It an apples-to-oranges comparison. Does your customer work 12-14 hours a day and generally 6 days a week? Does she have to simultaneously juggle dozens if not more of issues at a time? Etc. Etc. It's a shallow and biased comparison with no grounding in reality.
Go on, explain to me how someone who doesn't know how to use a computer is expected to remotely understand the issues at hand.
How does someone who does know how to use a computer automagically understand? My mother doesn't. My father-in-law didn't. (To take two people the same age as McCain.) My wife doesn't - and she is not only default IT person at her work, she has a baccalaureate in accounting. She's a very bright lady and very handy with computers - and has zero understanding of the issues I cited. Therefore, by existence proof, knowledge of computers gives no special insight into the issue. Having supported my position, it remains for you to do the same.
Certainly the English system has a lot of staying power.
Not really. In anything even remotely resembling it's current form (permanent primacy of Parliament over Crown) it only dates from the late 1600's - and even then there have been large changes since then. The ongoing (and essentially complete) emasculation of the Crown. The nullification of the House of Lords by the Parliament Act. The continued ascendancy of Commons and Government over Lords... Etc. Etc.
Though as a Tory and programmer I think it's like a very old piece of code which has been patched for a long time
The Party Line is that English System is ancient and well tested, but the reality is the system has changed radically in the last two hundred odd years. It's been much more than patched - it's been refactored and numerous functions and subroutines replaced outright if not radically changed.
That's right. A president who, this day in age, doesn't know how to use a computer. Makes his policies on tech issues make a lot more sense, though.
So? Knowing how to use a computer doesn't make an expert on software patent reform or IP reform. (Two things most often quoted as being 'tech issues' even though they really aren't.) Heck, judging by the comments on Slashdot being able to use a computer doesn't do anything for your knowledge of these issues.
A year ago, I set up a older woman who has brain damage with a Linux desktop and net access and she uses it just fine.
Nice attempt at a slam - but all it really shows is how shallow and biased you are.
This matter much less than you might think at first glance - while the material (as in individual atoms, ions, and molecules) is very hot (very energetic), it is also not very dense (as in, pretty damn close to being a vacuum). This is the same principle that lets you hold your hand in a flame for a second or two - except while the temperature of the corona is about 6-10 orders of magnitude higher than a typical (terrestrial) flame, the density is a couple of hundred orders of magnitude lower than that flame.
First of all, Congress did not "authorize the invasion, and all its excesses". What Congress authorized was the "use of force" to make Iraq comply with the UN resolutions. This does not necessarily imply an authorization for a full-scale invasion of a sovereign nation and the destruction of that nations government.
The convoluted logic of this astounds me. Have you ever considered running for office?
It isn't even close to fascism. It isn't even part of the definition of fascism. The boob in this conversation is the uneducated individual that tosses around buzzwords without a shred of comprehension for their meaning and who is so confident in his ignorance that he doesn't even try to educate himself.
when I read posts by russian-born americans (or other soviet countries from the 'russia == boogeyman' days) saying that they SEE the slippery slope happening right before their eyes, THEN you can believe its real.
OTOH, every society has it's fringe elements. I see posts from, and discuss with over coffee, by persons of the same background who are quite aware of the vast difference between where the US is and where fUSSR was. And the facts back them up. Hint: The very existence of Slashdot, the Daily Kos, and hundreds if not thousands of such websites reveals the truth. Then there's the protesters I drove by on my way to the doctors office today.
all the signs of fascism are here.
Not to someone who actually knows what fascism means, rather than using it as a buzzword.
its not hard to find even if its not affecting you DIRECTLY right now. but just because you are not personally feeling the loss of liberty does not mean its not on the slope and going downward, continually.
effectively turns a "free" country into a police-state./me weeps for the future
I weep for the future too - I weep because the current generation of Americans is so soft and so ignorant as to honestly believe that America has become anything resembling a police state or fascist state.
That's what folks have been claiming since the late 1960's/early 1970's. Reality seems a little different, as going by the life support (and other) difficulties onboard the ISS... the odds are that at best the mission is limping and hoping they can reach home before something serious goes wrong and at worst are dead.
Two reasons. The first is, as the other poster said, the fairly steep mass and volume penalty paid for being mobile. The second is that there is no chance of an extended mission here - come winter, Phoenix dies. Period.
In June 1999, a steel gas pipeline ruptured near Bellingham, Wash., killing two children and an 18-year-old, and injuring eight others. A subsequent investigation found that a computer failure just prior to the accident locked out the central control room operating the pipeline, preventing technicians from relieving pressure in the pipeline.
Huh? I've read the NTSB report on that accident - and nowhere in it (IIRC) are computers implicated. The accident occurred due to damage to the pipes from construction equipment.
Rereading the report[PDF file] pretty much confirms my recollection, the SCADA system was not implicated as a primary or contributory cause of the accident. The SCADA system was malfunctioning at the time of the accident, but did not cause the overpressure, and 'may' have allowed the operators to relieve pressure had it been functioning and had they observed the pressure spike. The rupture was caused by construction damage to the pipeline and a faulty relief valve.
Anyone who has only read GEB is really missing out - both Metamagical Themas and The Minds I are also real mind openers. They take the themes raised in GEB and explore them further. Fluid Concepts and Le Ton Beau De Marot are highly skippable.
Who can say FAST would not have build on the better functionality of the web search, and built more revenue from ads, which would have necessitated their own add engine, which they would have sold public access.
And if pigs had wings, we'd all wear hats to avoid getting pigshit in our eyes. Or, in other words, you not only have no understanding of the situation, you violently avoid enlightenment so that you can blame the management for not doing something that wouldn't have made them the next Google anyhow.
"Webvan -- none of whose senior executives or investors had any experience in the supermarket trade". Umm... yeah, that experience would have been useless since they didn't run supermarkets.
Um, yeah. They were running a supermarket, or at least the faced many of the same problems a supermarket faces - most importantly in inventory management. If Amazon orders too many copies of a book, they can sell them over time or return them to the publisher. Much the same for Netflix. A truckload of tomatoes or milk can't be returned and will go bad. (I've heard from several reputable sources that they did have problems with this.) This is why the infant mortality rate of food businesses is over an order of magnitude higher than the already frightening rate for non food businesses.
They were just about at the point of doing the "since we have a truck coming by your house anyway, why don't we also drop off your Netflix movie, next semester's textbooks and that creepy Rei Ayanami doll you ordered from Japan?". Without that Netflix has had to spend huge effort to get a (kick ass frankly) distribution system done via USPS. Amazon has their affiliate program where you can get all sorts of odd stuff from Amazon, but they don't have that "last mile" solved. If you order stuff in one order from 7 different affiliates you have to pay 7 different shipping fees and deal with 7 different shipments from different shipping companies. At least one of those shipments will get screwed up and one other will come from some shipper that won't leave it without a signature. Webvan was coming by your house anyway to drop off your groceries.
They may have been coming by your house to deliver groceries, but maybe not mine. Not to mention the problem at the other end - getting all those shippers to give up UPS/USPS/FedEx/etc. in favor of Webvan.
But what you missed is what really killed Webvan - the massive upfront investment in warehouse and transport infrastructure. There's practically nothing they could have sold that would provide volume and profit margins sufficient to cover that. Amazon, and Netflix, survived and prospered because they could (and did) build out their infrastructure 'just in time' and leverage existing systems (UPS, USPS) rather than reinventing the wheel. Building up sufficient transport business in the face of the Big Boys would have been extremely tough.
Infrastructure means "backbone" - it does not mean "covers every square inch". A comprehensive and effective infrastructure is one that covers the greatest number of people for the most reasonable cost. An 'infrastructure' that attempts to provide urban core level services to folks living in the middle of North Dakota is one that wastes a great deal of money and other resources for very little return.
Quite a few people had, prior to Ballard finding it, searched for Titanic. Ballard himself lead two failed expeditions paid for by private citizens. (Read his 1996 autobiography.)
However, in order to earn that contract, the ship and crew traditionally had to be consistently fast and reliable.
Not particularly. Ships and crews of any reasonably run line sought to be fast and reliable anyhow - because if they weren't, they lost business.
This was reinforced by relatively hefty penalties for delays (by the minute, I think, in the 19th Century--something rather remarkable considering the slow speed of ships and the unpredictable conditions).
Again, not particularly. Arrivals in the 19th century became fairly reliable (even for sail) as the century wore on. (And the Royal Mail contract wasn't let to private companies until 1840.) Be that as it may be, the 'by the minute' penalty was a) late century, b) on a single short (England-Ireland) run.
As a result, earning an RMS designation was a mark of great prestige in those days.
Slashdot Mirror
It an apples-to-oranges comparison. Does your customer work 12-14 hours a day and generally 6 days a week? Does she have to simultaneously juggle dozens if not more of issues at a time? Etc. Etc. It's a shallow and biased comparison with no grounding in reality.
How does someone who does know how to use a computer automagically understand? My mother doesn't. My father-in-law didn't. (To take two people the same age as McCain.) My wife doesn't - and she is not only default IT person at her work, she has a baccalaureate in accounting. She's a very bright lady and very handy with computers - and has zero understanding of the issues I cited. Therefore, by existence proof, knowledge of computers gives no special insight into the issue. Having supported my position, it remains for you to do the same.
Not really. In anything even remotely resembling it's current form (permanent primacy of Parliament over Crown) it only dates from the late 1600's - and even then there have been large changes since then. The ongoing (and essentially complete) emasculation of the Crown. The nullification of the House of Lords by the Parliament Act. The continued ascendancy of Commons and Government over Lords... Etc. Etc.
The Party Line is that English System is ancient and well tested, but the reality is the system has changed radically in the last two hundred odd years. It's been much more than patched - it's been refactored and numerous functions and subroutines replaced outright if not radically changed.
So? Knowing how to use a computer doesn't make an expert on software patent reform or IP reform. (Two things most often quoted as being 'tech issues' even though they really aren't.) Heck, judging by the comments on Slashdot being able to use a computer doesn't do anything for your knowledge of these issues.
Nice attempt at a slam - but all it really shows is how shallow and biased you are.
The instrument in question isn't looking for ice, but is measuring the chemical properties of the soil.
This matter much less than you might think at first glance - while the material (as in individual atoms, ions, and molecules) is very hot (very energetic), it is also not very dense (as in, pretty damn close to being a vacuum). This is the same principle that lets you hold your hand in a flame for a second or two - except while the temperature of the corona is about 6-10 orders of magnitude higher than a typical (terrestrial) flame, the density is a couple of hundred orders of magnitude lower than that flame.
The convoluted logic of this astounds me. Have you ever considered running for office?
Kevlar fabric (at least in the bulletproof form) isn't fabric as we usually think of it - it is thick and not very flexible at all.
It isn't even close to fascism. It isn't even part of the definition of fascism. The boob in this conversation is the uneducated individual that tosses around buzzwords without a shred of comprehension for their meaning and who is so confident in his ignorance that he doesn't even try to educate himself.
OTOH, every society has it's fringe elements. I see posts from, and discuss with over coffee, by persons of the same background who are quite aware of the vast difference between where the US is and where fUSSR was. And the facts back them up. Hint: The very existence of Slashdot, the Daily Kos, and hundreds if not thousands of such websites reveals the truth. Then there's the protesters I drove by on my way to the doctors office today.
Not to someone who actually knows what fascism means, rather than using it as a buzzword.
And, the buzzword trifecta is complete....
I weep for the future too - I weep because the current generation of Americans is so soft and so ignorant as to honestly believe that America has become anything resembling a police state or fascist state.
That's what folks have been claiming since the late 1960's/early 1970's. Reality seems a little different, as going by the life support (and other) difficulties onboard the ISS... the odds are that at best the mission is limping and hoping they can reach home before something serious goes wrong and at worst are dead.
Two reasons. The first is, as the other poster said, the fairly steep mass and volume penalty paid for being mobile. The second is that there is no chance of an extended mission here - come winter, Phoenix dies. Period.
Pandering to the crowd is one of the easiest ways to get popular after all.
Hell, even after a week of working in a strip club filled with hotties... you pretty much cease to notice it.
Huh? I've read the NTSB report on that accident - and nowhere in it (IIRC) are computers implicated. The accident occurred due to damage to the pipes from construction equipment.
Rereading the report[PDF file] pretty much confirms my recollection, the SCADA system was not implicated as a primary or contributory cause of the accident. The SCADA system was malfunctioning at the time of the accident, but did not cause the overpressure, and 'may' have allowed the operators to relieve pressure had it been functioning and had they observed the pressure spike. The rupture was caused by construction damage to the pipeline and a faulty relief valve.
Anyone who has only read GEB is really missing out - both Metamagical Themas and The Minds I are also real mind openers. They take the themes raised in GEB and explore them further.
Fluid Concepts and Le Ton Beau De Marot are highly skippable.
And if pigs had wings, we'd all wear hats to avoid getting pigshit in our eyes. Or, in other words, you not only have no understanding of the situation, you violently avoid enlightenment so that you can blame the management for not doing something that wouldn't have made them the next Google anyhow.
Nonetheless - it was AdSense that powered 'em to the top. Without AdSense, you wouldn't ever have been Google.
Um, yeah. They were running a supermarket, or at least the faced many of the same problems a supermarket faces - most importantly in inventory management. If Amazon orders too many copies of a book, they can sell them over time or return them to the publisher. Much the same for Netflix. A truckload of tomatoes or milk can't be returned and will go bad. (I've heard from several reputable sources that they did have problems with this.) This is why the infant mortality rate of food businesses is over an order of magnitude higher than the already frightening rate for non food businesses.
They may have been coming by your house to deliver groceries, but maybe not mine. Not to mention the problem at the other end - getting all those shippers to give up UPS/USPS/FedEx/etc. in favor of Webvan.
But what you missed is what really killed Webvan - the massive upfront investment in warehouse and transport infrastructure. There's practically nothing they could have sold that would provide volume and profit margins sufficient to cover that. Amazon, and Netflix, survived and prospered because they could (and did) build out their infrastructure 'just in time' and leverage existing systems (UPS, USPS) rather than reinventing the wheel. Building up sufficient transport business in the face of the Big Boys would have been extremely tough.
If you have evidence to the contrary, feel free to enumerate it.
Google made it's IPO and it's billions on advertising, not on search.
Infrastructure means "backbone" - it does not mean "covers every square inch". A comprehensive and effective infrastructure is one that covers the greatest number of people for the most reasonable cost. An 'infrastructure' that attempts to provide urban core level services to folks living in the middle of North Dakota is one that wastes a great deal of money and other resources for very little return.
Quite a few people had, prior to Ballard finding it, searched for Titanic. Ballard himself lead two failed expeditions paid for by private citizens. (Read his 1996 autobiography.)
The Navy dropped the project - so, I suppose you can't safely do so.
Not particularly. Ships and crews of any reasonably run line sought to be fast and reliable anyhow - because if they weren't, they lost business.
Again, not particularly. Arrivals in the 19th century became fairly reliable (even for sail) as the century wore on. (And the Royal Mail contract wasn't let to private companies until 1840.) Be that as it may be, the 'by the minute' penalty was a) late century, b) on a single short (England-Ireland) run.
Not particularly.
No, it's a standard prefix for any ship/company His/Her Majesty's Goverment contracts with to carry the mail.