Larry Niven is the science fiction author. David Niven was a British actor.
Thank you for your time.
Re:Banks is Wonderful but Awful
on
Look to Windward
·
· Score: 1
I share your feelings about Banks' love for the darkest corners of the human mind. Every time I read one of his Culture books, I feel like I've been beaten. I must say, however, I think the reversal at the end of "Use of Weapons" was necessary. At the very least, it distracted me from detailed thoughts on chairmaking. At best, it saved the book from a being a colorful, albeit unconventional, travelogue.
If Intel had locked down the 386 instructions, the same brainpower that went into AMD and Transmeta could have been used to innovate (in the original sense of the word). Maybe we would all have cheap advanced PowerPC chips on our desks instead of Intel Personal Furnaces. Really, who knows what we'd have, if there hadn't been so much drive to imitate whatever Intel did. But as hard as they tried to monopolize the field, they didn't succeed completely.
So don't be scared. The people who make those great AMD chips can make other things than great imitations of a crappy architechture.
1) Guns saving lives show up anecdotally, but not in cold statistics. Guns taking lives do. What can ya do?!
2) I hope you don't play with guns if you're as drunk as Ted Kennedy when he drove!
You Goddists need to lose that watchmaker argument.
First of all, by even metaphorically comparing the universe (creation status unknown) to a watch (creation status known: positive), you're *assuming* the universe is a created thing, from which you go on to prove that... the universe was created. Great logic. Actually, the analogy is even worse. Here: here's my digital watch. On the ground. Does it imply a watchmaker? Who is the watchmaker? The nine-year-old thirdworlder who put it in the box? No, he didn't make it. The slightly older and better trained thirdworlder who assembled the parts someone else made? I don't think so. The electrical engineer who designed a general purpose timing assembly? Well, he's important too, but he's not a watchmaker. Better to say that instead of a watchmaker, there's a watchmaking *process* that led to my watch being here. Evolution might well be considered such a process (or not, if you've got a good alternative that doesn't involve illogic.)
The hoofprint argument sucks, too. Sure, if you see a hoofprint, horses are a more likely cause than zebras, especially if you're not in some place where zebras roam. However, when you see a mark which is, like the universe, of unknown origin, and then you *assume* it's a hoofprint and go on to think "horse", the horse theory is not so compelling.
The question might be philosophical, but that's no excuse for answering with creationist nonsense. Or, in the interest of fairness, any other kind of nonsense, either.
A corporation putting money ahead of producing a good product? Can this be true? I am shocked, shocked to hear of such a thing! Certainly such craven behavior is unprecedented in the long and noble history of corporations, which as any fool knows, are given exceptional powers in the expectations that they will act in the public interest.
BTW, what ever happened to "Only the paranoid survive"? Andy Grove must be waking up his bunkermates with his barely strangled screams.
Funny, my copy of the Constitution uses the phrase "well-regulated militia". I fully support private gun ownership, although, being nearly blind, I choose not to exercise that right myself. I do find it amusing how people are willing to debate what the Founding Fathers *meant* when they aren't able to read the words they *wrote*.
If my humanity depends on having my mentality trapped in this eighth of a ton of slowly rotting red meat, then I will abandon my humanity with glee. Perhaps you're happy with living like an animal, but I have higher aspirations.
I think we ought to drop the border with Mexico. There'd be a readjustment period until wages in Mexico acheived parity with US wages, then things would settle down. Let Mexico guard their southern border!:)
We'd *still* be running Windows 95, albeit with a fine GNU toolkit, if we had only RMS and his syncophants to depend on. If there was as much effort put into Hurd development as there is into making the whole world say "GNU/Linux", maybe they'd have produced an OS by now.
Because, given the speed at which Debian issues releases, the chances are far greater that *any* given event will occur just after a relase, than just before a release.:)
Disclaimer: I am a (mostly)happy Debian/KDE user.
Although, on a related note, I've been using Helixcode Gnome (1.3?) for the last few days, and it's pretty impressive! (Let me say, parenthetically, that an analogue of kdevelop would do more for Gnome than all the corporate sponsorship in the world) I'd just like to know why click-to-focus stops working correctly after a period of use. Is it a sawfish thing? Can any gnomoids here point me in the right direction on this?
When you die, what's left is meat, bones, and miscellaneous scrap. Why in the world is this garbage worthy of respect? Would it have been more "respectful" (I threw those in for you, quoteboy) to have incinerated this brain? Would it have been more "respectful" to have pumped the body full of preservative chemicals and sealed it in an overpriced box, to be buried in the ground?
If someone has some "scientific" use for body parts after the body has died, by all means, let him use them.
Once you give money to PayPal you'll never see it again unless and until you sue them
That's why eBay is the perfect driving force behind adoption of an e-cash system like this. Once you give money to Joe Q. Idiot to buy his auctioned item, you'll never see it again unless and until you sue him. PayPal seems pretty benign, compared to paying random strangers.
In his "Culture" novels, the people have the ability to produce hundreds of pharmaceuticals in their genetically engineered glands. Nice to see it so close to happening in Real Life!
I guess I'll gland some Active and get back to work....
Nice formula. Anyone who seriously attempts to plug numbers into those variables is an ignorant ass, Frank Drake especially. The first one, number of stars, one could make a decent guess about that. The rest are nonsense, dataless nonsense.
Maybe they don't have to be disgruntled ex-employees; after all, what did they say that was so bad? That MS uses *nix in some of its acquired companies? I'm sure there's about 50 MS middle management types generating detailed white papers about how they're going to move all this stuff over to Windows. Platform moves take time, and I'll bet they'd like to keep the stuff running in the meantime.
This is hardly extreme dirt that only a seriously annoyed ex-employee could ever dare to release. Hell, Ballmer would probably admit it, if he were ever cornered properly.
I don't know about your personal details, friend, but based on the amount of spam, junk mail, and credit card offers I get, unsolicited, I'd say my personal details want to be free very much. Against my will, mind you.
I have nothing constructive to add to this topic; it's just that I laughed 'til I cried many a time while reading Forum 2000, and I have to express myself somehow.
"I've underestimated you, Misters Kosak and Bauer!"
The world is diminished by its passing. Thus, A is A. *sniff*
Damn, this is like Slashdot closing. I need to be held.
Slashdot Mirror
Thank you, brother. The Drake equation is the scientists version of: "{while twirling hair}I just can't believe we're the only beings out here!"
Who the hell is/was Drake, anyway? If an equation like this were my only claim to fame, I think I'd prefer anonymity....
Yeah, mad pr0pz to you, too. Now they'll change it again. Tell the whole world, why don't you.
Larry Niven is the science fiction author. David Niven was a British actor.
Thank you for your time.
I share your feelings about Banks' love for the darkest corners of the human mind. Every time I read one of his Culture books, I feel like I've been beaten. I must say, however, I think the reversal at the end of "Use of Weapons" was necessary. At the very least, it distracted me from detailed thoughts on chairmaking. At best, it saved the book from a being a colorful, albeit unconventional, travelogue.
Don't be scared. We're all here for you. :)
If Intel had locked down the 386 instructions, the same brainpower that went into AMD and Transmeta could have been used to innovate (in the original sense of the word). Maybe we would all have cheap advanced PowerPC chips on our desks instead of Intel Personal Furnaces. Really, who knows what we'd have, if there hadn't been so much drive to imitate whatever Intel did. But as hard as they tried to monopolize the field, they didn't succeed completely.
So don't be scared. The people who make those great AMD chips can make other things than great imitations of a crappy architechture.
only one idiot was harmed in the making of this post.
only one idiot, and a few switches that got baked in the putty were harmed in the making of this post.
1) Guns saving lives show up anecdotally, but not in cold statistics. Guns taking lives do. What can ya do?! 2) I hope you don't play with guns if you're as drunk as Ted Kennedy when he drove!
Please explain how you confused lack of approval of the system with desire to change the system.
You Goddists need to lose that watchmaker argument.
First of all, by even metaphorically comparing the universe (creation status unknown) to a watch (creation status known: positive), you're *assuming* the universe is a created thing, from which you go on to prove that... the universe was created. Great logic.
Actually, the analogy is even worse. Here: here's my digital watch. On the ground. Does it imply a watchmaker? Who is the watchmaker? The nine-year-old thirdworlder who put it in the box? No, he didn't make it. The slightly older and better trained thirdworlder who assembled the parts someone else made? I don't think so. The electrical engineer who designed a general purpose timing assembly? Well, he's important too, but he's not a watchmaker. Better to say that instead of a watchmaker, there's a watchmaking *process* that led to my watch being here. Evolution might well be considered such a process (or not, if you've got a good alternative that doesn't involve illogic.)
The hoofprint argument sucks, too. Sure, if you see a hoofprint, horses are a more likely cause than zebras, especially if you're not in some place where zebras roam. However, when you see a mark which is, like the universe, of unknown origin, and then you *assume* it's a hoofprint and go on to think "horse", the horse theory is not so compelling.
The question might be philosophical, but that's no excuse for answering with creationist nonsense. Or, in the interest of fairness, any other kind of nonsense, either.
A corporation putting money ahead of producing a good product? Can this be true? I am shocked, shocked to hear of such a thing! Certainly such craven behavior is unprecedented in the long and noble history of corporations, which as any fool knows, are given exceptional powers in the expectations that they will act in the public interest.
BTW, what ever happened to "Only the paranoid survive"? Andy Grove must be waking up his bunkermates with his barely strangled screams.
Funny, my copy of the Constitution uses the phrase "well-regulated militia". I fully support private gun ownership, although, being nearly blind, I choose not to exercise that right myself. I do find it amusing how people are willing to debate what the Founding Fathers *meant* when they aren't able to read the words they *wrote*.
If my humanity depends on having my mentality trapped in this eighth of a ton of slowly rotting red meat, then I will abandon my humanity with glee. Perhaps you're happy with living like an animal, but I have higher aspirations.
You mean... *shudder* BSD?
I think we ought to drop the border with Mexico. There'd be a readjustment period until wages in Mexico acheived parity with US wages, then things would settle down. Let Mexico guard their southern border! :)
We'd *still* be running Windows 95, albeit with a fine GNU toolkit, if we had only RMS and his syncophants to depend on. If there was as much effort put into Hurd development as there is into making the whole world say "GNU/Linux", maybe they'd have produced an OS by now.
Because, given the speed at which Debian issues releases, the chances are far greater that *any* given event will occur just after a relase, than just before a release. :)
Disclaimer: I am a (mostly)happy Debian/KDE user.
Although, on a related note, I've been using Helixcode Gnome (1.3?) for the last few days, and it's pretty impressive! (Let me say, parenthetically, that an analogue of kdevelop would do more for Gnome than all the corporate sponsorship in the world)
I'd just like to know why click-to-focus stops working correctly after a period of use. Is it a sawfish thing? Can any gnomoids here point me in the right direction on this?
*Insightful*? Gods below.
When you die, what's left is meat, bones, and miscellaneous scrap. Why in the world is this garbage worthy of respect? Would it have been more "respectful" (I threw those in for you, quoteboy) to have incinerated this brain? Would it have been more "respectful" to have pumped the body full of preservative chemicals and sealed it in an overpriced box, to be buried in the ground?
If someone has some "scientific" use for body parts after the body has died, by all means, let him use them.
Once you give money to PayPal you'll never see it again unless and until you sue them
That's why eBay is the perfect driving force behind adoption of an e-cash system like this. Once you give money to Joe Q. Idiot to buy his auctioned item, you'll never see it again unless and until you sue him. PayPal seems pretty benign, compared to paying random strangers.
In his "Culture" novels, the people have the ability to produce hundreds of pharmaceuticals in their genetically engineered glands. Nice to see it so close to happening in Real Life!
I guess I'll gland some Active and get back to work....
Nice formula. Anyone who seriously attempts to plug numbers into those variables is an ignorant ass, Frank Drake especially. The first one, number of stars, one could make a decent guess about that. The rest are nonsense, dataless nonsense.
Maybe they don't have to be disgruntled ex-employees; after all, what did they say that was so bad? That MS uses *nix in some of its acquired companies? I'm sure there's about 50 MS middle management types generating detailed white papers about how they're going to move all this stuff over to Windows. Platform moves take time, and I'll bet they'd like to keep the stuff running in the meantime.
This is hardly extreme dirt that only a seriously annoyed ex-employee could ever dare to release. Hell, Ballmer would probably admit it, if he were ever cornered properly.
Esperanto! La lingvo internacia! Simple! Easy to learn! Fits well on western keyboards!
Learn more here.
When killbots are illegal, only criminals will have killbots.
I don't know about your personal details, friend, but based on the amount of spam, junk mail, and credit card offers I get, unsolicited, I'd say my personal details want to be free very much. Against my will, mind you.
I have nothing constructive to add to this topic; it's just that I laughed 'til I cried many a time while reading Forum 2000, and I have to express myself somehow.
"I've underestimated you, Misters Kosak and Bauer!"
The world is diminished by its passing. Thus, A is A. *sniff*
Damn, this is like Slashdot closing. I need to be held.