Excuseth me, but I have to go visit the Olde Shoppe now.
I'm all for literacy and correct grammar/spelling, but anyone who doesn't think English is a constantly evolving language obviously has never read a book more than 20 years olde.
The cell then started reproducing. They didn't create the cell.
You're right, they didn't create any cells at all. Viruses are acellular organisms.
I'm just worried about mutations and how they will develop. You can't create life and expect it to reproduce itself without change over time. Pretty soon it'll discover that human skin is much more plentiful than the chemical toxins it was eating, and it'll change its diet.
Well, we've had viruses on the planet for as long as we've been around, and they mutate constantly. Yet, we're still here. Our immune system might have some small part to play in this. Besides, there's nothing inherent in a man-made virus that would make it accquire a taste for human flesh any more than natural viruses do.
Yikes, what's with all the Luddites who never took a biology/chemistry class popping up whenever one of these stories comes along? You didn't ALL just take computer science, right?
All the trees and plants suffocate and die, but that might not happen before the atmosphere goes up in flames since that carbon dioxide is being turned into hydrogen.
1. As other posters have already pointed out, you can't convert CO2 into H2, short of nuclear transmutation, ie: alchemy. We can hardly do this in labs to any great extent, so I doubt someone is going to create a virus that can. (If anyone knows of actual commercial element transmutation on a large scale, and NOT radioactive, please correct me. And no, you can't have radioactive hydrogen:)
2. Even if this were possible, hydrogen released into the atmosphere doesn't tend to stick around very long. It either escapes into space (gravity just isn't strong enough on Earth to maintain a hydrogen atmosphere), or quickly combines with ambient oxygen. You'll never get any siginificant build-up of hydrogen, which would be required in order for the atmosphere to "go up in flames".
3. They aren't planning on a bug that does all three of these things at once. Check the sentence, and remember your boolean logic: capture carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, produce hydrogen or clean the environment. OR != AND.
Your concerns are the furthest thing from practical that I've ever seen, as introductory high school chemistry/physics pretty much negates them.
Or just use WMP 6.4, which is still included with every copy of Windows. You just have to fight REALLY hard to have file associations working properly under XP:(
The RIAA won't be giving that up anytime soon without a revolt from one of it's multinational members.
Good. Wal-Mart is one of the biggest music retailers in the world (although I'm not sure how far out of North America they've expanded, if at all).
The only problem is, I can't see Wal-Mart (of all places!) actually fighting the establishment anymore. Their customers are far too docile. A coupla decades ago maybe, but they have near-monopoly status these days in some areas. And soccer Moms and Dads don't exactly care about DRM:(
Toys R Us has been selling those things North America wide for many years now. So has Wal-Mart.
They're nothing like the posted story at all. Basically, you're talking incredibly low quality sound, and afaik not even complete songs. They use similar technologies to those talking Simpsons toys, or the Star Wars Commreader - basically, take the cheapest solid state storage medium you can find, cram as much as you can onto it by reducing the audio quality down to almost noise, hook up some cheap DAC and a 30 cent Radio Shack speaker, and sell it as a TOY for pre-teens.
Just slightly different from a 1 gigabyte storage medium intended to hold CD quality albums played back on actual stereo equipment.
Sounds like Skinner's neat little work of fiction, Walden II.
The premise is just what you describe, a society set up so that the crummy jobs that no one wants "pay" more, so there's more incentive to do them. You have to work less at them to be doing your share, so it's up to you: do a lot of fun work, or a little not so fun work.
The problem, of course, is that this really only can apply to menial tasks that any unskilled person could be trained to do.
Skinner added some sort of ranking/qualification system, to make sure unqualified/unskilled people didn't end up being surgeons, etc.
Personally, I have no problems with studios releasing 18 versions of a movie. You're stupid enough to buy them, or just plain think they're worth your money, that's your right. And theirs to sell it to you, in a free country.
But anyone who thinks it's not about money, ask yourself this:
How many fans do you know that *still* bought both DVD versions? There are the collectors, the 2 people that didn't know about the SE, and the hordes and hordes of fans who didn't want to wait several months to own the movie.
Same reason that people will pay $15 (or whatever) to see a movie once, then another $15 (or more) to own the DVD a few months later.
It's ALL about maximizing the income from these things. (some) Marketers have degrees in psychology for a reason.
And there's absolutely nothing wrong with this. You're free to buy, or not buy, as you so choose.
Me? I'm waiting for a nice Terminator (1-3) movie box set, and have been for a few years now. Same with Alien - I can wait till AvP comes out, in all its suckitude:)
When you go to www.iopener.net, there's a nice graphic telling you that for support of your iOpener (damn you Apple, I can't spell anything anymore!), call your ISP.
Microsoft's point is fundamentally correct however: there are no serious Linux viruses not because they are impossible on Linux, but because Linux just isn't popular enough yet to make it worth the virus writer's time.
Just to re-phrase that a little better:
"there are no serious attempts at Linux viruses not because they are impossible on Linux, but because Linux just isn't popular enough yet to make it worth the virus writer's time."
If Linux magically took over 90% of the desktop tomorrow, sure, there would be an assload of activity going towards writing viruses for it.
The damage that would come out of this is less certain.
In order to create such wonderful things as Blaster or Slammer in this imaginary Linux world, we'd have to see every major distro start shipping with an SSH daemon or Apache running by default. And running as root, or a lot more local root exploits.
Are you joking, or just don't ever watch the news?
CNN was broadcasting pretty much daily the protests that were happening before, duing, and after the latest Iraq "war".
It's violent, it's controversial, and it keeps people watching. Don't kid yourself, US media will show that sort of material any chance they get.
Comparing the weak "rah-rah USA" reports we get to the "we'll kill you and your family if you broadcast anything that makes us look bad" that people get in China is just plain sick. It's leagues away from what you have in the US.
Or did you also miss the "Clinton boinked his intern", "GWB smoked crack", "GWB's kids are alcoholics", "Reagan is an astrological nutcase", "GB senior lied about taxes"... ALL of which were big, daily news stories on CNN.
I'd like to agree with you, because you make sense.
Then I look at how much US culture and society has changed in the past 2 years.
Small example, but to me, the terrorists had already won when the most recognizable landmark and tourist attraction in the United States (she's green and in the water for anyone not on the ball yet) is closed indefinitely.
The very symbol of freedom, and no one's free to visit it.
And I know people who've driven 35 years without a seatbelt and are still walking just fine. I'll still wear one, thank you very much.
"Shit happens" no matter what you drive. But I'd rather be surrounded by armor if I hit something. It's all a matter of degree. You can't pull the 2 extremes out of an argument and say "see?".
I think it's pretty well documented that driving a motorcycle is inherently more dangerous than driving a car. Should it stop people using them if they're willing to take the risk? Not on your life.
Just don't get too mad at your insurance company:)
As far as weight goes, I'm curious what you'd consider an alternative device.
A CD player is bigger, by definition, than an iPod. Much bigger. A CD being twice as wide as an iPod and all that. I'm pretty sure every discman on the planet is heavier, too, although I can't say I've weighed them all. I've also never owned a discman that could get 6 hours off a pair of batteries, but ymmv.
So the only other option I've seen is flash-based players, which, while light, you're lucky to get a couple of hours of music onto unless you spend more on memory than an iPod would have cost in the first place. You mentioned battery life, so I assume you want something that holds at least 6 hours of music, which is easily 500MB at any decent bitrate.
Every other hard-drive based player I've ever seen has been both bigger and heavier than the iPod. Hell, just look at the old Nomads. I realize the newer ones are smaller, but I've yet to see anything as tiny as the iPod (one of its biggest selling points if you ask me).
So what would you suggest is a viable alternative?
1. If six hours isn't enough, take an airline power adapter with you and plug it in.
Yeah, and in any case, if you're regularly going on > 6 hour plane flights, something tells me you could afford a spare iPod or 3. Or the external power packs Belkin has, listed right on Apple's site.
Are there really people out there who sit on a plane doing *nothing* but listen to music for 10 hours at a time? No laptop, nothing?
For that matter, find me a laptop that has > 6 hours battery life. Then play your mp3s off of that:)
Slashdot Mirror
/me slaps head.
:)
Duh.
Thanks
I've got a ton of friends, several hot girlfriends
:)
Followed by this sig:
Geek Girls Naked! [ccbill.com]
No further comment needed
Excuseth me, but I have to go visit the Olde Shoppe now.
I'm all for literacy and correct grammar/spelling, but anyone who doesn't think English is a constantly evolving language obviously has never read a book more than 20 years olde.
The cell then started reproducing. They didn't create the cell.
You're right, they didn't create any cells at all. Viruses are acellular organisms.
I'm just worried about mutations and how they will develop. You can't create life and expect it to reproduce itself without change over time. Pretty soon it'll discover that human skin is much more plentiful than the chemical toxins it was eating, and it'll change its diet.
Well, we've had viruses on the planet for as long as we've been around, and they mutate constantly. Yet, we're still here. Our immune system might have some small part to play in this. Besides, there's nothing inherent in a man-made virus that would make it accquire a taste for human flesh any more than natural viruses do.
Yikes, what's with all the Luddites who never took a biology/chemistry class popping up whenever one of these stories comes along? You didn't ALL just take computer science, right?
All the trees and plants suffocate and die, but that might not happen before the atmosphere goes up in flames since that carbon dioxide is being turned into hydrogen.
:)
1. As other posters have already pointed out, you can't convert CO2 into H2, short of nuclear transmutation, ie: alchemy. We can hardly do this in labs to any great extent, so I doubt someone is going to create a virus that can. (If anyone knows of actual commercial element transmutation on a large scale, and NOT radioactive, please correct me. And no, you can't have radioactive hydrogen
2. Even if this were possible, hydrogen released into the atmosphere doesn't tend to stick around very long. It either escapes into space (gravity just isn't strong enough on Earth to maintain a hydrogen atmosphere), or quickly combines with ambient oxygen. You'll never get any siginificant build-up of hydrogen, which would be required in order for the atmosphere to "go up in flames".
3. They aren't planning on a bug that does all three of these things at once. Check the sentence, and remember your boolean logic: capture carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, produce hydrogen or clean the environment. OR != AND.
Your concerns are the furthest thing from practical that I've ever seen, as introductory high school chemistry/physics pretty much negates them.
Or just use WMP 6.4, which is still included with every copy of Windows. You just have to fight REALLY hard to have file associations working properly under XP :(
The RIAA won't be giving that up anytime soon without a revolt from one of it's multinational members.
:(
Good. Wal-Mart is one of the biggest music retailers in the world (although I'm not sure how far out of North America they've expanded, if at all).
The only problem is, I can't see Wal-Mart (of all places!) actually fighting the establishment anymore. Their customers are far too docile. A coupla decades ago maybe, but they have near-monopoly status these days in some areas. And soccer Moms and Dads don't exactly care about DRM
Toys R Us has been selling those things North America wide for many years now. So has Wal-Mart.
They're nothing like the posted story at all. Basically, you're talking incredibly low quality sound, and afaik not even complete songs. They use similar technologies to those talking Simpsons toys, or the Star Wars Commreader - basically, take the cheapest solid state storage medium you can find, cram as much as you can onto it by reducing the audio quality down to almost noise, hook up some cheap DAC and a 30 cent Radio Shack speaker, and sell it as a TOY for pre-teens.
Just slightly different from a 1 gigabyte storage medium intended to hold CD quality albums played back on actual stereo equipment.
Sounds like Skinner's neat little work of fiction, Walden II.
:)
The premise is just what you describe, a society set up so that the crummy jobs that no one wants "pay" more, so there's more incentive to do them. You have to work less at them to be doing your share, so it's up to you: do a lot of fun work, or a little not so fun work.
The problem, of course, is that this really only can apply to menial tasks that any unskilled person could be trained to do.
Skinner added some sort of ranking/qualification system, to make sure unqualified/unskilled people didn't end up being surgeons, etc.
Think "hazard pay" for being a garbageman
free exhibition only passes using the FREE promotional code.
Which is...?
if it's chipped or broken each piece still retains the entire holographic image
:)
So if some day we have movies, music, software, whatever released on this...
Wouldn't it possible to buy one copy, then chip off a few million copies?
Keen
Fast Page, EDO, SDRAM, DDR, Rambus...
On the non-volatile side of things, we have floppy disks, high capacity floppy disks, CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD+-R, DVD+-RW...
You know, all of the things you use were at one time some press release, years (or even decades) away from consumer availability.
Trust me, kids, back when I got my Vic-20 pretty much all of this seemed like science fiction, and like *nothing* ever actually came out.
Then I waited long enough to see research turn into the real goods.
Anyone in the know care to comment on why I haven't seen a single Legolas toy/action figure/merchandising item for ROTK?
:)
Does he die REALLY early in the movie or something?
(Oh, before I get modded +1, Funny - I've never made it all the way through the books
Personally, I have no problems with studios releasing 18 versions of a movie. You're stupid enough to buy them, or just plain think they're worth your money, that's your right. And theirs to sell it to you, in a free country.
:)
But anyone who thinks it's not about money, ask yourself this:
How many fans do you know that *still* bought both DVD versions? There are the collectors, the 2 people that didn't know about the SE, and the hordes and hordes of fans who didn't want to wait several months to own the movie.
Same reason that people will pay $15 (or whatever) to see a movie once, then another $15 (or more) to own the DVD a few months later.
It's ALL about maximizing the income from these things. (some) Marketers have degrees in psychology for a reason.
And there's absolutely nothing wrong with this. You're free to buy, or not buy, as you so choose.
Me? I'm waiting for a nice Terminator (1-3) movie box set, and have been for a few years now. Same with Alien - I can wait till AvP comes out, in all its suckitude
When you go to www.iopener.net, there's a nice graphic telling you that for support of your iOpener (damn you Apple, I can't spell anything anymore!), call your ISP.
Or visit www.iopener.net.
How do you keep a moron occupied for hours?
how can you not have any sort of resolution of a character that has played a key component in the three movies?
:)
I'd say he was only been a key compnent in two movies, now
I'm 100% with you on this. Sometimes there are nice side benefits when free software is actually better, too.
:)
Makes me wonder what would happen if by magic, all software piracy was suddenly impossible. I think we'd see a lot more people using free software.
I don't know if that counts as ironic or not, but it's funny all the same
Microsoft's point is fundamentally correct however: there are no serious Linux viruses not because they are impossible on Linux, but because Linux just isn't popular enough yet to make it worth the virus writer's time.
Just to re-phrase that a little better:
"there are no serious attempts at Linux viruses not because they are impossible on Linux, but because Linux just isn't popular enough yet to make it worth the virus writer's time."
If Linux magically took over 90% of the desktop tomorrow, sure, there would be an assload of activity going towards writing viruses for it.
The damage that would come out of this is less certain.
In order to create such wonderful things as Blaster or Slammer in this imaginary Linux world, we'd have to see every major distro start shipping with an SSH daemon or Apache running by default. And running as root, or a lot more local root exploits.
It's certainly possible, just a lot less likely.
Are you joking, or just don't ever watch the news?
CNN was broadcasting pretty much daily the protests that were happening before, duing, and after the latest Iraq "war".
It's violent, it's controversial, and it keeps people watching. Don't kid yourself, US media will show that sort of material any chance they get.
Comparing the weak "rah-rah USA" reports we get to the "we'll kill you and your family if you broadcast anything that makes us look bad" that people get in China is just plain sick. It's leagues away from what you have in the US.
Or did you also miss the "Clinton boinked his intern", "GWB smoked crack", "GWB's kids are alcoholics", "Reagan is an astrological nutcase", "GB senior lied about taxes"... ALL of which were big, daily news stories on CNN.
Nah, Jan Michael Vincent had enough skill to fly a helicopter.
:)
It's his acting skills that were lacking
The best thing about software, when someone copies it, you still get to keep it...
:)
Please tell that to the BSA
(Oh, and while you're at it, the RIAA, MPAA, and any other A I've left out)
I'd like to agree with you, because you make sense.
Then I look at how much US culture and society has changed in the past 2 years.
Small example, but to me, the terrorists had already won when the most recognizable landmark and tourist attraction in the United States (she's green and in the water for anyone not on the ball yet) is closed indefinitely.
The very symbol of freedom, and no one's free to visit it.
And I know people who've driven 35 years without a seatbelt and are still walking just fine. I'll still wear one, thank you very much.
:)
"Shit happens" no matter what you drive. But I'd rather be surrounded by armor if I hit something. It's all a matter of degree. You can't pull the 2 extremes out of an argument and say "see?".
I think it's pretty well documented that driving a motorcycle is inherently more dangerous than driving a car. Should it stop people using them if they're willing to take the risk? Not on your life.
Just don't get too mad at your insurance company
As far as weight goes, I'm curious what you'd consider an alternative device.
A CD player is bigger, by definition, than an iPod. Much bigger. A CD being twice as wide as an iPod and all that. I'm pretty sure every discman on the planet is heavier, too, although I can't say I've weighed them all. I've also never owned a discman that could get 6 hours off a pair of batteries, but ymmv.
So the only other option I've seen is flash-based players, which, while light, you're lucky to get a couple of hours of music onto unless you spend more on memory than an iPod would have cost in the first place. You mentioned battery life, so I assume you want something that holds at least 6 hours of music, which is easily 500MB at any decent bitrate.
Every other hard-drive based player I've ever seen has been both bigger and heavier than the iPod. Hell, just look at the old Nomads. I realize the newer ones are smaller, but I've yet to see anything as tiny as the iPod (one of its biggest selling points if you ask me).
So what would you suggest is a viable alternative?
1. If six hours isn't enough, take an airline power adapter with you and plug it in.
:)
Yeah, and in any case, if you're regularly going on > 6 hour plane flights, something tells me you could afford a spare iPod or 3. Or the external power packs Belkin has, listed right on Apple's site.
Are there really people out there who sit on a plane doing *nothing* but listen to music for 10 hours at a time? No laptop, nothing?
For that matter, find me a laptop that has > 6 hours battery life. Then play your mp3s off of that