Short term future question: how long before one of these can assemble an iPhone or other devices with similarly delicate assembly requirements? Those pincers don't look very dexterous.
This may be a dumb question, but why aren't everyone doing this? I know nothing about desktop apps, but if I were to do this on a server environment, I would catalogue all the executables with their checksums and verify it every time before launching. Then (if I had that sort of influence), I'll create a system where all respectable software vendors (and OSS writers) separately distribute checksums as well. That'll take care of infections of legit software.
Why even use AV software? This safeguard could be directly built in to the OS. Of course, this won't prevent you from downloading unknown crap from the Internet. I always verify the vendor before installing anything and I always download directly from the source. I haven't had an infection of any sort in YEARS. All we need is the same process, streamlined so that the average non-technical user can do it without the same investment in time.
And as you say, monitoring and permissioning program behaviors should take care of a lot of problems, even if we don't fingerprint (although that's a considerable amount of work to be done on existing OS's). For example, I don't want my word processor accessing or writing anything outside designated document directories (why should it?), or accessing the Internet unless I allow it.
Indeed. Notice how this happens just around the time when a tech startup that was until then run by the founders, get an infusion of MBA executives? I've seen it happen. Not only do they change the focus of the company from great products to shorter term profits, they bring a certain bring a certain small-mindedness and blame culture that ends up polluting and demoralizing the entire workforce. Yeah, sorry. Kind of off topic.
I just compared the highly voted vs. the not-so-highly-voted petitions at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions . It made me question the wisdom of universal suffrage.
I agree. These petitions (What's next? Convert Cheyenne Mountain into a wormhole research facility?) dilute what little influence the petition process already has. Someday the government will be able to point to all the wacky petitions when they really need to trivialize a valid petition that they consider a threat.
Want to do something for science? Look at the Brits. They petitioned for an apology for the way the government treated Alan Turing. And they got an uncharacteristically honest and unqualified apology.
Thanks for taking the time to explain this! I suppose a brightness variation along with a lateral wobble pretty much confirms a planet. And if you consider the percentage of occlusion against the calculated mass, you get the planet's density! (I think).
I sincerely hope this won't turn out to be like the martian canals. I'm not an astrophysicist so please correct me if I'm wrong, but we're assuming the only thing that can cause regular and periodic brightness changes in a star is a planetary transit. I know we've a very few blurry visuals of at least a handful of planets, but could it be that not all these are transits? Is there a secondary method that can be used to verify the result?
I went through the languages in the following order: Basic, Fortran, Pascal, Java, C/C++, Perl, PHP and a bit of C#. After a decade of programming, I find that C++, PHP and Perl can cater to most of my needs. It's just a matter of recognizing the appropriate language for the job and not becoming a religious fanatic. I'm very fond of C/C++, but I would never try to write a web app or text processing scripts with it.
My 2c to that: Security and freedom are divergent goals. If we want to be completely safe, we'll have to be locked up in our homes. We risk death or injury every time we step out into the world. I thought this is what the "land of the free and home of the brave" in your national anthem meant. If you want to be free, you just have to be brave.
You can also use the propellant as shielding -- by placing the tanks around the habitable area. That'll at least provide some extra protection on the outbound journey when the tanks are mostly full.
a national budget is a much more interesting beast
When I read that, I thought you were going to explain why it is an interesting beast in the next paragraph and tell us exactly what you mean by "interesting".
Simpleminded folk like myself think that spending more than you have is a bad idea, and spending more than you will have is an even worse idea (i.e. ballooning debt). I would love to know if I'm wrong. However, your paragraph #2 is about taxes, R&D, infrastructure and retirement age. Now I'm confused.
I can attest to a very similar experience. While I didn't have 70 lbs to lose, cutting carbs and replacing it with meat, eggs, cheese and vegetables made a huge difference. But it's a long term thing -- I don't see how it'll work for anyone who wants to lose a few pounds in a week.
...recounts the story of the computer that translates the phrase "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." from English to Russian and back and what they got was "The wine is good but the meat is rotten."
That's nothing. "Out of sight, out of mind" to Russian and back is "Invisible maniac".
The biggest IF is that there may not be planets at all:
...Tuomi's team warns that disturbances on the star itself, rather than orbiting planets, may be producing the small velocity changes...
"They're pushing the envelope," says Gregory Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "Some or even many of these planets could go away...
why not? I try not to let irrational fear rule my life, while you apparently do.
I applaud you for your bravery.
I am, in fact, talking about taking the risk before the technology is human rated to that level (after which there is no risk to speak of and even those with no scientific knowledge can feel safe flying in one). The key is redundancy, which a big part of the reason why air travel is considered safe (the other being the fact that it is now based very mature technology). Most modern helium airships don't have (nor need) multiple gas compartments but hydrogen dirigibles should have them.
Are any of us here willing to take the risk, provided the hull was non-flammable and structurally stable? I can't see myself doing it unless it's built as a collection of fully independent hydrogen compartments. Even if a few burns catastrophically, the ship should be able to make a controlled descent.
Slashdot Mirror
Is it called Knight Industries Truth Teller (K.I.T.T) ?
ditto
640 qubits may or may not be enough for anybody.
Short term future question: how long before one of these can assemble an iPhone or other devices with similarly delicate assembly requirements? Those pincers don't look very dexterous.
This may be a dumb question, but why aren't everyone doing this? I know nothing about desktop apps, but if I were to do this on a server environment, I would catalogue all the executables with their checksums and verify it every time before launching. Then (if I had that sort of influence), I'll create a system where all respectable software vendors (and OSS writers) separately distribute checksums as well. That'll take care of infections of legit software.
Why even use AV software? This safeguard could be directly built in to the OS. Of course, this won't prevent you from downloading unknown crap from the Internet. I always verify the vendor before installing anything and I always download directly from the source. I haven't had an infection of any sort in YEARS. All we need is the same process, streamlined so that the average non-technical user can do it without the same investment in time.
And as you say, monitoring and permissioning program behaviors should take care of a lot of problems, even if we don't fingerprint (although that's a considerable amount of work to be done on existing OS's). For example, I don't want my word processor accessing or writing anything outside designated document directories (why should it?), or accessing the Internet unless I allow it.
Or is this an overly simplistic view?
Indeed. Notice how this happens just around the time when a tech startup that was until then run by the founders, get an infusion of MBA executives? I've seen it happen. Not only do they change the focus of the company from great products to shorter term profits, they bring a certain bring a certain small-mindedness and blame culture that ends up polluting and demoralizing the entire workforce. Yeah, sorry. Kind of off topic.
I just compared the highly voted vs. the not-so-highly-voted petitions at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions . It made me question the wisdom of universal suffrage.
I agree. These petitions (What's next? Convert Cheyenne Mountain into a wormhole research facility?) dilute what little influence the petition process already has. Someday the government will be able to point to all the wacky petitions when they really need to trivialize a valid petition that they consider a threat.
Want to do something for science? Look at the Brits. They petitioned for an apology for the way the government treated Alan Turing. And they got an uncharacteristically honest and unqualified apology.
Low Earth Orbit nuking techniques are even more effective. One might even say it is the only way to be 100% effective.
The moment I saw the headline, I knew it was going to be +5 Funny across the board. Thank you for not disappointing!
No. It means it's made of Naquadah: http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Naquadah_asteroid
Thanks for taking the time to explain this! I suppose a brightness variation along with a lateral wobble pretty much confirms a planet. And if you consider the percentage of occlusion against the calculated mass, you get the planet's density! (I think).
I sincerely hope this won't turn out to be like the martian canals. I'm not an astrophysicist so please correct me if I'm wrong, but we're assuming the only thing that can cause regular and periodic brightness changes in a star is a planetary transit. I know we've a very few blurry visuals of at least a handful of planets, but could it be that not all these are transits? Is there a secondary method that can be used to verify the result?
I went through the languages in the following order: Basic, Fortran, Pascal, Java, C/C++, Perl, PHP and a bit of C#. After a decade of programming, I find that C++, PHP and Perl can cater to most of my needs. It's just a matter of recognizing the appropriate language for the job and not becoming a religious fanatic. I'm very fond of C/C++, but I would never try to write a web app or text processing scripts with it.
Yes. You recall Asterix correctly.
My 2c to that: Security and freedom are divergent goals. If we want to be completely safe, we'll have to be locked up in our homes. We risk death or injury every time we step out into the world. I thought this is what the "land of the free and home of the brave" in your national anthem meant. If you want to be free, you just have to be brave.
You can also use the propellant as shielding -- by placing the tanks around the habitable area. That'll at least provide some extra protection on the outbound journey when the tanks are mostly full.
a national budget is a much more interesting beast
When I read that, I thought you were going to explain why it is an interesting beast in the next paragraph and tell us exactly what you mean by "interesting".
Simpleminded folk like myself think that spending more than you have is a bad idea, and spending more than you will have is an even worse idea (i.e. ballooning debt). I would love to know if I'm wrong. However, your paragraph #2 is about taxes, R&D, infrastructure and retirement age. Now I'm confused.
Does no one remember the DC-X? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X
I can attest to a very similar experience. While I didn't have 70 lbs to lose, cutting carbs and replacing it with meat, eggs, cheese and vegetables made a huge difference. But it's a long term thing -- I don't see how it'll work for anyone who wants to lose a few pounds in a week.
...recounts the story of the computer that translates the phrase "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." from English to Russian and back and what they got was "The wine is good but the meat is rotten."
That's nothing. "Out of sight, out of mind" to Russian and back is "Invisible maniac".
...Tuomi's team warns that disturbances on the star itself, rather than orbiting planets, may be producing the small velocity changes...
"They're pushing the envelope," says Gregory Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "Some or even many of these planets could go away...
why not? I try not to let irrational fear rule my life, while you apparently do.
I applaud you for your bravery.
I am, in fact, talking about taking the risk before the technology is human rated to that level (after which there is no risk to speak of and even those with no scientific knowledge can feel safe flying in one). The key is redundancy, which a big part of the reason why air travel is considered safe (the other being the fact that it is now based very mature technology). Most modern helium airships don't have (nor need) multiple gas compartments but hydrogen dirigibles should have them.
Are any of us here willing to take the risk, provided the hull was non-flammable and structurally stable? I can't see myself doing it unless it's built as a collection of fully independent hydrogen compartments. Even if a few burns catastrophically, the ship should be able to make a controlled descent.
I will think a little thought for lonely Voyager.
xkcd stick-man, is that you?