According to the article, it`s the whole of the open.gov.uk site (public access to governmental departments) as well. This indicates that it`s a Civil Service rather than a Palace decision. And I think it`s more important that it be noised about that the Civil Service (traditionally and stereotypically very conservative people) are using Linux than that the Queen (who did not, after all, make this decision) is.
But the interesting thing I find about this is that a significant amount of what Jules Verne (and other writers of the time) predicted in their works was outlandish at the time, but actually became the commonplace today.
And an equally significant amount of it is still outlandish. In fact, much old science fiction is dated in its view of technology, either because we can now say "But it doesn`t work like that!" or because the things that were predicted are as far off as ever. Paris in 1999, anyone?
The only reason some of the things predicted in science fiction have come true is that science fiction predicts so many different things that some of them are bound to come to pass sooner or later. What`s fascinating about science fiction is not generally the technology; that`s just a plot device. It`s the people and the way they react to the technology that`s fascinating, and that`s true whether the technology is likely or not.
Having said that, I am not in the least tolerant of scientific inaccuracy. If you`re trying to be scientific about it, you should at least have the common courtesy to research what you`re writing and make sure it`s internally consistent, and, if set in this universe, externally consistent as well.
When the news first came out about Corel`s beta violating the GPL, everyone fell over themselves to lambast and denigrate it. Now they`ve done the necessary and amended the licence - and where are all the comments commending their actions? It seems that now that they`re doing the Right Thing, people aren`t interested any more. We ought to be pulling out all the stops to let Corel know that we appreciate what they`ve done. Can you say "positive enforcement"?
However, webpages dedicated to Pakistan's political parties have been left untouched.
In other words, only the governmental webpages have been touched. Now, the government has just been taken over by the army whose exploits are so gloriously lauded in the new-look webpages. Am I the only one who thinks that it`s far more likely that the army got hold of the host box as part of the takeover, and that it wasn`t cracked at all?
Actually, once you`ve done the one-click thing they give you ninety minutes to add more stuff or change your mind. If you don`t do either of those within that time, then it goes. But you can`t say you can`t get out of it. If the book you`re ordering is delayed, you can still cancel it at any time up until it`s dispatched. I know; I`ve done this once, when I found a book I`d ordered from Amazon available cheaper locally. They hadn`t shipped it yet, so I was able to cancel the order.
(BT is the only effective organic killer of the pest worms. So, if the worms develop a resistance, the only product organic growers have for killing worms will be gone.)
The worms are as likely to become resistant to bacillus toxins if they are on the plant as they are if they are in the plant. This isn`t an issue. In fact, they`re more likely to become resistant with the organic growers applying it to the plants, as they have to use so much more of it.
soybeans that can take larger amounts of herbicide before going belly up (dumping more poisons into the water supply, yup, that's what the world needs)?
Actually, no. Soybeans that can take herbicide that tiny, tiny amounts of would kill other plants, and don`t affect insects or animals at all. So you end up using far less herbicide, and it`s not as poisonous to animals either.
Plants that no longer reproduce normally so everyone has to buy seeds from the company every year?
This, I would agree, is going a bit too far. On the other hand, plenty of infertile hybrid plants are already sold, ones which have nothing to do with genetic engineering. Where do you think seedless grapes come from?
It would, I expect, be quite different if the first genetically spliced foods to hit market were designed to have better yeild, higher nutrients or some other *useful* traits.
Many are. But you don`t hear about those, because they`re not controversial enough, and they don`t fit the agenda of the environmentalist campaigners. For example, a strain of rice has been engineered to contain higher concentrations of vitamins A and B, which are often lacking in the diet of third-world people for whom rice is their staple diet.
Odd. I never could sleep as a child if the light was on in my room. I wanted total darkness. I even got frustrated that the door wouldn`t close properly so the light on the landing came in around the frame. And I now have a prescription of -3.50 in my left eye and -1.50 in my right.
Global population decline will only occur as the result of famine, plague, and/or war. Left to their own devices, people won't choose to control their own fertility.
If that is the case, then why is the birth rate in developed countries so low - lower than the death rate in some cases? The number of children per household corellates well with standard of living. Increase the standard of living, and the population will begin to fall. Yes, it`ll take a few generations before you begin to see results (we`ve had standards of living close to today`s for nigh on fifty years, and we`re only now seeing its effects), but it`s a much gentler way than war, famine, and pestilence, don`t you think?
To be blunt, people that have more than two children are selfish bastards. Maybe genetically-engineered children would obviate the "need" to have too many kids in the first place.
In many countries in the Western world, the birth rate is already below the needed replacement rate (which is, I believe, 2.1 children per couple in a first-world country with modern medicine). This is why the average age of the population is increasing, with all the concomitant problems of `Who`s going to pay for all those pensions then?`. If the trends continue this way, there will soon be coming a time when the majority of the population is over 50.
Yet at the same time, today the birth of the 6 billionth member of the current population was announced. Globally, the population is still increasing, although the growth of the acceleration is slowing (Yes, I got that right, it`s growth to the second power). This is because of the population growth in developing countries. And people there aren`t going to get their hands on Do-It-Yourself Genetic Engineering Kits any time soon, even if they were available here. What`s going to help them is simple, cheap things that are already readily available. Contraceptives. Education. Decent, simple healthcare. When people realise that they don`t have to have twelve kids any more in order for one of them to survive to care for them in old age, when people can get hold of, afford, and know how and why to use contraceptives, when prestige depends on your skills and knowledge rather than the number of sons you bear, and when they don`t have to have a dozen kids so they can send them all out to work to earn enough money to live off - that`s when we`ll see the world population going down again.
Something that may be closer to many slashdot readers, myopia. Who wouldn't want to free theur children from the need to wear glasses? However, correlations have been found between myopia and intelligence. Is it because four-eyes like to read, or is there a genetic link between brain size and the size of the eyeball?
Neither. Mypoia is to some extent genetic, but far more relevant here is the simple fact that continually focusing on close objects will make your eyes adjust so that they are optimally arranged for this job. This is especially noticeable while your eyes are still developing. So reading a lot is likely to make you become short-sighted. In other words, intelligent kids make themselves short-sighted by burying their noses in books the whole time.
Oh yeah, and, oddly enough, there`s still plenty of elm trees in the Netherlands, because the Dutch elms themselves were resistant to the disease.
When I was a student I took an anthropology class and recall that a certain amount of variance or genetic difference is needed within a population to keep it from suffering from founder's effect (the genetic mutations which occur when close family members have children).
It`s not so much that genetic mutations occur. It`s that rare recessive disorders are more likely to come to the fore with the inbreeding that results from highly related parents.
Imagine six people are marooned on a desert island. Further imagine that one of them carries a rare recessive genetic disorder (not manifesting it herself, but able to pass it on) - it`s actually quite likely, probability being what it is, that one of them will have some sort of genetic disorder. They have children, and the children interbreed and have children. Within a few generations, everyone on the island will be able to trace their line back to the person with the disorder, and, because of this, a far larger proportion of them will manifest the disorder than in the general population.
The article is, indeed, fuzzy. The future innovations it talks about can basically be split into two parts: physical intervention (eg artificial wombs for premature babies) and genetic engineering. The point the article is trying to make is that in the end, people won`t see the difference between them.
I disagree.
People are presently making an incredible amount of fuss over genetically modified food. A lot of this is down to ignorance and hyperbole (one woman was quoted as saying "I don`t want my food to have any of that DNA in it"); nevertheless, it shows that people are, to some extent justifiably, chary of new genetic technology, especially insofar as it has anything to do with them. If they`re making this much of a fuss about soya and tomatoes, how much more are they going to reject trying anything that sounds remotely similar on their own children?
The Journal of Irreproduceable Results, from whence this originally came, is well worth a look. It seems to be down though: anyone know anything about it?
I must admit, I was quite surprised to see this here. I`ve had the right-hand-side on my website for several years now. (Yes, I don`t change it that often. So what?)
Although it deals mostly with interfaces on physical things rather than on computer screens, and is notably dated in places (first published in the late eighties, and it shows), Donald Norman`s book The Design of Everyday Things has a lot of very intelligent things to say in this regard. It talks about how people percieve interfaces and how they react to them. One of his big concerns is intuitiveness - people should be able to work out how to do something just by looking at it - and how designers have great problems understanding that people might find their products hard to use, simply because they`re so used to them. He deals with all this in a light-hearted manner with loads of good examples. Well worth a read, even if you`re not designing interfaces.
The great historian Philo-Judaeus, born before Jesus and living long after the time of his reputed death, lived in Jerusalem during Christ's miraculous birth and the Herodian massacre?
The one holy catholic and apostolic church. Note the small `c` on `catholic`, which is a Greek word meaning `universal`. `Apostolic` means `founded by the Apostles`. So really it means `The one holy universal and original church` - ie all denominations together. Anyone who worships God is part of the one holy catholic and apostolic church.
I`ve found something else out too. One of the Navy`s programmers said that the problem was that the Navy needed to upgrade their own software, not that NT itself was unstable.
What really scares me is the report of the enquiry into the fault, where they talk about training people to work around the glitch rather than trying to solve it. Here`s a quote:
SMCS managers are now aware of the problem of entering zero into database fields and are trained to bypass a bad data field and change the value if such a problem were to occur again, Sweigard said.
"Now that we know what can happen, we've realized how to bring the system back quickly," Petty Officer 1st Class Phillip Cramer said. "All we have to do is change the zero to any number, and everything comes right back up."
The whole idea behind having a National [insert occupation here] Day is to appreciate people that are traditionally under-appreciated, such as teachers and secretaries. Or to heighten awareness, such as National [insert disorder here] Day, Week, or Month.
Although there are so many National X Days around now that no-one takes a blind bit of notice. (I was rather amused a while back, however, to discover that it was National Incontinence Week.. My immediate thought was "Show your support! Piss your pants!")
From the article: Under terms of the agreement, the intellectual property financed by Microsoft but done at M.I.T. will belong to M.I.T., but Microsoft will have the right to license it without paying royalties. But for research done jointly at Microsoft and M.I.T., Microsoft will have the first option to patent it.
Oddly enough, I never actually watched that program (which contained these words as part of the title sequence). I`d get as far as the theme tune, think "That`s a good idea", and.. well, switch off my TV set and go out and do something less boring instead. So I never got to see the actual program.
Slashdot Mirror
According to the article, it`s the whole of the open.gov.uk site (public access to governmental departments) as well. This indicates that it`s a Civil Service rather than a Palace decision. And I think it`s more important that it be noised about that the Civil Service (traditionally and stereotypically very conservative people) are using Linux than that the Queen (who did not, after all, make this decision) is.
But the interesting thing I find about this is that a significant amount of what Jules Verne (and other writers of the time) predicted in their works was outlandish at the time, but actually became the commonplace today.
And an equally significant amount of it is still outlandish. In fact, much old science fiction is dated in its view of technology, either because we can now say "But it doesn`t work like that!" or because the things that were predicted are as far off as ever. Paris in 1999, anyone?
The only reason some of the things predicted in science fiction have come true is that science fiction predicts so many different things that some of them are bound to come to pass sooner or later. What`s fascinating about science fiction is not generally the technology; that`s just a plot device. It`s the people and the way they react to the technology that`s fascinating, and that`s true whether the technology is likely or not.
Having said that, I am not in the least tolerant of scientific inaccuracy. If you`re trying to be scientific about it, you should at least have the common courtesy to research what you`re writing and make sure it`s internally consistent, and, if set in this universe, externally consistent as well.
When the news first came out about Corel`s beta violating the GPL, everyone fell over themselves to lambast and denigrate it. Now they`ve done the necessary and amended the licence - and where are all the comments commending their actions? It seems that now that they`re doing the Right Thing, people aren`t interested any more. We ought to be pulling out all the stops to let Corel know that we appreciate what they`ve done. Can you say "positive enforcement"?
On that note, I wish to say, Well done Corel!
However, webpages dedicated to Pakistan's political parties have been left untouched.
In other words, only the governmental webpages have been touched. Now, the government has just been taken over by the army whose exploits are so gloriously lauded in the new-look webpages. Am I the only one who thinks that it`s far more likely that the army got hold of the host box as part of the takeover, and that it wasn`t cracked at all?
Actually, once you`ve done the one-click thing they give you ninety minutes to add more stuff or change your mind. If you don`t do either of those within that time, then it goes. But you can`t say you can`t get out of it. If the book you`re ordering is delayed, you can still cancel it at any time up until it`s dispatched. I know; I`ve done this once, when I found a book I`d ordered from Amazon available cheaper locally. They hadn`t shipped it yet, so I was able to cancel the order.
(BT is the only effective organic killer of the pest worms. So, if the worms develop a resistance, the only product organic growers have for killing worms will be gone.)
The worms are as likely to become resistant to bacillus toxins if they are on the plant as they are if they are in the plant. This isn`t an issue. In fact, they`re more likely to become resistant with the organic growers applying it to the plants, as they have to use so much more of it.
soybeans that can take larger amounts of herbicide before going belly up (dumping more poisons into the water supply, yup, that's what the world needs)?
Actually, no. Soybeans that can take herbicide that tiny, tiny amounts of would kill other plants, and don`t affect insects or animals at all. So you end up using far less herbicide, and it`s not as poisonous to animals either.
Plants that no longer reproduce normally so everyone has to buy seeds from the company every year?
This, I would agree, is going a bit too far. On the other hand, plenty of infertile hybrid plants are already sold, ones which have nothing to do with genetic engineering. Where do you think seedless grapes come from?
It would, I expect, be quite different if the first genetically spliced foods to hit market were designed to have better yeild, higher nutrients or some other *useful* traits.
Many are. But you don`t hear about those, because they`re not controversial enough, and they don`t fit the agenda of the environmentalist campaigners. For example, a strain of rice has been engineered to contain higher concentrations of vitamins A and B, which are often lacking in the diet of third-world people for whom rice is their staple diet.
Odd. I never could sleep as a child if the light was on in my room. I wanted total darkness. I even got frustrated that the door wouldn`t close properly so the light on the landing came in around the frame. And I now have a prescription of -3.50 in my left eye and -1.50 in my right.
Global population decline will only occur as the result of famine, plague, and/or war. Left to their own devices, people won't choose to control their own fertility.
If that is the case, then why is the birth rate in developed countries so low - lower than the death rate in some cases? The number of children per household corellates well with standard of living. Increase the standard of living, and the population will begin to fall. Yes, it`ll take a few generations before you begin to see results (we`ve had standards of living close to today`s for nigh on fifty years, and we`re only now seeing its effects), but it`s a much gentler way than war, famine, and pestilence, don`t you think?
To be blunt, people that have more than two children are selfish bastards. Maybe genetically-engineered children would obviate the "need" to have too many kids in the first place.
In many countries in the Western world, the birth rate is already below the needed replacement rate (which is, I believe, 2.1 children per couple in a first-world country with modern medicine). This is why the average age of the population is increasing, with all the concomitant problems of `Who`s going to pay for all those pensions then?`. If the trends continue this way, there will soon be coming a time when the majority of the population is over 50.
Yet at the same time, today the birth of the 6 billionth member of the current population was announced. Globally, the population is still increasing, although the growth of the acceleration is slowing (Yes, I got that right, it`s growth to the second power). This is because of the population growth in developing countries. And people there aren`t going to get their hands on Do-It-Yourself Genetic Engineering Kits any time soon, even if they were available here. What`s going to help them is simple, cheap things that are already readily available. Contraceptives. Education. Decent, simple healthcare. When people realise that they don`t have to have twelve kids any more in order for one of them to survive to care for them in old age, when people can get hold of, afford, and know how and why to use contraceptives, when prestige depends on your skills and knowledge rather than the number of sons you bear, and when they don`t have to have a dozen kids so they can send them all out to work to earn enough money to live off - that`s when we`ll see the world population going down again.
Something that may be closer to many slashdot readers, myopia. Who wouldn't want to free theur children from the need to wear glasses? However, correlations have been found between myopia and intelligence. Is it because four-eyes like to read, or is there a genetic link between brain size and the size of the eyeball?
Neither. Mypoia is to some extent genetic, but far more relevant here is the simple fact that continually focusing on close objects will make your eyes adjust so that they are optimally arranged for this job. This is especially noticeable while your eyes are still developing. So reading a lot is likely to make you become short-sighted. In other words, intelligent kids make themselves short-sighted by burying their noses in books the whole time.
Oh yeah, and, oddly enough, there`s still plenty of elm trees in the Netherlands, because the Dutch elms themselves were resistant to the disease.
When I was a student I took an anthropology class and recall that a certain amount of variance or genetic difference is needed within a population to keep it from suffering from founder's effect (the genetic mutations which occur when close family members have children).
It`s not so much that genetic mutations occur. It`s that rare recessive disorders are more likely to come to the fore with the inbreeding that results from highly related parents.
Imagine six people are marooned on a desert island. Further imagine that one of them carries a rare recessive genetic disorder (not manifesting it herself, but able to pass it on) - it`s actually quite likely, probability being what it is, that one of them will have some sort of genetic disorder.
They have children, and the children interbreed and have children. Within a few generations, everyone on the island will be able to trace their line back to the person with the disorder, and, because of this, a far larger proportion of them will manifest the disorder than in the general population.
The article is, indeed, fuzzy. The future innovations it talks about can basically be split into two parts: physical intervention (eg artificial wombs for premature babies) and genetic engineering. The point the article is trying to make is that in the end, people won`t see the difference between them.
I disagree.
People are presently making an incredible amount of fuss over genetically modified food. A lot of this is down to ignorance and hyperbole (one woman was quoted as saying "I don`t want my food to have any of that DNA in it"); nevertheless, it shows that people are, to some extent justifiably, chary of new genetic technology, especially insofar as it has anything to do with them. If they`re making this much of a fuss about soya and tomatoes, how much more are they going to reject trying anything that sounds remotely similar on their own children?
The Journal of Irreproduceable Results, from whence this originally came, is well worth a look. It seems to be down though: anyone know anything about it?
I must admit, I was quite surprised to see this here. I`ve had the right-hand-side on my website for several years now. (Yes, I don`t change it that often. So what?)
Although it deals mostly with interfaces on physical things rather than on computer screens, and is notably dated in places (first published in the late eighties, and it shows), Donald Norman`s book The Design of Everyday Things has a lot of very intelligent things to say in this regard. It talks about how people percieve interfaces and how they react to them. One of his big concerns is intuitiveness - people should be able to work out how to do something just by looking at it - and how designers have great problems understanding that people might find their products hard to use, simply because they`re so used to them. He deals with all this in a light-hearted manner with loads of good examples. Well worth a read, even if you`re not designing interfaces.
The great historian Philo-Judaeus, born before Jesus and living long after the time of his reputed death, lived in Jerusalem during Christ's miraculous birth and the Herodian massacre?
Umm, no, Philo lived in Alexandria. Sorry.
The one holy catholic and apostolic church. Note the small `c` on `catholic`, which is a Greek word meaning `universal`. `Apostolic` means `founded by the Apostles`. So really it means `The one holy universal and original church` - ie all denominations together. Anyone who worships God is part of the one holy catholic and apostolic church.
What really scares me is the report of the enquiry into the fault, where they talk about training people to work around the glitch rather than trying to solve it. Here`s a quote:
That is scary.
Yes. The article was on /. in July of last year.
I`ve found the original story in the GCN archives. Interestingly, it`s only a month after the Navy first started the move from Unix to NT..
The whole idea behind having a National [insert occupation here] Day is to appreciate people that are traditionally under-appreciated, such as teachers and secretaries. Or to heighten awareness, such as National [insert disorder here] Day, Week, or Month.
Although there are so many National X Days around now that no-one takes a blind bit of notice. (I was rather amused a while back, however, to discover that it was National Incontinence Week.. My immediate thought was "Show your support! Piss your pants!")
From the article:
Under terms of the agreement, the intellectual property financed by Microsoft but done at M.I.T. will belong to M.I.T., but Microsoft will have the right to license it without paying royalties. But for research done jointly at Microsoft and M.I.T., Microsoft will have the first option to patent it.
Mote. Beam. Eye.
I just want to be able to say "Mom" into my cell phone and have it dial her number.
This is already available, and has been for a couple of years. Several phone companies already make such things. Apparently they work quite well..
Oddly enough, I never actually watched that program (which contained these words as part of the title sequence). I`d get as far as the theme tune, think "That`s a good idea", and.. well, switch off my TV set and go out and do something less boring instead. So I never got to see the actual program.