Did you read the article? They aren't unfurling it all at once. They put up one strand of the cable with a shuttle, or something similar, then they use tiny robotic climbers to carry up one more strand at a time, and epoxy the new strand onto the old one.
I must say, this was a very impressive set of responses. He knows a least a little about what he's talking about. (Or he has advisors who do. Who cares?) He believes in the strong first amendment, and he wants to shorten copyright protection. This many has a clue! I for one am going to join that activist group he mentioned and see if I can help out his cause. I suggest the rest of you do as well. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Don't remember what I had, but it's a moot point since I won't drink alchohol anymore, period. Personal decision, and all that. I half-wish I felt okay about drinking wine occasionally, as I did enjoy it. It goes so well with a nice steak dinner. *sigh* Ah well. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
I made some statements in my post that were...not fair. I know many people are moderate drinkers. My family however, has a history of various addictions, and as such, I tend to over-react to addictive substances. I myself am an acknowledged caffiene addict.
Anyway... Please forgive my somewhat... extreme comments about drinking above, and take it with a grain of salt. I personally don't drink, and don't want to, though when I used to drink occasionally, I will admit that the occasional glass of wine was nice. Beer sucks, IMHO.
I hope this clears up any misconceptions from my previous post. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Ignoring the flaimbait tone of this, yes I am Mormon, but I haven't always been. I've tried beer, and I've drunk a little wine. Beer I don't like. I thought it tasted nasty. Wine is nice, occasionally, but I don't miss it. If I want to relax, I play computer games, or go out with the few friends I actually have offline. If you think my personal opinions are that offensive, don't read my comments. No one forced you to, and I certainly wasn't trying to force my opinions on anyone. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Maybe it's just because I/don't/ have a social life, but I've never found the laws here in Utah that confusing. But then, I've never had the slightest desire to get drunk either. The idea of drinking until I lose control of my motor functions, and then waking up in the morning feeling awful fails to entice me.
My social life consists of hanging out online and playing lasertag once a week at the local arena. And that's all I need. Why should I need to drink to have a social life? *shrug* Oh well, I guess it's one of those mystries that I just don't understand. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Thanks for being polite and listening to me. I apologize for the someone... scathing tone of my initial post. I'm just in a bad mood cause I posted an article about this same news first thing this morning, with correct information and links, and it got rejected, after which they posted the article that didn't credit Johns Hopkins. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
CNN also has incorrect information. I have two pieces of evidence for this. First: Look at the homepage for the NEAR project. It's at Johns Hopkins University Advanced Physics Lab. Second, read this story at Channel2000.com. It also credits Johns Hopkins. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Heee. Hello, fellow fan of Ender's Game. The Buggers didn't establish that base till the Second Invasion though, so I think we're safe for now. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
The satelite is NOT being run by NASA, it is being run by Johns Hopkins. In fact, it is the first deep space craft to be run by someone other than NASA. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
(Note: if you've played other rule-changing games, Nomic is different from most of them in a subtle way. Most rule-changing games have a central unchangeable core of rules, which typically include the rules about how other rules are changed. In Nomic, all the rules, including those about how the rules are changed, are subject to change.)
Does this include the rule that all rules are subject to change? Because if it does, then you could make is so that not all rules are subject to change.... --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
With the little knowledge I have of LaTeX, yes, it would be nice. I certainly think we need something that gives more precise control over layout that HTML.
However, I don't see this happening. The reason for that is inertia. People like HTML. People know HTML. Web browsers support it. People hate change.
As good as a technology might be, it won't win out over inertia unless it's INCREDIBLY better than the current standard. And maybe not then. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Maybe so, but can you give me a reason it's more portable that Perl and PHP running with Apache? I'm really interested in this, because we're always seeking to improve the performace of our product. Also note that we/have/ to have MySQL database connectivity. I'm sure Java is capable of this, but is it as fast and reliable as what we have? --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Ignoring your rather rude comments about my intelligence, I'll go on to respond to the general gist of what you're trying to say.
No, I didn't say that java in it's core form is unstable. However, I have never seen a stable version of true Java (Discounting Microsoft's version, which isn't true Java.) used in a web browser.
And before you start another round of insults, let me give a little background on what I do for a living. I'm a web developer, working primarily with PHP and Perl. I've looked at Java in the past, and never found a use for it. For me. This doesn't mean I think it has no uses. I've just never needed to use it. For my purposes, Javascript has always been plenty sufficient for client-side scripting. Everything else, I do server side. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
I wasn't implying that JavaScript and Java are at all the same. I was simply stating that at least JavaScript is marginally stable, where-as Java sucks rocks. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
I never have Java on, even in Windows or MacOS. I've found it to be the source of at least half the crashes in Netscape, and that isn't tolerable, for someone who is using Netscape every day of the week.
On the other hand, Javascript I find at least marginally useful, and so it gets left on unless I run into a page that repeatedly crashes my browser. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
I actually remember seeing this a few months ago, linked from UserFriendly, but it's still a very cool link.
I wonder how long it would take to run a program of any decent length. Wasn't it like, 7,000 generations for one step, or something? --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Speaking as someone who worked/at/ Novell for a while, I have to agree with you. I've worked with NT and Linux as well. Neither of them even come close to the power and flexibility of NDS. I've seen and tried demos on the NDS system that blew anything else away.
NDS is, simply put, FAST, efficient, and very very powerful.
I'd tell you more about what I worked with, but it's all under NDA, and they might come hunt me down if I told it. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Relating to your comment about Source Code being free speech... I believe this has already been ruled on by the Supreme Court? Or has it not gotten to that stage yet. All I can remember is that some court or another ruled that Source Code was indeed a form of speech, and was thus protected under the 1st Amendment. --
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
You have some very good points here, and it's one of the only things I don't have an answer too. The best thing I've thought of is that maybe by then we'll have some kind of 'ansible', so we'll have instantaneous communication over long distances. This would enable us to maintain contact with said colonists.
Also by this point, we may be able to develop human-realistic robots with advanced enough brains to care for the maturing children with some degree of success.
An ansible would also allow them to have contact with our culture, and to feel a sense of connection with the rest of the human race. -- Matthew Walker My DNA is Y2K compliant
This kind of stuff is what really gets me excited. Imagine the potential of this stuff if we sent a small set of evolving robots to a distant planet. They could have a database containing information on how to build various types of robots, and also, for eventual use, information on how to create humans, using a digital copy of human DNA, or frozen fertilized eggs.
Imagine it... Robots being used to help us colonize other worlds. Is that not/cool/? -- Matthew Walker My DNA is Y2K compliant
I thinke they have something serious to worry about here. Think about it for a minute. Microsoft is in danger of severe problems in the US. Possible solution: Get a strong foothold in Europe, and move the center of operations there. They no longer fall under the US Anti-trust laws, as the company is not incorporated in the US anymore. (Correct me if I'm wrong about that...)
On the other hand, if Europe has been watching events in the US, I'm sure they'll be savvy to this and look any gift horse in the mouth very very carefully. -- Matthew Walker My DNA is Y2K compliant
I'm not positive what a Distributed DoS attack is, but just as a guess... A bunch of people coordinated the attack, all sending packets. As to what this means to Yahoo... Well, I think they're getting too large to handle themselves. -- Matthew Walker My DNA is Y2K compliant
Slashdot Mirror
Did you read the article? They aren't unfurling it all at once. They put up one strand of the cable with a shuttle, or something similar, then they use tiny robotic climbers to carry up one more strand at a time, and epoxy the new strand onto the old one.
I must say, this was a very impressive set of responses. He knows a least a little about what he's talking about. (Or he has advisors who do. Who cares?) He believes in the strong first amendment, and he wants to shorten copyright protection. This many has a clue! I for one am going to join that activist group he mentioned and see if I can help out his cause. I suggest the rest of you do as well.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Don't remember what I had, but it's a moot point since I won't drink alchohol anymore, period. Personal decision, and all that. I half-wish I felt okay about drinking wine occasionally, as I did enjoy it. It goes so well with a nice steak dinner. *sigh* Ah well.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
I made some statements in my post that were...not fair. I know many people are moderate drinkers. My family however, has a history of various addictions, and as such, I tend to over-react to addictive substances. I myself am an acknowledged caffiene addict.
Anyway... Please forgive my somewhat... extreme comments about drinking above, and take it with a grain of salt. I personally don't drink, and don't want to, though when I used to drink occasionally, I will admit that the occasional glass of wine was nice. Beer sucks, IMHO.
I hope this clears up any misconceptions from my previous post.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Ignoring the flaimbait tone of this, yes I am Mormon, but I haven't always been. I've tried beer, and I've drunk a little wine. Beer I don't like. I thought it tasted nasty. Wine is nice, occasionally, but I don't miss it. If I want to relax, I play computer games, or go out with the few friends I actually have offline. If you think my personal opinions are that offensive, don't read my comments. No one forced you to, and I certainly wasn't trying to force my opinions on anyone.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Maybe it's just because I /don't/ have a social life, but I've never found the laws here in Utah that confusing. But then, I've never had the slightest desire to get drunk either. The idea of drinking until I lose control of my motor functions, and then waking up in the morning feeling awful fails to entice me.
My social life consists of hanging out online and playing lasertag once a week at the local arena. And that's all I need. Why should I need to drink to have a social life? *shrug* Oh well, I guess it's one of those mystries that I just don't understand.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Thanks for being polite and listening to me. I apologize for the someone... scathing tone of my initial post. I'm just in a bad mood cause I posted an article about this same news first thing this morning, with correct information and links, and it got rejected, after which they posted the article that didn't credit Johns Hopkins.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Heh. Well, first US deep space craft to be controlled by someone other than NASA. That better?
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
CNN also has incorrect information. I have two pieces of evidence for this. First: Look at the homepage for the NEAR project. It's at Johns Hopkins University Advanced Physics Lab. Second, read this story at Channel2000.com. It also credits Johns Hopkins.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Heee. Hello, fellow fan of Ender's Game. The Buggers didn't establish that base till the Second Invasion though, so I think we're safe for now.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
The satelite is NOT being run by NASA, it is being run by Johns Hopkins. In fact, it is the first deep space craft to be run by someone other than NASA.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Does this include the rule that all rules are subject to change? Because if it does, then you could make is so that not all rules are subject to change....
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
However, I don't see this happening. The reason for that is inertia. People like HTML. People know HTML. Web browsers support it. People hate change.
As good as a technology might be, it won't win out over inertia unless it's INCREDIBLY better than the current standard. And maybe not then.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Maybe so, but can you give me a reason it's more portable that Perl and PHP running with Apache? I'm really interested in this, because we're always seeking to improve the performace of our product. Also note that we /have/ to have MySQL database connectivity. I'm sure Java is capable of this, but is it as fast and reliable as what we have?
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
No, I didn't say that java in it's core form is unstable. However, I have never seen a stable version of true Java (Discounting Microsoft's version, which isn't true Java.) used in a web browser.
And before you start another round of insults, let me give a little background on what I do for a living. I'm a web developer, working primarily with PHP and Perl. I've looked at Java in the past, and never found a use for it. For me. This doesn't mean I think it has no uses. I've just never needed to use it. For my purposes, Javascript has always been plenty sufficient for client-side scripting. Everything else, I do server side.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
I wasn't implying that JavaScript and Java are at all the same. I was simply stating that at least JavaScript is marginally stable, where-as Java sucks rocks.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Um... Yeah, maybe. On those rare instances I /am/ in Windows or MacOS. But even then, I like Netscape more.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
I never have Java on, even in Windows or MacOS. I've found it to be the source of at least half the crashes in Netscape, and that isn't tolerable, for someone who is using Netscape every day of the week.
On the other hand, Javascript I find at least marginally useful, and so it gets left on unless I run into a page that repeatedly crashes my browser.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
I actually remember seeing this a few months ago, linked from UserFriendly, but it's still a very cool link.
I wonder how long it would take to run a program of any decent length. Wasn't it like, 7,000 generations for one step, or something?
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Speaking as someone who worked /at/ Novell for a while, I have to agree with you. I've worked with NT and Linux as well. Neither of them even come close to the power and flexibility of NDS. I've seen and tried demos on the NDS system that blew anything else away.
NDS is, simply put, FAST, efficient, and very very powerful.
I'd tell you more about what I worked with, but it's all under NDA, and they might come hunt me down if I told it.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Relating to your comment about Source Code being free speech... I believe this has already been ruled on by the Supreme Court? Or has it not gotten to that stage yet. All I can remember is that some court or another ruled that Source Code was indeed a form of speech, and was thus protected under the 1st Amendment.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
You have some very good points here, and it's one of the only things I don't have an answer too. The best thing I've thought of is that maybe by then we'll have some kind of 'ansible', so we'll have instantaneous communication over long distances. This would enable us to maintain contact with said colonists.
Also by this point, we may be able to develop human-realistic robots with advanced enough brains to care for the maturing children with some degree of success.
An ansible would also allow them to have contact with our culture, and to feel a sense of connection with the rest of the human race.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
This kind of stuff is what really gets me excited. Imagine the potential of this stuff if we sent a small set of evolving robots to a distant planet. They could have a database containing information on how to build various types of robots, and also, for eventual use, information on how to create humans, using a digital copy of human DNA, or frozen fertilized eggs.
/cool/?
Imagine it... Robots being used to help us colonize other worlds. Is that not
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
I thinke they have something serious to worry about here. Think about it for a minute. Microsoft is in danger of severe problems in the US. Possible solution: Get a strong foothold in Europe, and move the center of operations there. They no longer fall under the US Anti-trust laws, as the company is not incorporated in the US anymore. (Correct me if I'm wrong about that...)
On the other hand, if Europe has been watching events in the US, I'm sure they'll be savvy to this and look any gift horse in the mouth very very carefully.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
I'm not positive what a Distributed DoS attack is, but just as a guess... A bunch of people coordinated the attack, all sending packets. As to what this means to Yahoo... Well, I think they're getting too large to handle themselves.
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant