"Existing models of the future cease to give reliable or accurate answers"
As though there ARE existing models of the future that give reliable or accurate answers!? The only thing we can predict reliably are purely physical phenomena like eclipses and weight-bearing capacities of bridges, and even that gets pretty dicey in the real world.
No one has a clue what the future holds. The "singularity" doesn't change that.
I read the "actual academic research" you pointed to. It's hard to tell from the article, but it appears that this study assigned bias merely by counting "the number of times each media outlet referred to think tanks and policy groups, such as the left-leaning NAACP or the right-leaning Heritage Foundation".
This hardly seems like an accurate measure of bias. For example, any criticism of the Heritage Foundation would nonetheless be counted as a "right-leaning" reference. Am I missing something?
I think the claim that OSS developers are more "aggressive" in seeking solutions is without merit. I mainly develop using proprietary software, and I'm plenty aggressive. I've used the help desk to get technical support maybe once or twice in my (long) career. How aggressive do you need to be to use Google or MSDN? Not very.
And, furthermore, isn't tech support one of the foundations of the OSS business model? Give away the software and hope people will pay for help, right? I guess the people at CSM won't use Red Hat.
Off the top of my head, and just limiting myself to technological changes:
* People traveling at 70+ MPH on huge 5-lane highways. Even stranger than this is massive packs of cars traveling at 0 MPH on the same highways at "rush hour".
* Air conditioning. Huge impact in the south.
* Miracle drugs, such as antibiotics. No polio, smallpox, people dying of scarlet fever (i.e. strep throat), etc.
* Long-distance travel by jet airplane.
* Tele-communications. He touched on this one, at least.
* Huge, over-crowded cities/suburbs where the country used to be.
* Massive distrust of the government (not really technological, but somewhat related).
* Supermarkets. Huge abundances of food of all varieties.
Don't blame your boss -- it sounds like you're doing this to yourself.
Taking vacation is easy if you have a little courage. It works like this: You tell them a month in advance. You remind them two weeks in advance, and then daily from the one week mark. Then, when the day comes, you go on vacation, no matter what crisis has erupted at work.
Anyone who would fire you for taking earned vacation is evil. You'd be better off at the soup kitchen.
Sorry, but I have a hard time buying that schedule. No one can start the day with 6 hours of work without eating. I don't think it's physiologically possible unless he stuffs his face just before bed.
I think we all agree that these guys are being idiots.
The thing I don't understand is the popularity of The Fight Club in the first place. What's cool about a bunch of guys getting together to beat the shit out of each other in order to demonstrate their manliness?
I never saw the movie (or read the book), so am I missing something?
Yes, as any serious thinker knows: "it's turtles all the way down".
Cosmological constant survives the Big Crunch?
on
One Big Bang, Or Many?
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· Score: 3, Informative
The article is none too clear, but it seems that the major claims of this new theory are that the Cosmological Constant:
a) Might diminish over time, and
b) Might be able to survive a Big Crunch/Bang cycle, and
c) Seems to be smaller than it "should" be if the universe was created 14 billion years ago.
From these, they propose that:
d) The universe is actually much older and has gone through many Big Crunch/Bang cycles, allowing enough time for the CC to shrink to its current level.
However, I'd like to see some hard evidence for a), b), and c) before I accept that d) might be true.
You're kidding yourself if you think you can actually catch up with where you would have been.
Let's assume a half-hour commute plus fifteen minutes (max) of idling in traffic. So, leave at 5:00pm, arrive home at 5:45. Leave at 5:30pm, arrive at 6:10pm. Leave at 6:00, arrive at 6:30pm.
That would mean you could wake up an hour later and therefore stay awake an hour later spending quality time with your family, friends, or hobbies.
This requires your family, friends, or hobbies to time-shift an hour as well. "Honey, would you mind keeping the kids up an extra hour so I can work late and come home late?" I don't know about you, but that wouldn't work too well in my house. You can't expect the entire world to organize itself around your schedule.
The primary goal isn't to minimize the time spent driving (though that would be nice). The goal is to maximize time with your friends, family, hobby, etc. Staying late to avoid rush hour is pointless if you have somewhere you want to get to.
Slashdot Mirror
You may eat (LISTEN) to the radio waves. You may NOT send stuff back to the garden to grow, nor may you send radio waves back to the receiver.
That's just dumb. You're allowed to throw peas at me, but I can't throw the same kind of peas back at you?
"Existing models of the future cease to give reliable or accurate answers"
As though there ARE existing models of the future that give reliable or accurate answers!? The only thing we can predict reliably are purely physical phenomena like eclipses and weight-bearing capacities of bridges, and even that gets pretty dicey in the real world.
No one has a clue what the future holds. The "singularity" doesn't change that.
Think about it. If they all drift at the same rate, it's not drift.
I read the "actual academic research" you pointed to. It's hard to tell from the article, but it appears that this study assigned bias merely by counting "the number of times each media outlet referred to think tanks and policy groups, such as the left-leaning NAACP or the right-leaning Heritage Foundation".
This hardly seems like an accurate measure of bias. For example, any criticism of the Heritage Foundation would nonetheless be counted as a "right-leaning" reference. Am I missing something?
Has anyone contemplated legislation to stop this from happening?
Yes, and it's hidden in a bill establishing July as Grapefruit Month! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
I think the claim that OSS developers are more "aggressive" in seeking solutions is without merit. I mainly develop using proprietary software, and I'm plenty aggressive. I've used the help desk to get technical support maybe once or twice in my (long) career. How aggressive do you need to be to use Google or MSDN? Not very.
And, furthermore, isn't tech support one of the foundations of the OSS business model? Give away the software and hope people will pay for help, right? I guess the people at CSM won't use Red Hat.
Please cite a reference, since Google doesn't back you up.
The information I've seen fails to establish a direct link between aluminum and Alzheimer's, but doesn't disprove it either.
This appears to be the definitive answer (unless Microsoft is wrong about their own OS).
More:
* Lighter, stronger materials. Objects built from plastic and new alloys instead of wood and steel.
* Television. And even stranger than television itself is the crap we watch on television.
* Commercialism and the rise of international corporations. Again, not strictly technological, but related.
Off the top of my head, and just limiting myself to technological changes:
* People traveling at 70+ MPH on huge 5-lane highways. Even stranger than this is massive packs of cars traveling at 0 MPH on the same highways at "rush hour".
* Air conditioning. Huge impact in the south.
* Miracle drugs, such as antibiotics. No polio, smallpox, people dying of scarlet fever (i.e. strep throat), etc.
* Long-distance travel by jet airplane.
* Tele-communications. He touched on this one, at least.
* Huge, over-crowded cities/suburbs where the country used to be.
* Massive distrust of the government (not really technological, but somewhat related).
* Supermarkets. Huge abundances of food of all varieties.
Film at 11.
Don't blame your boss -- it sounds like you're doing this to yourself.
Taking vacation is easy if you have a little courage. It works like this: You tell them a month in advance. You remind them two weeks in advance, and then daily from the one week mark. Then, when the day comes, you go on vacation, no matter what crisis has erupted at work.
Anyone who would fire you for taking earned vacation is evil. You'd be better off at the soup kitchen.
Sorry, but I have a hard time buying that schedule. No one can start the day with 6 hours of work without eating. I don't think it's physiologically possible unless he stuffs his face just before bed.
I think we all agree that these guys are being idiots.
The thing I don't understand is the popularity of The Fight Club in the first place. What's cool about a bunch of guys getting together to beat the shit out of each other in order to demonstrate their manliness?
I never saw the movie (or read the book), so am I missing something?
LOL
Yes, as any serious thinker knows: "it's turtles all the way down".
The article is none too clear, but it seems that the major claims of this new theory are that the Cosmological Constant:
a) Might diminish over time, and
b) Might be able to survive a Big Crunch/Bang cycle, and
c) Seems to be smaller than it "should" be if the universe was created 14 billion years ago.
From these, they propose that:
d) The universe is actually much older and has gone through many Big Crunch/Bang cycles, allowing enough time for the CC to shrink to its current level.
However, I'd like to see some hard evidence for a), b), and c) before I accept that d) might be true.
It goes without saying that you can make up time by working less, but that's not the point.
The point is that the article's premise (and very title) is plainly biased towards overwork.
You're kidding yourself if you think you can actually catch up with where you would have been.
Let's assume a half-hour commute plus fifteen minutes (max) of idling in traffic. So, leave at 5:00pm, arrive home at 5:45. Leave at 5:30pm, arrive at 6:10pm. Leave at 6:00, arrive at 6:30pm.
That would mean you could wake up an hour later and therefore stay awake an hour later spending quality time with your family, friends, or hobbies.
This requires your family, friends, or hobbies to time-shift an hour as well. "Honey, would you mind keeping the kids up an extra hour so I can work late and come home late?" I don't know about you, but that wouldn't work too well in my house. You can't expect the entire world to organize itself around your schedule.
With your family, that is.
The primary goal isn't to minimize the time spent driving (though that would be nice). The goal is to maximize time with your friends, family, hobby, etc. Staying late to avoid rush hour is pointless if you have somewhere you want to get to.
Of course I do those things, but I don't label myself that way. Being a customer or consumer is not my primary role in society.
You are not a consumer. You are a customer. Got that?
I am neither a consumer nor a customer. I am a citizen and I'm not going to give up my rights easily. Got that?
Remember Rule #1, demonize your opposition in the public opinion.
Yes, that certainly seems to be the approach you're taking.
Good point, although you're actually talking about precision, not accuracy. They don't mean the same thing.
Doesn't sound very normalized to me. Those "identical fields" should have been moved into their own table.