I was reading some discussion board a while ago when someone with a physics background claimed that it actually was possible to change lead to gold. All you had to do was take a thin strip of lead and bombard it with beta radiation for a while. He said it wasn't practical enough to make a profit out of, but it was possible.
Actually Einstein was very concerned with the transmission of information. He came up with special relativity after realizing that there was no way to actually determine absolute simulatneity of when events happen according to two difference reference frames because it takes time to observe an event when viewed from a distance. The transmission of energy, matter and gravity are just some ways to transmit information. If you want more details, read "Relativity, The Special and the General Theory" from the man himself.
Quantum mechanics is a natural result of relativity. To say that relativity does not preclude quantum entanglement because it doesn not consider quantum phenomenon is absurd. It is because quantum entanglement cannot transmit information faster than light that it does not preclude it. Look it up. I agree that Einstein was wrong about deterministic reality. He never seemed to be able to accept the logical conclusions of quantum mechanics.
As far as the often-touted FTL phenomenon is concerned you might want to read this. No thing has gone fster than light yet.
It is impossible to send useful information faster than light as this would be against a basic law of relativity.
The only thing you're guaranteed is that once the state of one photon is collapsed then its entagled photon is as well. You have no control over what state said photons are collapsed to, just that they will go to opposite states from one another.
If a taxi cab refuses to give me a ride home because I'm black, that's discrimination. If they refuse to give me a ride home because I don't have eight dollars, well, that just strikes me as the way of the world -- whether it seems fair on the surface or not.
Yeah, but whereas a cab ride is a service, freedom of speech is a right. If defending free speech is reduced to a service to which those without the funds to seek it have no recourse, then free speech will only apply to the people who can pay for the service.
Personally, I think the Penny Arcade dudes should just ask for help from the ACLU or some other organization as others here have suggested.
In no way am I in favor of Saddam. When he and his sons are removed I will personally jump for joy.
My biggest problem is with the way the current administration is handling things in this conflict. A smart way to make a case for a war in Iraq would have been to say something like, "Look, here is the situation we have now and here are its causes. There are things in the past we have done to exacerbate the problem, but we were dealing with past tyrannies the best way we knew how at the time. Here are what we've learned from our past actions and here are the steps we will take to prevent more tyranny/terrorism to result from a war and the rebuilding of Iraq."
That I can live with. I might still disagree that war is the best way to handle things, but at least I'll be sure that my government is truly acting in our best interest.
Now compare this with what we have. First they claim Iraq is funding Al Qaeda and then we hear nothing more about it. Next they present us with shakey evidence that Iraq is builing more weapons of mass destruction, including the President citing a forged document. (That's not to say that Iraq doesn't have weapons of mass destruction. It's just that the case the US made for it was half-assed and suspect). Now the claim is that the purpose of the war is to free the Iraqi people. We get there and guess what - most of the people there resent our support of Israel and resentment turns to hate when we drop bombs on their country.
After all is said and done and Saddam is removed, it's hard to believe that an administration that has acted with such incompetence is capable of preventing both an increase of terrorism because of the war and the establishment of another tyrannical regime in place of Saddam.
I know I'm not one of the US troops risking my ass on the front lines right now and I will probably never go through as bad a situation as they are now, but this war has me stressed out all the same. Ugh.
wrong. what creates enemies are oppressive regimes that promote hate for everything american.
And we should know. We've been creating/supporting these oppressive regimes ever since the Cold War began, including Iraq. Anyone want to place bets on what new oppressive regime the current dimwitted administration will create after Saddam is gone?
Actually, all movies directed by the Coen Brothers are great. Personally, The Big Lebowski is my *least* favorite of theirs, even though I still liked it.
Watch 'em all; you might be pleasantly surprised with what you find.
Re:How can an OS be 3D?
on
Opencroquet
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· Score: 1
errrrr.... one more "of arrays" there. Yeah.
Re:How can an OS be 3D?
on
Opencroquet
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· Score: 2, Funny
Yeah, but if the kernel has enough arrays of arrays in its implementation then it might be considered a 3D OS.;-)
Yeah coincidence. I never knew the name of that guy, but I always thought he'd be the perfect actor for Wormtongue if he were alive today. And here I find out his name was Peter Lorre, all due to a completely unrelated reference to LOTR. Hmmmmmm...
Does anyone besides me suspect that Futurama "borrowed" their Mom character from Twinkle Murdock (sp?) from the episode "Gateway Shuffle" in Cowboy Bebop? Just checking.
"Getting twice the speed every 18 months is nothing when dealing with exponential growth problems."
Actually getting twice the speed every 18 months IS exponential growth. A simple 2^n. It's true that such growth is nothing compared to keeping up with the problem if you decided to arbitrarily increase the board size to 21x21, 23x23, or whatever, but we're trying for a half-way decent 19x19 "solution" specifically.
But, yeah, doubling speed every 18 months still leaves a lot of time for us to get a handle on things unless we get clever.
"Again, it's algorithm work. More work has gone into chess algorithms and "thinking" than has gone into Go. Chess is more popular than Go, hence a much more attractive target for most people to try to write algorithms for."
You conveniently ignored the most important statistic from the post you were responding to. I'll reiterate to refresh your memory:
Chess tree size = 10^50 (looks big) Go tree size = 10^170 (puts above to shame)
Do you honestly believe a little more time spent on the algorithms for playing Chess is the primary reason computers can dominate humans in Chess and not even touch a competent one in Go given such an unimaginable exponential difference in complexity?
That Go is a more complicated thing for a computer to deal with than Chess is a fact completely independent of which game you prefer.
Go interests me more because it offers much more freedom when it comes to what constitutes a good move. When I'm playing chess I'm constantly forced to consider petty shit like, "Oh gee, if I lose that tiny-ass pawn how am I going to make up for it later on." For such a big tree size, about mid-game in chess I always feel like I'm in a freakin' straight jacket, my options become so limited. It's at about that point I begin wondering if there was something fun I could be doing in the meantime.
I remember hearing somewhere that even given the rapid acceleration of computer power over time, it would take approximately 2 decades for computers to be a challenge to a decent Go player if they continue with the brute force method. Time to develop smarter algorithms.
"The movie simplifies the story by just putting him under Sauron. He's basically the center of all evil in the world anyway, and everything's his fault."
Actually, the true center and creator of evil in Middle Earth was Melkor/Morgoth whom Sauron served as right-hand man in the First Age. In the Second and Third Ages Sauron was simply continuing the malice that had come from his master in the first place.
Re:not faith, but simple (circular) logic.
on
Ask Larry Wall
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· Score: 1
Where does "Science" say that the universe couldn't have always existed? It looks very likey that there was a Big Bang, but that doesn't mean that nothing came before it.
You can't say that God created existence when God is already an example of something that exists. It makes no sense. What created God? And if you say that God always existed, then why can't we say that about the universe? Why does God have to be a who (a personal God)?
From a scientific viewpoint, the concept of God adds more questions than it answers.
Ummmm... you're comparing "hurt" caused by badly-devised copy-protection schemes to seeing your friends die around you while you risk death or crippling injuries at 18 years old for a losing cause?
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, that sounds right. It was a while ago since I read it, so I probably got the type of radiation being used mixed up in my head.
Can anyone here confirm or deny this?
Quantum mechanics is a natural result of relativity. To say that relativity does not preclude quantum entanglement because it doesn not consider quantum phenomenon is absurd. It is because quantum entanglement cannot transmit information faster than light that it does not preclude it. Look it up. I agree that Einstein was wrong about deterministic reality. He never seemed to be able to accept the logical conclusions of quantum mechanics.
As far as the often-touted FTL phenomenon is concerned you might want to read this. No thing has gone fster than light yet.
It is impossible to send useful information faster than light as this would be against a basic law of relativity.
The only thing you're guaranteed is that once the state of one photon is collapsed then its entagled photon is as well. You have no control over what state said photons are collapsed to, just that they will go to opposite states from one another.
I'm pretty sure that's how it works.
Indeed it is written in C. That would mean 5 would have to be rewritten to...
int x;
for( x=0; x10; x++ )
Yeah, but whereas a cab ride is a service, freedom of speech is a right. If defending free speech is reduced to a service to which those without the funds to seek it have no recourse, then free speech will only apply to the people who can pay for the service.
Personally, I think the Penny Arcade dudes should just ask for help from the ACLU or some other organization as others here have suggested.
Then you probably should have read "Brave New World" as well. That probably would be the more appropriate literary reference.
In no way am I in favor of Saddam. When he and his sons are removed I will personally jump for joy.
My biggest problem is with the way the current administration is handling things in this conflict. A smart way to make a case for a war in Iraq would have been to say something like, "Look, here is the situation we have now and here are its causes. There are things in the past we have done to exacerbate the problem, but we were dealing with past tyrannies the best way we knew how at the time. Here are what we've learned from our past actions and here are the steps we will take to prevent more tyranny/terrorism to result from a war and the rebuilding of Iraq."
That I can live with. I might still disagree that war is the best way to handle things, but at least I'll be sure that my government is truly acting in our best interest.
Now compare this with what we have. First they claim Iraq is funding Al Qaeda and then we hear nothing more about it. Next they present us with shakey evidence that Iraq is builing more weapons of mass destruction, including the President citing a forged document. (That's not to say that Iraq doesn't have weapons of mass destruction. It's just that the case the US made for it was half-assed and suspect). Now the claim is that the purpose of the war is to free the Iraqi people. We get there and guess what - most of the people there resent our support of Israel and resentment turns to hate when we drop bombs on their country.
After all is said and done and Saddam is removed, it's hard to believe that an administration that has acted with such incompetence is capable of preventing both an increase of terrorism because of the war and the establishment of another tyrannical regime in place of Saddam.
I know I'm not one of the US troops risking my ass on the front lines right now and I will probably never go through as bad a situation as they are now, but this war has me stressed out all the same. Ugh.
And we should know. We've been creating/supporting these oppressive regimes ever since the Cold War began, including Iraq. Anyone want to place bets on what new oppressive regime the current dimwitted administration will create after Saddam is gone?
Actually, all movies directed by the Coen Brothers are great. Personally, The Big Lebowski is my *least* favorite of theirs, even though I still liked it.
Watch 'em all; you might be pleasantly surprised with what you find.
errrrr.... one more "of arrays" there. Yeah.
Yeah, but if the kernel has enough arrays of arrays in its implementation then it might be considered a 3D OS. ;-)
Yeah coincidence. I never knew the name of that guy, but I always thought he'd be the perfect actor for Wormtongue if he were alive today. And here I find out his name was Peter Lorre, all due to a completely unrelated reference to LOTR. Hmmmmmm...
"Do you get it or shall I explain it on the same level I explain things to my seven-year old boy?"
Whoa! Totally uncalled for. You just went from zero to asshole in about 2.5 seconds, I reckon. Lookin' for a record?
Does anyone besides me suspect that Futurama "borrowed" their Mom character from Twinkle Murdock (sp?) from the episode "Gateway Shuffle" in Cowboy Bebop? Just checking.
...if the Earth was an organism, each of us human beings would be one of its cancerous cells.
"Getting twice the speed every 18 months is nothing when dealing with exponential growth problems."
Actually getting twice the speed every 18 months IS exponential growth. A simple 2^n. It's true that such growth is nothing compared to keeping up with the problem if you decided to arbitrarily increase the board size to 21x21, 23x23, or whatever, but we're trying for a half-way decent 19x19 "solution" specifically.
But, yeah, doubling speed every 18 months still leaves a lot of time for us to get a handle on things unless we get clever.
"Again, it's algorithm work. More work has gone into chess algorithms and "thinking" than has gone into Go. Chess is more popular than Go, hence a much more attractive target for most people to try to write algorithms for."
You conveniently ignored the most important statistic from the post you were responding to. I'll reiterate to refresh your memory:
Chess tree size = 10^50 (looks big)
Go tree size = 10^170 (puts above to shame)
Do you honestly believe a little more time spent on the algorithms for playing Chess is the primary reason computers can dominate humans in Chess and not even touch a competent one in Go given such an unimaginable exponential difference in complexity?
That Go is a more complicated thing for a computer to deal with than Chess is a fact completely independent of which game you prefer.
Go interests me more because it offers much more freedom when it comes to what constitutes a good move. When I'm playing chess I'm constantly forced to consider petty shit like, "Oh gee, if I lose that tiny-ass pawn how am I going to make up for it later on." For such a big tree size, about mid-game in chess I always feel like I'm in a freakin' straight jacket, my options become so limited. It's at about that point I begin wondering if there was something fun I could be doing in the meantime.
I remember hearing somewhere that even given the rapid acceleration of computer power over time, it would take approximately 2 decades for computers to be a challenge to a decent Go player if they continue with the brute force method. Time to develop smarter algorithms.
"The movie simplifies the story by just putting him under Sauron. He's basically the center of all evil in the world anyway, and everything's his fault."
Actually, the true center and creator of evil in Middle Earth was Melkor/Morgoth whom Sauron served as right-hand man in the First Age. In the Second and Third Ages Sauron was simply continuing the malice that had come from his master in the first place.
Will somebody please, please mod this up?
ROFL
Where does "Science" say that the universe couldn't have always existed? It looks very likey that there was a Big Bang, but that doesn't mean that nothing came before it.
You can't say that God created existence when God is already an example of something that exists. It makes no sense. What created God? And if you say that God always existed, then why can't we say that about the universe? Why does God have to be a who (a personal God)?
From a scientific viewpoint, the concept of God adds more questions than it answers.
Ummmm... you're comparing "hurt" caused by badly-devised copy-protection schemes to seeing your friends die around you while you risk death or crippling injuries at 18 years old for a losing cause?
You need a reality check in a bad way.
First of all, this analogy doesn't work.
Secondly, even if it did work Go is far far older than chess anyways. So it would be more accurate to call chess 'tiny moving go'.
Actually, I remember Linus saying in a magazine interview a while back that he is an Atheist. I think that most people from Finland are.
Do you want to oppress him?