Someplace I recall reading that the average life expectancy would be something like 600 years if all disease (including old age) were wiped out. This is based on the idea that a few people are going to die each year due to accidents, crimes, suicides, and other factors.
No evidence at hand, but I suppose you could figure it out from the actuarial tables, etc.
In the US, given the current accident rates in the US, the average death life expectancy (based on accidents alone) would probably be about 1500 years. (based on the idea it would take 3000 plus years to kill off a population of 100,000)
I can see certain high resolution videos getting this large.
but I worry about other data types.
For example, I grumple at the MS stupidity of putting all datafiles into one large container file in a database base under Access in Windows. Which is why I never use it. I prefer discrete files. If one gets hosed, then it is easier to fix.
obviously a database that is that big would run into other performance issues as well. Some of which is handled by moore's law, and some of which isn't.
for similar reasons I tend to divided my drive into various partitions, regardless of which OS I use.
The first few hits are interesting, although some of these seem to get into areas that may hit a few raw nerves for some folks.
You comment makes me recal a story about an electician who would check such things out just like you described. The trick in this case as that they would stand on one leg. Why? The werte disabled, and were missing a leg. They made sure to stand on a wooden leg, and so would not pass electricity to the ground, or a metal floor, etc.
I imagine that there is an optimum range for the skin resistance. I for one probably wouldn't want to have the resistance of a peice of Wood (insert joke here) or the conductance of a piece of copper.
I thought the objections to skin response were based on things like sweating. I would think that a person sweating heavily would not be relaxed. What are the reasons behind the rise or drop in skin resistance anyhow?
I wonder how much of this is something along the line of:
make a big fight on windows, so that everything is focused there. Meanwhile develop behind the scene all kinds of other stuff so that they can have control
what kind of stuff?
I don't know, maybe like the patent on the Digital Rights Management Operating system, which if tied into the various legal messes, would mandate MS software as a legal requirement through out the USA.
The way MS eecutives and apologists are screaming reminds me of the way Republicans were protesting the innocence of Richard Nixon, right up to the day He pesigned as President due to the threatened impeachment. There is a similarity in the nervous hysteria.
Of course, clinton showed it is possible to survive if you have your partisans in a row, and people are going after you for the wrong reasons. Mind you, I think Clinton should have been nailed, but not for the reasons that were used.
Keeping on point, the appearance in some quarters is that of superbly restrained terror.
Hippocratic oath for Scientists, Engineers, and Executives
I vow to practise my profession with conscience and dignity;
I will strive to apply my skills only with the utmost respect for the well-being of all humanity, the earth, and all its species.
I will not permit considerations of nationality, politics, prejudice, or material advancement to intervene between my work and the duty to future generations;
I make this Oath solemnly, freely, and upon my honour
'Construction Shack'
by Clifford Simak (Short story, 1973)
A manned expedition discovers that Pluto is an artificial world, built by alien engineers billions of years ago. But if the 'construction shack' was the size of a world, how big was the entire project?
And I came across this bit which is also interesting, although slightly off topic.
(A) The human race is not wiped out or set back to the stone age by nuclear war, giant meteor strike, global warming or new ice age (Footnote 3) in the course of the next two hundred years or so. After that, these events could no longer stop us. If we are then spared a nearby (10 LY) supernova for another 300 or 400 years, we (Footnote 4) should be virtually immortal.
(B) There are no unexpected scientific discoveries that change the rules. Faster that light travel is the classic example. If any such assumptions were included, this whole work would then be nothing but science fiction (Footnote 5).
{...}
ABOUT THE INDICATORS:
It may not be apparent, but when you study the timetable below,
especially for later periods, the figures for economy, energy generation and non-Earth population are all based on remarkably modest growth rates. In each case they are similar to that experienced over the last 300 years here on Earth.(Footnote 10)
All in all a longer read, but interesting in it's own right
I remember a short SF story where some people are exploring Pluto, and they come across what is essentially a construction shack left over from the construction of the Solar System, complete with leftover diagrams.
They don't get it at first, but they figure it out because in some part, the maps they find obviously display the solar system, but some things are very different, and they come to the conclusion that the original contractor screwed up the original job.
Most of the angles seem to be based on what will appeal to your clients. This requires some sort of market research
Not all things are intuitive. For example, NeighborSpace.org, cited above as a ghostown, is a pretty site, but Seattle Community Network, a successful one, is fairly simple and plain.
The approaches are quite different, but SCN seems to be providing a resource that is useful, while NeighborSpace seems to be more focused in getting me to contribute something first. If I lived in Seatlle, I would probably use the SCN local directories, at least for a while. Just looking at it, it is useful to me, streamlined, right to the point.
For the lens, I used an obsolete 35mm F/2.8 screwmount SLR camera lens. The lens is so obsolete, its even predates the Pentax screwmount (which I still use). The lens has no anti reflective coating, and, a completely manual aperture - that is, it even predates the automatic aperture reduction when the shutter is released. Its entirely manual. Perfect for the job.
Something like this is going to be next to impossible to find. and might be a photographic collectable as well?
Perfect reading for a sunday afternoon. File away as technology to remember for after the end of the world.
wouldn't they have realized that there are physical limitations to a POTS line's bandwidth?
I thought that the POTS line bandwidth was to some degree limited by other things like filtering.
Otherwise things like DSL wouldn't really work.
(off on a tangent) I recall many years (1970s?) ago how they did (and maybe still do) broadcasts in Boston of Boston Symphony concerts at TangleWood in the Berkshires, over 100 mile away. They had recordings of the original source, they had the signal at the end of the phone line, and they knew what the difference was. They merely amplified the signal at the source end to compensate for the losses, making sure to not clip the signals. Result at the end in Boston was a signal completely acceptable for FM Stereo broadcasts.
So I can see if you are not completely expert in the technology, being able to make up your own examples, and talking yourself into believing that Certain Limitations had been exceeded.
Heck, Look at the history of the dialup modem, going from teletype speeds to 56k, far exceeding original expectations.
Strangely, this seems to be more in keeping with some of the things you can find in certain far eastern writings. Alot of folks will get their jollies out of this, ie, "See, I told you so!"
Personally, I always like the idea of another structure operating at another order of magnitude beyond what was observable.
Some folks think that such a cyclic universe would be literally repeating, which is plain silliness in my mind. It is not the big rewind button in the sky, so far as I can see.
Slashdot Mirror
no, actually that place is funnier, if a bit sick.
I think the PBS documentary on Enigma was probably more on the money, but not as viable for Hollywood type profit motives.
No evidence at hand, but I suppose you could figure it out from the actuarial tables, etc.
In the US, given the current accident rates in the US, the average death life expectancy (based on accidents alone) would probably be about 1500 years. (based on the idea it would take 3000 plus years to kill off a population of 100,000)
Outside the US your milage may vary.
http://www.riscos.org/cgi-bin/artcls
but I worry about other data types.
For example, I grumple at the MS stupidity of putting all datafiles into one large container file in a database base under Access in Windows. Which is why I never use it. I prefer discrete files. If one gets hosed, then it is easier to fix.
obviously a database that is that big would run into other performance issues as well. Some of which is handled by moore's law, and some of which isn't.
for similar reasons I tend to divided my drive into various partitions, regardless of which OS I use.
Another case of Caffeine Difficiency Syndrome first thing is the morning
In this case sprouting a bit of unconscious insight.
The Piracy and the Privacy issues have an interesting overlap, no?
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-051002starwars. story?null
which is rather extensive, but is somewhat of a showcase of antipriracy arguments.
This is sure to open a can of worms.
Of course it got pirated so quickly because it is huge, but you know this will feed arguments in other forums.
Gagging a person doesn't violate their free speech.
After all, they only have to struggle a little harder to express themselves
</sarcasm>
Where do they get these judges?
has a rig that will hook up to you typical unix box. Pretty pictures too.
http://affect.media.mit.edu/AC_research/sensing.ht ml
The first few hits are interesting, although some of these seem to get into areas that may hit a few raw nerves for some folks.
You comment makes me recal a story about an electician who would check such things out just like you described. The trick in this case as that they would stand on one leg. Why? The werte disabled, and were missing a leg. They made sure to stand on a wooden leg, and so would not pass electricity to the ground, or a metal floor, etc.
Don't try this at home.
I thought the objections to skin response were based on things like sweating. I would think that a person sweating heavily would not be relaxed. What are the reasons behind the rise or drop in skin resistance anyhow?
Although airport security might be sceptical.
make a big fight on windows, so that everything is focused there. Meanwhile develop behind the scene all kinds of other stuff so that they can have control
what kind of stuff?
I don't know, maybe like the patent on the Digital Rights Management Operating system, which if tied into the various legal messes, would mandate MS software as a legal requirement through out the USA.
There are other possibilities as well.
The way MS eecutives and apologists are screaming reminds me of the way Republicans were protesting the innocence of Richard Nixon, right up to the day He pesigned as President due to the threatened impeachment. There is a similarity in the nervous hysteria.
Of course, clinton showed it is possible to survive if you have your partisans in a row, and people are going after you for the wrong reasons. Mind you, I think Clinton should have been nailed, but not for the reasons that were used.
Keeping on point, the appearance in some quarters is that of superbly restrained terror.
These folks don't get it.
http://www.globalideasbank.org/BOV/BV-381.HTML
Hippocratic oath for Scientists, Engineers, and Executives
I vow to practise my profession with conscience and dignity;
I will strive to apply my skills only with the utmost respect for the well-being of all humanity, the earth, and all its species.
I will not permit considerations of nationality, politics, prejudice, or material advancement to intervene between my work and the duty to future generations;
I make this Oath solemnly, freely, and upon my honour
http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3604/lib/WorldCodes/Wo rldCodes.html
That said, a well written poetic work catching the proper spirit, and conducive to memorization is probably worthwhile
'Construction Shack'
by Clifford Simak (Short story, 1973)
A manned expedition discovers that Pluto is an artificial world, built by alien engineers billions of years ago. But if the 'construction shack' was the size of a world, how big was the entire project?
And I came across this bit which is also interesting, although slightly off topic.
One Thousand years in Space Travel
some of the author's notes are interesting:
All in all a longer read, but interesting in it's own rightNow maybe we can do what the school wants to do and take down the site with a good slashdotting.
They don't get it at first, but they figure it out because in some part, the maps they find obviously display the solar system, but some things are very different, and they come to the conclusion that the original contractor screwed up the original job.
Who knows what we'll find.
Not all things are intuitive. For example, NeighborSpace.org, cited above as a ghostown, is a pretty site, but Seattle Community Network, a successful one, is fairly simple and plain.
The approaches are quite different, but SCN seems to be providing a resource that is useful, while NeighborSpace seems to be more focused in getting me to contribute something first. If I lived in Seatlle, I would probably use the SCN local directories, at least for a while. Just looking at it, it is useful to me, streamlined, right to the point.
Something like this is going to be next to impossible to find. and might be a photographic collectable as well?
Perfect reading for a sunday afternoon. File away as technology to remember for after the end of the world.
Obviously over optimistic about the power of The Mighty Slash Dot.
Maybe if it wasn't a nice spring weekend with 90% of the geeks out there seeing Spider Man for the tenth time....
I thought that the POTS line bandwidth was to some degree limited by other things like filtering.
Otherwise things like DSL wouldn't really work.
(off on a tangent) I recall many years (1970s?) ago how they did (and maybe still do) broadcasts in Boston of Boston Symphony concerts at TangleWood in the Berkshires, over 100 mile away. They had recordings of the original source, they had the signal at the end of the phone line, and they knew what the difference was. They merely amplified the signal at the source end to compensate for the losses, making sure to not clip the signals. Result at the end in Boston was a signal completely acceptable for FM Stereo broadcasts.
So I can see if you are not completely expert in the technology, being able to make up your own examples, and talking yourself into believing that Certain Limitations had been exceeded.
Heck, Look at the history of the dialup modem, going from teletype speeds to 56k, far exceeding original expectations.
Personally, I always like the idea of another structure operating at another order of magnitude beyond what was observable.
Some folks think that such a cyclic universe would be literally repeating, which is plain silliness in my mind. It is not the big rewind button in the sky, so far as I can see.
Which, if anything, is an indicator on where things are going.
Welcome to the world of Max Headroom!