And not just that - we have an advantage over traditional arts too. We have an infinitely flexible medium (Turing Machine) in which to build our constructs.
Given the choice between an imaginative piece of code and a sheep in formaldehyde, I know which seems more like art to me.
Keith.
There are two things we can do to cut down on spam. The first is to keep a register of domains which regularly spam, and filter them out. This requires a centralised effort and is open to abuse.
The second is never to reply to spam, any which gets through your spam filter goes straight in the bin. If the spammers get _absolutely zero_ response every time they will eventually realise that it's a waste of time. This requires a certain degree of commitment from all of us, so I'll make a start by deleting any spam which arrives in my mailbox without even opening it.
Keith.
Elite gets my vote too - the original BBC micro version which had better graphics than anything else around at the time.
I spent a whole summer holiday playing six or seven hours a day. It reached the point where my thumb was painfully sore from pressing the fire button on my cheapo joystick.
I can still visualise the docking manoever where you braked your ship exactly on the axis of rotation for the space station, then flipped over and brought your rotation up to match before edging in. Pretty much impossible on a keyboard but easy on a joystick after a week or two practicing.
KD
It seems that these days the techie domain is being split into smaller and smaller specialisms. A modern PC is so complex that no one programmer can understand all the parts. Consequently, the number of people in your geographic area who understand your specialism sufficiently well to hold a detailed dialog will be quite small.
So, where in the past a computer club could meet and hold a discussion on almost any aspect of their chosen hardware and experience a high level of buy-in. Now, there will probably be only two or three members who really understand what's going on. The consequence of this is that we tend to communicate with other specialists over the internet regardless of their locations, rather than meet face-to-face. Or we build teams of specialists to attack a particular problem, using a mix of experienced hacks and contract experts.It's no longer just a question of sitting down and throwing something together over a few weeks.
I suspect that given the complexity of modern systems the days of the amateur programmer hacking away alone are numbered, and this decline in computer clubs is simply reflecting this.
I think there will be some problems implementing this as a water treatment for incoming water. It's more likely to be used in the treatment of waste water.
IFAIR sulphate reducing bacteria live in oxygen poor environments (which is why they reduce sulphate rather than using oxygen), and a common by-product is poisonous hydrogen sulphide. This isn't too pleasant in your drinking water, but is less of a problem when treating waste water.
Slashdot Mirror
And not just that - we have an advantage over traditional arts too. We have an infinitely flexible medium (Turing Machine) in which to build our constructs. Given the choice between an imaginative piece of code and a sheep in formaldehyde, I know which seems more like art to me. Keith.
There are two things we can do to cut down on spam. The first is to keep a register of domains which regularly spam, and filter them out. This requires a centralised effort and is open to abuse. The second is never to reply to spam, any which gets through your spam filter goes straight in the bin. If the spammers get _absolutely zero_ response every time they will eventually realise that it's a waste of time. This requires a certain degree of commitment from all of us, so I'll make a start by deleting any spam which arrives in my mailbox without even opening it. Keith.
Elite gets my vote too - the original BBC micro version which had better graphics than anything else around at the time. I spent a whole summer holiday playing six or seven hours a day. It reached the point where my thumb was painfully sore from pressing the fire button on my cheapo joystick. I can still visualise the docking manoever where you braked your ship exactly on the axis of rotation for the space station, then flipped over and brought your rotation up to match before edging in. Pretty much impossible on a keyboard but easy on a joystick after a week or two practicing. KD
It seems that these days the techie domain is being split into smaller and smaller specialisms. A modern PC is so complex that no one programmer can understand all the parts. Consequently, the number of people in your geographic area who understand your specialism sufficiently well to hold a detailed dialog will be quite small. So, where in the past a computer club could meet and hold a discussion on almost any aspect of their chosen hardware and experience a high level of buy-in. Now, there will probably be only two or three members who really understand what's going on. The consequence of this is that we tend to communicate with other specialists over the internet regardless of their locations, rather than meet face-to-face. Or we build teams of specialists to attack a particular problem, using a mix of experienced hacks and contract experts.It's no longer just a question of sitting down and throwing something together over a few weeks. I suspect that given the complexity of modern systems the days of the amateur programmer hacking away alone are numbered, and this decline in computer clubs is simply reflecting this.
How about a microbe which consumes sucrose and water to create alcohol. That's how everyone else does it ;-)
Keith.
I think there will be some problems implementing this as a water treatment for incoming water. It's more likely to be used in the treatment of waste water.
IFAIR sulphate reducing bacteria live in oxygen poor environments (which is why they reduce sulphate rather than using oxygen), and a common by-product is poisonous hydrogen sulphide. This isn't too pleasant in your drinking water, but is less of a problem when treating waste water.