This is a better description of Topological Insulators from IEEE in July 2011. Not real sure what can be done with these things in practice. They have interesting properties, though.
That's exactly what they said about LASERs, when I was in high school! (about 1967.) You know what happened to that...
....the entire mission cost -all the years in total - for Pioneer 10 was approximately $350 million (2001) USD. (It'll reach Aldebaran in about 2 million years.)
That's a little bit under a single week of NASA's budget this year. ($19bill)...or about 4 hours of the Defense budget ($677 bill)...or about an hour of the Social Security+Medicare budgets ($1.92 trillion).
Um... I think you forgot to correct for inflation. Those dollars were worth a -lot- more than todays dollars!
I know, I was there (and paid about $0.20 for a loaf of bread).
... Third, in addition to the previous problems with separating mayonnaise, heat dissipation will be an issue. Internal combustion engines carry a LOT of their waste heat away with exhaust, but in a closed-loop system like the one they're proposing here you need to remove the 85% of the energy you don't convert into work. Steamboats traditionally do this with a condenser that sits in the water, but if you're not near a large body of water, well... let's just say your condensing apparatus is going to be a huge, complicated, and difficult to work with because even if you don't have a high-pressure steam BOILER you're still going to have a high-pressure steam CONDENSER....
Um... You know those Really Big towers next to the Nuclear Power stations? Well, they are not for the nuclear part!
Beware of this condition, it has destroyed companies! 8-|
New people always want to destroy what is there, because they don't understand it and others do. This puts them at a disadvantage. If something new is brought in, then everyone is on the same level, i.e., lost! They might not even realize they are doing this, themselves. It can be really bad when the new person is the new boss!
If possible, always make the new people learn the old system before changing anything. At the least, this will give them a better idea of how to successfully implement the new stuff.
Lovecraft was a piece of shit racist. I don't care how many people enjoy his writing.
LK
If you were born in that day and age, it is very likely that you would be too. Most people do what is accepted, and those that didn't talk like that were shunned. If you don't think that you would, then you are probably very young...
I use the Fisher Space pens. They can blob sometimes, but it does not seem to be a problem, the blob does not seem to get on the paper. Also the refils can be used in some other pens, like Parker (I think).
Space pens can also write over surfaces and stains that would make other pens skip.
I also get good use out of the stainless steel Zebra pens.
Back in the 90's I worked with error correction methods called "Golay" codes. It is not compression, in fact it sometimes Doubled the size of the packets. But, in the presents of occasional noise bursts it could have the same apperrent effect as compression.
The overall result is as though the noise level was less. But it still fails if the noise level is too high. The real use is where the noise is in bursts, instead of being constant, so that a bad packet is not all bad. In some types of noise it can have startling improvements. It is quite possible that this could be true of the WiFi signals.
Most network connections don't need error correction, because the noise is very low. Others can't use it because when they go out, they go really bad. But for some, it can be quite useful.
It sounds like the original designers of the WiFi systems were -way- too accustomed to wired connections! 8-)
Besides what they mentioned about bad power capacitors and bad power supply "block", it could also be a "drifted" frequency crystal. They probably don't have a adjustment for that, on cheap boards, and you would need instruments anyway.
The newer boards might be able to adjust frequency automatically, but it probably still degrades if it drifts too far.
Get some DSL filters to keep the high freguencies out of your stuff. The kind used to keep the DSL signal out of wired phones. Should help with the "power line carrier" signals.
A "right" is not something the govenments give to you. They are things that you have to prevent the governments from destroying. Repeatedly... Forever.
They showed us pictures of an IBM computer that filled an entire room. For one CPU!
The next year, they took us to the business classroom and showed us an electric calculator that actually did multiply and divide to 15 digits. Electrical as in electric motor to turn the drive shaft! Cachunk,cachunk!
But it was another five years before electronic calculators got to 15 digits, and some still don't have that many.
Some students had a mechanical calculator that worked with a stylus, sliding small metal rails right and left to count. But it was only for add and subtract.
One day the science teacher brought in a big box and set something up on the big table in the library. It was one of the Mits Altair computers. 256 Bytes of memory, one CPU, and a clock speed that you could actually see flickering the lights. LOTS of lights and toggle switches, but no terminal at all.
After high school, the "Tech Center" that I went to had an actual computer, and I got to play with punch cards!... Once a week.
In actual history, it has occurred many times that the high-tech weapons were not more effective than the low-tech, if the low-tech is used with the correct tactics.
Consider the WW2 P40 "Flying Tigers". The P40 was old tech, but Chennalt devised tactics to minimise the Japanese advantage.
Consider the problem in Vietnam with our fighters that were armed with missiles, but had no guns. Note that attack fighters now have guns.
Of course, BSG does not say a whole lot about tactics. But it seems to be implied...
To be fair to BSG (both of them), one of the plot elements at the start is that the computerized equipment is "hacked". Presumedly including the smart missiles. So that the only attack weapon they have is the human occupied older model fighters.
Before patents, tech was often lost when the originators died or lost a war. It has been said that the present technology "explosion" is mostly due to the patent systems getting tech documented in multiple places, so it is less likely to be lost.
Before you advocate destroying something that works, consider all the things before it that were disasters. If you make a new one, it is much more likely to be one of those than something better.
On the other hand, giving patents on obvious things is criminal. And, in any case, they are supposed to be Limited not perminant.
The new way: Write the specs, manuals and test docs in parallel with the code, using the same versioning methods. Put dates and version numbers (not neccessarily the same as the code) on all documents, manuals and specs. Include them in the version-control systems.
Leaving the manuals for last is hopelessly outdated.;-)
I have seen Microsoft Security Essentials corrupt databases and software development files.
If you use it, make sure you set it to exclude Database folders, including local ISAM files used by small programs, and exclude any software development folder trees. Once you set exclusions for the scans, it seems ok.
Followup - assuming that the marketing drone affirms the chatbot as human, would that mean that the chatbot passed the Turing test, or that the "human" marketing drone failed it?
I think that would depend on whether the chatbot thought the marketer was human...
Have you talked to any high-school kids recently? That is how they talk! Many people do not actually use words, thay talk in code-phrases. Like the old pictogram writing. The computers are not that far behind that. Of course, if a person can't understand what you are saying, then the computer probably has little chance to. And, that is the problem with voice. People or computers, it has low reliability.
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This is a better description of Topological Insulators from IEEE in July 2011. Not real sure what can be done with these things in practice. They have interesting properties, though.
That's exactly what they said about LASERs, when I was in high school! (about 1967.) You know what happened to that...
Hint: The point of the article is not what you think it is...
....the entire mission cost -all the years in total - for Pioneer 10 was approximately $350 million (2001) USD. (It'll reach Aldebaran in about 2 million years.)
That's a little bit under a single week of NASA's budget this year. ($19bill) ...or about 4 hours of the Defense budget ($677 bill) ...or about an hour of the Social Security+Medicare budgets ($1.92 trillion).
Um... I think you forgot to correct for inflation. Those dollars were worth a -lot- more than todays dollars!
I know, I was there (and paid about $0.20 for a loaf of bread).
Software engineering does not introduce random mutations into the Software
You obviously haven't worked with some of the developers I've worked with
Or the Software applications that I have wrorked with...
If enough programmers have touched the code, it approaches random action! 8-)
... Third, in addition to the previous problems with separating mayonnaise, heat dissipation will be an issue. Internal combustion engines carry a LOT of their waste heat away with exhaust, but in a closed-loop system like the one they're proposing here you need to remove the 85% of the energy you don't convert into work. Steamboats traditionally do this with a condenser that sits in the water, but if you're not near a large body of water, well... let's just say your condensing apparatus is going to be a huge, complicated, and difficult to work with because even if you don't have a high-pressure steam BOILER you're still going to have a high-pressure steam CONDENSER. ...
Um... You know those Really Big towers next to the Nuclear Power stations? Well, they are not for the nuclear part!
Beware of this condition, it has destroyed companies! 8-|
New people always want to destroy what is there, because they don't understand it and others do. This puts them at a disadvantage. If something new is brought in, then everyone is on the same level, i.e., lost! They might not even realize they are doing this, themselves. It can be really bad when the new person is the new boss!
If possible, always make the new people learn the old system before changing anything. At the least, this will give them a better idea of how to successfully implement the new stuff.
It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: --
"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"
Yes. And known by educated people for at least 2,000 years...
Curses! It keeps switching to anonymous...
Lovecraft was a piece of shit racist. I don't care how many people enjoy his writing.
LK
If you were born in that day and age, it is very likely that you would be too. Most people do what is accepted, and those that didn't talk like that were shunned. If you don't think that you would, then you are probably very young...
I use the Fisher Space pens. They can blob sometimes, but it does not seem to be a problem, the blob does not seem to get on the paper. Also the refils can be used in some other pens, like Parker (I think).
Space pens can also write over surfaces and stains that would make other pens skip.
I also get good use out of the stainless steel Zebra pens.
Back in the 90's I worked with error correction methods called "Golay" codes. It is not compression, in fact it sometimes Doubled the size of the packets. But, in the presents of occasional noise bursts it could have the same apperrent effect as compression.
The overall result is as though the noise level was less. But it still fails if the noise level is too high. The real use is where the noise is in bursts, instead of being constant, so that a bad packet is not all bad. In some types of noise it can have startling improvements. It is quite possible that this could be true of the WiFi signals.
Most network connections don't need error correction, because the noise is very low. Others can't use it because when they go out, they go really bad. But for some, it can be quite useful.
It sounds like the original designers of the WiFi systems were -way- too accustomed to wired connections! 8-)
Besides what they mentioned about bad power capacitors and bad power supply "block", it could also be a "drifted" frequency crystal. They probably don't have a adjustment for that, on cheap boards, and you would need instruments anyway.
The newer boards might be able to adjust frequency automatically, but it probably still degrades if it drifts too far.
Get some DSL filters to keep the high freguencies out of your stuff. The kind used to keep the DSL signal out of wired phones. Should help with the "power line carrier" signals.
A "right" is not something the govenments give to you. They are things that you have to prevent the governments from destroying. Repeatedly... Forever.
They showed us pictures of an IBM computer that filled an entire room. For one CPU!
The next year, they took us to the business classroom and showed us an electric calculator that actually did multiply and divide to 15 digits. Electrical as in electric motor to turn the drive shaft! Cachunk,cachunk!
But it was another five years before electronic calculators got to 15 digits, and some still don't have that many.
Some students had a mechanical calculator that worked with a stylus, sliding small metal rails right and left to count. But it was only for add and subtract.
One day the science teacher brought in a big box and set something up on the big table in the library. It was one of the Mits Altair computers. 256 Bytes of memory, one CPU, and a clock speed that you could actually see flickering the lights. LOTS of lights and toggle switches, but no terminal at all.
After high school, the "Tech Center" that I went to had an actual computer, and I got to play with punch cards! ... Once a week.
Should be... but:
In actual history, it has occurred many times that the high-tech weapons were not more effective than the low-tech, if the low-tech is used with the correct tactics.
Consider the WW2 P40 "Flying Tigers". The P40 was old tech, but Chennalt devised tactics to minimise the Japanese advantage.
Consider the problem in Vietnam with our fighters that were armed with missiles, but had no guns. Note that attack fighters now have guns.
Of course, BSG does not say a whole lot about tactics. But it seems to be implied...
To be fair to BSG (both of them), one of the plot elements at the start is that the computerized equipment is "hacked". Presumedly including the smart missiles. So that the only attack weapon they have is the human occupied older model fighters.
...
Of course, there are some violations of physics in B5 too: Shots make noise in space, and you can hear the engine noise of passing ships.
Sound can be carried by electromagnetic fields, and other energy fields, not just by air.
Before patents, tech was often lost when the originators died or lost a war. It has been said that the present technology "explosion" is mostly due to the patent systems getting tech documented in multiple places, so it is less likely to be lost.
Before you advocate destroying something that works, consider all the things before it that were disasters. If you make a new one, it is much more likely to be one of those than something better.
On the other hand, giving patents on obvious things is criminal. And, in any case, they are supposed to be Limited not perminant.
The new way:
Write the specs, manuals and test docs in parallel with the code, using the same versioning methods. Put dates and version numbers (not neccessarily the same as the code) on all documents, manuals and specs. Include them in the version-control systems.
Leaving the manuals for last is hopelessly outdated. ;-)
I have seen Microsoft Security Essentials corrupt databases and software development files.
If you use it, make sure you set it to exclude Database folders, including local ISAM files used by small programs, and exclude any software development folder trees. Once you set exclusions for the scans, it seems ok.
Do that, and you get stuck working on the same software forever! Bad idea...
And, if you change your mind and want to train someone else on it, it is a lot of extra grunt work to fix.
Do it right, hand it to the peons, and get to do more. And get to have a team to run!
Followup - assuming that the marketing drone affirms the chatbot as human, would that mean that the chatbot passed the Turing test, or that the "human" marketing drone failed it?
I think that would depend on whether the chatbot thought the marketer was human...
Have you talked to any high-school kids recently? That is how they talk!
Many people do not actually use words, thay talk in code-phrases. Like the old pictogram writing.
The computers are not that far behind that. Of course, if a person can't understand what you are saying, then the computer probably has little chance to. And, that is the problem with voice. People or computers, it has low reliability.
That would lower everybody's blood pressure! Seems like a good move. All food will taste like shit, though...
Actually, it would not lower most people's blood pressure. Without salt, people die. Check out "heat stroke".