Its really that simple: connections and network within scientific community will do wonders for ones career when Einstein level research results are not there. I mean giving grant to study the mating habits of tree frogs isnt more relevent than a line of research on the common cricket mating song frequencies -so who gets the grant? the one who knows Professor X who was buddies with grantees uncle in College. no? Still dont believe me? well look at other disciplines: eg. Architecture: there are more architects successful among those from rich parents than poor ones why? because a backstreet Brooklin grad can't draw? NO! because when rich kid and poor kid graduate which do you think has the family connections to start his practice by designing Uncle Thurston's penthouse? not the kid from Brooklyn. The kid from Brooklyn probably couldn't afford to go to the best Universtity (and was payin his own rent at 17)
this AA always told by their hardworking (not so rich) parents they's got to be brillant and talented beyond the norm just to get by.
Structural violence of racism is just that:
But there's no excuse:life gives you a hand and you work with it and make the best of it.
Im basicly rambling about interrelated ideas in my paragraph but they are connected: society, privilege, talent, luck and perseverance.
Maybe it does in the USA, doesn't mean it should nor exist in all countries. Take China for example, where govt exist to pursue its own empire building using commerce as a tool achieve that goal while technically still communist. wrap your head around that one!
to take a back seat when showing no clear intention of contributing anything constructive. The GoP had no intention of implementing Health care reform. eg. Palin's contribution to the discourse: Death Panels??! and other such nonsense. Obama was being too nice in telling her likes to shut up and let grown ups do their work.
Its a race to the bottom when corps threaten a host country with outsourcing elsewhere. Look what happened to manufacturing in the USA; Wallmart bought cheap forcing companies like Rubbermaid to shut its doors in the USA and buy cheap from China; either that or their competitors would do it first. The US economy got gutted for short term gain in a sort of twisted tragedy of the commons. Now corps have no scruples about doing it to Ireland over a tax issue. Some corps insist that countries PAY them before they invest or exploit a resource.
Thats right: I manage the complex and ever changing drawings and specs connected to construction-architecture projects and find post-it notes and kanbantool.com (essentialy post it notes for your computer) VERY useful. Kanban is a Japanese based method of quality control, management and "lean manufacturing method which allowed companies like Toyota to outperform their competitors and gain immense growth." I find using actual post-it notes work well and is portable and legibly convenient when placed at the bottom of my computer monitor. I update these frequently and consult the computer version for more long term strategic planning. Switching screens is such a chore and the real post-it balance quite well the visual dynamic of screen info. If kanban was a dashboard app it would be even better.
I already commented on this @ the original article. I don't bother here since, glib, off topic jokes make up 90% of the comments on slashdot.org; moderators?
And remember back in the 70s solar panels and other renewable energies, were getting a lot of traction (including solar panels installed at the White House). Today cost per watt for solar panels have dropped significantly and GM pulled its electric car out the ashes. Green tech will become increasingly attractive,affordable and mainstream as oil extraction costs go up.
You thought jellyfish were a problem; any science fiction writer could sketch out twelve different scenarios were out-of-control bacteria either eat up all plastic, mutate , then eat everything organic. Or Viagra bacteria escape into our drinking water.. Those are the funny scenarios.
Radiance is a well known FOSS famous for rendering photorealist 3d visualization based on the physics of light. After many years of setting up various Linux boxes and converters to finally get my first renders with this program (actually a collection of 50+ programs), I found the support from the Radiance mailing lists not only valuable but AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY. This software package learning curve is so steep with non-existent GUI, to make the program impractical to ACTUAL USERS WHO HAVE REAL WORLD JOB DESCRIPTIONS OTHER THAN PROGRAMMER: the software to be usable in anyway requires constant and repetitive custom bash scripting and commands switches without end. ITS LIKE HAVING A BOX FULL OF CAR PARTS WHEN YOU NEED TO DRIVE SOMEWHERE.
The PARADOX here is that FOSS that are useful are often useful only to those who are not programers yet would require hiring one to operate. It makes more sense to get a proprietary software developed for end-users rather than the phenomenal WASTE oF TIME REQUIRED TO OPERATE RADIANCE FOR NEGLIGABLE RESULTS OBTAINABLE BY OTHER MEANS. Radianace was intended as a means to geting real world results. I've succeeded in doing that but at a terrible cost in time. My time has become more valuable to me than the software's potential.
According to some numbers there are about 400 Radiance users worldwide..that number has barely grown (mostly phd students doing very NARROW research.) The software user base will never grow until its usefulness in consolidated with a comprehensive GUI and a complete documentation of its functions are published.
The problem with FOSS is that with so little incentive to the developers, the software will wallow in complete obscurity.
Exiting indeed this was posted on a blog during Obama's transition period: "As Obama's team is understandably looking into NASA's budget,in these times of economic woes and astronomical government spending they are asking hard questions about NASA Ares program. During the election, however, he promised two billon dollar funding for NASA but did not name the Ares program. He is noted to have an interest in some of NASA's more practical projects: according to a recent article "Obama's NASA transition team also appears to be interested in a number of specific projects that have more or less languished in recent years. Among those projects are: the Deep Space Climate Observatory; a mothballed Earth- observing satellite formerly known as Triana; agency efforts to catalog asteroids and comets that could threaten Earth; and the harnessing of space-based solar power for use on Earth." Now the Solar Power Satellite project is solar power on steroids. Forget mere megawatts; we are talking about multi gigawatt energy production. This technology could do for energy what satellites have done for telecommunications."
It's the closest scam to hostage taking yet. MS threat is meaningless because,like many corporate IT company's, they have already moved most of their labor offshore. Which means MS is making an empty threat. So we'll just have to live without traitors like MS.
Slashdot Mirror
NO: democracy is what it is partly because two lambs stayed home on voting night to let 2 wolves and one lamb vote on whats for dinner
ROBOCOP script variant enough said
Its really that simple: connections and network within scientific community will do wonders for ones career when Einstein level research results are not there. I mean giving grant to study the mating habits of tree frogs isnt more relevent than a line of research on the common cricket mating song frequencies -so who gets the grant? the one who knows Professor X who was buddies with grantees uncle in College. no? Still dont believe me? well look at other disciplines: eg. Architecture: there are more architects successful among those from rich parents than poor ones why? because a backstreet Brooklin grad can't draw? NO! because when rich kid and poor kid graduate which do you think has the family connections to start his practice by designing Uncle Thurston's penthouse? not the kid from Brooklyn. The kid from Brooklyn probably couldn't afford to go to the best Universtity (and was payin his own rent at 17) this AA always told by their hardworking (not so rich) parents they's got to be brillant and talented beyond the norm just to get by. Structural violence of racism is just that: But there's no excuse :life gives you a hand and you work with it and make the best of it.
Im basicly rambling about interrelated ideas in my paragraph but they are connected: society, privilege, talent, luck and perseverance.
Maybe it does in the USA, doesn't mean it should nor exist in all countries. Take China for example, where govt exist to pursue its own empire building using commerce as a tool achieve that goal while technically still communist. wrap your head around that one!
Ok so host the superbowl on Mars, every five years ought to do it
to take a back seat when showing no clear intention of contributing anything constructive. The GoP had no intention of implementing Health care reform. eg. Palin's contribution to the discourse: Death Panels??! and other such nonsense. Obama was being too nice in telling her likes to shut up and let grown ups do their work.
Its a race to the bottom when corps threaten a host country with outsourcing elsewhere. Look what happened to manufacturing in the USA; Wallmart bought cheap forcing companies like Rubbermaid to shut its doors in the USA and buy cheap from China; either that or their competitors would do it first. The US economy got gutted for short term gain in a sort of twisted tragedy of the commons. Now corps have no scruples about doing it to Ireland over a tax issue. Some corps insist that countries PAY them before they invest or exploit a resource.
internet was developed with tax dollars.. did the ISP pay for the development costs? no
a fast lane for advertising tv network gone digital slow lane virtual open slum for the rest?
Thats right: I manage the complex and ever changing drawings and specs connected to construction-architecture projects and find post-it notes and kanbantool.com (essentialy post it notes for your computer) VERY useful. Kanban is a Japanese based method of quality control, management and "lean manufacturing method which allowed companies like Toyota to outperform their competitors and gain immense growth." I find using actual post-it notes work well and is portable and legibly convenient when placed at the bottom of my computer monitor. I update these frequently and consult the computer version for more long term strategic planning. Switching screens is such a chore and the real post-it balance quite well the visual dynamic of screen info. If kanban was a dashboard app it would be even better.
I already commented on this @ the original article. I don't bother here since, glib, off topic jokes make up 90% of the comments on slashdot.org; moderators?
And remember back in the 70s solar panels and other renewable energies, were getting a lot of traction (including solar panels installed at the White House). Today cost per watt for solar panels have dropped significantly and GM pulled its electric car out the ashes. Green tech will become increasingly attractive ,affordable and mainstream as oil extraction costs go up.
Would nature accidently put viagra bacteria into your drinking water?
You thought jellyfish were a problem; any science fiction writer could sketch out twelve different scenarios were out-of-control bacteria either eat up all plastic, mutate , then eat everything organic. Or Viagra bacteria escape into our drinking water.. Those are the funny scenarios.
Radiance is a well known FOSS famous for rendering photorealist 3d visualization based on the physics of light. After many years of setting up various Linux boxes and converters to finally get my first renders with this program (actually a collection of 50+ programs), I found the support from the Radiance mailing lists not only valuable but AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY. This software package learning curve is so steep with non-existent GUI, to make the program impractical to ACTUAL USERS WHO HAVE REAL WORLD JOB DESCRIPTIONS OTHER THAN PROGRAMMER: the software to be usable in anyway requires constant and repetitive custom bash scripting and commands switches without end. ITS LIKE HAVING A BOX FULL OF CAR PARTS WHEN YOU NEED TO DRIVE SOMEWHERE. The PARADOX here is that FOSS that are useful are often useful only to those who are not programers yet would require hiring one to operate. It makes more sense to get a proprietary software developed for end-users rather than the phenomenal WASTE oF TIME REQUIRED TO OPERATE RADIANCE FOR NEGLIGABLE RESULTS OBTAINABLE BY OTHER MEANS. Radianace was intended as a means to geting real world results. I've succeeded in doing that but at a terrible cost in time. My time has become more valuable to me than the software's potential. According to some numbers there are about 400 Radiance users worldwide..that number has barely grown (mostly phd students doing very NARROW research.) The software user base will never grow until its usefulness in consolidated with a comprehensive GUI and a complete documentation of its functions are published. The problem with FOSS is that with so little incentive to the developers, the software will wallow in complete obscurity.
Exiting indeed this was posted on a blog during Obama's transition period: "As Obama's team is understandably looking into NASA's budget,in these times of economic woes and astronomical government spending they are asking hard questions about NASA Ares program. During the election, however, he promised two billon dollar funding for NASA but did not name the Ares program. He is noted to have an interest in some of NASA's more practical projects: according to a recent article "Obama's NASA transition team also appears to be interested in a number of specific projects that have more or less languished in recent years. Among those projects are: the Deep Space Climate Observatory; a mothballed Earth- observing satellite formerly known as Triana; agency efforts to catalog asteroids and comets that could threaten Earth; and the harnessing of space-based solar power for use on Earth." Now the Solar Power Satellite project is solar power on steroids. Forget mere megawatts; we are talking about multi gigawatt energy production. This technology could do for energy what satellites have done for telecommunications."
It's the closest scam to hostage taking yet. MS threat is meaningless because,like many corporate IT company's, they have already moved most of their labor offshore. Which means MS is making an empty threat. So we'll just have to live without traitors like MS.