What is impossible with _current_ technology is anyone getting there in one generation (or any sane number of generations).
But if you could muster the political will, you could build a multi-generation colony ship within the next 50 years. It would be INCREDIBLY expensive and dangerous, but would only require incremental advances to current technology.
Specifically:
* Nuclear propulsion & power (this has been looked into an nixed several times already for political reasons)
* A structure built in orbit WAY bigger than the space station
* Better environmental engineering than Biosphere II (with a way to recycle EVERYTHING)
* A highly disciplined crew with a zelaous (and carefully crafted) survival/colonization ideology that can be passed on through generations [this will probably not be a nice ideology--zero tolerance for crime, strict birth control, eugenics, etc. It would also have to be adaptable enough to ensure survival]
The question then becomes
1) Where do you go? 2) What do you do when you get there?
It would be nice to let the colonists get on their way but have the know-how and capability to integrate new technologies as they get developed on Earth (i.e., asteroid mining, fusion power, etc.). You'd also want the colony ship to be a giant R&D lab. [Necessity is the mother of invention, and nobody will have more necessity to figure out how to survive in space than the colonists].
With this, you might get 1-2% chance of survival. But who knows, someone might be crazy enough to try...
I was always under the impression that Aldus Photostyler was a predecessor to Photoshop--apparently it was a separate product and a competitor--this is surprising.
By the way, I _still_ use my copy of Aldus Photostyler 1.1 (1990 vintage) which fits on a floppy and has worked perfectly on every version of Windows (from 3.1 to XP Pro) without a hitch [except for the long filenames and the program's insistence on saving JPG files with a *.JIF extension, which I have taken care of with a hex editor]. It does everything important I'd want from Photoshop, and does so much faster.
I'd love to find out some day which developers were responsible for the code behind Photostyler (and what approach they used) to make it so robust...
This is interesting but not surprising. My hypothesis would be that the radioation in both cases is causing X chromosome damage, causing male zygotes (XY) to not be viable. Females (XX) have two X chromosomes, and can handle one of them being damaged a lot better.
Incidentally, this is also why you see X chromosome linked disorders a lot more frequently in boys than in girls.
I'm sorry, but this article says nothing more than it's title.
There are no:
1) Facts 2) Specific instances of any wireless company activity 3) Conspiracy theories about how they might be going about this...
While it may be true that widespread wi-fi may threaten a part of the cell phone provider business model, the article makes no mention of any company doing anything about it (save the introduction of a couple data access cards).
The article also does not address the common-sense fact that Wi-Fi (as it currently exists) can't replace the type of coverage that the cell phone company can give you.
It seems that Dvorak's editors have even lower standards than those of Slashdot!!
I've found that I'm more creative in meetings for two reasons:
1) I bring my notebook and completely phase out the meeting. The best new ideas come to me that way
2) If you're with a small group of creative people (2-3 max) who are on the same wavelength with you, you might get some synergy. We called this "Crack Smoking" at my old job. (As in: hey, take a whiff of the pipe and consider THIS idea...).
The answer may be meeting lunches (where you go out and casually discuss stuff).
[as opposed to lunch meetings whose sole purpose is to suck the life out of people faster]
As for DVD playing, he emails one of the Ubuntu maintainers and is sent a "patch" which updates his system fixing the problem and allowing the playing of DVDs. The patch is a handy script which adds the medibuntu repository and installs the libdvdcss library required to play encrypted DVDs.
You're kidding, right? If not, I recommend you get a support job for a couple of months:)
Fourth, copyright and libel abuses will be handled quite differently. There will be a zero tolerance policy toward such abuses. Moreover, the living subjects of Citizendium articles will receive much more courteous treatment than they have sometimes received from the Wikipedia community. Among other things, this might mean that they would be able to request removal of biographies about themselves-
I think this will make it more sanitized and much less informative. They also are going against a lot of "mindshare" and name recognition. When I want to know who the heck someone was, and wha tis said about them, I do one of two things
1) Google (which generally finds the Wikipedia article) 2) Go directly to Wikipedia.
Will I now go to Citizendium itself? Only if I don't like what I see on Wikipedia, perhaps.
Wikipedia has achieved a "critical mass" of users/editors. Add a couple of self-important steps and you might not get anyone. Or worse yet, you might fragment the community into two sub-critical masses...
I wish them luck...but remember: "a house divided against itself..."
Archaeologists say a culture centred in Teotihuacan, known as the City of the Gods, dominated Mesoamerica for hundreds of years during the first millennium. It is unclear what led to the society's collapse.
Clearly, the last time capsule they tried to beam into space!!
A guy who figured out how to get past some stupid piece of DRM-ware, and did some creative stuff just to test the waters when he was young. Only if I know him (or her?) well..
Casula DMCA violator...
No:
Phishers.
Script-Kiddies.
Anyone who caused actual financial damage, stole data, or broke trust that was given to him. (It's one thing to circumvent the school's computer workstation "policy" so you can pkzip your files before transferring them to your floppy. It's another thing to steal credit card numbers, send spam from work, etc.)
The second variety might be OK to contract for a "sandbox" situation where you're challenging them to break your code/machines. I would not let them inside the door of the company... [they might continue the 'challenge' after the contract is over...]
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 already does this if you turn on the right option. It uses some sort of blacklist in combination with something similar to the approach you suggest. I believe gmail already has this for the e-mails it can identify...
A favorite professor of mine once quoted "teaching is a practice in diminishing deception."
First, you teach them with an IDE so that they "get something to work." [The IDE is like the training wheels]
Then, you take the IDE away (say, in a 2nd or 3rd semester course) and let them understand what's under the hood. [You take the training wheels off]
Finally, you give them real problems and let them come up with the solution [They can drive a car, ride a motorcycle, or take mass transit]
Good example of how this was done at my school:
1st course: C++ using Visual Studio 2nd course: Data structures using UNIX (editor of choice) & gcc 3rd course: Assembly language (What's an IDE??) 4th course: Operating systems using UNIX/C++ 5th course: AI using LISP !!! (at this point, you _need_ something to do paranthesis matching:) )
I'd say keep the IDE for Java, but be sure they can actually write code on paper...
...being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."
All this "proves" is that God will reveal Himself in His own terms.
Think about it:
We do not consider the mystery of the fact that anything exists at all
We label as irrational, unscientific bigots anyone who dares question the "fact" that the universe just randomly popped into existence from nothingness
We possess the wisdom to devise a scientific, 'controlled' study to see how an intelligent, omniscient being (who knows the purpose of the study) will respond to it
And we pat ourselves on the back for being logical...
I have not read the study itself, but it really sounds like a scheme to discredit alternative energy in its entirety (by pointing out and then widely publicizing one element of it that may be impractical).
Are you surprised that such a study would come out in this environment (no pun intended)? Will you be surprised when it's spun over on over in FOX news, and used to divert research dollars and subsidies to things like "clean coal"?
Biomass (next to Hydro & Wind) is the only thing that has a chance of working. People have been using biomass for energy way before they even learned to smelt iron. I'm sure there's a way to make it work.
I repeat that I am not saying EtOH is the answer. However, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
This article is quite exemplary of why software developers (i.e., "The Slashdot Crowd") have very low credibility with management.
It is not because they dislike management (although I am sure that has some role). Nor is it because the Machievellian environment described in the article is inaccurate. It is because they prefer complaining about problems to solving them.
Here's my version:
"Politically Oriented Software Development"
0) Don't Tick Anyone Off
1) Be Smart, Willing, Able, and Nice to work with (SWAN)
2) Don't add negative value. Remember that you are being paid to help your group/company make money. If this is not kosher, move on and join the Peace Core.
2) Avoid sending e-mails whenever possible. If you must, keep them extremely neutral. Use phone calls and personal conversations for any type of discussion or criticism--technical or otherwise.
3) Make sure your work is visible, and helps your group's visibility. Well developed, flexible software that meets the customer's needs provides the ultimate visibility.
4) Disabuse yourself of the ridiculous concepts of "Customer Requirements" and "Use Cases." They will not come. If they do, they will mutate into uselessness VERY QUICKLY. Avoid people who believe in such nonsense. Instead, thoroughly analyze the problem, the customer, and the market and create your own "requirements."
5) Innovate. Do "cool stuff" (prototypes, new concepts, algorithms, research) whenever there is a lull. If you do not do this, you will either get replaced or doom yourself to a life of mediocrity--probably both. Leverage the "cool stuff" at an opportune time to help your group.
And if you think management is unnecessary (as many commenters on K5 seem to), go ahead and start your own _successful_ company.
When was the last time you threw out an electronic device because it short circuited? I have personally thrown a lot more out of obsolescence (My AppleII comes to mind...I would have kept it if I had the space...)
Two co-workers and I asked ourselves the same question during a late-night troll-session about education two years ago...
That troll-session degenerated into a meaningful volunteer opportunity at a local after-school program for struggling high-school students.
One of our greatest successes has been the creation of a computer club. We basically scrounged some machines together and taught the kids graphics/game programming (this almost generated more interest than the organization could handle).
The easiest tool we found for this is Basic4GL, a freely available, GL compliant flavor of BASIC that runs on practically anything with Windows on it. Additionally, it has support for sound and comes with some pretty impressive (yet simple) examples and tutorials.
We took the following approach:
1) Started each lesson out with a demo of something cool & graphical, talked about concepts.
2) Showed the finished product of the lesson (e.g, draw a triangle, play a sound, create a simple asteroid game, etc).
3) Walked everyone step-by-step through the creation of the program for the lesson
4) Gave students time to work
5) Went around and made sure everyone was able to complete the assignment.
Some students struggled with concepts like loops. Others took off and ran with it, creating stuff that even impressed us. Ultimately, even the struggling 6th graders were programming and understanding what they were doing, even if they did not get too far.
[To quell the inevitable questions of "why not Linux" and "why not C, Java, etc." 1) BASIC is very easy to write "hello world" in. 2) Basic4GL required no environmental setup. 3) Basic4GL was very easy to give to students to run on their parents' otherwise pristine machines.]
16He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.
Slashdot Mirror
doesn't mean it's impossible.
What is impossible with _current_ technology is anyone getting there in one generation (or any sane number of generations).
But if you could muster the political will, you could build a multi-generation colony ship within the next 50 years. It would be INCREDIBLY expensive and dangerous, but would only require incremental advances to current technology.
Specifically:
* Nuclear propulsion & power (this has been looked into an nixed several times already for political reasons)
* A structure built in orbit WAY bigger than the space station
* Better environmental engineering than Biosphere II (with a way to recycle EVERYTHING)
* A highly disciplined crew with a zelaous (and carefully crafted) survival/colonization ideology that can be passed on through generations [this will probably not be a nice ideology--zero tolerance for crime, strict birth control, eugenics, etc. It would also have to be adaptable enough to ensure survival]
The question then becomes
1) Where do you go?
2) What do you do when you get there?
It would be nice to let the colonists get on their way but have the know-how and capability to integrate new technologies as they get developed on Earth (i.e., asteroid mining, fusion power, etc.). You'd also want the colony ship to be a giant R&D lab. [Necessity is the mother of invention, and nobody will have more necessity to figure out how to survive in space than the colonists].
With this, you might get 1-2% chance of survival. But who knows, someone might be crazy enough to try...
I was always under the impression that Aldus Photostyler was a predecessor to Photoshop--apparently it was a separate product and a competitor--this is surprising.
By the way, I _still_ use my copy of Aldus Photostyler 1.1 (1990 vintage) which fits on a floppy and has worked perfectly on every version of Windows (from 3.1 to XP Pro) without a hitch [except for the long filenames and the program's insistence on saving JPG files with a *.JIF extension, which I have taken care of with a hex editor]. It does everything important I'd want from Photoshop, and does so much faster.
I'd love to find out some day which developers were responsible for the code behind Photostyler (and what approach they used) to make it so robust...
This is interesting but not surprising. My hypothesis would be that the radioation in both cases is causing X chromosome damage, causing male zygotes (XY) to not be viable. Females (XX) have two X chromosomes, and can handle one of them being damaged a lot better.
Incidentally, this is also why you see X chromosome linked disorders a lot more frequently in boys than in girls.
mod parent up -- I'm surprised that people are not shocked ath how low the amounts are. What is $2000 to a congressperson or an election?
... and started my casette player, but all I got was an
:(
"R Tape Load Error"
I'm sorry, but this article says nothing more than it's title.
There are no:
1) Facts
2) Specific instances of any wireless company activity
3) Conspiracy theories about how they might be going about this...
While it may be true that widespread wi-fi may threaten a part of the cell phone provider business model, the article makes no mention of any company doing anything about it (save the introduction of a couple data access cards).
The article also does not address the common-sense fact that Wi-Fi (as it currently exists) can't replace the type of coverage that the cell phone company can give you.
It seems that Dvorak's editors have even lower standards than those of Slashdot!!
I've found that I'm more creative in meetings for two reasons:
1) I bring my notebook and completely phase out the meeting. The best new ideas come to me that way
2) If you're with a small group of creative people (2-3 max) who are on the same wavelength with you, you might get some synergy. We called this "Crack Smoking" at my old job. (As in: hey, take a whiff of the pipe and consider THIS idea...).
The answer may be meeting lunches (where you go out and casually discuss stuff).
[as opposed to lunch meetings whose sole purpose is to suck the life out of people faster]
Metamoderator: Mod down whomever marked this 'informative.' Funny _maybe_ (that's a stretch), but INFORMATIVE??
Clearly the cause is Al Gore and his liberal whiners who are jelaous of the success of the hardworking oil industry... :)
I happen to like ANSI Commond LISP and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women!!
It assumes that if you like Sci-Fi, you must be a geek and won't like things related to Christianity or Literature (and vice-versa).
They either have sucky algorithms or people have narrower tastes than I expected. I hope it's the former...
I think this will make it more sanitized and much less informative. They also are going against a lot of "mindshare" and name recognition. When I want to know who the heck someone was, and wha tis said about them, I do one of two things
1) Google (which generally finds the Wikipedia article)
2) Go directly to Wikipedia.
Will I now go to Citizendium itself? Only if I don't like what I see on Wikipedia, perhaps.
Wikipedia has achieved a "critical mass" of users/editors. Add a couple of self-important steps and you might not get anyone. Or worse yet, you might fragment the community into two sub-critical masses...
I wish them luck...but remember: "a house divided against itself..."
Clearly, the last time capsule they tried to beam into space!!
Yes:
A guy who figured out how to get past some stupid piece of DRM-ware, and did some creative stuff just to test the waters when he was young. Only if I know him (or her?) well..
Casula DMCA violator...
No:
Phishers.
Script-Kiddies.
Anyone who caused actual financial damage, stole data, or broke trust that was given to him. (It's one thing to circumvent the school's computer workstation "policy" so you can pkzip your files before transferring them to your floppy. It's another thing to steal credit card numbers, send spam from work, etc.)
The second variety might be OK to contract for a "sandbox" situation where you're challenging them to break your code/machines. I would not let them inside the door of the company... [they might continue the 'challenge' after the contract is over...]
>> No way am I prepared for the amount of soul sacrificing that would be required to work in a place that expected I wear a tie.
:)
As a developer, I know I will be OK as long as the economy is good enough to afford such attitudes
[99.9% of the world would gladly wear a ties/turbans/uniforms/overalls just to have a programming job at anywhere near what we get paid...]
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 already does this if you turn on the right option. It uses some sort of blacklist in combination with something similar to the approach you suggest. I believe gmail already has this for the e-mails it can identify...
A favorite professor of mine once quoted "teaching is a practice in diminishing deception."
:) )
First, you teach them with an IDE so that they "get something to work." [The IDE is like the training wheels]
Then, you take the IDE away (say, in a 2nd or 3rd semester course) and let them understand what's under the hood. [You take the training wheels off]
Finally, you give them real problems and let them come up with the solution [They can drive a car, ride a motorcycle, or take mass transit]
Good example of how this was done at my school:
1st course: C++ using Visual Studio
2nd course: Data structures using UNIX (editor of choice) & gcc
3rd course: Assembly language (What's an IDE??)
4th course: Operating systems using UNIX/C++
5th course: AI using LISP !!! (at this point, you _need_ something to do paranthesis matching
I'd say keep the IDE for Java, but be sure they can actually write code on paper...
All this "proves" is that God will reveal Himself in His own terms.
Think about it:
And we pat ourselves on the back for being logical...
I have not read the study itself, but it really sounds like a scheme to discredit alternative energy in its entirety (by pointing out and then widely publicizing one element of it that may be impractical).
Are you surprised that such a study would come out in this environment (no pun intended)? Will you be surprised when it's spun over on over in FOX news, and used to divert research dollars and subsidies to things like "clean coal"?
Biomass (next to Hydro & Wind) is the only thing that has a chance of working. People have been using biomass for energy way before they even learned to smelt iron. I'm sure there's a way to make it work.
I repeat that I am not saying EtOH is the answer. However, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
OK, Troll away!
The actual paper referenced is Electrochemically Assisted Microbial Production of Hydrogen from Acetate by Drs Hong Liu, Stephen Grott, and Bruece E. Logan from Penn State, in the publication "Environmental Science and Technology."
Enjoy...
It is not because they dislike management (although I am sure that has some role). Nor is it because the Machievellian environment described in the article is inaccurate. It is because they prefer complaining about problems to solving them.
Here's my version:
"Politically Oriented Software Development"
0) Don't Tick Anyone Off
1) Be Smart, Willing, Able, and Nice to work with (SWAN)
2) Don't add negative value. Remember that you are being paid to help your group/company make money. If this is not kosher, move on and join the Peace Core.
2) Avoid sending e-mails whenever possible. If you must, keep them extremely neutral. Use phone calls and personal conversations for any type of discussion or criticism--technical or otherwise.
3) Make sure your work is visible, and helps your group's visibility. Well developed, flexible software that meets the customer's needs provides the ultimate visibility.
4) Disabuse yourself of the ridiculous concepts of "Customer Requirements" and "Use Cases." They will not come. If they do, they will mutate into uselessness VERY QUICKLY. Avoid people who believe in such nonsense. Instead, thoroughly analyze the problem, the customer, and the market and create your own "requirements."
5) Innovate. Do "cool stuff" (prototypes, new concepts, algorithms, research) whenever there is a lull. If you do not do this, you will either get replaced or doom yourself to a life of mediocrity--probably both. Leverage the "cool stuff" at an opportune time to help your group.
And if you think management is unnecessary (as many commenters on K5 seem to), go ahead and start your own _successful_ company.
(BTW, IANAM--I am Not A Manager).
When was the last time you threw out an electronic device because it short circuited? I have personally thrown a lot more out of obsolescence (My AppleII comes to mind...I would have kept it if I had the space...)
Two co-workers and I asked ourselves the same question during a late-night troll-session about education two years ago...
That troll-session degenerated into a meaningful volunteer opportunity at a local after-school program for struggling high-school students.
One of our greatest successes has been the creation of a computer club. We basically scrounged some machines together and taught the kids graphics/game programming (this almost generated more interest than the organization could handle).
The easiest tool we found for this is Basic4GL, a freely available, GL compliant flavor of BASIC that runs on practically anything with Windows on it. Additionally, it has support for sound and comes with some pretty impressive (yet simple) examples and tutorials.
We took the following approach:
1) Started each lesson out with a demo of something cool & graphical, talked about concepts.
2) Showed the finished product of the lesson (e.g, draw a triangle, play a sound, create a simple asteroid game, etc).
3) Walked everyone step-by-step through the creation of the program for the lesson
4) Gave students time to work
5) Went around and made sure everyone was able to complete the assignment.
Some students struggled with concepts like loops. Others took off and ran with it, creating stuff that even impressed us. Ultimately, even the struggling 6th graders were programming and understanding what they were doing, even if they did not get too far.
[To quell the inevitable questions of "why not Linux" and "why not C, Java, etc." 1) BASIC is very easy to write "hello world" in. 2) Basic4GL required no environmental setup. 3) Basic4GL was very easy to give to students to run on their parents' otherwise pristine machines.]
Revelation 13:16-17
The best batterry I've found is Rayovac's 15 minute rechargable batteries that hold 2Ah.
http://www.rayovac.com/15minutes/qa.html#1
They do get kind of warm while recharging, but seem to last twice as long as Duracell's best Alkaline batterry in my digital camera.