Bzzt. Thank you for playing. You used the phrase "magic man on a cloud", which shows that you haven't really thought about it but like to pull out some vapid quote from the insufferably smug Richard Dawkins.
You've kind of missed my point there, though. Why would you waste mental effort on playing chess? You might win, you might lose, but either way it doesn't get you any further forwards.
Maybe you do it because you enjoy it. Maybe that's why philosophers devote so much mental energy to pondering the imponderable.
So I'm going to make a bit of a leap here, and suggest that you probably think a lot of things you don't understand are "silly".
Philosophers have been debating the existence or non-existence of God for millenia, and no-one has come up with conclusive proof one way or the other. They have devised some extremely good arguments on the way, both for and against, and these arguments are the underpinnings of all modern philosophy and by extension all science.
You can think about the debate back and forth between the theist, atheist and agnostic philosophers as a bit like a long, long game of chess, with each player devising ever more subtle moves that may have a profound effect on how the players that come after them will move - but you probably consider chess "silly", too.
My late father found a copy of this in an old railway workshop he was converting into a heavy goods vehicle workshop and brought it home, when I was about six or seven years old. I picked it up and read it, fascinated by the cutaway diagrams of the engines and gearboxes that went into the different styles of locomotive, and the circuit diagrams of all the control gear. There were detailed explanations of how the automatic gearboxes in diesel-mechanical locomotives worked, and how the injector pump, fuel rack and injectors worked in a diesel engine.
At that point, I realised that while I would probably never work on a 1962 diesel railcar, I held in my hand the key to knowing *everything*. All I needed to understand absolutely anything I ever encountered was the right diagram, and the mental toolkit to look at what was in front of me and understand how different parts work together as part of a whole system. From that moment onwards everything else was easy.
You've just got to look at things and see the exploded diagram in your mind's eye.
Funny, I manage to cope with multiple applications and multiple windows just fine. One key thing is that like many of the more intelligent mammals (cats, dogs, most primates) I can cope with the idea of something being "behind" something else - if I can't see it because it's obscured, I still know it's there. I can then use alt-tab to bring it back, or put it away. Or, I could just have lots of messy overlapping windows, which is the way I tend to work.
If you can't deal with Unity, it might well be because you have less spatial awareness than a rhesus monkey.
I don't know if you're having difficulty counting, or something. 15 years ago was *1997*, not 1977.
Just to pick a few off your list, in 1997 LRP was more common than leaded petrol, and petrol stations were already phasing it out. By 2000, there was almost nowhere you could get LRP and leaded was gone.
Overseas phone calls haven't required queueing (at least, in reasonably advanced countries) for something like 30 years, not 15.
Back in 1997, pretty nearly everyone I knew had a mobile phone, although GSM coverage was still spotty in very remote parts and analogue was only just dying out.
But it's not really a big functional change, or a big context shift. I agree that cheap dense memory has made a lot of cool stuff possible - a 1M Sony PSX memory card is the same size as a 16G iPod Nano - but the sort of technology we have hasn't changed for more than 30 years.
Mobile phones have got smaller, and had clever little computers grafted on. They've become cheaper, but the basic principle hasn't changed since the earliest trunked radio systems.
Computers are faster and have typically got more RAM than PCs had hard disk 20 years ago - but that's it. It's a box, with some electronics in, and now it's a bit faster and smaller. I sit with a QWERTY keyboard, a mouse, and a monitor. Sometimes I plug headphones in to the jack on the front. I did all this 20 years ago, too.
So, use it. Oh wait, you can't because Gnome 2 has been dropped. Maybe you could try maintaining that?
There are Gnome 2-like desktop environments available in Ubuntu if you want them - just like when Windows 95 came out, if the new "Start" menu thing was too confusing and new, you could fall back to PROGMAN.EXE and have it work just like Windows 3. Some people even did that, too.
That's how I would have done it, too. You'd presumably have GPS tracks from the trucks, and various ANPR/CCTV sightings along the route. Some sort of camera and Geiger counter on a small van with the truck's route programmed into a GPS would take you to it. Well, assuming it hasn't been found and moved.
In other news, there isn't a fallen-off exhaust pipe or silencer to be found in a big swathe across America's roads;-)
The speed limit is 70mph. Even if you exceed that by quite a margin, you'll only make the same journey a couple of minutes more quickly.
In any case, 70mph is way, way faster than most US-made cars can safely be driven. Catch up to things like modern suspension and braking systems and we'll talk.
That's nice and all, but why bother? It doesn't go any faster than my 1600cc diesel van. It might accelerate from 0 to 60 a bit faster, but how often do you need to accelerate from a dead standstill to 60mph, as quickly as possible? I can't think of a single time when I've needed to do that, in practical day-to-day driving.
On the drag strip, it's a different matter. But you're not on a drag strip, so you shouldn't drive like you are.
I don't hate hybrids, I just don't see the point of them. There are larger, more fuel-efficient cars available. Why buy a heavy, overcomplicated car with a wheezy little petrol engine?
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Bzzt. Thank you for playing. You used the phrase "magic man on a cloud", which shows that you haven't really thought about it but like to pull out some vapid quote from the insufferably smug Richard Dawkins.
You've kind of missed my point there, though. Why would you waste mental effort on playing chess? You might win, you might lose, but either way it doesn't get you any further forwards.
Maybe you do it because you enjoy it. Maybe that's why philosophers devote so much mental energy to pondering the imponderable.
So I'm going to make a bit of a leap here, and suggest that you probably think a lot of things you don't understand are "silly".
Philosophers have been debating the existence or non-existence of God for millenia, and no-one has come up with conclusive proof one way or the other. They have devised some extremely good arguments on the way, both for and against, and these arguments are the underpinnings of all modern philosophy and by extension all science.
You can think about the debate back and forth between the theist, atheist and agnostic philosophers as a bit like a long, long game of chess, with each player devising ever more subtle moves that may have a profound effect on how the players that come after them will move - but you probably consider chess "silly", too.
Diesel Traction - A Manual for Enginemen
My late father found a copy of this in an old railway workshop he was converting into a heavy goods vehicle workshop and brought it home, when I was about six or seven years old. I picked it up and read it, fascinated by the cutaway diagrams of the engines and gearboxes that went into the different styles of locomotive, and the circuit diagrams of all the control gear. There were detailed explanations of how the automatic gearboxes in diesel-mechanical locomotives worked, and how the injector pump, fuel rack and injectors worked in a diesel engine.
At that point, I realised that while I would probably never work on a 1962 diesel railcar, I held in my hand the key to knowing *everything*. All I needed to understand absolutely anything I ever encountered was the right diagram, and the mental toolkit to look at what was in front of me and understand how different parts work together as part of a whole system. From that moment onwards everything else was easy.
You've just got to look at things and see the exploded diagram in your mind's eye.
So both the Christian and the atheist are equally screwed, then. They both come from a position that cannot logically be defended.
They eat nutrient-rich excrement that floats about in the water.
Why do you think that prawns aren't kosher, or halal (which is basically the same thing) for that matter?
Gnome 2 itself is no longer developed. Canonical dropped it from Ubuntu because they didn't want to take on supporting that particular dead horse.
Funny, I manage to cope with multiple applications and multiple windows just fine. One key thing is that like many of the more intelligent mammals (cats, dogs, most primates) I can cope with the idea of something being "behind" something else - if I can't see it because it's obscured, I still know it's there. I can then use alt-tab to bring it back, or put it away. Or, I could just have lots of messy overlapping windows, which is the way I tend to work.
If you can't deal with Unity, it might well be because you have less spatial awareness than a rhesus monkey.
I don't know if you're having difficulty counting, or something. 15 years ago was *1997*, not 1977.
Just to pick a few off your list, in 1997 LRP was more common than leaded petrol, and petrol stations were already phasing it out. By 2000, there was almost nowhere you could get LRP and leaded was gone.
Overseas phone calls haven't required queueing (at least, in reasonably advanced countries) for something like 30 years, not 15.
Back in 1997, pretty nearly everyone I knew had a mobile phone, although GSM coverage was still spotty in very remote parts and analogue was only just dying out.
But it's not really a big functional change, or a big context shift. I agree that cheap dense memory has made a lot of cool stuff possible - a 1M Sony PSX memory card is the same size as a 16G iPod Nano - but the sort of technology we have hasn't changed for more than 30 years.
Mobile phones have got smaller, and had clever little computers grafted on. They've become cheaper, but the basic principle hasn't changed since the earliest trunked radio systems.
Computers are faster and have typically got more RAM than PCs had hard disk 20 years ago - but that's it. It's a box, with some electronics in, and now it's a bit faster and smaller. I sit with a QWERTY keyboard, a mouse, and a monitor. Sometimes I plug headphones in to the jack on the front. I did all this 20 years ago, too.
What's actually *new*?
So, use it. Oh wait, you can't because Gnome 2 has been dropped. Maybe you could try maintaining that?
There are Gnome 2-like desktop environments available in Ubuntu if you want them - just like when Windows 95 came out, if the new "Start" menu thing was too confusing and new, you could fall back to PROGMAN.EXE and have it work just like Windows 3. Some people even did that, too.
I live in a pretty stable European country. The basic technology and political landscape hasn't changed significantly for decades.
You guys had quite a time of it in the early 90s to early 2000s, though.
What's actually wrong with Unity? Is there something you can point to, instead of just "ZOMG it's new I don't like it?"
15 years ago, you could send emails, and receive it, but most of the communications were done by letters or FAX.
15 years ago, I binned my old fax machine since most of my communications were done via email or IM.
15 years ago, there were not any kind of social network, even the idea.
15 years ago I was active on a number of IRC channels, that were mostly populated by people that I knew from BBSes from years and years before *that*
15 years ago, There were mobiles, but you had to wait by 8PM to call your mother because she is coming to home
15 years ago, I ditched my landline phone because it was more expensive than my GSM mobile - a Nokia 7110.
15 years ago, your kids ride the bikes when they return from school and played outside
I don't have children, so I can't comment. Most of my friend's children walk or cycle to school, and get to play outside.
15 years ago, you were going to the cinema on mondays and comment the movie with your friends
I get a nice deal from my phone provider, so these days I tend to go on Wednesdays.
15 years ago, you ask for an IT repair if your computer just stops working
15 years ago, if my computer stopped working I would plug in the soldering iron. These days, I plug in the hot air rework station.
Nothing has changed, nothing is going to change.
... stuff will be pretty much the same as it is today. Just like stuff today is pretty much like it was 15 years ago.
It's a bit easier to pick up my email on my phone, and my home internet connection is about 100 times faster. That's about it, really.
... and Hakko is just Aoyue with an expensive sticker!
The brass pot scourer tip cleaners are awesome.
Which is just bloody great. Now we have to work out how to change an engine mounting from 150 million miles away.
That's how I would have done it, too. You'd presumably have GPS tracks from the trucks, and various ANPR/CCTV sightings along the route. Some sort of camera and Geiger counter on a small van with the truck's route programmed into a GPS would take you to it. Well, assuming it hasn't been found and moved.
In other news, there isn't a fallen-off exhaust pipe or silencer to be found in a big swathe across America's roads ;-)
Put up a big obvious CCTV camera housing on a pole with a big obvious sign. This will attract the paintballs.
Then stick a modern exterior CCTV camera up, with a wireless link back to your property. Or alternatively, just use 3G to backhaul it.
The speed limit is 70mph. Even if you exceed that by quite a margin, you'll only make the same journey a couple of minutes more quickly.
In any case, 70mph is way, way faster than most US-made cars can safely be driven. Catch up to things like modern suspension and braking systems and we'll talk.
That's nice and all, but why bother? It doesn't go any faster than my 1600cc diesel van. It might accelerate from 0 to 60 a bit faster, but how often do you need to accelerate from a dead standstill to 60mph, as quickly as possible? I can't think of a single time when I've needed to do that, in practical day-to-day driving.
On the drag strip, it's a different matter. But you're not on a drag strip, so you shouldn't drive like you are.
To which is the standard reply: "Atheism is a religion in the same sense that not collecting stamps is a hobby."
But the problem is, the atheists who say that are more annoying and preachy that be believers that they are trying to mock.
I don't care if you're an atheist. Keep your kooky beliefs to yourself.
No, it uses OSM data.
I don't hate hybrids, I just don't see the point of them. There are larger, more fuel-efficient cars available. Why buy a heavy, overcomplicated car with a wheezy little petrol engine?
They're not *that* different in size, and the performance differences are insignificant.
The fact remains that the Prius is small, slow, heavy and thirsty car. It's a completely pointless vehicle. There is really no need for it.