No alien civilizations have substantially colonized our solar system or systems nearby. Thus among the billion trillion stars in our past universe, none has reached the level of technology and growth that we may soon reach. This one data point implies that a Great Filter stands between ordinary dead matter and advanced exploding lasting life. And the big question is: How far along this filter are we?
I think the first sentence in the conclusion has problems. Why the hell would you assume, "No alien civilizations have substantially colonized our solar system or systems nearby."
I think I know why, we are stupid enough to think we are capable of understanding life that is more advanced than us. A sufficiently advanced entity could hide on our planet if it wanted to!
If you look at Comcast's income statement for 2013, you'll see rising profits. They made 6.816 billion dollars in 2013. I find it disingenuous (fucking bullshit) for them to claim these content providers are costing them money.
In reality it is likely the opposite, the content providers are increasing the demand for their product and allowing Comcast to charge more for service. Their relation to content providers is somewhat like Apple's relation to App providers. Except in the case of phone companies, their are alternatives to Apple.
Chris claims that programming can be simplified so that the masses can program. Well he'd like to claim that, but at the moment he is only imagining. Let's cite some examples of things everyone will not be able to do with his new tool. Everyone will not be able to program a search engine such as Google's. Everyone will not be able to design a supervised learning task to find the needle in a haystack of data. Everyone will not be able to express the logic of their ideas, because they are simply ineffable to themselves
Even when you are adept in some field, when you hear of what the experts are doing in another field that you know little to nothing of, it seems like magic. Those who can write search engines, create statistical experiments and express the logic of their ideas will always be seen as magicians to non-experts. It doesn't mean that the tools they use are broken, though they might be, it means that there exists variation and degrees of expertise. Better tools is not going to change that, just shift the "problem" around.
Unless an alien civilization finds a way to break the speed of light, we won't likely be able to communicate or visit with each other. It simply takes too much energy to travel and too long to communicate.
I quote from the Interstellar travel wikipedia article:
There is some belief that the magnitude of this energy may make interstellar travel impossible. It has been reported that at the 2008 Joint Propulsion Conference, where future space propulsion challenges were discussed and debated, a conclusion was reached that it was improbable that humans would ever explore beyond the Solar System.[1] Brice N. Cassenti, an associate professor with the Department of Engineering and Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, stated “At least 100 times the total energy output of the entire world would be required for the voyage (to Alpha Centauri)”.[1]
Perhaps if we discover something about the nature of our universe that we aren't yet aware of, we will be able to interact with alien life. For now, the possibility is quite remote.
I also have one, and I've both used a case and not. Like you, I do not make many calls on my iPhone. Mostly I use it for email, text messages, taking pictures and mapping. It does a great job at these tasks. I haven't experienced a dropped call, but I also don't hold the phone with my palm or finger bridging the gap in the lower left corner.
I put the bumper on. Like I said, I haven't experienced a dropped call, so I'm not sure what the bumper has done for me other than give me a little peace of mind.
Anyhow if you think it might be a problem put the bumper on, but you might not really need it.
Here's a nerdy factiod about aerogel that might help your processor speed.
There has been some close research into using substances like aerogel to improve processor speeds. Apparently the substances can be used as very efficient insulators between traces and components. This is because aerogel and substances like it are mostly made of air, which has a very high dielectric constant so aerogel itself is a very good insulator.
With all the publicity this company will get, which will then probably turn into more business for them, one has to wonder why more small companies don't go after SCO. In effect do the same thing SCO has; fill the press with your name.
Perhaps we(american tech workers) should just not go into work for a couple of weeks. hey they don't need us anymore right, at least thats what they are claiming. I'd like to see them(CEOs/CFOs) writhe in pain as their whole infrastructure goes down the tubes. make them pay for their greed.
I've always thought that as soon as we develop robots to fight for us there will be no more war as we know it. Think about how demoralizing it is for the oposition when they're holed up for hours fighting a machine. if they win all they have to show for it is scraps of metal and they know the american economy can pump out more robots like there twinkies. a scary thought.
Nobody loses here, but american citzens. The job of terrorist and others, those who actually pose a threat to national security, is to brainstorm up plans to get around and defeat our countermeasures. All this means for terrorists is that they've been tipped off, and now need to find a new way to launder money. Let's wake up, the CIA already had the power it needed, plus the benefits of suprise and secrecy, they just haven't been doing their job.
The new iTunes Gift Certificates are a great idea. College kids can easily fire off a email to mom n' pop and have them pick one up. No wading through lines at the store, no problem.
And you thought guard dogs were bad, imagine helicopter kamikazee runs on trespassers. Better bring your anti-aircraft flac cannon to Mr. Burns's next time Bart.
Many interstates are busy enough to allow for peer-to-peer communications between cars, which would allow for cheep communication up and down the road.
perhaps 802.11g in every car would be a better idea. thoughts of gnutella hosts dance in my head.
I am suprised that so many people see globalization as a problem and not an opportunity. If others are capitalizing on it why can't you dummy?
How you might ask?
If your a whitecollar worker who's job can be sent over seas do this, find a friend who lives in india that will do you work for you. He works for 50 % of your wage so now your making half your wage, but are doing no work. so get another job and make half your orignal salary plus your new salary.
If you've already lost your job, you know that buisnesses are moving jobs overseas so make a buisness that specializes in setting up companies with foreign workers.
You've got to stay ahead of the curve. Look who's benifiting and why? Then capatilize on your knowledge. The world is more productive than it has ever been. Quit your whining and Adapt you poor fools.
The chinese communist inner party could take a good lesson from orwell's 1984 and get rid of the cafes before it influences the masses. According to orwell the reason people in power loose power is by weakening their grip on the people.
Katz makes some good points in his essay but, he fails to realize his audience. Most of the readers at slashdot ARE into technology and they are into it in a big way. Personally as a open source coder i don't care if Gnutella, Alpine, Direct Connect get to a point where everyone in america can use it. I am a technologist and i use it now. This grandios idea that P2P networks must be heralded by the masses in order for them to be sucsessful is ridicuolous. P2P is a succsess for technologists like myself and my fellow peers on slashdot. If katz would just step off of his idealistic pedestal and see the technology for what it is...(A really neat way for individuals to share information without the corprate filter)...He would realize that P2P is here to stay and that P2P doesn't suck.
Place 30 high school students in a class room. Throw some computers in there. Maybe some books on philosophy, and some beakers, chemicals and a few classic text books. Observe the kids, watch which ones play with the toys. If a kid needs more equipment supply it. Also note the students who complain about the sitution. Ask them what they would rather be doing. If they say i'd rather be outside playing football, they probably don't belong in college.
The students who enjoy playing with ideas, inventing and learning are the students who belong in college.
There is nothing wrong with those who don't belong in college there just differnt and for them to pretend to be something there not would be a tragedy.
The internet is a constantly evolving beast. We will not see a peak or finish per se. We are just begining to poke at the age of distributed computing. Right now we have P2P file sharing but i guarentee we will be seeing much more of this distributed architecture in the future. Think plan 9 and other yet to be thought of systems. The internet's biggest success won't be taking our old technology( i.e. radio, tv) and putting it on top of it, but creating a new interactive highly connected system which we haven't even thought of yet.
Slashdot Mirror
No alien civilizations have substantially colonized our solar system or systems nearby. Thus among the billion trillion stars in our past universe, none has reached the level of technology and growth that we may soon reach. This one data point implies that a Great Filter stands between ordinary dead matter and advanced exploding lasting life. And the big question is: How far along this filter are we?
I think the first sentence in the conclusion has problems. Why the hell would you assume, "No alien civilizations have substantially colonized our solar system or systems nearby."
I think I know why, we are stupid enough to think we are capable of understanding life that is more advanced than us. A sufficiently advanced entity could hide on our planet if it wanted to!
If you look at Comcast's income statement for 2013, you'll see rising profits. They made 6.816 billion dollars in 2013. I find it disingenuous (fucking bullshit) for them to claim these content providers are costing them money.
In reality it is likely the opposite, the content providers are increasing the demand for their product and allowing Comcast to charge more for service. Their relation to content providers is somewhat like Apple's relation to App providers. Except in the case of phone companies, their are alternatives to Apple.
Chris claims that programming can be simplified so that the masses can program. Well he'd like to claim that, but at the moment he is only imagining. Let's cite some examples of things everyone will not be able to do with his new tool. Everyone will not be able to program a search engine such as Google's. Everyone will not be able to design a supervised learning task to find the needle in a haystack of data. Everyone will not be able to express the logic of their ideas, because they are simply ineffable to themselves
Even when you are adept in some field, when you hear of what the experts are doing in another field that you know little to nothing of, it seems like magic. Those who can write search engines, create statistical experiments and express the logic of their ideas will always be seen as magicians to non-experts. It doesn't mean that the tools they use are broken, though they might be, it means that there exists variation and degrees of expertise. Better tools is not going to change that, just shift the "problem" around.
Unless an alien civilization finds a way to break the speed of light, we won't likely be able to communicate or visit with each other. It simply takes too much energy to travel and too long to communicate.
I quote from the Interstellar travel wikipedia article:
There is some belief that the magnitude of this energy may make interstellar travel impossible. It has been reported that at the 2008 Joint Propulsion Conference, where future space propulsion challenges were discussed and debated, a conclusion was reached that it was improbable that humans would ever explore beyond the Solar System.[1] Brice N. Cassenti, an associate professor with the Department of Engineering and Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, stated “At least 100 times the total energy output of the entire world would be required for the voyage (to Alpha Centauri)”.[1]
Perhaps if we discover something about the nature of our universe that we aren't yet aware of, we will be able to interact with alien life. For now, the possibility is quite remote.
I also have one, and I've both used a case and not. Like you, I do not make many calls on my iPhone. Mostly I use it for email, text messages, taking pictures and mapping. It does a great job at these tasks. I haven't experienced a dropped call, but I also don't hold the phone with my palm or finger bridging the gap in the lower left corner.
I put the bumper on. Like I said, I haven't experienced a dropped call, so I'm not sure what the bumper has done for me other than give me a little peace of mind.
Anyhow if you think it might be a problem put the bumper on, but you might not really need it.
Here's a nerdy factiod about aerogel that might help your processor speed.
There has been some close research into using substances like aerogel to improve processor speeds. Apparently the substances can be used as very efficient insulators between traces and components. This is because aerogel and substances like it are mostly made of air, which has a very high dielectric constant so aerogel itself is a very good insulator.
It's better described here
With all the publicity this company will get, which will then probably turn into more business for them, one has to wonder why more small companies don't go after SCO. In effect do the same thing SCO has; fill the press with your name.
sig: [insert something clever here]
Perhaps we(american tech workers) should just not go into work for a couple of weeks. hey they don't need us anymore right, at least thats what they are claiming. I'd like to see them(CEOs/CFOs) writhe in pain as their whole infrastructure goes down the tubes. make them pay for their greed.
I've always thought that as soon as we develop robots to fight for us there will be no more war as we know it. Think about how demoralizing it is for the oposition when they're holed up for hours fighting a machine. if they win all they have to show for it is scraps of metal and they know the american economy can pump out more robots like there twinkies. a scary thought.
Nobody loses here, but american citzens. The job of terrorist and others, those who actually pose a threat to national security, is to brainstorm up plans to get around and defeat our countermeasures. All this means for terrorists is that they've been tipped off, and now need to find a new way to launder money. Let's wake up, the CIA already had the power it needed, plus the benefits of suprise and secrecy, they just haven't been doing their job.
Me
Could this leak be pushing the iss off course? Maybe it won't throw it completely out of the solar system, but it'll be close!
Me
As profits roll in for companies that outsource our jobs the least our government could do is tax that money and use it to reeducate the unemployed.
The new iTunes Gift Certificates are a great idea. College kids can easily fire off a email to mom n' pop and have them pick one up. No wading through lines at the store, no problem.
Put your money where your mouth is
And you thought guard dogs were bad, imagine helicopter kamikazee runs on trespassers. Better bring your anti-aircraft flac cannon to Mr. Burns's next time Bart.
My latest project
nvidia users might want to download the proper patches before trying out 2.6. the patches can be foundhere
the start of something?
Many interstates are busy enough to allow for peer-to-peer communications between cars, which would allow for cheep communication up and down the road.
:)
perhaps 802.11g in every car would be a better idea. thoughts of gnutella hosts dance in my head.
along with others
so much for that "Was it ever alive?" talk.
me
Seriously, has bluetooth made any significant impact in how we get things done?
I am suprised that so many people see globalization as a problem and not an opportunity. If others are capitalizing on it why can't you dummy?
How you might ask?
If your a whitecollar worker who's job can be sent over seas do this, find a friend who lives in india that will do you work for you. He works for 50 % of your wage so now your making half your wage, but are doing no work. so get another job and make half your orignal salary plus your new salary.
If you've already lost your job, you know that buisnesses are moving jobs overseas so make a buisness that specializes in setting up companies with foreign workers.
You've got to stay ahead of the curve. Look who's benifiting and why? Then capatilize on your knowledge. The world is more productive than it has ever been. Quit your whining and Adapt you poor fools.
breath
The chinese communist inner party could take a good lesson from orwell's 1984 and get rid of the cafes before it influences the masses. According to orwell the reason people in power loose power is by weakening their grip on the people.
Time is Change.
Katz makes some good points in his essay but, he fails to realize his audience. Most of the readers at slashdot ARE into technology and they are into it in a big way. Personally as a open source coder i don't care if Gnutella, Alpine, Direct Connect get to a point where everyone in america can use it. I am a technologist and i use it now. This grandios idea that P2P networks must be heralded by the masses in order for them to be sucsessful is ridicuolous. P2P is a succsess for technologists like myself and my fellow peers on slashdot. If katz would just step off of his idealistic pedestal and see the technology for what it is...(A really neat way for individuals to share information without the corprate filter)...He would realize that P2P is here to stay and that P2P doesn't suck.
Time is Change.
Place 30 high school students in a class room. Throw some computers in there. Maybe some books on philosophy, and some beakers, chemicals and a few classic text books. Observe the kids, watch which ones play with the toys. If a kid needs more equipment supply it. Also note the students who complain about the sitution. Ask them what they would rather be doing. If they say i'd rather be outside playing football, they probably don't belong in college.
The students who enjoy playing with ideas, inventing and learning are the students who belong in college.
There is nothing wrong with those who don't belong in college there just differnt and for them to pretend to be something there not would be a tragedy.
Time is Change
Good point its called determinism. it's how are brain works.
The internet is a constantly evolving beast. We will not see a peak or finish per se. We are just begining to poke at the age of distributed computing. Right now we have P2P file sharing but i guarentee we will be seeing much more of this distributed architecture in the future. Think plan 9 and other yet to be thought of systems. The internet's biggest success won't be taking our old technology( i.e. radio, tv) and putting it on top of it, but creating a new interactive highly connected system which we haven't even thought of yet.
Time is Change.
All you need if your Neo Nazi Frenchmen.
Time is Change.