Feminism. For crying out loud, a female "warrior" is not going to be as effective as a male warrior in combat!
Ever since I bought T$R's AD&D's PHB (man, 3 TLAs in a row?), female PCs had a lower maximum STR than male PCs. The reason? "Males in real life are stronger than females". Or something like that.
#def RANT Yeah, right. "Real life". As if battling dragons and demi-gods happened in real life. My guess is, they didn't want male PCs to be equalled by female PCs. Call it machismo, call it sexist, but that's the most logical reason I can think of. #undef RANT
And I wondered why me and my friends couldn't meet any female players...
``...in an era in which the transmission of computer viruses.... can disable systems upon which the nation depends and in which other computer code also is capable of inflicting harm, society must be able to regulate the use and dissemination of code in appropriate circumstance.'' US District Judge Lewis Kaplan
I'm all in favor of regulation (not censorship) of code, in this era of script kiddies running amok causing millions of dollars of damages. But my question is, who exactly constitutes society, in the eyes of Judge Kaplan?
Is it the programmers who developed the code? Is it the companies that distribute the equipment that uses such code? Is it all the people in the computer area? Is it *gulp* the US Government?
Until we determine exactly who's got the right (or the power, or the intelligence) to regulate this kind of information, I'd say we're just running around in circles, and we're not gonna get anywhere soon. That's my opinion, in any way.
The term for a government controlled by the wealthy (i.e., money) is plutocracy. Whew! For a moment there I thought that Plutocracy was a government controlled by the Disney Company!
If people weren't so stupid, and lazy, greedy and generally a bunch of bastards, there'd be no need for democracy.
There's a saying here in Mexico, which goes "...and if my grandma had wheels, she'd be a bicycle". Which means, there's about the same odds of either one happening:)
Let's be honest. We'll never have a great society until we impose a totalitarian regime based on IQ, not money.
I'd rather be ruled by Stephen Hawking than by William Gates.
Why are they playing these mental masturbation games on the subject of space-aliens when they still haven't told us how many angels will fit on the head of a pin.
Other than the ones in "Day of the Dolphin" (I think that's the name of the 80's movie) or Darwin from SeaQuest DSV, can't think of any. Maybe Roy Scheider is the key to dolphin communication. Hmmm...
Why? Perhaps we just are too arrogant to spend the effort necessary to think at their level. Perhaps we're not so smart ourselves. Perhaps it's just damn nigh impossible. Perhaps there is some unknown trait they don't possess that makes their intelligence inherently inadequate.
I'll have to side with sci-fi writer David Brin, and propose that maybe dolphins are smart, but they're not intelligent. I mean, maybe dolphin communication consists of nothing but basic signals and sounds (like "Fish! Yummy Fish! Whale-thing coming! Flee!" instead of "Hey, you guys, I know this fishes are really tasty and all, but here comes yet another boat full of oceanographers. Let's split, and we'll meet by the Bay later, ok? We'll do lunch!").
Scientific research based on real theories is OK, but let's not get too lost in wishful thinking.
SETI were to pick up signal from a truly advanced civilization, I would expect the message to be a self-extracting archive of some sort. The message, encoded as a Turing machine in XML, could extract itself, request a connection to it's origin signal source, and download a full-fledged ET for us to chat with.
Oh my God, you mean we could possibly be DOS'ed by Script ET'ties?
Well, I'm sure that if you put all of them drunk hackers in one room, with enough computing power available, they would probably create some new OS that would put even Linux to shame.
I have only a laypersons understanding of quantum physics, so feel free to ignore me. Dont worry about being ignored. The people with questions are, in my opinion, more important to science than the people with answers.
I don't mean to dis modern physics... but I can't help thinking that in 100 years, people will look back on M-theory and sparticles and laugh, saying "Why didn't those people realize how ridiculous those theories are? Why didn't they try harder to find a simpler explanation?"
Well, there will always be theories which may sound stupid afterwards, but which made sense in the times they were introduced to the public. Like phlogiston, the "fire element". Or the Ether substance, which "filled the whole Universe". Or spontaneus (sp?) generation.
The point is, they were honest approaches to finding the right answers to questions like, what is fire made out of? What is out there between the stars? Where did these $/)("!% cockroaches came from?
For every Copernicus, there's a hundred people with theories of their own, which on hindsight we may shake our heads and wonder, "How come they didn't know any better?". But thats the point, they DIDN'T. They were getting into uncharted areas of knowledge. Just like they're doing right now.
Maybe in another 50 years or so, as you say, we'll find out that the Universe is made out of, I dunno, "Spamticles" or something, and people may wonder how come no one had the sense to figure it out earlier. But until then, let's keep exploring any new theories, trying to find the one that'll solve all those questions scientists have.
Well, actually it's the _sock_ that somehow get's torn, producing a hole, and since it's quite dark inside the washing machine it develops into a black hole, swallows up the sock and disappears into another dimension...
In addition, IBM and Intel agree that, especially with faster Internet connections, software will catch up to and exceed the capabilities of today's desktop processors, requiring more performance there as well.
I have one question here: will software really need more and more CPU performance as time goes by? (Code it again, Sam!)
I mean, as the article says, sure, servers and stuff will definitely put good use to the increase in performance, but what about good ol' Joe Sixpack using Excel at his office? I mean, besides from cranking SETI@home units faster, is there really such a need for faster processors at home / office?
Shouldn't other areas of computer science be explored as well? Im sure there's lots of research going on all the time, but if someone were to discover a faster search / compression / whatever algorithm that would make up for a slower processor, wouldnt it?
As usual, that's my opinion... and as I said, the truth is I'll probably use it to play better, faster and bloodier games on my PC:)
Of course, some shows like Star Trek will have difficulty with these rules; that's only to be expected. But it's likely that alternatives to this could (and would) be found also.
Now there's a thought. Here's a couple of alternatives:
Captain Piccard: (to the food replicator) Tea, Earl Grey, Lipton, Hot.
Scotty: Capt'n! The Duracell Dylithium Crystals cannae take any more!
Quark: So, what are you having? A Romulan Ale? Vulcan wine? A cold Budweiser?
When there's money involved, there's _always_ a way...
IMHO, the real problem is that people expect that domain names should be guessable. No one would ever dream dialing 1-800-FORD-CAR and expect to be able to purchase a Ford car that way, but for some reason, every legal body in this planet thinks that Joe Six Pack is going to sit down at his computer, and instead of looking up the address, he's just going to type ford.com.
Actually, that's exactly what usually happens. At least most people I know, when looking for _anything_ in the Internet, will always go first for the dotcom. Fr'instance, if they're looking for, I dunno, yewkies, the first thing they'll try is yewkies.com.
Maybe we (being readers of Slashdot and all) know better, and we'll go straight to Yahoo, Google, Hotbot, or whatever search engine we prefer. Joe SixPack wont. Heck, even Jane JoltCola (any computer programmer from Denver) will go for the dotcom, one out of 3 times.
This whole problem with domain names would go away if people just stopped expecting them to be obvious, because that's just not going to happen.
I know that, and you know that, but their lawyers dont know that. Or if they do know it, they dont care. That's business as usual, I guess.
So, does the "@" have a pronunciation yet? Not as far as I know, unless you mean as in e-mails. As someone else already pointed out, it's called "arroba" (Ah-roe-bah), and you say it like that when giving out your email address.
Well, this may be a little off-topic, but the latest use of the @ sign, besides the normal use in e-mail addresses, is more of a political-correct letter. Kind of like a spanish version of the "(s)he" used in several places.
See, the @ can be used as an "a" (a feminine termination) surrounded by an "o" (a masculine termination). In other words, it can turn most spanish words into a new, non-sexist version which is both feminine and masculine at the time.
I think its called VCR....
Actually, according to the article... yeah, it is.
And guess what? There's a way to pirate songs without using any appliance whatsoever! It's called Singing! Of course, the quality is not as good as the original, but hey, the RIAA can't stop you from singing...or can they?
Hey, now that would be such a great way to get back at your nosy neighbors! Well, I was flying my model airplane around and it got hit by some strong wind and ran into Ms. Oppenheimer's house, and, uh, well, also ran _unto_ Ms. Oppenheimer... and, uh, yeah, it was flying pretty fast, about 180 mph...
Yup, that's what we need, more powerful toys for all the little geeks-in-training growing up around the world.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh, do you mean "In the Beginning was the Command Line"?
Now, is it just me, or is this is too much of a coincidence for Stephenson? Hmm?
Let's face it. Being a good writer does not automatically means you can also be good ad screenplays.
I mean, how many good sci-fi books and stories have been turned into Hollywood-esque crap? Admittedly, sometimes without the writer's approval.
Now, if they were to make a Batman movie with the help of Frank Miller or Alan Moore, that would be something I'd like to see.
It's more like geeks at sea...
GeekQuest DSV, anyone?
Feminism. For crying out loud, a female "warrior" is not going to be as effective as a male warrior in combat!
Ever since I bought T$R's AD&D's PHB (man, 3 TLAs in a row?), female PCs had a lower maximum STR than male PCs. The reason? "Males in real life are stronger than females". Or something like that.
#def RANT
Yeah, right. "Real life". As if battling dragons and demi-gods happened in real life. My guess is, they didn't want male PCs to be equalled by female PCs. Call it machismo, call it sexist, but that's the most logical reason I can think of.
#undef RANT
And I wondered why me and my friends couldn't meet any female players...
``...in an era in which the transmission of computer viruses.... can disable systems upon which the nation depends and in which other computer code also is capable of inflicting harm, society must be able to regulate the use and dissemination of code in appropriate circumstance.'' US District Judge Lewis Kaplan
I'm all in favor of regulation (not censorship) of code, in this era of script kiddies running amok causing millions of dollars of damages. But my question is, who exactly constitutes society, in the eyes of Judge Kaplan?
Is it the programmers who developed the code?
Is it the companies that distribute the equipment that uses such code?
Is it all the people in the computer area?
Is it *gulp* the US Government?
Until we determine exactly who's got the right (or the power, or the intelligence) to regulate this kind of information, I'd say we're just running around in circles, and we're not gonna get anywhere soon. That's my opinion, in any way.
PS: Here's a link to the Yahoo News article from which comes the quote: Judge Orders Injunction in DVD Hacker Case
The term for a government controlled by the wealthy (i.e., money) is plutocracy.
Whew! For a moment there I thought that Plutocracy was a government controlled by the Disney Company!
If people weren't so stupid, and lazy, greedy and generally a bunch of bastards, there'd be no need for democracy.
:)
There's a saying here in Mexico, which goes "...and if my grandma had wheels, she'd be a bicycle". Which means, there's about the same odds of either one happening
Let's be honest. We'll never have a great society until we impose a totalitarian regime based on IQ, not money.
I'd rather be ruled by Stephen Hawking than by William Gates.
That's pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
Ugh, that sounds like some kind of pulmonary disease involving asbestos... but then, IANADoctor...
Why are they playing these mental masturbation games on the subject of space-aliens when they still haven't told us how many angels will fit on the head of a pin.
42! No, that doesn't sound quite right, either.
anyone know any talking dolphins?
Other than the ones in "Day of the Dolphin" (I think that's the name of the 80's movie) or Darwin from SeaQuest DSV, can't think of any. Maybe Roy Scheider is the key to dolphin communication. Hmmm...
Why? Perhaps we just are too arrogant to spend the effort necessary to think at their level. Perhaps we're not so smart ourselves. Perhaps it's just damn nigh impossible. Perhaps there is some unknown trait they don't possess that makes their intelligence inherently inadequate.
I'll have to side with sci-fi writer David Brin, and propose that maybe dolphins are smart, but they're not intelligent. I mean, maybe dolphin communication consists of nothing but basic signals and sounds (like "Fish! Yummy Fish! Whale-thing coming! Flee!" instead of "Hey, you guys, I know this fishes are really tasty and all, but here comes yet another boat full of oceanographers. Let's split, and we'll meet by the Bay later, ok? We'll do lunch!").
Scientific research based on real theories is OK, but let's not get too lost in wishful thinking.
SETI were to pick up signal from a truly advanced civilization, I would expect the message to be a self-extracting archive of some sort. The message, encoded as a Turing machine in XML, could extract itself, request a connection to it's origin signal source, and download a full-fledged ET for us to chat with.
Oh my God, you mean we could possibly be DOS'ed by Script ET'ties?
Well, I'm sure that if you put all of them drunk hackers in one room, with enough computing power available, they would probably create some new OS that would put even Linux to shame.
Now that's a scary thought.
Actually, from reading the article, it looks like the ultimate answer is just a smidge over 1/137. Now, of course, the question is why?
Well, why not?
I have only a laypersons understanding of quantum physics, so feel free to ignore me.
Dont worry about being ignored. The people with questions are, in my opinion, more important to science than the people with answers.
I don't mean to dis modern physics... but I can't help thinking that in 100 years, people will look back on M-theory and sparticles and laugh, saying "Why didn't those people realize how ridiculous those theories are? Why didn't they try harder to find a simpler explanation?"
Well, there will always be theories which may sound stupid afterwards, but which made sense in the times they were introduced to the public. Like phlogiston, the "fire element". Or the Ether substance, which "filled the whole Universe". Or spontaneus (sp?) generation.
The point is, they were honest approaches to finding the right answers to questions like, what is fire made out of? What is out there between the stars? Where did these $/)("!% cockroaches came from?
For every Copernicus, there's a hundred people with theories of their own, which on hindsight we may shake our heads and wonder, "How come they didn't know any better?". But thats the point, they DIDN'T. They were getting into uncharted areas of knowledge. Just like they're doing right now.
Maybe in another 50 years or so, as you say, we'll find out that the Universe is made out of, I dunno, "Spamticles" or something, and people may wonder how come no one had the sense to figure it out earlier. But until then, let's keep exploring any new theories, trying to find the one that'll solve all those questions scientists have.
But Coke _IS_ Pepsi... only with a different spin number...
Well, actually it's the _sock_ that somehow get's torn, producing a hole, and since it's quite dark inside the washing machine it develops into a black hole, swallows up the sock and disappears into another dimension...
The Fruit of the Loom zone...
...as everyone knows, is 42.
The real question, of course, is how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. Now _there's_ some Nobel material!
You owe Slashdot a copy of the best Oracularities...
"IBM: V-Groovey or be square"
Quake Arena!
:)
In addition, IBM and Intel agree that, especially with faster Internet connections, software will catch up to and exceed the capabilities of today's desktop processors, requiring more performance there as well.
I have one question here: will software really need more and more CPU performance as time goes by? (Code it again, Sam!)
I mean, as the article says, sure, servers and stuff will definitely put good use to the increase in performance, but what about good ol' Joe Sixpack using Excel at his office? I mean, besides from cranking SETI@home units faster, is there really such a need for faster processors at home / office?
Shouldn't other areas of computer science be explored as well? Im sure there's lots of research going on all the time, but if someone were to discover a faster search / compression / whatever algorithm that would make up for a slower processor, wouldnt it?
As usual, that's my opinion... and as I said, the truth is I'll probably use it to play better, faster and bloodier games on my PC
Of course, some shows like Star Trek will have difficulty with these rules; that's only to be expected. But it's likely that alternatives to this could (and would) be found also.
Now there's a thought. Here's a couple of alternatives:
Captain Piccard: (to the food replicator) Tea, Earl Grey, Lipton, Hot.
Scotty: Capt'n! The Duracell Dylithium Crystals cannae take any more!
Quark: So, what are you having? A Romulan Ale? Vulcan wine? A cold Budweiser?
When there's money involved, there's _always_ a way...
IMHO, the real problem is that people expect that domain names should be guessable. No one would ever dream dialing 1-800-FORD-CAR and expect to be able to purchase a Ford car that way, but for some reason, every legal body in this planet thinks that Joe Six Pack is going to sit down at his computer, and instead of looking up the address, he's just going to type ford.com.
Actually, that's exactly what usually happens. At least most people I know, when looking for _anything_ in the Internet, will always go first for the dotcom. Fr'instance, if they're looking for, I dunno, yewkies, the first thing they'll try is yewkies.com.
Maybe we (being readers of Slashdot and all) know better, and we'll go straight to Yahoo, Google, Hotbot, or whatever search engine we prefer. Joe SixPack wont. Heck, even Jane JoltCola (any computer programmer from Denver) will go for the dotcom, one out of 3 times.
This whole problem with domain names would go away if people just stopped expecting them to be obvious, because that's just not going to happen.
I know that, and you know that, but their lawyers dont know that. Or if they do know it, they dont care. That's business as usual, I guess.
So, does the "@" have a pronunciation yet?
Not as far as I know, unless you mean as in e-mails. As someone else already pointed out, it's called "arroba" (Ah-roe-bah), and you say it like that when giving out your email address.
Here's a couple of links which use the @ as I described:
Amig@s de Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez en el Mundo
NUESTR@S AMIG@S Y SUS SERVICIOS.
No dobuts there's tons more. It's just a matter of finding them.
Well, this may be a little off-topic, but the latest use of the @ sign, besides the normal use in e-mail addresses, is more of a political-correct letter. Kind of like a spanish version of the "(s)he" used in several places.
See, the @ can be used as an "a" (a feminine termination) surrounded by an "o" (a masculine termination). In other words, it can turn most spanish words into a new, non-sexist version which is both feminine and masculine at the time.
Just like Michael Jackson...
I think its called VCR....
Actually, according to the article... yeah, it is.
And guess what? There's a way to pirate songs without using any appliance whatsoever! It's called Singing! Of course, the quality is not as good as the original, but hey, the RIAA can't stop you from singing...or can they?
Hey, now that would be such a great way to get back at your nosy neighbors!
Well, I was flying my model airplane around and it got hit by some strong wind and ran into Ms. Oppenheimer's house, and, uh, well, also ran _unto_ Ms. Oppenheimer... and, uh, yeah, it was flying pretty fast, about 180 mph...
Yup, that's what we need, more powerful toys for all the little geeks-in-training growing up around the world.