with electricity, plumbing, cars, radio, air planes, store-bought food, store bought clothes, motion pictures, the income tax, communism, fascism, etc. Machines don't change that fast anymore- we still drive similar cars, fly simliar planes, watch similar TV to 30-50 years ago.
Intentional commercial sabotage is going to make the monoply suit look like small potatoes. Especially if it was repsonsible for some of the recent penetrations. Here come the lawyers!
I've tried reading several of his pre- and co- Scientology scifi books. Most didn't hold my interest, except this one. I fear it is too meladramatic to make a decent movie.
And more permanant than semiconductor memory. I see that commodity retail core memory is running about $0.75 a megabyte today, and commodity disk about $8 a gigabyte. That is a factor of a 100. The "limits" of both have been decried for decades without much effect.
Slashdot Mirror
For better or worse, a convicted felon loses
about half of the constitutional rights enjoyed
by regular citizens. The lost rights including
voting, the right to bear arms, some free speech,
the right of free association, some rights to
privacy. They keep some like fair trial,
uncruel punishment, etc. The state can and does
gradually restore some rights over time.
This becomes more of an issue as US prison populations soar to over 1% actively incarcerated
and 4% formerly incarcerated. Some ethnic groups
have as many as 20% ex-felons, or a large class
with restricted political rights. Could cause
friction in the future.
College learning is a social experience.
The professors at MIT, whom you do have access to,
will be the ones who have written the textbooks
(you'll be using the drafts that will be years
ahead of those in bookstores).
You'll be surrounded by nerds, all with 150+IQs.
That is a mind-blowing experience.
OF course you can be timid, not soak this up,
and end up with the same result as State U.
This doesn't guarantee you a better paying job
than somewhere else. However there is more to
life than money. I found four years in nerd
heaven/hell to be well worth it.
Thats the way at this technical night school.
A course is four or eight all-evening sessions
for a month. One course at a time.
The change from most high schools where you are
one of the top nerds to MIT where you are just
an average nerd is so overwhelming that takes
months to adjust.
MIT has a metaphor for this: "A MIT education is
like taking a sip from a firehose."
BeOS was a courageous effort in designing a new
OS from the ground up for multimedia and networks.
This stuff had been grafted less efficiently
on earlier OS.
Look at MS-Windows for a prime example of inferior technology winning (at the moment).
Apple talked with Be before NeXT when looking
for help in reviving Apple a few years ago.
The talks collapsed when the price was too high,
although I recall it similar to the 400 million
for NeXT. Both Be and NeXT were as valuable to
Apple for former Apple execs who knew how to
run computer companies as well as their technologies.
Roughly the inverse square of the width change, .07 will be
although there are other factors such as voltage.
So if 0.18 is doing 1 GHz, then
6 GHz.
Two steps forward, one step back ....
The Galileo probe, hobbled by a broken attenna,
was a "success" too. Even though it only has
2% of its planned data transmission capacity,
it has lasted three times longer than planned
and still returns fantastic pictures of Jupiter's
moons.
Ditto, for Mars. Three of the last five probes
blew up. However, the little pathfinder robot
and the current surveyor orbitor are returning
great pictures.
What ever happened to the International Space Station?
Russia squandered the billions NASA contracted
out for their modules. The space shuttle is
launching this week to keep the tiny piece already
in ordit from falling into the atmosphere.
Some Asian company, name I forgot, announced shipping 512Kb RAM chips at 0.12 micron this year. :-(
Thats only about two generations from the "limit"
Whomever copies texts into the future and causes
their preservation wins. Each century it may be
a different institution. If the LOC doesn't
perform this function, then is becomes irrelevant.
In the late 70s and early 80s UNIX enjoyed an ...)
explosive growth in technical capabilities
because it was in a similar position to Linux-
almost public domain with lots of hackers
improving it. Then lots of companies adopted
BSD as their operating system- making it proprietary and incompatible. (Sun, DEC, SGI, VAX,
Convex, Cray
Look at who writes the articles in Sky and Telescope magazine.
Look at who discovers new comets and supernovea.
There is a lot of sky out there, lots of interested
amateurs, too few professional positions.
Traditionally the original data outside of press
releases is the for the use of the principal
investigator. This allows them priority publication in reward for years of prepatory work. After a year, the data is generally
freely available at the cost of copying,
and the competence of the data archive centre (sometimes not too competent).
There are exceptions depending on principle investigator. Lot of Mars pathfinder imagery
was posted on the web within days of its acquisition.
It had been thought you need original data
resolution to do the best astronomical research.
However, several near disasters in space probes
proved otherwise. First, when the main attenna
on the Galileo Jupiter probe failed, the backup
attenna was nearly a hundred times slower.
However, with reprogrammed compression, the probe
gets about 70% of its originally planned capacity.
Galileo re-orbits a major moon about every month
and in the meantime slowly transmits the several
dozen pictures it records each pass. Galileo is
now on a triple extended mission, because it had
survived five years beyond its original two year design time. The slow transmission time however
gobbles up large fraction of the deep space net resources.
The first three years of the Hubble Space was
a similar situation. The mis-focused mirror
required computer post-processing refocusing.
This works in some astronomical cases, but fails
elsewhere. The reprocessed pixels aren't as good as you'd like.
At the turn of the last century,
people had to deal with electricity, plumbing, cars, radio,
air planes, store-bought food, store bought clothes,
motion pictures, the income tax, communism, fascism, etc.
Machines don't change that fast anymore-
we still drive similar cars, fly simliar planes,
watch similar TV to 30-50 years ago.
Intentional commercial sabotage is going to make
the monoply suit look like small potatoes.
Especially if it was repsonsible for some of the
recent penetrations.
Here come the lawyers!
I've tried reading several of his pre- and
co- Scientology scifi books. Most didn't hold
my interest, except this one.
I fear it is too meladramatic to make a decent movie.
I'll settle for a slashdot web server that
serves pages at some sort of industry standard
speed.
By 2005 Windows bloatware will require a :-(
peta-hertz computer
Geek invention of the week. Yawn.
Very few make it commercially.
Silicon still has 20 years.
Their job is to stall penalty until after election.
Gore is pro-technology; Bush is pro-business.
Bill G. already successfully asked Bill C. to
intervene. Bill C. has asked for a special
briefing on the case.
And more permanant than semiconductor memory.
I see that commodity retail core memory is running
about $0.75 a megabyte today, and commodity disk
about $8 a gigabyte. That is a factor of a 100.
The "limits" of both have been decried for decades
without much effect.
Most of us have up and down mental states.
Its when they are so extreme that they intefere
with basic living, then that is a problem.
The unit of memory is a "kilo-quad"- a thousand quadrillion bytes or memory- or 10E18 bytes on device about the size of a business card.
Which may service a floor of computers.