Spots in foreign universities are often paid for by the national or state government. Slots are earned by the students and openings are determined by how much money the state has available to spend on education.
In such a set up, it makes sense for the universities ans the governments to make the educational process as cheap as possible (while maintaining quality, of course). A good way to do this is for the government to fund libraries instead of shelling out $350 per student for shiny new books.
Since American university education is largely funded by the students themselves (or their parents), there is no incentive for educational institutions (or the American educational industry in general) to worry about how much students must spend on books.
(Contrary to the way it sounds - being self-funded and all - university education is far more accessible in the United States than it is almost any other part of the world.)
Yessir, the cat is out of the bag! No more distibution monopoly for you Mr. RIAA!
Recording Industry Association of America, meet Buggy Whip Manufacturers, Sheet Music Publishers, and novelists. Mix and mingle, you all have a lot to talk about.
RTFA. He was "inconvienced" for HOURS. Read some of the "it happened to me" posts downthread. Your experience is not the result of being on the Do Not Fly list. First clue that you're not on the list: If you are on the Do Not Fly list, they won't tell you.
The internet is to the 90's what rock-n-roll was to the 60's. Both were co-opted by money and power and left a bunch of kids bitter.
No, the internet didn't bring down tyrannies and usher in a wave of democracy and human rights over the world; your acid-fueled all-night air-guitar jam session at the Grateful Dead show didn't free Tibet either. Go figure. One thing Chairman Mao was right about is that political power comes from the barrel of a gun. You'll have to get off your ass and do something that involves substantial personal risk to you and your loved-ones in order to change things substantially.
I've had the same issue with other large BT downloads. My machine is behind a Linksys router, which I would have to reset occasionally. I think it's because of all the incomming connections once you have a portion of the file and others start to download it from you. Resetting the router was all it took to get back to speedy downloading (i.e. I didn't have to kill btdownloadcurses, etc.)
The cell phones used in the Madrid bobmings were used for their timers. That's why they found one undetonated bomb, the clock read PM instead of AM. None of the bombs were detonated via recieving a call.
Thanks to everyone who put in their two cents. I had already read a few of the books mentioned here, but you guys came up with some that I hadn't heard of yet. Also, some of you posted course outlines that were very much along the lines of what I was thinking - but again you added some interesting ideas I hadn't thought of. Same with the links... Thanks again!
TMJ
p.s. There always seems to be some one who thinks that every person who submits an Ask Slashdot post should be satisfied with whatever they find on Google. Why is that? I guess if we are asking the Slashdot crowd we want to know what Slashdot thinks about the subject, not just what Google is kind enough to throw our way.
As this nanotech future becomes closer I think our vision of it will become clearer. The disparities that exist among nations are not caused by natural forces which, once conquered by technology will lead to parity for all. Disparities in food supply, raw materials for industry, and resources for technology development exist because access to and use of these resources
is governed by socio-political factors (profit potential, internal and external politics, nationalism, etc.). These resources are not governed by distribution
models based on need, conscience, or rationality. Amartya Sen, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1998, has demonstrated that events such
as famines are not caused by a lack of food production, but are caused by interruptions to or restrictions on the distribution network. Knowledge (the most important component of technological development) is no different.
When these technologies are developed and deployed they will meet the same fate as all technological innovation (unless we act to make a
difference): Their distribution will be based on profit potential, politics, nationalism, etc. These technologies will not be distributed to the developing world, unless the developing world can suddenly afford to pay for them. And don't think AI will be able to solve any of these problems either. Since
the root causes of our human misery (famine, poverty, disease, ignorance) are caused by us, an advanced AI will have as much trouble dealing with
them as we do.
We know how to treat water so it does not transmit disease. We produce more than enough food to feed the people in the world. Medicines are
available to prevent or treat the diseases that ravage many third-world countries. These problems (disease, hunger, ignorance) all have solutions
that have been proven to work; so why do these situations continue to exist? They exist because we allow them to exist, they exist because our
system of distributing these technologies has not kept pace with the technologies themselves.
In order for technology's greatest benefits to make an impact on the overall human condition we have to change the way our civilization operates.
Unless we change our thinking, all the technology in the world will not save us.
We need to modify the distribution system for this new technology to really benefit humanity as a whole, and not just enrich the few already wealthy and powerful. How can we hope to get the benefits of 21st century ideas and innovation with 18th century distribution models?
It would be nice to see some leadership from the people we vote for, instead of the sychophantic following of opinion polls. Saturating your mind with violent images probably would have a negative impact on your psyche, but are violent video games the root cause of the violence in our culture? What about gangs and drug wars? What about the lack of education and jobs in some of our inner cities? I would think that the lack of education and a crushing poverty, coupled with the lure of easy money from drugs and gangs would be a much more direct cause of a greater scope of violence than access to violent video games. Why isn't more attention given to supporting adequate community mental health services to help people who have probelms that could lead to violence? Why isn't there more attention on expanding school programs in music and arts (which have been proven much more effective at saving "at risk" youth than any other program)? These people are simply missing the boat on this issue. A real leader would stand up and say to the community, "You want to reduce violence in our community? Then we need more funding for school arts and music programs. We need better community mental health services." Instead the pols just read the polls, talk to some suburban soccer moms and fly off the handle in the indicated direction. It's a waste of time and energy (not to mention my money).
Slashdot Mirror
Akira! Akira! Akira!
Akira r0x0rs!
Great. Linux should be ready for the desktop by then!
Spots in foreign universities are often paid for by the national or state government. Slots are earned by the students and openings are determined by how much money the state has available to spend on education.
In such a set up, it makes sense for the universities ans the governments to make the educational process as cheap as possible (while maintaining quality, of course). A good way to do this is for the government to fund libraries instead of shelling out $350 per student for shiny new books.
Since American university education is largely funded by the students themselves (or their parents), there is no incentive for educational institutions (or the American educational industry in general) to worry about how much students must spend on books.
(Contrary to the way it sounds - being self-funded and all - university education is far more accessible in the United States than it is almost any other part of the world.)
Yessir, the cat is out of the bag! No more distibution monopoly for you Mr. RIAA!
Recording Industry Association of America, meet Buggy Whip Manufacturers, Sheet Music Publishers, and novelists. Mix and mingle, you all have a lot to talk about.
Sounds like he just watched the first thirty minutes of Logan's Run.
RTFA. He was "inconvienced" for HOURS. Read some of the "it happened to me" posts downthread. Your experience is not the result of being on the Do Not Fly list. First clue that you're not on the list: If you are on the Do Not Fly list, they won't tell you.
Sure, that's it.
It has always been just the "internet."
The internet is to the 90's what rock-n-roll was to the 60's. Both were co-opted by money and power and left a bunch of kids bitter.
No, the internet didn't bring down tyrannies and usher in a wave of democracy and human rights over the world; your acid-fueled all-night air-guitar jam session at the Grateful Dead show didn't free Tibet either. Go figure. One thing Chairman Mao was right about is that political power comes from the barrel of a gun. You'll have to get off your ass and do something that involves substantial personal risk to you and your loved-ones in order to change things substantially.
Buy a T-Shirt, or become a member. A sensible organization like this deserves your support.
I've had the same issue with other large BT downloads. My machine is behind a Linksys router, which I would have to reset occasionally. I think it's because of all the incomming connections once you have a portion of the file and others start to download it from you. Resetting the router was all it took to get back to speedy downloading (i.e. I didn't have to kill btdownloadcurses, etc.)
The cell phones used in the Madrid bobmings were used for their timers. That's why they found one undetonated bomb, the clock read PM instead of AM. None of the bombs were detonated via recieving a call.
Filthy? Is that you?
We must warn them before it's too late. If they break the code they could face prosecution under the DMCA!
Thanks to everyone who put in their two cents. I had already read a few of the books mentioned here, but you guys came up with some that I hadn't heard of yet. Also, some of you posted course outlines that were very much along the lines of what I was thinking - but again you added some interesting ideas I hadn't thought of. Same with the links... Thanks again!
TMJ
p.s. There always seems to be some one who thinks that every person who submits an Ask Slashdot post should be satisfied with whatever they find on Google. Why is that? I guess if we are asking the Slashdot crowd we want to know what Slashdot thinks about the subject, not just what Google is kind enough to throw our way.
When these technologies are developed and deployed they will meet the same fate as all technological innovation (unless we act to make a difference): Their distribution will be based on profit potential, politics, nationalism, etc. These technologies will not be distributed to the developing world, unless the developing world can suddenly afford to pay for them. And don't think AI will be able to solve any of these problems either. Since the root causes of our human misery (famine, poverty, disease, ignorance) are caused by us, an advanced AI will have as much trouble dealing with them as we do.
We know how to treat water so it does not transmit disease. We produce more than enough food to feed the people in the world. Medicines are available to prevent or treat the diseases that ravage many third-world countries. These problems (disease, hunger, ignorance) all have solutions that have been proven to work; so why do these situations continue to exist? They exist because we allow them to exist, they exist because our system of distributing these technologies has not kept pace with the technologies themselves.
In order for technology's greatest benefits to make an impact on the overall human condition we have to change the way our civilization operates. Unless we change our thinking, all the technology in the world will not save us.
We need to modify the distribution system for this new technology to really benefit humanity as a whole, and not just enrich the few already wealthy and powerful. How can we hope to get the benefits of 21st century ideas and innovation with 18th century distribution models?
It would be nice to see some leadership from the people we vote for, instead of the sychophantic following of opinion polls. Saturating your mind with violent images probably would have a negative impact on your psyche, but are violent video games the root cause of the violence in our culture? What about gangs and drug wars? What about the lack of education and jobs in some of our inner cities? I would think that the lack of education and a crushing poverty, coupled with the lure of easy money from drugs and gangs would be a much more direct cause of a greater scope of violence than access to violent video games. Why isn't more attention given to supporting adequate community mental health services to help people who have probelms that could lead to violence? Why isn't there more attention on expanding school programs in music and arts (which have been proven much more effective at saving "at risk" youth than any other program)? These people are simply missing the boat on this issue. A real leader would stand up and say to the community, "You want to reduce violence in our community? Then we need more funding for school arts and music programs. We need better community mental health services." Instead the pols just read the polls, talk to some suburban soccer moms and fly off the handle in the indicated direction. It's a waste of time and energy (not to mention my money).