By an ancient Einstein, I mean someone who develops as significant piece of technology in a single generation. Like fossils in evolutions, this could be so fast that it was not saved in the archeologic record. Two Examples:
Egyptian pyramids went for stacked sand-walled mastabas to full-blown monsters in less than a century. This was attributed to creativity of Imhotep. (also credited with inventing columns in architecture).
The idea of purely phonetic alphabet seen to arise instantly in the archeological record in Ugarit 3400 years ago. It was adapted to Phonecia, Greece, Isreal, Rome etc. Most previous writing systems had combination of pure ideographs and phonetic syllables- ideographs borrowed because they sound like other works (like people do in charades).
How are books, movies, television, computer screens, phones, etc. affecting humans? Humans are becoming more nearsighted. The incidence of nearsightedness has increased from 25% in the mid-20th century to 40% now. There probably wasnt much of it in the pre-literate era.
I wonder if we more actively evolve connecting communications and media directly to the brain and nervous system. Will we develop hive minds then like the Borg?
Primates evolved trichomatic eyes to find fruit better. Most mammals are dichromatic.
Now humans eat more meat, cooked food, more starch from grains and more dairy from cattle. Each diet change affected the genes . One could argue the next stage- hyper nutrition and processed food- selecting against humans with metabolic disease like diabetes, obesity, and bad hearts. This was very interesting article.
Geezers like myself are into TV and radio while youngsters are addicted to their tweetBook networks. All could go silent for months in a solar superstorm.
I was in at a function yesterday where there were some NASA contractors. They said this option is on the table. Until the US has it own manned space vehicle, now estimated earliest 2017 due to Aries confusion, the demand for US astronaut launches is about four per year at best. NASA has contracted for Soyuz seats at $50M a pop through 2012.
With the Ares program falling behind schedule and Obama whittling away at funds, I fear this to be the case. This doesnt even take the Tea Party in account which considers federal space program the #1 wasteful program to eliminate. Private industry might eventually do manned orbital, but not in a long while.
For private insurance in California for some populations. The average BC annual increase across the board is 25%. Medical insurance has its own "Moore's Law" now doubling about every five years (including out of packet increases). This increase caught Obama's attention and he is talking about it now.
There used to be an immigrant's scoring test weighing connections(relatives), job-offer, education, experience, age(old is bad), language skills(English+French, sorry not Java:-) Last time I took the test I has just fell below the threshhold, being over 40. But they are more flexible now. My best option is the investor visa, that is parking C$400,000 in no-interest government bonds for five years. They dont want free-loaders there.
To garner social and investor support for their new media inventions, inventors almost always tout "educational applications" whether these materialize or not. This is how Thomas Edison promoted his phonograph and motion picture projector. Usually the public is enthralled by the new media and spends excessive money on it. Then the old media condemns the new media as "idle entertainment". On the dark side, porn is often an early adapter of new media, e.g. ecommerce and net streaming. The debate continues into this year, 140 years after the phonograph, as some people condemn the movie Avatar (which may be the "breakthrough 3D movie") as an expensive time-waster.
There was the guy who locked out administrator privileges in the San Francisco computer system. He recently went on trial in December, but I have not heard a verdict.
They use the tiny vertical lens prisms to deliver four different angle-views depending where your eyes are. This very similar to the 3-D or blinking image plastic pictures you get in novelty shop or crackerjack box. The lateral resolution is reduced by the number of lens angles in the system (typically four). If you move you head a lot you lose the effect temporarily. And it doesnt work when you are laying down.
This kind of table in a system might have issues delivering enough angles and screen-width together on a tablet screen. And if you rotate the screen just a little bit, you'd lose the effect.
I'm the same age Bill Gates and started coding the same way: teletype to nearby college from my high high school. I've noted two changes in coding ability over the decades: (1) I could keep 20-30 pending ideas (features, bugs) in my mind while coding when young. Now I use a notepad for this. (2) I haven't done an all-nighter in a while. But 10-12 hour sessions still happen.
Other than that I can still devour a language manual and do useful coding in a day. And I have a huge repetoire of ideas which go in and out fashion over the years as hardware and software evolves. Much of design is "deja vu, all over again" to quote a baseball philosopher.
Slashdot Mirror
For a while atmospheric mehane was increasing. Then it stopped increasing a few years ago. No one really understands why.
They play loud classical music to drive away drug dealers and loitering youth. It seems to work.
By an ancient Einstein, I mean someone who develops as significant piece of technology in a single generation. Like fossils in evolutions, this could be so fast that it was not saved in the archeologic record. Two Examples:
Egyptian pyramids went for stacked sand-walled mastabas to full-blown monsters in less than a century. This was attributed to creativity of Imhotep. (also credited with inventing columns in architecture).
The idea of purely phonetic alphabet seen to arise instantly in the archeological record in Ugarit 3400 years ago. It was adapted to Phonecia, Greece, Isreal, Rome etc. Most previous writing systems had combination of pure ideographs and phonetic syllables- ideographs borrowed because they sound like other works (like people do in charades).
I remember playing with a few 15 years ago. They wrapped OpenGL as I recall. They did not perform very well in the pre-broadband era.
When its 50 cents a gig, magnetic will be 3 cents a gig. Both are dropping like a rock.
How are books, movies, television, computer screens, phones, etc. affecting humans? Humans are becoming more nearsighted. The incidence of nearsightedness has increased from 25% in the mid-20th century to 40% now. There probably wasnt much of it in the pre-literate era.
I wonder if we more actively evolve connecting communications and media directly to the brain and nervous system. Will we develop hive minds then like the Borg?
Primates evolved trichomatic eyes to find fruit better. Most mammals are dichromatic. Now humans eat more meat, cooked food, more starch from grains and more dairy from cattle. Each diet change affected the genes . One could argue the next stage- hyper nutrition and processed food- selecting against humans with metabolic disease like diabetes, obesity, and bad hearts. This was very interesting article.
Some organization are experimenting with a system where the ticket is locked to the cell phone you bring.
Geezers like myself are into TV and radio while youngsters are addicted to their tweetBook networks. All could go silent for months in a solar superstorm.
Batteries limit mobile devices. Heat limits supercomputer servers.
The first low power CPUs like the Atom were lame. Better devices on the way.
Polywater was the "cold fusion" of the 1960s. There is a new age fad called structured water too.
Slashdot editors are snookered again by B.S. press release.
Was about a mysterious EMP that knocked out all electricity networks and computers in the USA and difficulty of returning to pre-1880 lifestyle.
I was in at a function yesterday where there were some NASA contractors. They said this option is on the table. Until the US has it own manned space vehicle, now estimated earliest 2017 due to Aries confusion, the demand for US astronaut launches is about four per year at best. NASA has contracted for Soyuz seats at $50M a pop through 2012.
If I see a "sky is falling" thread in slashdot, more often than not it is from a UK source.
With the Ares program falling behind schedule and Obama whittling away at funds, I fear this to be the case. This doesnt even take the Tea Party in account which considers federal space program the #1 wasteful program to eliminate. Private industry might eventually do manned orbital, but not in a long while.
For private insurance in California for some populations. The average BC annual increase across the board is 25%. Medical insurance has its own "Moore's Law" now doubling about every five years (including out of packet increases). This increase caught Obama's attention and he is talking about it now.
There used to be an immigrant's scoring test weighing connections(relatives), job-offer, education, experience, age(old is bad), language skills(English+French, sorry not Java :-) Last time I took the test I has just fell below the threshhold, being over 40. But they are more flexible now. My best option is the investor visa, that is parking C$400,000 in no-interest government bonds for five years. They dont want free-loaders there.
If you make it cheap and convenient enough, your market will expand. Anything above $5 a month is too much in my opinion.
To garner social and investor support for their new media inventions, inventors almost always tout "educational applications" whether these materialize or not. This is how Thomas Edison promoted his phonograph and motion picture projector. Usually the public is enthralled by the new media and spends excessive money on it. Then the old media condemns the new media as "idle entertainment". On the dark side, porn is often an early adapter of new media, e.g. ecommerce and net streaming. The debate continues into this year, 140 years after the phonograph, as some people condemn the movie Avatar (which may be the "breakthrough 3D movie") as an expensive time-waster.
I learned things in the first few grades and in high school. I remember the grades 5-8 as kind of a mental wasteland.
There was the guy who locked out administrator privileges in the San Francisco computer system. He recently went on trial in December, but I have not heard a verdict.
They use the tiny vertical lens prisms to deliver four different angle-views depending where your eyes are. This very similar to the 3-D or blinking image plastic pictures you get in novelty shop or crackerjack box. The lateral resolution is reduced by the number of lens angles in the system (typically four). If you move you head a lot you lose the effect temporarily. And it doesnt work when you are laying down.
This kind of table in a system might have issues delivering enough angles and screen-width together on a tablet screen. And if you rotate the screen just a little bit, you'd lose the effect.
Googles extraordinary set of benefits were designed to keep employees happily in their offices 24/7.
I'm the same age Bill Gates and started coding the same way: teletype to nearby college from my high high school. I've noted two changes in coding ability over the decades: (1) I could keep 20-30 pending ideas (features, bugs) in my mind while coding when young. Now I use a notepad for this. (2) I haven't done an all-nighter in a while. But 10-12 hour sessions still happen.
Other than that I can still devour a language manual and do useful coding in a day. And I have a huge repetoire of ideas which go in and out fashion over the years as hardware and software evolves. Much of design is "deja vu, all over again" to quote a baseball philosopher.