Somebody's already mentioned the truism that here on the net, nobody knows you're a dog. So as far as the NET is concerned, we have two major groups, the Wired and the Un-Wired.
Amongst the Wired, it's pretty much, IMNSHO, a meritocracy. Write good code, design good websites, whatever: if you're good, you get noticed, if you don't, you're in the discard bin. As it should be: life is to short for sucky code or sites that suck.
As for the Un-Wired, they don't play in our world, yet they can, whenever they get off their loathsome, spotty behinds, and decide, that they, too, should be amongst the Wired. So why is this an issue in the first place ?? Perhaps because, in meatspace, all too many people feel they deserve cash, accolades, recognition, etc. .. WHETHER THEY HAVE EARNED IT OR NOT. And perhaps they feel threatened by our burgeoning cyber-meritocracy. And so, perhaps, they want to stop it, by bringing it down to the lowest common denominator, by getting everone online, whether they want to or not. ..
Not saying that this absolutely IS the case, but I'd argue it over a few beers. . .
Washington D.C.: (AP) Hackers [yeah, I know, but it's a news story] took over the Eastern Seabord Microwave Generation Satellite earlier today, and threatened to redirect the beam at downtown D.C. if Kevin Mitnick was not released immediately.
Millions of Americans cheer on those intrepid hackers. . . .
Al Gore, the inventor of microwave energy, who singlehandedly placed the aforementioned satellite in orbit, declined, to the dismay of the hackers.
Are you sure ??? Besides, seeing Al MOVE is unusual enough, seeing him take action is as rare as a bug-free release from Redmond. . .
Officials at the Pentagon were heard to scream in agony as the installation was turned into a smoldering heap of molten slag.
Now THAT one is improbable. . . the building is poured concrete. ..now, the PARKING LOTS, on the other hand. ..
The hackers, subsequently, threaten to defrost Hillary Clinton; but assure that the Antarctic penguin habitat is not threatened in any way.
What is she doing there ?? You can't run for Senate in Antarctica ??? {evil grin}
I.E. your neighborhood gets together and forms a group for purposes of brokering better deals on groceries. Everyone submits their list, and the broker gets the best deal: then everyone pays and their stuff gets delivered. If you add ubiquitous shipping, you get the equivalent of a Warehouse Club that comes to you. This may really be the start of REAL E-commerce, the kind that everyone uses. . .
Think about it. You want cutting-edge, this is pretty much the place. We get quoted more and more as an authoritative source, if not THE authoritative Geekworld source.
If we aren't, I'd still be willing to argue it over a beer or three. . . .
Jar Jar Binks is Barney's retarded kid brother...
on
Episode II Rumours
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· Score: 1
. ..as proved by the reptilian appearance, vacant look, lack of any redeeming value, and, last, but not least, the fact that he's being incessantly marketed: proof positive that he's related to the Purple Molestoraptor. . ..
Somebody out there (I know, I've forgotten who. ..) was putting together a generalized framework for distirbuted computing applications.
However, asteroid tracking would not really be a suitable application for distributed computing. Why ?
To do successful asteroid tracking, you need a consistent set of telescopes tracking activity over the entire sky, and over enough time that motion is visible. A distibuted net of computers is of no use here. . .
Then, you're going to have to digitize that data. The bigger telescope already provide the data in digital format, but are booked doing other observations. Again, no use for a distributed network. . .
Now, you're going to have to marry your evolving sky database to a database of known celestial objects, to remove all known objects from your sky database. This is where it gets too unwieldy for distributed computing. And after you do that, your remaining data items have to be unknown objects. But this is a job for a mainframe, or at least a Beowulf Cluster: it's storage-intensive as well as CPU-intensive. ..
7) You will cooperate with the state with the good of the state and for your own survival. Cooperation will be rewarded. Insubordination will be punished. You will be released into society after confessing your crimes. Do you have any heart conditions I should be aware of?
Hmm. . . then who's the Drazi stooge ???
Still, I'm surprised that Windoze doesn't have the motto of "What do you want today ???
Try THIS exceptionally devious method to starve trolls:
Go to each troll page. Click on the banner ads. Then write each webmaster why you will NEVER buy their products or services if they advertise on sites which are such obvious trolls and flamebait, and then show why the article is a troll and flamebait. Then mention how much of the type of services and/or products they advertise that you buy, or influence buying.
Trust me. After a few weeks of this, editorial tastes will be QUITE changed. As always, remain cool, calm, and collected; argue from established fact and logic, not just claiming that Linux rocks (even though it does. ..) A few tens or hundreds of people doing this on a regular basis can do amazing things. ..
I've seen the Distro, at least the basic one. Comes with Partition Magic, and two MacMillan Linux books on CD, for 25.95 at Costco Club (your price may vary). For two books, a printed install guide, a limited edition of PM, and a distro, it's a reasonable price for a value-added package.
The implication of the argument is that only if you buy all your software from the same source can you guarantee that the applications will work together.
Friends, that assumes you have it all working under M$. And those of us that do NT for a living (luckily, we also do Linux. . . ) know that those all-so-compatible MS Server apps aren't always as compatible as they claim. For instance, try to run a current BackOffice Server, v 4.5, and then back out SQL 7.0 and replace it with 6.0, 6.5. or 4.21. Brings out an entirely new definition of "compatibility". As in "non". . .
Bombers vs. Archers, and other CTP oddities. . .
on
CivCTP Patch Released
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· Score: 2
This has bothered me since CTP came out. For the most part, it seems that whoever has the most units in a battle wins, regardless of technology. Sorry, gang, but ANY/.er knows that technology makes a difference. IMHO, the problem with CTP is several-fold:
Sid Meier isn't involved
Rather than take the time and think it through, they pushed an unready product to the market. You can blame this one squarely on Acitvision: they seem to have product churn as a goal, almost as much as Lord Bill and M$ do. ..
Civ and Civ II were AWFULLY hard acts to follow. CTP added some nice touches, especially with future developments, additional government types, and new locations (i.e. building underwater and in space). But somewhere along the line, it also forgot a lot of what Civ was about. ..
I recently installed a DISHNetwork DSS system. Frankly, I like it. No garbage channels (i.e. I don't want personals, real estate ads, endless replays of local government meetings, etc).
Contrary to what is stated elsewhere, you CAN get major networks on DISH, it's local affiliates that require special qualification, and often a second dish antenna. I'm getting the "Top 40" package plus "Network Feed East" and the SuperStations bundle, about $28. a month all total. Setup is relatively quick and painless: in many cases, you buy the system (~$150.00) and they'll install it for you with a 1 year committment. Upgrades in programming are free, downgrades cost you $5.00 per change you make in programming. I'd say go for it: it's what **I** use for Dilbert, Futurama, and SciFi. ..
I'll disagree here, biocomputers, at least based on currently-available life-forms, are SLOW. Neural transmissions propagate at speeds measurable in tens of miles per second: Electronic-based computers propagate data at speeds approaching lightspeed. In both cases, speed of switching controls the ultimate propagation speed.
What I see happening is along these lines: we're starting to approach some physical limits in chip design (at current rate of progress, we'll be doing chip fabs on a molecule-by-molecule basis within 20 years. [Note: this implies a basic capability in nanotechnology. But we'll leave that to another thread. . . ]). Unless some VERY radical changes are made to the neurons that would compose a biocomputer, you may gain in flexibility, but you'd lose substantially in speed.
I think a more useful approach would be to study and emulate biological computer processes and methods in a more robust and speedier medium. What that medium is: etched semiconductor, optical computer, nanotechnological mechanical computer, or some option we haven't as yet concieved yet, is irrelevant. But it WILL be developed. The next few decades should be interesting. ..in both the context of intellectual curiosity AND of the old Chinese Curse. . .
Living Neurons, Gengineered Neurons, or Engineered Silicon/Gallium Arsenide, it doesn't make a difference. This is a RESEARCH box. They're trying to find out how biological neural nets work, to make the much faster inorganic networks function in a similar fashion. I see no reason for controversy over the fact that leech neurons are being used. .. As for the concept of "don't mess with living things", THAT one has been over for centuries: your dogs, cats, livestock, and food plants have been "engineered" for millenia. Current genetic engineering technology is merely taking the direct path to change, rather than the slower, round-about method of breeding for characteristics: both methods work, and to the same end. . .
Back in my days in uniform, we had the AN/ALQ-T-4 simulator. It simulated a B-52 Electronic Warfare cockpit. It ran FORTRAN. Before I touched the T-4, I was trained on the T-5 simulator, lovingly known as "HAL", at the USAF Electronic Warfare School. It too, ran on FORTRAN. Eventually, both were replaced by the B-52 Weapons Systems Trainer, and the SECT (Simulator for Electronic Combat Training). The WST ran FORTRAN, and the version of the SECT that I was on the design team ran FORTRAN.
I guess it just goes to show, nothing TRULY obsolete. . ..
Alternately, if the "bubble generator" was inside the bubble, and could propagate the bubble across spacetime, AND the bubble's barrier was impenetrable while generated, you wouldn't need to move the SHIP at all: merely propagate the field, and let the field drag you along.
In otherwords, a for-real example of picking yourself up by lifting the seat of your pants. ..
Mind you, my physics and cosmology is ~15 years out of date, but as I recall, the net energy of the universe as a whole is a positive number, which (theoretically) can be tapped. As a practice, the number was re-set to zero, but if we're already warping space-time to produce a bubble that moves across it at speeds faster than that which matter can transit, the stressed space-time would likely make it easier to tap the so-called Vacuum Energy, and thus maintain and propagate the bubble. . ..
If my physics IS outdated, then ignore this, but I recall Dr. Charles Sheffield, NASA physicist and SF author discussing tapping vacuum energy as little as 2 years ago, so this MAY be a viable approach, assuming energy density is sufficient for the application.
Getting the negative mass is, alas, an area where my ignorance is sufficient to even guestimate an answer. . .
Telstra has some play in the ISP Market, they own/run the "BigPond" ISP over there. The other major ISP I know of over there was OZEmail, not sure who runs/owns that. . . Telstra's BigPond home page
And here's an idea: this sounds like a PERFECT reason to boycott the Sydney 2000 Olympics. After all, it always works best to get a country by the short-and-curlies if you REALLY want its' attention. . . .
Also, if you'll recall (those of you who were old enough to read in 1975 or so. . . ), the critics also panned the original STAR WARS: I recall the bit about "space opera about a bunch of kids saving the galaxy". . .
There ARE sources of accurate, non-censored information available in Yugoslavia, and in fact, all over the planet. They are called SHORTWAVE RADIO STATIONS. BBC isn't off the air, nor is Deutsche Welle, the Voice of America, or any of the numerous other shortwave news providers.
Additionally, satellite TV is also available: I'd say the vast majority of commsats over Europe are NOT under direct NATO control. ..
Hmm. ..Pink, as I always understood, was a light, diffused red. Could we just be seeing frictional heating of surrounding gas clouds, diffused by the clouds beyond the heated zone ???
Denser clouds would heat more by friction, pushing it from red-hot to yellow-hot to blue-hot. ..or would it ???
As far as a doppler effect due to rotation, no. The effects of a receding edge would effectively be countered by the approaching edge. . .
Blacksburg isn't large enough to be considered a major metropolitan area, yet was too large to make it into "most wired small towns".
And besides, by the scoring criteria, you'd lose due to low domain density: almost everyone is either @vt.edu or @bev.net. Like the MindCraft Test, it's all how you define your parameters...
Slashdot Mirror
Somebody's already mentioned the truism that here on the net, nobody knows you're a dog. So as far as the NET is concerned, we have two major groups, the Wired and the Un-Wired.
. .
Amongst the Wired, it's pretty much, IMNSHO, a meritocracy. Write good code, design good websites, whatever: if you're good, you get noticed, if you don't, you're in the discard bin. As it should be: life is to short for sucky code or sites that suck.
As for the Un-Wired, they don't play in our world, yet they can, whenever they get off their loathsome, spotty behinds, and decide, that they, too, should be amongst the Wired. So why is this an issue in the first place ?? Perhaps because, in meatspace, all too many people feel they deserve cash, accolades, recognition, etc. .
WHETHER THEY HAVE EARNED IT OR NOT.
And perhaps they feel threatened by our burgeoning cyber-meritocracy. And so, perhaps, they want to stop it, by bringing it down to the lowest common denominator, by getting everone online, whether they want to or not. .
Not saying that this absolutely IS the case, but I'd argue it over a few beers. . .
Jabber wrote:
.now, the PARKING LOTS, on the other hand. . .
Washington D.C.: (AP) Hackers [yeah, I know, but it's a news story] took over the Eastern Seabord Microwave Generation Satellite earlier today, and threatened to redirect the beam at downtown D.C. if Kevin Mitnick was not released immediately.
Millions of Americans cheer on those intrepid hackers. . . .
Al Gore, the inventor of microwave energy, who singlehandedly placed the aforementioned satellite in orbit, declined, to the dismay of the hackers.
Are you sure ??? Besides, seeing Al MOVE is unusual enough, seeing him take action is as rare as a bug-free release from Redmond. . .
Officials at the Pentagon were heard to scream in agony as the installation was turned into a smoldering heap of molten slag.
Now THAT one is improbable. . . the building is poured concrete. .
The hackers, subsequently, threaten to defrost Hillary Clinton; but assure that the Antarctic penguin habitat is not threatened in any way.
What is she doing there ?? You can't run for Senate in Antarctica ??? {evil grin}
And you'll REALLY have something.
I.E. your neighborhood gets together and forms a group for purposes of brokering better deals on groceries. Everyone submits their list, and the broker gets the best deal: then everyone pays and their stuff gets delivered. If you add ubiquitous shipping, you get the equivalent of a Warehouse Club that comes to you. This may really be the start of REAL E-commerce, the kind that everyone uses. . .
Think about it. You want cutting-edge, this is pretty much the place. We get quoted more and more as an authoritative source, if not THE authoritative Geekworld source.
If we aren't, I'd still be willing to argue it over a beer or three. . . .
However, asteroid tracking would not really be a suitable application for distributed computing.
Why ?
Gratuitous if obscure B-5 Reference noted. . .
7) You will cooperate with the state with the good of the state and for your own survival. Cooperation will be rewarded. Insubordination will be punished. You will be released into society after confessing your crimes. Do you have any heart conditions I should be aware of?
Hmm. . . then who's the Drazi stooge ???
Still, I'm surprised that Windoze doesn't have the motto of "What do you want today ???
Try THIS exceptionally devious method to starve trolls:
.) A few tens or hundreds of people doing this on a regular basis can do amazing things. . .
Go to each troll page. Click on the banner ads. Then write each webmaster why you will NEVER buy their products or services if they advertise on sites which are such obvious trolls and flamebait, and then show why the article is a troll and flamebait. Then mention how much of the type of services and/or products they advertise that you buy, or influence buying.
Trust me. After a few weeks of this, editorial tastes will be QUITE changed. As always, remain cool, calm, and collected; argue from established fact and logic, not just claiming that Linux rocks (even though it does. .
I've seen the Distro, at least the basic one.
Comes with Partition Magic, and two MacMillan Linux books on CD, for 25.95 at Costco Club (your price may vary). For two books, a printed install guide, a limited edition of PM, and a distro, it's a reasonable price for a value-added package.
Eepist noted:
The implication of the argument is that only if you buy all your software from the same source can you guarantee that the applications will work together.
Friends, that assumes you have it all working under M$. And those of us that do NT for a living (luckily, we also do Linux. . . ) know that those all-so-compatible MS Server apps aren't always as compatible as they claim. For instance, try to run a current BackOffice Server, v 4.5, and then back out SQL 7.0 and replace it with 6.0, 6.5. or 4.21. Brings out an entirely new definition of "compatibility". As in "non". . .
Sorry, gang, but ANY
Just my $.02 worth. . .
I recently installed a DISHNetwork DSS system. Frankly, I like it. No garbage channels (i.e. I don't want personals, real estate ads, endless replays of local government meetings, etc).
.
Contrary to what is stated elsewhere, you CAN get major networks on DISH, it's local affiliates that require special qualification, and often a second dish antenna. I'm getting the "Top 40" package plus "Network Feed East" and the SuperStations bundle, about $28. a month all total. Setup is relatively quick and painless: in many cases, you buy the system (~$150.00) and they'll install it for you with a 1 year committment. Upgrades in programming are free, downgrades cost you $5.00 per change you make in programming. I'd say go for it: it's what **I** use for Dilbert, Futurama, and SciFi. .
I'll disagree here, biocomputers, at least based on currently-available life-forms, are SLOW. Neural transmissions propagate at speeds measurable in tens of miles per second: Electronic-based computers propagate data at speeds approaching lightspeed. In both cases, speed of switching controls the ultimate propagation speed.
.in both the context of intellectual curiosity AND of the old Chinese Curse. . .
What I see happening is along these lines: we're starting to approach some physical limits in chip design (at current rate of progress, we'll be doing chip fabs on a molecule-by-molecule basis within 20 years. [Note: this implies a basic capability in nanotechnology. But we'll leave that to another thread. . . ]). Unless some VERY radical changes are made to the neurons that would compose a biocomputer, you may gain in flexibility, but you'd lose substantially in speed.
I think a more useful approach would be to study and emulate biological computer processes and methods in a more robust and speedier medium. What that medium is: etched semiconductor, optical computer, nanotechnological mechanical computer, or some option we haven't as yet concieved yet, is irrelevant. But it WILL be developed. The next few decades should be interesting. .
Nomenclature of DOD Electronics has a definite pattern to it, I'll try and recall it from memory:
AN/ = Electronics unit built for US Dept of Defense (Originally: Army/Navy)
A = Airborne application
L = Radar
Q = Countermeasures
T = Trainer
4 = 4th in this series of devices
Living Neurons, Gengineered Neurons, or Engineered Silicon/Gallium Arsenide, it doesn't make a difference. This is a RESEARCH box. They're trying to find out how biological neural nets work, to make the much faster inorganic networks function in a similar fashion. I see no reason for controversy over the fact that leech neurons are being used. . .
As for the concept of "don't mess with living things", THAT one has been over for centuries: your dogs, cats, livestock, and food plants have been "engineered" for millenia. Current genetic engineering technology is merely taking the direct path to change, rather than the slower, round-about method of breeding for characteristics: both methods work, and to the same end. . .
Back in my days in uniform, we had the AN/ALQ-T-4 simulator. It simulated a B-52 Electronic Warfare cockpit. It ran FORTRAN. Before I touched the T-4, I was trained on the T-5 simulator, lovingly known as "HAL", at the USAF Electronic Warfare School. It too, ran on FORTRAN. Eventually, both were replaced by the B-52 Weapons Systems Trainer, and the SECT (Simulator for Electronic Combat Training). The WST ran FORTRAN, and the version of the SECT that I was on the design team ran FORTRAN.
.
I guess it just goes to show, nothing TRULY obsolete. . .
Alternately, if the "bubble generator" was inside the bubble, and could propagate the bubble across spacetime, AND the bubble's barrier was impenetrable while generated, you wouldn't need to move the SHIP at all: merely propagate the field, and let the field drag you along.
.
In otherwords, a for-real example of picking yourself up by lifting the seat of your pants. .
Mind you, my physics and cosmology is ~15 years out of date, but as I recall, the net energy of the universe as a whole is a positive number, which (theoretically) can be tapped. As a practice, the number was re-set to zero, but if we're already warping space-time to produce a bubble that moves across it at speeds faster than that which matter can transit, the stressed space-time would likely make it easier to tap the so-called Vacuum Energy, and thus maintain and propagate the bubble. . . .
If my physics IS outdated, then ignore this, but I recall Dr. Charles Sheffield, NASA physicist and SF author discussing tapping vacuum energy as little as 2 years ago, so this MAY be a viable approach, assuming energy density is sufficient for the application.
Getting the negative mass is, alas, an area where my ignorance is sufficient to even guestimate an answer. . .
Telstra has some play in the ISP Market, they own/run the "BigPond" ISP over there. The other major ISP I know of over there was OZEmail, not sure who runs/owns that. . .
Telstra's BigPond home page
Some useful Links:
Global Internet Liberty Campaign www.gilc.org
Electonic Frontiers Australia, www.efa.org.au
and of course
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, www.eff.org
The Electronic Privacy Information Center
And here's an idea: this sounds like a PERFECT reason to boycott the Sydney 2000 Olympics. After all, it always works best to get a country by the short-and-curlies if you REALLY want its' attention. . . .
Still have the message, with headers ??? I'm sure the lawyers for the new 5 / 20 registrars would LOVE a copy. . .
Also, if you'll recall (those of you who were old enough to read in 1975 or so. . . ), the critics also panned the original STAR WARS: I recall the bit about "space opera about a bunch of kids saving the galaxy". . .
.
Plus ca change, plus ca meme. . .
all over the planet. They are called SHORTWAVE RADIO STATIONS. BBC isn't off the air, nor is Deutsche Welle, the Voice of America, or any of the numerous other shortwave news providers.
Additionally, satellite TV is also available: I'd say the vast majority of commsats over Europe are NOT under direct NATO control. .
Denser clouds would heat more by friction, pushing it from red-hot to yellow-hot to blue-hot. . .or would it ???
As far as a doppler effect due to rotation, no. The effects of a receding edge would effectively be countered by the approaching edge. . .
Blacksburg isn't large enough to be considered a major metropolitan area, yet was too large to make it into "most wired small towns".
And besides, by the scoring criteria, you'd lose due to low domain density: almost everyone is either @vt.edu or @bev.net. Like the MindCraft Test, it's all how you define your parameters...