wow - great post and probably one of the few posters on here who seems to understand the concept of engineering compromise and design specifications that all of the armchair aerospace fanboys don't get. Thanks for bringing some sanity to the subject.
They skew really sympathetically towards the girl and her family, who apparently were paying $29.95 a month for Kazaa "service", and apparently thought there were thereby legit. [emphasis mine]
OK, I'm playing devil's advocate here, but the quote above and the way the article was worded struck me. The RIAA are gonna get bad press for this - deservedly so - but the RIAA could well use Mum's quotes to round on the file-sharing service(s) itself, rather than the users. After all, from what Kazaa didn't make it clear enough to the average non-tech user that downloading music and movies is illegal. And shutting down file-sharing and p2p would be an indirect (some would argue direct!) way of preventing the piracy that is hurting profits...err, sales so much (apparently...).
The 83% does not include the loss in any electric motor, nor in any of the other circuitry/mechanics.
typically you would expect losses from cicuitry to be higher than those in a good mechanical system (obviusly I'm generalising here). And these days a motor vehicle is a good mechanical system - the losses from bearings, lubrication, etc are quite low compared to years ago.
I suppose where you live as to the % you get out of a car engine - manufacturers figures are usually very optmistic.
You're not talking about efficiency here - or, at least not in any engineering sense. The thermal efficiency I talked about is a function of the engne and the running conditions. It's not something manufacturers can inflate or lie about and it's not dependent on where you live. It's a cold, hard fact and measures the percentage of energy available in the combustion process (ie. in the fuel) that is actually converted to useful mechanical energy. The upper limit of this efficiency (governed by the laws of thermodynamics) is the carnot cycle efficiency - it is not physically possible to get a higher [thermal] efficiency, even in a perfect engine.
Having had a chance to check some numbers, a typical motor car has a thermal efficiency of about 25%, which can be increased to about 35% in a highly tuned car (carnot efficiency is roughly 60%).
The mechanical efficieny measures the mechanical losses (mostly friction related) in the system - a typical car has a mechanical efficiency of about 95%.
In some citys you spend a lot of time in jams, with the engine idling over. Someone commputed the average speed in London of traffic to be about 11 mph. I would guess 32% is rarly achieved by a normal petrol car user in London.
You are not talking about efficiency here - maybe mileage (kilometreage!).
Contrary to what many people think, the car is actually an extremely well designed system - it has to make a lot of compromises between being reliable, efficient and actually useful (at the most efficient settings, your engine would barely generate enough torque to move the car faster than a pedestrian, for example).
Then we get into the whole electric vs petro-electric vs hydrogen/electric etc.. Electric hybrids seem best in cities, as you can switch off the big petrol/hydro/fuel cell an idle around on batteries at low speeds, and recharge using regenerative braking..
The big problem with this whole debate is that most people look at the facts of petrol vs hybrid vs fuel cell and the list of advantages vs diadvantages and then make a decision on which is best without taking into account the practicalities of putting it all into place in the real world (TM) - and then we engineers get stuck doing that!
Don't get me wrong - I'm all for renewable energy, but these things cost money to set up, especially in terms of infrastructure. Money that Joe Public is not prepared to pay from his/her taxes - and let's be realistic: ultimately this is where the money has to come from. The biggest stumbling block to changing over from petrol/diesel internal combustion to hybrid/electric/fuel cell cars is not really the technology (or even the money-grabbing oil companies) - it's the fact that you have an absolutely massive infrastructure set up all over the world (think petrol stations alone). The cost of changing this over to cater for hybrid is astronomical.
But if the efficiency v size/weight is good, no reason why the power cell cant be bio.
It's not all about efficiency - just because something produces power efficiently doesn't mean that the energy/power is in a form that is useable. As for the bio power cell - it's a very novel idea that surely has a place.
You can't compare the two - a car engine, ie. internal combustion engine, works on a heat cycle and so it's thermal efficiency (which is different from mechanical efficiency) is limited by what is known as the carnot cycle efficiency (=[Th-Tc]/Th; google for "carnot cycle" if interested further). The carnot cycle efficiency for internal combustion (petrol/gasoline for the Americans;-) !) engines is about 59% (going from a hazy memory here), average car engine efficiency is more like ~32% so the efficiency of a car engine is not as bad as everyone thinks.
On the other hand your bacteria are working on chemical processes, where the chemical conversion processes (should be) much much more efficient. I've got no numbers to back it up, but my feeling is that 83% is not a particularly high efficiency for a chemical conversion process.
Heh, so much for RTF! I saw the words "Standard Brewing" in the subject and without bothering to read further immediately clicked through to a story I thought was going to be about one of my favourite subjects - beer! I was not amused...
I wasn't gonna contribute, but since you're the one who asked the question and the original didn't limit it to IT, here goes:
(My PhD is in Mechanical Engineering)
Having done a PhD myself, the first question I would ask you is "Do you want a career in research?"
If your answer is definitely no, then don't even think about a PhD - you will be far better off getting the 3-5 years experience in the work force.
If you do want to go into research, particularly academic/university, but also increasingly government, then you really have to do a PhD (and be prepared to enviously eye off the paycheck of all your mates who work in private industry). As for private (corporate) research, my perception and what others have told me, is that the US (and Japan) seem to be far more willing to accept the PhD as a higher qualification. Europe/UK is not so bad, but there can be some tendency for the attitude of "why did you waste your time doing a PhD when you could have gone and gotten 3-5 years experience instead". It varies by industry, and I have noticed it a little more in those industries (like mech/civil/ee engineering) where a "certified practising" qualification or professional membership tends to be experience based. I should add that this is certainly not the majority of employers and is less likely at large multinationals than smaller consultancies. Australia on the other hand (where I got my PhD) is terrible for that attitude, which is why most PhDs eventually end up overseas doing research in another country, ironically enough. Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now...
The fact that you are asking the question probably means you are somewhere in between the two extremes. In hindsight - and I know this will sound very elitist although it's not meant to - I don't think anyone who has not done a PhD can really understand just what is involved and what comes out of it. Depending on your motivation and how much spoon feeding you get/ask for you can gain an awul lot of valuable skillsets that will benefit you in industry - reading, presenting, communication (no, that doesn't include slashdot!), time management, planning, experimental design, writing, not to mention software packages (I benefited enormously from this) etc. You will also be highly specialised, which could actually work against you in terms of jobs because the jobs simply don't exist. You will lose 3-5 years of experience (most employers will not count your PhD as experience) and probably a large dose of sanity at the same time. When (if) you finish, you will have something you will be immensely proud of while being totally unable to explain to anyone exactly why this is. I honestly don't believe that the academic/intellectual side of a PhD is all that difficult (if you're applying for one, you're probably capable of the actual work itself) - the hard part is sticking at it for 3-5 years and all the roller coaster psychological/motivational ride that goes along with it.
My honest opinion is that unless you are seeking to work in research, you will benefit more (as in "the employer is more interested in") from the 3-5 years experience on your CV/resume than from having a PhD. The exception is if you are applying for work very related to area of your PhD.
I think card counting is one of those things that some people just have a knack of. Of course you can practise, but some people have a fantastic memory for this sort of thing.
I used to know a guy who was one of those people who could do numerical calculations to 10 significant figures faster than a calculator (couldn't do algebra/calculus, but he could sure count!). He was able to count cards with 8 decks, and I'm not talking about the simple system described by the parent - he counted the entire deck, including suits.
This isn't your average person though, just someone with a knack for this sort of thing. As far as I'm aware he never actually went to a casino, but I can imagine others would.
Sounds to me like you're using Microsoft Word with all of the autocorrect "features" turned on. These are so annoying they make clippy look positively helpfull.
Please, can someone at Microsoft turn all that crap off by default? When I type MPa it's because I mean Mega-Pascals for f#$*'s sake - stop changing it to Mpa! And, despite what you think, t and T are actually two different variables (time, temperature) so stop changing all my bloody t's to T's!!
(PS. for anyone who has gone through this struggle: Tools->AutoCorrect->Autoformat As You Type->unselect to taste and then go through the other tabs as well)
What most people don't realise is that the very vast majority of diamonds sold around the world (and hence where the money is to be made) are industrial quality diamonds, not gemstone quality. Industrial diamonds are mostly used as abrasives. Many of the mines in Canada, Australia and Russia produce gem quality diamonds (eg. Argyle pink diamonds from Australia), but most of the industrial diamond deposits are found in Africa.
Really??? 3 replicates of every test on a single sample. I haven't done the maths, but looking at the numbers I reckon some proper statistics on those memory test numbers would show up very little, if any at all, statistically significant difference.
amen to that my friend. After living in Yorkshire for almost 2 years I've been completely converted to real ale and bitter. Love the stuff. I only drink lager if there isn't a decent alternative or guest ale to try. And best of all, ale doesn't seem to give me a hangover!
As for favourites? Well, there's no doubt that Timothy Taylor Landlord is the gold standard, but Ten Gun Salute is also good one and Jennings Snekbiter is a superb drop as well.
It's 1am and I just got home from the pub. Um, I look at this in the morning and maybe clarify a few things...
Mate... if the first thing you think about after getting home from the pub at 1am is posting on slashdot I'd suggest you haven't drunk nearly enough beer.:)
bullshit. Took me all of 30 seconds to write a quick function that extracted the number from within the brackets into the next column. Because it wasn't perfect (fooled by a second set of parentheses) it took me another couple of minutes to manually correct the 5 cases where it didn't work, and if I wanted, it would have taken all of another 3 seconds to use "paste special"->"values" and get the actual numbers rather than formulas. If I'd spent a little longer the manual editing would have been unnecesary. And I'm not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination.
Excel is still the best spreadsheet application out there. This might be slashdot and you gotta knock M$ at every opportunity but this kind of zealousness just sets your cause back further.
try this in the next column and copy down. Not perfect (it's fooled if there are two sets of parentheses) but a quick fix. If you just want the formula results, copy the column and "paste special..." (tick "values"). Hey presto!
Metallica stopped being artists the moment they made Load (should have added "of Absolute Shite" to the title), possibly even the black album, and started seeing too many dollar signs. It's amazing how many people I've spoken to who were long time fans of the band from the Kill 'Em All days hate them with a passion now because they sold out. Talk about alienating your original fanbase.
Hey, instead of sueing everybody who possibly might have a mysterious "I-might-start-using-p2p-to-download-music" glint in their eye, perhaps the whole (mainstream) music industry could try putting out some decent music that people might actually be willing to pay for instead of the music-to-a-recipe crap that they produce by the barrel full at the moment?
You know, say, just for an example, an album released because the artist is happy with it, rather than because a deadline has passed?
Why is it that Australians seem touchy about Steve Irwin?
Actually, this proud aussie is not at all touchy about Steve Irwin. I never used to be able to stand him, until I saw him interviewed (on The Panel I think). The thing that struck me was how much he cared about the animals he was showing and how much he just wanted to teach/educate everyone about his creatures. The over-enthusiastic Steve Irwin you see on his shows doesn't seem to be an act - he really is like that. I've seen him interviewed many times since then and I have a lot of respect for him - he doesn't care what anyone thinks, he's just interested in sharing his fascination with these animals with everyone.
OK, I accept that he perpetuates the Crocodile Dundee stereotype, but I also know from my own experience that the vast majority of people are not stupid enough to believe that every aussie is like this. And those that do believe this are happy to listen when I tell them we're not all like that. Then again, compared to many other countries, we can often seem very much like "bushmen".
If you are doing a serious research project, you go where researchers from time immemorial have gone--the library
And you use proper journal indexes like Medline, Current Contents, ScienceDirect, Compendex, PubMed, Chem abstracts etc. Google (or any of the general www search engines) just doesn't index this kind of info.
Google is fantastic for finding info on pages you kind of remember (hell, it's good enough to use as your favourites sometimes), and it's great for locating introductory info on a topic (read with a measured dose of bullshit-detecting-salt) for homework assignments, and if you can be bothered to trawl through millions of hits, shopping. I use google a lot, but, as you say, it is not for serious research.
Of course this *could* be great for college paper researchers, looking for a quote or two to stick in a research paper.
Take that one (not very big) step further - it will become an absolute treasure trove for those lazy students who can't be bothered to do their own work and just blatantly plagiarise. I'm not talking about the people who discuss their results with others or work together, but the minority who just blatantly cheat.
Whether people are prepared to admit it or not, the availability of everything as raw data (ie. text) and the cut/paste mentality has been creating a real problem; more so at university level, but it is certainly filtering down.
[...] But almost all software has bugs, [...] Linux is not bug free. Software written for Linux is not bug free [...] PROGRAMS HAVE BUGS. And the more complex the programs, the more they interact with other components, often in ways the original programmers never thought of _or intended_, the more likely bugs will be found.
slightly offtopic I know, and I don't mean to pick on your post but it always amuses (and amazes) me that the computer industry gets away with this programs-are-complicated-so-they're-bound-to-have- bugs attitude. I can't think of any other industry in the world that sells a product under the proviso that it may not work properly. Car manufacturers, airline companies, engineering firms, construction companies, NASA - the product better do what it's supposed to first time, every time and the designers had better think of every conceivable way someone might break or misuse (abuse) it.
they are more of a pay-per-click advertising technology [...] Or, you could just _check_it_out_ [overture.com] for yourself
wait, first you tell me that they're an online ad agency and then you expect me to click on the link to their homepage? Talk about death by a million pop-ups.
sheesh... how gullible do you think I am... oh, damn... wait, no please, not more ads... noooo, somebody make it stop...
Your post outlines precisely why joe public has the perception of computer geeks that they do.
The general public are not stupid and shouldn't be treated as if they are. Unfortunately that attitude of "why should I bother explaining they're too stupid to understand anyway" is far too common in the tech industry.
Medicine particularly, but many other industries like automotive go to a lot of effort to try and explain their jargon in terms that the layman can understand - after all, it is the layman that provides their salary. It's not "dumbing things down", it's called communication. The tech/computer geek [industry] doesn't seem to understand this and comes off as a bunch of elitist wankers as a result.
Slashdot Mirror
wow - great post and probably one of the few posters on here who seems to understand the concept of engineering compromise and design specifications that all of the armchair aerospace fanboys don't get. Thanks for bringing some sanity to the subject.
as any good engineer knows, a model is only as good as the underlying assumptions ...
They skew really sympathetically towards the girl and her family, who apparently were paying $29.95 a month for Kazaa "service", and apparently thought there were thereby legit. [emphasis mine]
...).
OK, I'm playing devil's advocate here, but the quote above and the way the article was worded struck me. The RIAA are gonna get bad press for this - deservedly so - but the RIAA could well use Mum's quotes to round on the file-sharing service(s) itself, rather than the users. After all, from what Kazaa didn't make it clear enough to the average non-tech user that downloading music and movies is illegal. And shutting down file-sharing and p2p would be an indirect (some would argue direct!) way of preventing the piracy that is hurting profits...err, sales so much (apparently
The 83% does not include the loss in any electric motor, nor in any of the other circuitry/mechanics.
typically you would expect losses from cicuitry to be higher than those in a good mechanical system (obviusly I'm generalising here). And these days a motor vehicle is a good mechanical system - the losses from bearings, lubrication, etc are quite low compared to years ago.
I suppose where you live as to the % you get out of a car engine - manufacturers figures are usually very optmistic.
You're not talking about efficiency here - or, at least not in any engineering sense. The thermal efficiency I talked about is a function of the engne and the running conditions. It's not something manufacturers can inflate or lie about and it's not dependent on where you live. It's a cold, hard fact and measures the percentage of energy available in the combustion process (ie. in the fuel) that is actually converted to useful mechanical energy. The upper limit of this efficiency (governed by the laws of thermodynamics) is the carnot cycle efficiency - it is not physically possible to get a higher [thermal] efficiency, even in a perfect engine.
Having had a chance to check some numbers, a typical motor car has a thermal efficiency of about 25%, which can be increased to about 35% in a highly tuned car (carnot efficiency is roughly 60%).
The mechanical efficieny measures the mechanical losses (mostly friction related) in the system - a typical car has a mechanical efficiency of about 95%.
In some citys you spend a lot of time in jams, with the engine idling over. Someone commputed the average speed in London of traffic to be about 11 mph. I would guess 32% is rarly achieved by a normal petrol car user in London.
You are not talking about efficiency here - maybe mileage (kilometreage!).
Contrary to what many people think, the car is actually an extremely well designed system - it has to make a lot of compromises between being reliable, efficient and actually useful (at the most efficient settings, your engine would barely generate enough torque to move the car faster than a pedestrian, for example).
Then we get into the whole electric vs petro-electric vs hydrogen/electric etc.. Electric hybrids seem best in cities, as you can switch off the big petrol/hydro/fuel cell an idle around on batteries at low speeds, and recharge using regenerative braking..
The big problem with this whole debate is that most people look at the facts of petrol vs hybrid vs fuel cell and the list of advantages vs diadvantages and then make a decision on which is best without taking into account the practicalities of putting it all into place in the real world (TM) - and then we engineers get stuck doing that!
Don't get me wrong - I'm all for renewable energy, but these things cost money to set up, especially in terms of infrastructure. Money that Joe Public is not prepared to pay from his/her taxes - and let's be realistic: ultimately this is where the money has to come from. The biggest stumbling block to changing over from petrol/diesel internal combustion to hybrid/electric/fuel cell cars is not really the technology (or even the money-grabbing oil companies) - it's the fact that you have an absolutely massive infrastructure set up all over the world (think petrol stations alone). The cost of changing this over to cater for hybrid is astronomical.
But if the efficiency v size/weight is good, no reason why the power cell cant be bio.
It's not all about efficiency - just because something produces power efficiently doesn't mean that the energy/power is in a form that is useable. As for the bio power cell - it's a very novel idea that surely has a place.
You can't compare the two - a car engine, ie. internal combustion engine, works on a heat cycle and so it's thermal efficiency (which is different from mechanical efficiency) is limited by what is known as the carnot cycle efficiency (=[Th-Tc]/Th; google for "carnot cycle" if interested further). The carnot cycle efficiency for internal combustion (petrol/gasoline for the Americans ;-) !) engines is about 59% (going from a hazy memory here), average car engine efficiency is more like ~32% so the efficiency of a car engine is not as bad as everyone thinks.
On the other hand your bacteria are working on chemical processes, where the chemical conversion processes (should be) much much more efficient. I've got no numbers to back it up, but my feeling is that 83% is not a particularly high efficiency for a chemical conversion process.
Heh, so much for RTF! I saw the words "Standard Brewing" in the subject and without bothering to read further immediately clicked through to a story I thought was going to be about one of my favourite subjects - beer! I was not amused ...
I wasn't gonna contribute, but since you're the one who asked the question and the original didn't limit it to IT, here goes:
...
(My PhD is in Mechanical Engineering)
Having done a PhD myself, the first question I would ask you is "Do you want a career in research?"
If your answer is definitely no, then don't even think about a PhD - you will be far better off getting the 3-5 years experience in the work force.
If you do want to go into research, particularly academic/university, but also increasingly government, then you really have to do a PhD (and be prepared to enviously eye off the paycheck of all your mates who work in private industry). As for private (corporate) research, my perception and what others have told me, is that the US (and Japan) seem to be far more willing to accept the PhD as a higher qualification. Europe/UK is not so bad, but there can be some tendency for the attitude of "why did you waste your time doing a PhD when you could have gone and gotten 3-5 years experience instead". It varies by industry, and I have noticed it a little more in those industries (like mech/civil/ee engineering) where a "certified practising" qualification or professional membership tends to be experience based. I should add that this is certainly not the majority of employers and is less likely at large multinationals than smaller consultancies. Australia on the other hand (where I got my PhD) is terrible for that attitude, which is why most PhDs eventually end up overseas doing research in another country, ironically enough. Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now
The fact that you are asking the question probably means you are somewhere in between the two extremes. In hindsight - and I know this will sound very elitist although it's not meant to - I don't think anyone who has not done a PhD can really understand just what is involved and what comes out of it. Depending on your motivation and how much spoon feeding you get/ask for you can gain an awul lot of valuable skillsets that will benefit you in industry - reading, presenting, communication (no, that doesn't include slashdot!), time management, planning, experimental design, writing, not to mention software packages (I benefited enormously from this) etc. You will also be highly specialised, which could actually work against you in terms of jobs because the jobs simply don't exist. You will lose 3-5 years of experience (most employers will not count your PhD as experience) and probably a large dose of sanity at the same time. When (if) you finish, you will have something you will be immensely proud of while being totally unable to explain to anyone exactly why this is. I honestly don't believe that the academic/intellectual side of a PhD is all that difficult (if you're applying for one, you're probably capable of the actual work itself) - the hard part is sticking at it for 3-5 years and all the roller coaster psychological/motivational ride that goes along with it.
My honest opinion is that unless you are seeking to work in research, you will benefit more (as in "the employer is more interested in") from the 3-5 years experience on your CV/resume than from having a PhD. The exception is if you are applying for work very related to area of your PhD.
Hope that helps!
I think card counting is one of those things that some people just have a knack of. Of course you can practise, but some people have a fantastic memory for this sort of thing.
I used to know a guy who was one of those people who could do numerical calculations to 10 significant figures faster than a calculator (couldn't do algebra/calculus, but he could sure count!). He was able to count cards with 8 decks, and I'm not talking about the simple system described by the parent - he counted the entire deck, including suits.
This isn't your average person though, just someone with a knack for this sort of thing. As far as I'm aware he never actually went to a casino, but I can imagine others would.
Sounds to me like you're using Microsoft Word with all of the autocorrect "features" turned on. These are so annoying they make clippy look positively helpfull.
Please, can someone at Microsoft turn all that crap off by default? When I type MPa it's because I mean Mega-Pascals for f#$*'s sake - stop changing it to Mpa! And, despite what you think, t and T are actually two different variables (time, temperature) so stop changing all my bloody t's to T's!!
(PS. for anyone who has gone through this struggle:
Tools->AutoCorrect->Autoformat As You Type->unselect to taste and then go through the other tabs as well)
What most people don't realise is that the very vast majority of diamonds sold around the world (and hence where the money is to be made) are industrial quality diamonds, not gemstone quality. Industrial diamonds are mostly used as abrasives. Many of the mines in Canada, Australia and Russia produce gem quality diamonds (eg. Argyle pink diamonds from Australia), but most of the industrial diamond deposits are found in Africa.
The results of the memory tests are amasing.
Really??? 3 replicates of every test on a single sample. I haven't done the maths, but looking at the numbers I reckon some proper statistics on those memory test numbers would show up very little, if any at all, statistically significant difference.
It might stand out from the crowd, but would you seriously give a job to someone who translated their resume into elvish? ...
Unless there's a nice guest ale...
amen to that my friend. After living in Yorkshire for almost 2 years I've been completely converted to real ale and bitter. Love the stuff. I only drink lager if there isn't a decent alternative or guest ale to try. And best of all, ale doesn't seem to give me a hangover!
As for favourites? Well, there's no doubt that Timothy Taylor Landlord is the gold standard, but Ten Gun Salute is also good one and Jennings Snekbiter is a superb drop as well.
It's 1am and I just got home from the pub. Um, I look at this in the morning and maybe clarify a few things...
... if the first thing you think about after getting home from the pub at 1am is posting on slashdot I'd suggest you haven't drunk nearly enough beer. :)
Mate
bullshit. Took me all of 30 seconds to write a quick function that extracted the number from within the brackets into the next column. Because it wasn't perfect (fooled by a second set of parentheses) it took me another couple of minutes to manually correct the 5 cases where it didn't work, and if I wanted, it would have taken all of another 3 seconds to use "paste special"->"values" and get the actual numbers rather than formulas. If I'd spent a little longer the manual editing would have been unnecesary. And I'm not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination.
Excel is still the best spreadsheet application out there. This might be slashdot and you gotta knock M$ at every opportunity but this kind of zealousness just sets your cause back further.
try this in the next column and copy down. Not perfect (it's fooled if there are two sets of parentheses) but a quick fix. If you just want the formula results, copy the column and "paste special..." (tick "values"). Hey presto!
" ,B 2)+1,FIND(")",B2)-FIND("(",B2)-1)),1)
/. puts some in]
=IF(ISNUMBER(FIND(")",B2)),VALUE(MID(B2,FIND("(
[there should be no spaces in the above function in case
Metallica artists... I crack myself up
Metallica stopped being artists the moment they made Load (should have added "of Absolute Shite" to the title), possibly even the black album, and started seeing too many dollar signs. It's amazing how many people I've spoken to who were long time fans of the band from the Kill 'Em All days hate them with a passion now because they sold out. Talk about alienating your original fanbase.
Yeh, offtopic I know but it was a necessary rant.
Hey, instead of sueing everybody who possibly might have a mysterious "I-might-start-using-p2p-to-download-music" glint in their eye, perhaps the whole (mainstream) music industry could try putting out some decent music that people might actually be willing to pay for instead of the music-to-a-recipe crap that they produce by the barrel full at the moment?
You know, say, just for an example, an album released because the artist is happy with it, rather than because a deadline has passed?
here's another low tech solution:
"OK, my round. What's everyone having?"
Why is it that Australians seem touchy about Steve Irwin?
Actually, this proud aussie is not at all touchy about Steve Irwin. I never used to be able to stand him, until I saw him interviewed (on The Panel I think). The thing that struck me was how much he cared about the animals he was showing and how much he just wanted to teach/educate everyone about his creatures. The over-enthusiastic Steve Irwin you see on his shows doesn't seem to be an act - he really is like that. I've seen him interviewed many times since then and I have a lot of respect for him - he doesn't care what anyone thinks, he's just interested in sharing his fascination with these animals with everyone.
OK, I accept that he perpetuates the Crocodile Dundee stereotype, but I also know from my own experience that the vast majority of people are not stupid enough to believe that every aussie is like this. And those that do believe this are happy to listen when I tell them we're not all like that. Then again, compared to many other countries, we can often seem very much like "bushmen".
If you are doing a serious research project, you go where researchers from time immemorial have gone--the library
And you use proper journal indexes like Medline, Current Contents, ScienceDirect, Compendex, PubMed, Chem abstracts etc. Google (or any of the general www search engines) just doesn't index this kind of info.
Google is fantastic for finding info on pages you kind of remember (hell, it's good enough to use as your favourites sometimes), and it's great for locating introductory info on a topic (read with a measured dose of bullshit-detecting-salt) for homework assignments, and if you can be bothered to trawl through millions of hits, shopping. I use google a lot, but, as you say, it is not for serious research.
Of course this *could* be great for college paper researchers, looking for a quote or two to stick in a research paper.
Take that one (not very big) step further - it will become an absolute treasure trove for those lazy students who can't be bothered to do their own work and just blatantly plagiarise. I'm not talking about the people who discuss their results with others or work together, but the minority who just blatantly cheat.
Whether people are prepared to admit it or not, the availability of everything as raw data (ie. text) and the cut/paste mentality has been creating a real problem; more so at university level, but it is certainly filtering down.
[...] But almost all software has bugs, [...] Linux is not bug free. Software written for Linux is not bug free [...] PROGRAMS HAVE BUGS. And the more complex the programs, the more they interact with other components, often in ways the original programmers never thought of _or intended_, the more likely bugs will be found.
- bugs attitude. I can't think of any other industry in the world that sells a product under the proviso that it may not work properly. Car manufacturers, airline companies, engineering firms, construction companies, NASA - the product better do what it's supposed to first time, every time and the designers had better think of every conceivable way someone might break or misuse (abuse) it.
slightly offtopic I know, and I don't mean to pick on your post but it always amuses (and amazes) me that the computer industry gets away with this programs-are-complicated-so-they're-bound-to-have
they are more of a pay-per-click advertising technology [...] Or, you could just _check_it_out_ [overture.com] for yourself
... how gullible do you think I am ... oh, damn ... wait, no please, not more ads ... noooo, somebody make it stop ...
wait, first you tell me that they're an online ad agency and then you expect me to click on the link to their homepage? Talk about death by a million pop-ups.
sheesh
Your post outlines precisely why joe public has the perception of computer geeks that they do.
The general public are not stupid and shouldn't be treated as if they are. Unfortunately that attitude of "why should I bother explaining they're too stupid to understand anyway" is far too common in the tech industry.
Medicine particularly, but many other industries like automotive go to a lot of effort to try and explain their jargon in terms that the layman can understand - after all, it is the layman that provides their salary. It's not "dumbing things down", it's called communication. The tech/computer geek [industry] doesn't seem to understand this and comes off as a bunch of elitist wankers as a result.