Oracle's CIO is reccomending his people read "So They Made You the Boss, Now What?" by Les Duncan. It can be found here http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1413 731821/
Probably not a bad place to start. I found it an interesting read.
This article makes some good points, but some fairly invalid ones. Maybe it's just the way he explains.
Mathematics doesn't "blow up" at singularities -- it's merely a place where every known equation we have that deals with GR gives us an answer of infinity. Now, this is a problem that's occured in mathematics for centuries, and people have solved these problems for centuries (L'Hopital's rule, for one)
Well, if Black Holes don't exist, we're sorta screwed. Not necessarily screwed, but it does flush about 60 years of decent cosmological physics down the drain. I guess that's happened before.
It comes down to who you want to believe, I suppose. Neither side of this argument has barely any evidence of what they're claiming, so, what sounds better to you?:)
It's the only thing I miss about living off-campus. Our dial-up access here is sluggish, even for a modem.
I'd settle for cable-modems, but, the local cable co. (Time Warner) hasn't gotten around to that yet. I wish they'd realize the demand, given the number of off-campus students who miss being able to view pages in under 2 minutes.
Oh, well...I'm stuck in the backwoods, maybe that's why...
For those of you who live in the few areas that have them (ohio, some parts of pennsylvania, and some parts of indiana), Fry's is more like a MicroCenter than a Best Buy.
If a bacteria begins as succeptible to certain antibiotics, the only way this can be changed is through the lateral gene transfer you refer to. Basically, this is done in most bacteria by the exchange of plasmids between bacteria. Plasmids are composed of DNA and exist on and around the cell-wall of all bacteria. These plasmids encode enzymes that break down organic material, and also encode enzymes that destroy antibodies.
This is a trait present in both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, and is how anti-bacterial resistance is passed (penicillin, etc.)
What is being theorized -- and what the control relies upon (AFAIK)is that you can somehow inhibit these plasmids from exchanging -- *given that you are creating this organism*. How this is done, I don't really know.
So, what I'm saying is that a bacteria can't mutate to change its cell wall and the composition of it. It can be changed in a very specialized way to become resistant to certain chemicals (as with anti-biotic resistance), and this is why plasmid exchange must be inhibited.
This is exactly correct! And what I said above in not so clear terms. Thanks for the better explanation.
Simply, the genome of bacteria doesn't allow for genetic mutation to the point that an organism can so radically change from what has been created. At least, not in this sort of time span under current climate conditions (i.e., *not* primordial soup).
So, as long as those creating the bacteria are responsible enough to create them with a means of valid destruction, there's no problem.
These bacteria aren't simply going to decide that they can't be destroyed. They live, they do what they have to in order to gain energy, they die.
I'm not sure if this is being done, but, one good thing about creating your own life is creating a way to make these life easily destructable. However, unlike Jurassic Park, it can be done in such a way (by inserting DNA of certain protein defficient bacteria) that it is certain they can be killed with anti-biotics. With this insertion, it can also be assured that the trait is not mutatable.
I could be wrong, but, a mutation like this doesn't seem to be covered in the primitive reproductive act of bacteria, only in archaea and eukarya.
The explanation, of course, is a lot more complicated dependent on what type of bacteria (gram-negative or positive) are being used and what the cell-wall composition is. NAM-NAG, B4, etc.
Isn't this nothing new, really? I've run into occasions where I've seen and heard that several bootleg movies are available for download. A widely publicized site running off a campus in Ohio had the japanese bootleg of Titanic last year (with English subtitles). Another site in the US also made Armageddon available this past summer.
I don't get it. Those files have to be huuuuuge. With a decent compression, maybe, what...1.5 gigs for an hour and a half, two hours?
Well, the way I see it, we've got 4-5 billion years in this solar system. That gives us a good amount of time to get our eggs out of one basket (Earth).
1. Let's hit Mars. No issue there, with technological advances, we can colonize that little piece of rock. NASA's working on it, right? (wink)
2. From there, we can try Europa. Get a little farther out.
3. THEN we can move to get out of this two-bit corner of the universe!
Butler and Marcy (the guys who discovered these planets) are using doppler shift almost exclusively. The pages and pages of data they have is incomprehensibly nutty.
As to where they do their work, I believe they spent a lot of time at Keck (Hawaii) in 97-98 and were in several sites in Australia beofe that (though I'm not sure).
The author makes what might seem to be good comments, but his two major points stand that:
1. Mp3 quality is bad 2. People don't want to wait for their music
What makes him think that people will suddenly change their mind about either of these things is sort of boggling. People have been dealing with these things since the advent of mp3, and will continue to do so.
Even so, mp3 may not last forever, but digital music is here to stay, as new compression routines will take over and make compressed songs of better quality (if possible).
Bandwidth becomes less and less of an issue as high-speed internet access is becoming available (cabel modems and the various DSLs).
The real end of mp3 could only come with a real purge by the RIAA.
Slashdot Mirror
I've actually already patented the use of single letters in front of "Mail", so they're both screwing me over.
AMAil
BMail
CMail
DMail
etc.
ALL MINE!
Yeah, I'm Amazon.com. This whole "Dopefish" thing is just an alias.....
Also,
Limited Brands - $300K cash,, plus employee donations
Oracle's CIO is reccomending his people read "So They Made You the Boss, Now What?" by Les Duncan. It can be found here http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1413 731821/
Probably not a bad place to start. I found it an interesting read.
Sorry, Angelina, but....as comic book guy would say:
"Worst career move ever"
:)
This article makes some good points, but some fairly invalid ones. Maybe it's just the way he explains.
Mathematics doesn't "blow up" at singularities -- it's merely a place where every known equation we have that deals with GR gives us an answer of infinity. Now, this is a problem that's occured in mathematics for centuries, and people have solved these problems for centuries (L'Hopital's rule, for one)
Well, if Black Holes don't exist, we're sorta screwed. Not necessarily screwed, but it does flush about 60 years of decent cosmological physics down the drain. I guess that's happened before.
It comes down to who you want to believe, I suppose. Neither side of this argument has barely any evidence of what they're claiming, so, what sounds better to you?
Does this mean that Russia can beat JFK's challenge of the early '60s to send men to the moon first?
You still have a chance, Russia! RUN! RUN!
It's the only thing I miss about living off-campus. Our dial-up access here is sluggish, even for a modem.
I'd settle for cable-modems, but, the local cable co. (Time Warner) hasn't gotten around to that yet. I wish they'd realize the demand, given the number of off-campus students who miss being able to view pages in under 2 minutes.
Oh, well...I'm stuck in the backwoods, maybe that's why...
Yeah, but, jwz's descriptions of how hip and cool it is just sort of make me shudder.
oh, maybe that's the site in and of itself.
For those of you who live in the few areas that have them (ohio, some parts of pennsylvania, and some parts of indiana), Fry's is more like a MicroCenter than a Best Buy.
How?
:)
A mutation like what?
If a bacteria begins as succeptible to certain antibiotics, the only way this can be changed is through the lateral gene transfer you refer to. Basically, this is done in most bacteria by the exchange of plasmids between bacteria. Plasmids are composed of DNA and exist on and around the cell-wall of all bacteria. These plasmids encode enzymes that break down organic material, and also encode enzymes that destroy antibodies.
This is a trait present in both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, and is how anti-bacterial resistance is passed (penicillin, etc.)
What is being theorized -- and what the control relies upon (AFAIK)is that you can somehow inhibit these plasmids from exchanging -- *given that you are creating this organism*. How this is done, I don't really know.
So, what I'm saying is that a bacteria can't mutate to change its cell wall and the composition of it. It can be changed in a very specialized way to become resistant to certain chemicals (as with anti-biotic resistance), and this is why plasmid exchange must be inhibited.
I think.
This is exactly correct! And what I said above in not so clear terms. Thanks for the better explanation.
Simply, the genome of bacteria doesn't allow for genetic mutation to the point that an organism can so radically change from what has been created. At least, not in this sort of time span under current climate conditions (i.e., *not* primordial soup).
So, as long as those creating the bacteria are responsible enough to create them with a means of valid destruction, there's no problem.
These bacteria aren't simply going to decide that they can't be destroyed. They live, they do what they have to in order to gain energy, they die.
I'm not sure if this is being done, but, one good thing about creating your own life is creating a way to make these life easily destructable.
However, unlike Jurassic Park, it can be done in such a way (by inserting DNA of certain protein defficient bacteria) that it is certain they can be killed with anti-biotics. With this insertion, it can also be assured that the trait is not mutatable.
I could be wrong, but, a mutation like this doesn't seem to be covered in the primitive reproductive act of bacteria, only in archaea and eukarya.
The explanation, of course, is a lot more complicated dependent on what type of bacteria (gram-negative or positive) are being used and what the cell-wall composition is. NAM-NAG, B4, etc.
Ahhh....but, chess is the oldest technology, using the oldest technology.
Or...something deep n' cheesy like that. Woooo...
Isn't this nothing new, really? I've run into occasions where I've seen and heard that several bootleg movies are available for download. A widely publicized site running off a campus in Ohio had the japanese bootleg of Titanic last year (with English subtitles). Another site in the US also made Armageddon available this past summer.
I don't get it. Those files have to be huuuuuge. With a decent compression, maybe, what...1.5 gigs for an hour and a half, two hours?
Nutty...
Well, the way I see it, we've got 4-5 billion years in this solar system. That gives us a good amount of time to get our eggs out of one basket (Earth).
1. Let's hit Mars. No issue there, with technological advances, we can colonize that little piece of rock. NASA's working on it, right? (wink)
2. From there, we can try Europa. Get a little farther out.
3. THEN we can move to get out of this two-bit corner of the universe!
Butler and Marcy (the guys who discovered these planets) are using doppler shift almost exclusively. The pages and pages of data they have is incomprehensibly nutty.
As to where they do their work, I believe they spent a lot of time at Keck (Hawaii) in 97-98 and were in several sites in Australia beofe that (though I'm not sure).
The author makes what might seem to be good comments, but his two major points stand that:
1. Mp3 quality is bad
2. People don't want to wait for their music
What makes him think that people will suddenly change their mind about either of these things is sort of boggling. People have been dealing with these things since the advent of mp3, and will continue to do so.
Even so, mp3 may not last forever, but digital music is here to stay, as new compression routines will take over and make compressed songs of better quality (if possible).
Bandwidth becomes less and less of an issue as high-speed internet access is becoming available (cabel modems and the various DSLs).
The real end of mp3 could only come with a real purge by the RIAA.