I've always felt that Niven alone was cool ideas, poor execution. Niven + Pournell was fantastic, and Niven + Pournell + Barnes was even better. Compare Legacy of Heorot/Beowulfs Children vs Mote in God's Eye vs Destiny Road.
The Boycott would be better served is you bought the item, then returned it BECAUSE of the EULA. Now you show up on the company's radar as a LOST SALE and as an expense in RETURNED MERCHANDISE.
New Marketing Idea. Do what ATT does for cell phones
Rollover MB's
Sign up for a plan for X MB per month. Download capacity you don't use goes into the bank. Overages are charged at a set rate.
Over the cap for two months in a row and get bumped up a level. Have too many MB's in the bank and get dropped automatically down a level.
Fair and Simple.
You could get even more complex if you desire, where MB's consumed vary with network load. Downloading a torrent during the busiest time of day counts double towards your cap, Download at 3:00AM and it counts half.
I just wish these companies would man up and and have fair pricing. And for all of the people who signed up for Unlimited plans, suck it up and deal with the change or go elsewhere. Every other industry (credit cards, insurance, medical care)can periodically change the service agreement. Besides, as COMCAST I'd hope the heavy users got mad and went elsewhere.
So if they come up with a vaccine that will give perfect health to 99% of its recipients and kill/main the other 1%, you'll be all for it since it's for the good of the many? What if its a 90-10 split instead? Would you feel better about your choice if there was a test one could take that would tell you if you are in one group or the other.
As the OP said, once there is a known cause for Autism, then you can address the vaccine resisters with facts and information.
How about the researchers do some actual SCIENCE for a change and look at those other causes?
The question is not whether vaccines are safe or not, but what is the cause of Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD)? In the absence of an answer to that question, parents will be scared and vaccines are scary things, ergo vaccines == bad. In part that is due to how effective vaccines have been in that the ravages of those diseases have passed from common memory.
Now back to the Science issues. Have you looked at the diagnostic criteria for ASD? Its a diagnosis of elimination. After you've ruled out everything else, ASD remains. That said, the range a symptoms is big enough to drive a truck through. It is my personal theory that ASD is actually multiple diseases that have similar manifestations, and I think that is why determining its cause has been so difficult.
Every study that seems to implicate something is refuted when they examine larger samples sizes. By way of analogy: Imagine if you where trying to find the root cause of a fever and thought that it might be caused by bacteria and treated some patients successfully with antibiotics. When studies were conducted on a larger "Fever" population the bacteria cause was dismissed,if the larger study population consisted of mostly fevers caused by a virus - a valid conclusion based on bad science.
Regarding mercury: One theory I've read was that the mercury is not necessarily from vaccines but from the environment as a result of a breakdown of the process that capture mercury in the body. In normal healthy people, environmental mercury is bound to special proteins in the surface of the small intestine, and shed into your stool. Perhaps this process is/was broken/damaged in Autistic individuals?
We need more science on both sides of the issue. And by the way, modifying a hypothesis in response to new experimental data is a perfectly valid step in the scientific method.
So after all of the time and money and arm twisting MS engaged in because they had to have THE open standard, they're just going to say 'Oh well, ODF was better anyway'?
Next to fractals, how could you get anymore CS than context-free grammers?
From the Website: Contextfreeart.org Context Free is a program that generates images from written instructions called a grammar. The program follows the instructions in a few seconds to create images that can contain millions of shapes.
No, the car companies would offer different types of spears. Big ugly points for the cheap cars, cool multi edged razor broadheads on the expensive cars. Then there would be the Clear Coat and Rust inhibitor dealer installed options.
I agree. The problem with that approach is two-fold.
1) Funding agencies will fund new research, but will not fund research to confirm previous research.
2) The competition for funding, tenure, etc has led to an ever increasing specialization of expertise. Gone are the days of the gentleman scientists where anybody with a tower could replicate Galileo's experiments.
Slashdot Mirror
I've always felt that Niven alone was cool ideas, poor execution. Niven + Pournell was fantastic, and Niven + Pournell + Barnes was even better. Compare Legacy of Heorot/Beowulfs Children vs Mote in God's Eye vs Destiny Road.
I would have gone with WaterWorld (aka Fishtar).
Time for your cervical exam and pap smear Mr. Fulcrum
The Boycott would be better served is you bought the item, then returned it BECAUSE of the EULA. Now you show up on the company's radar as a LOST SALE and as an expense in RETURNED MERCHANDISE.
My Blackberry, my cell phone, my kindle, my tivo, my directTV recievers
The Movie was Damnation Alley from 1977. Based on the book by Roger Zelazny of the same title.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075909/
If I owned Hell and Texas, I'd live in Hell and rent out Texas
D'oh!
mutter, mutter don't use absolute statements on slashdot mutter, mutter bad wombat mutter mutter
There are BOLD pilots
There are OLD pilots
But there are no OLD BOLD pilots
I 2nd the XSL-FO recomendation.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problems, you're not using enough.
New Marketing Idea. Do what ATT does for cell phones
Rollover MB's
Sign up for a plan for X MB per month. Download capacity you don't use goes into the bank. Overages are charged at a set rate.
Over the cap for two months in a row and get bumped up a level. Have too many MB's in the bank and get dropped automatically down a level.
Fair and Simple.
You could get even more complex if you desire, where MB's consumed vary with network load. Downloading a torrent during the busiest time of day counts double towards your cap, Download at 3:00AM and it counts half.
I just wish these companies would man up and and have fair pricing. And for all of the people who signed up for Unlimited plans, suck it up and deal with the change or go elsewhere. Every other industry (credit cards, insurance, medical care)can periodically change the service agreement. Besides, as COMCAST I'd hope the heavy users got mad and went elsewhere.
Agent Orange
Agent Orange Popsicles are the best! Much better than Baked Alaska Flambe with Napalm sauce as a frozen treat.
So if they come up with a vaccine that will give perfect health to 99% of its recipients and kill/main the other 1%, you'll be all for it since it's for the good of the many? What if its a 90-10 split instead? Would you feel better about your choice if there was a test one could take that would tell you if you are in one group or the other.
As the OP said, once there is a known cause for Autism, then you can address the vaccine resisters with facts and information.
How about the researchers do some actual SCIENCE for a change and look at those other causes?
The question is not whether vaccines are safe or not, but what is the cause of Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD)? In the absence of an answer to that question, parents will be scared and vaccines are scary things, ergo vaccines == bad. In part that is due to how effective vaccines have been in that the ravages of those diseases have passed from common memory.
Now back to the Science issues. Have you looked at the diagnostic criteria for ASD? Its a diagnosis of elimination. After you've ruled out everything else, ASD remains. That said, the range a symptoms is big enough to drive a truck through. It is my personal theory that ASD is actually multiple diseases that have similar manifestations, and I think that is why determining its cause has been so difficult.
Every study that seems to implicate something is refuted when they examine larger samples sizes. By way of analogy: Imagine if you where trying to find the root cause of a fever and thought that it might be caused by bacteria and treated some patients successfully with antibiotics. When studies were conducted on a larger "Fever" population the bacteria cause was dismissed,if the larger study population consisted of mostly fevers caused by a virus - a valid conclusion based on bad science.
Regarding mercury: One theory I've read was that the mercury is not necessarily from vaccines but from the environment as a result of a breakdown of the process that capture mercury in the body. In normal healthy people, environmental mercury is bound to special proteins in the surface of the small intestine, and shed into your stool. Perhaps this process is/was broken/damaged in Autistic individuals?
We need more science on both sides of the issue. And by the way, modifying a hypothesis in response to new experimental data is a perfectly valid step in the scientific method.
Correct. But if these same doctors could point to a cause for the Autism Spectrum Disorders, all of this crap speculation would go away.
GM losing billions and getting loans to retool for
Greener, more efficient vehicles like hybrids and while the real innovators go under.
If it was Princeton then I'd be shocked. But Yale? I expect that kind of behavior Yale and the other clown colleges.
If you ignore him sharing a woman with his best friend on the slopes of the big giant mountain.
City and Time is the Simplest Thing are two of his best.
Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series is also excellent.
So after all of the time and money and arm twisting MS engaged in because they had to have THE open standard, they're just going to say 'Oh well, ODF was better anyway'?
Next to fractals, how could you get anymore CS than context-free grammers?
From the Website:
Contextfreeart.org
Context Free is a program that generates images from written instructions called a grammar. The program follows the instructions in a few seconds to create images that can contain millions of shapes.
No, the car companies would offer different types of spears. Big ugly points for the cheap cars, cool multi edged razor broadheads on the expensive cars. Then there would be the Clear Coat and Rust inhibitor dealer installed options.
Please, please tell me there is a party in Russia.
Because in Soviet Russia, Slashdot Celebrates You!
Just a thought then, if they argued that position previously doesn't that preclude them from arguing the opposite later. Estopple anyone?
I agree. The problem with that approach is two-fold.
1) Funding agencies will fund new research, but will not fund research to confirm previous research.
2) The competition for funding, tenure, etc has led to an ever increasing specialization of expertise. Gone are the days of the gentleman scientists where anybody with a tower could replicate Galileo's experiments.