"The thermohaline circulation is a global ocean circulation. It is driven by differences in the density of the sea water which is controlled by temperature (thermal) and salinity (haline). In the North Atlantic it transports warm and salty water to the North."
Since the Argo project measures these attributes along with current direction and possibly speed, it is the perfect way to either confirm or disconfirm this finding. If Dr. Wadhams is correct, in his prediction that the poler ice caps will melt by 2020 the earliest, then we can be in for a very wild ride as the climate changes.
You forgot one important fact. The rails that Amtrak runs on are privately owned by the freight train companies. The government has little if any control over them.
Amtrak runs according to CSXs schedule, for example in the Northeast. Freight has priority, like you said, so therefore they cannot be competitive because they can't set their own schedule.
Whether there is some sort of "conspiracy", I don't know. But compound this fact with America's love of the automobile and there is no way rail transportation can work over long distances in the USA.
The American Dream is a choice, and if it's your choice of lifestyle, well, you're going to have to pony up the cash that comes with it.
Ah the infamous American Dream, that sounds like something Hunter Thompson would write about. I don't know about you, but for me the American Dream has more to do with personal success then anything else. I hate people who insist that the American Dream is that you must be a consumer, wage slave and one who produces children.
This is the reason that there are so many people in debt, they are programmed by society to live that lifestyle even if they can't afford it outright. That whole notion just makes me sick.
Call me crazy but what are the chances that this could be a "back door" method of disarming the public. What would happen if a High-energy radio-frequency Weapon is directed by the government at these type of guns? Would they be permanently disabled? If so, then how can we, the people, defend ourselves from the government if the government turns against it's people.
To bring this theory a little down to earth, could Terrorists use such a device to disable our guns during an attack?
How can anyone truly trust such a weapon if at any moment it can be rendered useless?
Do you feel that with the current usage in "traditional" operating systems such as Linux and Windows that there is no place, or need, for a Distributed Operating System in the industry?
The main reason is, companies don't want to be liable for the risk.
I don't think that is the problem. The aerospace industry has been using computers to control aircraft for a while now, think avionics and fly-by-wire.
The problem has to be the up front costs with developing this technology. The USG was responsible for fly-by-wire, so maybe this project is what the automotive industry needs.
" But, he says, ask the same question of Nasa now and the answer is the same as 30 years ago. Nasa is working on it and it will be affordable in 30 years' time."
Yeah tell me about it, on the 27th NASA is going to do a dress rehearsal for the X-43 flight in October. Next month they are going for a new world record in the fastest jet powered aircraft in the world. The X-43 could have led to an airplane that can "fly into space" like Rutan mentioned as wanting to do in the article. However, from what I understand, NASA decided to cancel the successor of the X-43. Which is a shame because it is a very solid concept for finding a cheap way into orbit.
This reminds me of the X-20? The successor of the X-15, that was planned to go into orbit. If Rutan, can succeed with a spacecraft that resembles the X-15 and enter orbit, I think that would show that NASA, in all it's wisdom, has held us back as far as manned space travel is concerned.
No it is not just you that thinks this. From my observation Microsoft is reinventing UNIX and Linux is a clone of UNIX that is reinventing itself as Windows. It also seems to me that we will as you say not be able to tell the two apart in the future.
"What *ill*be important, is he thing that is the most important - who do you trust with the source code to your OS? A private company or a group of hackers."
Well only time will tell with that. But one thing is for sure, the operating system will become less and less important when one uses a computer. The applications will be important and that is where the next struggle with closed systems will come into play, open or closed file formats. Will the information be freely accessible by other applications besides the application that created it. This is when we will see a fight over DRM as information starts to be more tightly controlled.
I just had a thought. Since employment in the IT industry has dropped since the bubble burst, is it at pre 1994 levels? It seems to be my observation that the World Wide Web was a significant factor in causing the tech boom of the 90s. Could it be that the industry is simply returning to its prior self after the World Wide Web has matured. Will this boom occur again with another equally important innovation hits the industry?
I am wondering what anyone else thinks about this idea.
That sounds like a red herring. We all know that software on a theoretical level is math, like lambda calculus for example, however using that type of math you are describing a procedure. Creating software is in essence creating a technical procedure that instructs a microprocessor to accomplish something. Procedures can be patented under United States Law. Below is an excerpt from the USPO FAQ that describes what qualifies to be patented.
"In the language of the statute, any person who "invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent," subject to the conditions and requirements of the law. The word "process" is defined by law as a process, act or method, and primarily includes industrial or technical processes. The term "machine" used in the statute needs no explanation. The term "manufacture" refers to articles that are made, and includes all manufactured articles. The term "composition of matter" relates to chemical compositions and may include mixtures of ingredients as well as new chemical compounds. These classes of subject matter taken together include practically everything that is made by man and the processes for making the products."
2+2=4 is not a program it is an equation not a procedure. It does not instruct how to add two and two together, it only shows that in fact they are added together. If you where to say that you can add two and two together by doing X Y and Z then you have a procedure that can be patented.
Could Linux be an extension to UNIX?
on
Can GNU Ever Be Unix?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I think a good point to remember is that the UNIX standard only lists minimum requirements for a UNIX. Linux could merely implement these requirements and still be able to innovate.
Not only would this increase the capabilities of Linux but it could also serve as a way to bring UNIX applications into the Linux world with little effort. Once this is done, Linux can then efficiently replace UNIX itself.
What I believe the industry needs, is a "modern UNIX" that can compete with Windows from not only a user point of view but also a technical one. We are starting to come to the point where not only is UNIX but Linux is starting to become "left behind" by Windows through.NET and the upcoming Longhorn. If Linux is going to be relevant after Longhorn on a technical level, it needs to start to innovate. The UNIX standard is a good place to start.
Are you saying that the "major" apps not conforming to either KDE or GNOME is a usability problem? An application should not care about what GUI environment it is executed in. I use Fvwm2, and I don't ever want to use KDE or GNOME, nor should I have to. The application developers should not have to force a user to use a specific GUI in order to run a program. Linux is all about choice and limiting it's choice in this manner will just turn into into a windows clone.
Let the administrators care about what a user uses for a GUI, not the application developers
With a source of water like this, they should not need these plants, the reservoir system should be enough. Of course there are probably issues such as building new pipelines and what not, but I believe that it would be a heck of a lot cheaper then building Desalination Plants in the long run because of energy usage.
Plus, I worry that this will become another Big Dig fiasco. But I might be saying this only because I am from Western Massachusetts and I don't want to pay for someone else's water supply.
They discuss BPL and how they will deal with interference and questions regarding the regulation of BPL services. The key thing is that BPL should be compliant with Part 15 rules. A must listen.
Here is a page, from Pixar, describing their tools. Apparently it runs on Linux, Windows and Macintosh. You can even buy the software for use in your own films.
I think a good move for Linux would be to keep heading for the Single UNIX Specification from the Open Group. It would make it much easier to port all of the existing UNIX applications over to Linux. Also, being UNIX compliant would give Linux creditability in the minds of corporations who are looking for alternatives to Windows but do not want to pay or cannot afford a commercial UNIX environment.
Slashdot Mirror
From the first link:
"The thermohaline circulation is a global ocean circulation. It is driven by differences in the density of the sea water which is controlled by temperature (thermal) and salinity (haline). In the North Atlantic it transports warm and salty water to the North."
Since the Argo project measures these attributes along with current direction and possibly speed, it is the perfect way to either confirm or disconfirm this finding. If Dr. Wadhams is correct, in his prediction that the poler ice caps will melt by 2020 the earliest, then we can be in for a very wild ride as the climate changes.
You forgot one important fact. The rails that Amtrak runs on are privately owned by the freight train companies. The government has little if any control over them.
Amtrak runs according to CSXs schedule, for example in the Northeast. Freight has priority, like you said, so therefore they cannot be competitive because they can't set their own schedule.
Whether there is some sort of "conspiracy", I don't know. But compound this fact with America's love of the automobile and there is no way rail transportation can work over long distances in the USA.
The American Dream is a choice, and if it's your choice of lifestyle, well, you're going to have to pony up the cash that comes with it.
Ah the infamous American Dream, that sounds like something Hunter Thompson would write about. I don't know about you, but for me the American Dream has more to do with personal success then anything else. I hate people who insist that the American Dream is that you must be a consumer, wage slave and one who produces children.
This is the reason that there are so many people in debt, they are programmed by society to live that lifestyle even if they can't afford it outright. That whole notion just makes me sick.
Call me crazy but what are the chances that this could be a "back door" method of disarming the public. What would happen if a High-energy radio-frequency Weapon is directed by the government at these type of guns? Would they be permanently disabled? If so, then how can we, the people, defend ourselves from the government if the government turns against it's people.
To bring this theory a little down to earth, could Terrorists use such a device to disable our guns during an attack?
How can anyone truly trust such a weapon if at any moment it can be rendered useless?
The homepage for Lewin Edwards is interesting. He is doing other neat projects in addition to his submarine project mentioned in the article.
Do you feel that with the current usage in "traditional" operating systems such as Linux and Windows that there is no place, or need, for a Distributed Operating System in the industry?
The main reason is, companies don't want to be liable for the risk.
I don't think that is the problem. The aerospace industry has been using computers to control aircraft for a while now, think avionics and fly-by-wire.
The problem has to be the up front costs with developing this technology. The USG was responsible for fly-by-wire, so maybe this project is what the automotive industry needs.
" But, he says, ask the same question of Nasa now and the answer is the same as 30 years ago. Nasa is working on it and it will be affordable in 30 years' time."
Yeah tell me about it, on the 27th NASA is going to do a dress rehearsal for the X-43 flight in October. Next month they are going for a new world record in the fastest jet powered aircraft in the world. The X-43 could have led to an airplane that can "fly into space" like Rutan mentioned as wanting to do in the article. However, from what I understand, NASA decided to cancel the successor of the X-43. Which is a shame because it is a very solid concept for finding a cheap way into orbit.
This reminds me of the X-20? The successor of the X-15, that was planned to go into orbit. If Rutan, can succeed with a spacecraft that resembles the X-15 and enter orbit, I think that would show that NASA, in all it's wisdom, has held us back as far as manned space travel is concerned.
No it is not just you that thinks this. From my observation Microsoft is reinventing UNIX and Linux is a clone of UNIX that is reinventing itself as Windows. It also seems to me that we will as you say not be able to tell the two apart in the future.
"What *ill*be important, is he thing that is the most important - who do you trust with the source code to your OS? A private company or a group of hackers."
Well only time will tell with that. But one thing is for sure, the operating system will become less and less important when one uses a computer. The applications will be important and that is where the next struggle with closed systems will come into play, open or closed file formats. Will the information be freely accessible by other applications besides the application that created it. This is when we will see a fight over DRM as information starts to be more tightly controlled.
I just had a thought. Since employment in the IT industry has dropped since the bubble burst, is it at pre 1994 levels? It seems to be my observation that the World Wide Web was a significant factor in causing the tech boom of the 90s. Could it be that the industry is simply returning to its prior self after the World Wide Web has matured. Will this boom occur again with another equally important innovation hits the industry?
I am wondering what anyone else thinks about this idea.
That sounds like a red herring. We all know that software on a theoretical level is math, like lambda calculus for example, however using that type of math you are describing a procedure. Creating software is in essence creating a technical procedure that instructs a microprocessor to accomplish something. Procedures can be patented under United States Law. Below is an excerpt from the USPO FAQ that describes what qualifies to be patented.
"In the language of the statute, any person who "invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent," subject to the conditions and requirements of the law. The word "process" is defined by law as a process, act or method, and primarily includes industrial or technical processes. The term "machine" used in the statute needs no explanation. The term "manufacture" refers to articles that are made, and includes all manufactured articles. The term "composition of matter" relates to chemical compositions and may include mixtures of ingredients as well as new chemical compounds. These classes of subject matter taken together include practically everything that is made by man and the processes for making the products."
2+2=4 is not a program it is an equation not a procedure. It does not instruct how to add two and two together, it only shows that in fact they are added together. If you where to say that you can add two and two together by doing X Y and Z then you have a procedure that can be patented.
I think a good point to remember is that the UNIX standard only lists minimum requirements for a UNIX. Linux could merely implement these requirements and still be able to innovate.
.NET and the upcoming Longhorn. If Linux is going to be relevant after Longhorn on a technical level, it needs to start to innovate. The UNIX standard is a good place to start.
Not only would this increase the capabilities of Linux but it could also serve as a way to bring UNIX applications into the Linux world with little effort. Once this is done, Linux can then efficiently replace UNIX itself.
What I believe the industry needs, is a "modern UNIX" that can compete with Windows from not only a user point of view but also a technical one. We are starting to come to the point where not only is UNIX but Linux is starting to become "left behind" by Windows through
Are you saying that the "major" apps not conforming to either KDE or GNOME is a usability problem? An application should not care about what GUI environment it is executed in. I use Fvwm2, and I don't ever want to use KDE or GNOME, nor should I have to. The application developers should not have to force a user to use a specific GUI in order to run a program. Linux is all about choice and limiting it's choice in this manner will just turn into into a windows clone.
Let the administrators care about what a user uses for a GUI, not the application developers
With a source of water like this, they should not need these plants, the reservoir system should be enough. Of course there are probably issues such as building new pipelines and what not, but I believe that it would be a heck of a lot cheaper then building Desalination Plants in the long run because of energy usage.
Plus, I worry that this will become another Big Dig fiasco. But I might be saying this only because I am from Western Massachusetts and I don't want to pay for someone else's water supply.
Listen to the 2/12/04 FCC meeting at: http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/agendameetings.html
They discuss BPL and how they will deal with interference and questions regarding the regulation of BPL services. The key thing is that BPL should be compliant with Part 15 rules. A must listen.
Here is a page, from Pixar, describing their tools. Apparently it runs on Linux, Windows and Macintosh. You can even buy the software for use in your own films.
I think a good move for Linux would be to keep heading for the Single UNIX Specification from the Open Group.
It would make it much easier to port all of the existing UNIX applications over to Linux. Also, being UNIX compliant would give Linux creditability in the minds of corporations who are looking for alternatives to Windows but do not want to pay or cannot afford a commercial UNIX environment.