Even with a measily 10% of population using computers in China (if in the future that should happen), it would larger then the WHOLE U.S. population.
Well, according to the CIA Factbook, the current population of China is about 1.3 billion. If 10% of the population used computers, that would be about 130 million people, or a little less than half the population of the U.S. and IIRC, about the same number of people as are on the internet here. So yeah, it would be very significant, but it wouldn't exactly eclipse the west.
It'll be like the annoying cellphone freaks who think we want to listen to their conversation in a restaurant.
What, as opposed to the annoying freaks not on cell phones who think we want to listen to their conversations? Using a cell phone in a restaurant is only rude to those you are sitting with, unless you speak very loudly into your phone. Its not like it is any different than talking to the people around you, as far as everyone else in the restaurant is concernced.
Hey! I know of a guy who made available over a million copyrighted works!
I think you missed the important part here - a file on a P2P network is not available for borrowing, as items in a library are, but they are available for copying. When you download something it does not disappear from the hard drive of the person you got it from. Now, you could copy an item you borrow from the library, but the act of borrowing the item does not in itself create a copy of that item. Comparing P2P networks to libraries in this way is a fallacy - there is a definite difference (note - this does not mean that I support the RIAA in this in any way, I just think that if you are going to try to argue against what they are doing you should use valid arguments - and yes, I realize the post was a joke, but I'm sure there are a lot of people thinking or saying the same thing who do not think it is a joke).
Cell phone use isn't banned by the FAA, but by the FCC in 1991, citing "cell phones' potential to interfere with ground-to-ground cellular transmission." Another web site explains, "at altitude, a cell phone will light up multiple cell towers and may cause the system to lock up."
This is exactly what we were told when I was taking a class in civil aviation (it was basically an expanded groundschool that I took at my university - preparation for the written portion of the pilot's license exam). Cell phones work great in planes - in fact, my professor suggested that they are a very good emergency backup communications device (i.e., if all of your radios fail for some reason). The trouble is, when you use your phone at altitude you often have a connection to multiple cell towers. This in itself isn't a problem, as you are oftentimes on multiple cell towers even when on the ground. The trouble is that aircraft often move very quickly, and not only are you on multiple cell towers at any one time, you are moving from cell to cell very rapidly. This can cause problems as the system tries to figure out how to route your signal. It works, but you tend to use up more than your share of processing power. As a disclaimer, I have to say that I can't really be in a position to affirm or deny this, but it seems reasonable to me. While the professor had his doctorate in Aero engineering, he seemed to know pretty well what he was talking about.
Drivers around here had better not go that fast--they simply lack the skill, the attention span, and the courtesy to go that fast without damaging or destroying large quantities of human life and property.
I know what you mean. I think it is more dumb luck than anything that prevents there being catastrophic accidents on the highways here every day. And it always seems to be the @#$!ing SUVs that go the fastest.
I think you missed a key point - he's not talking about mileage, he's talking about a REALTIME miles-per-gallon display. That is the instantaneous mpg your vehicle is traveling at a moment in time. I have a 2000 Jetta with every option, and unless he added it afterwards, your brother does NOT have this option.:)
Actually, I am very much correct in both cases. Our 1988 Ford Aerostar, which was the top-of-the-line XLT model, came with a "Trip Computer", which, among other things, had a setting called "instant economy", which told you current MPG (updated about once every tenth of a second). Likewise, my father's 94 Jetta GLX had a similar function, as well as my brother's 2000 Jetta GLX (both entirely stock, although the trip computer stuff on the 94 never really worked until the mechanic noticed a crack in the computer's mainboard - after it was repaired trip functions worked perfectly, as did the outside temp reading which had always refused to work above ~40 degrees). Both are reached using the multifunction control on the steering column, I think on the right side (my 97 Jetta does not have this feature, and I haven't driven one of their cars in a while, so I don't remember exactly how to get to it). I suggest you look at your manual (assuming you do have a GLX with everything) - I have driven my brother's car on several long trips, often times sitting there watching the instant MPG as I go along. Both the Aeorstar and the Jettas also display average economy, and I believe the Jettas also have an average trip economy (that resets with the automatic trip reset, not the manual one - the one that resets after the car has been turned off for a certain period of time).
It can be very interesting watching the instant econ setting, I rember towing our boat up into the mountains witht he Aerostar with a constant 5 or 6 MPG. Then you go down a hill, let off the gas entirely, and it jumps up to 99 mpg (the highest reading it had).
The dash gauges are a pretty informative mix of what's going on. It has a instant mpg bar that goes up n down as you drive, as well as displaying the overall mpg for a trip mileage. (2 of these). One I have on total vehicle mileage so I can see what I'm getting as I continue driving. The other I use for various trips to see what different types of driving produce fuel economy wise.
My parent's 1988 Ford Aerostar had all that. My dad's 95 VW Jetta had that, as does my brother's 2000 Jetta. I'm sort of amused that most people haven't had this kind of thing for years.
If things had gone the other way, I'd more than likely be selling a lot of you unlimited long distance service for 30 bucks a month, and expanding worldwide.
Just as well you didn't then; for $30 a month I get all the local and long distance I need on my cell phone. Sounds like the company would have failed anyway (not that it didn't sound like a good idea).
Well, one of the first mice I ever used was one of those screwy Pen-Mice. It was an attempt to make the mouse similar to a known technology, a pen; but it failed miserably. You had to hold it just so, the buttons were annoying to work with, and the cord (which came out the top) was forever in the way. It was an interesting concept, but just wasn't right.
I had a similar experience with my first mouse-like pointing device, which was actually a light pen I think for the C64 (sort of similar to the idea behind light guns, but you hold it up against the screen). You actually used it on the monitor, to point and draw and stuff. It had one button, and as you can imagine, it was rather uncomfortable to use it on a vertical surface like a monitor, not to mention the cord sticking out the top. Also, it only worked in its own little drawing program. Kind of neat, though.
And actually you can move right on in to California now, since the retarded state gov is basically trying abolish all immigration law. Come on over!
I can only assume you are referring to the governor signing a bill whcih allows illegal immigrants to obtain a driver's license. I'd guess it will have very little, if any, real effect. You do realize that this is merely a return to how things were before 1994 (legislation enacted in 1993 first prohibited illegal immigrants from obtaining a license in California)?
I 100% agree. It is sad that people will base opinions of regular honda accord driving normal employees on the actions of yacht owning mansion dwelling executives.
They drive Honda Accords? I'm definitely not hiring any of those.
I don't see where the submitter gets off claiming that MR introduced us to *any* new cinematic technique, except perhaps for the fight scene with 200 Agent Smiths and not only was that done poorly but the whole thing could have been avoided if only Neo had done another one of his Superman jumps. In other words, it was gratuitous.
I agree entirely. MR just took the same effects from the firtr movie and made them bigger. In most cases, like with the Agent Smiths fight, they also made it worse. The effects worked so well in the first movie partly because they were often new to the audience, but because while many impossible things were happening they at least looked natural. The second movie lost this - they seem to have spent a lot of time making the effects "big", but they seem to have spent very little time making sure the effects looked natural. It seems strange to say it, but the movie might have been a little more fun to watch if the special effects had been better - on par with the original, maybe (of course, it would have helped even more to have had a decent story rather than a load of pseudo-philosophical crap strung together by fight scenes).
Technology such as this would save lives, not destroy them. Im a cruz missile with a perfect radar is fired, there is 0% chance of it hitting a neighboring hospital.
Well, assuming we know which building is the hospital and which is the target. Figuring that out seems to be our biggest problem right now (umm, are you sure the Belgrade communications center is the building with all the chinese flags?).
I am somewhat unfamiliar with admissions processes outside of California, as I was never interested in leaving California. Here, race, in general, has very little to do with admisions. If you can come up with evidence to the contrary, I'd love to see it.
Race definitely shouldn't be part of the admissions process - I think that rae data should not even be collected until after a student is accepted or rejected.
As an introduction to her work, I would like to reccomend Cordelia's Honor. It has everything a good book needs - lots of futuristic SF stuff, well developed characters, a love story, fantastic battles (it takes place during an interplanetary war), political trickery... the list goes on and on.
I definitely agree with recommending Bujold's work, she is one of the best writers in any genre out there. I just wanted to comment that I feel the best place to start with her Vorkosigan books is with The Warriors Apprentice. Read a couple books focused on Miles, then when you read Cordelia's Honor I think it is much more fulfilling - it really makes you stop and go, "Oh! Thats what was going on!" with respect to some of the interaction between Miles and his parents.
Maybe I've been spoiled by Asimov and Clarke (Rama was great, even though the ending made me want to puke). Certainly, the world of SciFi sucks right now. It's not because the books describe flying though space in the year 2003. George Orwell wrote 1984 knowing that the time was irrelevant, and its' still a great and fairly popular book because of the character development
There is still plenty of good SciFi, you just have to know where to look. L.E. Modesitt has some great stuff (try The Octagonal Raven), Timothy Zahn is very good, and not just for the Star Wars books he did (try Icarus Hunt or Angelmass, or the Conqueror's trilogy). I just read a pretty good book called Gridlinked, don't remeber the name of the author. Iain M. Banks is excellent, at least most of his books (My favourite so far is Consider Phlebas). There is tons of great Sci Fi out there today, probably as much as or more than at any other time. Asimov and Heinlein are great, but there are very good writers out there today as well. You just need to tear yourself away from endless Forgotten Realms books to find it (and you complain about a lack of good scifi? At least name some decent fantasy).
Anyhow, I understand that we live in reality and that these things happen. I just don't think that most geeks would want to be a part of it if they really thought it over, which is why I said what I did.
Meaning, of course, that you don't think those involved in the project thought it over. Somehow I doubt you are correct about that. Although I am not involved in the competition, and I have, in fact, never done much of anything that might contribute to our wars (beyond paying taxes). However, given the opportunity to participate in something like this, I would jump at the chance. It looks like fun, it would be very interesting, and possibly eventually even of benefit to the U.S. military. While I tend to lean more to the left than the right, I also feel that it is much better to be the side with the technological advantage than the side without it. And I am not naive enough to think that if we stop developing new technologies for killing people efficiently others will follow suit. If we stop and let that technological edge evaporate, it will be our side losing hundreds or thousands of troops to the other side rather than vice versa. It is far better, in my opinion, for my side to have the big guns because I trust my side to use them more responsibly than the other side - otherwise I wouldn't be on the side I am.
[now entering rant mode] On a related note, I am no war junky either. I detest Bush for getting us into the war in Iraq, which is turning out exactly how many of us predicted it would - a quick and relatively painless victory in the "war", followed by what appears to be just the beginning of a long and bloody "peace". I, like many others, was asking "What the hell do we plan to do once we take Iraq, surely somebody has a plan?" Well, apparently not. Though I would hate to be a Bush supporter right now, I'm not sure I would be able to handle the embarrassment of running and begging for help from the U.N. after ignoring them going into the war. Its pathetic, and embarrassing to the American people. I think congress jumped the gun a little on presidential impeachment - they were a few years premature. [rant mode terminated]
Re:It's not the size. It's how you use it.
on
Goodbye, Galileo
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When it comes to real engineering, the fewer resources you need to meet your goals, the better of a job you did.
Reminds me of what one of my CivE (yeah, I don't know what I'm doing here either) profs said to us (though he was probably quoting someone else): Engineering is the art of building something for $1 that any idiot can build for $2.
We could use this software definately to grade essays on technical merit and grammar, but what about creativity and content?
I'm not sure it would even be very useful for technical merit and grammar. Beyond the incredibly mundane details of simple punctuation, there are just so hugely many different ways to structure English writing correctly that it would have to be one hell of an advanced grading system to be of much use. Granted, the grammar checker in MS Word probably isn't exactly state of the art, but have you ever gotten a good suggestion from it (beyond removing doubled words)? I doubt that the software would be of much use beyond finding very simple grammatical errors, and spelling errors. Though I suppose it would be great for counting words for teachers/professors too stupid to have a meaningful grading system.
I don't see the essays themselves being dehumanized, but what I do look forward to is the day a middle school student doesn't receive a bad grade just because his book report was on the "Theory of Relativity" and the teacher couldn't comprehend the subject. (This is from experience)
Most likely the middle school student thought that since he(or she) was writing on such an amazingly advanced subject for their age that the quality of their writing shouldn't matter (or, rather, they were so impressed with themselves for writing on that subject that they didn't even realize they wrote poorly). I've met quite a number of people with similar viewpoints, most of whom realize at some point that their writing was, in fact, rather poor for the essay in question, even if in general it is quite good.
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Well, according to the CIA Factbook, the current population of China is about 1.3 billion. If 10% of the population used computers, that would be about 130 million people, or a little less than half the population of the U.S. and IIRC, about the same number of people as are on the internet here. So yeah, it would be very significant, but it wouldn't exactly eclipse the west.
What, as opposed to the annoying freaks not on cell phones who think we want to listen to their conversations? Using a cell phone in a restaurant is only rude to those you are sitting with, unless you speak very loudly into your phone. Its not like it is any different than talking to the people around you, as far as everyone else in the restaurant is concernced.
I think you missed the important part here - a file on a P2P network is not available for borrowing, as items in a library are, but they are available for copying. When you download something it does not disappear from the hard drive of the person you got it from. Now, you could copy an item you borrow from the library, but the act of borrowing the item does not in itself create a copy of that item. Comparing P2P networks to libraries in this way is a fallacy - there is a definite difference (note - this does not mean that I support the RIAA in this in any way, I just think that if you are going to try to argue against what they are doing you should use valid arguments - and yes, I realize the post was a joke, but I'm sure there are a lot of people thinking or saying the same thing who do not think it is a joke).
Perhaps because the idea is to save money, not spend more money. Besides, I don't think Apple has a real strong line of database servers.
This is exactly what we were told when I was taking a class in civil aviation (it was basically an expanded groundschool that I took at my university - preparation for the written portion of the pilot's license exam). Cell phones work great in planes - in fact, my professor suggested that they are a very good emergency backup communications device (i.e., if all of your radios fail for some reason). The trouble is, when you use your phone at altitude you often have a connection to multiple cell towers. This in itself isn't a problem, as you are oftentimes on multiple cell towers even when on the ground. The trouble is that aircraft often move very quickly, and not only are you on multiple cell towers at any one time, you are moving from cell to cell very rapidly. This can cause problems as the system tries to figure out how to route your signal. It works, but you tend to use up more than your share of processing power.
As a disclaimer, I have to say that I can't really be in a position to affirm or deny this, but it seems reasonable to me. While the professor had his doctorate in Aero engineering, he seemed to know pretty well what he was talking about.
I know what you mean. I think it is more dumb luck than anything that prevents there being catastrophic accidents on the highways here every day. And it always seems to be the @#$!ing SUVs that go the fastest.
Actually, I am very much correct in both cases. Our 1988 Ford Aerostar, which was the top-of-the-line XLT model, came with a "Trip Computer", which, among other things, had a setting called "instant economy", which told you current MPG (updated about once every tenth of a second).
Likewise, my father's 94 Jetta GLX had a similar function, as well as my brother's 2000 Jetta GLX (both entirely stock, although the trip computer stuff on the 94 never really worked until the mechanic noticed a crack in the computer's mainboard - after it was repaired trip functions worked perfectly, as did the outside temp reading which had always refused to work above ~40 degrees). Both are reached using the multifunction control on the steering column, I think on the right side (my 97 Jetta does not have this feature, and I haven't driven one of their cars in a while, so I don't remember exactly how to get to it). I suggest you look at your manual (assuming you do have a GLX with everything) - I have driven my brother's car on several long trips, often times sitting there watching the instant MPG as I go along. Both the Aeorstar and the Jettas also display average economy, and I believe the Jettas also have an average trip economy (that resets with the automatic trip reset, not the manual one - the one that resets after the car has been turned off for a certain period of time).
It can be very interesting watching the instant econ setting, I rember towing our boat up into the mountains witht he Aerostar with a constant 5 or 6 MPG. Then you go down a hill, let off the gas entirely, and it jumps up to 99 mpg (the highest reading it had).
65-70 is aggressive? Wow, what state do yo live in? Around here (Northern California) if you aren't going 80 you'd better be in the right lane.
That should be Turbo Direct Injection. Type of diesel engine.
My parent's 1988 Ford Aerostar had all that. My dad's 95 VW Jetta had that, as does my brother's 2000 Jetta. I'm sort of amused that most people haven't had this kind of thing for years.
Just as well you didn't then; for $30 a month I get all the local and long distance I need on my cell phone. Sounds like the company would have failed anyway (not that it didn't sound like a good idea).
I had a similar experience with my first mouse-like pointing device, which was actually a light pen I think for the C64 (sort of similar to the idea behind light guns, but you hold it up against the screen). You actually used it on the monitor, to point and draw and stuff. It had one button, and as you can imagine, it was rather uncomfortable to use it on a vertical surface like a monitor, not to mention the cord sticking out the top. Also, it only worked in its own little drawing program. Kind of neat, though.
I can only assume you are referring to the governor signing a bill whcih allows illegal immigrants to obtain a driver's license. I'd guess it will have very little, if any, real effect. You do realize that this is merely a return to how things were before 1994 (legislation enacted in 1993 first prohibited illegal immigrants from obtaining a license in California)?
He put personal gain over the community? The evil capitalist pig! Come, comrades, let us teach him a lesson!
They drive Honda Accords? I'm definitely not hiring any of those.
I agree entirely. MR just took the same effects from the firtr movie and made them bigger. In most cases, like with the Agent Smiths fight, they also made it worse. The effects worked so well in the first movie partly because they were often new to the audience, but because while many impossible things were happening they at least looked natural. The second movie lost this - they seem to have spent a lot of time making the effects "big", but they seem to have spent very little time making sure the effects looked natural. It seems strange to say it, but the movie might have been a little more fun to watch if the special effects had been better - on par with the original, maybe (of course, it would have helped even more to have had a decent story rather than a load of pseudo-philosophical crap strung together by fight scenes).
Well, assuming we know which building is the hospital and which is the target. Figuring that out seems to be our biggest problem right now (umm, are you sure the Belgrade communications center is the building with all the chinese flags?).
They kinda suck as straws. Well, they don't really suck, but thats the problem.
I am somewhat unfamiliar with admissions processes outside of California, as I was never interested in leaving California. Here, race, in general, has very little to do with admisions. If you can come up with evidence to the contrary, I'd love to see it.
Race definitely shouldn't be part of the admissions process - I think that rae data should not even be collected until after a student is accepted or rejected.
I definitely agree with recommending Bujold's work, she is one of the best writers in any genre out there. I just wanted to comment that I feel the best place to start with her Vorkosigan books is with The Warriors Apprentice. Read a couple books focused on Miles, then when you read Cordelia's Honor I think it is much more fulfilling - it really makes you stop and go, "Oh! Thats what was going on!" with respect to some of the interaction between Miles and his parents.
There is still plenty of good SciFi, you just have to know where to look. L.E. Modesitt has some great stuff (try The Octagonal Raven), Timothy Zahn is very good, and not just for the Star Wars books he did (try Icarus Hunt or Angelmass, or the Conqueror's trilogy). I just read a pretty good book called Gridlinked, don't remeber the name of the author. Iain M. Banks is excellent, at least most of his books (My favourite so far is Consider Phlebas). There is tons of great Sci Fi out there today, probably as much as or more than at any other time. Asimov and Heinlein are great, but there are very good writers out there today as well. You just need to tear yourself away from endless Forgotten Realms books to find it (and you complain about a lack of good scifi? At least name some decent fantasy).
Meaning, of course, that you don't think those involved in the project thought it over. Somehow I doubt you are correct about that.
Although I am not involved in the competition, and I have, in fact, never done much of anything that might contribute to our wars (beyond paying taxes). However, given the opportunity to participate in something like this, I would jump at the chance. It looks like fun, it would be very interesting, and possibly eventually even of benefit to the U.S. military. While I tend to lean more to the left than the right, I also feel that it is much better to be the side with the technological advantage than the side without it. And I am not naive enough to think that if we stop developing new technologies for killing people efficiently others will follow suit. If we stop and let that technological edge evaporate, it will be our side losing hundreds or thousands of troops to the other side rather than vice versa. It is far better, in my opinion, for my side to have the big guns because I trust my side to use them more responsibly than the other side - otherwise I wouldn't be on the side I am.
[now entering rant mode]
On a related note, I am no war junky either. I detest Bush for getting us into the war in Iraq, which is turning out exactly how many of us predicted it would - a quick and relatively painless victory in the "war", followed by what appears to be just the beginning of a long and bloody "peace". I, like many others, was asking "What the hell do we plan to do once we take Iraq, surely somebody has a plan?" Well, apparently not. Though I would hate to be a Bush supporter right now, I'm not sure I would be able to handle the embarrassment of running and begging for help from the U.N. after ignoring them going into the war. Its pathetic, and embarrassing to the American people. I think congress jumped the gun a little on presidential impeachment - they were a few years premature.
[rant mode terminated]
Reminds me of what one of my CivE (yeah, I don't know what I'm doing here either) profs said to us (though he was probably quoting someone else):
Engineering is the art of building something for $1 that any idiot can build for $2.
I'm not sure it would even be very useful for technical merit and grammar. Beyond the incredibly mundane details of simple punctuation, there are just so hugely many different ways to structure English writing correctly that it would have to be one hell of an advanced grading system to be of much use. Granted, the grammar checker in MS Word probably isn't exactly state of the art, but have you ever gotten a good suggestion from it (beyond removing doubled words)? I doubt that the software would be of much use beyond finding very simple grammatical errors, and spelling errors. Though I suppose it would be great for counting words for teachers/professors too stupid to have a meaningful grading system.
Most likely the middle school student thought that since he(or she) was writing on such an amazingly advanced subject for their age that the quality of their writing shouldn't matter (or, rather, they were so impressed with themselves for writing on that subject that they didn't even realize they wrote poorly). I've met quite a number of people with similar viewpoints, most of whom realize at some point that their writing was, in fact, rather poor for the essay in question, even if in general it is quite good.