That would seem to make Fermi's paradox even more troubling. My bet is that abiogenesis is vanishingly improbable. It seems pretty reasonable to be fairly optimistic about every other term in Drake's equation.
Actually you don't need any single thing that is vanishingly improbably, just a series of things that is unlikely. And for the origin of intelligent life you can roughly estimate how many unlikely steps there were (i.e. steps that were unlikely to occur in the time allotted.) Suppose I hand you a standard six sided die and give you 12 rolls to roll six sixes. Now it's unlikely that you will do so, but if you do succeed, on which roll with the sixth six arise? The answer (to first order) is that the final six won't show up before roll 12-12/6 or roll number 10. Now if intelligent life is like a bunch of rolls of the dice, we can figure out about how many steps there were that are difficult. The earth has been habitable for 4 billion years, and will remain habitable for between 500 million and a billion years (before the sun's increasing intensity boils away the oceans). That would mean that there are between 4 and 8 difficult steps that were unlikely to occur in that 4 billion years.
I've taken that a bit farther and done some simulations that show the given what we currently know, even if life is common, it's quite likely that the amount of time necessary for intelligent life to arise typically exceeds the lifetimes of F,G, and most K stars. (Heck it took longer than the lifetime of an F star here.) In order to be sure though, we're going to need to find some planets with life that have never developed intelligence. Or we're going to need to find some intelligence. It's far cheaper (but not free) to look for the latter right now. Hence my sig.
APIs aren't copywritable, but implementations of an API are. The HashMap API is an API, the Oracle implementation of HashMap is an implementation. An Android implementation of HashMap is an implementation. As long as there's no code copying, there's no infringement. If a user compiles the Oracle implementation to work under Android, then the user may have violated the Oracle license if that is prohibited. But that's not Google's problem.
The big question is where did the Marty that Marty saw going back to 1955 when he got back to 1985 go? We never see him again after that point. Is he trapped in an alternate 1955 or did he end up in an alternate 1985? Maybe I need to smoke more...
Have you seen where Rupert Murdoch's money has been going? He's been running a 24/7 campaign commercial for 24 years. And you're worried about George Soros?
$80 an hour is too high. Make it the average of the median household income and the poverty line (which would be about $16.30 a hour) in a non-management job while sequestering any investments and then maybe (just maybe) board members would be a little vigilant.
Probably not. I can't think of a job that pays $16.30 an hour that a corporate board member would be qualified to do. Rubber stamping the desires of the CEO isn't a useful skill.
Install the Market app, of course. Find and download an APK for any of the multiple markets that exist and install it with the package installer. You'd think it was difficult or something. Unless the Archos 43 doesn't come with the package installer, at which point you should be telling the world not to buy an Archos 43.
Not terribly insightful, Exxon is prohibited by law from donating money directly to the candidates or parties but can give unlimited funds to 501(c)4 and 501(c)3 groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce or Americans for Prosperity without needing to disclose such contributions
Unfortunately they are unwilling to use their corporate power (i.e. money) to create a media campaign in the way that corporations that lean right do. It's sad that only the right has the courage to anonymously funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into non-profits like Americans for Prosperity that were created for the purpose of supporting Right Wing candidates. According to their tax filings these non-profits have a primary purpose that is not political. Education, I suppose?
But the Supreme Court has decided that anyone with any moral fiber or system of ethics is unsuited for political office. The next 20 years are going to be pretty awful.
It's similar where I work. It's new toy lock-in syndrome. Everyone here got an iPhone when they were new and when they get replacements they get an iPhone because they are used to it. Maybe 15% will switch each time. And there's still no AT&T connectivity on this site. Now nobody is buying iPhones except people who own iPhones.
But that's people who work at a research lab. The rest of the world doesn't necessarily suffer from new toy lock-in syndrome. When I go to doctors' offices, I see Droids and dumb phones.
The Market app can operate over any network connection. If you don't have any network connection, then yes, that would be a problem. My understanding is that Google still blocks the Market outside of the U.S.A., so people in other countries need to find another market or install apps manually (i.e. download them from the browser). Google could find a market for you easily.
Wouldn't you think that there would be a procedure in place for deprecating and replacing the codes with new ones in case the they get lost or Glen Beck steals them?
Yeah, because the next round of Mac releases will remove the ability to install your own software or use unapproved USB devices. Hope you're happy with Safari as a browser and don't like porn.
At first it does, but there's a reason hybrids like the Prius don't use a serial engine drives generator drives motors. There is a trade off between ICE speed and efficiency. An ICE is most efficient when operating at high RPM, so ideally you'd want to run the engine fast. The problem there is that also translates to loud which makes it more difficult to get road certification. If you run at lower speed, to make the noise acceptable, then the efficiency goes down to the point where you might as well drive the wheels directly. Unless you can come up with a quieter generator, you'd probably be better off having a trailer that just contains extra battery packs, or an easy way of changing batteries enroute.
There are only two things that can get you that much notice from the U.S. government: 1) Try to start a war they don't want. 2) Try to stop a war they do want.
Slashdot Mirror
cue ominous music Maybe in only takes one to stop it.
That would seem to make Fermi's paradox even more troubling. My bet is that abiogenesis is vanishingly improbable. It seems pretty reasonable to be fairly optimistic about every other term in Drake's equation.
Actually you don't need any single thing that is vanishingly improbably, just a series of things that is unlikely. And for the origin of intelligent life you can roughly estimate how many unlikely steps there were (i.e. steps that were unlikely to occur in the time allotted.) Suppose I hand you a standard six sided die and give you 12 rolls to roll six sixes. Now it's unlikely that you will do so, but if you do succeed, on which roll with the sixth six arise? The answer (to first order) is that the final six won't show up before roll 12-12/6 or roll number 10. Now if intelligent life is like a bunch of rolls of the dice, we can figure out about how many steps there were that are difficult. The earth has been habitable for 4 billion years, and will remain habitable for between 500 million and a billion years (before the sun's increasing intensity boils away the oceans). That would mean that there are between 4 and 8 difficult steps that were unlikely to occur in that 4 billion years.
I've taken that a bit farther and done some simulations that show the given what we currently know, even if life is common, it's quite likely that the amount of time necessary for intelligent life to arise typically exceeds the lifetimes of F,G, and most K stars. (Heck it took longer than the lifetime of an F star here.) In order to be sure though, we're going to need to find some planets with life that have never developed intelligence. Or we're going to need to find some intelligence. It's far cheaper (but not free) to look for the latter right now. Hence my sig.
APIs aren't copywritable, but implementations of an API are. The HashMap API is an API, the Oracle implementation of HashMap is an implementation. An Android implementation of HashMap is an implementation. As long as there's no code copying, there's no infringement. If a user compiles the Oracle implementation to work under Android, then the user may have violated the Oracle license if that is prohibited. But that's not Google's problem.
The big question is where did the Marty that Marty saw going back to 1955 when he got back to 1985 go? We never see him again after that point. Is he trapped in an alternate 1955 or did he end up in an alternate 1985? Maybe I need to smoke more...
Have you seen where Rupert Murdoch's money has been going? He's been running a 24/7 campaign commercial for 24 years. And you're worried about George Soros?
$80 an hour is too high. Make it the average of the median household income and the poverty line (which would be about $16.30 a hour) in a non-management job while sequestering any investments and then maybe (just maybe) board members would be a little vigilant.
Probably not. I can't think of a job that pays $16.30 an hour that a corporate board member would be qualified to do. Rubber stamping the desires of the CEO isn't a useful skill.
Install the Market app, of course. Find and download an APK for any of the multiple markets that exist and install it with the package installer. You'd think it was difficult or something. Unless the Archos 43 doesn't come with the package installer, at which point you should be telling the world not to buy an Archos 43.
Please mod parent hilarious!
Not terribly insightful, Exxon is prohibited by law from donating money directly to the candidates or parties but can give unlimited funds to 501(c)4 and 501(c)3 groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce or Americans for Prosperity without needing to disclose such contributions
FTFY. HTH. HAND.
Unfortunately they are unwilling to use their corporate power (i.e. money) to create a media campaign in the way that corporations that lean right do. It's sad that only the right has the courage to anonymously funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into non-profits like Americans for Prosperity that were created for the purpose of supporting Right Wing candidates. According to their tax filings these non-profits have a primary purpose that is not political. Education, I suppose?
But the Supreme Court has decided that anyone with any moral fiber or system of ethics is unsuited for political office. The next 20 years are going to be pretty awful.
It's similar where I work. It's new toy lock-in syndrome. Everyone here got an iPhone when they were new and when they get replacements they get an iPhone because they are used to it. Maybe 15% will switch each time. And there's still no AT&T connectivity on this site. Now nobody is buying iPhones except people who own iPhones. But that's people who work at a research lab. The rest of the world doesn't necessarily suffer from new toy lock-in syndrome. When I go to doctors' offices, I see Droids and dumb phones.
The Market app can operate over any network connection. If you don't have any network connection, then yes, that would be a problem. My understanding is that Google still blocks the Market outside of the U.S.A., so people in other countries need to find another market or install apps manually (i.e. download them from the browser). Google could find a market for you easily.
He knew he had to key in 1955 in order to get the note from Marty that saved his life. Otherwise there would be a Universe destroying paradox.
Wouldn't you think that there would be a procedure in place for deprecating and replacing the codes with new ones in case the they get lost or Glen Beck steals them?
It gets shut down every hypertuesday for backup and routine maintenance, and nobody seems to care. Why should we care what the software thinks anyway?
Given that humans are the fundamental underlying problem, there doesn't seem to be a lot of support for getting rid of them.
What parts of "automatic installation of applications" requires iOS-like DRM?
The part where Steve likes to control everything.
Yeah, because the next round of Mac releases will remove the ability to install your own software or use unapproved USB devices. Hope you're happy with Safari as a browser and don't like porn.
Personally, I would have modded this "Funny."
Last time I checked, climatology wasn't a branch of Medicine.
That's just a rumor spreadin' a-'round in that Texas town. But now I might be mistaken.
She reads your slashdot posts, doesn't she.
Or, better yet lets use some polymorphism.
Degrees d(180.0);
Radians r(M_PI);
cos_d=d->Cosine();
cos_r=r->Cosine();
assert(cos_d == cos_r);
assert(sizeof(d) == sizeof(float));
Your typical Objective C programmer will probably say that the final assert will fail. That's because they don't understand C++.
A good compiler, on the other hand, will only compute cos(M_PI) once.
Seems like a good way to go.
At first it does, but there's a reason hybrids like the Prius don't use a serial engine drives generator drives motors. There is a trade off between ICE speed and efficiency. An ICE is most efficient when operating at high RPM, so ideally you'd want to run the engine fast. The problem there is that also translates to loud which makes it more difficult to get road certification. If you run at lower speed, to make the noise acceptable, then the efficiency goes down to the point where you might as well drive the wheels directly. Unless you can come up with a quieter generator, you'd probably be better off having a trailer that just contains extra battery packs, or an easy way of changing batteries enroute.
There are only two things that can get you that much notice from the U.S. government: 1) Try to start a war they don't want. 2) Try to stop a war they do want.