Well,I am not sure how useful this would be as far as locating disease causes and all is concerned, since humans are mammals and fish are aquatic creatures and I am sure that means a LOT of differences in the genes. Still, I think it might be a good idea to do it.
Just curious here...anything like a complete
genome for any organism, even this, means a LOT
of information to be stored. I wonder how database
applications would cope with this kind of info.
I read something about special research going on
for information storage techniques for genomic
databases, but as far as I remember, they
addressed the needs for the genome of one particular organism only. It would be a nice reserach problem to see if it possible to correlate the data from various organisms for similar genes and see what yields, both in terms of information science and biology.
I mostly agree with you on that one...but there
are a couple of issues on that one which are
going to be hard to solve satisfactorily.
First, it is tough to come up with objective AND
fair criteria which can be used to decide whether
a particular innovation is worth giving a patent
to. One might argue that the currrent set of rules
is sufficient for the task, but see how much room
it leaves for subjectivity.
Second, to do a really good job, you need people
from the relevant field who can provide an
informed opinion without being biased themselves.
Finding such people is awfully hard, since we all
have some fixed ideas about what is good and
what is not. This is also a big resource issue--
I don't think the patent offices have the kind of
money to employ so many experts...
However, having said that, I do agree with you
that some sort of patenting is essential if we
want to keep promoting innovation. I have been
recently reading about a concept called "idea
futures"(http://hanson.gmu.edu/ideafutures.html)in which it is proposed that scientific
research evaluation be opened up to the market
since this not only prevents an elite few to
have the power to guide and shape current opinion
but also allows markets to promote ideas which
are more feasible, in the view of the market. I
am not sure how this directly relates to patents,
but I think a combination of the two might provide
an interesting and refreshing perspective at
the very least.
Just my two cents....
I am not sure if this is relevant to peer to peer
networking and Napster, but it is related to the
issue of traversing firewalls transparently, so I
thought I would post this. My apoologies in
advance if somebody has already pointed this
before.
I did a study last summer about techniques which
could be used for doing authenticated firewall
traversal, since currently, setting things up so
that you can work from home is difficult and
time-consuming.There were quite a few stop-gap
solutions, but none that were not application
dependent or required major changes in kernel
(something that you don't aways have access to).
However, SOCKS by NEC (http://www.socks.nec.com)
is a pretty good compromise. Both IE and Netscape
already have support for SOCKS built into them
and SOCKSified clients for telnet, ftp, ping
and other common applications are freely
available. The package is fairly easy to install
and get running (I did have some problems with
DNS,though), and even works fine with applications
like Net Meeting and other H.323 based stuff
(which is pretty good because they use dynamic
ports). I think ICQ has support for SOCKS too,
so for the average home user, SOCKS is a fairly
good compromise.
Last I checked, SOCKS actually had a couple of
RFCs for supporting multicast as well, a big plus
over other solutions. And NEC has separate
implementations for Windows and *n?x OSes. I think
it is a pretty good solution for those who would/could not be bothered to go through the hassles
of NAT (which in my opinion, is definitely a cool
idea, by the way, but one that will take a long,
long time before it gets "mainstream" acceptance).
Just my two cents' worth on the topic, and by the
way, I DON'T work for NEC:).
This is a very nice idea, IMHO, and a very
practical one, but the thing is, why stop at
toilets? Why not have a similar database of
grocery shops, hospitals, drugstores and anything
else you can think of? I know that in the Us at
least, it would be a great idea if somebody could
come up with a database of Marsh, Walmart, Cosco
and what not...imagine how useful that would
be! And I doubt it would be that hard to comppile
either. Just my two cents....
On a totally insane note, can you imagine a
beowulf cluster of these?:)
From the little I remember of high school
chemistry, most of the glues are organic polymers
which bond strongly under heat and pressure. I
might be talking through my hat here, but knowing
the chemical compostion of stuff mentioned in
the article, should it not be RERLATIVELY easy
to come up with something which could be used to
unglue things or decompose them into something
harmless?
Of course, I know it is not as easy as that...
there is a lot going on here, including the
fact that chemical reactions are reversible,
but it should not be TOO hard either.
Just wondering...
Slashdot Mirror
Well,I am not sure how useful this would be as far as locating disease causes and all is concerned, since humans are mammals and fish are aquatic creatures and I am sure that means a LOT of differences in the genes. Still, I think it might be a good idea to do it. Just curious here...anything like a complete genome for any organism, even this, means a LOT of information to be stored. I wonder how database applications would cope with this kind of info. I read something about special research going on for information storage techniques for genomic databases, but as far as I remember, they addressed the needs for the genome of one particular organism only. It would be a nice reserach problem to see if it possible to correlate the data from various organisms for similar genes and see what yields, both in terms of information science and biology.
I mostly agree with you on that one...but there are a couple of issues on that one which are going to be hard to solve satisfactorily. First, it is tough to come up with objective AND fair criteria which can be used to decide whether a particular innovation is worth giving a patent to. One might argue that the currrent set of rules is sufficient for the task, but see how much room it leaves for subjectivity. Second, to do a really good job, you need people from the relevant field who can provide an informed opinion without being biased themselves. Finding such people is awfully hard, since we all have some fixed ideas about what is good and what is not. This is also a big resource issue-- I don't think the patent offices have the kind of money to employ so many experts... However, having said that, I do agree with you that some sort of patenting is essential if we want to keep promoting innovation. I have been recently reading about a concept called "idea futures"(http://hanson.gmu.edu/ideafutures.html)in which it is proposed that scientific
research evaluation be opened up to the market
since this not only prevents an elite few to
have the power to guide and shape current opinion
but also allows markets to promote ideas which
are more feasible, in the view of the market. I
am not sure how this directly relates to patents,
but I think a combination of the two might provide
an interesting and refreshing perspective at
the very least.
Just my two cents....
I am not sure if this is relevant to peer to peer networking and Napster, but it is related to the issue of traversing firewalls transparently, so I thought I would post this. My apoologies in advance if somebody has already pointed this before. I did a study last summer about techniques which could be used for doing authenticated firewall traversal, since currently, setting things up so that you can work from home is difficult and time-consuming.There were quite a few stop-gap solutions, but none that were not application dependent or required major changes in kernel (something that you don't aways have access to). However, SOCKS by NEC (http://www.socks.nec.com) is a pretty good compromise. Both IE and Netscape already have support for SOCKS built into them and SOCKSified clients for telnet, ftp, ping and other common applications are freely available. The package is fairly easy to install and get running (I did have some problems with DNS,though), and even works fine with applications like Net Meeting and other H.323 based stuff (which is pretty good because they use dynamic ports). I think ICQ has support for SOCKS too, so for the average home user, SOCKS is a fairly good compromise. Last I checked, SOCKS actually had a couple of RFCs for supporting multicast as well, a big plus over other solutions. And NEC has separate implementations for Windows and *n?x OSes. I think it is a pretty good solution for those who would /could not be bothered to go through the hassles
of NAT (which in my opinion, is definitely a cool
idea, by the way, but one that will take a long,
long time before it gets "mainstream" acceptance).
Just my two cents' worth on the topic, and by the
way, I DON'T work for NEC:).
This is a very nice idea, IMHO, and a very practical one, but the thing is, why stop at toilets? Why not have a similar database of grocery shops, hospitals, drugstores and anything else you can think of? I know that in the Us at least, it would be a great idea if somebody could come up with a database of Marsh, Walmart, Cosco and what not...imagine how useful that would be! And I doubt it would be that hard to comppile either. Just my two cents.... On a totally insane note, can you imagine a beowulf cluster of these?:)
From the little I remember of high school chemistry, most of the glues are organic polymers which bond strongly under heat and pressure. I might be talking through my hat here, but knowing the chemical compostion of stuff mentioned in the article, should it not be RERLATIVELY easy to come up with something which could be used to unglue things or decompose them into something harmless? Of course, I know it is not as easy as that... there is a lot going on here, including the fact that chemical reactions are reversible, but it should not be TOO hard either. Just wondering...
True Win95 emulation? Bah! I would believe that when I see the BSOD on my Linux box:).