The headline, blurb and link create a perfect storm of incomprehensibility -- that I had to go to Wikipedia to figure out what the hell this is about isn't an auspicious beginning, and I still have no idea what "Google'a" is.
It's not clear to me what that the test answers the question. Does time *actually* slow down, and in a Neo-like state we can stop to look around while bullets are flying at us? Of course not. But do things *seem* to move more slowly? It seems so.
The question is whether that apparent slowing is something you experience at the time and can take advantage of (i.e. if time slows to one-third speed, can you read numbers or dodge bullets three times as quickly?) or if it's an illusion your memory retroactively imposes. That part of it seems like a reasonable test, but the OP's objection is a good one.
Looking at the runners-up, we have "conundrum" dated to 1645, "apathetic" from 1744 and "hypocrite" from ancient Greece. Novelty doesn't seem to be a factor. And how often was "sardoodledom" used in 2007?!?
As for worst word/phrase of 2007, "bricked" and "SKU" rank high, but nothing inspires the urge to strangle like "__? Not so much."
Scientist 1: Look at this... the oldest known living creature on earth.
Scientist 2: Let's kill it.
I don't think that's quite the sequence of events -- the clam didn't come up with an "Oldest Known Living Creature On Earth!" sign on its back! They dredged up some samples, examined them and found this one to be remarkably old.
These clouds aren't unprecedented. What's novel (besides the imaging of them) is that their location, timing and density are supposedly changing. That may in fact have to do with global warming, or be the result of some other human-caused process, but if you're going to make the assumption that anything variable in the atmosphere is necessarily related to climate change -- that pretty much makes my point.
...stated AIM principal investigator James Russell III of Hampton University, Hampton, Va. 'These observations suggest a connection with global change in the lower atmosphere and could represent an early warning that our Earth environment is being changed."
That may well be entirely true, but I recognize a cousin to the "...and therefore may lead to new treatments for cancer." that molecular biologists ritualistically slap at the end of every grant application.
Is it worth $350? I think this reviewer thinks so.
That at least provides some context to evaluate the claim that no one but lunatic fanboys will pay $400 for a Kindle because Amazon might go bankrupt some day.
Re:Perl 6: The Language of the Future (... Forever
on
State of the Onion 11
·
· Score: 1
This is to be expected.
And his point is that that's why hideous syntax and features are a problem even if you choose not to use them.
Re:Perl 6: The Language of the Future (... Forever
on
State of the Onion 11
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Every year Larry talks about what interesting things have been going on with Perl 6.
That excerpt does sound familiar, doesn't it? Gee, might a consumer electronics product, used prominently in public by a fantastically enthusiastic cult of evangelical users, survive some snotty grouch complaining that it doesn't run Slackware? Ya think?
I think his point is that there's a huge developer community there that right now contributes almost nothing to open-source. It seems plausible enough that if you created a direct route for developers to get paid (instead of "You can make money providing support!") an enormous amount of free software could be generated there.
"Cyber assaults have become more sophisticated in their nature, designed to specifically slip under the radar of government cyber defenses," McAfee states. "Attacks have progressed from initial curiosity probes to well-funded and well-organized operations for political, military, economic and technical espionage."
I'm completely not understanding how the linked article is derived from this "McAfee's Virtual Criminology Report". The version I'm seeing has nothing to do with "government-sponsored cyberattacks" and doesn't contain this quote.
I can't believe I'm defending anything that quotes a person pretending to be named "danah boyd" but -- the submitter completely missed the topic of the article. He connected two random bits of it to conclude that it's about workplace issues, which isn't at all the real point.
Unlike other nuanced sciences (rocket science, brain surgery, etc), computer technology is trotted out as "easy enough for the masses".
On the other hand, rockets and neurosurgery gear provide employment for a tiny number of really smart people, while IT creates jobs for any halfwit who knows how to find the ';' key. For all the sneering about "the masses", I don't think you guys would be happy if they really did stop using computers.
I don't know how many times I've encountered things like people with multiple virus checkers running on their machine because they figure more is better.
I'm not even sure that's wrong, let alone obviously wrong.
You'd have to have a ship with enough lateral resistance -- you can't just throw one of these on an ordinary freighter and go upwind like you could with a kiteboard.
Personally, I'd expect that if an omnipotent god said nobody is going to live longer than 120 years it really wouldn't matter what anybody did, but apparently God needs the help of us poor peons to make sure his edicts are enforced.
On the contrary, that assertion from at least 3000 years ago has turned out to be astonishingly accurate. With all of our incredible advances in health care, the upper limit of longevity still hasn't budged from -- almost exactly 120 years. Maybe "stem-cell-like cells produced from skin" are what's going to turn the tide, but I'd go with Genesis for my scientific information rather than the OP and his plans for immortality in outer space.
It's like the economy would get all screwed up if people stopped dying on seventy year clocks because all the old geezer's saving would just accumulate insane interests until the oldest people had all the money.
Errr, no, that's not how retirement usually works. Look at it this way -- do the really old people in your community look like they're rolling in money? Warren Buffett will earn interest way in excess of his spending (and in excess of inflation) but your typical 150-year-old is unlikely to have enough capital and investment acumen to make that fly.
On the other hand, I can't think of any flaws in your plan to enable immortality and then exile the immortals to the moon.
I stand corrected....or, to quote Rosanne Rosanadana, "...nevermind..."
No, that's Emily Litella. Roseanne Rosannadanna's catchphrase was "...it's always something."
Incidentally, what did you want Sandisk tech support to do, code up a Linux updater? Telling you to either live with your old firmware or get refund seems perfectly reasonable.
Adblock doesn't block these, as they constantly change the domain names. NoScript, which is otherwise way too paranoid and obtrusive for my taste, will do it.
Unrelated thoughts:
1) YouTube video is a rather inefficient way to distribute this analysis.
2) The security guy is way too kind to the sites hosting these ads. I've written to several of them, telling them how sleazy the ads are and how bad they make the site look, and the ads are still there.
3) How did YouTube decide that "ridiculously hot LATINA girl dancing, not asian!" is a Related Video? Except in the sense that it's always relevant, I mean.
I'm left wondering how you can file a series of lawsuits inadvertently.
I think he means that back in the Napster lawsuit days, when all you idiots were crying about how the RIAA should be suing illegal filesharers and offering up a stream of condescending analogies about how toolmakers shouldn't be responsible for the actions of users, they made the mistake of believing you.
Slashdot Mirror
The headline, blurb and link create a perfect storm of incomprehensibility -- that I had to go to Wikipedia to figure out what the hell this is about isn't an auspicious beginning, and I still have no idea what "Google'a" is.
The question is whether that apparent slowing is something you experience at the time and can take advantage of (i.e. if time slows to one-third speed, can you read numbers or dodge bullets three times as quickly?) or if it's an illusion your memory retroactively imposes. That part of it seems like a reasonable test, but the OP's objection is a good one.
As for worst word/phrase of 2007, "bricked" and "SKU" rank high, but nothing inspires the urge to strangle like "__? Not so much."
Star power like that and you dweebs are still complaining?!?
Scientist 2: Let's kill it.
I don't think that's quite the sequence of events -- the clam didn't come up with an "Oldest Known Living Creature On Earth!" sign on its back! They dredged up some samples, examined them and found this one to be remarkably old.
These clouds aren't unprecedented. What's novel (besides the imaging of them) is that their location, timing and density are supposedly changing. That may in fact have to do with global warming, or be the result of some other human-caused process, but if you're going to make the assumption that anything variable in the atmosphere is necessarily related to climate change -- that pretty much makes my point.
Huh? Take another look at your own link!
That may well be entirely true, but I recognize a cousin to the "...and therefore may lead to new treatments for cancer." that molecular biologists ritualistically slap at the end of every grant application.
That at least provides some context to evaluate the claim that no one but lunatic fanboys will pay $400 for a Kindle because Amazon might go bankrupt some day.
And his point is that that's why hideous syntax and features are a problem even if you choose not to use them.
And this year he barely even did that!
That excerpt does sound familiar, doesn't it? Gee, might a consumer electronics product, used prominently in public by a fantastically enthusiastic cult of evangelical users, survive some snotty grouch complaining that it doesn't run Slackware? Ya think?
Ummm, this isn't Wikipedia. Everything in a single comment is pretty much guaranteed to be by the same person.
Your two complaints seem somewhat contradictory...
I think his point is that there's a huge developer community there that right now contributes almost nothing to open-source. It seems plausible enough that if you created a direct route for developers to get paid (instead of "You can make money providing support!") an enormous amount of free software could be generated there.
I'm completely not understanding how the linked article is derived from this "McAfee's Virtual Criminology Report". The version I'm seeing has nothing to do with "government-sponsored cyberattacks" and doesn't contain this quote.
I can't believe I'm defending anything that quotes a person pretending to be named "danah boyd" but -- the submitter completely missed the topic of the article. He connected two random bits of it to conclude that it's about workplace issues, which isn't at all the real point.
On the other hand, rockets and neurosurgery gear provide employment for a tiny number of really smart people, while IT creates jobs for any halfwit who knows how to find the ';' key. For all the sneering about "the masses", I don't think you guys would be happy if they really did stop using computers.
I don't know how many times I've encountered things like people with multiple virus checkers running on their machine because they figure more is better.
I'm not even sure that's wrong, let alone obviously wrong.
You'd have to have a ship with enough lateral resistance -- you can't just throw one of these on an ordinary freighter and go upwind like you could with a kiteboard.
On the contrary, that assertion from at least 3000 years ago has turned out to be astonishingly accurate. With all of our incredible advances in health care, the upper limit of longevity still hasn't budged from -- almost exactly 120 years. Maybe "stem-cell-like cells produced from skin" are what's going to turn the tide, but I'd go with Genesis for my scientific information rather than the OP and his plans for immortality in outer space.
Errr, no, that's not how retirement usually works. Look at it this way -- do the really old people in your community look like they're rolling in money? Warren Buffett will earn interest way in excess of his spending (and in excess of inflation) but your typical 150-year-old is unlikely to have enough capital and investment acumen to make that fly.
On the other hand, I can't think of any flaws in your plan to enable immortality and then exile the immortals to the moon.
You know, there's a bit more to "medicine" than just magazine articles on dieting...
No, that's Emily Litella. Roseanne Rosannadanna's catchphrase was "...it's always something."
Incidentally, what did you want Sandisk tech support to do, code up a Linux updater? Telling you to either live with your old firmware or get refund seems perfectly reasonable.
Unrelated thoughts:
1) YouTube video is a rather inefficient way to distribute this analysis.
2) The security guy is way too kind to the sites hosting these ads. I've written to several of them, telling them how sleazy the ads are and how bad they make the site look, and the ads are still there.
3) How did YouTube decide that "ridiculously hot LATINA girl dancing, not asian!" is a Related Video? Except in the sense that it's always relevant, I mean.
I think he means that back in the Napster lawsuit days, when all you idiots were crying about how the RIAA should be suing illegal filesharers and offering up a stream of condescending analogies about how toolmakers shouldn't be responsible for the actions of users, they made the mistake of believing you.