I still read a newspaper. Although they have drifted away from their greatest assets. Newspapers still have more skilled reporters who have an ability to provide comparisons between different events and hopefully write about any and all of them with an above average intelligibility. Reporters seldom are on the spot when things suddenly happen, but they almost always get there and pretty quickly at that. They are trained to coalesce the different information sources into one coherent train and write interesting but concise descriptions of that train. I don't see newspapers going away (although maybe using less paper.) Unfortunately, most newspapers nowdays believe it is their right to inject their opinion as well. With the average reporter far to the left of the average reader this creates a dissonance which newspapers are doing nothing to dispel. The media has certainly made the Republican race for the nomination a race and the Democratic one not a race. Until they return to their strength and their moral obligation of fairness, newspapers can adapt all they want, they won't regain circulation.
Is there any outline style word processor for Linux? I write from my outline down. Often considered unconventional, but common enough that several word processors have been developed for (or modified for) it. Any chance of such an animal being available in Linux?
Actually, using solar cells to generate electricity and then seperating water into hydrogen and oxygen would be nearly as efficient, not patentable and can be done in a great many environments where you can't get the algae to grow efficiently (the volume of water needed is very different and in the desert. ..) But the fundamentals of using hydrogen instead of petroleum products is the best environmental idea since . . . sliced bread. Incidently, the Hidenburg was designed to use the much safer helium, but the US government refused to allow American companies to supply helium to Germany.
Swedes have it all wrong
on
Brainball!
·
· Score: 1
Brainball should involve the greater amount of brain activity allowing the ball to move. This would make the game come out something along the lines of the Star Trek mental wrestling match on the planet of the greek telepaths (telekinetics for the purists.) Moderate me down for not recalling the name of the episode.
Romen, I apologize if you feel I am unfairly singleing the University of Chicago out. I agree it is one of the best, but belief that it has fallen mightily from where it was. I fault the current crop of profs who mostly came of age in the 60s and matured rejecting authority. Now that they find themselves in authority, they react as fascists to any questioning/opposition. Education, at least at the graduate school level, consists of imparting a certain number of analysis skills and guiding students to their own analyses. We've a generation of faculty members, especially at the U of C, who have forgotten (or never learned) that other peoples analyses often come up with different results. If you read your Kuhn, as I reccomend in my original comment, then you would know where we are in the process. I hope that you are not a toady, but just an unread student.
While I agree that those who fundamentally tear at rules or even whole mindsets do produce the biggest advances, I disagree that we have gotten any better at tolerating non-conformity. In philosophy of science studies, the role of non-conformists has been analysed by TS Kuhn. His major publication is "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions". Unfortunately, non-conformists are just as frequently burnt at the stake today as they ever were by the Inquisition. The role of the liberal arts professor nowdays, at least at the University of Chicago, is perceived as stamping out any original thought in their students, indoctrinating them with the correct viewpoints, quotables and pet phrases and even pre-arming them with dirt on the major players of opposition academic camps. It is mostly the toadies and parrots who survive and prosper amid such an education. Heretics are still burnt at the stake, but with modern methods.
While I agree with most of the arguements presented, I wish to add that they were all equally true during the Apollo project and it got off the ground, yes with the death of three astronauts, but on a really cramped schedule. NASA needs to be de-politiced, maybe even split in two and completely revamped. There are two major goals in space exploration: manned space flight and planetary exploration. More often than not these two are in conflict, at least for resources. Manned spaceflight has a few major goals: a)regular, dependable service for satelittes, b)a space station, c)a lunar station, d) Mars landing . . . The military controls a big portion of this side and to be honest, why not all? Planetary exploration has much smaller goals but many more and more exotic ones. This should still be handled by consortia of universities, be solely directed toward science, and probably needs exclusively civilian leadership/staffing.
That seems to be the current NASA head's (Dan Goldin, Clinton's hand picked point man) thought. Years back I worked on NASA's PVO data. I was shown a film of the testing, done in a huge water tank, of each of the critical stages of the mission. I understand this has been completely scrubbed because 'it costs too damm much'. Well, failure costs even more.
I don't really want to be flamed on this one but the guy says a few reasonable things. The greatest success of the Mac was that you could plug it in straight out of the box and begin typing. Linux is not there yet. As long as Linux remains a daunting task (or has any daunt in it what so ever) it will not obliterate the rivals. Setting up a system is not obvious to most computer users (who are not code people) and they will ask for a local expert. Until that person is as likely to be a Linux person as a Microserf, there is room for improvement. Just because I say things can be better doesn't mean I need flaming. Things can be better, and they are getting there, but . .
Could using the internet eventually lead us away from a representative democracy and towards a Athenian style real democracy (everyone can debate and vote on every issue)? Sure, we've all seen it in a variety of sci-fi settings (and the obvious problems with it.) Is a real democracy workable ? Plato did not think so.
I agree that in general Mr Katz gets more than his share of abuse. While I find myself disagreeing with him on issues, I always try to keep it at that level. Maybe I'm not perfect at that but I'd rather be brained than abused anyday. That also goes with the moderation I receive. Disagree, fine, but evaluate my contribution not my viewpoint.
Behold the central arguement among the logical positivists, that consciousness self-emerges when a certain level of computing complexity is attained. This book jumps from that well-spring. It reminds me of the arguement about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Since the only processors we know with consciousness are orders of magnitude more complex than anything we can make (or figure out how to program) yet, can we leave this question for now?
To mine an asteroid we'd probably need to put a mass acclerator on it. Nobody wants to do it yet though because putting such a thing in space would horribly upset the peaceniks who think that if you put one thing that could be a weapon up there whos to stop the spread. See Al Gore's campaign page for a load more foolerly like that.
I was an elected member of a library board when we brought a large number of public use terminals online to the internet. We and our lawyers grappled with these issues. Our decision came down to, posting in large print a user's agreement to the public terminals. In it we said that logging on constituted agreement with this agreement. If you were over 18 you had a right to few any site you chose to view unless someone complained about a site you were viewing. In that case the on-duty library supervisor would be asked to evaluate the site and render an irrevocable judgement at that time. This applied to any site (we had someone complain about a communist party site) at any time. If you were under 18 then your parent or guardian had to sign an approval waiver turning supervising authority over to the library's on-duty supervisor. This could be done once per year and was mailed out with card renewal forms. The same conditions apply to approved minors. The board published this information in the local newspapers and we where even written up in the Chicago Tribune about it. To my knowledge no complaints about the policy have been filed by any groups, either free-speechers or moral majoritites.
I'd like to point out that this contest will not produce a strong case Turing test result by any means. Just being able to make small talk about a variety of topics is NOT what the Turing test is about. I am aware that MIT has been saying it is for awhile but if you actually go back and read Turing. Turing suggested that a natural language processing system would have to be able to interact with a human over a variety of topics, exhibit insight and intuition, demonstrate memory of similiar events in the past and how they differ from current problems. Further, the system would have to adjust to the human being, in effect becoming a good conversation partner, not a chatterbox. No conversation bot I have seen or heard of has done any of these tasks in any but a trivial manner. Chomsky suggested (back when he was panning mechanical translation) that it would be impossible for a computer to do such a task. I agree that the weakened form of the Turing test is being met by clever programs but the strong form, NOT A CHANCE. Please keep the difference in mind. [[Go ahead and troll me for disagreeing with you]]
I'm a novice that this so don't go karma-whomping me if this question is shallow.
I'm interested in energy storage by chemical means. An example would be taking hydroelectric power in New Zealand (where it's really cheap) making compounds, shipping the compounds to the US, using the chemical energy to create electrical and selling the energy. If I'm reading your comment correctly cubane would be the best shipping medium: most energy per mole (weight is actually more important) and most stable. Convertibility efficiency, shipping requirements and other factors affect this but its a start. Such a system could put solar and wind energy right on the map as far as energy sources. Of course, who can beat hydrolysis and sending the hydrogen to market in a blimp?
Hey, I get flamed per submitted comment as often as anyone I know. My political/social views are not in sync with all readers and moderators. Occasionally, I will answer with a snyde remark or off-handed comment, but I always try to remain civil about the process. Of course, there are pompous jerks who deserve a flame now and then as well. Personally, I don't write anything I wouldn't say to the person's face.
As a part time brewmeister, I wish to point out that this phenomenon can be replicated with any other beer. The important factor is that Guiness uses nitrogen instead of carbon dioxide. Nitrogen gas has a higher surface tension, hence the smaller bubbles are carried with the liquid flow. On occasion, I and other brewers carbonate with nitrogen and use it for dispensing. I can even make a pale ale emulate the Guiness effect. Nitrogen is more expensive than CO2 though. Bottoms Up.
Hey if you're looking around for whom to blame on this one consider yourself. That is if you voted for Clinton. The head of Nasa, is Clinton's hand-picked guy. This 'disposable as a Bic lighter' approach is his big plan. Unfortunately, if NASA isn't pushed to do things that are really difficult, they do things really half-a$$ed. See, the company's that make big money on big space probes all are big defense contracter types who tend to be a little more right wing than the Clinton admin likes. Or will put up with. Of course, Clinton is politizing every department in the government, GAO, CIA, FBI, INS and even NASA. Elect his Veep and expect more of the same.
Whats not Sci-fi about it?
on
The Sparrow
·
· Score: 2
So the book doesn't try to delve into scientific advances which make this mission possible. Good science fiction literature is good literature, set in the future. This work clearly qualifies and is a great read to boot. Although the Jesuits I know will not be tickled by this, even they will agree that many aspects of their order are spot on. They might not be able to complete all the engineering though.
Hemos seems to have swiped my idea of turning the remnants of his abode into a source for (life giving) whiskey. Actually, just yesterday I acquired the last bit of equipment I need to convert the burned out remnants of my home into the largest brewery on post-apocolyptic earth (or at least the Midwest.) And I've been preparing and improving my brewing skills for just this for several years. All of you with AK-47s, come on down to the Greater Chicago area, I'll be cranking up production soon and will have more than I can drink. Of course, nobody shoots the brewmesiter, unlike the piano player.
My vote for man of the year goes to the judge in the Microsoft case. He stood up to Microsoft were even the Supreme Court would not in it's previous decision on Apple vs. Microsoft, the GUI wars. Everyone knows Microsoft is a monopoly, finally it has been decided legally. Of course, the trustbuster lawyer who argued the case for the government might not be a bad choice either. This case WILL change the computer revolution more than anything done by Amazon.
Detonating a Nuke would not have the same effect. A tsunami needs a line of disturbances to become cumulative and reach destructive size. Keep in mind any attempt to use this device would probably kill as many whales as people. The explosive sound would a) jam their prefered communication and navigation frequencies b) sound like that destructive noise used on Star Trek to knock out the crew, c) create a concussion wave that would be all they could sense for quite awhile. Of course, a string of nuclear detonations would work. But then again, the cumulative affect on sealife.
Slashdot Mirror
You could have the scan code for the chip tattooed on instead.
I still read a newspaper. Although they have drifted away from their greatest assets. Newspapers still have more skilled reporters who have an ability to provide comparisons between different events and hopefully write about any and all of them with an above average intelligibility. Reporters seldom are on the spot when things suddenly happen, but they almost always get there and pretty quickly at that. They are trained to coalesce the different information sources into one coherent train and write interesting but concise descriptions of that train. I don't see newspapers going away (although maybe using less paper.) Unfortunately, most newspapers nowdays believe it is their right to inject their opinion as well. With the average reporter far to the left of the average reader this creates a dissonance which newspapers are doing nothing to dispel. The media has certainly made the Republican race for the nomination a race and the Democratic one not a race. Until they return to their strength and their moral obligation of fairness, newspapers can adapt all they want, they won't regain circulation.
Is there any outline style word processor for Linux? I write from my outline down. Often considered unconventional, but common enough that several word processors have been developed for (or modified for) it. Any chance of such an animal being available in Linux?
Actually, using solar cells to generate electricity and then seperating water into hydrogen and oxygen would be nearly as efficient, not patentable and can be done in a great many environments where you can't get the algae to grow efficiently (the volume of water needed is very different and in the desert. . .)
But the fundamentals of using hydrogen instead of petroleum products is the best environmental idea since . . . sliced bread.
Incidently, the Hidenburg was designed to use the much safer helium, but the US government refused to allow American companies to supply helium to Germany.
Residents of California should not be eligible
Brainball should involve the greater amount of brain activity allowing the ball to move. This would make the game come out something along the lines of the Star Trek mental wrestling match on the planet of the greek telepaths (telekinetics for the purists.) Moderate me down for not recalling the name of the episode.
Romen,
I apologize if you feel I am unfairly singleing the University of Chicago out. I agree it is one of the best, but belief that it has fallen mightily from where it was. I fault the current crop of profs who mostly came of age in the 60s and matured rejecting authority. Now that they find themselves in authority, they react as fascists to any questioning/opposition.
Education, at least at the graduate school level, consists of imparting a certain number of analysis skills and guiding students to their own analyses. We've a generation of faculty members, especially at the U of C, who have forgotten (or never learned) that other peoples analyses often come up with different results.
If you read your Kuhn, as I reccomend in my original comment, then you would know where we are in the process. I hope that you are not a toady, but just an unread student.
While I agree that those who fundamentally tear at rules or even whole mindsets do produce the biggest advances, I disagree that we have gotten any better at tolerating non-conformity. In philosophy of science studies, the role of non-conformists has been analysed by TS Kuhn. His major publication is "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions". Unfortunately, non-conformists are just as frequently burnt at the stake today as they ever were by the Inquisition. The role of the liberal arts professor nowdays, at least at the University of Chicago, is perceived as stamping out any original thought in their students, indoctrinating them with the correct viewpoints, quotables and pet phrases and even pre-arming them with dirt on the major players of opposition academic camps. It is mostly the toadies and parrots who survive and prosper amid such an education. Heretics are still burnt at the stake, but with modern methods.
While I agree with most of the arguements presented, I wish to add that they were all equally true during the Apollo project and it got off the ground, yes with the death of three astronauts, but on a really cramped schedule.
NASA needs to be de-politiced, maybe even split in two and completely revamped. There are two major goals in space exploration: manned space flight and planetary exploration. More often than not these two are in conflict, at least for resources.
Manned spaceflight has a few major goals: a)regular, dependable service for satelittes, b)a space station, c)a lunar station, d) Mars landing . . . The military controls a big portion of this side and to be honest, why not all?
Planetary exploration has much smaller goals but many more and more exotic ones. This should still be handled by consortia of universities, be solely directed toward science, and probably needs exclusively civilian leadership/staffing.
That seems to be the current NASA head's (Dan Goldin, Clinton's hand picked point man) thought. Years back I worked on NASA's PVO data. I was shown a film of the testing, done in a huge water tank, of each of the critical stages of the mission. I understand this has been completely scrubbed because 'it costs too damm much'. Well, failure costs even more.
I don't really want to be flamed on this one but the guy says a few reasonable things. The greatest success of the Mac was that you could plug it in straight out of the box and begin typing. Linux is not there yet.
As long as Linux remains a daunting task (or has any daunt in it what so ever) it will not obliterate the rivals. Setting up a system is not obvious to most computer users (who are not code people) and they will ask for a local expert. Until that person is as likely to be a Linux person as a Microserf, there is room for improvement.
Just because I say things can be better doesn't mean I need flaming. Things can be better, and they are getting there, but . .
Could using the internet eventually lead us away from a representative democracy and towards a Athenian style real democracy (everyone can debate and vote on every issue)? Sure, we've all seen it in a variety of sci-fi settings (and the obvious problems with it.) Is a real democracy workable ? Plato did not think so.
I agree that in general Mr Katz gets more than his share of abuse. While I find myself disagreeing with him on issues, I always try to keep it at that level. Maybe I'm not perfect at that but I'd rather be brained than abused anyday. That also goes with the moderation I receive. Disagree, fine, but evaluate my contribution not my viewpoint.
Behold the central arguement among the logical positivists, that consciousness self-emerges when a certain level of computing complexity is attained. This book jumps from that well-spring. It reminds me of the arguement about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
Since the only processors we know with consciousness are orders of magnitude more complex than anything we can make (or figure out how to program) yet, can we leave this question for now?
To mine an asteroid we'd probably need to put a mass acclerator on it. Nobody wants to do it yet though because putting such a thing in space would horribly upset the peaceniks who think that if you put one thing that could be a weapon up there whos to stop the spread. See Al Gore's campaign page for a load more foolerly like that.
I was an elected member of a library board when we brought a large number of public use terminals online to the internet. We and our lawyers grappled with these issues. Our decision came down to, posting in large print a user's agreement to the public terminals. In it we said that logging on constituted agreement with this agreement. If you were over 18 you had a right to few any site you chose to view unless someone complained about a site you were viewing. In that case the on-duty library supervisor would be asked to evaluate the site and render an irrevocable judgement at that time. This applied to any site (we had someone complain about a communist party site) at any time. If you were under 18 then your parent or guardian had to sign an approval waiver turning supervising authority over to the library's on-duty supervisor. This could be done once per year and was mailed out with card renewal forms. The same conditions apply to approved minors.
The board published this information in the local newspapers and we where even written up in the Chicago Tribune about it. To my knowledge no complaints about the policy have been filed by any groups, either free-speechers or moral majoritites.
I'd like to point out that this contest will not produce a strong case Turing test result by any means. Just being able to make small talk about a variety of topics is NOT what the Turing test is about. I am aware that MIT has been saying it is for awhile but if you actually go back and read Turing. Turing suggested that a natural language processing system would have to be able to interact with a human over a variety of topics, exhibit insight and intuition, demonstrate memory of similiar events in the past and how they differ from current problems. Further, the system would have to adjust to the human being, in effect becoming a good conversation partner, not a chatterbox. No conversation bot I have seen or heard of has done any of these tasks in any but a trivial manner. Chomsky suggested (back when he was panning mechanical translation) that it would be impossible for a computer to do such a task. I agree that the weakened form of the Turing test is being met by clever programs but the strong form, NOT A CHANCE. Please keep the difference in mind.
[[Go ahead and troll me for disagreeing with you]]
I'm a novice that this so don't go karma-whomping me if this question is shallow.
I'm interested in energy storage by chemical means. An example would be taking hydroelectric power in New Zealand (where it's really cheap) making compounds, shipping the compounds to the US, using the chemical energy to create electrical and selling the energy.
If I'm reading your comment correctly cubane would be the best shipping medium: most energy per mole (weight is actually more important) and most stable. Convertibility efficiency, shipping requirements and other factors affect this but its a start.
Such a system could put solar and wind energy right on the map as far as energy sources. Of course, who can beat hydrolysis and sending the hydrogen to market in a blimp?
Hey, I get flamed per submitted comment as often as anyone I know. My political/social views are not in sync with all readers and moderators. Occasionally, I will answer with a snyde remark or off-handed comment, but I always try to remain civil about the process. Of course, there are pompous jerks who deserve a flame now and then as well. Personally, I don't write anything I wouldn't say to the person's face.
As a part time brewmeister, I wish to point out that this phenomenon can be replicated with any other beer. The important factor is that Guiness uses nitrogen instead of carbon dioxide. Nitrogen gas has a higher surface tension, hence the smaller bubbles are carried with the liquid flow. On occasion, I and other brewers carbonate with nitrogen and use it for dispensing. I can even make a pale ale emulate the Guiness effect. Nitrogen is more expensive than CO2 though.
Bottoms Up.
Hey if you're looking around for whom to blame on this one consider yourself. That is if you voted for Clinton.
The head of Nasa, is Clinton's hand-picked guy. This 'disposable as a Bic lighter' approach is his big plan. Unfortunately, if NASA isn't pushed to do things that are really difficult, they do things really half-a$$ed. See, the company's that make big money on big space probes all are big defense contracter types who tend to be a little more right wing than the Clinton admin likes. Or will put up with.
Of course, Clinton is politizing every department in the government, GAO, CIA, FBI, INS and even NASA. Elect his Veep and expect more of the same.
So the book doesn't try to delve into scientific advances which make this mission possible. Good science fiction literature is good literature, set in the future. This work clearly qualifies and is a great read to boot. Although the Jesuits I know will not be tickled by this, even they will agree that many aspects of their order are spot on. They might not be able to complete all the engineering though.
Hemos seems to have swiped my idea of turning the remnants of his abode into a source for (life giving) whiskey. Actually, just yesterday I acquired the last bit of equipment I need to convert the burned out remnants of my home into the largest brewery on post-apocolyptic earth (or at least the Midwest.) And I've been preparing and improving my brewing skills for just this for several years. All of you with AK-47s, come on down to the Greater Chicago area, I'll be cranking up production soon and will have more than I can drink. Of course, nobody shoots the brewmesiter, unlike the piano player.
My vote for man of the year goes to the judge in the Microsoft case. He stood up to Microsoft were even the Supreme Court would not in it's previous decision on Apple vs. Microsoft, the GUI wars. Everyone knows Microsoft is a monopoly, finally it has been decided legally. Of course, the trustbuster lawyer who argued the case for the government might not be a bad choice either. This case WILL change the computer revolution more than anything done by Amazon.
Detonating a Nuke would not have the same effect. A tsunami needs a line of disturbances to become cumulative and reach destructive size. Keep in mind any attempt to use this device would probably kill as many whales as people. The explosive sound would a) jam their prefered communication and navigation frequencies b) sound like that destructive noise used on Star Trek to knock out the crew, c) create a concussion wave that would be all they could sense for quite awhile.
Of course, a string of nuclear detonations would work. But then again, the cumulative affect on sealife.