The problem of infrared radiation showing the person's position isn't really as big an issues as stated. A good photodetector can be made into an IR photodetector without too much work. Ditto for the displays.
Sure it would throw out extra heat, but it would also mimic the heat signature of the objects behind you. And anyway, infrared CAN be cloaked against... or else stealth bombers wouldn't be NEARLY as useful.
I suspect early models of this sort of technology will be like a real chameleon- sit still and you blend, move and your body adjusts slowly. But then again, Real Chameleons can't just run in front of a painting and suddenly have the Mona Lisa on their backs...
(oh, and the Chameleon Cloak in GURPS is way closer than the Invisibility Cloak in AD&D! Nyah ^_^ \/)
What would be even better would be a simulated world. Program in as many physics as you need, make sure you have some really really good random number generators (either para-computer or else good pseudo-random), plunk down a solar system (or, for added realism, just some cosmic gas), plop it all in to a computer, and put it on overdrive. May be beyond the reach of conventional computers today, but computing power gets cheaper and cheaper... if you have a million users concurrently running this simulation, all with different environmental variables, some will soon produce planets.
What next? Everyone's simulation that doesn't end in a planet of some kind chucks out their sim and takes a copy of the other people's sims that did. Let the buggers run for a long time. With the world on hyper-accelerate, probably at least one world would produce organisms. Then, the states of these organisms could be used to devise new genetic algorithms... and if you let it run long enough, on a fast enough computer, who knows...
Usually I think it best to just ignore these comments, but at this point I feel exceptionally happy to pick this post apart.
Hell, try this: linux is not decentralized. ESR got it wrong. It's like a hubcap, the outside pushes and the inside is spun around in circles, turning the turbine. Which is its point of failure. Linus is much more of a failure point than any model of development in any BSD. The FreeBSD system releases more efficient code, better integrated with the programs (something that every linux is SEVERELY lacking, as the programs and kernel are separately, and poorly, developed), and, this is the sticking point, *does not rely on a single person to get the job done*. And there's where linux should have failed, but by some strange coincidince has plowed on. Market share is no indication of performance; look how many systems are using Windows.
Slight speed increases are not more important than stability and *usefulness*.
There are about a half dozen similar projects out and about at the moment. For one, there's the myBSD project that's creating a fifth BSD distro for very specialized projects. I personally am working on a customized version of FreeBSD, called PortoBSD, built to boot off of a CD directly into a complete OS (portable email station). This is by no means particularly special.
You're confusing Jehovah's Witnesses with the Jesuits. The Jesuits are a group devoted to learning in the name of the Catholic Church, while the Jehovah's Witnesses are devoted to converting people, at (almost) any cost. (For any cost, look to the Church of Christ).
And I don't consider people who press their beliefs, unrelentingly, upon others, as being peaceable. You don't need physical damage to be violent.
These are the same set of tactics used by fundameltalist Christian groups (such as Jehovah's Witnesses, via their "spin-off" Watchtower Publishing) to attack evolutionary theory. Take one (1) institute out there with a scientific-sounding name, one (1) ambiguous report holding some pieces, but not all, of an argument, and one (1) researcher from a university and BAM! Instant 'credibility'. Works almost every time against people used to blindly accepting scientific "truth". Then again, it could be true...
Seeing as we're already below the threshold of light (400-800 nanometeres) at this point, it's probable that a plant this sophisticated could use Soft Lithography, enabling them to save plenty of cost, as well as save on the price of actual chips. I wouldn't be surprised if the plant ended up costing much less than traditional plants if they used this technology... and being on the cutting edge as IBM is, well, it wouldn't be too far fetched.
... well, not yet, but sooner rather than later we hope to have self-replicating nano. And we don't have to wait for machine stuff either; look into some of the advances in biotech in recent years, and what with that with the new soft lithography able to align them so perfectly, at dirt cheap costs... how much would you pay for an organically grown CPU?
p.o.s. support on a SINGLE computer between OSes? Go ahead and try to write to NTFS, try to write to UFS from linux without corruption. What am I going to do, copy the file to another computer on the ethernet, then copy it back? I can see leaving floppies behind when bootable CDs work on 95% of computers, but it'll never be practical until someone writes a decent NTFS/UFS writer for linux/freebsd.
This ethernet-centricity doesn't stop there. Try to load gentoo linux off of a stage-1 CD without someone else connecting to the net and sharing and you'll see what I mean... every time I instlal gentoo I need to carry a PPP floppy with me... 'nuff said!
OpenBSD not only has more security, but you can leave it out for longer without having to remotely upgrade. Ever remotely patched/installed a kernel? It's quite, quite annoying. Why is it you can do this? Less holes AND more highly integrated code... plus, once you add in that the memory allocation routines in OpenBSD are quite extraordinary (try running X at a high resolution in linux, then run the exact same thing in openbsd... you'll see the difference in magnitudes ^_^), so its harder to overload your memory. Just a thought.
Good thing one of the panels at today's conference was circumventing Caller ID; simply either use the callid perl script (address anyone? I've forgotten it) or orange box, another (albiet shareware) program to do the same. Or, as pointed out by the second caller, simply call a more gullible phone provider, claim to be a person testing the lines, and make yourself redirected to AT&T =) They'll never know where you hit 'em from.
... it would solve a lot of these problems. The big networks are afraid of merging due to a) lost revenue and b) server overload. Cut down on both, write a free, easily distributible p2p chat program ala gnutella but without the filesharing...
Instead of having list servers and whatnot, just create a protocol that works like the human nervous system; messages are passed along in chains and each client handles a portion of the message load. Doesn't seem like it'd be that hard.
All space programs really are aiming at an ultimate goal; the eventual exploration and colonization of space. First off, let's get one thing streight: the current government doesn't want a space program. If it weren't for the chanches of being able to mine asteriods, or use of zero-gee for manufacuring purposes (something that our government shouldn't have their collective fingers in the pies of in the first place, but that's another story), NASA would have no budget. Why? People moving off the planet = less jobs on ol' Terra = less of a job market = less profit (optionally inputed step: = less incoming taxes) = less paycheck = less yachts. And we know Dubya, Inc. couldn't survive without his yacht.
Colonizing a planet is not like colonizing a country; you have to take along alot more than 100 some odd people. And I highly doubt that the US Government is going to somehow maintain connections with Alpha Centauri (to pick at random) enough to collect taxes (a five year taxation lax? what happens if you have a refund comming or an asteriod blocks the radio transmission along the way?), so they wouldn't be able to control it.
Therefore, we should a) be happy that NASA has a budget at all (that doesn't mean stop complaining; by all means keep it up) and/or b) overthrow the current government and install one with the goal of making sure mankind doesn't distroy itself stuck on this terrestrial ball... (Technocracy anyone?)
Relying on organizational bodies for our internet use is basically like saying "I give up, please feel free at any time to take action on the fact that I have no rights!"
Rather then trying to spend money creating new solutions to deal with old hardware, why not create new hardware that actually is independant of a structured system? Increase the ability of the internet to survive if something were to happen to the companies that control it, or the governments, or giant tsunami's/Godzilla/Bill Gate's Giant Mecha etc. distroying our means of working the internet.
Many of the people that helped to build our modern computers were anarchists; have a good long look at the guys over at Berkley and you'll get an example of what I'm talking about. Hardware and software independant of structure is our only choice for a truely free internet.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem of infrared radiation showing the person's position isn't really as big an issues as stated. A good photodetector can be made into an IR photodetector without too much work. Ditto for the displays.
Sure it would throw out extra heat, but it would also mimic the heat signature of the objects behind you. And anyway, infrared CAN be cloaked against... or else stealth bombers wouldn't be NEARLY as useful.
I suspect early models of this sort of technology will be like a real chameleon- sit still and you blend, move and your body adjusts slowly. But then again, Real Chameleons can't just run in front of a painting and suddenly have the Mona Lisa on their backs...
(oh, and the Chameleon Cloak in GURPS is way closer than the Invisibility Cloak in AD&D! Nyah ^_^ \/)
What would be even better would be a simulated world. Program in as many physics as you need, make sure you have some really really good random number generators (either para-computer or else good pseudo-random), plunk down a solar system (or, for added realism, just some cosmic gas), plop it all in to a computer, and put it on overdrive. May be beyond the reach of conventional computers today, but computing power gets cheaper and cheaper... if you have a million users concurrently running this simulation, all with different environmental variables, some will soon produce planets.
What next? Everyone's simulation that doesn't end in a planet of some kind chucks out their sim and takes a copy of the other people's sims that did. Let the buggers run for a long time. With the world on hyper-accelerate, probably at least one world would produce organisms. Then, the states of these organisms could be used to devise new genetic algorithms... and if you let it run long enough, on a fast enough computer, who knows...
Usually I think it best to just ignore these comments, but at this point I feel exceptionally happy to pick this post apart.
Hell, try this: linux is not decentralized. ESR got it wrong. It's like a hubcap, the outside pushes and the inside is spun around in circles, turning the turbine. Which is its point of failure. Linus is much more of a failure point than any model of development in any BSD. The FreeBSD system releases more efficient code, better integrated with the programs (something that every linux is SEVERELY lacking, as the programs and kernel are separately, and poorly, developed), and, this is the sticking point, *does not rely on a single person to get the job done*. And there's where linux should have failed, but by some strange coincidince has plowed on. Market share is no indication of performance; look how many systems are using Windows.
Slight speed increases are not more important than stability and *usefulness*.
There are about a half dozen similar projects out and about at the moment. For one, there's the myBSD project that's creating a fifth BSD distro for very specialized projects. I personally am working on a customized version of FreeBSD, called PortoBSD, built to boot off of a CD directly into a complete OS (portable email station). This is by no means particularly special.
I want BSD airlines! Who besides me thinks it'd be cool to fly in a plane shaped like a daemon? Woosh!
The superman people will have our ass for this.
And the pitchfork thingy would solve all the problems of birds (plus maybe skewer you your inflight meal...)
they could not tell us.
You're confusing Jehovah's Witnesses with the Jesuits. The Jesuits are a group devoted to learning in the name of the Catholic Church, while the Jehovah's Witnesses are devoted to converting people, at (almost) any cost. (For any cost, look to the Church of Christ).
And I don't consider people who press their beliefs, unrelentingly, upon others, as being peaceable. You don't need physical damage to be violent.
These are the same set of tactics used by fundameltalist Christian groups (such as Jehovah's Witnesses, via their "spin-off" Watchtower Publishing) to attack evolutionary theory. Take one (1) institute out there with a scientific-sounding name, one (1) ambiguous report holding some pieces, but not all, of an argument, and one (1) researcher from a university and BAM! Instant 'credibility'. Works almost every time against people used to blindly accepting scientific "truth". Then again, it could be true...
Seeing as we're already below the threshold of light (400-800 nanometeres) at this point, it's probable that a plant this sophisticated could use Soft Lithography, enabling them to save plenty of cost, as well as save on the price of actual chips. I wouldn't be surprised if the plant ended up costing much less than traditional plants if they used this technology... and being on the cutting edge as IBM is, well, it wouldn't be too far fetched.
... well, not yet, but sooner rather than later we hope to have self-replicating nano. And we don't have to wait for machine stuff either; look into some of the advances in biotech in recent years, and what with that with the new soft lithography able to align them so perfectly, at dirt cheap costs... how much would you pay for an organically grown CPU?
Where did you get that it was in Fishkill?! Last I heard, this was part of the consortium that's in Albany
p.o.s. support on a SINGLE computer between OSes? Go ahead and try to write to NTFS, try to write to UFS from linux without corruption. What am I going to do, copy the file to another computer on the ethernet, then copy it back? I can see leaving floppies behind when bootable CDs work on 95% of computers, but it'll never be practical until someone writes a decent NTFS/UFS writer for linux/freebsd.
This ethernet-centricity doesn't stop there. Try to load gentoo linux off of a stage-1 CD without someone else connecting to the net and sharing and you'll see what I mean... every time I instlal gentoo I need to carry a PPP floppy with me... 'nuff said!
OpenBSD not only has more security, but you can leave it out for longer without having to remotely upgrade. Ever remotely patched/installed a kernel? It's quite, quite annoying. Why is it you can do this? Less holes AND more highly integrated code... plus, once you add in that the memory allocation routines in OpenBSD are quite extraordinary (try running X at a high resolution in linux, then run the exact same thing in openbsd... you'll see the difference in magnitudes ^_^), so its harder to overload your memory. Just a thought.
we never have to upgrade to 64-bit to avoid Y2K38 =)
The end [is|isn't] near!
Good thing one of the panels at today's conference was circumventing Caller ID; simply either use the callid perl script (address anyone? I've forgotten it) or orange box, another (albiet shareware) program to do the same. Or, as pointed out by the second caller, simply call a more gullible phone provider, claim to be a person testing the lines, and make yourself redirected to AT&T =) They'll never know where you hit 'em from.
... it would solve a lot of these problems. The big networks are afraid of merging due to a) lost revenue and b) server overload. Cut down on both, write a free, easily distributible p2p chat program ala gnutella but without the filesharing...
.02 credits.
Instead of having list servers and whatnot, just create a protocol that works like the human nervous system; messages are passed along in chains and each client handles a portion of the message load. Doesn't seem like it'd be that hard.
Just my
All space programs really are aiming at an ultimate goal; the eventual exploration and colonization of space. First off, let's get one thing streight: the current government doesn't want a space program. If it weren't for the chanches of being able to mine asteriods, or use of zero-gee for manufacuring purposes (something that our government shouldn't have their collective fingers in the pies of in the first place, but that's another story), NASA would have no budget. Why? People moving off the planet = less jobs on ol' Terra = less of a job market = less profit (optionally inputed step: = less incoming taxes) = less paycheck = less yachts. And we know Dubya, Inc. couldn't survive without his yacht.
/dev/trinity
Colonizing a planet is not like colonizing a country; you have to take along alot more than 100 some odd people. And I highly doubt that the US Government is going to somehow maintain connections with Alpha Centauri (to pick at random) enough to collect taxes (a five year taxation lax? what happens if you have a refund comming or an asteriod blocks the radio transmission along the way?), so they wouldn't be able to control it.
Therefore, we should a) be happy that NASA has a budget at all (that doesn't mean stop complaining; by all means keep it up) and/or b) overthrow the current government and install one with the goal of making sure mankind doesn't distroy itself stuck on this terrestrial ball... (Technocracy anyone?)
-MQBS
cat helicopter/B212 >
Tell me; since when was anarchy a bad idea?
/dev/trinity
Relying on organizational bodies for our internet use is basically like saying "I give up, please feel free at any time to take action on the fact that I have no rights!"
Rather then trying to spend money creating new solutions to deal with old hardware, why not create new hardware that actually is independant of a structured system? Increase the ability of the internet to survive if something were to happen to the companies that control it, or the governments, or giant tsunami's/Godzilla/Bill Gate's Giant Mecha etc. distroying our means of working the internet.
Many of the people that helped to build our modern computers were anarchists; have a good long look at the guys over at Berkley and you'll get an example of what I'm talking about. Hardware and software independant of structure is our only choice for a truely free internet.
-MQBS
cat helicopter/B212 >