Here's an idea for moderation; pay-to-play. Sell moderation points at a dollar a piece, which will cut down on mismoderation. Then, give all the money you make to a good charity. Everyone wins.
What is all this obsession with chip power usage? I would think the rest of the computer--hard drive, fan, monitor--would consume the lion's share of the battery. And wouldn't drastic enough decreases in performance negate the lower power usage? I mean, if it takes twice as long to complete something, it doesn't really matter if it only uses half as much power. These aren't meant as flames, I'm genuinely curious as to these chips appeals (in laptops at least, I can appreciate how appropriate they might be for embedded systems). --
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...that's right, now I remember. Haven't seen it since it was in theaters. And I thought it was a pretty good movie, even though some things didn't make that much sense... --
Are there any volunteers who would like to have a microscopic robot working inside themselves? If the
technology isn't accepted by the populace, it's just like it doesn't exist.
Well it doesn't have to be accepted by everyone. If it will help me, I'll take it; I'm sure they'll get enough other takers to make it worthwhile to develop.
--
It was a rhetorical device, but if you want to overanalyze, fine.
1. I did not claim that every college-educated Slashdot read only O'Reilly books throughout their lives.
2. I urged them to read a book, an imperative which urges a future action; their prior reading habits never came up.
3. Your argument is weak.
I don't expect that much from slashdot in terms of non-technical understanding among it's readers, but I think this is a new low. Instead of basing your opinions of an entire freaking continent on I don't know, sitcoms or MTV videos or wherever you get your erroneous views of the world, why don't you try reading a book? And I don't mean one from O'Reilly. --
It's actually only a little bit more than a high-end DVD player, and about the same as that of a PC with similiar specs. I'm not saying it marks a high point in the evolution of humanity, but it doesn't look too bad. --
Re:Taking class to a global level
on
Disconnected
·
· Score: 2
It's obvious that a large portion of the world remains unconnected and lives a simpler life
Different, not necessarily simpler. There IS a difference, though we tend to equate technological advancement with complexity. --
I have seen people brought here by the truckload, not because of their experience or expertise, but just brains to be sold to someone to make 45 dollars per hour for the employer and to be paid measly 45-55k per year.
Measly? OK, H1-B workers are underpaid, nobody's arguing with that. But 45-55k isn't "measly". You can live quite comfortably on that much just about anywhere in the US, and only slightly less comfortably in San Francisco or Manhattan.
I guess the current state of the IT field is just spoiling everyone. When the next recession/depression comes the high-tech companies are going to be hit pretty hard; 45k won't seem so bad then.
--
I guess brute force beats good design again. Considering nVidia seems to be about 2 generations ahead of everyone else, I think ATI is going to need a little more than hyper-Z to catch up.
This is sort of off-topic, but I was wondering what peoples' experiences with FSAA are. I'm sort of in the market for a high-end card, but all the screenshots I've seen comparing FSAA to non-FSAA have been pretty underwhelming; images are almost unnoticeably smoothed, but FPS drops dramatically.
--
When will society at large actually get a move on, and stop trying to throw technology at things that should really be dealt with in education/learning
Society at large isn't doing this, a few Eudora programmers are. There's a difference. 6 billion people don't act on group consensus, you know.
Unless everyone else on earth is attending meetings I haven't been told about.
--
But the microwaves did have one completely unexpected effect: they decreased the time subjects took to react to words flashed onto the screen. When "yes" or "no" was displayed, the volunteers were quicker at pressing a matching button if the headset was switched on.
I should start using it more I guess...I really love unexpected results like that (like the suggestions that video games improve general visualization abilities) --
While they are arguably making an effort to deliver the goods on these needs, they can't address the political issues that keep food and medicine out of the areas needed (newsflash - most of the barriers to aid are political, not economic - see 80s Ethiopian famine for a case study).
They have problems addressing the political issues because their actions are done through consensus, which is very hard to get in the international community.
Why can't they address the political issues? The UN thinks it is above such things. This is why they are locked out of most of the useful change in developing nations.
The UN has trouble with the political issues because the member states want it that way.
I'm tempted to enter a "ROTFL", but seriosuly, the UN does little to keep or create peace - mostly it puts its own soldiers in harm's way with no mandate whatsoever. As a peacekeeper, the UN is a complete failure.
UN peacekeeping failures get a lot of press; successes don't. Check here for a listing of what they've accomplished. In my opinion, even if they don't succeed in a mission, I think it's important to have tried.
Sure - it creates elitist bodies that are answerable to no one, as they have no visible constituency. There is no real representation in any UN organization - its a loose thread of pseudo socialist ideals implemented by lifelong empolyees who respond to no one and have no notion of democratic accountability.
The UN's power rests partially with the general assembly, and mostly with the security council. Representatives are ambassadors; their job is to represent their own countries interests, and the bureacracies answer to them. Their budgets are at the mercy of the member states, and in general they're severely underfunded.
Its amazing that people think of this collection of appointed dupes as the ruling ideal - at the very best it stinks of a second-world planned-economy style operation that completely defies any efforts to further empower individuals over institutions.
The UN isn't meant to be a ruling body, and nobody, myself included, thinks it's any sort of ideal. What it is is simply two things; a forum for different nations to interact with each other, and a collection of what are essentially humanitarian agencies administered by it. The total amount of money spent by the UN to maintain itself and run it's operations is around 10 billion a year. This is less than half the budget of it's host city of New York. Last year a little over a dollar of your taxes (assuming you're an American) went to it. Money from the UN that enters the American economy (through expenditures, employees, etc) is more than what we spend on it. Personally, I think the work that the WHO and UNICEF does is worth that dollar a year by themselves.
--
I guess because it was moderated down it escaped everyone's notice, but it's been stored on Slashdot as well. Though it was kind of truncated, a lot of the code is there. --
Whenever I hear things like military-industrial-media complex it just makes me smile. For some reason it makes me think of a quote I enjoyed in a recent suck.com article: "With all the sweaty assurance of a faculty-lounge communist..."
You do realize the term was first used by Dwight Eisenhower? I don't think anyone would consider him a "faculty-lounge communist"... --
To be honest, I'm not really sure what that comment meant...
But anyway, it's nice to see a real large scale SETI operation like this. Even if there isn't intelligent life out there transmitting, which is entirely possible, I'm sure astronomers can think of other uses for something the article referred to as being "the most sensitive astronomical instrument yet built".
--
I agree with you on this one. I don't know why there's this insane drive to make laptops as powerful as their desktop contemporaries; desktops are already more powerful than most people need, and there's even less of a need for power with notebooks. I'd spend a thousand dollars on a P200 with 64 megs of RAM, a gigabyte HD, and a TFT screen if they could make it so it runs a day or two continuously. --
an amazingly high percentage [works] in computer, scientific and technical fields
Computer, yes, technical, yes, scientific, no. It seems to me that scientists on the average tend to be more atheistic, while engineers tend to be more religious.
--
Imagine I buy a lot of Anime DVDs. They could note this, and raise the prices by a buck or something.
I hate to tell you, but that's one of the underlying laws of economics. If something is in demand, the price will go to what the market will support, i.e. what people are willing to pay. It's been a while since I took an economics class, so maybe someone else can explain it better.
--
Slashdot Mirror
Here's an idea for moderation; pay-to-play. Sell moderation points at a dollar a piece, which will cut down on mismoderation. Then, give all the money you make to a good charity. Everyone wins.
How about it, Taco?
--
What is all this obsession with chip power usage? I would think the rest of the computer--hard drive, fan, monitor--would consume the lion's share of the battery. And wouldn't drastic enough decreases in performance negate the lower power usage? I mean, if it takes twice as long to complete something, it doesn't really matter if it only uses half as much power. These aren't meant as flames, I'm genuinely curious as to these chips appeals (in laptops at least, I can appreciate how appropriate they might be for embedded systems).
--
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...that's right, now I remember. Haven't seen it since it was in theaters. And I thought it was a pretty good movie, even though some things didn't make that much sense...
--
Grrr...I've been racking my brains trying to remember where that's from. I give up, tell me!
--
Are there any volunteers who would like to have a microscopic robot working inside themselves? If the technology isn't accepted by the populace, it's just like it doesn't exist.
Well it doesn't have to be accepted by everyone. If it will help me, I'll take it; I'm sure they'll get enough other takers to make it worthwhile to develop.
--
It was a rhetorical device, but if you want to overanalyze, fine.
1. I did not claim that every college-educated Slashdot read only O'Reilly books throughout their lives.
2. I urged them to read a book, an imperative which urges a future action; their prior reading habits never came up.
3. Your argument is weak.
--
I don't expect that much from slashdot in terms of non-technical understanding among it's readers, but I think this is a new low. Instead of basing your opinions of an entire freaking continent on I don't know, sitcoms or MTV videos or wherever you get your erroneous views of the world, why don't you try reading a book? And I don't mean one from O'Reilly.
--
It's actually only a little bit more than a high-end DVD player, and about the same as that of a PC with similiar specs. I'm not saying it marks a high point in the evolution of humanity, but it doesn't look too bad.
--
It's obvious that a large portion of the world remains unconnected and lives a simpler life
Different, not necessarily simpler. There IS a difference, though we tend to equate technological advancement with complexity.
--
You're speaking at 7 pm, and you're posting this at 5 am. Shouldn't you like get some sleep or something?
--
I have seen people brought here by the truckload, not because of their experience or expertise, but just brains to be sold to someone to make 45 dollars per hour for the employer and to be paid measly 45-55k per year.
Measly? OK, H1-B workers are underpaid, nobody's arguing with that. But 45-55k isn't "measly". You can live quite comfortably on that much just about anywhere in the US, and only slightly less comfortably in San Francisco or Manhattan.
I guess the current state of the IT field is just spoiling everyone. When the next recession/depression comes the high-tech companies are going to be hit pretty hard; 45k won't seem so bad then.
--
I guess brute force beats good design again. Considering nVidia seems to be about 2 generations ahead of everyone else, I think ATI is going to need a little more than hyper-Z to catch up.
This is sort of off-topic, but I was wondering what peoples' experiences with FSAA are. I'm sort of in the market for a high-end card, but all the screenshots I've seen comparing FSAA to non-FSAA have been pretty underwhelming; images are almost unnoticeably smoothed, but FPS drops dramatically.
--
Why exactly do you need an upgrade anyway? Has anyone really run into a problem that a slightly more advanced PalmOS would fix?
--
I get modded down for pro-Democrat posts every once in a while...just the political makeup of the slashdot readership, don't worry about it.
--
The said I was paranoid, but I guess everyone IS out to get me. Would explain a lot of stuff I guess...
--
When will society at large actually get a move on, and stop trying to throw technology at things that should really be dealt with in education/learning
Society at large isn't doing this, a few Eudora programmers are. There's a difference. 6 billion people don't act on group consensus, you know.
Unless everyone else on earth is attending meetings I haven't been told about.
--
But the microwaves did have one completely unexpected effect: they decreased the time subjects took to react to words flashed onto the screen. When "yes" or "no" was displayed, the volunteers were quicker at pressing a matching button if the headset was switched on.
I should start using it more I guess...I really love unexpected results like that (like the suggestions that video games improve general visualization abilities)
--
While they are arguably making an effort to deliver the goods on these needs, they can't address the political issues that keep food and medicine out of the areas needed (newsflash - most of the barriers to aid are political, not economic - see 80s Ethiopian famine for a case study).
They have problems addressing the political issues because their actions are done through consensus, which is very hard to get in the international community.
Why can't they address the political issues? The UN thinks it is above such things. This is why they are locked out of most of the useful change in developing nations.
The UN has trouble with the political issues because the member states want it that way.
I'm tempted to enter a "ROTFL", but seriosuly, the UN does little to keep or create peace - mostly it puts its own soldiers in harm's way with no mandate whatsoever. As a peacekeeper, the UN is a complete failure.
UN peacekeeping failures get a lot of press; successes don't. Check here for a listing of what they've accomplished. In my opinion, even if they don't succeed in a mission, I think it's important to have tried.
Sure - it creates elitist bodies that are answerable to no one, as they have no visible constituency. There is no real representation in any UN organization - its a loose thread of pseudo socialist ideals implemented by lifelong empolyees who respond to no one and have no notion of democratic accountability.
The UN's power rests partially with the general assembly, and mostly with the security council. Representatives are ambassadors; their job is to represent their own countries interests, and the bureacracies answer to them. Their budgets are at the mercy of the member states, and in general they're severely underfunded.
Its amazing that people think of this collection of appointed dupes as the ruling ideal - at the very best it stinks of a second-world planned-economy style operation that completely defies any efforts to further empower individuals over institutions.
The UN isn't meant to be a ruling body, and nobody, myself included, thinks it's any sort of ideal. What it is is simply two things; a forum for different nations to interact with each other, and a collection of what are essentially humanitarian agencies administered by it. The total amount of money spent by the UN to maintain itself and run it's operations is around 10 billion a year. This is less than half the budget of it's host city of New York. Last year a little over a dollar of your taxes (assuming you're an American) went to it. Money from the UN that enters the American economy (through expenditures, employees, etc) is more than what we spend on it. Personally, I think the work that the WHO and UNICEF does is worth that dollar a year by themselves.
--
I guess because it was moderated down it escaped everyone's notice, but it's been stored on Slashdot as well. Though it was kind of truncated, a lot of the code is there.
--
Whenever I hear things like military-industrial-media complex it just makes me smile. For some reason it makes me think of a quote I enjoyed in a recent suck.com article: "With all the sweaty assurance of a faculty-lounge communist..."
You do realize the term was first used by Dwight Eisenhower? I don't think anyone would consider him a "faculty-lounge communist"...
--
And I probably missed some.
--
I hope the aliens are at least amused.
To be honest, I'm not really sure what that comment meant...
But anyway, it's nice to see a real large scale SETI operation like this. Even if there isn't intelligent life out there transmitting, which is entirely possible, I'm sure astronomers can think of other uses for something the article referred to as being "the most sensitive astronomical instrument yet built".
--
I agree with you on this one. I don't know why there's this insane drive to make laptops as powerful as their desktop contemporaries; desktops are already more powerful than most people need, and there's even less of a need for power with notebooks. I'd spend a thousand dollars on a P200 with 64 megs of RAM, a gigabyte HD, and a TFT screen if they could make it so it runs a day or two continuously.
--
an amazingly high percentage [works] in computer, scientific and technical fields
Computer, yes, technical, yes, scientific, no. It seems to me that scientists on the average tend to be more atheistic, while engineers tend to be more religious.
--
Imagine I buy a lot of Anime DVDs. They could note this, and raise the prices by a buck or something.
I hate to tell you, but that's one of the underlying laws of economics. If something is in demand, the price will go to what the market will support, i.e. what people are willing to pay. It's been a while since I took an economics class, so maybe someone else can explain it better.
--