I wonder how many of you people that are joking abut this shit have kids, and if so, do you care about them? Because to me it doesn't sound like it to me. When gas goes up to $7.00 a gallon I don't think you will be laughing as hard. We are are struggling to feed your kids I don't think you will be laughing as hard, then.
You mean like gas is now in the UK? Alright, when I was there last month at the then-current exchange rate, it was $6.25 a gallon, not $7.00 a gallon, but, close enough.
Gas at $2, $5, or even $8 a gallon won't stop people using gas for their cars; they'll just shift to more economical vehicles or modes of transportation.
Gas at $50 a gallon, or gas availability of only 1 or 2 days a month, on the other hand, makes it impractical to use as a staple of 99.9% of the population's lifestyle. That's when a fundamental shift in society's infrastructure must occur.
If you believe in evolution then if we were supposed to live longer lives we would have evolved in that direction (Longevity would defenitly be a key trait that would definitly survive).
How do you know that the development of life-extension/immortality technology isn't part of evolution?
Just the list of projects I want to work on exceed what I can probably accomplish in a standard human lifespan, and I'm thinking of more all the time. Plus the chance to see how we evolve both technologically and sociologically over the next hundred, thousand and million years is exciting! Bring it on! Give me the pill (or potion or whatever)!
The Security Slot is borrowed from laptop designs. It's basically a hole that you can run a security cable through to chain your Mac mini down so it doesn't "walk away."
I am in the market for a new desktop Mac (my 1999 vintage lime iMac DV just isn't as snappy as it used to be:-). I priced a Mac mini configured with Airport Extreme, Bluetooth, a wireless keyboard/mouse, 1GB RAM and 80GB HD. With AppleCare and a 20" Cinema Display it came to $2500.
I also priced a 20" iMac G5 similarly configured (I didn't go to 2GB of RAM, though I usually max out my RAM, and the smallest HD I could configure was 160GB HD). With AppleCare it came to $2400.
I've decided to go with a maxed out 20" iMac G5 (faster, newer generation processor, more RAM, bigger HD), but with RAM from Crucial (from Apple 2GB = $925, from Crucial it's around $500).
Stupid questions. Unless someone invents a 100% efficient perpetual-motion machine, robots, like any system, will have to consume energy and will produce waste byproducts.
It makes sense that people who get insufficient sleep will tend to be overweight. When a person is tired their body sends signals that it needs more energy which leads them to eat. In addition, when a person is tired, they tend to make poor decisions and/or go for the "quick energy" solution (400 calorie candy bar instead of 100 calorie piece of fruit, for example).
I believe that there exists at least one species of intelligent life elsewhere in this galaxy. Of course I have no way to prove it (today;-), but it just feels true to me.
Great. Just what I want. Laying in the middle of the road, bones all bent the wrong way after get blasted by some drunk driver, an ambulance pulls up and I look up to see a hologram of Robert Picardo asking "Please state the nature of the medical emergency?"
Should we really consider the dozens of variants of Bagle, Netstky, etc. separate viruses? Just because the anti-virus vendors choose to implement recognition of these variants by separate signatures, are they really different viruses?
I think it would be more interesting to know how many new virus/worm/trojan families were released year-to-year.
One of the things I found interesting in TFA was how Microsoft intentionally perverted the use of "release candidate" to get attention outside of Microsoft, particularly the anti-virus vendors.
Todd: Yep. It is. This was a big... I'll give you the inside scoop. This was a big fight. Calling this RC1 and not [a beta release]. The reason we called it RC1 was that we wanted people to think that we were serious.
Paul: This is the point where people are actually going to start rolling this thing out, even publicly.
Todd: Yes. We called it [a release candidate] because we really wanted to bring attention outside [of Microsoft], specifically to our antivirus vendors, that we were serious about what we were doing, and we were getting close to shipping... And so we called it RC1. From this point forward, I would say that the participation in the industry [went up dramatically]. This was probably one of the best things we ever did for SP2.
This makes me question seriously any future "release candidate" from Microsoft. Is it really a "release candidate" (i.e., a version of software that is a candidate for release - if no bugs are found, it ships as is), or is it just another beta? Microsoft, in the guise of Todd Wanke, has now confirmed that they ship beta-quality software and call it whatever their marketing people feel will go over best with the rest of the world.
As I recall, the whole "sucks less" thing came about with the release of System 7. As I recall, there was a T-Shirt floating around the Apple campus about "System 7 Sucks Less".
I also recall that there was a trademark infringement thing that happened later on because Microsoft did a "Windows 95 Sucks Less" T-shirt later on, and the Apple engineer (Alex Rosenberg?) who came up with the System 7 slogan got wind of it and got Apple Legal to "engage" Microsoft on their use of the whole "sucks less" thing. As I recall, Alex got a PC out of the deal.
Someone who actually worked for Apple at the time could probably correct any errors I've made (I got all this from a hallway discussion at WWDC years and years ago).
Anyone remember the Decabet from the beginnings of Saturday Night Live? It was an attempt to introduce a metric alphabet consisting of 10 letters. As I recall, it went something like
A, B, C, D, EF, GHI, J, K, LMNO, PQRSTUVWXYZ
This calendar proposal makes about as much sense.
I miss the old Saturday Night Live...
If you're going to make a drastic change...
on
New Calendar Proposal
·
· Score: 3, Funny
...do it right - go all the way.
I propose that we get rid of years, months, weeks, and just jump straight to... stardates!
We can make stardate 1 be the date on which the first ST:TOS episode aired (September 8, 1966, old Earth calendar;-). Of course, fractional dates correspond to time (.1 stardate = 2.4 old Earth hours).
I believe that that makes today (December 21, 2004) stardate 13985.
...that people actually question the effect mining Helium-3 on the Moon would have on the Earth w.r.t. tides and such. How can so many people have no clue as to just how big the Moon is?
The article stated that 200 million metric tons of lunar soil would have to be mined to extract 1 metric ton of Helium-3. It also stated that there is an estimated 1 million tons of Helium-3 on the Moon. Do the math:
200 x 10**6 x 1 x 10**6 200 x 10**12
or 200 trillion tons (billion if you're British;-) of lunar soil to extract all of the Moon's Helium-3.
The Moon masses approximately 7.4 x 10**22 kg. So we're talking about extracting 200 x 10**15 kg (1 metric ton = 1000 kg) from 7.4 x 10**22 kg, or about 2.7 millionths of the Moon's mass.
And that's if we take it all. And that's assuming that we don't develop a more efficient means of extracting the Helium-3 over the next few thousand years.
I really wish people would use their brains more than they do...
I've worked >60 hour weeks many times. My all-time record is 119 hours (7 AM to 1 AM, 7 days straight with 30 minutes for lunch and 30 minutes for dinner). I wrote a microcode assembler from scratch during those 7 days.
I can do such long weeks for a stretch, but I need to either take a complete vacation or have extended down time at work afterwards.
FWIW
I've worked in the game industry; I was Technical Lead on IndyCar Racing II for Papyrus Design Group back in 1995/1996. When the Mac and Windows versions of ICR II went gold, we - as a team - pulled 40 straight hours to wrap it up. I read ea_spouse's blog, and it brought back memories, not all unpleasant. Of course, I think Papyrus treated us better than it sounds like EA treats their employees.
...is not that it's trying to patent IsNot, but that it was filed in the first place.
Who was the brain-dead lawyer who approved this? I guarantee that the applicant didn't do this on his own, especially in a corporation the size of Microsoft. I've been involved in patent applications before (including software patents - yeah, so sue me - no, wait, I'll sue you!:-), and a good patent attorney will almost play the role of devil's advocate. "Are you sure this is new?" "Can you point me to anything that anyone contesting this might cite as prior art, and explain why it isn't?" "I did a search and found these 5 patents that look like they cover what you're applying for; why should we file your application?"
This looks like the work of either some extremely junior lawyer trying to justify his existence, or a completely unethical, greedy lawyer who doesn't care whether the patent gets approved, he just wants to bill the hours it'll take to work on the application. Or both.
Slashdot Mirror
You mean like gas is now in the UK? Alright, when I was there last month at the then-current exchange rate, it was $6.25 a gallon, not $7.00 a gallon, but, close enough.
Gas at $2, $5, or even $8 a gallon won't stop people using gas for their cars; they'll just shift to more economical vehicles or modes of transportation.
Gas at $50 a gallon, or gas availability of only 1 or 2 days a month, on the other hand, makes it impractical to use as a staple of 99.9% of the population's lifestyle. That's when a fundamental shift in society's infrastructure must occur.
How do you know that the development of life-extension/immortality technology isn't part of evolution?
Just the list of projects I want to work on exceed what I can probably accomplish in a standard human lifespan, and I'm thinking of more all the time. Plus the chance to see how we evolve both technologically and sociologically over the next hundred, thousand and million years is exciting! Bring it on! Give me the pill (or potion or whatever)!
Balok from one of the first Star Trek (original series) episodes, The Corbomite Maneuver. One of my personal favorites from the original series.
The Security Slot is borrowed from laptop designs. It's basically a hole that you can run a security cable through to chain your Mac mini down so it doesn't "walk away."
I am in the market for a new desktop Mac (my 1999 vintage lime iMac DV just isn't as snappy as it used to be :-). I priced a Mac mini configured with Airport Extreme, Bluetooth, a wireless keyboard/mouse, 1GB RAM and 80GB HD. With AppleCare and a 20" Cinema Display it came to $2500.
I also priced a 20" iMac G5 similarly configured (I didn't go to 2GB of RAM, though I usually max out my RAM, and the smallest HD I could configure was 160GB HD). With AppleCare it came to $2400.
I've decided to go with a maxed out 20" iMac G5 (faster, newer generation processor, more RAM, bigger HD), but with RAM from Crucial (from Apple 2GB = $925, from Crucial it's around $500).
Should robots eat?
Should robots excrete?
Stupid questions. Unless someone invents a 100% efficient perpetual-motion machine, robots, like any system, will have to consume energy and will produce waste byproducts.
Duh.
So, MILNET doesn't exist any more?
It makes sense that people who get insufficient sleep will tend to be overweight. When a person is tired their body sends signals that it needs more energy which leads them to eat. In addition, when a person is tired, they tend to make poor decisions and/or go for the "quick energy" solution (400 calorie candy bar instead of 100 calorie piece of fruit, for example).
I believe that there exists at least one species of intelligent life elsewhere in this galaxy. Of course I have no way to prove it (today ;-), but it just feels true to me.
Great. Just what I want. Laying in the middle of the road, bones all bent the wrong way after get blasted by some drunk driver, an ambulance pulls up and I look up to see a hologram of Robert Picardo asking "Please state the nature of the medical emergency?"
Should we really consider the dozens of variants of Bagle, Netstky, etc. separate viruses? Just because the anti-virus vendors choose to implement recognition of these variants by separate signatures, are they really different viruses?
I think it would be more interesting to know how many new virus/worm/trojan families were released year-to-year.
Each container has etched into its side:
Please return to:
B612 Foundation
125 Red Hill Circle
Tiburon, CA 94920
Postage guaranteed.
This makes me question seriously any future "release candidate" from Microsoft. Is it really a "release candidate" (i.e., a version of software that is a candidate for release - if no bugs are found, it ships as is), or is it just another beta? Microsoft, in the guise of Todd Wanke, has now confirmed that they ship beta-quality software and call it whatever their marketing people feel will go over best with the rest of the world.
Feh.
As I recall, the whole "sucks less" thing came about with the release of System 7. As I recall, there was a T-Shirt floating around the Apple campus about "System 7 Sucks Less".
I also recall that there was a trademark infringement thing that happened later on because Microsoft did a "Windows 95 Sucks Less" T-shirt later on, and the Apple engineer (Alex Rosenberg?) who came up with the System 7 slogan got wind of it and got Apple Legal to "engage" Microsoft on their use of the whole "sucks less" thing. As I recall, Alex got a PC out of the deal.
Someone who actually worked for Apple at the time could probably correct any errors I've made (I got all this from a hallway discussion at WWDC years and years ago).
I miss the old Saturday Night Live...
...do it right - go all the way.
... stardates!
;-). Of course, fractional dates correspond to time (.1 stardate = 2.4 old Earth hours).
I propose that we get rid of years, months, weeks, and just jump straight to
We can make stardate 1 be the date on which the first ST:TOS episode aired (September 8, 1966, old Earth calendar
I believe that that makes today (December 21, 2004) stardate 13985.
If you look at this map from CNN.com, it seems that virtually every county in Virginia voted for Bush in the 2004 election.
This implies that it is a derivation of the word Clipper.
The article stated that 200 million metric tons of lunar soil would have to be mined to extract 1 metric ton of Helium-3. It also stated that there is an estimated 1 million tons of Helium-3 on the Moon. Do the math:or 200 trillion tons (billion if you're British
The Moon masses approximately 7.4 x 10**22 kg. So we're talking about extracting 200 x 10**15 kg (1 metric ton = 1000 kg) from 7.4 x 10**22 kg, or about 2.7 millionths of the Moon's mass.
And that's if we take it all . And that's assuming that we don't develop a more efficient means of extracting the Helium-3 over the next few thousand years.
I really wish people would use their brains more than they do...
Hm. Got a 500 when I posted, and that led to "FWIW" confusion. Sorry about that...
(twiddling my thumbs while I wait for Slashcode to let me post my followup)
...but usually at a cost.
I've worked >60 hour weeks many times. My all-time record is 119 hours (7 AM to 1 AM, 7 days straight with 30 minutes for lunch and 30 minutes for dinner). I wrote a microcode assembler from scratch during those 7 days.
I can do such long weeks for a stretch, but I need to either take a complete vacation or have extended down time at work afterwards.
FWIW
I've worked in the game industry; I was Technical Lead on IndyCar Racing II for Papyrus Design Group back in 1995/1996. When the Mac and Windows versions of ICR II went gold, we - as a team - pulled 40 straight hours to wrap it up. I read ea_spouse's blog, and it brought back memories, not all unpleasant. Of course, I think Papyrus treated us better than it sounds like EA treats their employees.
FWIW
Too late - at least in Australia.
;-).
You'll just have to get dumber, I guess
...is not that it's trying to patent IsNot, but that it was filed in the first place.
:-), and a good patent attorney will almost play the role of devil's advocate. "Are you sure this is new?" "Can you point me to anything that anyone contesting this might cite as prior art, and explain why it isn't?" "I did a search and found these 5 patents that look like they cover what you're applying for; why should we file your application?"
Who was the brain-dead lawyer who approved this? I guarantee that the applicant didn't do this on his own, especially in a corporation the size of Microsoft. I've been involved in patent applications before (including software patents - yeah, so sue me - no, wait, I'll sue you!
This looks like the work of either some extremely junior lawyer trying to justify his existence, or a completely unethical, greedy lawyer who doesn't care whether the patent gets approved, he just wants to bill the hours it'll take to work on the application. Or both.
Feh.
To paraphrase Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark:
Science is about the search for fact. If you want truth, take a philosophy course.