I just figured as long as you're piling on all the CPU-intensive things you could think of, all at "nice -19", then why not add one more. But I guess I'm with you, in that I'm more likely to complain about turning DVD blanks into toasters than getting fragged because my fps are too slow.
OTOH, if you have several options to provide the next meal, working with the American waste *looks* like the best, and you don't know that it's toxic, that's a different matter.
Boy, I'd like to be able to agree with you on that one. But I can't.
Aside from the question of unified will, which is big enough, we get to the point of physical possiblities. We're learning a lot about climate, weather, modeling, etc. But I suspect that the experts will be the first to admit that they're not experts. Engineering a climate is a far different thing from trying to decypher what is happening with one. We also know that some of these processes are very-long scale, certainly longer than quarterly profit reports or even election cycles, which only compounds the unified will problem.
What if the North Atlantic Conveyer stops? (for a theatrical example) Let's presume we want to restart it. How do we do that? What if defrosting permafrost releases CO2 that dwarfs what we've released? How can we possibly compensate? What if the Earth really WAS headed back into an ice age before we got going with the industrial revolution? What if global warming is what's keeping the climate friendly? What if this is all so danged nonlinear? What if a friendly climate is NOT the norm? What if the Earth is *normally* encrusted with ice, or a hot jungle? What if our entire development as an intelligent species has been during an unusually friendly inter-ice-age?
I never got that many nuisance calls, and that hasn't changed. I figured that the Do Not Call list was a centralized repository of live phone numbers, and I would get more calls through misuse than I get without it.
* We eat dinner as a family, and unless someone is expecting a call, we just don't answer the phone, then. * As a general practice, I NEVER say "Hello" a second time when answering, if it appears that nobody is on the other side of the line. Perhaps it's urban legend, but someone once told me that getting the second "Hello" is the trigger for demon dialers used by telemarketers to hand off to a human. * Again, without specific expectations of a call, we have the phone disconnected at night. We used to be one digit off of a local police dept.
>Guess what, Intel doesn't make motherboards either. They contract with Asus or another company to sell their >motherboards with the Intel brand on it.
Two points: 1. Intel design chipsets for their CPUs. AMD designed one, a while back, and otherwise relies on 3rd party. 2. Intel may well have designed, engineered, and spec'ed the board, regardless of who makes it.
So this is really a statement that Intel has better control of delivering their CPU capabilities to the end user than AMD, independent of the raw capabilities of those CPUs.
>I haven't ever really understood what the RIAA hopes to achieve...
It's quite simple. It could be summarized thus:
NNN people pirated OUR music. We RUINED them, We DESTROYED their lives, and made it so they will NEVER financially recover. They will NEVER creep meaningfully above the poverty line before they die.
We're fully ready to DESTROY your life, too.
So don't pirate our music, or we will.
Oh, but please buy it. Buy LOTS of it. At OUR prices.
Oh heck, this argument can be simply stated, on both sides, with 3 words:
1: Guns 2: Alcohol 3: Cigarettes
The reason I say *both* sides is that all of my examples only hurt mere people, and sales send profits to well-connected corporate donors. Selling a naked PC is certainly less deadly than all of my examples put together, but it only benefits mere consumers. Arguably the hardware revenue of that naked PC has simply been transfered from another supplier who wouldn't sell that way. Besides, most likely neither PC supplier was politically well-connected. OTOH, the naked PC deprives Microsoft of the "well-deserved" profits, and they ARE politically well-connected.
Oh, plus think "movies" and "music" for a deadly contrast to guns, alcohol, and cigarettes.
"Our" government has been very protective, indeed.
I have a pet theory that says that transportation is seriously undervalued, and that it's distorting our society in terrible ways. The whole issue of locality of manufacturing changes based on transportation cost, and if transportation is undervalued, manufacturing gets over-centralized, including to the point of being centralized across the world. Cheap transportation, even if temporary, assuming that "temporary" is long enough, can destroy the economic fundamentals of a region.
It also comes out in lesser ways, like driving to the big-box instead of the local hardware store, or driving to the super-duper-market instead of the local grocery. It even shows up in the lack of sidewalks at big-box complexes or even neighborhoods. (like mine) If you choose to not-drive, you're risking your life by the side of the road.
Hopefully the rise in fuel prices as we pass peak oil will be slow enough to allow at least some adaptation.
IMHO, it's too late to fight global warming. It's time to learn to live with it. That's what the whole "tipping point" thing is about. It's on it's way, and if we stopped cold-turkey today, it would still tip. About all we might be able to influence is how far and how long it tips - maybe. But there are other valid reasons for still trying to control emissions, like Peak Oil or air quality, etc.
Presuming your hovercar is the air-skirt variety, send them a "road surface cleaning" bill (for blowing the dust and dirt off) tha just happens to equal your road-use taxes. If your hovercar is of the anti-gravity type, you should be paying MORE taxes for the damage you're doing to the space-time continuum of the road area.
Every now an then a semi will have a poster on the back, "This vehicle pays $$$$ in road-use taxes," with the implication that they're paying more than their fair share. From what I've heard, even at the higher tax rate, semis cause far more road wear than they pay to repair. In other words, they're paying less than their fair share.
Perhaps adding a per-mile component to taxes is a good idea going forward, but I'm going to guess that current hybrids cause far less road wear than other, heavier vehicles.
A friend of ours has the ultimate rejoinder to telephone psychics:
"If they were really psychic, they'd call you!"
Several years back, when I knew this friend was coming over for dinner, I arranged with a female co-worker to call her at our house, and begin with, "Hello (name), I'm a psychic, and you're having a problem with..." (I filled the co-worker in with a not-too-personal problem.) Something came up, and the whole thing fell through. Darn.
From another perspective, the greatest wrong Microsoft has done hasn't been selling mediocre software at inflated prices and snuffing all competition, at least not directly.
Their greatest wrong has been as the poster boy for the "Tax Model", where by owning bottleneck IP you can become extraordinarily rich.
It has become an envied and copied business model, and the rush of everyone trying to do so has perverted the concept of the patent. It's not their fault - not directly, but they started the trend. This business model is also IMHO the end of technological leadership for the US.
No. It's a ploy to distract us with a "Mom and apple pie" issue, so that we won't worry about what's really happening, and so that we'll grant powers that can be used for other purposes.
Actually, this popped up some time back on Slashdot.
Back at the beginning of the 20th century, Theatre was in New York, but the new movie industry grew up in Hollywood.
Why, because the Theatre industry had the whole thing sewn up, from the (now called) I.P. laws governing usage of productions to the workers, both on and back stage who brought them to life. Movies never had a chance, starting with all of this baggage. So they moved as far away as possible - to the opposite end of the country.
Nanotech *was* poised to be the Next Big Thing in the US, to take over after the Internet/computer wave.
But now our fascination/abuse of Intellectual Property has all but guaranteed that the boom will be anywhere BUT the US.
You're not the target market for the Revolution. You are the target market for the XBox 360/PS3.
I suspect Nintendo knows their target market well, and more likely their next generation will be HD, but for this generation the extra cost of HD is a liability.
Isn't it good to know that Intel is about to validate what we've been doing for some time, now. I felt so terribly exposed with my MythTV backend up in the study, streaming video to MythFrontends elsewhere in the house, until it became "Strategic." Of course I'm sure MythTV isn't "strategic" to Viiv.
As for cost, there's a PC up in the study, anyway. It's just a bit more powerful, has a bigger hard drive, and has a capture card to make it a MythTV backend. Yes, there's cost. But it's not a whole PC's worth of cost, just the additional stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
I just figured as long as you're piling on all the CPU-intensive things you could think of, all at "nice -19", then why not add one more.
But I guess I'm with you, in that I'm more likely to complain about turning DVD blanks into toasters than getting fragged because my fps are too slow.
Do you complain about the lousy framerate you get playing your FPS while the rest of this is happening?
Sure, why not? We've already got disposable posts on Slashdot.
If you knowingly make that tradeoff, fine.
OTOH, if you have several options to provide the next meal, working with the American waste *looks* like the best, and you don't know that it's toxic, that's a different matter.
Extend your list to outlawing the sale of used CDs and DVDs, and the ??AA will line up right behind you.
>If we can cause the problem, we can fix it.
Boy, I'd like to be able to agree with you on that one. But I can't.
Aside from the question of unified will, which is big enough, we get to the point of physical possiblities. We're learning a lot about climate, weather, modeling, etc. But I suspect that the experts will be the first to admit that they're not experts. Engineering a climate is a far different thing from trying to decypher what is happening with one. We also know that some of these processes are very-long scale, certainly longer than quarterly profit reports or even election cycles, which only compounds the unified will problem.
What if the North Atlantic Conveyer stops? (for a theatrical example) Let's presume we want to restart it. How do we do that?
What if defrosting permafrost releases CO2 that dwarfs what we've released? How can we possibly compensate?
What if the Earth really WAS headed back into an ice age before we got going with the industrial revolution? What if global warming is what's keeping the climate friendly?
What if this is all so danged nonlinear? What if a friendly climate is NOT the norm? What if the Earth is *normally* encrusted with ice, or a hot jungle? What if our entire development as an intelligent species has been during an unusually friendly inter-ice-age?
Enquiring minds want to know.
I never signed up for the Do Not Call list.
I never got that many nuisance calls, and that hasn't changed. I figured that the Do Not Call list was a centralized repository of live phone numbers, and I would get more calls through misuse than I get without it.
* We eat dinner as a family, and unless someone is expecting a call, we just don't answer the phone, then.
* As a general practice, I NEVER say "Hello" a second time when answering, if it appears that nobody is on the other side of the line. Perhaps it's urban legend, but someone once told me that getting the second "Hello" is the trigger for demon dialers used by telemarketers to hand off to a human.
* Again, without specific expectations of a call, we have the phone disconnected at night. We used to be one digit off of a local police dept.
Poor guy, Gitmo for him.
>Guess what, Intel doesn't make motherboards either. They contract with Asus or another company to sell their
>motherboards with the Intel brand on it.
Two points:
1. Intel design chipsets for their CPUs. AMD designed one, a while back, and otherwise relies on 3rd party.
2. Intel may well have designed, engineered, and spec'ed the board, regardless of who makes it.
So this is really a statement that Intel has better control of delivering their CPU capabilities to the end user than AMD, independent of the raw capabilities of those CPUs.
>I haven't ever really understood what the RIAA hopes to achieve...
It's quite simple. It could be summarized thus:
NNN people pirated OUR music. We RUINED them, We DESTROYED their lives, and made it so they will NEVER financially recover. They will NEVER creep meaningfully above the poverty line before they die.
We're fully ready to DESTROY your life, too.
So don't pirate our music, or we will.
Oh, but please buy it. Buy LOTS of it. At OUR prices.
Oh heck, this argument can be simply stated, on both sides, with 3 words:
1: Guns
2: Alcohol
3: Cigarettes
The reason I say *both* sides is that all of my examples only hurt mere people, and sales send profits to well-connected corporate donors. Selling a naked PC is certainly less deadly than all of my examples put together, but it only benefits mere consumers. Arguably the hardware revenue of that naked PC has simply been transfered from another supplier who wouldn't sell that way. Besides, most likely neither PC supplier was politically well-connected. OTOH, the naked PC deprives Microsoft of the "well-deserved" profits, and they ARE politically well-connected.
Oh, plus think "movies" and "music" for a deadly contrast to guns, alcohol, and cigarettes.
"Our" government has been very protective, indeed.
Just for your information, and excuse me if you already know this...
1 44199647/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-9452147-5242510?s=d vd&v=glance&n=130
Though I've never actually seen it myself, there was a well-received movie adaptation of "Flowers for Algernon," called "Charly", starring Cliff Robertson. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062794/ Come to think of it, one of these days I need to put out the effort to see it. Looks like it's stilll available.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002KPHWY/qid=1
I have a pet theory that says that transportation is seriously undervalued, and that it's distorting our society in terrible ways. The whole issue of locality of manufacturing changes based on transportation cost, and if transportation is undervalued, manufacturing gets over-centralized, including to the point of being centralized across the world. Cheap transportation, even if temporary, assuming that "temporary" is long enough, can destroy the economic fundamentals of a region.
It also comes out in lesser ways, like driving to the big-box instead of the local hardware store, or driving to the super-duper-market instead of the local grocery. It even shows up in the lack of sidewalks at big-box complexes or even neighborhoods. (like mine) If you choose to not-drive, you're risking your life by the side of the road.
Hopefully the rise in fuel prices as we pass peak oil will be slow enough to allow at least some adaptation.
IMHO, it's too late to fight global warming. It's time to learn to live with it. That's what the whole "tipping point" thing is about. It's on it's way, and if we stopped cold-turkey today, it would still tip. About all we might be able to influence is how far and how long it tips - maybe. But there are other valid reasons for still trying to control emissions, like Peak Oil or air quality, etc.
Presuming your hovercar is the air-skirt variety, send them a "road surface cleaning" bill (for blowing the dust and dirt off) tha just happens to equal your road-use taxes. If your hovercar is of the anti-gravity type, you should be paying MORE taxes for the damage you're doing to the space-time continuum of the road area.
Every now an then a semi will have a poster on the back, "This vehicle pays $$$$ in road-use taxes," with the implication that they're paying more than their fair share. From what I've heard, even at the higher tax rate, semis cause far more road wear than they pay to repair. In other words, they're paying less than their fair share.
Perhaps adding a per-mile component to taxes is a good idea going forward, but I'm going to guess that current hybrids cause far less road wear than other, heavier vehicles.
Read "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman.
Did you ever consider the consequences to the star, when you wish upon it?
A friend of ours has the ultimate rejoinder to telephone psychics:
"If they were really psychic, they'd call you!"
Several years back, when I knew this friend was coming over for dinner, I arranged with a female co-worker to call her at our house, and begin with, "Hello (name), I'm a psychic, and you're having a problem with..." (I filled the co-worker in with a not-too-personal problem.) Something came up, and the whole thing fell through. Darn.
From another perspective, the greatest wrong Microsoft has done hasn't been selling mediocre software at inflated prices and snuffing all competition, at least not directly.
Their greatest wrong has been as the poster boy for the "Tax Model", where by owning bottleneck IP you can become extraordinarily rich.
It has become an envied and copied business model, and the rush of everyone trying to do so has perverted the concept of the patent. It's not their fault - not directly, but they started the trend. This business model is also IMHO the end of technological leadership for the US.
As my brother says, "We still live by the same Republican values we were raised with, it's just that the Republican party has moved."
Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont said essentially the same thing before he left the party, and went Independent.
No. It's a ploy to distract us with a "Mom and apple pie" issue, so that we won't worry about what's really happening, and so that we'll grant powers that can be used for other purposes.
Actually, this popped up some time back on Slashdot.
Back at the beginning of the 20th century, Theatre was in New York, but the new movie industry grew up in Hollywood.
Why, because the Theatre industry had the whole thing sewn up, from the (now called) I.P. laws governing usage of productions to the workers, both on and back stage who brought them to life. Movies never had a chance, starting with all of this baggage. So they moved as far away as possible - to the opposite end of the country.
Nanotech *was* poised to be the Next Big Thing in the US, to take over after the Internet/computer wave.
But now our fascination/abuse of Intellectual Property has all but guaranteed that the boom will be anywhere BUT the US.
So to take over the plan, you crack the pilot, or crack the command channel.
It would be interesting to do a rigorous security analysis of the 2 options.
You're not the target market for the Revolution.
You are the target market for the XBox 360/PS3.
I suspect Nintendo knows their target market well, and more likely their next generation will be HD, but for this generation the extra cost of HD is a liability.
I like the idea of the MediaMVP, but I'd really like to have a full MythFrontend, which it appears not to offer.
Isn't it good to know that Intel is about to validate what we've been doing for some time, now. I felt so terribly exposed with my MythTV backend up in the study, streaming video to MythFrontends elsewhere in the house, until it became "Strategic." Of course I'm sure MythTV isn't "strategic" to Viiv.
As for cost, there's a PC up in the study, anyway. It's just a bit more powerful, has a bigger hard drive, and has a capture card to make it a MythTV backend. Yes, there's cost. But it's not a whole PC's worth of cost, just the additional stuff.