A rumor is halfway around the world before the truth can get out the door.
This weekend I had a chat with a fine gentleman who is one of the youngest polio survivors in the USA. He's in pretty good shape (he's in his 50s) but from visits with many others he knows what his future is like. Apparently, those who recover from polio do so by "swapping in" spare neurological paths -- the same ones that keep the rest of us functional as time takes its toll. Well, his "spares" are already used, so any additional losses as he ages are coming straight from function.
Measles? Look up the numbers. Case mortality for measles in the USA has been steady for over thirty years at 2/1000. In 1964, there were about 400,000 cases reported. Back when it was nearly universal, every state had well-filled schools for the deaf and blind -- most of them there thanks to neurological sequelae to measles, and which are still just as common as ever on a per-case basis. Those schools are empty now.
I have a smallpox vaccination scar on my arm, and wear it proudly. Most of you don't. You're welcome.
If you listen to the anti-vaccinationists, the vaccines are immeasurably worse than polio, measles, and smallpox. The best answer to that was stated by George Santayana. The rest is commentary; go and learn it.
The"industry" is producing less music that people are willing to pay for. For a while they compensated by bundling music that people weren't willing to pay for, effectively selling a single for $15. Now that customers have alternatives, that isn't working.
Here's a clue: in the long run, you have to give the customers their money's worth. Either charge less or deliver more. ("Dark Side of the Moon," anyone?)
With Hunger, Global Warming and catostrophic ozone loss affecting the lives of billions, dont you think the scientests/Zombie Cockroaches have something better to do? Hmmm?
With Hunger, Global Warming and catostrophic ozone loss affecting the lives of billions, dont you think you have something better to do than complaining about what others choose to do on Slashdot?
Having kids who've grown up to be people you like as well as love -- that utterly rocks.
All things considered, the fifties so far have been the best times I can remember. I'm willing to wait for grandchildren, but only in the "do not open before Xmas" sense.
The President and a large majority of both houses of Congress have been telling them for six years that the Bill of Rights is an anachronistic impediment to what the USA really stands for.
in the Foundation series the planet of people who never interacted had genetically modified themselves to be hermaphroditic, and then on towards telekinesis..
You're referring to the sequels added recently, several after Asimov's death.
I'm specifically referring to the 1950s stories, notably The Naked Sun.
Both Japan and America face similar 21st-century challenges, the biggest of which is probably the care of our rapidly aging populations.
And then goes on to extol the wonders of robots as sources of companionship.
Well, as one of those "aging population" boomers, I'm not desperate enough to want a robot as a human surrogate, and I'm glad that my kids managed to grow up with human (rather than electronic) companions.
What TFA seems to be looking forward to is Isaac Asimov's Sirian dystopia, where humans (almost) never come into personal contact, instead relying on robotic intermediaries. (He never directly addressed the issue of reproduction. Maybe Asimov anticipated/.)
Anyway, if the day comes that I'm dependent on robots for companionship, I'll waive my First Law rights and you can send in the Kevorkianbot.
The medics may not have a perfect track record on repairing flaws in complex systems.
So how is Intel's record on repairing defective microprocessors? I don't mean designing out the problem, I mean repairing them once they are in the field.
A while ago Grove was ranting about the bar-code system for blood banks and going on about how they should be replaced with RFIDs. One Intel employee who actually had run a hospital blood bank pointed out that those bar-codes are readable by candlelight. When lives are at stake, you do not introduce unnecessary complications into the system.
We still don't have computerized medical records in the US. If you become incapacitated away from home it's very likely no one will have any idea what medical conditions you may have or what you're allergic to.
Unless you wear a medic-alert bracelet, which anyone with half a brain will do anyway. Besides being less prone to failure, they also don't require publishing your health history for anyone who feels like it to look up. Before you reply that they can be locked, remember that you're incapacitated -- so who has the key again?
Likewise, my coworkers do analog design of IC's, and even though we have a design reuse library for the company, every design they do is basically ab initio because another similar design does something they don't need and as a result uses up vital silicon space, and they can't simply remove just that bit.
Speaking as one of those analog IC designers, you're about half right. There's a good bit of NIH, too.
A talented designer could use building blocks to build something great. A lousy designer could use those same blocks to build something dangerously unsafe -- they facilitate only design, not quality. Speaking as a lousy designer, I think it's a much better idea to actually do the work in analyzing the problem and coming up with an adequate design, and the good designers, in my experience, already *have* a head full of black boxes, for which they understand the limitations and how they interact.
If design were the only obstacle, I might be more in agreement. However, fabrication is quite different today than in the through-hole DIP days I grew up with. Homebrew design and fabrication of multilayer SMT boards is just not feasible, so a realistic experimenter is going to use a relatively standard kit. The alternatives are far too much of the "doing it the hard way just to prove that I can," like smelting your own iron for a backyard smithy.
Keep in mind that this kind of platform is what we need to get useful home automation -- not some beast that requires a WinTel box to have 24/7/365 uptime and outage recovery.
Currently, the ante is just too high for most home-automation experimentation -- and I speak as one who actually works with the applications department of a semiconductor manufacturer.
Congressman Boucher has been speaking loudly on various geek-friendly subjects for quite a few years, but his record at actually getting legislation passed suggests that he's carrying a Nerf-bat.
Works for me. Clamp down on all greenhouse gas emissions, for that matter. Tax CO2 emissions at something like a dollar per kilogram and we could have a budget surplus for the first time in living memory.
What's more, it makes for a great prosperity plan for developing nations, who can build economies around providing power (etc.) to countries like the USA.
They can't risk one of these devices turning into something of Thermite while in flight.
That makes sense, since that kind of Security Theater wouldn't be nearly as hard to implement as stopping people from carrying on kilograms of real thermite.
The thought that they could be responsible for securing my health history is particularly troubling.
If that bothers you, how do you feel about the fact that they're right, and you don't get any say in the matter?
MS has the marketing, economic, and political clout to get themselves the contract for keeping the health records for everyone in the USA. Washington is already salivating over the prospect of:
Saving hundreds of billions on health care costs, and
All of the money that companies will make from providing medical informatics services [1]
Curiously, they don't see any conflict between those two points.
One way or another, though, giving MS (or possibly someone else, but MS is the main chance) custody over your health records is well on its way to being a requirement for getting any kind of medical care in the USA.
[1] Sort of the way the FCC is drooling over all the money that the carriers will make from the spectrum they buy.
Slashdot Mirror
This weekend I had a chat with a fine gentleman who is one of the youngest polio survivors in the USA. He's in pretty good shape (he's in his 50s) but from visits with many others he knows what his future is like. Apparently, those who recover from polio do so by "swapping in" spare neurological paths -- the same ones that keep the rest of us functional as time takes its toll. Well, his "spares" are already used, so any additional losses as he ages are coming straight from function.
Measles? Look up the numbers. Case mortality for measles in the USA has been steady for over thirty years at 2/1000. In 1964, there were about 400,000 cases reported. Back when it was nearly universal, every state had well-filled schools for the deaf and blind -- most of them there thanks to neurological sequelae to measles, and which are still just as common as ever on a per-case basis. Those schools are empty now.
I have a smallpox vaccination scar on my arm, and wear it proudly. Most of you don't. You're welcome.
If you listen to the anti-vaccinationists, the vaccines are immeasurably worse than polio, measles, and smallpox. The best answer to that was stated by George Santayana. The rest is commentary; go and learn it.
Here's a clue: in the long run, you have to give the customers their money's worth. Either charge less or deliver more. ("Dark Side of the Moon," anyone?)
I knew a gal once who had a similar schtick. Well, except it wasn't exactly the antennae she used ...
I want some of what those boys are smoking.
... one more rule for the firewall, anyone?
On the other hand, if you don't do something about it, it could become your problem. Decisions, decisions ...
Having kids who've grown up to be people you like as well as love -- that utterly rocks.
All things considered, the fifties so far have been the best times I can remember. I'm willing to wait for grandchildren, but only in the "do not open before Xmas" sense.
The President and a large majority of both houses of Congress have been telling them for six years that the Bill of Rights is an anachronistic impediment to what the USA really stands for.
I'm specifically referring to the 1950s stories, notably The Naked Sun.
Well, as one of those "aging population" boomers, I'm not desperate enough to want a robot as a human surrogate, and I'm glad that my kids managed to grow up with human (rather than electronic) companions.
What TFA seems to be looking forward to is Isaac Asimov's Sirian dystopia, where humans (almost) never come into personal contact, instead relying on robotic intermediaries. (He never directly addressed the issue of reproduction. Maybe Asimov anticipated /.)
Anyway, if the day comes that I'm dependent on robots for companionship, I'll waive my First Law rights and you can send in the Kevorkianbot.
So how is Intel's record on repairing defective microprocessors? I don't mean designing out the problem, I mean repairing them once they are in the field.
A while ago Grove was ranting about the bar-code system for blood banks and going on about how they should be replaced with RFIDs. One Intel employee who actually had run a hospital blood bank pointed out that those bar-codes are readable by candlelight. When lives are at stake, you do not introduce unnecessary complications into the system.
Currently, the ante is just too high for most home-automation experimentation -- and I speak as one who actually works with the applications department of a semiconductor manufacturer.
Just a wild guess, but maybe because we actually read his pieces parroting SCOX and attacking the Linux developer community?
Congressman Boucher has been speaking loudly on various geek-friendly subjects for quite a few years, but his record at actually getting legislation passed suggests that he's carrying a Nerf-bat.
If you think people are major emitters, though, you should have a look at farmland.
This sucker is a freaking gold mine!
What's more, it makes for a great prosperity plan for developing nations, who can build economies around providing power (etc.) to countries like the USA.
... he needs to sue his dry-cleaners.
MS has the marketing, economic, and political clout to get themselves the contract for keeping the health records for everyone in the USA. Washington is already salivating over the prospect of:
- Saving hundreds of billions on health care costs, and
- All of the money that companies will make from providing medical informatics services [1]
Curiously, they don't see any conflict between those two points.One way or another, though, giving MS (or possibly someone else, but MS is the main chance) custody over your health records is well on its way to being a requirement for getting any kind of medical care in the USA.
[1] Sort of the way the FCC is drooling over all the money that the carriers will make from the spectrum they buy.