The most important Viking experiment (detecting life by degradation of irradiated earth-like nutrients) assumed that life over there should be carbon-based. However, there is no proof that other forms of life, such as silicon-based life, don't exist. As an analogy, until hot chimneys were discovered at the bottom of the Atlantic, most scientist took for granted that life needed oxygen, and a narrow range of pressure and temperature. Nowadays, we know that the organisms that live near the chimneys don't need oxygen, live in waters heated at 350 centigrades and seem pretty happy at pressures well over 100 atmospheres (they actually die when they're brought back to the surface due to the lack of pressure).
Well, similarly, I see no reason why Mars wouldn't be teeming with life that's not carbon-based. A more definite answer to that question (and a nice exercise in interstellar navigation and precision landing) could be obtained by landing a probe right next to one of the Viking probes and seeing if some of the materials they were made of have been chewed at, or consumed, at a rate that's not explainable by natural phenomena.
I am convinced that having played Donkey Kong when I was young helped me develop early my barrel-avoiding, ladder-climbing and blond girl-rescuing abilities.
I've used Gnome a little, and KDE a lot, so I'm probably biased, but despite the fact that some KDE components are not as well implemented as in Gnome, I still prefer KDE over Gnome by far. So do most of my colleagues (computer literate or not), so does my mum.
Why ? because the strength of the KDE look-and-feel is that it's a close copy of Microsoft Windows, and this is good for 2 reasons :
People who can use Windows are not disoriented by KDE (rah rah, old argument, I know...)
Microsoft being all about "first user experience" (read glass and chrome on a desktop anybody can use more or less intuitively), they probably spent a ton of money on the design of the Win95 interface, so why not reuse it ? It's far from perfect, but you can be pretty sure it'll be accessible to the mass thanks to M$ money, and KDE reuses all that R&D for free.
M$ is not stupid, and they've been reusing the same old clunky Win95 interface for years now. IMO, that's because they know for sure it's what flies with the users. So, I like Gnome, it seems solid and well built, but I'm sorry to say, it'll probably lose the GUI battle because its single biggest flaw is its non-M$ look-and-feel.
Strange, on Empower Technologies' site, they list the address of their HQ office at :
Empower Technologies Inc.
Redmond, WA
USA
Tel: 425.881.0909
Fax: 425.881.0889
Funny, they have no street address. Furthermore, they're listed as "Empower Technologies / Rdm" on the yellow pages.
The only reason I can think of for them not wanting to state their address is because they're ashamed of it, or because they strategically want to hide it. And the only address I'd be ashamed of or I'd want to hide strategically in Redmond is "1, Microsoft Way".
I wonder if... no, it cannot be ! Maybe Empower Technologies is an offshot from Microsoft trying to take the palm market over using... LINUX ! ARRGH SOMEBODY STOP THEM !!!
According to an article reported by Slashdot recently, the limit in storage density on a magnetic medium is 150Gb/in2. So with a 1.8in disk, this little PCMCIA hard-disk could contain a whopping 848Gb a few years from now !
From the article : "SafeAudio works by degrading the digital code. The CD will still play on an ordinary player or through a computer's speakers or headphones. But it cannot be copied. Macrovision says that the changes made to the music are not discernible."
Is it one of these schemes where an ultrasonic component is added to the sound that confuses MP3 encoders and generates low-level lound beat frequencies when played back ? Well, whether it's that or not, here's what's going to happen : people who have an ear for musical quality (such as music professionals) won't like this at all, and may actually be able to hear distortions in the masters.
As for the rest of us who can't really distinguish between a 128kbps MP3 and the original on CD and really want to create an MP3 version of they CD to play on their MP3 player, they'll just bypass the protection by playing the original, filter it with a low-pass analog filter of some sort, re-digitize it and MP3-encode it (the hardware to do this is a PC with a full-duplex sound card, and 50c worth of electronic components anybody with two hands can solder together). Most likely, most people won't hear much of a difference in terms of quality if the process is done right, kind of like a watermarked JPEG that's blurred, sized down a little, then resized up, to remove the watermark : sure, the photo isn't as good as the original, but it's good enough if you're not a professional photographer.
All in all, a hassle for everybody courtesy of the copyrighted music mafia.
What will sealand's TLD be ? obviously it can't be.sl (Sierra Leone). Maybe.psl (Principality of SeaLand) ? or.co.sl because they're so close to the UK ?
Incidentally, Sealand is a nation destined for greatness : can you imagine, if they build a high-rise on it (*the* high-rise), they'll multiply their landmass by 50 or more:-)
Using a RISC architecture makes sense if you look for low power consumption : that's the idea behind the design of the Hitachi SH3 and SH4 processors, which require very little power and don't heat up much when they run. I don't think there will ever be a power-efficient x86 processor (even the Crusoe is a power-hog compared to many RISC processors).
Incidently, I wonder if they're running their webserver on this board, because it's very very down right now : Slashdot effect or lack of sun ?:-)
Families will have to keep an eye on the children all the time so they don't go play outside, or explain to them very carefully that, yes, live human beings *can* boil at ambient temperatures...
Are the problems on the ISS more or less of a pain than the mold and smells, and the fires, and the toilet and sewage problems that existed on MIR ? to my knowledge, there isn't an astronaut who has flown on both who could give an account on the life aboard the two stations, and objectively determine whether or not the ISS is an improvement or not.
Somehow though, I suspect life on the ISS is a lot better than on MIR, but Bill Shepherd probably doesn't realize it, just like someone who has a broken air conditioning in Minnesota and has never experienced the Sahara desert in the dead of summer thinks life sucks.
By design, TCP/IP and the Internet in general are not suited for the protection of information, quite the contrary. Privacy on the Net is something people want but will probably never get. Scott McNealy summed the issue up when he declared "there is no privacy on the net, get over it" at this press conference.
So if people want privacy on the Net, they should be very responsible and careful about what information they commit to it in the first place (i.e. once you email your super-secret password to your girlfriend, you should consider it as good as public) or they shouldn't be on the Net.
If people can be tracked in their cars with cell phones and on-board GPS devices, how long until the police uses this to give people speeding tickets ?
In the UK, I believe they already have CCTV cameras on major motorways to read people's license plates, track their average speed and issue electronic tickets automatically. If people's cell phones are used to achieve this, not only the authorities won't have to spend a penny to catch people anymore, but the people themselves will pay for the cell phone and the service to get shafted !
Suddenly, I'm glad I drive a 30 year old car without On-Star, GPS or cell phone.
Not so fast now, was it "free" internet as in "free beer" or as in "free speech" ? maybe the new pay-per-month deal comes with the source code for the banner ad software on the CD...
Nickname (max. 24 characters): Billgatus of Borg Nationality: United States Country you actually live in: United States Year of Birth: 1955 Gender: male (I think) Top Level Email Domain: username@server.com Other languages: no entry - no entry - no entry - no entry
Professional data:
Profession: world dominator (junior level) Qualification: college graduate (sort of) Are you being paid for developing free software/open-source? no, for ripping it off Have you profited from developing free software/open-source? no, from ripping it off Do you think there are enough free software-related opportunities (jobs, political & social support) in your country or is it better abroad? it is ok in my country Why? we need those guys to produce good software for us. Does your boss know that you're developing Free Software/Open Source? No (He even does not know what the GPL is) Do you like you job ? I do it only because of the money Approx. Yearly Income: >>>>>>>>>>>>70.000 EUR How many hours a week do you spend developing Open Source/Free Software? no entry
Computer experience
Number of Free Software/Open Source Projects you are involved in: -1 Which of these languages/tools are you experienced with? BASIC - Visual Basic - C (sharp) Favorite Operating System / Distribution: Windows OS Favorite desktop: Windows Favorite editor: Write - No more editors should exist Open source of free software? doesn't matter, as long as not GPL
... such as The Web Advantage located in Savannah. At 59c per email, they could find themselves in a multi-billion suit against the state in no time:-)
Actually, come to think of it, I wonder why they sued the poor guy with his Distributed.net node instead of those mass-marketing digital ass-sores that have been clogging the Internet for so long.
..."Redmond is granting a one-fiscal-year reprieve to the many companies who were caught off-guard by the announcement of new Microsoft licensing plans"
Last time somebody "granted" me a reprieve was when I paid my taxes late, and it was the government. Am I the only one who has the distinct feeling that Microsoft takes itself for a state within the state ?
"CNN has an intriguing article on using Playstations running Linux to give people in developing nations access to information on health issues such as AIDs, clean water, etc"
The ICT and the WEF could also develop a portable version - like a Gameboy running Linux - that gives information about AIDS (and also herpes syphillis,...) on the spot. The device could come in a handy pouch that doubles as a condom. I would think something like this could be useful in many developed countries as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, similarly, I see no reason why Mars wouldn't be teeming with life that's not carbon-based. A more definite answer to that question (and a nice exercise in interstellar navigation and precision landing) could be obtained by landing a probe right next to one of the Viking probes and seeing if some of the materials they were made of have been chewed at, or consumed, at a rate that's not explainable by natural phenomena.
I am convinced that having played Donkey Kong when I was young helped me develop early my barrel-avoiding, ladder-climbing and blond girl-rescuing abilities.
gawk, gcc or gcal don't seem to have a Gnome interface. And I couldn't find kawk, kcc or kcal anywhere on my hard-disk either ...
Why ? because the strength of the KDE look-and-feel is that it's a close copy of Microsoft Windows, and this is good for 2 reasons :
People who can use Windows are not disoriented by KDE (rah rah, old argument, I know ...)
Microsoft being all about "first user experience" (read glass and chrome on a desktop anybody can use more or less intuitively), they probably spent a ton of money on the design of the Win95 interface, so why not reuse it ? It's far from perfect, but you can be pretty sure it'll be accessible to the mass thanks to M$ money, and KDE reuses all that R&D for free.
M$ is not stupid, and they've been reusing the same old clunky Win95 interface for years now. IMO, that's because they know for sure it's what flies with the users. So, I like Gnome, it seems solid and well built, but I'm sorry to say, it'll probably lose the GUI battle because its single biggest flaw is its non-M$ look-and-feel.
Because you can be British residing in France and not speak a word of French.
Ever used an ATM ? that device-that-you-can-reconfigure-keys-on-the-fly-wi th is called a touchscreen ...
Empower Technologies Inc.
Redmond, WA
USA
Tel: 425.881.0909
Fax: 425.881.0889
Funny, they have no street address. Furthermore, they're listed as "Empower Technologies / Rdm" on the yellow pages.
The only reason I can think of for them not wanting to state their address is because they're ashamed of it, or because they strategically want to hide it. And the only address I'd be ashamed of or I'd want to hide strategically in Redmond is "1, Microsoft Way".
I wonder if ... no, it cannot be ! Maybe Empower Technologies is an offshot from Microsoft trying to take the palm market over using ... LINUX ! ARRGH SOMEBODY STOP THEM !!!
OH DUH yes you're right ! Oh well, /me go back to school :)
According to an article reported by Slashdot recently, the limit in storage density on a magnetic medium is 150Gb/in2. So with a 1.8in disk, this little PCMCIA hard-disk could contain a whopping 848Gb a few years from now !
Is it one of these schemes where an ultrasonic component is added to the sound that confuses MP3 encoders and generates low-level lound beat frequencies when played back ? Well, whether it's that or not, here's what's going to happen : people who have an ear for musical quality (such as music professionals) won't like this at all, and may actually be able to hear distortions in the masters.
As for the rest of us who can't really distinguish between a 128kbps MP3 and the original on CD and really want to create an MP3 version of they CD to play on their MP3 player, they'll just bypass the protection by playing the original, filter it with a low-pass analog filter of some sort, re-digitize it and MP3-encode it (the hardware to do this is a PC with a full-duplex sound card, and 50c worth of electronic components anybody with two hands can solder together). Most likely, most people won't hear much of a difference in terms of quality if the process is done right, kind of like a watermarked JPEG that's blurred, sized down a little, then resized up, to remove the watermark : sure, the photo isn't as good as the original, but it's good enough if you're not a professional photographer.
All in all, a hassle for everybody courtesy of the copyrighted music mafia.
Incidentally, Sealand is a nation destined for greatness : can you imagine, if they build a high-rise on it (*the* high-rise), they'll multiply their landmass by 50 or more :-)
Incidently, I wonder if they're running their webserver on this board, because it's very very down right now : Slashdot effect or lack of sun ? :-)
here that already does all that for you.
Families will have to keep an eye on the children all the time so they don't go play outside, or explain to them very carefully that, yes, live human beings *can* boil at ambient temperatures ...
That's a pretty good firewall, it prevents evil h4x0rs from damaging the equipment by overheating with those dangerous infrared files.
Somehow though, I suspect life on the ISS is a lot better than on MIR, but Bill Shepherd probably doesn't realize it, just like someone who has a broken air conditioning in Minnesota and has never experienced the Sahara desert in the dead of summer thinks life sucks.
Remember, Micro-Soft was started by Gates and Allen in Albuquerque, NM : the state *had* to pull off the suit to preserve historical decency.
So if people want privacy on the Net, they should be very responsible and careful about what information they commit to it in the first place (i.e. once you email your super-secret password to your girlfriend, you should consider it as good as public) or they shouldn't be on the Net.
In the UK, I believe they already have CCTV cameras on major motorways to read people's license plates, track their average speed and issue electronic tickets automatically. If people's cell phones are used to achieve this, not only the authorities won't have to spend a penny to catch people anymore, but the people themselves will pay for the cell phone and the service to get shafted !
Suddenly, I'm glad I drive a 30 year old car without On-Star, GPS or cell phone.
Not so fast now, was it "free" internet as in "free beer" or as in "free speech" ? maybe the new pay-per-month deal comes with the source code for the banner ad software on the CD ...
Nickname (max. 24 characters): Billgatus of Borg : 1955
Nationality: United States
Country you actually live in: United States
Year of Birth
Gender: male (I think)
Top Level Email Domain: username@server.com
Other languages: no entry - no entry - no entry - no entry
Profession: world dominator (junior level)
Qualification: college graduate (sort of)
Are you being paid for developing free software/open-source? no, for ripping it off
Have you profited from developing free software/open-source? no, from ripping it off
Do you think there are enough free software-related opportunities (jobs, political & social support) in your country or is it better abroad? it is ok in my country Why? we need those guys to produce good software for us.
Does your boss know that you're developing Free Software/Open Source? No (He even does not know what the GPL is)
Do you like you job ? I do it only because of the money
Approx. Yearly Income: >>>>>>>>>>>>70.000 EUR
How many hours a week do you spend developing Open Source/Free Software? no entry
Number of Free Software/Open Source Projects you are involved in: -1
Which of these languages/tools are you experienced with? BASIC - Visual Basic - C (sharp)
Favorite Operating System / Distribution: Windows OS
Favorite desktop: Windows
Favorite editor: Write - No more editors should exist
Open source of free software? doesn't matter, as long as not GPL
Actually, come to think of it, I wonder why they sued the poor guy with his Distributed.net node instead of those mass-marketing digital ass-sores that have been clogging the Internet for so long.
Cool, people in Fremont will be able to get high speed Internet through their powerlines during blackouts.
Last time somebody "granted" me a reprieve was when I paid my taxes late, and it was the government. Am I the only one who has the distinct feeling that Microsoft takes itself for a state within the state ?
The ICT and the WEF could also develop a portable version - like a Gameboy running Linux - that gives information about AIDS (and also herpes syphillis, ...) on the spot. The device could come in a handy pouch that doubles as a condom.
I would think something like this could be useful in many developed countries as well.