While I do believe that nuclear fission is a relatively safe and effective method of generating power, I also believe that it can stand on its own merits, and does not need attacks on any disparaging reports. The Truth will eventually win. I am of the opinion that "The Truth" in this case is "nuclear power is overall good", but if reality decides to contradict me, who am I to disagree?
As to your first point, I think that's the most logical option. Or would you rather contract that out to the lowest bidder?
As to the second, I can think of plenty. Say that whatever Japan's equivalent of CNN or Fox News runs the story "Fukushima to explode with force of 20 gigatons in 20 minutes, will obliterate most of Honshu". Mass panic erupts, and everyone tries to flee. Instant recipe for stampeding deaths, car wrecks, etc. With 100 million people trying to evacuate, you're going to get significant casualties. Or perhaps the alternate. Major news networks start saying "Fukushima completely safe, radiation is well below detectable levels. People start moving back in. Then there's another accident at the reactor, and BAM. Massive radiation leak in an area that is no longer evacuated.
No, I am saying that if "speech > weapons" and "limited regulation of weapons is acceptable", then "limited regulation of speech is acceptable". The key there being "limited" - the only time I want freedom of expression curtailed is when it would otherwise cause significant harm and/or death.
Now, if we judge this purely on the current situation and setting, it is logical and justifiable. There's a reason "freedom of speech" was listed in the Bill of Rights before "right to bear arms" - speech, if used improperly, can be more damaging than bullets. IF this is strictly limited to "blatantly and dangerously false information" AND strictly limited to the current crisis, it is an appropriate action for the government to take.
However, I'm hesitant to flat-out support this due to several things. First is the ever-present "Slippery Slope" factor - if we permit this, then what is to stop them from deploying such measures inappropriately later? Second is the fact that, until it is used in action, we do not know the scope of "illegal information". It could be as restrictive as banning only "there is no meltdown IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY" and "it's 4,000,000 times worse then Hiroshima", but it could also be as restrictive as banning anything that isn't essentially parroting the Official Government Report.
I'm not in a position to say anything on this subject with any authority, but it seems plausible that this "intrusion" could be related to the recent launch of Steam connectivity for the PS3. If it is, I doubt it's actually due to Steam or the PSN software directly - it's more likely to be poorly-designed interface code to get the two connected. Just my 0.13 yuan worth.
Not necessarily a "huge" amount of pressure. Water at 1.5 atmospheres is liquid up to 111.7 C, and up to 120 C at 2 atmospheres. Both of those are well below the pressure inside a car tire, or a champagne bottle. Hell, it's below standard water pressure for city mains water.
Since dedicated DDoS programs like LOIC are readily available, nobody performs actual DDoS attacks with a browser. Hell, ping floods are more effective than a bunch of people pressing refresh too often.
Now, this might reduce the Slashdot Effect, but not a DDoS.
Exactly. We (not just the US, but Europe too) need to focus on skilled tasks (rocketry, programming, precision machinery, etc.), or ones where our geography is naturally superior (mining/drilling whatever is underneath our rocks).
Well, the interaction that breaks on XP is mainly "GPU accelerated rendering". Since XP had a crap system for that, I can understand why they don't bother supporting it. Vista and 7 both "require" a GPU powerful enough to do that, so MS can get away with not keeping a software renderer in the browser.
For what it's worth, most other browsers can do the same, although there's usually an option to disable.
How about if several companies split it? Google's not the only one who would like to remove the RIAA. Amazon could buy some, and Apple might like having its own artists for iTunes. Microsoft. Netflix. All the companies that make MP3 players. All of them (and the consumer) would benefit from control of music being transferred from the current owners to themselves.
Probably. Just look at how many crabs are eaten. Now look at how many of those sold have a shell still attached. It's turning waste from two different sources into a usable solution to a major problem - and one that's just become even more significant.
The "division" of Valve responsible for Steam is about 5 people - a few programmers, an interface designer, and someone to add new games every so often. Compare that to the 15+ people still working on Team Fortress 2, or the huge number of people working on Portal 2.
The Episodes also destroyed the idea of episodic content for Valve. They said, when they first announced them, that the entire thing was an experiment. They've now said that "episodic content doesn't work for this type of game, we're scrapping the idea, episode 3 will basically be a full-length game".
The "ROM" on the most of TI-83 series was actually Flash memory, up to 2MB on the one I used, the mighty TI-84+ Silver Edition (although the OS only let you use 1.5MB). The original was the only one to use actual, non-writable ROM.
And yes, "archived" programs/data were stored in Flash instead of RAM. Mainly useful because you couldn't fit many programs into RAM. Turns out 24KB isn't enough for everyone.
I wrote what was practically an entire operating system in a VERY limited version of BASIC. That took (if I do say so myself) a remarkable amount of programming skill. Some of the things I first did there (subroutines, nested loops, text parsing) are now things I use daily (GOTO, thankfully, not being one of them).
Meanwhile, I have not used the quadratic formula since I finished Calculus, let alone had to recite a proof of it. I have little doubt that knowing what the formula is and how to use it is relatively important. However, I would like to see a plausible theoretical situation in which one would need to recite a proof of the quadratic formula, without the use of any references.
The thing is, even the "standard" graphing calculators are now advanced enough to teach with. Smart teachers are now demanding students reformat their calculators before a test, because otherwise they (like me) would just write a BASIC program instead of memorizing a formula, or store notes as an image.
Of course, I wrote a BASIC program that mimicked the shell, except a) it did not actually reformat, just display a message that it did so, and b) like a rootkit, it displayed false values for stored data, in this case blanks. It wasn't flawless (the ON key would interrupt the program), but none of my teachers figured it out. Arguably, it was more work than memorizing the formulas in the first place. Also arguably, this was more useful to me than rote-learning the proof of the quadratic formula.
While I am uncertain as to what a "memolon" is, I know what a "ravelin" is and how best to construct one. I can not only discern a Mauser from a javelin, but can also discern a Mauser Gewehr '98 from a Mauser Karabiner '98. I am well-versed in sorties, surprises and miscellaneous ambushes, and the definition of "commissariat" is well-known to me.
Not only that, but I can recognize quotes from The Pirates of Penzance.
Oh, I know history, well enough to get by. I can tell you about every war from the Peloponnesian to Kosovo; I know the major political figures from Akhenaten to Bismark; I can give a rough outline of the past 14 billion years, hitting everything from the Paleozoic to the Postmodernist movement.
However, I have no idea what route the Ten Thousand took (somewhere in the Middle East?), what the importance of Pericles was (something about preparing Athens for the Peloponnesian war), or what the boundaries are for the Mississippi River Basin are (the Rockies and the Appalachians?). Those are details that are, quite simply, unnecessary to all except specialists.
I skimmed through the test. I think I'd do OK at the Latin, ace the mathematics, but completely fail the Greek and history sections. I guess history isn't nearly as constant as math is.
As a game programmer, I can assure you that it isn't really all that difficult to make a game scale down. You can automatically generate lower-res meshes, downscale textures, increase fog/decrease draw distance, etc. As long as there's some known minimum, either a base model for the tablet, or published minimum requirements, it's almost trivial.
Scaling up is a bit more difficult. Once you've reached the maximum rendering detail you're willing to create, the only thing to do is layer on the AA. Still, upgrading a tablet is far from pointless. Especially storage capacity - IIRC, some games (like Rage) can reach half the capacity of the current iPad.
You can't upgrade an iPad. You can't install more RAM, or a new processor, or even (IIRC) a new battery. Even the XBox is more moddable. That's different than peripherals.
Slashdot Mirror
While I do believe that nuclear fission is a relatively safe and effective method of generating power, I also believe that it can stand on its own merits, and does not need attacks on any disparaging reports. The Truth will eventually win. I am of the opinion that "The Truth" in this case is "nuclear power is overall good", but if reality decides to contradict me, who am I to disagree?
As to your first point, I think that's the most logical option. Or would you rather contract that out to the lowest bidder?
As to the second, I can think of plenty. Say that whatever Japan's equivalent of CNN or Fox News runs the story "Fukushima to explode with force of 20 gigatons in 20 minutes, will obliterate most of Honshu". Mass panic erupts, and everyone tries to flee. Instant recipe for stampeding deaths, car wrecks, etc. With 100 million people trying to evacuate, you're going to get significant casualties.
Or perhaps the alternate. Major news networks start saying "Fukushima completely safe, radiation is well below detectable levels. People start moving back in. Then there's another accident at the reactor, and BAM. Massive radiation leak in an area that is no longer evacuated.
No, I am saying that if "speech > weapons" and "limited regulation of weapons is acceptable", then "limited regulation of speech is acceptable". The key there being "limited" - the only time I want freedom of expression curtailed is when it would otherwise cause significant harm and/or death.
Now, if we judge this purely on the current situation and setting, it is logical and justifiable. There's a reason "freedom of speech" was listed in the Bill of Rights before "right to bear arms" - speech, if used improperly, can be more damaging than bullets. IF this is strictly limited to "blatantly and dangerously false information" AND strictly limited to the current crisis, it is an appropriate action for the government to take.
However, I'm hesitant to flat-out support this due to several things. First is the ever-present "Slippery Slope" factor - if we permit this, then what is to stop them from deploying such measures inappropriately later? Second is the fact that, until it is used in action, we do not know the scope of "illegal information". It could be as restrictive as banning only "there is no meltdown IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY" and "it's 4,000,000 times worse then Hiroshima", but it could also be as restrictive as banning anything that isn't essentially parroting the Official Government Report.
I'm not in a position to say anything on this subject with any authority, but it seems plausible that this "intrusion" could be related to the recent launch of Steam connectivity for the PS3. If it is, I doubt it's actually due to Steam or the PSN software directly - it's more likely to be poorly-designed interface code to get the two connected. Just my 0.13 yuan worth.
Not necessarily a "huge" amount of pressure. Water at 1.5 atmospheres is liquid up to 111.7 C, and up to 120 C at 2 atmospheres. Both of those are well below the pressure inside a car tire, or a champagne bottle. Hell, it's below standard water pressure for city mains water.
Since dedicated DDoS programs like LOIC are readily available, nobody performs actual DDoS attacks with a browser. Hell, ping floods are more effective than a bunch of people pressing refresh too often.
Now, this might reduce the Slashdot Effect, but not a DDoS.
That's not saying much. Pastafarianism, the worship of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, makes more sense than Scientology.
It isn't supposed to succeed. It's supposed to make a point that the system as it is is completely and utterly broken, and motivate change.
Exactly. We (not just the US, but Europe too) need to focus on skilled tasks (rocketry, programming, precision machinery, etc.), or ones where our geography is naturally superior (mining/drilling whatever is underneath our rocks).
The US Air Force recently launched a challenge for a system "that can determine approximate age (adult, teen, child) and gender of small groups of people at a distance.", with the goal of reducing civilian casualties during UAV operations. It shouldn't be too hard to make a system that can guess ages (at least well enough for their purposes), so the research team practically netted $20k already.
Additional news coverage: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/boy-from-girl/
Well, the interaction that breaks on XP is mainly "GPU accelerated rendering". Since XP had a crap system for that, I can understand why they don't bother supporting it. Vista and 7 both "require" a GPU powerful enough to do that, so MS can get away with not keeping a software renderer in the browser.
For what it's worth, most other browsers can do the same, although there's usually an option to disable.
How about if several companies split it? Google's not the only one who would like to remove the RIAA. Amazon could buy some, and Apple might like having its own artists for iTunes. Microsoft. Netflix. All the companies that make MP3 players. All of them (and the consumer) would benefit from control of music being transferred from the current owners to themselves.
Probably. Just look at how many crabs are eaten. Now look at how many of those sold have a shell still attached. It's turning waste from two different sources into a usable solution to a major problem - and one that's just become even more significant.
The "division" of Valve responsible for Steam is about 5 people - a few programmers, an interface designer, and someone to add new games every so often. Compare that to the 15+ people still working on Team Fortress 2, or the huge number of people working on Portal 2.
The Episodes also destroyed the idea of episodic content for Valve. They said, when they first announced them, that the entire thing was an experiment. They've now said that "episodic content doesn't work for this type of game, we're scrapping the idea, episode 3 will basically be a full-length game".
No. I am, however, the Kwisatz Haderach.
The "ROM" on the most of TI-83 series was actually Flash memory, up to 2MB on the one I used, the mighty TI-84+ Silver Edition (although the OS only let you use 1.5MB). The original was the only one to use actual, non-writable ROM.
And yes, "archived" programs/data were stored in Flash instead of RAM. Mainly useful because you couldn't fit many programs into RAM. Turns out 24KB isn't enough for everyone.
I wrote what was practically an entire operating system in a VERY limited version of BASIC. That took (if I do say so myself) a remarkable amount of programming skill. Some of the things I first did there (subroutines, nested loops, text parsing) are now things I use daily (GOTO, thankfully, not being one of them).
Meanwhile, I have not used the quadratic formula since I finished Calculus, let alone had to recite a proof of it. I have little doubt that knowing what the formula is and how to use it is relatively important. However, I would like to see a plausible theoretical situation in which one would need to recite a proof of the quadratic formula, without the use of any references.
The thing is, even the "standard" graphing calculators are now advanced enough to teach with. Smart teachers are now demanding students reformat their calculators before a test, because otherwise they (like me) would just write a BASIC program instead of memorizing a formula, or store notes as an image.
Of course, I wrote a BASIC program that mimicked the shell, except a) it did not actually reformat, just display a message that it did so, and b) like a rootkit, it displayed false values for stored data, in this case blanks. It wasn't flawless (the ON key would interrupt the program), but none of my teachers figured it out. Arguably, it was more work than memorizing the formulas in the first place. Also arguably, this was more useful to me than rote-learning the proof of the quadratic formula.
While I am uncertain as to what a "memolon" is, I know what a "ravelin" is and how best to construct one. I can not only discern a Mauser from a javelin, but can also discern a Mauser Gewehr '98 from a Mauser Karabiner '98. I am well-versed in sorties, surprises and miscellaneous ambushes, and the definition of "commissariat" is well-known to me.
Not only that, but I can recognize quotes from The Pirates of Penzance.
Oh, I know history, well enough to get by. I can tell you about every war from the Peloponnesian to Kosovo; I know the major political figures from Akhenaten to Bismark; I can give a rough outline of the past 14 billion years, hitting everything from the Paleozoic to the Postmodernist movement.
However, I have no idea what route the Ten Thousand took (somewhere in the Middle East?), what the importance of Pericles was (something about preparing Athens for the Peloponnesian war), or what the boundaries are for the Mississippi River Basin are (the Rockies and the Appalachians?). Those are details that are, quite simply, unnecessary to all except specialists.
I skimmed through the test. I think I'd do OK at the Latin, ace the mathematics, but completely fail the Greek and history sections. I guess history isn't nearly as constant as math is.
As a game programmer, I can assure you that it isn't really all that difficult to make a game scale down. You can automatically generate lower-res meshes, downscale textures, increase fog/decrease draw distance, etc. As long as there's some known minimum, either a base model for the tablet, or published minimum requirements, it's almost trivial.
Scaling up is a bit more difficult. Once you've reached the maximum rendering detail you're willing to create, the only thing to do is layer on the AA. Still, upgrading a tablet is far from pointless. Especially storage capacity - IIRC, some games (like Rage) can reach half the capacity of the current iPad.
You can't upgrade an iPad. You can't install more RAM, or a new processor, or even (IIRC) a new battery. Even the XBox is more moddable. That's different than peripherals.