> Transistor counts keep growing, so I keep updating this and reposting it about once a year.
For those who don't already know, what we now think of as "Moore's Law" was originally a statement about the rate of growth in the number of transistors on a chip, not about CPU speed.
> One of the most enduring memories I have of the Gulf War were pictures of the "Road of Death", showing literally hundreds of Iraqi tanks, APCs and other vehicles that had been reduced to smoking piles of metal by Allied air power. I thought of all those thousands of Iraqi conscripts, sitting ducks in their retreat from Kuwait, who were roasted alive in their vehicles by Apaches and Warthogs who used them for target practice.
Worse than all the Vietnamese we killed in the bombing campaign? Worse than the military and civilian casualties our bombers inflicted in WWII?
> Even on the news or in the papers, barely a thought was given to those killed: that's how far we had dehumanised those Iraqi young men.
Actually, as I recall it the public reaction to those pictures was the proximate cause of of the unilateral cease-fire.
> Honourable combat to faceless destruction in less than a century. Ain't progress grand?
Rarely has the disregard for faceless destruction of your own troops exceeded what was seen in WWI.
> Rummy's the dude who brokered the deals with Sadam back in the Reagan era. He's just an expendable puppet. If they sack him, he can start selling his book sooner and Bush, Pearl and Wolfowitz can have someone to blame.
Problem is, Bush is on a MfG, and sacking a member of his Cabinet would be too close to an admission that the MfG was based on a mistake.
> Or *gasp* could it be becasue they are [in]embedded with coalition forces?
And the independents tended to get shot at?
You can bet that during the initial invasion every Bradley with a reporter on board was about a mile behind another Bradley with a political officer on board, to steer it toward and away from various things the reporters were or weren't supposed to see.
> This is months before the four American contractors were killed and had their bodies burned in Fallujah.
s/contractors/mercenaries/
> So, if you want to put a biblical eye-for-an-eye spin on this, the Fallujah killings in March may have been revenge for the Abu Ghraib abuses, not the other way around as some folks are trying to insinuate.
Yeah, there seems to be a lot more interest in spin control, rationalization, excuses, and finger-pointing than in getting right with basic morality and international law.
Because it provides at least a partial answer to "who guards the guards".
A crack-down on possession is almost inevitable, since our society seems to prefer hiding problems over fixing them, but IMO any such crack-down will be lamentable.
> It's worse that you think. A number of years ago (maybe 10 to 20?), the radiation detectors at Los Alamos went off when a delivery of patio furniture passed by. Turns out the cast iron in the furniture contained Cobalt-60. Tracing the shipment back, they found that the furniture had been made in Mexico from scrap metal. Someone in Mexico had sold a radiation therapy machine as scrap.
> Every few months we get a major update. It includes new features, new goodies, new stability and performance enhancements... that you can actually see! Heck, most of them are even free!
Bah, I tried a Big Mac yesterday and all I got was a greasy burger and a crummy little toy.
> Microsoft's cash reserves as of Dec 31, were 53 billion dollars. To put that into perspective, it is enough to "fund NASA for a year, assemble a fleet of 100 Boeing 747s, and buy every person in Seattle a 2004 Subaru Outback -- with a few billion left over for incidentals."
But wouldn't get a Slashdotter a date with the Olsen Twins.
> the great majority of my completed courses have had almost no practical use to me for coding. On the other hand, they have taught me to think about and logically break down problems, understand how programs actually interacts with the computer, and the theories on which computation is founded.
And for those you need discrete math, not the traditional calculus requirement, or the trig that severeal people have mentioned.
Yes, you may need trig, calculus, or some of the really weird stuff if you do certain kinds of application but for "computer science" per se it's discrete math all the way. Too bad not many university programs seem to understand that fact. (Or maybe they just can't win the battle with their college of sciences and/or math department.)
> Now use this algorithm to predict the near future price of any given stock. I predict it won't work, and would make you poor in a hurry. Sorry folks, the future can't be predicted with 100% accuracy (or at least not consistently accurate enough to make money by day trading.)
Suppose you did have some kind of high-accuracy prediction algorithm, and everybody started using it. Then what happens?
> It's a new way of determining the optimum packet size on the fly so that collisions, errors & retransmissions are minimized, greatly boosting overall throughput.
Would someone mind writing a summary of that summary for us?
Slashdot Mirror
> Transistor counts keep growing, so I keep updating this and reposting it about once a year.
For those who don't already know, what we now think of as "Moore's Law" was originally a statement about the rate of growth in the number of transistors on a chip, not about CPU speed.
> One of the most enduring memories I have of the Gulf War were pictures of the "Road of Death", showing literally hundreds of Iraqi tanks, APCs and other vehicles that had been reduced to smoking piles of metal by Allied air power. I thought of all those thousands of Iraqi conscripts, sitting ducks in their retreat from Kuwait, who were roasted alive in their vehicles by Apaches and Warthogs who used them for target practice.
Worse than all the Vietnamese we killed in the bombing campaign? Worse than the military and civilian casualties our bombers inflicted in WWII?
> Even on the news or in the papers, barely a thought was given to those killed: that's how far we had dehumanised those Iraqi young men.
Actually, as I recall it the public reaction to those pictures was the proximate cause of of the unilateral cease-fire.
> Honourable combat to faceless destruction in less than a century. Ain't progress grand?
Rarely has the disregard for faceless destruction of your own troops exceeded what was seen in WWI.
> Rummy's the dude who brokered the deals with Sadam back in the Reagan era. He's just an expendable puppet. If they sack him, he can start selling his book sooner and Bush, Pearl and Wolfowitz can have someone to blame.
Problem is, Bush is on a MfG, and sacking a member of his Cabinet would be too close to an admission that the MfG was based on a mistake.
> How much cornstarch do you need for the Red Sea anyway?
Moses stole the technology from the Egyptians, who were using it to make Stargates.
> Its bad enough US troops were doing this, but why were they even taking pictures of it? How stupid can you get, really...
> Or *gasp* could it be becasue they are [in]embedded with coalition forces?
And the independents tended to get shot at?
You can bet that during the initial invasion every Bradley with a reporter on board was about a mile behind another Bradley with a political officer on board, to steer it toward and away from various things the reporters were or weren't supposed to see.
> So, if you want to put a biblical eye-for-an-eye spin on this, the Fallujah killings in March may have been revenge for the Abu Ghraib abuses, not the other way around as some folks are trying to insinuate.> This is months before the four American contractors were killed and had their bodies burned in Fallujah.
Yeah, there seems to be a lot more interest in spin control, rationalization, excuses, and finger-pointing than in getting right with basic morality and international law.
> I don't think the pics out of Iraq are re-touched, but the ease and power of photoshop and such is something to keep in mind...
It's just a matter of time until we turn on the news and see a "live broadcast" of a politician confessing something he never did.
The political implications of technology go far beyond black-box voting machines.
> If Iraq is going to be another "Vietnam" just remember that to America's ~50,ooo they lost 1 to 2 MILLION.
And the Johnson Administration kept harping on this as a sign that we were "winning".
You can always win, if you get to choose what "win" means.
> I wouldn't look for a cut an run.
I would. It's just a matter of when.
As soon as someone's up for re-election who thinks being out will garner more votes than being in, out we'll go.
Because it provides at least a partial answer to "who guards the guards".
A crack-down on possession is almost inevitable, since our society seems to prefer hiding problems over fixing them, but IMO any such crack-down will be lamentable.
> It's worse that you think. A number of years ago (maybe 10 to 20?), the radiation detectors at Los Alamos went off when a delivery of patio furniture passed by. Turns out the cast iron in the furniture contained Cobalt-60. Tracing the shipment back, they found that the furniture had been made in Mexico from scrap metal. Someone in Mexico had sold a radiation therapy machine as scrap.
Great for tanning both sides at once, eh?
...the skinnybot slipped through the net.
> Every few months we get a major update. It includes new features, new goodies, new stability and performance enhancements... that you can actually see! Heck, most of them are even free!
Bah, I tried a Big Mac yesterday and all I got was a greasy burger and a crummy little toy.
> Microsoft's cash reserves as of Dec 31, were 53 billion dollars. To put that into perspective, it is enough to "fund NASA for a year, assemble a fleet of 100 Boeing 747s, and buy every person in Seattle a 2004 Subaru Outback -- with a few billion left over for incidentals."
But wouldn't get a Slashdotter a date with the Olsen Twins.
> They could probably not release another version of Windows for a decade and still have cash left over.
Or release re-skinned versions of XP as "XP++", etc., every two years and make a fortune.
> Next question: how the heck do you control the spin of individual baryons in a nucleus?
For the spin control we must turn to politicians rather than scientists.
> what are they putting into the software that can track these sort of people?
Bugs?
> Step 1: Write virus/worm without your name, intials, alias, or any other identifying info.
I always use your initials!
...priceless.
What if software bugs emit gravitons? Wouldn't that explain the apparent extra mass in the universe?
> my little brother who recently turned 18 for a beer
In my day we turned 18 without any such incentives.
> the great majority of my completed courses have had almost no practical use to me for coding. On the other hand, they have taught me to think about and logically break down problems, understand how programs actually interacts with the computer, and the theories on which computation is founded.
And for those you need discrete math, not the traditional calculus requirement, or the trig that severeal people have mentioned.
Yes, you may need trig, calculus, or some of the really weird stuff if you do certain kinds of application but for "computer science" per se it's discrete math all the way. Too bad not many university programs seem to understand that fact. (Or maybe they just can't win the battle with their college of sciences and/or math department.)
> The orders to patch go straight to company commanders
Yeah, 'cause line officers got nothing better to do than make sure their computers stay patched.
> Now use this algorithm to predict the near future price of any given stock. I predict it won't work, and would make you poor in a hurry. Sorry folks, the future can't be predicted with 100% accuracy (or at least not consistently accurate enough to make money by day trading.)
Suppose you did have some kind of high-accuracy prediction algorithm, and everybody started using it. Then what happens?
> It's a new way of determining the optimum packet size on the fly so that collisions, errors & retransmissions are minimized, greatly boosting overall throughput.
Would someone mind writing a summary of that summary for us?