These are the same kids that always ran their Linux machines at root because they were so 133t.
there's nothing 133t about always running a linux machine as root... unless of course your surname happens to be torvalds in which case if you get hacked or infected you simply do a neo superman manouvre or kevin flynn elevator repair job and cause hackers and viruses to suffer a spontaneous painful death
now now... i know it's only a prototype but it's not really fair to compare it to "american ninja"... a black belt in american ninja is awarded for being able to get off the couch and put your pyjamas on by yourself
when i read the summary i was thinking of a terminator type robot that could chase down a human (considering most humans aren't strong/fast enough to do parkour)... imagine my disappointment when i clicked the link
We're still dicking around doing "pure science" when every dollar on space should be spent on commercialization and exploitation
i agree
but commercialization requires certain thresholds to be breached
(1) the financial and legal risk must be acceptable (2) the cost must be acceptable (considering break even point and return on investment) (3) part of the first 2 points but deserves special mention is the risk of loss of high R&D investment from industrial espionage (highly likely for any disruptive technology) or personnel transfer (restraint of trade clauses are rarely enforceable) (4) also related to previous... even if some loss can be recouped via courts, damage will be done long before then
the commercial sector operates mostly on risk. they will quite happily jump on board a new industry if somebody else has taken the foundation risk... this is what the stock/share markets are based on
look at big US banks... everyone picks on them because they supposedly caused the 2008 recession. people argue that they were offering mortgages to people that they knew weren't good for the money, but this goes against how commerce works. in reality, the big banks only offered mortgages to people that didn't deserve them because the government was at the time mandating it (google speeches by george bush jr about every american owning a home of their own) and the government guaranteeing such mortgages. the problem with this guarantee (underwritten by the taxpayer) was that this completely removed all risk to the banks, and without risk the banks could do whatever they could to make huge gambles that stockholders would never have approved of otherwise, and they did. as peter schiff puts it... "the big banks got drunk, but the government provided the alcohol".
We have sufficient space and robotics technology to begin to move heavy manufacturing into space
no we don't
until we have developed the technology for cheap, reliable, safe and regular access to low earth orbit, space is simply not very accessible at all
the russians are probably the closest to this, but space is hard, risky and expensive even for them with their almost mass-produced launchers (well, mass produced as far as space launchers go anyway)
its not that there is no market or future in space... there is, but access to space is the hard part
boeing, lockheed martin, etc have tried (even with massive government subsidy) and failed, so the problem isn't money
As for the cost to clean up Fukushima? Can we PLEASE stop blaming nuclear power for what is in reality a case of corporate and government malfeasance please? It was SUPPOSED to have been shut down years ago, it wasn't, it was SUPPOSED to have been well maintained, it wasn't, what you have is the government and the corp in bed together and running a plant WAY past its prime and not taking good care of it so no shit when something nasty came along it was fucked.
blaming nuclear power for fukushima is possibly analogous to blaming a car for a car accident or blaming a gun for a shooting, which all seem obviously unfair to the technology, and it seems obvious to blame the user of the technology, but...
if it were always the fault of the user, companies wouldn't need to worry about liability would they?
in reality everyone involved in the life-cycle of a technology shares responsibility for its use or misuse. the operator is simply the last line of defence against something going wrong (refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model). some of the problems with modern technology summed up with inspiration from Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park... "[Nuclear] power is [one of] the most awesome [forces] the planet's ever seen, but [humanity wields] it like a kid that's found his dad's gun... I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here, it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you wanna sell it. Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should."
Yeah I know it's just a movie right? But it pretty much sums up human nature in a neat little ball. What human would even be capable of building a better fukushima? What is "better"? Maybe some other designer would have increased the strength of the sea wall or added extra backup generators (especially in Japan), but maybe he wouldn't think of a huge concrete bunker over the top of the reactor to protect it in the event of a plane crash, or maybe he would think of all these things but bankrupt investors before the plant could be constructed. Hindsight is always 20/20, but humanity is generally blind to its own faults. In many cases we can afford faults... we live in a faulty world where we tolerate faults in nearly every aspect of our existence. We have consumer protection laws, occupational health and safety laws, road laws etc to try to manage everyday risks and faults as best as possible, but any kind of fault that has the potential to wipe out entire cities like fukushima, whether it be lives or livelihoods, will never be tolerated by society.
The biggest problem with nuclear power will always be its inherent catastrophic risk. you can make plants as safe as you want, but they still have to be designed to be economical otherwise nobody (including taxpayers) will front the investment and will instead resort to fossil fuels. nuclear power has increased in safety and reduced in cost to some extent, but you will never reach absolute safety at reasonable cost, mainly because safety is in many cases a crystal ball exercise and you can't predict with certainty what events a plant may be exposed to or how inherently fallible humans will react and respond in all situations. engineers will often tend to be cautious and build in safety factors and try their best to idiot-proof things, but history has repeatedly demonstrated that when you idiot-proof something, you are inevitably eventually faced by a better idiot. this isn't a problem with training or culture; it's just human nature, and is more obvious whe
PPS I am getting the impression that putting down patent trolls is easy IF the defence against them in court STOPS using high-powered lawyers, and starts using very smart nerds who know how to find prior art, and dissect crappy patent applications
that's exactly why as much as microsoft has made a lot of noise about linux patent violation, they can't do anything about it... in a court of law linux is bulletproof
now all we need is for an overzealous multinational software corporation to step up and prove it:)
A million men with nothing but bread for hats doesn't need guns
you're absolutely right... what good would guns be against thousands of trigger-happy police and homeland security officers, as well as army and national guard units, with armoured vehicles, high pressure water cannons, automatic weapons, tear gas, tasers, and a myriad of other anti-riot munitions at their disposal?
not to mention access to support from the air force and marines if required
the US constitution has been revised with inspiration from Mein Kampf, and the military industrial complex is eager to exercise its new constitutional rights
institutional investors (like pension funds) that are bound by various charters regarding classes of permitted (US-listed) investments and the allowed proportions
that's where all our pension funds are... and that's why we're all screwed
Slashdot Mirror
debian marketing is cool:
http://wallpaperstock.net/debian-red-logo_wallpapers_34062_1280x720_1.html
and their catchy slogan:
"look at that swirl long enough and it will make you high"
IT is becoming more people literate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITcNbEPdpJU
These are the same kids that always ran their Linux machines at root because they were so 133t.
there's nothing 133t about always running a linux machine as root... unless of course your surname happens to be torvalds in which case if you get hacked or infected you simply do a neo superman manouvre or kevin flynn elevator repair job and cause hackers and viruses to suffer a spontaneous painful death
mod parent up... it would be really handy to be able to view a virtually hosted intranet page on my phone
the problem stems from newer routers not supporting loopback
now now... i know it's only a prototype but it's not really fair to compare it to "american ninja"... a black belt in american ninja is awarded for being able to get off the couch and put your pyjamas on by yourself
when i read the summary i was thinking of a terminator type robot that could chase down a human (considering most humans aren't strong/fast enough to do parkour)... imagine my disappointment when i clicked the link
We're still dicking around doing "pure science" when every dollar on space should be spent on commercialization and exploitation
i agree
but commercialization requires certain thresholds to be breached
(1) the financial and legal risk must be acceptable
(2) the cost must be acceptable (considering break even point and return on investment)
(3) part of the first 2 points but deserves special mention is the risk of loss of high R&D investment from industrial espionage (highly likely for any disruptive technology) or personnel transfer (restraint of trade clauses are rarely enforceable)
(4) also related to previous... even if some loss can be recouped via courts, damage will be done long before then
the commercial sector operates mostly on risk. they will quite happily jump on board a new industry if somebody else has taken the foundation risk... this is what the stock/share markets are based on
look at big US banks... everyone picks on them because they supposedly caused the 2008 recession. people argue that they were offering mortgages to people that they knew weren't good for the money, but this goes against how commerce works. in reality, the big banks only offered mortgages to people that didn't deserve them because the government was at the time mandating it (google speeches by george bush jr about every american owning a home of their own) and the government guaranteeing such mortgages. the problem with this guarantee (underwritten by the taxpayer) was that this completely removed all risk to the banks, and without risk the banks could do whatever they could to make huge gambles that stockholders would never have approved of otherwise, and they did. as peter schiff puts it... "the big banks got drunk, but the government provided the alcohol".
so you don't use the internet at all then huh?
what do you think slashdot does with your beloved metadata?
it was all sounding good until...
We have sufficient space and robotics technology to begin to move heavy manufacturing into space
no we don't
until we have developed the technology for cheap, reliable, safe and regular access to low earth orbit, space is simply not very accessible at all
the russians are probably the closest to this, but space is hard, risky and expensive even for them with their almost mass-produced launchers (well, mass produced as far as space launchers go anyway)
its not that there is no market or future in space... there is, but access to space is the hard part
boeing, lockheed martin, etc have tried (even with massive government subsidy) and failed, so the problem isn't money
especially in the shower
i guess typing in your zip code is a bit much to ask
As for the cost to clean up Fukushima? Can we PLEASE stop blaming nuclear power for what is in reality a case of corporate and government malfeasance please? It was SUPPOSED to have been shut down years ago, it wasn't, it was SUPPOSED to have been well maintained, it wasn't, what you have is the government and the corp in bed together and running a plant WAY past its prime and not taking good care of it so no shit when something nasty came along it was fucked.
blaming nuclear power for fukushima is possibly analogous to blaming a car for a car accident or blaming a gun for a shooting, which all seem obviously unfair to the technology, and it seems obvious to blame the user of the technology, but...
if it were always the fault of the user, companies wouldn't need to worry about liability would they?
in reality everyone involved in the life-cycle of a technology shares responsibility for its use or misuse. the operator is simply the last line of defence against something going wrong (refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model). some of the problems with modern technology summed up with inspiration from Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park... "[Nuclear] power is [one of] the most awesome [forces] the planet's ever seen, but [humanity wields] it like a kid that's found his dad's gun... I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here, it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you wanna sell it. Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should."
Yeah I know it's just a movie right? But it pretty much sums up human nature in a neat little ball. What human would even be capable of building a better fukushima? What is "better"? Maybe some other designer would have increased the strength of the sea wall or added extra backup generators (especially in Japan), but maybe he wouldn't think of a huge concrete bunker over the top of the reactor to protect it in the event of a plane crash, or maybe he would think of all these things but bankrupt investors before the plant could be constructed. Hindsight is always 20/20, but humanity is generally blind to its own faults. In many cases we can afford faults... we live in a faulty world where we tolerate faults in nearly every aspect of our existence. We have consumer protection laws, occupational health and safety laws, road laws etc to try to manage everyday risks and faults as best as possible, but any kind of fault that has the potential to wipe out entire cities like fukushima, whether it be lives or livelihoods, will never be tolerated by society.
The biggest problem with nuclear power will always be its inherent catastrophic risk. you can make plants as safe as you want, but they still have to be designed to be economical otherwise nobody (including taxpayers) will front the investment and will instead resort to fossil fuels. nuclear power has increased in safety and reduced in cost to some extent, but you will never reach absolute safety at reasonable cost, mainly because safety is in many cases a crystal ball exercise and you can't predict with certainty what events a plant may be exposed to or how inherently fallible humans will react and respond in all situations. engineers will often tend to be cautious and build in safety factors and try their best to idiot-proof things, but history has repeatedly demonstrated that when you idiot-proof something, you are inevitably eventually faced by a better idiot. this isn't a problem with training or culture; it's just human nature, and is more obvious whe
it's not even as much as the fed reserve wastes in a month
wait for the hasbro-powered macbook air... it will be able to transform into rosie huntington-whiteley
they got there through capitalism
no they didn't... when a government agency (USPTO) uses its power to affect markets and limit competition, that's kinda the opposite of capitalism
capitalism is where you compete with other players on an even playing field
Eolas are like Freddy or Jason, no matter how many times you think they are dead, they rise again. SCO does this, too.
SCO is more comparable to zombie movies... they're already dead but they keep coming for more
That is not even close to true.
if microsoft could have done anything to stop the linux juggernaut in court they would have already and you know it
Don't wrap yourself up in a false sense of security or you may get burned alive in it.
only users of Windows with "antivirus" are wrapped up in a false sense of security
PPS I am getting the impression that putting down patent trolls is easy IF the defence against them in court STOPS using high-powered lawyers, and starts using very smart nerds who know how to find prior art, and dissect crappy patent applications
that's exactly why as much as microsoft has made a lot of noise about linux patent violation, they can't do anything about it... in a court of law linux is bulletproof
now all we need is for an overzealous multinational software corporation to step up and prove it :)
it was obvious why his patent was invalidated... it didn't have rounded corners!
i feel so sorry for you
A million men with nothing but bread for hats doesn't need guns
you're absolutely right... what good would guns be against thousands of trigger-happy police and homeland security officers, as well as army and national guard units, with armoured vehicles, high pressure water cannons, automatic weapons, tear gas, tasers, and a myriad of other anti-riot munitions at their disposal?
not to mention access to support from the air force and marines if required
the US constitution has been revised with inspiration from Mein Kampf, and the military industrial complex is eager to exercise its new constitutional rights
now you have a black eye
nz legalized gay marriage... this is probably just to enable the gov to spy on gay couples... and to make some money selling gay pr0n videos
next they will legalize gov spying on sheep
institutional investors (like pension funds) that are bound by various charters regarding classes of permitted (US-listed) investments and the allowed proportions
that's where all our pension funds are... and that's why we're all screwed
are you a stupid toad?