But how do you know it's 3AM where Grandma lives? You would have to know what Time Zone she is in, what Time Zone you are in, what the current (they change frequently in some areas of the world) offsets are and then do some math to figure out what time it is for her.
Or, you can just ask Grandma, "Is it ok to call you at 3am?" and she says "That's wonderful, we can talk over lunch."
You don't need to know Time Zones, and you don't need to know what everyone else's Time Zones are. You just need to know what time you wake up, when you get to work, when you take lunch, when you leave work, when you go to bed. Things you already know. Then when someone says "Meeting at 10am?" you can say "That's my lunch time, how about 11am?"
These days you ask "Bill can you do a meeting at 10am? What Timezone are you in? Is it DST? Ok so what time is 10am for you?"
Without Time Zones you ask "Bill can you do a meeting at 10am? That's the middle of the night for you? Ok, how about 3pm?"
Currently everyone needs to know what Time Zones everyone else is in and the offsets to schedule. Without timezones everyone just needs to know when they get to work (or wake up, or go to bed, etc) and then they can quickly say yes or no to a proposed time.
I was looking for these VHD images this morning and could no longer find them. The hits I get from Microsoft's search results page are 404s. Do you happen to have a link?
Ah but therein lies the fun. Mirror matter, being on the other side oh the axis from normal matter might just do things that normal matter cannot. Like fall up.
I don't believe in it myself, I think its just a feature of the math, not of reality. But if you have negative energy (can you have less than nothing?) you can do all sorts of energy conservation, 2nd law of thermodynamics breaking things.
Its too sweet a deal to be true, granted, but the math all works. Dr. Forward was not a quack.
Forward was a physicist that also wrote science fiction. This book uses the concept of mirror matter which is repelled from normal matter as it attracts it. (Mirror matter is repelled by normal matter, but normal matter is attracted to mirror matter) Thus producing an infinite propulsion with no fuel expenditure via the simple process of wrapping a ball of mirror matter in a sphere of normal matter. When the mirror matter is moved closer to one side of the sphere it pushes the sphere away from itself. As a physicist he worked out the actual math and implications of this process. It has some weird properties (free electricity generation, sustained 1G propulsion, worm holes in time & space, causality when you have a worm hole to the past, etc).
The best part is that the book's mirror matter is mirror matter alien dung. If mirror matter really does exist (in dung form or not) then hello space travel. But given the something for nothing nature of the process, I'm not holding up high hopes.
And yet, you continue to waste by using a computer to connect to slashdot. Hardly a necessary expenditure of resources. Wouldn't it have been better to use that energy to desalinate water in the third world?
Lights? Ha, if you want to really conserve, why aren't you going to bed with the sun? Heat? What makes you so special that you can't just take the temperature as nature dishes it out? There is no question that your ecological foot print is enormous compared to the majority of the world's. Not to mention how few resources you really need to keep yourself alive.
You're a hypocrite. So long as I can still hear you bitching about conserving, you aren't living up to your own standards. The baby steps you have taken mean nothing, if you truly believe that conservation is the solution then you have no choice but to go out and live a 'natural' existence.
You have a pretty poor standing to tell the rest of us how to live if you haven't taken every conceivable step for yourself.
Reducing energy consumption at best only gives us the time to develop other sources. People running around demanding others reduce consumption never seem to do so themselves. But then again its always easier to make some poor family in the 3rd world do without.
And I am not being facetious. I can't wait for them to start adding flags identifying commercials to TV signals. One day later I bet there is a plugging to MythTV that perfectly edits your recordings to be commercial free.
What with Digital TV lock-ins & broadcast flags I have no intention of ever buying mass market cable equipment again anyway. In the future all of my TV watching will be downloads anyway. This will just make it easier to get commercial free programming.
I hope people buy these TVs like hot cakes, cause I won't.
What I hate is when the menu asks for your account number. Then when you finally get a human, they first question?
"Can I have your account number please?"
RCN, Comcast, Apple, T-mobile I've called them all this year, and not one has ever greeted me with my account information or even an expectation of what my trouble might be. My theory is, they just hope that the menu will drive you to hang up. After all a complaint they never received is not their problem, right?
So then Big Corp hires 'Larry2.0' to sweep floors for a year (or rewrite the EULA on their new products) at $1999000/yr. Then, just since he is in the building, they pay him $1000 to handle this little court matter they have.
This scheme smacks of communism, which in is the best form of government, on paper. Reality means that 'fair' is always more fair for the many|rich|powerful. Nothing proposed so far leads me to believe that we won't be in the same boat with this proposal. You can't keep this sort of system fair.
Would never work. How do you determine how much money each party contributes? What if I want to have my attorney 'Larry'? Larry might be a high priced lawyer, but its my right to have the lawyer of my choice. So now the person suing me will say 'well then we want "Larry2.0"' an even higher priced attorney. So now I get to hire a second lawyer, but then they...
Its a vicious circle that doesn't survive a second examination of the circumstances. Our legal system is an adversarial system that relies on the Judge to be the impartial third party that prevents miscarriages of justice. It doesn't work either, but I wouldn't run off and replace it with something just as unlikely to succeed.
I was using the classical definitions of these forms of government, as defined by the people that developed them. I suppose I should have placed some <dl><dd>definitions</dd><dt>of my terms and their context</dt></dl>. However I assumed that the meanings were obvious from context, and I was just making a (somewhat) humorous observation.
It's hard to make a have cogent discussion if you choose to devolve into attacks against the author rather than versus the topic.
I just find it funny that this thread went from a Democracy to a Republic in 3 posts. You are clear, you want a Republic. How your representatives are selected seems to be your problem with the current system. I doubt that your way will be any different/better.
Simple solution to the time problem: allow voting by proxy, with representatives directly representing blocs of votes rather than legislative districts.
This is called a representative government, or a Republic. Like the one we currently have.
If you aren't voting for someone that 'does know and care about the issues (and who agrees with you to whatever extent you care to go to in choosing your representative)' then you aren't doing it right.
We need to increase the size of the House of Representatives ten-fold at least.
What a great way to absolutely stagnate the government. Getting the majority of 400 people takes months now, make that 4000 people and it might take years!
Think of it, by the time the lobbyists got finished buying the the next DCMA whole knew fields of industry could be explored. Digital technology will be passé!
Truth be told, there is nothing worse than an efficiently functioning government. It gets more bad done faster.
And this is why doctors will prbably never allow people get tested for delta32 mutation.
The article's opinion that knowledge of reduced susceptibility to HIV might make people take more risks is ridiculous. People take risks, and a person that would take a foolish risk because the misunderstand the data (like a test for delta32) will just find some other data to misinterpret.
A good doctor will use this test as a valuable tool for examining patients with or at risk for HIV. A reasonable doctor will perform this test on every patient that can afford it because the test itself is not harmful.
This argument suffers from a number of fallacies.
Slippery Slope
just because some might use delta32 as a license to have random sex doesn't mean that a significant portion will
Appeal to Consequences
if people know they are immune something scary bad will happen
Unrepresentative Sample
Hasty Generalization
There have been no studies on the effect of delta32 test knowledge on any significant portion of society
Throwing away a valid diagnostic tool just because it might be abused is IMO wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
But how do you know it's 3AM where Grandma lives? You would have to know what Time Zone she is in, what Time Zone you are in, what the current (they change frequently in some areas of the world) offsets are and then do some math to figure out what time it is for her.
Or, you can just ask Grandma, "Is it ok to call you at 3am?" and she says "That's wonderful, we can talk over lunch."
You don't need to know Time Zones, and you don't need to know what everyone else's Time Zones are. You just need to know what time you wake up, when you get to work, when you take lunch, when you leave work, when you go to bed. Things you already know. Then when someone says "Meeting at 10am?" you can say "That's my lunch time, how about 11am?"
Perhaps, but the question is easier.
These days you ask "Bill can you do a meeting at 10am? What Timezone are you in? Is it DST? Ok so what time is 10am for you?"
Without Time Zones you ask "Bill can you do a meeting at 10am? That's the middle of the night for you? Ok, how about 3pm?"
Currently everyone needs to know what Time Zones everyone else is in and the offsets to schedule. Without timezones everyone just needs to know when they get to work (or wake up, or go to bed, etc) and then they can quickly say yes or no to a proposed time.
<input type="submit" value="Delete" style="background:transparent;border:none;" />
or
<noscript> <input type="submit" value="Delete" />
</noscript>
<script>script_form(); //puts a submission interface into the DOM</script>
Easy-peasy. User-Agents without JS get a crappy but functional interface. Graceful degradation
I was looking for these VHD images this morning and could no longer find them. The hits I get from Microsoft's search results page are 404s. Do you happen to have a link?
Ah but therein lies the fun. Mirror matter, being on the other side oh the axis from normal matter might just do things that normal matter cannot. Like fall up.
I don't believe in it myself, I think its just a feature of the math, not of reality. But if you have negative energy (can you have less than nothing?) you can do all sorts of energy conservation, 2nd law of thermodynamics breaking things.
Its too sweet a deal to be true, granted, but the math all works. Dr. Forward was not a quack.
You should check out Robert Forward's book Timemaster.
Forward was a physicist that also wrote science fiction. This book uses the concept of mirror matter which is repelled from normal matter as it attracts it. (Mirror matter is repelled by normal matter, but normal matter is attracted to mirror matter) Thus producing an infinite propulsion with no fuel expenditure via the simple process of wrapping a ball of mirror matter in a sphere of normal matter. When the mirror matter is moved closer to one side of the sphere it pushes the sphere away from itself. As a physicist he worked out the actual math and implications of this process. It has some weird properties (free electricity generation, sustained 1G propulsion, worm holes in time & space, causality when you have a worm hole to the past, etc).
The best part is that the book's mirror matter is mirror matter alien dung. If mirror matter really does exist (in dung form or not) then hello space travel. But given the something for nothing nature of the process, I'm not holding up high hopes.
And yet, you continue to waste by using a computer to connect to slashdot. Hardly a necessary expenditure of resources. Wouldn't it have been better to use that energy to desalinate water in the third world?
Lights? Ha, if you want to really conserve, why aren't you going to bed with the sun? Heat? What makes you so special that you can't just take the temperature as nature dishes it out? There is no question that your ecological foot print is enormous compared to the majority of the world's. Not to mention how few resources you really need to keep yourself alive.
You're a hypocrite. So long as I can still hear you bitching about conserving, you aren't living up to your own standards. The baby steps you have taken mean nothing, if you truly believe that conservation is the solution then you have no choice but to go out and live a 'natural' existence.
You have a pretty poor standing to tell the rest of us how to live if you haven't taken every conceivable step for yourself.
I know just how to start, turn off your computer.
Reducing energy consumption at best only gives us the time to develop other sources. People running around demanding others reduce consumption never seem to do so themselves. But then again its always easier to make some poor family in the 3rd world do without.
If the device extracts energy, then the temperature of your CPU will be lowered. Thus replacing the heatsink.
And I am not being facetious. I can't wait for them to start adding flags identifying commercials to TV signals. One day later I bet there is a plugging to MythTV that perfectly edits your recordings to be commercial free.
What with Digital TV lock-ins & broadcast flags I have no intention of ever buying mass market cable equipment again anyway. In the future all of my TV watching will be downloads anyway. This will just make it easier to get commercial free programming.
I hope people buy these TVs like hot cakes, cause I won't.
What I hate is when the menu asks for your account number. Then when you finally get a human, they first question?
RCN, Comcast, Apple, T-mobile I've called them all this year, and not one has ever greeted me with my account information or even an expectation of what my trouble might be. My theory is, they just hope that the menu will drive you to hang up. After all a complaint they never received is not their problem, right?
Violence is a by product of life; the only real peace is found where nothing exists.
So then Big Corp hires 'Larry2.0' to sweep floors for a year (or rewrite the EULA on their new products) at $1999000/yr. Then, just since he is in the building, they pay him $1000 to handle this little court matter they have.
This scheme smacks of communism, which in is the best form of government, on paper. Reality means that 'fair' is always more fair for the many|rich|powerful. Nothing proposed so far leads me to believe that we won't be in the same boat with this proposal. You can't keep this sort of system fair.
Would never work. How do you determine how much money each party contributes? What if I want to have my attorney 'Larry'? Larry might be a high priced lawyer, but its my right to have the lawyer of my choice. So now the person suing me will say 'well then we want "Larry2.0"' an even higher priced attorney. So now I get to hire a second lawyer, but then they...
Its a vicious circle that doesn't survive a second examination of the circumstances. Our legal system is an adversarial system that relies on the Judge to be the impartial third party that prevents miscarriages of justice. It doesn't work either, but I wouldn't run off and replace it with something just as unlikely to succeed.
"Democracy" versus "republic"
I was using the classical definitions of these forms of government, as defined by the people that developed them. I suppose I should have placed some <dl><dd>definitions</dd><dt>of my terms and their context</dt></dl>. However I assumed that the meanings were obvious from context, and I was just making a (somewhat) humorous observation.
It's hard to make a have cogent discussion if you choose to devolve into attacks against the author rather than versus the topic.
I just find it funny that this thread went from a Democracy to a Republic in 3 posts. You are clear, you want a Republic. How your representatives are selected seems to be your problem with the current system. I doubt that your way will be any different/better.
This is called a representative government, or a Republic. Like the one we currently have.
If you aren't voting for someone that 'does know and care about the issues (and who agrees with you to whatever extent you care to go to in choosing your representative)' then you aren't doing it right.
What a great way to absolutely stagnate the government. Getting the majority of 400 people takes months now, make that 4000 people and it might take years!
Think of it, by the time the lobbyists got finished buying the the next DCMA whole knew fields of industry could be explored. Digital technology will be passé!
Truth be told, there is nothing worse than an efficiently functioning government. It gets more bad done faster.
The article's opinion that knowledge of reduced susceptibility to HIV might make people take more risks is ridiculous. People take risks, and a person that would take a foolish risk because the misunderstand the data (like a test for delta32) will just find some other data to misinterpret.
A good doctor will use this test as a valuable tool for examining patients with or at risk for HIV. A reasonable doctor will perform this test on every patient that can afford it because the test itself is not harmful.
This argument suffers from a number of fallacies.
Slippery Slope just because some might use delta32 as a license to have random sex doesn't mean that a significant portion will Appeal to Consequences if people know they are immune something scary bad will happen Unrepresentative Sample Hasty Generalization There have been no studies on the effect of delta32 test knowledge on any significant portion of societyThrowing away a valid diagnostic tool just because it might be abused is IMO wrong.
My thesis is simple, the individual always gets screwed by the organization.
Nice try with the subject change, I am talking about reality.
On the other hand, Kroger's doesn't make minimum wage bag boys pay union fees to get hired. Unions do.
I find it unreasonable that to get some jobs you have to join a union. I can negotiate my own employment contract thank you very much.
The relationships between individuals and organizations are never equal, unless the individuals organize in some way.
Unions aren't angels
I think this fix is a great thing. Now when my friends say "The porn sites won't work anymore" I can say "Here Try this"
Finally Microsoft gives me a perfect answer to "But why should I switch?" questions.
Sacrifice requires conscience knowledge of your impending death.
Animals by definition cannot know this.