This is not a revolution, it's just an evolution of currently available technology.
If a government wants to track criminals, dissidents, journalists or whatever, the technology to do this has been developed a long time ago. You just need a bracelet with a radio transmitter, secured around the persons wrist or ankle. Hell, I bet half the bears here in Norway has got one of those...
The real obstacles to abusing this kind of technology are not the technological challenges in itself, but the social and political ramifications. We don't see personal radio beacons, even in the most oppressive states on earth. Why would it suddenly become more widespread, because it's implanted?
I hope it's not long. Then that mad dictator can start spending money for equipment, feeding, special medical care and other things that are bound to be an issue with big soldiers.
For what it's worth: If I was a mad dictator, with x amount of money to burn on my bodyguard, I think I'd get more "bang for the buck" by hiring regular goons and equipping them properly, rather than set up some regular breeding program for supersoldiers. And anyway, big, bad supersoldiers can't stop a laser guided bomb any better than the regular kind.
Both Kongsberg and Horten in Norway are small towns, ~20k inhabitants, that has a (comparably) large hi-tech industry base.
You get the disadvantages of small-town life (not much is happening) and the advantages (peace and quiet and low crime rate). In addition, Kongsberg is sort of a winter sport capital, and Horten is a seaside town with opportunities for boating. Both towns are about an hours drive from Oslo, the capital.
Kongsberg Group has several companies in Horten, too. These are the big companies, there are a lot of small ones.
Most Norwegians speak English quite well. My girlfriend came here as an exchange student and got along just fine without any Norwegian at all. I would assume that it's no big problem getting a job without speaking Norwegian.
Norway is a peaceful and quiet country. There is little crime and good social security, but also high taxes and often cold weather. Check it out if you like this kind of life...
the saddest thing, is that the technology is being developed to propel clectial objects with their own content as the fuel.
No, no, no! This is a good thing. Then it will be possible to just nudge these asteroids out of their path, so they will wander harmlessly by. This will probably be a lot more reliable than just blasting them to bits. The pieces can still hit Earth.
This is not impending doom, it's a business opportunity! Now the Y2K suppliers have somewhere to unload all their stock of water tanks, MRE's and power generators.
BTW, somebody want to buy a 2 KVA generator? Only 6 months old, hardly used. Comes with 200 gallons of petrol. Can optionally throw in a solar panel and radiation proof undies...
New technology wipes out the old. This is Darwinism at its best: the record companies are being told "Evolve or die!"
My bet is on "die". Any takers?
It seems to me like history is full of occupations that's not needed anymore. Just like robotics has replaced many manual jobs, on-line distribution will to a large extent replace many paper, plastic and metal type of medias. To paraphrase another poster in another thread: "Don't claim that Napster won't take away jobs. Just decide weather this is a good thing or a bad thing." Let me see: Less record company bozos? Hmm, I vote for "good thing"! Let them do something useful rather than get fat from the antiquated distribution process for music.
As you say, Paul, this is one way of increasing the reliability of software. And I personally think n-version programming is way cool, but there are some problems with this approach:
Specification - It has been suggested that most software faults stem from inadequate specification. N-v.p. will not address this.
Independence of design effort - It is questionable if different design efforts indeed will produce different errors. Different studies show different things.
Budget - It is unclear weather an N-version system, which is several times more expensive than a regular system, will perform better than a single system made with the same budget. Think also of the maintenance costs.
What I really want to say is this: N-version programming is not a magic bullet. It's just one more tool to use to produce reliable systems.
Check out "Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages" by Burns and Wellings for a short treatment of this subject, and some pointers for further reading.
I can almost hear the moans from the pizza-and-coke crowd whem they read this: "Where's the fun? Where's the creativity?". But they're under the mistaken assumption that putting lines of code into the editor is the only fun thing about developing software.
IMHO, software development is full of fun activities. What about analysis and design? In my experience, that's where the creativity really comes into play. Just talking to the customer, understanding the problem and making a working design is really difficult, and hence rewarding when you pull it off.
And what about the process itself? Software development is a young dicipline, where individuals and small groups really can make an impact. Nobody really knows how to make good software. Maybe you'll be the one to find out? As the man says, in the shuttle software group, people use their creativity on improving the process.
And last, but not least, I bet those guys have a really good feeling when they talk to the customer after delivery. Not like some people I know, who just hide.;)
If you can't see the fun of these other activities, maybe you shouldn't be working in this field...
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Any more?
This is not a revolution, it's just an evolution of currently available technology.
If a government wants to track criminals, dissidents, journalists or whatever, the technology to do this has been developed a long time ago. You just need a bracelet with a radio transmitter, secured around the persons wrist or ankle. Hell, I bet half the bears here in Norway has got one of those...
The real obstacles to abusing this kind of technology are not the technological challenges in itself, but the social and political ramifications. We don't see personal radio beacons, even in the most oppressive states on earth. Why would it suddenly become more widespread, because it's implanted?
If you like the industrial look, nothing beats aluminum thread plate!
These people sell them, for example.
I hope it's not long. Then that mad dictator can start spending money for equipment, feeding, special medical care and other things that are bound to be an issue with big soldiers.
For what it's worth: If I was a mad dictator, with x amount of money to burn on my bodyguard, I think I'd get more "bang for the buck" by hiring regular goons and equipping them properly, rather than set up some regular breeding program for supersoldiers. And anyway, big, bad supersoldiers can't stop a laser guided bomb any better than the regular kind.
Both Kongsberg and Horten in Norway are small towns, ~20k inhabitants, that has a (comparably) large hi-tech industry base.
You get the disadvantages of small-town life (not much is happening) and the advantages (peace and quiet and low crime rate). In addition, Kongsberg is sort of a winter sport capital, and Horten is a seaside town with opportunities for boating. Both towns are about an hours drive from Oslo, the capital.
A few examples of companies in Kongsberg:
Kongsberg Group has several companies in Horten, too. These are the big companies, there are a lot of small ones.
Most Norwegians speak English quite well. My girlfriend came here as an exchange student and got along just fine without any Norwegian at all. I would assume that it's no big problem getting a job without speaking Norwegian.
Norway is a peaceful and quiet country. There is little crime and good social security, but also high taxes and often cold weather. Check it out if you like this kind of life...
No, no, no! This is a good thing. Then it will be possible to just nudge these asteroids out of their path, so they will wander harmlessly by. This will probably be a lot more reliable than just blasting them to bits. The pieces can still hit Earth.
Sorry, that was just a brain fart. But I totally agree with you on the rest of the series. Stay away!
Hey, I love post-acopalyptic novels. I sort of assumed everybody else did too...
But seriously, both books are really good, even if you don't get off on disaster stories like me (hey, it's normal!).
BTW, somebody want to buy a 2 KVA generator? Only 6 months old, hardly used. Comes with 200 gallons of petrol. Can optionally throw in a solar panel and radiation proof undies...
My bet is on "die". Any takers?
It seems to me like history is full of occupations that's not needed anymore. Just like robotics has replaced many manual jobs, on-line distribution will to a large extent replace many paper, plastic and metal type of medias. To paraphrase another poster in another thread: "Don't claim that Napster won't take away jobs. Just decide weather this is a good thing or a bad thing." Let me see: Less record company bozos? Hmm, I vote for "good thing"! Let them do something useful rather than get fat from the antiquated distribution process for music.
As you say, Paul, this is one way of increasing the reliability of software. And I personally think n-version programming is way cool, but there are some problems with this approach:
What I really want to say is this: N-version programming is not a magic bullet. It's just one more tool to use to produce reliable systems.
Check out "Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages" by Burns and Wellings for a short treatment of this subject, and some pointers for further reading.
I can almost hear the moans from the pizza-and-coke crowd whem they read this: "Where's the fun? Where's the creativity?". But they're under the mistaken assumption that putting lines of code into the editor is the only fun thing about developing software.
IMHO, software development is full of fun activities. What about analysis and design? In my experience, that's where the creativity really comes into play. Just talking to the customer, understanding the problem and making a working design is really difficult, and hence rewarding when you pull it off.
And what about the process itself? Software development is a young dicipline, where individuals and small groups really can make an impact. Nobody really knows how to make good software. Maybe you'll be the one to find out? As the man says, in the shuttle software group, people use their creativity on improving the process.
And last, but not least, I bet those guys have a really good feeling when they talk to the customer after delivery. Not like some people I know, who just hide. ;)
If you can't see the fun of these other activities, maybe you shouldn't be working in this field...