It's not worth it for some. Keeping up on whats what in recording hardware and maintaining a MythTV box are less fun then working on some other geek hobby. Tivo is reasonably priced and works well. Also with Tivo you can get several, one for each member of the family, for less then additional MythTV boxes. I have 6 boxes that run MythTV (1 backend and 4 frontends, as well as a carputer). Two of the frontends are XBoxes running Linux, I very much doubt you can find a TiVo for less than an XBox costs. Plus, you need to pay around $10 per month for every Tivo that you have, if you have several that quickly adds up. My frontend probably cost as much as an standard-def Tivo and does things that Tivo won't do for any price like automatic commercial skipping. Tivo also occasionally sends additional advertisements to your box and reserves some of your disk space for ads. I can also do number of other things that Tivo doesn't do, like play games, listen to music, view photos, check the weather, subscribe to RSS feeds, stream media over the internet, burn DVDs and a bunch of other things.
Don't get me wrong, Tivo makes a very good product and I very much enjoyed using my Series 1 model, in fact I still use the Tivo peanut remote for my Myth box. The Series 1 was a highly hackable appliance and I was able to add many capabilities to it. Once Tivo started locking the boxes down I started looking for a PVR that would allow me the flexibility to do what I wanted with my media and I settled on MythTV. Tivo is great for the unwashed masses (way better than any of the cableco DVRs) but for someone with even a smattering of tech skills Myth is a superior product.
Until that point in time, I regard religion as a silly obsession for the weak and stupid. What an unfortunately hasty statement. Do you really believe that the likes of Albert Einstein, Please don't lump Einstein in with your bible thumpers:
It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it. -Albert Einstein
That Kimball quote is dated 17 years before he even became the leader of the church. In almost two decades opinions can change.
We can discuss Brigham Young all we want, but the bottom line is it's all just his opinion when it comes to church doctrine and theology. I was under the impression that LDS leaders are considered prophets and are divinely inspired. Are they only speaking God's words when they say something that history looks upon favorably and if they say something that history does not look upon favorably they are expressing personal opinions? How can you tell the difference between revelation and opinion in the present?
but the truth is that the Book of Mormon (your "first version of Mormon Doctrine") was translated with a Urim and Thummim (which has nothing to do with a hat, mind you). Hmm, a quote from Emma Smith, Joseph Smith's wife, would seem to refute that:
"In writing for your father, I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close to him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating [the Book of Mormon] hour after hour with nothing between us.'" (as quoted in Creation of the Book of Mormon, by LaMar Petersen, p.25)
"hearsay and other stuff not admissible in any court of law" Huh? Joseph Smith's "treasure hunting" activities were quite well documented, and in fact he DID stand trial and was convicted. From The Salt Lake City Messenger
"The first part and conclusion of the alleged court record published by Bishop Tuttle is here reproduced, which indicates that young Joseph admitted to using his seer stone to search for lost property, buried coins, hidden treasures, and gold mines:
People of State of New York vs. Joseph Smith. Warrant issued upon oath of Peter G. Bridgman, who informed that one Joseph Smith of Bainbridge was a disorderly person and an imposter. Prisoner brought into court March 20 (1826). Prisoner examined. Says that he came from town of Palmyra, and had been at the house of Josiah Stowell in Bainbridge most of time since; had small part of time been employed in looking for mines, but the major part had been employed by said Stowell on his farm, and going to school; that he had a certain stone, which he had occasionally looked at to determine where hidden treasures in the bowels of the earth were; that he professed to tell in this manner where gold-mines were a distance under ground, and had looked for Mr. Stowell several times, and informed him where he could find those treasures, and Mr. Stowell had been engaged in digging for them; that at Palmyra he pretended to tell, by looking at this stone, where coined money was buried in Pennsylvania, and while at Palmyra he had frequently ascertained in that way where lost property was, of various kinds; that he has occasionally been in the habit of looking through this stone to find lost property for three years, but of late had pretty much given it up on account its injuring his health, especially his eyes--made them sore; that he did not solicit business of this kind, and had always rather declined having anything to do with this business....
And thereupon the Court finds the defendant guilty.
Well, it's nice to know that at least you'll get lighter when you are good:
I saw a striking contrast in the progress of the Indian people today.... For years they have been growing delightsome, and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were promised. In this picture of the twenty Lamanite missionaries, fifteen of the twenty were as light as Anglos, five were darker but equally delightsome The children in the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation. At one meeting a father and mother and their sixteen-year-old daughter were present, the little member girl--sixteen--sitting between the dark father and mother, and it was evident she was several shades lighter than her parents--on the same reservation, in the same hogan, subject to the same sun and wind and weather....These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness. One white elder jokingly said that he and his companion were donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the process might be accelerated. -Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, 1960 Or how about something from another prophet:
"You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind.... Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another curse is pronounced upon the same race--that they should be the 'servant of servants'; and they will be, until that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter that decree."
Prophet Brigham Young These are the people who lead your church and (supposedly) speak with God on a regular basis. Yes, the church may have changed since then but don't deny history, it will bite you in the ass every time. The "divine revelation" allowing blacks the priesthood was really just a political move, coming on the heels of the civil rights movement and directly preceding the opening of a temple in Brazil. It is very similar to the "divine revelation" prohibiting polygamy, a political necessity for Utah to become a state. It's not a matter of God, it's a matter of politics.
Nowhere in the Mormon canon and/or official doctrine does it say anything about dark skin. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people, the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. And thus saith the Lord God; I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities." 2 Nephi 5:21
Mormons teach that when you are bad you get turned black and are "loathsome". That's a dark, ugly baby.
First, this is what is known in the political world as a "trial balloon". Meaning, they are using a inside source to release the information to see it is builds traction without risk of embarrassment..
Secondly, don't think that 250 Gig per month is where they want to be. Meaning, they do not have even close the amount of bandwidth available to provide this level to their customers. What I am sure they are wanting to do, however, is to get buy in a 250G limit, and reduce that amount over time to something closer to 20G per month. The way it usually works in the political world is they float something that is abhorrent [we are going to impose a 25GB transfer limit] then when everyone gets up in arms about it Comcast can so "OK, you win, we will increase the limit to 250 GB". Comcast is getting off their game, usually they are very effective at manipulating consumers.
A critical distinction though is that after you enter the target into the planes computer you still need to hold the weapon release("pickle" switch) to allow the computer to drop the bomb. The computer may make the choice of exactly when to drop the bomb but a human still has complete control over the computer at the the time. These new robots take that human right out of the equation and are meant to operate without any human guidance. Did you even RTFA? Here, let me quote part of it for you:
Every UGV maker we've spoken to has stressed the importance of having a "man in the loop" when dealing with armed robots. As Predator drones have proven, an unmanned vehicle is capable of friendly fire, but the decision to engage will always be made by a human operator.
Doesn't sound like they are "meant to operate without any human guidance" to me.
How about something as simple as airplane traffic? Birds? Squirrels, for goodness sake!? Almost any plans I have seen involve the Earth terminus to be at floating platform on the equator in the middle of the pacific ocean. I don't think squirrels or most birds are going to be a problem. Most airline traffic over the pacific follow fairly regular routes, it shouldn't be too difficult to locate the elevator outside the traffic lanes. Of course there are a million complications but this idea has been around long enough that many of the complications have already been worked out.
The concept itself violates basic physics. Materials don't matter. A cable attached to the earth will wind up around the earth NO MATTER how long, how strong, how shaped. OK, instead of a cable, picture it as a rigid structure like a modern communications satellite. And instead of attached to the Earth, the center of gravity of the structure is in geosynchronous orbit at an altitude of 35,786 km. It doesn't matter if the structure is 10m tall or 71,572m tall, if it's center of gravity is in geosynchronous orbit the whole structure is in that orbit. If it was 1m too short to connect to the Earth it would just hover over the same spot since the whole structure is in that orbit. It doesn't have to be connected to the Earth for the concept to work. And if it's not connected how is it going to "wind up around the earth"?
Just because you don't understand the physics and can't visualize it with strings and rocks doesn't mean that it is impossible. The idea of a space elevator has been around since the 1950s and the physics concerning the mechanics of it are quite basic. The materials are another matter, but research has progressed greatly in this area to the point where it is close to feasible (although still not practical) to actually build such a structure.
A space elevator would instantly change the economics of space travel, it is several orders of magnitude cheaper to attain orbit (especially high orbits which our current manned craft cannot attain) than chemical rockets. It would make space cheap enough that we can relocate some of the industries that are currently poisoning the Earth - like the power industry - to space. We have the technology right now to create orbital solar power arrays but it just too expensive to ship it to orbit. Also, it's time we as a species start dispersing ourselves - we don't know about any other life in the universe and it would be a shame if we were to get wiped out be some random catastrophe. A space elevator is the first crucial step toward finally becoming a real spacefaring species.
would bet good money that at least some of the people who are so vocal (here and elsewhere) about the dangers of WiFi are actually using a laptop that has--you guessed it--WiFi. Some of them may have actually decided not to have a WiFi router in their home "because of the radiation," but it's almost a certainty that they forgot to turn off the radio in their laptop. Not only that, but since there is no access point the wireless device is most likely beaconing looking for one. It is sending out signals at it's maximum power, probably those people are absorbing MORE radiation (although still a negligible amount) than if they had an access point.
because I don't generally play "by the rules" but rather "by my gut". So you're one of those people who don't believe in the sciencey mumbo-jumbo of probability? Casinos LOVE people like you.
That shows the how, but not really the full on why. What is the advantage? or is it simply a loss of function due to prolonged exposure to citrus? From what I understand, it was simply a genetic mutation that was not deleterious enough to be selected against. Since there is plenty of Vitamin C in the environment the individuals carrying the mutation most likely reproduced at a normal rate. Eventually the mutation made it's way through the population, perhaps by piggy-backing on another trait that was beneficial.
So evolution theory may help in figuring out why humans stopped making vitamin C, and rats never need a vitamin C pill or fruit in their lifetime. It has already figured it out, it is because of a mutation that caused a defective enzyme necessary for the synthesis. It has happened in the evolutionary past of more than 1 species. See this and this for more information.
Unrelated to the writers strike, I got rid of my television and cable. Why is it that every time there is a television thread, area man has to show up? Isn't there some sculpting you need to do or some Proust you need to re-read?
The Big Bang Theory (CBS), not sure what day and when because my DVR records it for me. I recorded the first few episodes because it was hyped as a nerdy show but the writing and acting were so horrible that I couldn't bring myself to watch it anymore. I think I watched the first 3 episodes trying to give it a chance but it never even got close to good enough to watch. I must admit I am surprised that there are people still watching it.
That bill, in whatever state it was, died in the Senate. I wish I had the reference or some proof it's not an urban legend. I found this reference to an incident in Alabama that sounds similar, looks like it was a prank.
or if they discourage learning through normal routes (school, college), then I tend to believe that religion is afraid it will lose members to teachings more in line with that individual's beliefs if that person were allowed to look around--or in other words, forcing closed-mindedness implies that the closed religion is lacking something important and doesn't want its members to find out.
Mormonism doesn't fall into this category, but I really can't speak for those other groups because I don't know much about them. "It is an easy thing for a man with extensive academic training to measure the Church using the principles he has been taught in his professional training as his standard. In my mind it ought to be the other way around. A member of the Church ought always, particularly if he is pursuing extensive academic studies, to judge the professions of man against the revealed word of the Lord."
- Elder Boyd K. Packer, Brigham Young University, 22 August 1981
Telling university professors to make sure what they teach does not conflict with the dogma of the church? Sounds like mormonism does fall into that category.
Which I guess makes hydrogen the Paris Hilton of elements? Alone at the top?? I always thought of her as Lithium: white, dull, highly reactive, tarnishes quickly in air and serves no apparent biological function in humans. Or maybe Boron....
She's also a devout Southern Baptist. So much for stereotypes, huh? A devout Southern Baptist taking about religion in a science classroom? Sounds dead-on to the stereotype.
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Don't get me wrong, Tivo makes a very good product and I very much enjoyed using my Series 1 model, in fact I still use the Tivo peanut remote for my Myth box. The Series 1 was a highly hackable appliance and I was able to add many capabilities to it. Once Tivo started locking the boxes down I started looking for a PVR that would allow me the flexibility to do what I wanted with my media and I settled on MythTV. Tivo is great for the unwashed masses (way better than any of the cableco DVRs) but for someone with even a smattering of tech skills Myth is a superior product.
-Albert Einstein
We can discuss Brigham Young all we want, but the bottom line is it's all just his opinion when it comes to church doctrine and theology. I was under the impression that LDS leaders are considered prophets and are divinely inspired. Are they only speaking God's words when they say something that history looks upon favorably and if they say something that history does not look upon favorably they are expressing personal opinions? How can you tell the difference between revelation and opinion in the present?
People of State of New York vs. Joseph Smith. Warrant issued upon oath of Peter G. Bridgman, who informed that one Joseph Smith of Bainbridge was a disorderly person and an imposter. Prisoner brought into court March 20 (1826). Prisoner examined. Says that he came from town of Palmyra, and had been at the house of Josiah Stowell in Bainbridge most of time since; had small part of time been employed in looking for mines, but the major part had been employed by said Stowell on his farm, and going to school; that he had a certain stone, which he had occasionally looked at to determine where hidden treasures in the bowels of the earth were; that he professed to tell in this manner where gold-mines were a distance under ground, and had looked for Mr. Stowell several times, and informed him where he could find those treasures, and Mr. Stowell had been engaged in digging for them; that at Palmyra he pretended to tell, by looking at this stone, where coined money was buried in Pennsylvania, and while at Palmyra he had frequently ascertained in that way where lost property was, of various kinds; that he has occasionally been in the habit of looking through this stone to find lost property for three years, but of late had pretty much given it up on account its injuring his health, especially his eyes--made them sore; that he did not solicit business of this kind, and had always rather declined having anything to do with this business....
And thereupon the Court finds the defendant guilty.
-Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, 1960 Or how about something from another prophet: "You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind
Prophet Brigham Young These are the people who lead your church and (supposedly) speak with God on a regular basis. Yes, the church may have changed since then but don't deny history, it will bite you in the ass every time. The "divine revelation" allowing blacks the priesthood was really just a political move, coming on the heels of the civil rights movement and directly preceding the opening of a temple in Brazil. It is very similar to the "divine revelation" prohibiting polygamy, a political necessity for Utah to become a state. It's not a matter of God, it's a matter of politics.
Mormons teach that when you are bad you get turned black and are "loathsome". That's a dark, ugly baby.
Secondly, don't think that 250 Gig per month is where they want to be. Meaning, they do not have even close the amount of bandwidth available to provide this level to their customers. What I am sure they are wanting to do, however, is to get buy in a 250G limit, and reduce that amount over time to something closer to 20G per month. The way it usually works in the political world is they float something that is abhorrent [we are going to impose a 25GB transfer limit] then when everyone gets up in arms about it Comcast can so "OK, you win, we will increase the limit to 250 GB". Comcast is getting off their game, usually they are very effective at manipulating consumers.
Every UGV maker we've spoken to has stressed the importance of having a "man in the loop" when dealing with armed robots. As Predator drones have proven, an unmanned vehicle is capable of friendly fire, but the decision to engage will always be made by a human operator.
Doesn't sound like they are "meant to operate without any human guidance" to me.
Just because you don't understand the physics and can't visualize it with strings and rocks doesn't mean that it is impossible. The idea of a space elevator has been around since the 1950s and the physics concerning the mechanics of it are quite basic. The materials are another matter, but research has progressed greatly in this area to the point where it is close to feasible (although still not practical) to actually build such a structure.
A space elevator would instantly change the economics of space travel, it is several orders of magnitude cheaper to attain orbit (especially high orbits which our current manned craft cannot attain) than chemical rockets. It would make space cheap enough that we can relocate some of the industries that are currently poisoning the Earth - like the power industry - to space. We have the technology right now to create orbital solar power arrays but it just too expensive to ship it to orbit. Also, it's time we as a species start dispersing ourselves - we don't know about any other life in the universe and it would be a shame if we were to get wiped out be some random catastrophe. A space elevator is the first crucial step toward finally becoming a real spacefaring species.
Mormonism doesn't fall into this category, but I really can't speak for those other groups because I don't know much about them. "It is an easy thing for a man with extensive academic training to
measure the Church using the principles he has been taught in
his professional training as his standard. In my mind it ought to
be the other way around. A member of the Church ought always,
particularly if he is pursuing extensive academic studies, to judge
the professions of man against the revealed word of the Lord."
- Elder Boyd K. Packer, Brigham Young University, 22 August 1981
Telling university professors to make sure what they teach does not conflict with the dogma of the church? Sounds like mormonism does fall into that category.