An incomplete list of conflicts in the past 50 years wherein the US has fought adversaries possessing air power:
- Vietnam War
- Desert Storm
- Iraq War...not to mention the entirety of the Cold War. If you've ever been one of the guys on the ground, you're damn happy your team has control of the sky.
Yeah, I'd have to say there's a sliding scale there. The lack of pay, especially considering the hard work teachers do and the amount of BS they have to put up with, is a deterrent to a lot of folks.
Imagine busting your hump to get your schooling and credentials, then not having enough money to live on let alone pay off your student loans.
From my experience, a virtual economy can support itself without any intervention or participation from outside companies. For example, there are lots of people who sell skins, clothing, accessories, you-name-it to the residents of Second Life, and *I* make money by providing business tools to them (for visitor counting/automated greetings/report services/surveys, etc.).
I think Second Life paved the way for bigger and better things, but by no means should it be considered the model for the way a virtual environment should work. The utter lack of an interactive forms API and zero support for interaction with real-world documents (such as PDF,.DOC, Excel, PowerPoint) are big flaws that are already frustrating businesses that try to conduct meetings in SL. And don't get me started about their "land" approach to paying for CPU cycles.
From the outset, SL hasn't been about business. Linden Lab created a barren virtual landscape and has let the residents create just about 100% of the content using a very limited (dare i say "primitive"?) set of tools. It has been a big hippie-furry-fetishfest that has concentrated on bugfixes rather than connecting to the outside world. Considering how long it's been around, Second Life shouldn't still be regarded as a place where cyberweirdos go to get their kink on...and yet it still is very much regarded that way by even hardcore geeks.
Now that Linden Lab is starting to realize that their talk of SL as a place for serious business isn't just the hot air even *they* thought it was, they're trying to turn the ship around with some meager business-related integration. Fortunately for them, most other tech companies have watched them struggle and have stayed out of the game.
Whew! I'm sure glad we already know everything about physics, etc. I was beginning to think this science crap was going to have to go on and on and on.
Your post makes the assumption that advanced civilizations would be limited to the detection methods and forms of travel that we have devised.
As for faster-than-light travel, remember that for a long time people believed that faster-than-sound travel was impossible...flight was impossible...Earth not being the center of the universe was impossible. Every time a scientist makes a "law" of physics, at some point it breaks down. Our current theories are no different.
Perhaps we could build vehicles that run on subnotebook computers. It would be a cost-effective solution to our energy crisis, and could save the big 3 automakers!
To overcome the manpower issue, we an simply deputize every resident of the United States as a self-census taker. The results would be extraordinarily accurate!
This coincides with my RFID-at-birth idea, which will provide an accurate result after 70-80 years when the installed base of non-RFID kids has expired.
Let's mix it up a bit and see if we can get a John Waters film out of some of the same ingredients...
* A big nasty strong Nazi snake with pince-nez glasses and a thick accent.
* A scrawny little guy with supernatural boobies.
* Sassy love interest played by John Rhys-Davies in a red fez, who unleashes the terrible power of the bullwhip on Denholm Elliot.
Most large US corporations are by necessity moving to a "BDUF" configuration because of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation,the regulatory fallout from the Enron and MCI/Worldcom debacles that is intended to ensure that no corporate hanky-panky/book-cooking is going on.
Among other things, the legislation requires that developers not have access to production apps/data, and that rigorous controls are in place to ensure accountability for any changes made to the system. See Section 404 (appropriately enough).
The company I work for is going through the process of "SOx" compliance right now...we used to be a very "from the hip" organization, rapidy responding to the whims of the business. Change the app in production, and move the changes to Dev, that sort of thing. No more.
So BDUF if essential in this new age of accountability...get the requirements from the business, then design design design until the business signs off...then test test test test test until you know it won't break. Cover your bases, think critically, and build a solid app.
Slashdot Mirror
I cast millimeter-wave at the darkness.
An incomplete list of conflicts in the past 50 years wherein the US has fought adversaries possessing air power: - Vietnam War - Desert Storm - Iraq War ...not to mention the entirety of the Cold War. If you've ever been one of the guys on the ground, you're damn happy your team has control of the sky.
...but they sure love that bandwagon.
You say that like it's a bad thing! Talk about the next Killer App!
Yeah, I'd have to say there's a sliding scale there. The lack of pay, especially considering the hard work teachers do and the amount of BS they have to put up with, is a deterrent to a lot of folks. Imagine busting your hump to get your schooling and credentials, then not having enough money to live on let alone pay off your student loans.
From my experience, a virtual economy can support itself without any intervention or participation from outside companies. For example, there are lots of people who sell skins, clothing, accessories, you-name-it to the residents of Second Life, and *I* make money by providing business tools to them (for visitor counting/automated greetings/report services/surveys, etc.).
I think Second Life paved the way for bigger and better things, but by no means should it be considered the model for the way a virtual environment should work. The utter lack of an interactive forms API and zero support for interaction with real-world documents (such as PDF, .DOC, Excel, PowerPoint) are big flaws that are already frustrating businesses that try to conduct meetings in SL. And don't get me started about their "land" approach to paying for CPU cycles.
From the outset, SL hasn't been about business. Linden Lab created a barren virtual landscape and has let the residents create just about 100% of the content using a very limited (dare i say "primitive"?) set of tools. It has been a big hippie-furry-fetishfest that has concentrated on bugfixes rather than connecting to the outside world. Considering how long it's been around, Second Life shouldn't still be regarded as a place where cyberweirdos go to get their kink on...and yet it still is very much regarded that way by even hardcore geeks.
Now that Linden Lab is starting to realize that their talk of SL as a place for serious business isn't just the hot air even *they* thought it was, they're trying to turn the ship around with some meager business-related integration. Fortunately for them, most other tech companies have watched them struggle and have stayed out of the game.
...to ODBP via ODBC?
Where am I gonna get a piece of tape in space...at this hour?
Monkey neurons is srs bizniss.
I srs.
your Young Ones reference made my day.
"they're" as in "they are".
were you the guy that proofread the intelligence reports that misspelled the country with WMD's as "iraq" instead of "iran"?
Whew! I'm sure glad we already know everything about physics, etc. I was beginning to think this science crap was going to have to go on and on and on.
Your post makes the assumption that advanced civilizations would be limited to the detection methods and forms of travel that we have devised.
As for faster-than-light travel, remember that for a long time people believed that faster-than-sound travel was impossible...flight was impossible...Earth not being the center of the universe was impossible. Every time a scientist makes a "law" of physics, at some point it breaks down. Our current theories are no different.
...in SPACE.
What could be in the box? Boy, it could be anything! It could even be a space vacation!
"FUCK IT! We'll do it FREE! ...
WE'LL DO IT FREE!"
Oh wait...wrong O'Reilly.
Perhaps we could build vehicles that run on subnotebook computers. It would be a cost-effective solution to our energy crisis, and could save the big 3 automakers!
To overcome the manpower issue, we an simply deputize every resident of the United States as a self-census taker. The results would be extraordinarily accurate!
This coincides with my RFID-at-birth idea, which will provide an accurate result after 70-80 years when the installed base of non-RFID kids has expired.
"Zip it, Abe."
- John Wilkes Booth
Let's mix it up a bit and see if we can get a John Waters film out of some of the same ingredients...
* A big nasty strong Nazi snake with pince-nez glasses and a thick accent.
* A scrawny little guy with supernatural boobies.
* Sassy love interest played by John Rhys-Davies in a red fez, who unleashes the terrible power of the bullwhip on Denholm Elliot.
That's just what they'd expect us to expect them to expect us to do!
too bad none of this will do squat to prevent an attack from a homemade mortar or a small aircraft packed with explosives.
"Hello, Computer..."
if that doesn't work, speak loudly into the mouse.
Most large US corporations are by necessity moving to a "BDUF" configuration because of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation,the regulatory fallout from the Enron and MCI/Worldcom debacles that is intended to ensure that no corporate hanky-panky/book-cooking is going on.
Among other things, the legislation requires that developers not have access to production apps/data, and that rigorous controls are in place to ensure accountability for any changes made to the system. See Section 404 (appropriately enough).
The company I work for is going through the process of "SOx" compliance right now...we used to be a very "from the hip" organization, rapidy responding to the whims of the business. Change the app in production, and move the changes to Dev, that sort of thing. No more.
So BDUF if essential in this new age of accountability...get the requirements from the business, then design design design until the business signs off...then test test test test test until you know it won't break. Cover your bases, think critically, and build a solid app.
I feel that stored procs are very BDUF-friendly.
So, as Golgotha says... "neener, neener."
He's already got his name on something in space, so he supposes it's time for everybody else to pack up their kit and go home.
"C'mon, everybody, back to Earth. Nothing to see here...except for these VAN ALLEN BELTS, baby! That's right! Booyah! In your FACE!"
If Sun had their way, it'd look a lot like Duke.