Ballmer's letter starts: ''Microsoft aspires to be a great company'' -- which is him really saying ''I would like Microsoft to be a great company, but...''
the 2005 London bombings which killed 52 people and injured 700.
52 lives. In 2005 there were 271,000 road deaths in Great Britain. How much money was spent per head trying to reduce that, compared to the huge sums trying to reduce the number 52? I could also bring up a few medical statistics.
Why is it that a small number of deaths by one means merits spending of several orders of magnitude more than other causes of death?
I wonder, however, the type of strength you'd have to have to actually "do a Spiderman" up the building. Yes it will hold you to the building, but you'll still have to have the upper body strength to advance your way up without handholds to help if it's a flat surface.
The other big thing to think about is what are you adhering to ? This might work if you were climbing up something like clean metal or marble, but most will be much lower quality. Many surfaces if you pull too hard on them will disintegrate and the top layer will detach, so you will just end up falling off the sky scraper with a thin layer of brick or paint on your hands.
the machinery to produce the mirror and the rest of the observatory need to be sent from Earth, first, which makes this a totally unfeasible, insanely expensive.
But under the proposal they would have to do that anyway - to create a spinning liquid mirror; the only extra cost would be the heating equipment and whatever to steer the telescope a bit. I agree that making it highly steerable might need costly kit, but to just tilt it 10 or 20 degrees might be cheaper.
If they spin it up, let is settle and then freeze it they would have a perfect steerable mirror. Any reason why this would not work, perhaps the crystals that form on freezing making imperfections ?
It would mean having to choose the right material (solid at moon temperature, liquid at not too much more, small/no surface crystals on freezing, ionic so that it can be coated with silver,...). Making something like this on the moon would be much cheaper than taking it up there.
OK: I understand that they might not want to steer if far off vertical to keep things cheap but I would have thought that a little directionality would be a boon.
Why buy John Lennon's record when you've got a 15-second fragment of one of his song in a documentary that you can just reply as many times as you like?
And if you are smart enough - you just get many documentaries, each with a different 15 second fragment, and hey presto you have the whole song.
Why did I not think of that before ? I'll never have to pay royalties again!
It would be nice if it would get better with time, however I fear not.
One of the nice things about M$ is that you know what you will get, either the XP or the Vista interface... that is it. The various different Linux installs all have a slightly different interface, icons/drop-downs/... in different places & shapes - etc.
It turns out (as we know) that once you scratch the surface there is not much real difference, however most people can't be bothered to scratch to find out... it isn't like their last PC and is therefor wrong.
I really don't think Linux has problems with malware. I think there is an other operating system having more trouble.
Maybe, but we still need to work hard to ensure that that is the case; why do you think that SELinux and stack randomisation have been developed ? Remember: pride becomes before a fall!
Skype has a huge portion of the VOIP market, their protocol is not just undocumented it seems to have deliberate obfuscation in it to stop reverse engineer attempts. However: since I suspect that govt secret services have back doors into it I don't expect that they will be forced to document in the courts.
just lift a tent flap when there is a wind and you have all the air con that you want!
Seriously: what happens after a few years when the racks start to rust because of the damp air that they have been operating in ? They did this in Ireland - plenty of moisture there!
It is not that he wants ot show off but that he wants to sit back like any falther and watch his children develop, grow and discover the wonders of the Universe as he/she/it has implimented them. And then when we finally figure it all out he will take us all up to heven to be with him for the rest of time.
How do you know this ? I assume that you will say the bible/quoran/the_Vedas/... Other than those texts, what independent and verifiable support do you have for these assertions ? I know of no people who's discussions with god are objectively and well reported and especially none in modern times.
Creationisum is an insult to the glory of God. How dare people say that God, being all knowing and all powerful, could not design and impliment a dynamic system but had to settle for a simple static one.
If we assume that there is a god; what are his characteristics ? What are his aims ? You seem to assume that your god would want to make something that is complicated/intricate - presumably to show how clever he is.
What evidence do you have that your god wants to be a show off ?
OK: The bible is a great start, we now need to look for independent evidence to support the theory put forward in the bible... the trouble is that it is pretty thin on the ground.
So: let's take a look at other theories and seek independent evidence to support them. Darwinism does quite well here.
Find us the independent evidence to support the bible's theory for the origin of man and we will take another look.
Data mining can work, but it requires a lot of care and validation. This sounds like snake oil to me: people finding patterns in data, and then putting some interpretation on it.
Does ThorpeGlen care ? As long as someone buys their product.
as a Brit I feel ashamed that we can let something like this rot. If it had been an arts museum there would have been an outcry in the press, but something technical and the lovies in the media don't understand and their eyes glaze over.
Little point in asking the govt for funding - they are too busy pouring cash into a 3 week sports festival in 2012 -- a complete waste of money.
Presumably they are sending digitised nuclear DNA into space. That is not enough to make a human body: you need the mitochondrial DNA and somewhere suitable to grow the embryo.
That might give you a body, but what you really want is the person: all the memes that s/he has would need to be recorded and suitably grafted in, even then what you get won't be much like the original.
OK: I'll admit that it is a fun idea, but that is about it.
causing speculation that homes could be targeted for burglary when it's anticipated they will be unoccupied.
I always give the hotel a business address - like that some criminal does not know where to go while I am at the hotel. I do the same with labels attached to luggage when flying. I have done this for years.
When will people learn to give the minimum of personal information that is absolutely necessary ?
Slashdot Mirror
We could have told him that all along :-)
its just 52 because UK government is spending so much on homeland security.
And I grow daffodils in my garden to stop elephants nesting in the trees. I know that this works because I don't have any elephants in the trees.
I am sorry: your argument holds no water at all.
Yes, you are right ... guilty of skim reading it, sorry. I don't know what the difference between a death and a casualty is supposed to be.
the 2005 London bombings which killed 52 people and injured 700.
52 lives. In 2005 there were 271,000 road deaths in Great Britain. How much money was spent per head trying to reduce that, compared to the huge sums trying to reduce the number 52? I could also bring up a few medical statistics.
Why is it that a small number of deaths by one means merits spending of several orders of magnitude more than other causes of death?
I wonder, however, the type of strength you'd have to have to actually "do a Spiderman" up the building. Yes it will hold you to the building, but you'll still have to have the upper body strength to advance your way up without handholds to help if it's a flat surface.
The other big thing to think about is what are you adhering to ? This might work if you were climbing up something like clean metal or marble, but most will be much lower quality. Many surfaces if you pull too hard on them will disintegrate and the top layer will detach, so you will just end up falling off the sky scraper with a thin layer of brick or paint on your hands.
the machinery to produce the mirror and the rest of the observatory need to be sent from Earth, first, which makes this a totally unfeasible, insanely expensive.
But under the proposal they would have to do that anyway - to create a spinning liquid mirror; the only extra cost would be the heating equipment and whatever to steer the telescope a bit. I agree that making it highly steerable might need costly kit, but to just tilt it 10 or 20 degrees might be cheaper.
It would mean having to choose the right material (solid at moon temperature, liquid at not too much more, small/no surface crystals on freezing, ionic so that it can be coated with silver, ...). Making something like this on the moon would be much cheaper than taking it up there.
OK: I understand that they might not want to steer if far off vertical to keep things cheap but I would have thought that a little directionality would be a boon.
Why buy John Lennon's record when you've got a 15-second fragment of one of his song in a documentary that you can just reply as many times as you like?
And if you are smart enough - you just get many documentaries, each with a different 15 second fragment, and hey presto you have the whole song.
Why did I not think of that before ? I'll never have to pay royalties again!
One of the nice things about M$ is that you know what you will get, either the XP or the Vista interface ... that is it. The various different Linux installs all have a slightly different interface, icons/drop-downs/... in different places & shapes - etc.
It turns out (as we know) that once you scratch the surface there is not much real difference, however most people can't be bothered to scratch to find out ... it isn't like their last PC and is therefor wrong.
Trouble is that you bothered to follow the tutorial. Most people won't bother and then blame the OS for being different from what they are used to.
I really don't think Linux has problems with malware. I think there is an other operating system having more trouble.
Maybe, but we still need to work hard to ensure that that is the case; why do you think that SELinux and stack randomisation have been developed ? Remember: pride becomes before a fall!
Skype has a huge portion of the VOIP market, their protocol is not just undocumented it seems to have deliberate obfuscation in it to stop reverse engineer attempts. However: since I suspect that govt secret services have back doors into it I don't expect that they will be forced to document in the courts.
Seriously: what happens after a few years when the racks start to rust because of the damp air that they have been operating in ? They did this in Ireland - plenty of moisture there!
And use a copy of microemacs -- works under MS-DOS as well as *nix
When I read the headline about the USA 'dumping E-Waste' I thought that it would be a story about people in the USA sending SPAM all around the world.
I trust that you enjoyed whatever you have been smoking!
There can be sensitive data in the GET arguments, much more than just which site you have visited.
It is not that he wants ot show off but that he wants to sit back like any falther and watch his children develop, grow and discover the wonders of the Universe as he/she/it has implimented them. And then when we finally figure it all out he will take us all up to heven to be with him for the rest of time.
How do you know this ? I assume that you will say the bible/quoran/the_Vedas/... Other than those texts, what independent and verifiable support do you have for these assertions ? I know of no people who's discussions with god are objectively and well reported and especially none in modern times.
Creationisum is an insult to the glory of God. How dare people say that God, being all knowing and all powerful, could not design and impliment a dynamic system but had to settle for a simple static one.
If we assume that there is a god; what are his characteristics ? What are his aims ? You seem to assume that your god would want to make something that is complicated/intricate - presumably to show how clever he is.
What evidence do you have that your god wants to be a show off ?
Where is the evidence to support Creationism?
The bible.
OK: The bible is a great start, we now need to look for independent evidence to support the theory put forward in the bible ... the trouble is that it is pretty thin on the ground.
So: let's take a look at other theories and seek independent evidence to support them. Darwinism does quite well here.
Find us the independent evidence to support the bible's theory for the origin of man and we will take another look.
Data mining can work, but it requires a lot of care and validation. This sounds like snake oil to me: people finding patterns in data, and then putting some interpretation on it.
Does ThorpeGlen care ? As long as someone buys their product.
Little point in asking the govt for funding - they are too busy pouring cash into a 3 week sports festival in 2012 -- a complete waste of money.
That might give you a body, but what you really want is the person: all the memes that s/he has would need to be recorded and suitably grafted in, even then what you get won't be much like the original.
OK: I'll admit that it is a fun idea, but that is about it.
Did they return you $800 + interest or did they use your money for a year interest free ?
I always give the hotel a business address - like that some criminal does not know where to go while I am at the hotel. I do the same with labels attached to luggage when flying. I have done this for years.
When will people learn to give the minimum of personal information that is absolutely necessary ?