It might be interesting to note that the cubane site listed in the piece also indicated pharmaceutical uses for some cubane compounds (one can potentially inhibit HIV, another could be used in cancer treatment). I would encourage further research on that basis alone.
Much like anything, it's not inherently good or evil, it only becomes one or the other in the way that it is used.
When I first heard about SETI@Home last summer I was thrilled; ever since I was a child I had been fascinated by outer space and the possibilities of life beyond our planet. I installed the software and even watched it process as I was going to sleep at night. I kept diligent records of my own peaks and high Gaussians and even had a map where I pinpointed where in the sky my data had come from. (And of course I studied the stats on the SETI homepage trying desperately to surpass everyone else on my domain in units completed. I don't have a fast processor; I never did.)
Well, I don't do that anymore. I took it off my screensaver after a while and then when I went to DSL and had it automatically connect, most of the time I forgot it was there. But still, I'm glad to have it and glad to have the opportunity to participate; in a small way it's like fulfilling a dream from my childhood. I thank all those involved for that.
As for the new version coming out, I'm crossing my fingers that it'll fix the connection problems I've been experiencing ever since we networked our computers and I no longer have a direct connection to the Internet. Even though I don't look at it much anymore, I think it's a worthwhile project--both for the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence and for distibuted computing.
Having more information about a user might help you to put their comments in something resembling a proper context, but dismissing them out of hand based on a single trait (occupation or age) is prejudicial and short-sighted. Yes, most of the flames I've seen have been posted by the immature, but immature is not necessarily the same thing as young. A fourteen-year old is certainly capable of making a more insightful comment that a 35-year-old sysadmin, depending on the individuals in question, and judging them without reading them is doing both a disservice. [This is how I interpreted the comment "...reduce the time it takes to hit the NEXT button to zero.", seeming to imply that you would not even take the time to see what it was about.]
I does disturb me that providing more information about myself (such as gender, age, education) might cause me to be discriminated against in a forum that I consider to be freer of social biases that the rest of my environment; it disturbs me even more that after a bad day and a bunch of bad posts, I might, given that kind of information, find myself the one doing the discriminating.
Slashdot Mirror
It might be interesting to note that the cubane site listed in the piece also indicated pharmaceutical uses for some cubane compounds (one can potentially inhibit HIV, another could be used in cancer treatment). I would encourage further research on that basis alone.
Much like anything, it's not inherently good or evil, it only becomes one or the other in the way that it is used.
When I first heard about SETI@Home last summer I was thrilled; ever since I was a child I had been fascinated by outer space and the possibilities of life beyond our planet. I installed the software and even watched it process as I was going to sleep at night. I kept diligent records of my own peaks and high Gaussians and even had a map where I pinpointed where in the sky my data had come from. (And of course I studied the stats on the SETI homepage trying desperately to surpass everyone else on my domain in units completed. I don't have a fast processor; I never did.)
Well, I don't do that anymore. I took it off my screensaver after a while and then when I went to DSL and had it automatically connect, most of the time I forgot it was there. But still, I'm glad to have it and glad to have the opportunity to participate; in a small way it's like fulfilling a dream from my childhood. I thank all those involved for that.
As for the new version coming out, I'm crossing my fingers that it'll fix the connection problems I've been experiencing ever since we networked our computers and I no longer have a direct connection to the Internet. Even though I don't look at it much anymore, I think it's a worthwhile project--both for the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence and for distibuted computing.
Gothea
Having more information about a user might help you to put their comments in something resembling a proper context, but dismissing them out of hand based on a single trait (occupation or age) is prejudicial and short-sighted. Yes, most of the flames I've seen have been posted by the immature, but immature is not necessarily the same thing as young. A fourteen-year old is certainly capable of making a more insightful comment that a 35-year-old sysadmin, depending on the individuals in question, and judging them without reading them is doing both a disservice. [This is how I interpreted the comment "...reduce the time it takes to hit the NEXT button to zero.", seeming to imply that you would not even take the time to see what it was about.]
I does disturb me that providing more information about myself (such as gender, age, education) might cause me to be discriminated against in a forum that I consider to be freer of social biases that the rest of my environment; it disturbs me even more that after a bad day and a bunch of bad posts, I might, given that kind of information, find myself the one doing the discriminating.
Gothea