If by philosophy you mean the sort of thoughts you have when you get stoned and are fascinated by the Winamp visualization plugins, then I'll agree.
Sorry, but my brother and I have already discussed the fact that, yes, we have these questions in our heads under normal circumstances.
A related point of discussion involves color. Let's say I see a blue sphere. Now I see it through your eyes; Does it still look blue to me? Or does it look green, or orange, or something I wouldn't be able to conceive of without experiencing it?
It's a moot point, since it's still blue by the wavelength definition, but it is interesting to think about. The topic of discussion may even have applications in preparing people for vision implants.
Main Entry: abbreviation
Pronunciation: &-"brE-vE-'A-sh&n
Function: noun
Date: 15th century 1: the act or result of:ABRIDGMENT 2: a shortened form of a written word or phrase used in place of the whole <amt is an abbreviation for amount>
One entry found for acronym.
Main Entry: acronym
Pronunciation: 'a-kr&-"nim
Function: noun
Etymology: acr- + -onym
Date: 1943 : a word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term - acronymic/"a-kr&-'ni-mik/ adjective - acronymically/-mi-k(&-)lE/ adverb
That's been happening ever since the railroad tycoons of the 1800s. Since then, unions took the first steps in splitting wealth more evenly. Teddy Rooseveldt made progress, and FDR's "New Deal" directly targetted the poor segments of America.
The way I see it, society has tended to improve, not decay.
Personally, I'd love to be connected to the Internet for all of my waking hours. I like having the option of looking up some parts information on a spur-of-the-moment decision, or being able to email my grandparents about visiting this weekend.
I think the problems people point out about being too connected stem from having to respond to urgent emails and the like. There's an easy solution...just don't respond until you want to. There's no difference between putting off getting the email and putting of responding to it.
The Simple DirectMedia Library supports nearly identical thread, 2D/3D graphics, sound and controller support among several platforms.
Of course, you have to install the libraries, so you may come under fire for taking the "easy way out" if you write a game that uses SDL instead of native systems. Also, there's a bit of a performance hit. I can run a software-mode quake X11 client decently(15-18 fps) on my P166 laptop, but the SDL client causes too much overhead for me to get anything resembling smooth graphics and sound.
It's not the Opteron that can't use the extra registers, it's the software. Machine code is compiled to refer to specific registers by name, so if the software wasn't compiled to refer to the extra registers, of course it's not going to be able to use them.
x86 CPUs usually have a second layer of registers. The microcode uses these registers to execute multiple parts of the same program simultaneously. These registers aren't referenced directly by the machine code instructions, so they number in use is independant of the number of x86 registers available.
I don't know much about the physical characteristics of the ceramic used in CPUs, but I wouldn't want to flex the material more than necessary. (You'd probably be expanding, contracting and twisting the CPU as some parts became more cool than others.)
I may be paranoid, but I'd prefer not to have anyone, even my own computer, perform data mining on me.
That's what this is, really. Personalized data mining. And all the prosecutor has to do is say, "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, observe. He listens to Emminem. Consider that fact when you consider the verdict."
In Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg, he mentions that one of the computers he watched get cracked controlled the timings of magnetic pulses along particle paths for a particle accelerator. This computer controlled whether a particle stream went to physics experiments or to a radiation therapy room for cancer. That's some pretty nasty stuff. You don't need to talk about the end of the world in order to get results from hysteria. You need only talk about a few hundred children dying in school shootings.
then again, i am all for safeguards against any new, untested technology.
Asbestos was well tested. It took a long time before people associated pyrolysis with the production of carcinogens. (For example, cigarettes give you cancer.)
As has been demonstrated countless times in computer applications alone, you can never remove all the bugs in a device. There will always be things you didn't expect.
chemical (Spills), biological (disease epidemics) and political(police states) disasters are bad enough. Imagine what would happen if the effect of a disaster couldn't be localized?
That's the kind of danger nanoluddites and anti-GE fanatics harp on. What we need is a way to limit the effects of any type of disaster we're capable of creating.
We need to expand human presence beyond the reach of any one disaster. The problem is, nobody takes things like colonization seriously anymore. Human expansion discussions are considered things of science fiction.
The problem is that brick & moarter stores cost a lot more to run than your average Internet shop. A low traffic location will cost you upwards of $200/month. Then you have to worry about keeping the store manned. (Remember, minimum wage means minimum quality) Also, all that equipment being demonstrated sucks up electricity. Even when it's "off." (It's really in standby) Then add shoplifting to your list of costs. There's probably a few things I'm missing here.
You can get managed hosting at Rackspace and a self-storage unit(for use as a warehouse) in your local area for much less than that, and you can do all of the work on your own time, at your own hours, at your own wage.
Apple took this approach years ago. The only two reasons they're still around (and getting stronger) is A) They've got an awesome fanatic fan base, and B) Microsoft bailed them out of a bad financial situation a few years ago.
Slashdot Mirror
If by philosophy you mean the sort of thoughts you have when you get stoned and are fascinated by the Winamp visualization plugins, then I'll agree.
Sorry, but my brother and I have already discussed the fact that, yes, we have these questions in our heads under normal circumstances.
A related point of discussion involves color. Let's say I see a blue sphere. Now I see it through your eyes; Does it still look blue to me? Or does it look green, or orange, or something I wouldn't be able to conceive of without experiencing it?
It's a moot point, since it's still blue by the wavelength definition, but it is interesting to think about. The topic of discussion may even have applications in preparing people for vision implants.
You realize that makes it illegal for you to email someone before contacting them in the real world, don't you?
(c) 2003 Mirriam Webster Online
: the act or result of :ABRIDGMENT : a shortened form of a written word or phrase used in place of the whole <amt is an abbreviation for amount>
: a word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term /"a-kr&-'ni-mik/ adjective /-mi-k(&-)lE/ adverb
Main Entry: abbreviation
Pronunciation: &-"brE-vE-'A-sh&n
Function: noun
Date: 15th century
1
2
One entry found for acronym.
Main Entry: acronym
Pronunciation: 'a-kr&-"nim
Function: noun
Etymology: acr- + -onym
Date: 1943
- acronymic
- acronymically
It's probably obvious, but plese note that the above is not the article at the "overview" link.
For a while, PKE was restricted in France in the name of National Security.
*wonders if quantum computers will be limited to the government.*
That's been happening ever since the railroad tycoons of the 1800s. Since then, unions took the first steps in splitting wealth more evenly. Teddy Rooseveldt made progress, and FDR's "New Deal" directly targetted the poor segments of America.
The way I see it, society has tended to improve, not decay.
Personally, I'd love to be connected to the Internet for all of my waking hours. I like having the option of looking up some parts information on a spur-of-the-moment decision, or being able to email my grandparents about visiting this weekend.
I think the problems people point out about being too connected stem from having to respond to urgent emails and the like. There's an easy solution...just don't respond until you want to. There's no difference between putting off getting the email and putting of responding to it.
Except for public key encryption, and a few legal niceties.
I just tried to use VNC this morning with xscorch...The text was missing, for some reason.
I tried upping the bit depth to 16 bits, and had the same problem. I guess it's got a little ways to go yet.
It looks like most of the theme consists of images. CSS doesn't handle those.
Of course, there're probably ways around that limitation, like letting the user provide his own image links in his preferences.
IIRC, John Carmack's always preferred OpenGL over DirectX. OpenGL is pretty cross-platform, as is, so I doubt they'd be using SDL.
If their past work is any example, I expect they'll be writing their code properly wrt modularity.
The Simple DirectMedia Library supports nearly identical thread, 2D/3D graphics, sound and controller support among several platforms.
Of course, you have to install the libraries, so you may come under fire for taking the "easy way out" if you write a game that uses SDL instead of native systems. Also, there's a bit of a performance hit. I can run a software-mode quake X11 client decently(15-18 fps) on my P166 laptop, but the SDL client causes too much overhead for me to get anything resembling smooth graphics and sound.
It's not the Opteron that can't use the extra registers, it's the software. Machine code is compiled to refer to specific registers by name, so if the software wasn't compiled to refer to the extra registers, of course it's not going to be able to use them.
x86 CPUs usually have a second layer of registers. The microcode uses these registers to execute multiple parts of the same program simultaneously. These registers aren't referenced directly by the machine code instructions, so they number in use is independant of the number of x86 registers available.
I don't know much about the physical characteristics of the ceramic used in CPUs, but I wouldn't want to flex the material more than necessary. (You'd probably be expanding, contracting and twisting the CPU as some parts became more cool than others.)
I may be paranoid, but I'd prefer not to have anyone, even my own computer, perform data mining on me.
That's what this is, really. Personalized data mining. And all the prosecutor has to do is say, "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, observe. He listens to Emminem. Consider that fact when you consider the verdict."
A court capable of imprisoning any individual in the world if any country complains about it enough?
Good thing there are no fascist countries left in the world.
I'll have you know that it's the best investigative reporting on the planet!
(j/k)
I didn't catch the lighthearted part. Sorry.
But, in the spirit of honest debate...
In Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg, he mentions that one of the computers he watched get cracked controlled the timings of magnetic pulses along particle paths for a particle accelerator. This computer controlled whether a particle stream went to physics experiments or to a radiation therapy room for cancer. That's some pretty nasty stuff. You don't need to talk about the end of the world in order to get results from hysteria. You need only talk about a few hundred children dying in school shootings.
Every technogy has both positive and negative uses.
Physics led to artillery. I'm not going to argue with that. Did you know that knowledge of physics lead to things like boats? Balloons? Rockets?
As for chemistry: Nitroglycerin is an explosive, sure, but did you know that it helps prevent full-out heart attacks, if taken when symptoms show up?
So this mass hysteria about "computer hackers" and terrorism is OK?
Anybody who says "let us hope ..." in mixed company is guilty of assuming his, and his alone, opinions are correct.
It's the same type of aloofness that you find in fanatics of all fields.
then again, i am all for safeguards against any new, untested technology.
Asbestos was well tested. It took a long time before people associated pyrolysis with the production of carcinogens. (For example, cigarettes give you cancer.)
As has been demonstrated countless times in computer applications alone, you can never remove all the bugs in a device. There will always be things you didn't expect.
...is non-localization of technology's effects.
chemical (Spills), biological (disease epidemics) and political(police states) disasters are bad enough. Imagine what would happen if the effect of a disaster couldn't be localized?
That's the kind of danger nanoluddites and anti-GE fanatics harp on. What we need is a way to limit the effects of any type of disaster we're capable of creating.
We need to expand human presence beyond the reach of any one disaster. The problem is, nobody takes things like colonization seriously anymore. Human expansion discussions are considered things of science fiction.
The problem is that brick & moarter stores cost a lot more to run than your average Internet shop. A low traffic location will cost you upwards of $200/month. Then you have to worry about keeping the store manned. (Remember, minimum wage means minimum quality) Also, all that equipment being demonstrated sucks up electricity. Even when it's "off." (It's really in standby) Then add shoplifting to your list of costs. There's probably a few things I'm missing here.
You can get managed hosting at Rackspace and a self-storage unit(for use as a warehouse) in your local area for much less than that, and you can do all of the work on your own time, at your own hours, at your own wage.
Apple took this approach years ago. The only two reasons they're still around (and getting stronger) is A) They've got an awesome fanatic fan base, and B) Microsoft bailed them out of a bad financial situation a few years ago.