Interestingly, Apple did offer Java as an option early on in Mac OS X's life --- the Calculator app was even provided as a Java example, but Apple got tired of the complaints of it being slow to start up (had to wait for the Java runtime to load) and went back to a Cocoa version.
I've found Literate Programming to be a huge benefit when developing, esp. since I often work on projects intermittently (submit version, then test, then deploy, then months later get a feature request from a customer) --- it's a brief bit of reading to re-aquaint myself w/ the code.
It also fascinating to me how the act of writing out the documentation then makes it obvious how the code should be written.
William
Customer once demanded I go on location
on
IT Calls of Shame
·
· Score: 2
to diagnose why an IBM PS/2 wouldn't boot after they'd moved it --- I tried to get them to diagnose the problem over the phone / read off what was on the screen, but they refused, so I drove over, walked up to the door of the office in question, saw the error message (I think it was 101) on the screen, announced, ``You've switched the plugs for the mouse and keyboard. Do you want to pay the 1 hr. minimum for me to swap the connections for you?''
No, I said that following current trends, industrial agriculture isn't sustainable --- in my lifetime I've seen grocery prices steadily increase (not meant as a ding against farmers, as my father said, ``Never complain about farmers when your belly is full.'').
We need for farming to be more sustainable / self-sufficient and less dependent on inputs from non-renewable petro-chemicals. The problem is we use a _lot_ of oil, and there is no single alternative which is likely to get the same economies of scale as a large oil refinery backed by a couple of high-pressure wells --- I'd love to see one, but I the laws of physics argue against it. That said, there are a lot of things which could be done now to reduce energy consumption and I'd like to see more support for geothermal (at least Virginia put in place a requirement that all buildings built by the state would have geothermal heating), solar, &c.
It would also help if we weren't plowing under farms near grocery stores and replacing them w/ suburbs.
The problem is, human farming techniques have resulted in the loss of crop species which essentially became mono-cultures --- poster child for this would be the Gros Michel banana plant which is pretty much extinct and which can't be farmed now (instead Cavendish bananas are planted).
Moreover, seed catalogues have far fewer varieties than there once were, so trends are lining up to cause this sort of thing to happen yet again.
1 - catalogue all the asteroids likely to pass by earth 2 - analyse their composition 3 - determine which can have their orbit modified so as to be placed in orbit around earth for an energy effort low enough that one will come out ahead either using the asteroid for material in orbit (to construct space stations / satellites, the probe to explore the next asteroid &c.) or have ore valuable enough to be worth returning to earth 4 - profit!
The problem is, this sort of thing is expensive and requires a lot of resources. I'm also not that wild about the idea of having to descend from low earth orbit to go for a hike.
The vast majority of trees which are cut for paper pulp are quick-growing loblolly pines which will be re-planted almost immediately, larger, older, nicer trees are usually cut for lumber, so one should be able to let the 8.85 pounds of CO_2 for per book figure stand for paper products w/o concern for deforestation.
And here's a page which indicates that CO_2 production is a much larger problem for the manufacturing of electronics: http://www.energybulletin.net/node/49730 w/ a ratio of 12 to 1 for energy usage to weight, so my PRS-505 weighs roughly 9 ozs., so presumably required 108 ounces of fuel to manufacture (on-going energy usage is discounted as being negligible so is not considered) http://www.epa.gov/oms/climate/420f05001.htm gives us a figure of 19.4 pounds of CO_2 per gallon of gasoline which equals roughly 16.36875 pounds of CO_2 to make the ebook reader.
So getting two books for the Sony should make it roughly break even, and each printed book beyond that which is not purchased should result in a net reduction of CO_2 emissions, since the energybulletin.net page indicates that the embodied energy usage for electronics is much greater than the lifetime usage.
As Scotty says, ``I canna change the laws of physics, Captain!''.
The development of the Birkeland–Eyde process and the use of petrochemicals has extended the timeline, but the math underlying Malthus' models is still sound, and I for one don't want to live in the world of _Silent Running_ --- there's a fixed amount of surface area, a limited amount of solar energy and while the idea of a world population bounded only by those things may sound nice to an idealist, it's not one which has room for wild animals, and places and recreation.
Malthus would have been correct, save for the development of atmospheric nitrogen-fixing processes for making fertilizer.
We are currently using 10 calories worth of energy (mostly from non-renewable petro-chemicals) to make 1 calorie of food --- this is not sustainable, and rising food prices will eventually push the poorest of the poor into starvation, unless there is some sort of intervention.
Okay, there are elements more valuable than gold though.
Given that it's expensive to get stuff into orbit, doesn't it make sense to make things up there w/o lifting them? Probably mining the moon makes more sense to start (cue references to Heinlein's _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_).
Hopefully more of the same. I'm not that interested in the specs of the console (though the Wii U w/ 768MB or more of memory on the same die as the main processor (and graphics processor?) shouldn't be a slouch) --- I want widescreen and better support for contemporary, flat-screen televisions.
I _really_ enjoyed Red Steel 2 and Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword for the Wii (and to a lesser extent Wii Sports Resort, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Link's Crossbow Training (at one time I was buying used copies of the game, making wooden Wii Zapper style shells at my workbench and giving them out to co-workers) and a fair number of the FPS games --- Goldeneye 007 was way cool, Metroid Prime Trilogy: Collector's Edition is amazing and Resident Evil 4 for the Wii is arguably the definitive version ('cept there's an HD version for the PS3 I believe)).
I'm looking forward to Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story --- but I'd really like to see a free-form, open-ended, create-your-own-character RPG like Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga w/ Motion Plus controls like Red Steel 2 and Skyward Sword, or at least a fun target game which uses Wii Sports Resort's gyroscopic bow controls (Fledge's Pumpkin Toss is fun, but I'd like to see Link's Crossbow Training re-made as a real archery game).
1 - catalogue all the asteroids likely to pass by earth 2 - analyse their composition 3 - determine which can have their orbit modified so as to be placed in orbit around earth for an energy effort low enough that one will come out ahead either using the asteroid for material in orbit (to construct space stations / satellites, the probe to explore the next asteroid &c.) or have ore valuable enough to be worth returning to earth 4 - profit!
The best English professor I had in college would arrange to have every student come in to her office after papers had been turned in, reading each paper in the presence of the student who had written it and discussing it in depth while grading it.
There's a problem w/ the ocean as carbon sink isn't there? It becomes more acidic and shellfish have their shells dissolved by the acidic water, while problem species like jellyfish flourish, no?
You're glossing over the matter of a lot of the world's acreage being non-arable land (there's a not insignificant portion of Alaska for example which isn't sequestering much carbon being snow and ice covered much of the year (remember that bit about the six month long winter night?), and the whole state is going to be giving off a _lot_ of carbon and methane if the permafrost melts), or the problem of the growing season being significantly less than the year-round production needed for 1/8th of an acre to feed a family, or the matter of wanting to rotate crops and leave the land fallow one year out of 4 (or 7, depending on one's traditions and livestock and crops).
The Roman Catholic Church proscribes _artificial_ means of birth control.
It does promote / suggest / teach techniques which are appropriate to the reverence for life which are at the heart of its teaching:
- abstinence
- the Billings method (where a woman learns to understand when she is fertile by tracking basal body temperature, &c. and can then control when or when not to depending on whether or no she wishes to conceive)
Pennsylvania is trying to decide which of the old small dams should stay and which should go --- focusing on the impact that such obstructions have on fish and eel spawning.
I don't get the chance to get together w/ others and play games very often, but I've always enjoyed playing Ogre, and it would work well w/ role-reversal (human plays the part of the Ogre, computer micro-manages the horde of defending units).
You could even up-date it by putting the game on the iPad (or some other tablet) ---
- the iPad function as a game board
- there's a physical miniature for the Ogre on the center of the display --- tap the displayed hexes around it to move
- a row of icons at one edge of the display which allow one to select weapons (tap a weapon, then tap a target w/in range for each attack) (the icons would go away as the Ogre was damaged)
The problem is you can't make bricks of the same quality as Lego bricks using any 3D printer currently in existence or on the drawing board --- the tolerances simply aren't tight enough --- Lego uses _tons_ of pressure in their molding equipment, moreover, Lego is constantly doing QA on their production and will pull a mold and grind it up to re-use it at the slightest deviation --- the new Lego bricks I purchase for my kids still work fine w/ four decade old bricks from my childhood. Lego's precision for brick parts is something on the order of 2 micrometers.
By way of contrast, the printer which Shapeways ( http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=tree&goto=1339&#page_top [shapeways.com] ) uses has a tolerance of, ``... about.1mm, but the material can change it slightly. Overall,.5 should be fine, just make sure that they are not any sort of support walls or they may get broken during shipping or printing.''.1 mm == 100 micrometers
If you want to know what its like when the tolerances are sloppy, buy a set of Mega Blok bricks, but even those have tighter tolerance than the tenth of a millimeter which Shapeways quotes.
I've got both _Xenoblade Chronicles_ and _The Last Story_ on pre-order --- wish they had the same Motion Plus controls as Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Also enjoyed Red Steel 2 and Wii Sports Resort (for when I can't get out to the archery range) and my son enjoys Monster Hunter Tri and Fire Emblem.
The IR pointing games like Goldeneye 007 are a lot of fun and the Metroid Prime Collector's Trilogy is an excellent value.
For a launch title Marvel Ultimate Alliance was a lot of fun.
Slashdot Mirror
Interestingly, Apple did offer Java as an option early on in Mac OS X's life --- the Calculator app was even provided as a Java example, but Apple got tired of the complaints of it being slow to start up (had to wait for the Java runtime to load) and went back to a Cocoa version.
::applause::
I've found Literate Programming to be a huge benefit when developing, esp. since I often work on projects intermittently (submit version, then test, then deploy, then months later get a feature request from a customer) --- it's a brief bit of reading to re-aquaint myself w/ the code.
It also fascinating to me how the act of writing out the documentation then makes it obvious how the code should be written.
William
to diagnose why an IBM PS/2 wouldn't boot after they'd moved it --- I tried to get them to diagnose the problem over the phone / read off what was on the screen, but they refused, so I drove over, walked up to the door of the office in question, saw the error message (I think it was 101) on the screen, announced, ``You've switched the plugs for the mouse and keyboard. Do you want to pay the 1 hr. minimum for me to swap the connections for you?''
No, I said that following current trends, industrial agriculture isn't sustainable --- in my lifetime I've seen grocery prices steadily increase (not meant as a ding against farmers, as my father said, ``Never complain about farmers when your belly is full.'').
We need for farming to be more sustainable / self-sufficient and less dependent on inputs from non-renewable petro-chemicals. The problem is we use a _lot_ of oil, and there is no single alternative which is likely to get the same economies of scale as a large oil refinery backed by a couple of high-pressure wells --- I'd love to see one, but I the laws of physics argue against it. That said, there are a lot of things which could be done now to reduce energy consumption and I'd like to see more support for geothermal (at least Virginia put in place a requirement that all buildings built by the state would have geothermal heating), solar, &c.
It would also help if we weren't plowing under farms near grocery stores and replacing them w/ suburbs.
The problem is, human farming techniques have resulted in the loss of crop species which essentially became mono-cultures --- poster child for this would be the Gros Michel banana plant which is pretty much extinct and which can't be farmed now (instead Cavendish bananas are planted).
Moreover, seed catalogues have far fewer varieties than there once were, so trends are lining up to cause this sort of thing to happen yet again.
Hey, I was advocating for monetizing asteroid deflection and building factories in space:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2763747&cid=39561891
1 - catalogue all the asteroids likely to pass by earth
2 - analyse their composition
3 - determine which can have their orbit modified so as to be placed in orbit around earth for an energy effort low enough that one will come out ahead either using the asteroid for material in orbit (to construct space stations / satellites, the probe to explore the next asteroid &c.) or have ore valuable enough to be worth returning to earth
4 - profit!
The problem is, this sort of thing is expensive and requires a lot of resources. I'm also not that wild about the idea of having to descend from low earth orbit to go for a hike.
e-ink.
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=619831&postcount=11
The vast majority of trees which are cut for paper pulp are quick-growing loblolly pines which will be re-planted almost immediately, larger, older, nicer trees are usually cut for lumber, so one should be able to let the 8.85 pounds of CO_2 for per book figure stand for paper products w/o concern for deforestation.
Here's a page which indicates most CO_2 production is for energy:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/ggrpt/carbon.html
And here's a page which indicates that CO_2 production is a much larger problem for the manufacturing of electronics:
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/49730
w/ a ratio of 12 to 1 for energy usage to weight, so my PRS-505 weighs roughly 9 ozs., so presumably required 108 ounces of fuel to manufacture (on-going energy usage is discounted as being negligible so is not considered)
http://www.epa.gov/oms/climate/420f05001.htm
gives us a figure of 19.4 pounds of CO_2 per gallon of gasoline which equals roughly 16.36875 pounds of CO_2 to make the ebook reader.
So getting two books for the Sony should make it roughly break even, and each printed book beyond that which is not purchased should result in a net reduction of CO_2 emissions, since the energybulletin.net page indicates that the embodied energy usage for electronics is much greater than the lifetime usage.
As Scotty says, ``I canna change the laws of physics, Captain!''.
The development of the Birkeland–Eyde process and the use of petrochemicals has extended the timeline, but the math underlying Malthus' models is still sound, and I for one don't want to live in the world of _Silent Running_ --- there's a fixed amount of surface area, a limited amount of solar energy and while the idea of a world population bounded only by those things may sound nice to an idealist, it's not one which has room for wild animals, and places and recreation.
Malthus would have been correct, save for the development of atmospheric nitrogen-fixing processes for making fertilizer.
We are currently using 10 calories worth of energy (mostly from non-renewable petro-chemicals) to make 1 calorie of food --- this is not sustainable, and rising food prices will eventually push the poorest of the poor into starvation, unless there is some sort of intervention.
Okay, but at some point one would reach the tipping point and it would then begin to be cost-effective.
Okay, there are elements more valuable than gold though.
Given that it's expensive to get stuff into orbit, doesn't it make sense to make things up there w/o lifting them? Probably mining the moon makes more sense to start (cue references to Heinlein's _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_).
William
Hopefully more of the same. I'm not that interested in the specs of the console (though the Wii U w/ 768MB or more of memory on the same die as the main processor (and graphics processor?) shouldn't be a slouch) --- I want widescreen and better support for contemporary, flat-screen televisions.
I _really_ enjoyed Red Steel 2 and Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword for the Wii (and to a lesser extent Wii Sports Resort, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Link's Crossbow Training (at one time I was buying used copies of the game, making wooden Wii Zapper style shells at my workbench and giving them out to co-workers) and a fair number of the FPS games --- Goldeneye 007 was way cool, Metroid Prime Trilogy: Collector's Edition is amazing and Resident Evil 4 for the Wii is arguably the definitive version ('cept there's an HD version for the PS3 I believe)).
I'm looking forward to Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story --- but I'd really like to see a free-form, open-ended, create-your-own-character RPG like Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga w/ Motion Plus controls like Red Steel 2 and Skyward Sword, or at least a fun target game which uses Wii Sports Resort's gyroscopic bow controls (Fledge's Pumpkin Toss is fun, but I'd like to see Link's Crossbow Training re-made as a real archery game).
William
1 - catalogue all the asteroids likely to pass by earth
2 - analyse their composition
3 - determine which can have their orbit modified so as to be placed in orbit around earth for an energy effort low enough that one will come out ahead either using the asteroid for material in orbit (to construct space stations / satellites, the probe to explore the next asteroid &c.) or have ore valuable enough to be worth returning to earth
4 - profit!
The best English professor I had in college would arrange to have every student come in to her office after papers had been turned in, reading each paper in the presence of the student who had written it and discussing it in depth while grading it.
There's a problem w/ the ocean as carbon sink isn't there? It becomes more acidic and shellfish have their shells dissolved by the acidic water, while problem species like jellyfish flourish, no?
You're glossing over the matter of a lot of the world's acreage being non-arable land (there's a not insignificant portion of Alaska for example which isn't sequestering much carbon being snow and ice covered much of the year (remember that bit about the six month long winter night?), and the whole state is going to be giving off a _lot_ of carbon and methane if the permafrost melts), or the problem of the growing season being significantly less than the year-round production needed for 1/8th of an acre to feed a family, or the matter of wanting to rotate crops and leave the land fallow one year out of 4 (or 7, depending on one's traditions and livestock and crops).
rhythm method != Billings Ovulation Method
the latter is effective:
http://www.woomb.org/bom/trials/index.html
The Roman Catholic Church proscribes _artificial_ means of birth control.
It does promote / suggest / teach techniques which are appropriate to the reverence for life which are at the heart of its teaching:
- abstinence
- the Billings method (where a woman learns to understand when she is fertile by tracking basal body temperature, &c. and can then control when or when not to depending on whether or no she wishes to conceive)
William
Pennsylvania is trying to decide which of the old small dams should stay and which should go --- focusing on the impact that such obstructions have on fish and eel spawning.
I don't get the chance to get together w/ others and play games very often, but I've always enjoyed playing Ogre, and it would work well w/ role-reversal (human plays the part of the Ogre, computer micro-manages the horde of defending units).
You could even up-date it by putting the game on the iPad (or some other tablet) ---
- the iPad function as a game board
- there's a physical miniature for the Ogre on the center of the display --- tap the displayed hexes around it to move
- a row of icons at one edge of the display which allow one to select weapons (tap a weapon, then tap a target w/in range for each attack) (the icons would go away as the Ogre was damaged)
I'd buy an iPad for that.
William
posting to undo accidental ``Offtopic'' moderation which should have been ``Interesting''.
for _bricks_ it's 10 microns / micrometres.
So the difference in precision is 10 to 1, rather than 50 to 1.
I believe the measurement unit mark-t meant to use was micro-meter.
Nope.
Even the commercial systems used by Shapeways don't have sufficient accuracy.
Here's an old post where I looked up the numbers:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2395582&cid=37191528
The problem is you can't make bricks of the same quality as Lego bricks using any 3D printer currently in existence or on the drawing board --- the tolerances simply aren't tight enough --- Lego uses _tons_ of pressure in their molding equipment, moreover, Lego is constantly doing QA on their production and will pull a mold and grind it up to re-use it at the slightest deviation --- the new Lego bricks I purchase for my kids still work fine w/ four decade old bricks from my childhood. Lego's precision for brick parts is something on the order of 2 micrometers.
By way of contrast, the printer which Shapeways ( http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=tree&goto=1339&#page_top [shapeways.com] ) uses has a tolerance of, ``... about .1mm, but the material can change it slightly. Overall, .5 should be fine, just make sure that they are not any sort of support walls or they may get broken during shipping or printing.'' .1 mm == 100 micrometers
If you want to know what its like when the tolerances are sloppy, buy a set of Mega Blok bricks, but even those have tighter tolerance than the tenth of a millimeter which Shapeways quotes.
I've got both _Xenoblade Chronicles_ and _The Last Story_ on pre-order --- wish they had the same Motion Plus controls as Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Also enjoyed Red Steel 2 and Wii Sports Resort (for when I can't get out to the archery range) and my son enjoys Monster Hunter Tri and Fire Emblem.
The IR pointing games like Goldeneye 007 are a lot of fun and the Metroid Prime Collector's Trilogy is an excellent value.
For a launch title Marvel Ultimate Alliance was a lot of fun.