> This seems to be yet another example of what Jung was saying about the collective unconscious. Over and over in history there seem to be cases of people either prediscovering things, like Poe, without any basis or proof
It is very popular among kooks to count the hits and ignore the misses. What percentage of all "prediscoveries" actually turn out to be true? Is it a reliable method of investigating the facts of nature?
>...or of people coming up with the same idea at about the same time without any apparent connection between them (e.g. the invention of calculus).
The thing about the shoulders of giants, is that they're big enough for lots of people to stand on at the same time. We get lots of simultaneous discoveries because science and technology advance on a chronological wavefront.
> While I agree that Mozart could do this to a miraculous degree, I must point out that it's not some rare skill that only one person in a generation has.
It was rather more than that with Mozart. During the counter-reformation, Allegri's magnificent "Miserere" was considered something of a secret weapon. It was performed only in the Sistine chapel, and the Pope threatened excommunication for anyone in the choir who took their score out of the room.
According to the story, Mozart went to the Sistine and heard it at age 14, then went home and wrote out the score from memory. BTW, it's twelve minutes long and polyphonic. The story, if true, wasn't just a matter of remembering a tune.
It's also really mellow. Great listening for when you have to get up before dawn and can't face much of anything else.
> Anyone else getting sick of O.S.C. milking the Enders series?
FWIW, I got sick of the histrionics and melodrama. I haven't even been bothering to see what new titles he comes out with since reading some of the Ender and Maker stuff.
The Ender short story was interesting, but beyond that I've never understood why he has such an avid fan base.
> Seriously though, there are tons of scientists that are also religious
That goes uncontested, though it would be interesting to know whether there are any productive scientists who are religious fanatics.
> Fact is that the SF audience usually prefers to read stories that make one (or maybe two or so) assumptions about the way the future could develop and that religion is mostly trying to find its roots in the past rather than the present. There is some SF set in the past but not much and it usually stays miles away from any interference with religious characters or times. (again, there are some exceptions here).
Religion appears frequently in Jack Vance's SF. Almost aways as the butt of satire, though.
> The other story "Carthaginian Rose" completely ignores the existence of an immortal soul. You can't transfer a soul into a machine (Tracy Kidder's tome notwithstanding). Sorry, patently absurd.
I don't see much evidence that you can put a soul into a body, either. Did you have some evidence that one is possible and the other isn't?
> Just add a bit, and suddenly you've pushed off the efficiencies gained by moore's law for another 18 months. By going to 163 bits, you've got a good 80 years before the that key can be broken in the same time as this 109 bit key.
I'm not familiar with the relevant statistics, but it may be the case that the number of computers that we can usefully cluster together is also growing exponentially, in which case our cracking speed is actually growing at O(e^{e^t}). I would guess far less than 80 years before a brute force attack works against 163 bits.
> We don't get the chance to vote on Federal law(only a few people to vote for us that only a majority of us chose), and when we DO get the chance to vote (State laws) they don't count worth a shit.
Yes, but you do get to vote on which representatives get to vote on those federal laws. Those states voting on marijuana ought to be sending anti-war-on-drugs representatives to Congress.
> Btw, anybody else depressed about their selection of candidates?
Yep. And it may be worth our time to ask why.
Issues weren't an issue in my state. They started out with the Republicans running on the "I'm a Bush suck-up" ticket and the Democrats running on the "I'm going to give you everything and charge you nothing" ticket. But as soon as they saw each other's ads they added each other's pitch to their own, and you couldn't tell which party anyone was from by looking at the content of their ads. Finally they ditched all that and all just ran on the "I'm a better mudslinger" ticket.
Which raises the question of where they got all the money for those expensive ads. Someone has a lot of money and wants these people in office really bad. I think the reason we're getting bland candidates is because we're merely voting on whose puppet is most appealing.
> It was a tough choice. Voted green.
As neutral advice, I recommend everyone voting on one of the minor parties or independents. Even if you're not 100% behind their agenda, you can send a message to the major parties that way.
> Does anyone with a better knowledge of radioactive dating than me know what kind of effect these impacts have on radioactive dating methods?
Hope springs eternal in creationists' breasts.
Re:Fritz Hollings out as commerce committee chair!
on
Indecision 2002
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
> No matter what your party affiliation is, you have to be encouraged by the growing possibility of Republicans taking back control of the Senate.
I don't have a party affiliation, and the prospect terrifies me.
International observers in Florida
on
Indecision 2002
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
The most interesting thing I've heard on the news today is that one of the international organizations that monitors elections in the Third World is monitoring the election in Florida this time.
> actually, it made me think back to previous laser or missile based "star wars" tests where they installed GPS transmitters in the targets. the target was destroyed, congress saw headlines like 'Missile Test A Success' and gave the program its continued funding, and it wasn't revealed until afterwards that the test was rigged [alternet.org]. i hate being lied to.
Also remember the tests on the 80's era Sgt. York "DIVAD" divisional air-defense artillery system. They packed the target aircraft with explosives and set it off by remote control for the better edification of an audience of congresscritters.
Unfortunately for the proponents of the system, one of the congressmen at that dog+pony show was a veteran of air combat, and saw that the timing between the shot and the 'hit' was impossible. DIVAD is dead.
> With Futurama, I feel that folks just simply didn't appreciate what they had until it was gone.... Either way, let's just hope that this time it's very successful.
I'm going to wait and see it when it comes out for IMAX.
> The net effect for the US trade balance of a harsh attitude against MSFT therefore would surely be positive, instead of negative as is often thought.
The problem is that the US government is less interested in the nation's economic health than it is in tomorrow's stock averages. With the government, most businesses, and many citizens feeling the same way, the only possible long-term result is the destruction of the economy.
> Do not, I repeat do not force a nontechnical person to use Linux.... Yes, Windows sucks. If it's having that many problems, see if you can roust up a copy of Win2000 or WinXP. But if you force your girlfriend to use Linux, she will probably end up frustrated and hating it (and maybe even hating you).
Yeah, Linux is really weird. You click an icon and a program runs. Or if you can't find an icon for the program you want, you click a button and a menu pops up to let you select one. Girls shouldn't be exposed to such mind-boggling exercises.
Slashdot Mirror
> I betcha Poe didn't forecast pr0n by telecommunication...
Yeah, he didn't want any competition for the bandwith.
> This seems to be yet another example of what Jung was saying about the collective unconscious. Over and over in history there seem to be cases of people either prediscovering things, like Poe, without any basis or proof
It is very popular among kooks to count the hits and ignore the misses. What percentage of all "prediscoveries" actually turn out to be true? Is it a reliable method of investigating the facts of nature?
>
The thing about the shoulders of giants, is that they're big enough for lots of people to stand on at the same time. We get lots of simultaneous discoveries because science and technology advance on a chronological wavefront.
> As we all know, there are actually four states of matter: solid, liquid, gaseous and plasma.
As every Slashdotter knows, there are five states of matter: solid, liquid, gaseous, plasma, and beowulf cluster.
> While I agree that Mozart could do this to a miraculous degree, I must point out that it's not some rare skill that only one person in a generation has.
It was rather more than that with Mozart. During the counter-reformation, Allegri's magnificent "Miserere" was considered something of a secret weapon. It was performed only in the Sistine chapel, and the Pope threatened excommunication for anyone in the choir who took their score out of the room.
According to the story, Mozart went to the Sistine and heard it at age 14, then went home and wrote out the score from memory. BTW, it's twelve minutes long and polyphonic. The story, if true, wasn't just a matter of remembering a tune.
It's also really mellow. Great listening for when you have to get up before dawn and can't face much of anything else.
> Anyone else getting sick of O.S.C. milking the Enders series?
FWIW, I got sick of the histrionics and melodrama. I haven't even been bothering to see what new titles he comes out with since reading some of the Ender and Maker stuff.
The Ender short story was interesting, but beyond that I've never understood why he has such an avid fan base.
> Seriously though, there are tons of scientists that are also religious
That goes uncontested, though it would be interesting to know whether there are any productive scientists who are religious fanatics.
> Fact is that the SF audience usually prefers to read stories that make one (or maybe two or so) assumptions about the way the future could develop and that religion is mostly trying to find its roots in the past rather than the present. There is some SF set in the past but not much and it usually stays miles away from any interference with religious characters or times. (again, there are some exceptions here).
Religion appears frequently in Jack Vance's SF. Almost aways as the butt of satire, though.
> The other story "Carthaginian Rose" completely ignores the existence of an immortal soul. You can't transfer a soul into a machine (Tracy Kidder's tome notwithstanding). Sorry, patently absurd.
I don't see much evidence that you can put a soul into a body, either. Did you have some evidence that one is possible and the other isn't?
> Just add a bit, and suddenly you've pushed off the efficiencies gained by moore's law for another 18 months. By going to 163 bits, you've got a good 80 years before the that key can be broken in the same time as this 109 bit key.
I'm not familiar with the relevant statistics, but it may be the case that the number of computers that we can usefully cluster together is also growing exponentially, in which case our cracking speed is actually growing at O(e^{e^t}). I would guess far less than 80 years before a brute force attack works against 163 bits.
> Have you forgotten that computing speeds double every 18 months? 54 * 18 months is 81 years.
> If Moore's law holds up that long, I'll eat my hat.
Bad idea. At that age your digestion won't tolerate hats.
> One thing that a lot of people seem to ignore is that most people are pretty clueless about the relatively easy methods of circumvention.
In principle, only one person needs to circumvent. After that the copying is easy.
> What bothers me is the "Suck It Down!"(c) attitude BMG is taking
Now that's a corporate vice that you can blame on Clinton!
> My father allways told me if I watched too much TV or used my computer too much my eyes would end up beeing squared.
You misunderstood him - he actually said too much TV and computer would make you grow up to be a square.
> We don't get the chance to vote on Federal law(only a few people to vote for us that only a majority of us chose), and when we DO get the chance to vote (State laws) they don't count worth a shit.
Yes, but you do get to vote on which representatives get to vote on those federal laws. Those states voting on marijuana ought to be sending anti-war-on-drugs representatives to Congress.
> Btw, anybody else depressed about their selection of candidates?
Yep. And it may be worth our time to ask why.
Issues weren't an issue in my state. They started out with the Republicans running on the "I'm a Bush suck-up" ticket and the Democrats running on the "I'm going to give you everything and charge you nothing" ticket. But as soon as they saw each other's ads they added each other's pitch to their own, and you couldn't tell which party anyone was from by looking at the content of their ads. Finally they ditched all that and all just ran on the "I'm a better mudslinger" ticket.
Which raises the question of where they got all the money for those expensive ads. Someone has a lot of money and wants these people in office really bad. I think the reason we're getting bland candidates is because we're merely voting on whose puppet is most appealing.
> It was a tough choice. Voted green.
As neutral advice, I recommend everyone voting on one of the minor parties or independents. Even if you're not 100% behind their agenda, you can send a message to the major parties that way.
> Does anyone with a better knowledge of radioactive dating than me know what kind of effect these impacts have on radioactive dating methods?
Hope springs eternal in creationists' breasts.
> No matter what your party affiliation is, you have to be encouraged by the growing possibility of Republicans taking back control of the Senate.
I don't have a party affiliation, and the prospect terrifies me.
The most interesting thing I've heard on the news today is that one of the international organizations that monitors elections in the Third World is monitoring the election in Florida this time.
> actually, it made me think back to previous laser or missile based "star wars" tests where they installed GPS transmitters in the targets. the target was destroyed, congress saw headlines like 'Missile Test A Success' and gave the program its continued funding, and it wasn't revealed until afterwards that the test was rigged [alternet.org]. i hate being lied to.
Also remember the tests on the 80's era Sgt. York "DIVAD" divisional air-defense artillery system. They packed the target aircraft with explosives and set it off by remote control for the better edification of an audience of congresscritters.
Unfortunately for the proponents of the system, one of the congressmen at that dog+pony show was a veteran of air combat, and saw that the timing between the shot and the 'hit' was impossible. DIVAD is dead.
> The GPL is 'viral' in a sense
The GPL isn't viral; it's hereditary.
I have had both GPL and non-GPL software installed together on my system for years, and none of the non-GPL software has ever been infected.
> With Futurama, I feel that folks just simply didn't appreciate what they had until it was gone.
I'm going to wait and see it when it comes out for IMAX.
> The net effect for the US trade balance of a harsh attitude against MSFT therefore would surely be positive, instead of negative as is often thought.
The problem is that the US government is less interested in the nation's economic health than it is in tomorrow's stock averages. With the government, most businesses, and many citizens feeling the same way, the only possible long-term result is the destruction of the economy.
> SCREENSHOTS REMOVED DUE TO MICROSOFT REQUEST
> That was fast work by Microsoft
Especially compared to their speed of getting security patches out.
Glad to see they're on their toes for the important stuff.
> JWZ's Law Of Software Envelopment states that all programs expand until they can read mail.
Heh. Maybe that's why the clock is bigger.
> Do not, I repeat do not force a nontechnical person to use Linux.
Yeah, Linux is really weird. You click an icon and a program runs. Or if you can't find an icon for the program you want, you click a button and a menu pops up to let you select one. Girls shouldn't be exposed to such mind-boggling exercises.
> Would it be possible to take a snapshot of memory just after a sucessful first time boot and just load it for "speed boots"?.
DEC was working on that for VMS over a decade ago. Don't know how it turned out, though, 'cause that's when I got out of the VMS environment.