A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. for its scope and books by Ursula LeGuin like Rocannon's World and Planet of Exile for their scope I suppose as well. I enjoy stories that explore interpretations of human nature. I've also read lots of classic stuff by Voltaire, Scarron, and other French authors while taking literature classes and they gave me a sense of how people have viewed humanity over the years as well. I am currently slogging through the Iliad but it is not really my cup of tea but seems to have stood the test of time for others. Fun question!
A very good book by Luria, a Russian psychologist and neuropsychologist, about a man with an amazing memory. The man who is the subject of the book had an amazing memory all his life and the techniques he used to remember seem to have come quite naturally to him. Also, he had synaesthesia, an ability to cross-link his senses, which probably made it much easier to associate things he wanted to learn in a very rich way. I think that sometimes people who have remarkable abilities overestimate the average-ness of their abilities, though it is probably true that all of us can benefit from practice and from using a systematic approach to tasks like memorizing things.
Instead of spurring new ideas and having them spread around and serve the public good the skewed IP landscape has moved us in the opposite direction towards protectionism.
That's my main complaint in all of this - increasingly invasive searches, reduction in privacy, all with no counterbalancing accountability. I want people to go to jail if they abuse the power they so freely take for themselves.
Now we can be sure that robots will never break the rules, just as nowadays phosphorous bombs never get dropped on civilians, nor cluster bombs that in any case, never lay around for years waiting to explode when picked up by a child. Who do these idiots think they are fooling? Rhetorical question, unfortunately; the same people who have been putting up with this sort of BS forever and a day.
As a grad student I talked with an assistant in a sleep research lab studying the effects of sleep deprivation in rats. The rats had electrodes implanted in their skulls which were used to monitor wakefulness as they were rocked back and forth in a cylindrical cage. Whenever they fell asleep the cage would rock back and forth, waking them up. I was told that experiments of this sort could only be done over 72 hours (after which time the rats had their heads chopped off and flash frozen for later brain slicing) or, based on previous research, they would be likely to die (from lack of sleep rather than the guillotine). I assume that this was not a new discovery. Perhaps the new part is actually trying to kill rats through lack of sleep and keeping track of how long it takes to do so.
This is a perfect tool for terrorists. If I were leading a group of 20 people intent on doing something criminal in the US I'd welcome this as a way to find out who was and wasn't likely to be stopped at the border. This isn't a way to keep America free of terrorism, it's the natural expansion of bureaucracy.
Leica makes the M8, a digital rangefinder. It's manufactured in Germany and Portugal. Admittedly, its sales are a drop in the digital camera sales bucket.
We use the names of people like Benedict Arnold, Quisling, Judas, people who betray the trust of others and their countrymen, with utter contempt. If Scooter Libby was involved in this sort of behavior, why make light of it? Scooter Libby was convicted of perjury, but what he's really known for is being involved in blowing the cover of Valerie Plame, CIA operative involved in hunting down people involved with actual weapons of mass destruction. If what he's thought to have been involved in is true, he's guilty of treason and endangering the lives of others associated with Valerie Plame at the time her cover was blown. This is not trivial. It stands on its own alongside abusing the rights Americans fought so hard to gain over two hundred years ago.
Not trying to piss anyone off, but why in the world are things being made so complicated? The basic requirements of a voting machine should not be able to fit on a single sheet of paper. Instead, once business interests and beaurocratic verbal expansion take hold things get really complicated and messy. In Canada, and I'm sure elsewhere, people walk up to a school or other public building, say hi to someone at one of three or four tables, show some ID, get a pencil and paper ballot, vote behind a cardboard screen, then submit the ballot. I know that in the US people vote for more things in federal elections, but more things are also voted for in Canadian municipal elections, and paper and pencil work just fine for that too. Increased complexity brings with it the chance for useless spending of money and failures in the system.
The US, pushed largely by its entertainment industry, wants the world to share the wonders of IP legislation that it has foisted on US consumers. This pre-screening action will do nothing to stop piracy, since fuzzy video tapings of movies interspersed by coughs don't compete well with the pristine per-screening copies of movies that make up the majority of leaks. It will, though, give Bev Oda, our fearless Minister of Heritage, something to point at when her government tries to push through more restrictive IP laws. Politicians and lobbyists have perfected the art of whining and fear-mongering until they get their way. If Bev Oda were doing her job she'd be paying more attention to actual Canadian heritage. Perhaps she's true to the Canadian heritage of caving in.
Using SWORDs backfired on the military in the movie Screamers (Based on Philip Dick's Second Variety. Must be a sci-fi fan with an interesting sense of humour in the military.
As funny as that might sound, suggesting to Americans that the "number of the beast" is on its way in the form of RFID would probably be a pretty effective way to help kill this idea.
Reading the linked article discussing Mr. Atkinson's and others' criticisms of the proposed law, the whole thrust of the disagreement with the law is that it will tend to disallow the open and useful debate of ideas when those ideas fall under the umbrella of the label "religion". Being able to debate ideas is foundational to the life of a free society. The framing of religions as lifestyle choices or private members' clubs seems to be irrelevant to the discussion and is presumably a reflection of the parent poster's viewpoints.
As I recall, Macromedia didn't seem at all motivated to produce a decent Flash viewer for Linux until the current one in its earlier version came along. Innovation, motivation, both are useful.
Re:"Canada's national newspaper?"
on
Linux in Canada
·
· Score: 1
Hmm. Just heard the term "our national newspaper" used this morning on the radio here in Victoria, BC in an interview with someone from Washington state. Can't say that I knew if the interviewer was referring to the Globe or National Post.
There's just as much ignorance and navel gazing here in BC (on the west coast) as in Ontario. The difference is that people out here often speak dirisively of people from Ontario while people from Ontario speak well of BC and usually wish they could live here. I've lived in both places.
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A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. for its scope and books by Ursula LeGuin like Rocannon's World and Planet of Exile for their scope I suppose as well. I enjoy stories that explore interpretations of human nature. I've also read lots of classic stuff by Voltaire, Scarron, and other French authors while taking literature classes and they gave me a sense of how people have viewed humanity over the years as well. I am currently slogging through the Iliad but it is not really my cup of tea but seems to have stood the test of time for others. Fun question!
I still think that digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
You must be human.
Is that seriously the first post?
http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Mnemonist-Little-about-Memory/dp/0674576225/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1298568674&sr=8-1
A very good book by Luria, a Russian psychologist and neuropsychologist, about a man with an amazing memory. The man who is the subject of the book had an amazing memory all his life and the techniques he used to remember seem to have come quite naturally to him. Also, he had synaesthesia, an ability to cross-link his senses, which probably made it much easier to associate things he wanted to learn in a very rich way. I think that sometimes people who have remarkable abilities overestimate the average-ness of their abilities, though it is probably true that all of us can benefit from practice and from using a systematic approach to tasks like memorizing things.
Instead of spurring new ideas and having them spread around and serve the public good the skewed IP landscape has moved us in the opposite direction towards protectionism.
That's my main complaint in all of this - increasingly invasive searches, reduction in privacy, all with no counterbalancing accountability. I want people to go to jail if they abuse the power they so freely take for themselves.
Now we can be sure that robots will never break the rules, just as nowadays phosphorous bombs never get dropped on civilians, nor cluster bombs that in any case, never lay around for years waiting to explode when picked up by a child. Who do these idiots think they are fooling? Rhetorical question, unfortunately; the same people who have been putting up with this sort of BS forever and a day.
As a grad student I talked with an assistant in a sleep research lab studying the effects of sleep deprivation in rats. The rats had electrodes implanted in their skulls which were used to monitor wakefulness as they were rocked back and forth in a cylindrical cage. Whenever they fell asleep the cage would rock back and forth, waking them up. I was told that experiments of this sort could only be done over 72 hours (after which time the rats had their heads chopped off and flash frozen for later brain slicing) or, based on previous research, they would be likely to die (from lack of sleep rather than the guillotine). I assume that this was not a new discovery. Perhaps the new part is actually trying to kill rats through lack of sleep and keeping track of how long it takes to do so.
This is a perfect tool for terrorists. If I were leading a group of 20 people intent on doing something criminal in the US I'd welcome this as a way to find out who was and wasn't likely to be stopped at the border. This isn't a way to keep America free of terrorism, it's the natural expansion of bureaucracy.
Leica makes the M8, a digital rangefinder. It's manufactured in Germany and Portugal. Admittedly, its sales are a drop in the digital camera sales bucket.
We use the names of people like Benedict Arnold, Quisling, Judas, people who betray the trust of others and their countrymen, with utter contempt. If Scooter Libby was involved in this sort of behavior, why make light of it? Scooter Libby was convicted of perjury, but what he's really known for is being involved in blowing the cover of Valerie Plame, CIA operative involved in hunting down people involved with actual weapons of mass destruction. If what he's thought to have been involved in is true, he's guilty of treason and endangering the lives of others associated with Valerie Plame at the time her cover was blown. This is not trivial. It stands on its own alongside abusing the rights Americans fought so hard to gain over two hundred years ago.
Not trying to piss anyone off, but why in the world are things being made so complicated? The basic requirements of a voting machine should not be able to fit on a single sheet of paper. Instead, once business interests and beaurocratic verbal expansion take hold things get really complicated and messy. In Canada, and I'm sure elsewhere, people walk up to a school or other public building, say hi to someone at one of three or four tables, show some ID, get a pencil and paper ballot, vote behind a cardboard screen, then submit the ballot. I know that in the US people vote for more things in federal elections, but more things are also voted for in Canadian municipal elections, and paper and pencil work just fine for that too. Increased complexity brings with it the chance for useless spending of money and failures in the system.
The US, pushed largely by its entertainment industry, wants the world to share the wonders of IP legislation that it has foisted on US consumers. This pre-screening action will do nothing to stop piracy, since fuzzy video tapings of movies interspersed by coughs don't compete well with the pristine per-screening copies of movies that make up the majority of leaks. It will, though, give Bev Oda, our fearless Minister of Heritage, something to point at when her government tries to push through more restrictive IP laws. Politicians and lobbyists have perfected the art of whining and fear-mongering until they get their way. If Bev Oda were doing her job she'd be paying more attention to actual Canadian heritage. Perhaps she's true to the Canadian heritage of caving in.
I'm having a "Why is that patentable?" moment.
They're also working on a way to put a fear-inducing drug in beer and getting Max von Sydow to distribute it at Octoberfest.
Unlike the German invasion Stallman could not just detour around security.
On the other hand?
Using SWORDs backfired on the military in the movie Screamers (Based on Philip Dick's Second Variety. Must be a sci-fi fan with an interesting sense of humour in the military.
As funny as that might sound, suggesting to Americans that the "number of the beast" is on its way in the form of RFID would probably be a pretty effective way to help kill this idea.
Reading the linked article discussing Mr. Atkinson's and others' criticisms of the proposed law, the whole thrust of the disagreement with the law is that it will tend to disallow the open and useful debate of ideas when those ideas fall under the umbrella of the label "religion". Being able to debate ideas is foundational to the life of a free society. The framing of religions as lifestyle choices or private members' clubs seems to be irrelevant to the discussion and is presumably a reflection of the parent poster's viewpoints.
The future astronauts -- should I write 'farmonauts'? -- will grow potatoes, onions, rice, soya or lettuce.
I hope that's an and list, not an or list. I don't know that I could survive on just onions.
As I recall, Macromedia didn't seem at all motivated to produce a decent Flash viewer for Linux until the current one in its earlier version came along. Innovation, motivation, both are useful.
Hmm. Just heard the term "our national newspaper" used this morning on the radio here in Victoria, BC in an interview with someone from Washington state. Can't say that I knew if the interviewer was referring to the Globe or National Post.
There's just as much ignorance and navel gazing here in BC (on the west coast) as in Ontario. The difference is that people out here often speak dirisively of people from Ontario while people from Ontario speak well of BC and usually wish they could live here. I've lived in both places.