I used to love Dr Dobbs. But unfortunately had to give up my expensive Dr Dobb's habit, when it went online-only, and turned into a cheesy website peddling little but warmed-over stuff from elsewhere, and paid puffery. Too bad.
I've seen this in action. A black cab driver in action is truly a wonder to behold.
I watched a driver wind down his window at an intersection, and ask a black cab driver for directions somewhere. The driver instantly rattled off the names of half a dozen street and landmark names without even batting an eyelid. Better than TomTom.
I should point out that there is a world of difference between a black cab driver with a green badge; versus some horrible down-and-out illegal minicab driver who'll cheat you if you're lucky.
Given how QE has pumped up asset prices, backing e-currency with stocks is little better than fait.
I suggest backing Bitcoin with dog shit. At least it's worth something -- at worst, you can compost dog shit and use it to grow things, unlike electronically-traded (and soon to be worthless) stocks.
SpaceX are fantastic, world-class innovators, but lobbying the government to tilt the playing field their way smacks of rent-seeking.
I think there are potential parallels between Elon Musk and Richard Branson here. Both are lauded as Galtian supermen and heroe entrepreneurs; but at least in Richard Branson's case, he is an expert at conning governments into handing him extremely lucrative (government protected and subsidized) monopolies, as anybody who's had the misfortune of getting brutally arse-raped on a Virgin Trains season ticket (£6,000 from Milton Keynes to Euston, last time I looked), can testify.
The only surefire way to drastically speed up exploration of deep space, would be to find ways to move our industrial infrastructure into space. This includes obtaining and refining raw materials, manufacturing, food production, etc etc. Then there is a minimum population of people required to operate it. There are so many problems to be solved in order to pull it off, that the mind boggles.
This would be a huge undertaking. Probably achievable, but at enormous expense. It would be a colossal undertaking that would be a contemporary version of building the Pyramids.
There is a huge difference between regular unmanned cargo delivery to space, and human access to space. One is absolutely vital. The other one can be seen as a bit of an optional indulgence. Most science, remote sensing, exploration, etc, can be done without humans (and expensive, fragile life support systems, and need for resupply, etc) on board.
IIRC, the Ariane 5 launch rocket is man-rated (or at least built, with a view to being man-rated). This was done for the cancelled Hermes spaceplane.
Now actually getting it into the sort of shape to give Europe independent access to space, is another matter. I get the distinct impression that it's going to be very expensive, especially when the usual suspects get their snouts into the trough.
What's so difficult about life without parole? It'd probably work out cheaper, if you factor in the expense of capital cases. Besides, it's easier to pardon and pay compensation to somebody if they're innocent, if they're still alive.
My old man gave me a cube when I was a kid, and told me that the easiest colour to solve is black;-)
That said, you don't want to peel the stickers off (you'll just ruin the stickers). Most cubes can be disassembled easily by turning a face 45 degrees, and popping an edge out. The rest of the cube will just fall out. Reassemble in the correct order, and voila -- solved cube.
BTW, if you were to take a cube apart and reassemble it at randon, there's only a 1-in-12 chance of reassembling it into a solved state. With an unsolvable cube, it becomes obvious once you go to orient the final face edges.
0) the hard way: learning to solve it in a 'naiive' fashion. 1) learn a basic solve using the basic technique. This can be done in 1 day, if you apply yourself. Not very challenging. 2) learn to speed-solve the cube (e.g. solving in well under 1 minute). TOTALLY different kettle of fish to merely learning to solve. Can take ages (years) to get really fast. 3) use the Rubiks Cube as a motivation to learn some group theory and solve the cube from first principles that way. Bonus: the mathematics has myriad uses elsewhere.
One -- served by commodity electronics -- watches that do something useful.
The other -- served by high-end, hand-made jewellery that don't actually function all that well as watches. For richarses with more dollars than sense, who want to show off.
The neoconservatives know better than to let a perfectly good crisis go to waste, as we've seen in Latin America, Iraq and elsewhere. Never mind that the results ALWAYS turn to shit... but it never stops them from trying nonetheless.
The Chelyabinsk meteorite strike certainly hurt a lot of people. A few thousand ended up in hospital, mostly from projectile injuries, but a few also with burnt skin and retinas (the fireball was briefly several times brighter than the Sun).
Except Russians are stuck with the same band of crooks.
OTOH, power in the West is rotated between two different bands of crooks (or at least two factions of the same band of crooks).
Ostensibly, the benefit of 'democracy', is that when the corrupts/incompetents in charge get on the nose too much, they can be safely and quickly gotten rid of. Russians and Chinese don't have that luxury. With no pressure-release-value, tensions within the system will just build up until something explodes, like 1789.
It's 2014, but you wouldn't know it, by looking on here.
Male Slashdotters -- think of how you'd feel, if somebody powerful was sexually harassing your wife, (I know, alien concept for many Slashdotters, but bear with me), mother or sister, and could leverage that power to do what they like with impunity. Not a good feeling now, is it?
Criminal, bullying, and anti-social behaviour should always be caught out and punished. It's good to see somebody being made an example out of.
Slashdot Mirror
I used to love Dr Dobbs. But unfortunately had to give up my expensive Dr Dobb's habit, when it went online-only, and turned into a cheesy website peddling little but warmed-over stuff from elsewhere, and paid puffery. Too bad.
I've seen this in action. A black cab driver in action is truly a wonder to behold.
I watched a driver wind down his window at an intersection, and ask a black cab driver for directions somewhere. The driver instantly rattled off the names of half a dozen street and landmark names without even batting an eyelid. Better than TomTom.
I should point out that there is a world of difference between a black cab driver with a green badge; versus some horrible down-and-out illegal minicab driver who'll cheat you if you're lucky.
That said, John Worboys was a black cab driver...
Free marketeers and Randroids, especially those in business are the biggest hypocrites.
It's funny how the most ardent free marketers turn into rent-seekers when they're faced with real competition.
I bet Ayn Rand didn't imagine that her beloved Galtian supermen are actually the real looters and parasites.
Where's the government when you need them??
Given how QE has pumped up asset prices, backing e-currency with stocks is little better than fait.
I suggest backing Bitcoin with dog shit. At least it's worth something -- at worst, you can compost dog shit and use it to grow things, unlike electronically-traded (and soon to be worthless) stocks.
I suggest getting Elon's cock out of your mouth long enough to breathe.
SpaceX are fantastic, world-class innovators, but lobbying the government to tilt the playing field their way smacks of rent-seeking.
I think there are potential parallels between Elon Musk and Richard Branson here. Both are lauded as Galtian supermen and heroe entrepreneurs; but at least in Richard Branson's case, he is an expert at conning governments into handing him extremely lucrative (government protected and subsidized) monopolies, as anybody who's had the misfortune of getting brutally arse-raped on a Virgin Trains season ticket (£6,000 from Milton Keynes to Euston, last time I looked), can testify.
The only surefire way to drastically speed up exploration of deep space, would be to find ways to move our industrial infrastructure into space. This includes obtaining and refining raw materials, manufacturing, food production, etc etc. Then there is a minimum population of people required to operate it. There are so many problems to be solved in order to pull it off, that the mind boggles.
This would be a huge undertaking. Probably achievable, but at enormous expense. It would be a colossal undertaking that would be a contemporary version of building the Pyramids.
There is a huge difference between regular unmanned cargo delivery to space, and human access to space. One is absolutely vital. The other one can be seen as a bit of an optional indulgence. Most science, remote sensing, exploration, etc, can be done without humans (and expensive, fragile life support systems, and need for resupply, etc) on board.
IIRC, the Ariane 5 launch rocket is man-rated (or at least built, with a view to being man-rated). This was done for the cancelled Hermes spaceplane.
Now actually getting it into the sort of shape to give Europe independent access to space, is another matter. I get the distinct impression that it's going to be very expensive, especially when the usual suspects get their snouts into the trough.
What's so difficult about life without parole? It'd probably work out cheaper, if you factor in the expense of capital cases. Besides, it's easier to pardon and pay compensation to somebody if they're innocent, if they're still alive.
My old man gave me a cube when I was a kid, and told me that the easiest colour to solve is black ;-)
That said, you don't want to peel the stickers off (you'll just ruin the stickers). Most cubes can be disassembled easily by turning a face 45 degrees, and popping an edge out. The rest of the cube will just fall out. Reassemble in the correct order, and voila -- solved cube.
BTW, if you were to take a cube apart and reassemble it at randon, there's only a 1-in-12 chance of reassembling it into a solved state. With an unsolvable cube, it becomes obvious once you go to orient the final face edges.
I think there are several ways of tackling it:
0) the hard way: learning to solve it in a 'naiive' fashion.
1) learn a basic solve using the basic technique. This can be done in 1 day, if you apply yourself. Not very challenging.
2) learn to speed-solve the cube (e.g. solving in well under 1 minute). TOTALLY different kettle of fish to merely learning to solve. Can take ages (years) to get really fast.
3) use the Rubiks Cube as a motivation to learn some group theory and solve the cube from first principles that way. Bonus: the mathematics has myriad uses elsewhere.
There are two markets:
One -- served by commodity electronics -- watches that do something useful.
The other -- served by high-end, hand-made jewellery that don't actually function all that well as watches. For richarses with more dollars than sense, who want to show off.
This is like comparing apples and oranges.
Imagining those guys doing a raid, and then popping wheelies on the way out.
I thought the point of Google buying Nest, was that so they could analyse your behaviour, and then figure out when to serve you ads for pizza.
The neoconservatives know better than to let a perfectly good crisis go to waste, as we've seen in Latin America, Iraq and elsewhere. Never mind that the results ALWAYS turn to shit... but it never stops them from trying nonetheless.
The world is being run by idiots.
I'd like to see some evidence for this assertion.
Slashdot is sitting right there -- if you think you can prove this, let's see some evidence; preferably some hard numbers.
The Chelyabinsk meteorite strike certainly hurt a lot of people. A few thousand ended up in hospital, mostly from projectile injuries, but a few also with burnt skin and retinas (the fireball was briefly several times brighter than the Sun).
You're right in another way -- Tesla is like Apple, because they're not optimizing for sheer sales volume; they're optimizing for profit.
They just come over as a bunch of complete, smug, self-absorbed wankers.
*golf clap*
Except Russians are stuck with the same band of crooks.
OTOH, power in the West is rotated between two different bands of crooks (or at least two factions of the same band of crooks).
Ostensibly, the benefit of 'democracy', is that when the corrupts/incompetents in charge get on the nose too much, they can be safely and quickly gotten rid of. Russians and Chinese don't have that luxury. With no pressure-release-value, tensions within the system will just build up until something explodes, like 1789.
I'd say it's puerile -- and a bit alarming, considering these people are building something so important to the continued health of the internet.
Comic Sans.
That looks professional.
It's 2014, but you wouldn't know it, by looking on here.
Male Slashdotters -- think of how you'd feel, if somebody powerful was sexually harassing your wife, (I know, alien concept for many Slashdotters, but bear with me), mother or sister, and could leverage that power to do what they like with impunity. Not a good feeling now, is it?
Criminal, bullying, and anti-social behaviour should always be caught out and punished. It's good to see somebody being made an example out of.