The point is, if he's not a bum and he wants to go, there is financing available. The fact that somebody his age can't readily come up with $25K in cash strongly indicates that he is a bum, though.
Exactly. And I, for one, am one jealous motherfucker and I am completely flabbergasted that this guy isn't going.
Wow, you're a complete idiot. Obviously, I did not say he wouldn't have to pay the 25000. Nor did I say he wouldn't have to pay more for a loan. A loan is a fucking loan. Why the hell would I suggest that a loan does not have interest?
My POINT, which you were apparently too dense to grok, was that if he were a homeowner, he could convert his equity to cash for the current tax burden and receive a tax discount against the interest.
This guy must be a renter. If he owned his home and had some equity, he could have taken out a tax-deductible home equity loan to cover (at least part of) the taxes. Another poster mentioned sponsorships.
The fundamental problem is that the sender cannot specify what state the sender photon goes into (otherwise, the entanglement drops out).
Example: You define spin up as 1 and spin down as 0. You attempt to set the state to "spin up" to send a 1. Entanglement drops out. Local particle goes spin up, remote particle goes random.
What actually works: You don't define anything because it's pointless. You gently observe the sender particle. It goes into a random state. A remote observer will observe the same random state.
Yes! Finally I get a chance to bitch about Digg on Slashdot. I have my fonts set larger (Firefox aka Iceweasel on Debian unstable) and this causes the yellow counter widget next to each Digg story to obscure the first character or two of each story. I've reported the issue twice, but nothing was ever done about it.
The real problem is that you're sending arbitrary data. That's what was missing in my understanding. To send something over the entangled channel, it must be endemic to the state of the photon. E.g., 50/50 probability of spin up or spin down. If you attempt to force the photon into a specific state, the entanglement drops out and no message is sent, as I understand it.
Keep in mind that you can't just reuse all these photons. They all have to be disposable which means you have to have a very large supply of them and only use them for really important messages. How do you store entangled photons for long term use? How the hell do you know when to check the state of your photons? Cronjob? heh. How do you detect if a photon is still entangled without disturbing the state? If you can do all three of these, you could have a queue of photons labeled P0, P1, P2, P3, etc. If P0 is entangled, it's a 0. If it's not entangled, it's a 1. The message: P0:1 P1:1 P2:0 P3:1 P4:0 P5:0 P6:0 would equal "h" in ASCII.
I'm guessing that the third problem is the killer. -l
If what you're saying is true, you just need lots of disposable photons. "Spin up" means "on", "Spin down" means "off". Come up with 7 photons and you can send an ASCII character.
Alice has 14 photons. She entangles 7 pairs. She sends Bob to Jupiter with one photon from each pair. She flips the switch to mask the character "h" onto her photon pairs. Bob reads his photons and gets an "h".
The always underestimate life expectancies. I think what they really mean is "it'll be good for three years before X breaks where X is, eh, pretty much anything that requires a servicing mission".
It sounded to me like Linux was a fall-back option anyway (c.f., Win95). Thus, if he really wanted to run Windows or Mac OS, I'm sure Microsoft, Apple, etc. would be happy to oblige.
Heh, that's pretty much how I learned: trial-and-error trying to get those evil old DOS games to work. This one wants 4MB EMS, that one wants 4MB XMS, but I only have 4MB of RAM! Crap! Now I have to learn how to prompt a menu with config.sys to select on boot-up. Oh, now we got a "copy" of Win3.1 from Mom's work. Now I've got to add a Windows-friendly version to the file and show Mom & Dad how to do it.
Call up Goodwill computers and see if they can donate something more modern. I'm with the parent, I think Firefox, email, etc will be very sluggish. On the other hand, they may be sufficiently decent enough to be Xservers. You could look into getting a nice server donated and using the other machines as Xservers to that box. As long as the video cards are good enough for the monitors, you should be A-OK.
You can also talk to Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Microsoft, et al to see if they'd be interested in donating some machines.
Yeah, and despite what they say, I still got 404s on perfectly legitimate URLs. I'm not sure if the target sites blocked them on purpose or what, but it was very noticeable. I had to set DNS back to AT&T to get all my URLs to work.
Sorry, I don't have any specific URLs I can point out. This was a few months ago. -l
Spend some time reading up here: HVAC Talk forums . A bunch of professionals post here. Number one recommendation for a tricky problem? Get a Manual J inspection by an engineer. Tell the Sales guy at any HVAC contractor that that's what you want. They'll bring a laptop, take measurements, etc. The whole process takes a few hours but will give you a good estimate of actual HVAC needs.
For you, I'd recommend moving the thermostat upstairs and having more insulation blown in before considering a larger unit. The insulation will more than pay for itself in a short period of time. In Austin, TX, you can get your home energy efficient certified and it can be a selling point for your home.
Install solar screens
Grow some trees!
If you're looking to spend the bucks to redesign the whole system, you could look into segmentation.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly. And I, for one, am one jealous motherfucker and I am completely flabbergasted that this guy isn't going.
-l
Wow, you're a complete idiot. Obviously, I did not say he wouldn't have to pay the 25000. Nor did I say he wouldn't have to pay more for a loan. A loan is a fucking loan. Why the hell would I suggest that a loan does not have interest?
My POINT, which you were apparently too dense to grok, was that if he were a homeowner, he could convert his equity to cash for the current tax burden and receive a tax discount against the interest.
Jesus, get a brain man,
-l
This guy must be a renter. If he owned his home and had some equity, he could have taken out a tax-deductible home equity loan to cover (at least part of) the taxes. Another poster mentioned sponsorships.
He obviously didn't want it badly enough.
-l
Did you have to pay Maxis for SimEarth royalties? :)
-l
The fundamental problem is that the sender cannot specify what state the sender photon goes into (otherwise, the entanglement drops out).
Example:
You define spin up as 1 and spin down as 0. You attempt to set the state to "spin up" to send a 1. Entanglement drops out. Local particle goes spin up, remote particle goes random.
What actually works:
You don't define anything because it's pointless. You gently observe the sender particle. It goes into a random state. A remote observer will observe the same random state.
Not very helpful is it?
-l
Yes! Finally I get a chance to bitch about Digg on Slashdot. I have my fonts set larger (Firefox aka Iceweasel on Debian unstable) and this causes the yellow counter widget next to each Digg story to obscure the first character or two of each story. I've reported the issue twice, but nothing was ever done about it.
I need minimum font size.
-l
The real problem is that you're sending arbitrary data. That's what was missing in my understanding. To send something over the entangled channel, it must be endemic to the state of the photon. E.g., 50/50 probability of spin up or spin down. If you attempt to force the photon into a specific state, the entanglement drops out and no message is sent, as I understand it.
Keep in mind that you can't just reuse all these photons. They all have to be disposable which means you have to have a very large supply of them and only use them for really important messages. How do you store entangled photons for long term use? How the hell do you know when to check the state of your photons? Cronjob? heh. How do you detect if a photon is still entangled without disturbing the state? If you can do all three of these, you could have a queue of photons labeled P0, P1, P2, P3, etc. If P0 is entangled, it's a 0. If it's not entangled, it's a 1. The message: P0:1 P1:1 P2:0 P3:1 P4:0 P5:0 P6:0 would equal "h" in ASCII.
I'm guessing that the third problem is the killer.
-l
If what you're saying is true, you just need lots of disposable photons. "Spin up" means "on", "Spin down" means "off". Come up with 7 photons and you can send an ASCII character.
Alice has 14 photons. She entangles 7 pairs. She sends Bob to Jupiter with one photon from each pair. She flips the switch to mask the character "h" onto her photon pairs. Bob reads his photons and gets an "h".
What am I missing? Why won't this work?
-l
The problem is it's just STUPID. It's like particle of the week imported into Star Wars.
-l
The always underestimate life expectancies. I think what they really mean is "it'll be good for three years before X breaks where X is, eh, pretty much anything that requires a servicing mission".
-l
I know no one will read this, but I thought I'd mention that Doss Elementary in Austin, TX has had tag banned for around 5 years now.
-l
What, you won't just log in to teh Intarwebs during the storm? Don't you have a UPS?
hahas,
-l
Firefox v Iceweasel: Final Showdown
Saturday & Saturday: 9pm 10pm 11pm
Monday - Friday: 9pm
It's kind of amusing that the Mexican institute is so up in arms when it put in a lights for a laser-light show on the large pyramid at Chichen Itza.
-l
All that effort to boil a tub of water. Amazing.
-l
It sounded to me like Linux was a fall-back option anyway (c.f., Win95). Thus, if he really wanted to run Windows or Mac OS, I'm sure Microsoft, Apple, etc. would be happy to oblige.
-l
Heh, that's pretty much how I learned: trial-and-error trying to get those evil old DOS games to work. This one wants 4MB EMS, that one wants 4MB XMS, but I only have 4MB of RAM! Crap! Now I have to learn how to prompt a menu with config.sys to select on boot-up. Oh, now we got a "copy" of Win3.1 from Mom's work. Now I've got to add a Windows-friendly version to the file and show Mom & Dad how to do it.
Yuck.
-l
Call up Goodwill computers and see if they can donate something more modern. I'm with the parent, I think Firefox, email, etc will be very sluggish. On the other hand, they may be sufficiently decent enough to be Xservers. You could look into getting a nice server donated and using the other machines as Xservers to that box. As long as the video cards are good enough for the monitors, you should be A-OK.
You can also talk to Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Microsoft, et al to see if they'd be interested in donating some machines.
-l
This is because EM is driven by photons, which can indeed travel the speed of light in a vacuum but seldom get such an opportunity.
Cheers,
-l
Yeah, and despite what they say, I still got 404s on perfectly legitimate URLs. I'm not sure if the target sites blocked them on purpose or what, but it was very noticeable. I had to set DNS back to AT&T to get all my URLs to work.
Sorry, I don't have any specific URLs I can point out. This was a few months ago.
-l
And even then, "position" is a poor way of describing a tiny wave. :)
-l
You are honorarily titled Mr. Slashdot for the day.
Good show,
-l
Good luck,
-l
I have a buddy with Crohn's. He smokes "probiotics" all the time. Helps him with food quite a bit.
-l
I'm talking about a Plutocracy becoming a de facto Aristocracy (rule by hereditary nobles. Dictionary.com definition 1.).
-l