I agree.
Isn't a blog just an online version of your standard paper diary? Writing a novel as if it were a diary, or even turning a diary into a novel, isn't exactly new. (The first example to come to mind is Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl)
I don't see where the author is breaking new ground, except possibly that we get to see the work in progress, rather than as a finished piece? Certainly stories have been published piecemeal before (esp in magazines and the like), though I have not personally seen any serial stories written in diary-entry style.
As a side note, there are many cases of people who make blogs for ficticious people, which seems to be an analogous style of work.
Though the effect of those would be greatly lessened if we assume the company is using an intranet. Putting content-sensitive documents in publicly-accessible locations probably isn't a good idea to begin with.
I have in the past put documents in a temporary space on a company fileserver, then emailed the link. The entire space is wiped weekly without backup (hence the "temporary" bit - clever naming, eh?). I was actually using the space because the documents were so large, but a similar system might could be implemented for sensitive documents.
Regardless, the weakest link will always be the human one.
..What I'm
curious about is what advantages these new gizmos have over earlier graphing calculators..
I haven't seen this particular question addressed in the responses.
I think the greatest advantage the TI-92/89 had over their predecessors is the ability to do symbolic notation. Combined with their ability to manipulate matrices quickly and easily, this gives the calculator nearly Matlab-level functionality (minus Simulink's block diagrams, of course)
Personally, I used my TI-89 extensively in college. I wrote programs to do everything from Observability/Controlability matrices for Controls class to Sallen Key design for analog circuits to the Newton-Raphson solution method for analyzing power systems. Not to mention using the command-capture feature to document alot of my work.
Writing programs forced me to learn the material well in addition to reducing the time spent working on homework. Many of these programs would not have been useful/useable on my old TI-86 (which lacked symbolic notation).
In summary, the additional features improve the ability of the calculator to do excactly what calculators are meant to do - reduce the amount of tedious calculating you (the user) have to do in order to solve the problem at hand. As a user, "tedious" calculations can be anything from long division to solving differential equations if it's merely a step in your problem-solving process.
And, ok, admittedly, having Final Fantasy also comes in handy during some of those particularly boring lectures. ; )
Grad schools want you to be fluent in Japanese, unless you can find an exchange-style program through an American university.
There's also the JET program for native english speaker to go to Japan for a few years teaching English. You have to be moderately fluent, but I've known more people to have success with this program.
Good luck,
Leliel
Watashi mo, nihon ni moitido ikitai.
Additional hardware including a hard-disk drive, liquid-crystal display (LCD), keyboard and mouse will be offered to help customers access the new features.
Sony and AOL are working hard to make gaming devices into standard computers. Meanwhile, video/sound card companies are hard at work turning computers into gaming consoles.
Take your pick.
I work for a utility company that has the same policy. Namely, you don't get paid for being on-call unless you actually have to come in. The only exceptions are a few particular classes of hourly wage non-exempt employees.
Your best bet, if your management is willing, might be to negotiate some sort of separate compensation for on-call employees. (i.e., you probably aren't going to be able to convice the Powers That Be to pay full-time, or even half-time wages for you to not be at work.)
Look at some of the things that are basically unpatentable now due to them being pre-written about:
microwaves
waterbeds
heated floors
UV sterilizers for rooms when people arent in them.
(thanks RAH!)
Seems to me from the review, that he is more interested in attacking the politics of the authors than he is in wondering about "science fiction" itself.
True.
From the title of the book, I was expecting more of a discussion on the relationship between science fiction and actual science. Perhaps including ideas, inventions, etc. that were inspired by (or eerily similar to) previous science fiction images. For example, I believe Asimov first coined the "robotics."
Instead, the review seems to present an author with a chip on his shoulder about the sci-fi industry (and certain SF authors in particular), bitterly arguing a theory without any true defense.
-Leliel
(And, actually, Korea had under-the-floor heating systems many, many years ago.)
Slashdot Mirror
I agree.
Isn't a blog just an online version of your standard paper diary? Writing a novel as if it were a diary, or even turning a diary into a novel, isn't exactly new. (The first example to come to mind is Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl)
I don't see where the author is breaking new ground, except possibly that we get to see the work in progress, rather than as a finished piece? Certainly stories have been published piecemeal before (esp in magazines and the like), though I have not personally seen any serial stories written in diary-entry style.
As a side note, there are many cases of people who make blogs for ficticious people, which seems to be an analogous style of work.
Just my $0.02
-Leliel
Though the effect of those would be greatly lessened if we assume the company is using an intranet. Putting content-sensitive documents in publicly-accessible locations probably isn't a good idea to begin with.
I have in the past put documents in a temporary space on a company fileserver, then emailed the link. The entire space is wiped weekly without backup (hence the "temporary" bit - clever naming, eh?). I was actually using the space because the documents were so large, but a similar system might could be implemented for sensitive documents.
Regardless, the weakest link will always be the human one.
For those who can't read and/or render Japanese characters, here is AltaVista's translation.
..What I'm curious about is what advantages these new gizmos have over earlier graphing calculators..
I haven't seen this particular question addressed in the responses. I think the greatest advantage the TI-92/89 had over their predecessors is the ability to do symbolic notation. Combined with their ability to manipulate matrices quickly and easily, this gives the calculator nearly Matlab-level functionality (minus Simulink's block diagrams, of course)
Personally, I used my TI-89 extensively in college. I wrote programs to do everything from Observability/Controlability matrices for Controls class to Sallen Key design for analog circuits to the Newton-Raphson solution method for analyzing power systems. Not to mention using the command-capture feature to document alot of my work.
Writing programs forced me to learn the material well in addition to reducing the time spent working on homework. Many of these programs would not have been useful/useable on my old TI-86 (which lacked symbolic notation).
In summary, the additional features improve the ability of the calculator to do excactly what calculators are meant to do - reduce the amount of tedious calculating you (the user) have to do in order to solve the problem at hand. As a user, "tedious" calculations can be anything from long division to solving differential equations if it's merely a step in your problem-solving process.
And, ok, admittedly, having Final Fantasy also comes in handy during some of those particularly boring lectures. ; )
Hmm, way back in high school 3 girls in my class dressed as the unit vectors i, j and k respectively.
Grad schools want you to be fluent in Japanese, unless you can find an exchange-style program through an American university. There's also the JET program for native english speaker to go to Japan for a few years teaching English. You have to be moderately fluent, but I've known more people to have success with this program. Good luck, Leliel Watashi mo, nihon ni moitido ikitai.
Additional hardware including a hard-disk drive, liquid-crystal display (LCD), keyboard and mouse will be offered to help customers access the new features.
Sony and AOL are working hard to make gaming devices into standard computers. Meanwhile, video/sound card companies are hard at work turning computers into gaming consoles.
Take your pick.
I work for a utility company that has the same policy. Namely, you don't get paid for being on-call unless you actually have to come in. The only exceptions are a few particular classes of hourly wage non-exempt employees.
Your best bet, if your management is willing, might be to negotiate some sort of separate compensation for on-call employees. (i.e., you probably aren't going to be able to convice the Powers That Be to pay full-time, or even half-time wages for you to not be at work.)
Good luck to you,
Leliel
Wouldn't that be the feeling you've searched this before?
Not to be confused with Deja-ogle, which... umm, nevermind.
Look at some of the things that are basically unpatentable now due to them being pre-written about:
microwaves
waterbeds
heated floors
UV sterilizers for rooms when people arent in them.
(thanks RAH!)
Seems to me from the review, that he is more interested in attacking the politics of the authors than he is in wondering about "science fiction" itself.
True.
From the title of the book, I was expecting more of a discussion on the relationship between science fiction and actual science. Perhaps including ideas, inventions, etc. that were inspired by (or eerily similar to) previous science fiction images. For example, I believe Asimov first coined the "robotics."
Instead, the review seems to present an author with a chip on his shoulder about the sci-fi industry (and certain SF authors in particular), bitterly arguing a theory without any true defense.
-Leliel
(And, actually, Korea had under-the-floor heating systems many, many years ago.)