putting genesis on there in lots of languages is neat sounding, but not very productive. what -should- be done is this:
There should be a special set of documentation (etched on plastic maybe) which explains basic mathematics, and defines a simple language. I suggest using something like lojban because it is designed to be logical. once the archeologists are able to read lojban pretty well, -then- give them instructions on what the disc is, and a basic instructional course in English or whatever language stuff is put on there in.
Also, making sure that the disc and all the documentation for it is visible is going to be especially hard. Whether or not the disc can survive 10000 years withour damage in a pristine room, well, the Egyptian tombs were thought to be secure too.
All in all, tohugh, it's a noble idea, and has gotten me thinking about what sort of pictograms would have to be used as the introduction; an entertaining puzzle.
There was an article a while back about a really really really fast computer which only did gravitational computation; wouldn't that be usefull here? they seem to be wanting to calculate the interactions of zillions of particles, and this could be the way to do it. okay, prolly not -just- gravity, but i'm just noticing the parrallels.
well, the example of a big huge internet worm strikes me as something which will probably happen. but it seems to me that m$ is probably thinking about it too... imagine if there just happened to be an outbreak of a linux worm? a linux -only- worm? it sure would help microsoft. and haven't they been hiring *nix people recently? maybe they're busy as we speak, happily shooting DOS's at our favorite operating systems, looking for a way in. i can just see the headlines: Y2K Rolls Over. NT has minor glitches. Linux systems crash worldwide. never mind the fact that the linux systems crashed because of a worm. reporters don't know the difference. geez, talk about FUD... anyone got any thoughts to cheer me up on this? --robin
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With windows, What You See Is -ALL- You Get. It gets aggrivating, which is why I stopped using Windows. Teehee... consider this scenario:
The GUI setup utilities don't have all the options you want. (Linuxconf, Control Panel, etc...)
Linux:
Go online, find documentation, and modify the actual config files. Not particularly hard, provided you have the brains to use a text editor.
Windows:
Regedit. Reboot, to see if it worked. Repeat.
And thus, I rest my case.
There should be a special set of documentation (etched on plastic maybe) which explains basic mathematics, and defines a simple language. I suggest using something like lojban because it is designed to be logical. once the archeologists are able to read lojban pretty well, -then- give them instructions on what the disc is, and a basic instructional course in English or whatever language stuff is put on there in.
Also, making sure that the disc and all the documentation for it is visible is going to be especially hard. Whether or not the disc can survive 10000 years withour damage in a pristine room, well, the Egyptian tombs were thought to be secure too.
All in all, tohugh, it's a noble idea, and has gotten me thinking about what sort of pictograms would have to be used as the introduction; an entertaining puzzle.
There was an article a while back about a really really really fast computer which only did gravitational computation; wouldn't that be usefull here? they seem to be wanting to calculate the interactions of zillions of particles, and this could be the way to do it. okay, prolly not -just- gravity, but i'm just noticing the parrallels.
doesn't this mean the name 'Pentium' becomes public property? like with 'Kleenex' and 'Band-Aid'?
well, the example of a big huge internet worm strikes me as something which will probably happen. but it seems to me that m$ is probably thinking about it too... imagine if there just happened to be an outbreak of a linux worm? a linux -only- worm? it sure would help microsoft. and haven't they been hiring *nix people recently? maybe they're busy as we speak, happily shooting DOS's at our favorite operating systems, looking for a way in. i can just see the headlines: Y2K Rolls Over. NT has minor glitches. Linux systems crash worldwide. never mind the fact that the linux systems crashed because of a worm. reporters don't know the difference. geez, talk about FUD... anyone got any thoughts to cheer me up on this? --robin