Jazz as an artform made itself from sampling -- only to them it is called quoting. You play a few notes from somebody else's tune, or the main melody only to mess with it -- and that's the objective! -- to take someone else's idea and create something new with it. In art and writing, this is called allusion. In science it is called citing and in code it's called open source. I put all of these items in scare quotes because when it comes down to it, they are all borrowing and none of them are piracy.
Whoever it is that thinks ideas just spring from the firmament wholly formed and uninfluenced is in dire need of a reality check or at least a trip to Disney World to play a round of spot-the-original-idea. Art springs from human life and human life is made up of a lot of art. To continue to enforce these draconian laws in the name of money will be at the cost of art and culture.
Considering how many people watch "The Bachelor" and "Fear Factor" though, maybe my point is moot. The memepool is getting damn shallow. ____________________
Agrument after argument has been made against a hydrogen economy because while Hydrogen is a plentiful substance, it is not available in isolation as an element. I don't think people who make this argument are really considering the possibilities.
"Algae are used to separate hydrogen from water to produce clean-burning hydrogen to power vehicles and power plants. Because algae are not inherently proficient at this process, researchers genetically engineer algae to more readily produce hydrogen."
Foremost among the production methods being considered is what has become known as solar hydrogen. Solar hydrogen refers to any method of production that uses the power of the Sun to produce and collect usable hydrogen. This can be accomplished by various methods. The most likely approaches are:
* Energy collection by solar "gensets," parabolic solar collectors that focus and concentrate the light energy of the Sun * Applying the collected energy to a Stirling-cycle heat engine, which in turn drives an electricity-producing generator to power an electrolysis system * Using the heat from collected solar energy to "crack" hydrogen directly from hydrogen bearing sources like water, natural gas, and organic bio-mass, such as municipal and agricultural waste.
Hydrogen is everywhere and I think these two methods are just the tip of the iceberg. At any rate, I'm disappointed by most of the neysaying that's going on here today. Really, this is a geek site -- shouldn't we debating what we *could* do as opposed to what we *can't*? Where's our hacker ethic? _________________
"Algae are used to separate hydrogen from water to produce clean-burning hydrogen to power vehicles and power plants. Because algae are not inherently proficient at this process, researchers genetically engineer algae to more readily produce hydrogen."
Dude! Mining is sooo 21st century. With the simplest of genetic engineering, we can grow fuel.
Frankly, I don't know why little developments like this don't show up in Wired articles about a potential Hydrogen economy -- it seems like the most likely answer to the question of where all this hydrogen will come from. ___________________
You really can't give Apple credit for this innovation. Sherlock is cool but it is really only copy of Watson [karelia.com].
Yes, Watson was first in that regard. Sherlock is one of the more obvious examples of this (why I used it), but really, as far as innovation is concerned, you could go much further back. We're really just talking about "web aware" software. I think Napster falls into that category as well. _______________________
Apple and Sherlock has done with the web what should be done for all applications: used http to send data but created a decent UI for online applications. (For those that don't know, Sherlock is OS X's built-in tool for searching sites like mapquest, Yahoo, Amazon, etc. It's not a browser from a UI standpoint, although it fetches the same info that a browser would, through the same protocol.)
Browsers are great for looking at electronic documents. You can leap from one document to another, go back and forth and even fill out a form like this one. However, when you are dealing with a large application with lots of search criteria, large amouts of results that need to be sorted, or any task that requires a lot of back and forth communication between server and client, browsers stink.
Moreover, while there may have once been hope that decent UIs for online applications could be built in browsers using ActiveX or DHTML, there is no hope at all now for that development. The growing number of browsers with TOTALLY different implementations of the DOM or CSS2 (hell, HTML, for that matter) make constructing a working, complex, UI in a browser almost impossible. (unless you use Flash, but I wouldn't wanna go there on Slashdot.)
I should point out that a lot of developers argue against my point on browsers. However, I often find that the mistake they make is looking at a browser from an engineering point of view (cross-platform compatible, etc.) My POV is the end user, and browsers can not be used to make good, complex UIs.
And why bother when a Java client, using http and now web services, can operate across platforms?
Regardless of everything above, if browsers want to remain relevant and want to be used as a platform for applications then they must implement W3C standards. Period. They should focus on speed, standardization, and bugs. Otherwise, building complex UIs in the browser will remain futile and the browser will remain a general document tool (which is all I think it should be anyway). ____________________________
I've always thought that Slashdot (or any other slash site) could make some money by having "sponsored" comments. Companies could list themselves as being available to be sponsored in comments. When a user posts a comment and marks it as a candidate for sponsorship (presumably by choosing a sponsor from a list), then the company gets emailed the post and dis/approves. For every comment they approve, they pay Slashdot some amount of money that could be split with the poster -- or maybe some amount of money towards a subscription.
The comment would get posted as sponsored so that purists can filter them out. I think it would be generally good for software and web site reviews/comments.
The bullshit thing about advertising is that companies can say whatever they want without backing it up, which means most of us have become very cynical about advertising -- and advertising in turn has become little more than an "awareness" tool. But commentary from users is usually pretty helpful (as long as it's not vague). Just look at the Switch campaign for Apple for a good example. __________________________
Hell, I went to art school and we even had nerds
on
Why Nerds Are Unpopular
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
although, everybody was very sensitive to their needs.
But even better:
"And if teenagers respected adults more, adults also had more use for teenagers. After a couple years' training, an apprentice could be a real help. Even the newest apprentice could be made to carry messages or sweep the workshop.
Now adults have no immediate use for teenagers. They would be in the way in an office. So they drop them off at school on their way to work, much as they might drop the dog off at a kennel if they were going away for the weekend."
I don't think this point can be underemphasized. We think nothing of having a free *intern* in the office. Why couldn't a fourteen-year-old come into the office and hang around and ask questions? In some companies, it would be totally looked down upon. Frankly, in mine, I would consider it to be a boon to a parent's productivity -- and make them feel much better when they can tell the little jerk to go make copies.
I just generally agree with Mr. Graham's views that our education system is generally like a prison system. Kids need to be out in the world exploring. The two main reasons I got through high school unscathed was because I was surrounded by beautiful countryside to play around in and when I went off to art school, I went to a place where my talents were appreciated for what they were. Everyone in my high school had a fairly mutual respect for one another and I think that stemmed from the faculty repeatedly telling us that we were special. Most of my friends thought that the computer skills I had inherited from my nerd Dad were "totally awesome. You know about this internet stuff?" It was practically science fiction to some of them.
I guess I'm just trying to say here that I was really blessed in my experience and I wish all kids could have that. There is something wrong with the system and we all need to focus on that. Really I think that what Paul Graham is saying, what it boils down to, is that children are the only reason society exists. _________________________________________
Clearly, the only way for the Star Trek series to get itself out of this rut (the only way it's EVER gotten itself out of any rut) is to bring back an old character and make him evil! Do I mean evil Khan? Evil Kirk? Evil Spock's brother? Evil Lor? No! I'm talking about Evil Wil!
After years of being abandoned at the academy and getting dumped in trash cans and toilet swirlies, Wil wants nothing more than for Captain Picard to grovel at his feet as he gives him the galaxy's worst wedgie! "Ha ha ha! That's right Picard! Feel my pain! You could have been a father figure to me, but you kicked me off your ship!" In a shocking twist, Wesley's own mother shoots him with a phaser.
"Et tu Mother?"
"You know, I never like that little brat anyway."
The only thing sadder than Nemisis will be the lackluster number of posts on Slashdot about the movie that no one went and saw. _____________
This true because it's true of all projects, not just code. I have a design firm and we do both traditional media work (printing, posters, collateral, advertising) as well as some coding for Flash, Director, Scoop and PHP. The client dictates the quality of the product from the outset by deciding to listen/not listen to our recommended price and schedule. Clients that heed our experience end up with well thought-out, elegant materials. Those who are in a hurry get hurried thought and hurried results, which are simply never award winning.
As for clients that completely put money before quality, well, we're a successful enough design firm that we can fire them. And we frequently do because history shows that those clients (also read: bosses) who are only concerned with money have no problem skirting on bills and the like. People who appreciate quality never have a problem paying for it. Cheapskates, by their nature, do not understand what quality is.
That is not to say that good work cannot be done for free, but in the case where free is involved, deep love is as well. _______________________________
I have an IP phone at my office that we are testing with Broadvox.net. I give the IP phone # to everyone. You can then set up the phone so that it will forward or rollover certain numbers. For instance, I have list of vendors that call to sell me stuff all the time. When they call the office phone, if I don't pick up, they get routed to voicemail. If my Mom calls, though, the system sends her from my office phone, to my cell phone, and then to my home phone. If I don't pick up any of those she goes to voicemail. All the numbers and all the settings are available via the web as well and when I'm staying in a hotel I can temporarily add that number to the forwarding list.
IP telephony is amazing. Having one number that's adjustable for different callers is fantastic. Broadvox is still testing but they'll have personal service within the year, I think. _____________________
This idea could be extended even further with multiple specialized keyboards for particular programs. If you've ever worked with an Avid editing system, you know how important the layout of the keyboard is, but the Avid is a rare example of where the hardware input has been adapted for a specific use. If these devices can be programmed, it opens up a whole range of specialized keyboards that would be highly useful! Photoshop command keypads, Illustrator keypad commands, maybe even programming keyboards where certain objects become keys the coder can use. I think the only reason this never happened before was simply the expense of manufacturing the hardware -- that's all gone with this.
On another note: don't the keypads on Star Trek change for different applications? I mean, shouldn't we be trying to do everything the way it's done on Star Trek? ; ) __________________________
The nerve center of Hy-wire?s electrical system is a single docking port or connection, which provides the electrical connection between the all-aluminum chassis and the fiberglass body. Because it uses fully electronic linkages and controls, the by-wire system simply plugs into the docking connection on the Hy-wire chassis.
To any/.er who ever said, "If we built cars like computers, no one would tolerate the the crashes." -- Your wish has come true.
Ever had the power windows bust on your car while the window is down? Imagine what fun you'll have when the by-wire system, shorts, gets cut or comes loose. Weee! ______________________
The one element of capitialism that will not change (at least until we colonize Mars) is that property (read: space) is scarce. If you've ever read "The Mote in God's Eye" then you know what this can mean for a species. We can have as much stuff as we want, but where will we put it? ___________________
I would not only like to see a device like this capable of printing itself, but one hooked up to genetic algorithmns that in turn figure out how to make the device print itself, but smaller. : ) __________________________
1. This sets up a system in which the syndicate decides what sites are valuable (in the same way the RIAA decides what music goes on the radio). It's nice of you to think they will play fair and let everybody join, but it is unltimately in the interest of any business syndicate to compete. They will find a way to shut people out in order to create more "premium" (read rare) content.
2. This also makes it difficult for ISPs to enter the market when someone (like AOL) already has all the "premium" content and exclusive relationships (which also always happens in the business world because of stupid words like "synergy")
3. This does not allow for any content provider to enter the market without an affiliation. I think this would only eventually encourage the kind of poor writing that we see in mainstream magazines today. A syndicate that felt any political pressure would have the ability to cut off the publication. No business should put itself in that position willingly.
4. A syndicate would restrain the scope of content. Even if there were 10 syndicates, who will publish the 11th bride and groom web site? If the syndicates have to compete with each other then they will not want you, the user, to have the option of choosing "bad" content for yourself. They will choose what they think is good and pass it on. This leaves others out in the cold.
Every web site needs entry into the payment system if it's to be a competitive system. Leaving the decision of what-gets-published-when-so-and-so-approves-it takes us right back to the model we have now: publishing houses. And there are a lot of books that aren't on shelves because of publishing houses.
A good system is a flat system. A syndicate only creates a hierarchy. In a good system everyone can participate without affiliations, there are lots of alternatives, and entrance to the market should have no barriers. __________________________
I wonder what would happen if a new protocol was established for the web, alongside http and https -- say httpm (for money)? A protocol would accomplish several things:
1. It would let you know the free web from the pay web
2. It could encompass https and so allow for payment information to be encrypted and included in the requests. (I realize this might not be such a good idea for cracking reasons -- but then lots of other financial goods can be cracked.)
3. Free web pages could mirror non-free ones. If you weren't sure you wanted to pay for a page you were about to get, you could check the free version which might give you some sort of preview.
4. Access to pages could be kept track of so that you only have to pay once per page per computer.
Paypal already has a mechanism similar to this since they have the ability to create transfers of funds through email. Maybe that transfer mechanism could be adapted as the start of a standard. I don't know much about this, so go easy with the crits.
What am I missing? Why would a monetary web protocol not work for micropayments? _________________________
I've always said that the difference between a good writer and a famous writer is that one of them is famous. You can pretty much replace 'writer' in that phrase with any profession. Some of the people on this list are very bright. Some of them are very well known. Unfortunately, our society mostly values the opinions of the well known. __________________________
Who needs banks? Since you'll work for them, they'll just keep an account for you at the company store, which will be always just slightly negative in balance.
Who needs a company store? After Fox's presidential candidate wins the election, he'll have little choice but to appoint Murdoch's board to cabinet level seats. Once that happens, all this FCC nonsense will finally be swept under the rug (since it will be disbanded), and from then on Fox will be known as America 1. Hell, you'll have high-speed connections on everything to America 1 and more importantly, all your purchases and taxes will be automagically withdrawn from your America 1 account. Double-plus good I say! __________________________
And for god's sake, you didn't pay $n,000 dollars to get the same education you could get from a video-correspondance course.
You're damn skippy I didn't pay $n for a correspondance course, which is why I quit college after it dawned on me that I could get a hell of lot more information from books than professors. I may not have gone to the best college in the world (UGA) but I was sorely disappointed.
I think it is completely and totally the professor's fault if students are not engaged. Students and kids, they are young -- they do not understand the value of the information their professors possess and it is therefore up to the professors to illustrate the value.
I, for one, got really tired of research-track professors who came into class with about as much excitement in them as a unisom. Once upon a time (during the Enlightenment, I'm told) people actually applauded lectures. Where are those lecturers? I had a couple, but the majority of my professors were dull. They may have possessed expertise in their field, but their teaching skills were pathetic. _______________________
Speaking of which, it is VERY interesting to note that Microsoft's first trademark request was refused and then once it was granted two years later, it was done so without any explanation as to why the earlier decision was reversed. Smells like somebody got PAID. _____________________
The U.S. is the only country to do this for a very good reason. It's the same reason we're the only nation with a fleet of modern supercarries. We're the biggest power in the world. Nobody else could afford the luxury of paying for what amounted to an expensive PR program with scientific benefits.
The irony here is that we got to be the biggest power in the world by capitalizing on science. From electricity to the light bulb to the manufacturing line, the US invented the modern world and it did so with science. That any of these psuedo-science morons can watch television or drive to their meetings makes me cringe. They don't look around to realize that practically everything they use and practically everything they touch is a result of tested, repeatable scientific experiements. They don't need to be better informed about the moon, they need to be sat down in a classroom and taught Science 101. _______________
I would just like to thank kramer for pointing out the low liklihood that this development would work on Mars -- revealing the ridiculous tendency that tech writers have to send *everything*, possibly, to Mars. When I release my plans for a super effcient juicer or an internet-enabled Easy-bake oven I definitely intend to put in the press release that these things would be useful on Mars.
Seems like most people don't like the show. I, for one, am watching because X-files never finished. I like a good epic mythology and the grey alien theme is something cultural that people should play with. It's only in the guise of kidnappers that aliens are drawn or talked about this way -- that fact alone is an interesting one from a psychological/anthropological view.
I think the writers have done an good job of tying together a lot of disparate ideas concerning aliens. There's a lot out there -- pilots taken by aliens, woman who have alien babies, the military, strange sky sightings. In fact, I thought the portrayal of the military's denial of the craft being a UFO was realisitic. There was no giant conspiracy, just some arrogant men. In fact, they were wrong in the beginning when they didn't think there was a craft. And what better way for an alien civilization to explore humanity than by becoming human? (It should be noted that this particular theme occurs frequently in ancient mythology: the Gods become like us.)
I'll grant it's Spielburg -- I rolled my eyes every time the little girl's voiceover kicked in (again and again and again) -- but Taken's introduced new elements to an old story and is taking the story further than anyone had previously. It's not literature, it's entertainment. I probably won't catch every episode, but I'll watch it to the end to see what happens. _________________
This was posted in Bill's executive email: "Ironically, it is the growth of the Internet and the advent of massive computing systems built from loose affiliations of services, machines, communications networks and application software that have helped create the potential for increased vulnerabilities." In other words, uniformity is better. Bill & Co. have always believed this because they live in a world in which they are not a monopoly and everyone uses their software because it is so good. Most of us do not live in this world and cannot present many instances in history when uniformity has proven more capable of survival than variation and adaptability. The *only* irony here is that it is Microsoft's inability to adapt and use "loose affiliations of services, machines, [and] communications networks" that will cause its descension from the throne. _____________
Slashdot Mirror
Jazz as an artform made itself from sampling -- only to them it is called quoting. You play a few notes from somebody else's tune, or the main melody only to mess with it -- and that's the objective! -- to take someone else's idea and create something new with it. In art and writing, this is called allusion. In science it is called citing and in code it's called open source. I put all of these items in scare quotes because when it comes down to it, they are all borrowing and none of them are piracy.
Whoever it is that thinks ideas just spring from the firmament wholly formed and uninfluenced is in dire need of a reality check or at least a trip to Disney World to play a round of spot-the-original-idea. Art springs from human life and human life is made up of a lot of art. To continue to enforce these draconian laws in the name of money will be at the cost of art and culture.
Considering how many people watch "The Bachelor" and "Fear Factor" though, maybe my point is moot. The memepool is getting damn shallow.
____________________
1. Use algae to produce hydrogen
From the National Renewable Energy Laboratory:
2. Solar Hydrogen
From the Alternative Energy Institue:
Hydrogen is everywhere and I think these two methods are just the tip of the iceberg. At any rate, I'm disappointed by most of the neysaying that's going on here today. Really, this is a geek site -- shouldn't we debating what we *could* do as opposed to what we *can't*? Where's our hacker ethic?
_________________
Dude! Mining is sooo 21st century. With the simplest of genetic engineering, we can grow fuel.
Frankly, I don't know why little developments like this don't show up in Wired articles about a potential Hydrogen economy -- it seems like the most likely answer to the question of where all this hydrogen will come from.
___________________
Yes, Watson was first in that regard. Sherlock is one of the more obvious examples of this (why I used it), but really, as far as innovation is concerned, you could go much further back. We're really just talking about "web aware" software. I think Napster falls into that category as well.
_______________________
Apple and Sherlock has done with the web what should be done for all applications: used http to send data but created a decent UI for online applications. (For those that don't know, Sherlock is OS X's built-in tool for searching sites like mapquest, Yahoo, Amazon, etc. It's not a browser from a UI standpoint, although it fetches the same info that a browser would, through the same protocol.)
Browsers are great for looking at electronic documents. You can leap from one document to another, go back and forth and even fill out a form like this one. However, when you are dealing with a large application with lots of search criteria, large amouts of results that need to be sorted, or any task that requires a lot of back and forth communication between server and client, browsers stink.
Moreover, while there may have once been hope that decent UIs for online applications could be built in browsers using ActiveX or DHTML, there is no hope at all now for that development. The growing number of browsers with TOTALLY different implementations of the DOM or CSS2 (hell, HTML, for that matter) make constructing a working, complex, UI in a browser almost impossible. (unless you use Flash, but I wouldn't wanna go there on Slashdot.)
I should point out that a lot of developers argue against my point on browsers. However, I often find that the mistake they make is looking at a browser from an engineering point of view (cross-platform compatible, etc.) My POV is the end user, and browsers can not be used to make good, complex UIs.
And why bother when a Java client, using http and now web services, can operate across platforms?
Regardless of everything above, if browsers want to remain relevant and want to be used as a platform for applications then they must implement W3C standards. Period. They should focus on speed, standardization, and bugs. Otherwise, building complex UIs in the browser will remain futile and the browser will remain a general document tool (which is all I think it should be anyway).
____________________________
I've always thought that Slashdot (or any other slash site) could make some money by having "sponsored" comments. Companies could list themselves as being available to be sponsored in comments. When a user posts a comment and marks it as a candidate for sponsorship (presumably by choosing a sponsor from a list), then the company gets emailed the post and dis/approves. For every comment they approve, they pay Slashdot some amount of money that could be split with the poster -- or maybe some amount of money towards a subscription.
The comment would get posted as sponsored so that purists can filter them out. I think it would be generally good for software and web site reviews/comments.
The bullshit thing about advertising is that companies can say whatever they want without backing it up, which means most of us have become very cynical about advertising -- and advertising in turn has become little more than an "awareness" tool. But commentary from users is usually pretty helpful (as long as it's not vague). Just look at the Switch campaign for Apple for a good example.
__________________________
But even better:
I don't think this point can be underemphasized. We think nothing of having a free *intern* in the office. Why couldn't a fourteen-year-old come into the office and hang around and ask questions? In some companies, it would be totally looked down upon. Frankly, in mine, I would consider it to be a boon to a parent's productivity -- and make them feel much better when they can tell the little jerk to go make copies.
I just generally agree with Mr. Graham's views that our education system is generally like a prison system. Kids need to be out in the world exploring. The two main reasons I got through high school unscathed was because I was surrounded by beautiful countryside to play around in and when I went off to art school, I went to a place where my talents were appreciated for what they were. Everyone in my high school had a fairly mutual respect for one another and I think that stemmed from the faculty repeatedly telling us that we were special. Most of my friends thought that the computer skills I had inherited from my nerd Dad were "totally awesome. You know about this internet stuff?" It was practically science fiction to some of them.
I guess I'm just trying to say here that I was really blessed in my experience and I wish all kids could have that. There is something wrong with the system and we all need to focus on that. Really I think that what Paul Graham is saying, what it boils down to, is that children are the only reason society exists.
________________________________________
Clearly, the only way for the Star Trek series to get itself out of this rut (the only way it's EVER gotten itself out of any rut) is to bring back an old character and make him evil! Do I mean evil Khan? Evil Kirk? Evil Spock's brother? Evil Lor? No! I'm talking about Evil Wil!
After years of being abandoned at the academy and getting dumped in trash cans and toilet swirlies, Wil wants nothing more than for Captain Picard to grovel at his feet as he gives him the galaxy's worst wedgie! "Ha ha ha! That's right Picard! Feel my pain! You could have been a father figure to me, but you kicked me off your ship!" In a shocking twist, Wesley's own mother shoots him with a phaser.
"Et tu Mother?"
"You know, I never like that little brat anyway."
The only thing sadder than Nemisis will be the lackluster number of posts on Slashdot about the movie that no one went and saw.
_____________
This true because it's true of all projects, not just code. I have a design firm and we do both traditional media work (printing, posters, collateral, advertising) as well as some coding for Flash, Director, Scoop and PHP. The client dictates the quality of the product from the outset by deciding to listen/not listen to our recommended price and schedule. Clients that heed our experience end up with well thought-out, elegant materials. Those who are in a hurry get hurried thought and hurried results, which are simply never award winning.
As for clients that completely put money before quality, well, we're a successful enough design firm that we can fire them. And we frequently do because history shows that those clients (also read: bosses) who are only concerned with money have no problem skirting on bills and the like. People who appreciate quality never have a problem paying for it. Cheapskates, by their nature, do not understand what quality is.
That is not to say that good work cannot be done for free, but in the case where free is involved, deep love is as well.
_______________________________
I have an IP phone at my office that we are testing with Broadvox.net. I give the IP phone # to everyone. You can then set up the phone so that it will forward or rollover certain numbers. For instance, I have list of vendors that call to sell me stuff all the time. When they call the office phone, if I don't pick up, they get routed to voicemail. If my Mom calls, though, the system sends her from my office phone, to my cell phone, and then to my home phone. If I don't pick up any of those she goes to voicemail. All the numbers and all the settings are available via the web as well and when I'm staying in a hotel I can temporarily add that number to the forwarding list.
IP telephony is amazing. Having one number that's adjustable for different callers is fantastic. Broadvox is still testing but they'll have personal service within the year, I think.
_____________________
This idea could be extended even further with multiple specialized keyboards for particular programs. If you've ever worked with an Avid editing system, you know how important the layout of the keyboard is, but the Avid is a rare example of where the hardware input has been adapted for a specific use. If these devices can be programmed, it opens up a whole range of specialized keyboards that would be highly useful! Photoshop command keypads, Illustrator keypad commands, maybe even programming keyboards where certain objects become keys the coder can use. I think the only reason this never happened before was simply the expense of manufacturing the hardware -- that's all gone with this.
On another note: don't the keypads on Star Trek change for different applications? I mean, shouldn't we be trying to do everything the way it's done on Star Trek? ; )
__________________________
The nerve center of Hy-wire?s electrical system is a single docking port or connection, which provides the electrical connection between the all-aluminum chassis and the fiberglass body. Because it uses fully electronic linkages and controls, the by-wire system simply plugs into the docking connection on the Hy-wire chassis.
/.er who ever said, "If we built cars like computers, no one would tolerate the the crashes." -- Your wish has come true.
To any
Ever had the power windows bust on your car while the window is down? Imagine what fun you'll have when the by-wire system, shorts, gets cut or comes loose. Weee!
______________________
The one element of capitialism that will not change (at least until we colonize Mars) is that property (read: space) is scarce. If you've ever read "The Mote in God's Eye" then you know what this can mean for a species. We can have as much stuff as we want, but where will we put it?
___________________
I would not only like to see a device like this capable of printing itself, but one hooked up to genetic algorithmns that in turn figure out how to make the device print itself, but smaller. : )
__________________________
1. This sets up a system in which the syndicate decides what sites are valuable (in the same way the RIAA decides what music goes on the radio). It's nice of you to think they will play fair and let everybody join, but it is unltimately in the interest of any business syndicate to compete. They will find a way to shut people out in order to create more "premium" (read rare) content.
2. This also makes it difficult for ISPs to enter the market when someone (like AOL) already has all the "premium" content and exclusive relationships (which also always happens in the business world because of stupid words like "synergy")
3. This does not allow for any content provider to enter the market without an affiliation. I think this would only eventually encourage the kind of poor writing that we see in mainstream magazines today. A syndicate that felt any political pressure would have the ability to cut off the publication. No business should put itself in that position willingly.
4. A syndicate would restrain the scope of content. Even if there were 10 syndicates, who will publish the 11th bride and groom web site? If the syndicates have to compete with each other then they will not want you, the user, to have the option of choosing "bad" content for yourself. They will choose what they think is good and pass it on. This leaves others out in the cold.
Every web site needs entry into the payment system if it's to be a competitive system. Leaving the decision of what-gets-published-when-so-and-so-approves-it takes us right back to the model we have now: publishing houses. And there are a lot of books that aren't on shelves because of publishing houses.
A good system is a flat system. A syndicate only creates a hierarchy. In a good system everyone can participate without affiliations, there are lots of alternatives, and entrance to the market should have no barriers.
__________________________
I wonder what would happen if a new protocol was established for the web, alongside http and https -- say httpm (for money)? A protocol would accomplish several things:
1. It would let you know the free web from the pay web
2. It could encompass https and so allow for payment information to be encrypted and included in the requests. (I realize this might not be such a good idea for cracking reasons -- but then lots of other financial goods can be cracked.)
3. Free web pages could mirror non-free ones. If you weren't sure you wanted to pay for a page you were about to get, you could check the free version which might give you some sort of preview.
4. Access to pages could be kept track of so that you only have to pay once per page per computer.
Paypal already has a mechanism similar to this since they have the ability to create transfers of funds through email. Maybe that transfer mechanism could be adapted as the start of a standard. I don't know much about this, so go easy with the crits.
What am I missing? Why would a monetary web protocol not work for micropayments?
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I've always said that the difference between a good writer and a famous writer is that one of them is famous. You can pretty much replace 'writer' in that phrase with any profession. Some of the people on this list are very bright. Some of them are very well known. Unfortunately, our society mostly values the opinions of the well known.
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Who needs banks? Since you'll work for them, they'll just keep an account for you at the company store, which will be always just slightly negative in balance.
Who needs a company store? After Fox's presidential candidate wins the election, he'll have little choice but to appoint Murdoch's board to cabinet level seats. Once that happens, all this FCC nonsense will finally be swept under the rug (since it will be disbanded), and from then on Fox will be known as America 1. Hell, you'll have high-speed connections on everything to America 1 and more importantly, all your purchases and taxes will be automagically withdrawn from your America 1 account. Double-plus good I say!
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And for god's sake, you didn't pay $n,000 dollars to get the same education you could get from a video-correspondance course.
You're damn skippy I didn't pay $n for a correspondance course, which is why I quit college after it dawned on me that I could get a hell of lot more information from books than professors. I may not have gone to the best college in the world (UGA) but I was sorely disappointed.
I think it is completely and totally the professor's fault if students are not engaged. Students and kids, they are young -- they do not understand the value of the information their professors possess and it is therefore up to the professors to illustrate the value.
I, for one, got really tired of research-track professors who came into class with about as much excitement in them as a unisom. Once upon a time (during the Enlightenment, I'm told) people actually applauded lectures. Where are those lecturers? I had a couple, but the majority of my professors were dull. They may have possessed expertise in their field, but their teaching skills were pathetic.
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Speaking of which, it is VERY interesting to note that Microsoft's first trademark request was refused and then once it was granted two years later, it was done so without any explanation as to why the earlier decision was reversed. Smells like somebody got PAID.
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The U.S. is the only country to do this for a very good reason. It's the same reason we're the only nation with a fleet of modern supercarries. We're the biggest power in the world. Nobody else could afford the luxury of paying for what amounted to an expensive PR program with scientific benefits.
The irony here is that we got to be the biggest power in the world by capitalizing on science. From electricity to the light bulb to the manufacturing line, the US invented the modern world and it did so with science. That any of these psuedo-science morons can watch television or drive to their meetings makes me cringe. They don't look around to realize that practically everything they use and practically everything they touch is a result of tested, repeatable scientific experiements. They don't need to be better informed about the moon, they need to be sat down in a classroom and taught Science 101.
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I'm just glad to hear that Buzz Aldrin decked somebody over the manner. That's a space cowboy.
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I would just like to thank kramer for pointing out the low liklihood that this development would work on Mars -- revealing the ridiculous tendency that tech writers have to send *everything*, possibly, to Mars. When I release my plans for a super effcient juicer or an internet-enabled Easy-bake oven I definitely intend to put in the press release that these things would be useful on Mars.
Yeesh.
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Seems like most people don't like the show. I, for one, am watching because X-files never finished. I like a good epic mythology and the grey alien theme is something cultural that people should play with. It's only in the guise of kidnappers that aliens are drawn or talked about this way -- that fact alone is an interesting one from a psychological/anthropological view.
I think the writers have done an good job of tying together a lot of disparate ideas concerning aliens. There's a lot out there -- pilots taken by aliens, woman who have alien babies, the military, strange sky sightings. In fact, I thought the portrayal of the military's denial of the craft being a UFO was realisitic. There was no giant conspiracy, just some arrogant men. In fact, they were wrong in the beginning when they didn't think there was a craft. And what better way for an alien civilization to explore humanity than by becoming human? (It should be noted that this particular theme occurs frequently in ancient mythology: the Gods become like us.)
I'll grant it's Spielburg -- I rolled my eyes every time the little girl's voiceover kicked in (again and again and again) -- but Taken's introduced new elements to an old story and is taking the story further than anyone had previously. It's not literature, it's entertainment. I probably won't catch every episode, but I'll watch it to the end to see what happens.
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This was posted in Bill's executive email: "Ironically, it is the growth of the Internet and the advent of massive computing systems built from loose affiliations of services, machines, communications networks and application software that have helped create the potential for increased vulnerabilities." In other words, uniformity is better. Bill & Co. have always believed this because they live in a world in which they are not a monopoly and everyone uses their software because it is so good. Most of us do not live in this world and cannot present many instances in history when uniformity has proven more capable of survival than variation and adaptability. The *only* irony here is that it is Microsoft's inability to adapt and use "loose affiliations of services, machines, [and] communications networks" that will cause its descension from the throne.
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