"...we'd appreciate less speculation in the future."
I assume, as you aren't an editor, you have ascended to Royalty in your usage of the Royal We. Let me be the first to Welcome our new/. bashing Overlord.
If you could give me somekind of pointer on how to ascend to Your Highness, I would be forever grateful.
I look forward to Your Highness first "We are not amused post.
No not you, you can't runaway, but conditions in the biosphere can go into runaway and probably will. We tend to see the world as static and manageable in discrete terms. It's not. The world that supports us is a system, hence ecosystem. In a system when you push hard enough parameters shift, and, sometimes the system goes into runaway.
By way of example our individual physiologies as systems experience runaway in terms of sexual orgasam ( ya sex, more people ) and in terms of death.
We're not only pushing the envelope in terms of population, we're also pushing the food chain that sustains us. The oceans are being fished clean to feed the growing population. It's not unlikely that the ocean food chain will collapse in our lifetime. Add in global warming and the projected more frequent, more violent storms; mix in our proclivity to live in large numbers on the coast lines, and, the recipe for disaster is all but made, no need to add in a killer like a super volcano.
The lesson of New Orleans is that we can't handle relatively mid range disasters. We speak of the first world in terms of Super Powers in quasi mythological terms that suggest we control nature. We're just outlaw apes broken free of our natural constraints and deluded in belief systems that talk to our immortality as mirror images of the creator of the universe.
The joke about to go very bad. May you live in interesting times.
Last book I enjoyed, Three Roads to Quantum Gravity by L. Smolin... ya, ya, I know, nothing fits, is, isn't, yo momma... no yo momma... can, can't... I'm not touching you!
Unraveling this one may require Spock's scientific genius.
The article is long on conjecture and short on fact. It may be, for instance, that the parasite commandeers the host's motor functions and drives the host to haphazardly hop until, on occassion, it lands in water.
I doubt even the behaviour of Drosophila Melanogaster, one of the most studied organisms, is known well enough to allow prediction of the exact neurotransmitters that would, say, turn it off eating fruit.
To suggest that a parasite could hijack it's host with such exquisite direction begs endless questions.
Could the parasite and host have co-evolved?
Most likely the Intelligent Designer, tired of playing pin the tail on the bacterium, fashioned this parasite to tease us on our way to renouncing Evolution.
Wired ran an article that in part reads as follows: "Virtually everything that has happened in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina struck was predicted by experts and in computer models, so emergency management specialists wonder why authorities were so unprepared."
While I'll do what I can, I find the fact that the scenario had been modeled disturbing in light of the disorganized response. The more so since President Bush has said no one predicted the levees being breached.
"Seems like every game coming out these days are rehashes of old gameplay with updated graphics. FPS/RPG/MMORPG/Racing/Sports/RTS and thats pretty much it. I don't know what I want either..Something dazzling, something different,..."
Given your ennui, I suggest Russian Roullet. Some suggest, if you loose, you move to another level, up or down.
The Discovery Channel ran a great little series on the Amazon Rain Forest. In one episode they used time lapse photography to show the slow sure growth of an Epiphyte that chose as its host one of the largest giant trees of the Rain Forest. The Epiphyte, starting from a sprout grew to completely obscure the giant tree. The tree blocked from sunlight died in the embrace of the epiphyte. When the host tree died a swath of the forest ecosystem died with it. The spooky part was that by the time the tree began to die you couldn't see it, the epiphyte completely engulfed the tree.
As a Canadian, watching the suffocating growth in Intellectual Property rights in America, I get a recurring image of the epiphyte choking the life of that giant tree. One day what nurished American industry will disappear choked off by patents, maybe we won't even see it die.
"Anyway, I think linux clearly plays with the big boys already, so that is not needed anymore."
Generally I agree of course, but in terms of desktop usage Linux might benefit from going head to head with Windows. The worst that might come of it would be that Linux advertised as the second best desktop OS, but being second best and free might be a leg up on being less well known in the desktop market.
I would try to set the comparison to key on desktop usage. I don't think total cost of ownership is applicable to a desktop OS, so really, being free and a comparable alternative to Windows is a good thing.
Hearsay has it that Pepsi as a young upstart challenging Coke had only the slightest toehold in the market until Coke decided on a campaign to compare Coke to Pepsi headon. The outcome of Coke's campaign was to give Pepsi the national exposure it needed to break into the market big time.
In Linux's position, having MS wanting to go head to head might be a win win situation. I know if the product were mine I'd want to mix it up with the big boys.
"...'Open Office 2.0 Kicks MS Office Around The Block'"
Given how long Open Office has been chasing after MS Office, it's about time it got close enough to give MS Office a kick; but, in my experience, Open Office comes off like Charlie Brown kicking that damn football.
I'm not a Windows apologist. I run a wintel box as a multimedia web box because too many formats are locked into MS apps and I'm not enough of a zealot to forgo information.
I've had MS pro copies of Office for many years and I've had years of experience with Linux. My opion is Open Office doesn't yet touch MS pro office, especially Power Point.
I'll keep MS Office Pro because it's not a big expense in terms of the extended latitude it offers.
In Canada we've had various reports suggesting the coming of ice free summers in the Artic. Inuit have reported seein grasshoppers in the sub Artic, previously grasshoppers have never been seen in the far north.
The most conspicuous signs are the recent claim by the U.S. that the North West Passage constitutes international waters, followed by Canada and Russia both claiming sovereignty over their respective northern lands to the North Pole. The U.S. commercial interests would be well served by having open shipping across the north during the summer months. This summer the Canadian Navy sailed into Hudson Bay to fly the flag.
Personally I think the Canadian north in summer is adequately protected from intrusion by mosquitos and black flies in numbers not even a google plex could account for, and they're really big too.
"My guess is that Venezuela will become, is essence, a Chinese outpost. And a huge foothold, economically, in Central/South America. Just in time for the economies in Brazil and Argentina to start looking ripe for more investment."
My guess is that, should the scenario you've outlinned be implemented, Uncle Sam will dust off the Monroe Doctrine and, as Teddy Rosevelt put it, walk softly up to China carrying a very big stick.
Jump over to the Edge and read or download the PINKER VS. SPELKE debate. The points made by both parties lay a good foundation for looking at this issue.
A brief setup for the debate reads:"...on the research on mind, brain, and behavior that may be relevant to gender disparities in the sciences, including the studies of bias, discrimination and innate and acquired difference between the sexes."
Build an AV system that creates a VM sandbox that would then allow the a program to run to see what it would do, and if determind to work normally, then to pass the IO requests directly to the system.
I apologise in advance for not having a link or a referrence. I did a quick read on a paper from SANS, wherein they commented on an exploit referred to as "the red pill". IIRC the gist of the exploit is that it tests for the memory segment it is run in. A VM sandbox runs in a higher memory segment. If the exploit tests and finds itself being run in a higher memory segment it becomes dormant, if, OTOH, it tests and finds it's being run in a lower memory area it releases its payload.
Sorry I can't link to the pdf. I have the file but haven't the time to search for it at the moment.
What constitutes learning? Is it complex forms of habituation? Is it rote learning? Is it pattern recognition and the ability to operate on those patterns?
For most students much of learning is a rote exercise. Exams are a regurgatation process, from some the product is as appealing as barf, from others it's a well served up platter where memory is complemented by order, and they can ask, fries with that? There are limitations to the amount of data students who learn by rote can process and having to learn Information Technology as a secondary form of literacy increases the burden.
There is no magic cure for education and the ever increasing demands burgeoning amounts of information makes on students. Reading, Writing and Arithmetic just doesn't cut it anymore.
The stone cold fact is fewer people have the faculties able to assimilate huge amounts of information, recognize patterns in that information and acquire the tools to operate positively on that information.
The best and the brightest are no longer culled from America only, or the west, the best and the brightest are cheery picked from the wide world, because the demands have pushed the requirements to a world set.
Along with ability there must also be the drive to endlessly read and update one's knowledge base.
Strong arguments now suggest our relatively larger brains came about from our more complex social structures, and, for many, maintaining social structures take first place over being a geek. Some people would rather get laid and revel in their place in the tribe. Go figure.
"Psychologists at Vanderbilt and Yale Universities have determined that people can suffer short periods of blindness, up to 1/2 a second in length, immediately after seeing highly emotional images"
Might such periods of "blindness" be in part responsible for the inability of crime witnesses to recall details, and, for conflicting crime reports by witnesses.
There is the classic gambit of a law professor having a mock murder take place in front of law students to test their ability to recall details correctly. OTOH there was Aldus Huxley who, when left alone at home, would answer the door, deal with whomever was at the door, and, then return to his work without any memory of having dealt with some mundane task. A. Huxley was also able to recall, verbatim, pages of his college texts after having been given only a slight prompt.
Charles Tart in his book Altered States gives a fun run down on some of the oddities of human consciousness.
The Reg has a pertinent piece on the venerable insurance company Lloyd's being close offering..."independent insurance protection worldwide against potential IP litigation involving Linux and open source software".
Slashdot Mirror
I assume, as you aren't an editor, you have ascended to Royalty in your usage of the Royal We. Let me be the first to Welcome our new /. bashing Overlord.
If you could give me somekind of pointer on how to ascend to Your Highness, I would be forever grateful.
I look forward to Your Highness first "We are not amused post.
By way of example our individual physiologies as systems experience runaway in terms of sexual orgasam ( ya sex, more people ) and in terms of death.
We're not only pushing the envelope in terms of population, we're also pushing the food chain that sustains us. The oceans are being fished clean to feed the growing population. It's not unlikely that the ocean food chain will collapse in our lifetime. Add in global warming and the projected more frequent, more violent storms; mix in our proclivity to live in large numbers on the coast lines, and, the recipe for disaster is all but made, no need to add in a killer like a super volcano.
The lesson of New Orleans is that we can't handle relatively mid range disasters. We speak of the first world in terms of Super Powers in quasi mythological terms that suggest we control nature. We're just outlaw apes broken free of our natural constraints and deluded in belief systems that talk to our immortality as mirror images of the creator of the universe.
The joke about to go very bad. May you live in interesting times.
cheers
Greene's Elegant Universe
The Mechanical Universe
Last book I enjoyed, Three Roads to Quantum Gravity by L. Smolin... ya, ya, I know, nothing fits, is, isn't, yo momma... no yo momma... can, can't... I'm not touching you!
Unraveling this one may require Spock's scientific genius.
The article is long on conjecture and short on fact. It may be, for instance, that the parasite commandeers the host's motor functions and drives the host to haphazardly hop until, on occassion, it lands in water.
I doubt even the behaviour of Drosophila Melanogaster, one of the most studied organisms, is known well enough to allow prediction of the exact neurotransmitters that would, say, turn it off eating fruit.
To suggest that a parasite could hijack it's host with such exquisite direction begs endless questions.
Could the parasite and host have co-evolved?
Most likely the Intelligent Designer, tired of playing pin the tail on the bacterium, fashioned this parasite to tease us on our way to renouncing Evolution.
"Virtually everything that has happened in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina struck was predicted by experts and in computer models, so emergency management specialists wonder why authorities were so unprepared."
While I'll do what I can, I find the fact that the scenario had been modeled disturbing in light of the disorganized response. The more so since President Bush has said no one predicted the levees being breached.
Given your ennui, I suggest Russian Roullet. Some suggest, if you loose, you move to another level, up or down.
enjoy
"Yes, You are right."
"I am not a Jedi Knight."
"Nothing to see here. Please move along."
As a Canadian, watching the suffocating growth in Intellectual Property rights in America, I get a recurring image of the epiphyte choking the life of that giant tree. One day what nurished American industry will disappear choked off by patents, maybe we won't even see it die.
Generally I agree of course, but in terms of desktop usage Linux might benefit from going head to head with Windows. The worst that might come of it would be that Linux advertised as the second best desktop OS, but being second best and free might be a leg up on being less well known in the desktop market.
I would try to set the comparison to key on desktop usage. I don't think total cost of ownership is applicable to a desktop OS, so really, being free and a comparable alternative to Windows is a good thing.
Cheers
In Linux's position, having MS wanting to go head to head might be a win win situation. I know if the product were mine I'd want to mix it up with the big boys.
Given how long Open Office has been chasing after MS Office, it's about time it got close enough to give MS Office a kick; but, in my experience, Open Office comes off like Charlie Brown kicking that damn football.
I'm not a Windows apologist. I run a wintel box as a multimedia web box because too many formats are locked into MS apps and I'm not enough of a zealot to forgo information.
I've had MS pro copies of Office for many years and I've had years of experience with Linux. My opion is Open Office doesn't yet touch MS pro office, especially Power Point.
I'll keep MS Office Pro because it's not a big expense in terms of the extended latitude it offers.
The most conspicuous signs are the recent claim by the U.S. that the North West Passage constitutes international waters, followed by Canada and Russia both claiming sovereignty over their respective northern lands to the North Pole. The U.S. commercial interests would be well served by having open shipping across the north during the summer months. This summer the Canadian Navy sailed into Hudson Bay to fly the flag.
Personally I think the Canadian north in summer is adequately protected from intrusion by mosquitos and black flies in numbers not even a google plex could account for, and they're really big too.
My guess is that, should the scenario you've outlinned be implemented, Uncle Sam will dust off the Monroe Doctrine and, as Teddy Rosevelt put it, walk softly up to China carrying a very big stick.
"...even if you're enough of a cunt to steal from a charity raffle,..."
uhm... and why is it geeks don't get laid?
The Hayflick Barrier, that suggests cells will replicate only a certain number of times.
Hela cells having to do with cancerous "immortal cells" and the length of telomeres and aging.
lysosomes which as the "recycling bins" of cells may overtime become "clogged" with material the cells are unable to recycle and cause cell death.
No matter that there may be a genetic tweak for aging there are other things at play that may impact on the genetic tweak.
And Bill Gates thought OS was viral.
A brief setup for the debate reads:"...on the research on mind, brain, and behavior that may be relevant to gender disparities in the sciences, including the studies of bias, discrimination and innate and acquired difference between the sexes."
I apologise in advance for not having a link or a referrence. I did a quick read on a paper from SANS, wherein they commented on an exploit referred to as "the red pill". IIRC the gist of the exploit is that it tests for the memory segment it is run in. A VM sandbox runs in a higher memory segment. If the exploit tests and finds itself being run in a higher memory segment it becomes dormant, if, OTOH, it tests and finds it's being run in a lower memory area it releases its payload.
Sorry I can't link to the pdf. I have the file but haven't the time to search for it at the moment.
cheers
For most students much of learning is a rote exercise. Exams are a regurgatation process, from some the product is as appealing as barf, from others it's a well served up platter where memory is complemented by order, and they can ask, fries with that? There are limitations to the amount of data students who learn by rote can process and having to learn Information Technology as a secondary form of literacy increases the burden.
There is no magic cure for education and the ever increasing demands burgeoning amounts of information makes on students. Reading, Writing and Arithmetic just doesn't cut it anymore.
The stone cold fact is fewer people have the faculties able to assimilate huge amounts of information, recognize patterns in that information and acquire the tools to operate positively on that information.
The best and the brightest are no longer culled from America only, or the west, the best and the brightest are cheery picked from the wide world, because the demands have pushed the requirements to a world set.
Along with ability there must also be the drive to endlessly read and update one's knowledge base.
Strong arguments now suggest our relatively larger brains came about from our more complex social structures, and, for many, maintaining social structures take first place over being a geek. Some people would rather get laid and revel in their place in the tribe. Go figure.
ya yet another fp coup to hang on my wall
Why it's vaporware.
So we can expect to see RoboLase terminals on golf courses real soon.
Might such periods of "blindness" be in part responsible for the inability of crime witnesses to recall details, and, for conflicting crime reports by witnesses.
There is the classic gambit of a law professor having a mock murder take place in front of law students to test their ability to recall details correctly. OTOH there was Aldus Huxley who, when left alone at home, would answer the door, deal with whomever was at the door, and, then return to his work without any memory of having dealt with some mundane task. A. Huxley was also able to recall, verbatim, pages of his college texts after having been given only a slight prompt.
Charles Tart in his book Altered States gives a fun run down on some of the oddities of human consciousness.
One has to assume you're there, quite the feat; and, let me be the first to say, I welcome our grass growing, and smoking, Martian Overlords.
The Reg has a pertinent piece on the venerable insurance company Lloyd's being close offering..."independent insurance protection worldwide against potential IP litigation involving Linux and open source software".