I really doubt that Altair Basic had any direct connection to DTSS BASIC. However, didn't DEC have a PDP-8 8K BASIC interpreter? The fact that Gates and Allen managed to get their BASIC to run the first time on a machine (and processor) they'd never used before has always interested me. Anyone know of a BASIC that used the Left$/Right$/Mid$ convention prior to Altair Basic?
Why can't they put the money towards something useful, like staffing the abuse desks at Chinese ISPs with real people rather than poor copies of Dave Null. They should do this before everyone outside of China has them blocked at the border routers.
How would it affect your life if the Samba or Apache projects were shut down for patent infringement?
I'd spend the rest of my life puzzled as to how something Microsoft patented could have ended up in Apache without it automatically being prior art either in Apache or httpd.
The "giant computer" story has been around for decades, spread by the tin-foil hat brigade of the "Michael Journal", and more recently by silly sites like this one. These people are several swings short of a playground.
Like any newsgroup/forum, it's probably best to lurk for a while before posting. I'm not sure I'd like to find out what an interstellar flamewar is like.
Any aliens that we detect from their signals probably would be more advanced than us. Since we're not in a position to conduct butt-probes on less advanced life (even if we wanted to), the question is rather moot.
Imagine the signal strength of Earth TV signals from 1945 through to when cable/dish TV started to cut into it.
Also, they could have noticed us a while ago from radio signals, and we're only now getting the signal after they swung the antenna around to point at us.
Alright, so who cares if you decode it, you FOUND INTELLIGENT LIFE that existed at least several hundred of years ago
Isn't that a rather important step all by itself? Just the fact of other intelligent life out there would have quite an effect regardless of what they're saying. ("LGM sks LGW 4 zads vork.")
As for the century long delay, just start talking. Wicked lag time, but eventually you'll get something said.
They could do Duke Nukem Forever like that. One player gets to be Duke's brain. The rest of the players are other organs and body parts. It could work!
There have been a number of stories trickling out of parts of the world where organlegging is already happening. (Remember that the two sources of organs in Larry Niven's stories were illegal organleggers and the state, which imposed the death penalty for just about anything.)
Easy enough for someone to be a condemned criminal in, say, China and wake up a piece at a time. Brings in lots of solid western currency too--far higher profit than prison labour to make running shoes.
Opt-in with confirmation isn't "double opt-in". That term was created by the Direct Marketing people to confuse the issue, and means whatever they say it means. (One said they send a "targeted lead" [scraped address] a "confirmation" and if there is no opt-out reply, you're double secret opt'ed-in. Riiight!)
Hopefully you'll catch any large scale forging, but you're still vulnerable to one at a time forging. Your list, your rules, I just hope it doesn't bite you in the future. (Most mailing list packages should support a confirmation handshake option of some kind.)
Be even more amusing to think that the one person will get nailed and can prove that he doesn't have 99% of the copyrighted files that they say he has, then sues the RIAA.
Dancing with landsharks is never a good idea. As I said "Justice is a vending machine that only takes $10 000 coins, usually a lot of them. And sometimes the chocolate bar still gets stuck." (So one picked that up for their quotes page, cool!)
Sure, stuff come up hot, stuff cools down and piles up. Thus ice towers, deep ocean vents, diamond pipes, volcanoes, etc. Also, since the material that comes up is rich in needed elements and a source of energy, you tend to get life clustering around them.
No doubt about it, if these warm spots have any water, they'd be excellent places to look for life.
On careful re-reading, I notice that the writer of the story is a bit sloppy about mixing statements and his own conclusions.
That would provide the opportunity for the Mars Global Surveyor to capture high-resolution photos of the area, suggests Hoffman. The ice towers could grow as high as 30 m in the lower Martian gravity, and would stand out against the darker soil.
Did Hoffman make the 30 m comment or did the writer? There seem to be a few places where this happens, as well as mixing comments from various people. Is Rachel Nowak a pen-name for Procrustes? (Greek mythology, read a book!)
All they've got is some hot-ish spots, and Hoffman is talking about how high the ice towers are in Martian gravity. Perhaps the article skimmed his reasoning, but there seems to be a logical leap there with no proof that there are any ice towers.
Even on Earth, there are a number of places with cold and volcanic vents, but ice towers form in only one place (the most extreme, granted). Obviously the conditions have to be just right. Other than being cold, Antarctica really isn't that much like Mars.
The ice tower story sounds like either Hoffman was either playing to the media, or they were playing him.
Slashdot Mirror
And they don't like $cientology, which pisses off US shills for that UFO nut corporation.
I really doubt that Altair Basic had any direct connection to DTSS BASIC. However, didn't DEC have a PDP-8 8K BASIC interpreter? The fact that Gates and Allen managed to get their BASIC to run the first time on a machine (and processor) they'd never used before has always interested me. Anyone know of a BASIC that used the Left$/Right$/Mid$ convention prior to Altair Basic?
Why can't they put the money towards something useful, like staffing the abuse desks at Chinese ISPs with real people rather than poor copies of Dave Null. They should do this before everyone outside of China has them blocked at the border routers.
I'd spend the rest of my life puzzled as to how something Microsoft patented could have ended up in Apache without it automatically being prior art either in Apache or httpd.
Can you afford the lawyers to take on a large company in a legal campaign? If not, isn't the choice of license irrelevant?
And the whole pin-drop thing only proved that they had crappy filtering.
The "giant computer" story has been around for decades, spread by the tin-foil hat brigade of the "Michael Journal", and more recently by silly sites like this one. These people are several swings short of a playground.
Like any newsgroup/forum, it's probably best to lurk for a while before posting. I'm not sure I'd like to find out what an interstellar flamewar is like.
Make Quatloos Fast! Increase your oomflogg! Causality septic tanks! Contact Ail Ralzqi of Mizar.
Any aliens that we detect from their signals probably would be more advanced than us. Since we're not in a position to conduct butt-probes on less advanced life (even if we wanted to), the question is rather moot.
Also, they could have noticed us a while ago from radio signals, and we're only now getting the signal after they swung the antenna around to point at us.
As for the century long delay, just start talking. Wicked lag time, but eventually you'll get something said.
They could do Duke Nukem Forever like that. One player gets to be Duke's brain. The rest of the players are other organs and body parts. It could work!
One thing that affects bicycle life-span around Toronto is security. Are they going to make the bicycle locks out of bamboo too?
"We're here for your liver."
Easy enough for someone to be a condemned criminal in, say, China and wake up a piece at a time. Brings in lots of solid western currency too--far higher profit than prison labour to make running shoes.
Hopefully you'll catch any large scale forging, but you're still vulnerable to one at a time forging. Your list, your rules, I just hope it doesn't bite you in the future. (Most mailing list packages should support a confirmation handshake option of some kind.)
Dancing with landsharks is never a good idea. As I said "Justice is a vending machine that only takes $10 000 coins, usually a lot of them. And sometimes the chocolate bar still gets stuck." (So one picked that up for their quotes page, cool!)
Linux is copyright. GNU is copyright. xBSD is copyright. Most OSS is copyright.
Could the people chanting "Four legs good, copyright baaad!" turn down the volume and up the brightness a little, thank you.
No doubt about it, if these warm spots have any water, they'd be excellent places to look for life.
Even on Earth, there are a number of places with cold and volcanic vents, but ice towers form in only one place (the most extreme, granted). Obviously the conditions have to be just right. Other than being cold, Antarctica really isn't that much like Mars.
The ice tower story sounds like either Hoffman was either playing to the media, or they were playing him.
Of course, you have to avoid the problems this guy had. (There a number of versions of this one. Apply salt.)
Hollywoodland and lawyers. It's a far deadlier combination than speedballs (cocaine and heroin).