"The Tao of Poo": Taoism explained by Winnie the Pooh character. If you are "hard on yourself" and don't feel like you fit in, learning about the "uncarved block" is going to truly help.
"The Way Things Work": At ten years old, I tore apart this book. Got my mind filled with the "how" of things.
"The Dancing Woo-Lee Masters": It was modern physics explained without math. I've since totally discarded the "observer influence" nonsense of Quantum Mechanics as basically, blasting these tiny particles with light is much the same as detecting cars with cannon balls with the same "observer influence". But it was great for a time to instill wonder and get a gist of a big part of modern physics that is a mystery to 99% of the public.
"Richard Feynman biography." This man had a life worth living. He also knew how to think and break down problems. Also, he appreciated Latin culture -- which all us European-Americans need to do at some point in our lives.
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." It helped me understand that things don't always make sense -- and it will always be that way, and I shouldn't get bent out of shape about it.
"Circle Find a Whole." Written by a former porn video producer. It's a children's book aimed at adults who might be co-dependent hoping that someone else is going to solve their problems. It's also about finding the right person rather than trying to fit into someone else's agenda. Read AFTER the 'Tao of Poo'.
Science Fiction Books. Lots of them. They open your mind like psychoactive drugs to alternate perspectives. I'm sure if the organizations who prefer unquestioning, brain-dead drones had thought about it, they would have done more to restrict publishing than drugs -- well, I suppose they did, but that was called the "dark ages" for a reason.
>> I'm not nearly complete in life, but my creative mind and larger perspective make me strong in places others are weak. Your results may very.
Yes but what is the point of informing people who NEVER GET IT, with things that people already know? The only people who assume everyone would want anonymity unless they opted in are the same people who will look for the "next step" once they find that "DNT=1" was ignored and everyone in marketing is corrupt UNLESS "GTH=1".*
*GTH stands for "Gun To Head".
This is like telling the last person that Global Warming is a problem, or that the only issue electronic voting machines solved was that of having voters who didn't like your corporate candidate. Oh, and Greenspan figuring out that there were "Greedy people on Wall Street" who would steel everything that wasn't tied down without "GTH=1".
I think the fundamental problem here is that if you DEPEND on other cars to detect collisions, you have a HUGE problem for all cars if one car has faulty detection.
Also, depending on other cars -- does that mean if you are the only Autonomous car on the road, you don't have the processing power?
What needs to happen is that dedicated GPUs could be programmed to merely deal with what objects are in motion towards the car's destination, and then they merely push size, vector and speed data to the main unit -- forget other cars, in the model, if this model of "more processing" is the stumbling block, just have a few more devices act as other cars.
Processing is a lot cheaper these days than signal bandwidth, and you can easily get in an issue where you are spending more cycles THROTTLING other cars data stream than actually doing any detecting. The average congested traffic can easily have more cars sending data than the average large business has workers on computers -- that's a "data traffic nightmare."
>> A Perfect 3D representation of space is not necessary -- human drivers don't see around corners as it is, so while creating a Hive Computer out of a lot of cars sounds like a good approach -- it just means more noise than signal ultimately, and you'll reach a cyber traffic jam well before the cars will.
The OTHER HUGE hidden cost that Apple is loathe to deal with is "mindshare." Unless Apples is making a patent troll purchase, then along with downsizing redundant people they'd be saddled with incorporating whatever Nokia has in markets and technology. That requires good people at Apple. You can't just instantly absorb a company.
I just don't see the value-ad here. There are a few technologies that Apple could really use -- but why not License them?
Apple has a $100 Billion war chest BECAUSE they didn't go on a buying binge like everyone else. Google is an example of a company that was fast and lean and now has indigestion and a bloated belly. The absorbed all kinds of cool tech companies and either let them stay as novelty experiments, maybe used a few, and the rest are left to languish. The net result is that a lot of fruit is left rotting on the vine.
It's better that companies stay vital and independent unless there is a real strategic match and they can either be merged or incorporated. Apple did a good job with the small CPU companies they acquired and I contend they did an awesome job with their mapping acquisitions. Sure, the Apple map software has a few bugs, but they basically started from nearly scratch and came out with more services than Google did coming out of the gate. This is really complex stuff, after all, it will take time to deal with all the little errors case by case.
I'd also heard someone suggest they gobble up a Mapping company for about $10 Billion. Great, another round of layoffs, and 90% of that tech will get ignored. Everyone will expect turn-by-turn abilities in a cell phone -- but will they pay extra for it? No.
I just wonder how everyone is such a genius with ideas for $10 Billion here or there -- but every time you spend that much money, you end up with obligations and you need some of your key people to manage it -- when they could be refining things you are already doing.
Most of the suggestions I've heard for Apple acquisitions were bad with 20/20 hindsight -- and this is another one of those.
I've been saying for YEARS that the reason we even have this Quantum Uncertainty that some cat likes to pretend is a law of physics, is because the "probing" of quantum states is equivalent to "measuring car movements by launching bowling balls at them".
So "subtler measurements" means you don't disturb the "quantum state"? How obvious is this that it's taken us 20 years?
Quantum theory, while strong on the applied math, seems to be riddled with absolute nonsense as a logical model. They proposed particles being "aware".
I'll also make another prediction; that the very nature of "quantum" or better stated "we can't find an electron halfway between orbital shells" -- is that waves interact with other waves on their peaks, or when in opposite phase. So this entire paradigm of "particles for every force" would also exactly fit "everything is a wave function on some type of medium -- whether you call it Pixels or the Aether."
Anyway, that's my 2 cents on the matter -- but I'm only making sense of it based upon the theory -- not the math. So I'm not going after the "proofs" but the "visualization" of the concepts involved.
"Uncertainty" has always been a problem with measurement -- not with physics itself.
Well the terrorists only act in ways that advance our military and business interests. If they attacked a nuclear facility, people might begin to realize that no matter the difference in current efficiency; solar and wind don't blow up when contractors cut corners.
Al Qaeda his very helpful to the CIA and FBI in making sure they can invade countries, or limit the Constitution.
Hopefully you can now add up all the mysteries of why our bogus security costs so much but accomplishes so little beyond spying on citizens.
I don't think his jailing has anything to do with "free speech". What this film producer did was clearly fraud, as he ruined the reputations of actors and bilked investors by not letting them know what the film was going to be about. Free Speech isn't protected in the case where someone's INTENT is to cause harm -- and his use of a phony alias and later dubbing over the picture shows his intent before and after the picture was made.
Having said that, I don't think people in the Middle East were totally inspired to anger by this film -- I think they were already angry due to our REAL bombing, troop presence and use of drones without declaring war.
It seems to me that this is just more of "upping the ante on the house of cards" that has built our Police State ever since 9/11.
You see, if Julian Assange can be listed as an "enemy of the state" -- then all of a sudden, what Bradley Manning did puts him under the rubric of "aiding the enemy." So he isn't any longer a whistleblower who is getting tortured, while people who used white phosphorous to massacre people in Fallujah get a pass (because we have occasionally commit war crimes to impress the enemy we cannot be messed with).
They've shut down humanitarian aide to places like Palestine. You can be disappeared for associating with Al Qaeda. Who the F$ck is Al Qaeda? Well, it's whoever is associating with them because someone at the FBI says so. It doesn't matter that the CIA funds an Al Qaeda associated group in Iran because it's anti-government (in Iran), and that group that "liberated" Libya was allegedly the same. I don't know who they are but a group that seems to create an excuse wherever we need one and does just what we want -- EXCEPT on 9/11. And we know they did it because of a badly doctored videotape which several secret service agencies from other countries called a fake.
There are journalists arrested, we've got people detained in Iraq - even though THAT was an illegal and bogus war -- we have to punish the people who fought back, because they were wrong?
It really is merely public opinion that stops our government from knocking off Julian Assange with a drone attack. What's really the difference between people in Europe and people in Pakistan other than more press and better PR? Everyone has a heart beat and is innocent until proven guilty.
>> The only real enemy I see here is Robber Barons hiding behind flags alleging foreign enemies that we do business with. WTF?
Have you heard about the influence of Money? It'll work in Sweden too.
Bradley Manning hasn't even been charged yet, while he waits out Room 101 -- I'm sure he'll get a proper charge with all the evidence he can provide after they've got their hands on Assange. It would work even better to quash "rogue journalists" who aren't beholden to a large multinational corporation like the ones we allow to give us news, if Assange just disappears. Everyone already worried about a police state will use their imaginations to wonder at the "anal probing" and drug testing that will go on, and the people who don't wonder, will continue thinking that Pravda and Al Jazeera are less credible than NPR.
One or two of the "rape accusers" were working for a far right wing media company with ties to the CIA. The other, dropped her charges and fled to Israel -- she was contacted by the first lady to bring forth testimony. I wonder what motivated THEM to let Assange shack up?
Next time, the CIA/Mossad won't be hiring amateurs who really don't have the cold blooded spirit to make the crime seem worse and press their charges. Assange is just lucky they didn't find Kiddie Porn on his laptop -- but my guess is he has better than an average firewall.
Rove is rumored to be spearheading the efforts against Assange --so you can realize how much integrity is being brought to bare.
We don't need to think that there is a witch hunt against Assange, I'm sure that England is ready to break into embassies all the time on the say-so of a Swedish prosecutor for an alleged broken condom.
And we can use your analogy better if we suppose that Oxygen kills these aliens.
So suppose while removing the job for the alien and giving it to an earthling for mere ounces of gold per day, they pipe in their atmosphere wherever they set up shops, and start killing off the indigenous life. Did L. Ron Hubbard already make this movie? OK, moving on...
So while ruining our planet, they reduce jobs at home -- and any company competing with them will have to lower wages to ounces of gold or ship that job to earth.
It wasn't necessary to kill humans they exploited with their Fluorine Gases -- but they are fucking Capitalists. Sometimes they just kill indigenous people for the Hell of it, because ultimately, Sadists get the CEO jobs because decent people tend to be pussies. Explain why Chiquita banana hired death squads while you're at it.
LOL. Are you the last person on the planet to realize that the US is the intractable enemy? What, is Iran supposed to stop going towards nuclear weapons because -- hey NOT having WMDs worked out great for Iraq. The assumption that we were trying to be diplomatic with Iraq and Afghanistan flies in the face of the history. Afghanistan offered up Bin Laden if the US would try him in a neutral country and George Bush insulted their manhood, hospitality and religion then invaded anyway, and ordered troops to stand down while they offered a bounty to the people they just insulted if they'd get Bin Laden (or so we were told). Again, we have to believe the version of events of consummate liars who are trying to bring Democracy and Mining companies to Afghanistan.
Then through countless programs that tried and failed to find WMDs, Bush got congress to agree to an invasion provided he could find them afterward. Likely Congress was interested in the invasion as well because rich multinationals put them in office just like the cowboy.
Libya copped to some terrorist attack on a plane, and said Saddam has WMDs, and they became OK again to trade with -- despite not changing their repressive ways. Then when huge sums of oil were found and Gaddafi wanted to trade in non Dollar denominations and say no to Central Banking (apparently having learned nothing from Saddam), the CIA started sending money to whatever insurgent group was in the country (happened to call itself Al Qaeda), and then Gaddafi gets raped by a knife. Ye gods of Democracy were served.
>> I don't know what Iran is supposed to do - or any nation. They either bend over to the companies our Military is fighting for, or they get raped anyway. So maybe you got YOUR anti-hippy version of events, but I happen to remember that the Hippies were damn right about the Vietnam war, and people like you are still credulous assholes thinking that our War was anything but a racket.
Look -- absolutely ALL of these issues we've got with "dumb government moves" has to do with how politicians get elected.
Term limits are dumb because we already have Congress campaigning every two years, so they are on a money train, and then if you kick them out (after 5 years they get retirement benefits thanks to Republican lawmakers), you only empower the lobbyists and unelected experts who groom them to get elected.
I'm sure Exxon was happy to step in and fund candidates and that's how you've still got subsidies for oil companies to find oil (what, would they stop doing that?), and no money for Fusion or alternatives.
>> Until we have totally taxpayer financed elections we will save pennies and be suckered for pounds. Oh, and I think that it's better to have CAREER public servants because we've had too many people do favors and become millionaire consultants for the industries they were supposed to oversee.
Getting turned on is NOT disrespectful -- it's about how you treat a lady. Obviously, there is a bit of construction worker competing with the geek factor here on Slashdot.
Now, anyone who isn't getting a boner about hot shells falling down the cleavage of a D-Cup lady as she's pounding out 50 Cal bullets just isn't a hot blooded American male. Sometimes "respect" can be confused with "irredeemably metro".
>> Anyway, no offense to anyone here - these are just jokes!
New Orleans would be fine if the Army Corps of Engineers would let the river take it's natural course. I think the main thing that keeps New Orleans at threat is this desire to make it a riverboat city and the killing off of swamp land on the Gulf.
A good compromise is to merely divert a token amount of water to run by the city -- and let the rest of the river follow the lowest course to the Ocean.
If planning for everyone could start to supersede what helps a few become really wealthy -- a lot of "dumb decisions" an complex intractable problems would mysteriously disappear.
Sounds a lot like "technology" is like evolution in this sense. Organisms that improve and adapt don't understand WHY they are changing or what -- merely, the better creator or widget is preserved.
I think there are some expert systems that try this with computer models now -- in fact, there was a twisted antenna, that was completely designed by computer models that had random changes, and then ones that gave a better signal profile survived. The resulting antenna was counter intuitive but was a great improvement.
So science can create a technology that counter-inuitively, arrives at answers without any good science being used at all.
Human's eventually will create a computer that thinks -- but I'm firmly of the belief that they will be "grown" from technology rather than planned with science.
Right and that's just as unlikely as Julian Assange getting a rape charge for not wearing a condom -- which you have to wonder where was the plaintiff in all this. Is it more improbable that the British Courts used French laws to justify the extradition in the first place? Is it more improbable than all the crazy stories we get each week that justify yet another screw job by a major corporation and the gymnastics their PR agents go through to excuse it? Oh, and that PayPal and banks who seem to do transactions with crime lords, murderers and even Eric Prince, somehow thought it too objectionable to do business with Wikileaks and shut down their credit -- isn't that improbable?
I don't think improbable means what you think it used to mean. Sure you are probably right on the law -- but that completely assumes that any of this at any point was about justice.
People who beat their chest about American exceptionalism and STILL think we invaded Iraq to Liberate people -- and if they don't appreciate it, they should be nuked -- need to have at least a flimsy flag pin covering up the hit job.
Sure, anyone with sense knows this is all about taking down Wikileaks -- but with enough faith, you can beat your chest and say; "Serves him right for raping women -- you don't approve of raping women do you?"
They aren't going to bother with details that he will be extradited without being charged -- that the English court had to use an obscure rule in the French courts to even take a "summons" by a prosecutor seriously. It could only imagine how hard it would be shot down if a US prosecutor ordered a British Supreme Court judge to fly to the USA to answer charges of bribery. These guys should have to PROVE no money has changed hands -- or are they merely helping the powerful beat up on the powerless with trumped up nonsense for the sport of it?
>> Everything we do now is for show -- and we have to window-dress bailouts to Bank of America after they bet on Credit Default Swaps AGAIN and lost -- and they are too big to fail, but apparently we can't lose those jobs that are going to the Philippines as they outsource their call centers -- so what exactly does FAILURE look like other than rich crooked pigs crying instead of a thousand more poor people in their place?
Wikileaks is all about pulling down the curtain and they are upsetting the oligarchy by doing what the media and press USED TO DO before they bought them all out. NPR doesn't even do a story about Monsanto anymore -- because they get paid by Monsanto.
>> The end result is that this country is going to fail because it has no mechanism to solve these problems or hold corrupt people to task -- it is extremely creative in how to engineer the destruction of any whistleblowers via two courts in other countries, however.
It's a Homeland Security flunky -- he's got "stimulus money". The WHOLE point of Homeland Security was a jobs program that produced nothing of value. The POINT of spending $22,000 on a router but not using it is to KEEP stimulus money from doing any good for the people.
I don't care if anyone thinks this is "over the top" or "tin foil hat" -- what better explanation is their for this kind of nonsense? He found a slightly plausible way to spend money -- might as well be a short band microwave scanner for TSA. $1 Million for the product $0 to train anyone how to use it.
What is HS allegedly protecting us from? Our world is no more dangerous than it was 40 years ago -- yet we've got these jerks up in everyone's grill and the NSA or SOMEONE reading every electronic transmission.
It really makes me angry that this guy intercedes and finds a way to take money that could be helping people -- he might as well be burning it. Security theater is just another farce like billion dollar stealth bombers that fly 2 hours a year. It's only real use it to keep everyone in line and to break up any movement before it can do something about the corruption.
Likely 90% of the people calling themselves Al Qaeda work at the FBI -- and everyone on TV preaches Austerity to help our economy. Meanwhile -- someone diverts Stimulus funds to make sure there is no stimulus. This probably happens with the help of loyal errand boys like this HS stooge all over the country --- the only difference is this little toady got caught.
Wasn't the whole POINT of the TSA to waste taxpayer money doing nothing?
I heard through the grape vine that Homeland Security sends dump-trucks with their offices supplies into the desert at night. You can only use so many post-it notes to write; "#2 in Al Qaeda caught / blowed up!"
1) Buy Ten-foot-pole. 2) Rent a flame retardant Hasmat suite (too expensive to buy it). 3) Hire some bystander who is oblivious to contents of manilla envelope. 4) Send innocent bystander on fools errand to present climate data. 5) While in underground bunker; DUCK!
You got modded as "Funny", but I think there is ample evidence (but no proof) that Bin Laden was working for the Saudi Royal family to re-direct the anti royal sentiment of the people to other targets; notably, instead of blowing stuff up because they still had oligarchs -- they became upset about US military bases and Saddam Hussein ruling Iraq in an improperly non-religious way.
It's also funny because if you try and contact Al Qaeda -- you should be 99% sure it's an FBI agent. At what point do we even know there is an Al Qaeda beyond a few papers in Bin Laden's Motel 6 love nest in Pakistan? He might have been running Al Qaeda, but when you are in a blind cell -- how do you know who you've been getting order's from? Is that call for a "pizza delivery" to the office a coded message, or are you actually delivering pizzas? At what point does Al Qaeda just become a CIA/FBI franchise directing anti-government hatred in a way that supports the authoritarian factions of the government the same way Al Qaeda supported the Saudi Royal Family? If Mexico ends up turning into America's "Palestine" -- doesn't that help both the Cheap Labor demands of business and the "need for an enemy" demands of the security state?
If nobody ever loads their underwear with C4 -- what happens to the "job creators" at the TSA?
I mean, OBL was a Saudi Prince after all. Leading an anti-Saudi group that ended up fighting for freedom in Afghanistan and shaking it's fist at some oligarch outside the country (Saddam). Why do you think Pakistan and India fight over Kashmir? Because there is 90% illiteracy in Pakistan -- they NEED to fight over something they are never going to change or they will cut the throats of the leaders and teachers.
The CIA worked closely with Bin Laden for a long time -- until it didn't. Of course -- the CIA is an amalgam of hard working field operatives, well educated Harvard grads doing data collection, and self-serving corporate errand boys who run the show.
Then we had 9/11 and we were told by the Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight with 100% certainty what happened and how -- but we weren't allowed to investigate. But LOOK over there! We need to invade Afghanistan because a group that 99% of the country probably never heard of trained there -- and we need to invade Iraq because some oil buddies got kicked out of the sweet deals. There was more "al Qaeda" living and training in Germany and South Florida than in the two nations we invaded. That's almost as funny as saying FBI -- only, they seem to find ex meth addicts to lure into Al Qaeda because it's obvious none of their terrorists could order pizza from a phone book.
Oh, and while the NeoCons who failed and are busy lecturing everyone about "REAL SECURITY" are at it - they dust of this Authoritarian Wet Dream called the "Patriot Act" that was written in 1999 for just such an occasion. Dick Cheney started the NSA internal spying program BEFORE 9/11 -- so maybe the votes in Congress might make sense if you think of Extortion -- which is why no Democracy can last with internal spying programs.
>> Let's all yuck it up as we choose between the Leveraged Buyout King, and the smooth talking PR agent who's to the right of Nixon.
Wow -- I suppose you should just drive your car into a brick wall - because apparently -- some ALARMIST might say; "If you don't break, you are going to crash!"
DDT didn't cause huge amounts of destruction because it was banned -- it's still circulating in the environment and some birds still have thin egg shells as a result. - we were going to all starve to death - we were going to run out of oil - we were going to run out of fresh water - we were covering our country in landfills
Gee I suppose let's all go out and waste all this stuff because it will NEVER run out. The projection is that by 2030 we will START starving to death -- right now, some third world countries do starve because of grain speculation creating shortages -- but there truly is enough food produced to feed everyone on the planet.
The Oil companies are now mining expensive OIL SANDS in Canada and are investing money in fresh water supplies -- so how smart are you?
Slashdot Mirror
"The Tao of Poo": Taoism explained by Winnie the Pooh character. If you are "hard on yourself" and don't feel like you fit in, learning about the "uncarved block" is going to truly help.
"The Way Things Work": At ten years old, I tore apart this book. Got my mind filled with the "how" of things.
"The Dancing Woo-Lee Masters": It was modern physics explained without math. I've since totally discarded the "observer influence" nonsense of Quantum Mechanics as basically, blasting these tiny particles with light is much the same as detecting cars with cannon balls with the same "observer influence". But it was great for a time to instill wonder and get a gist of a big part of modern physics that is a mystery to 99% of the public.
"Richard Feynman biography." This man had a life worth living. He also knew how to think and break down problems. Also, he appreciated Latin culture -- which all us European-Americans need to do at some point in our lives.
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." It helped me understand that things don't always make sense -- and it will always be that way, and I shouldn't get bent out of shape about it.
"Circle Find a Whole." Written by a former porn video producer. It's a children's book aimed at adults who might be co-dependent hoping that someone else is going to solve their problems. It's also about finding the right person rather than trying to fit into someone else's agenda. Read AFTER the 'Tao of Poo'.
Science Fiction Books. Lots of them. They open your mind like psychoactive drugs to alternate perspectives. I'm sure if the organizations who prefer unquestioning, brain-dead drones had thought about it, they would have done more to restrict publishing than drugs -- well, I suppose they did, but that was called the "dark ages" for a reason.
>> I'm not nearly complete in life, but my creative mind and larger perspective make me strong in places others are weak. Your results may very.
Yes but what is the point of informing people who NEVER GET IT, with things that people already know?
The only people who assume everyone would want anonymity unless they opted in are the same people who will look for the "next step" once they find that "DNT=1" was ignored and everyone in marketing is corrupt UNLESS "GTH=1".*
*GTH stands for "Gun To Head".
This is like telling the last person that Global Warming is a problem, or that the only issue electronic voting machines solved was that of having voters who didn't like your corporate candidate. Oh, and Greenspan figuring out that there were "Greedy people on Wall Street" who would steel everything that wasn't tied down without "GTH=1".
I think the fundamental problem here is that if you DEPEND on other cars to detect collisions, you have a HUGE problem for all cars if one car has faulty detection.
Also, depending on other cars -- does that mean if you are the only Autonomous car on the road, you don't have the processing power?
What needs to happen is that dedicated GPUs could be programmed to merely deal with what objects are in motion towards the car's destination, and then they merely push size, vector and speed data to the main unit -- forget other cars, in the model, if this model of "more processing" is the stumbling block, just have a few more devices act as other cars.
Processing is a lot cheaper these days than signal bandwidth, and you can easily get in an issue where you are spending more cycles THROTTLING other cars data stream than actually doing any detecting. The average congested traffic can easily have more cars sending data than the average large business has workers on computers -- that's a "data traffic nightmare."
>> A Perfect 3D representation of space is not necessary -- human drivers don't see around corners as it is, so while creating a Hive Computer out of a lot of cars sounds like a good approach -- it just means more noise than signal ultimately, and you'll reach a cyber traffic jam well before the cars will.
The OTHER HUGE hidden cost that Apple is loathe to deal with is "mindshare." Unless Apples is making a patent troll purchase, then along with downsizing redundant people they'd be saddled with incorporating whatever Nokia has in markets and technology. That requires good people at Apple. You can't just instantly absorb a company.
I just don't see the value-ad here. There are a few technologies that Apple could really use -- but why not License them?
Apple has a $100 Billion war chest BECAUSE they didn't go on a buying binge like everyone else. Google is an example of a company that was fast and lean and now has indigestion and a bloated belly. The absorbed all kinds of cool tech companies and either let them stay as novelty experiments, maybe used a few, and the rest are left to languish. The net result is that a lot of fruit is left rotting on the vine.
It's better that companies stay vital and independent unless there is a real strategic match and they can either be merged or incorporated. Apple did a good job with the small CPU companies they acquired and I contend they did an awesome job with their mapping acquisitions. Sure, the Apple map software has a few bugs, but they basically started from nearly scratch and came out with more services than Google did coming out of the gate. This is really complex stuff, after all, it will take time to deal with all the little errors case by case.
I'd also heard someone suggest they gobble up a Mapping company for about $10 Billion. Great, another round of layoffs, and 90% of that tech will get ignored. Everyone will expect turn-by-turn abilities in a cell phone -- but will they pay extra for it? No.
I just wonder how everyone is such a genius with ideas for $10 Billion here or there -- but every time you spend that much money, you end up with obligations and you need some of your key people to manage it -- when they could be refining things you are already doing.
Most of the suggestions I've heard for Apple acquisitions were bad with 20/20 hindsight -- and this is another one of those.
I've been saying for YEARS that the reason we even have this Quantum Uncertainty that some cat likes to pretend is a law of physics, is because the "probing" of quantum states is equivalent to "measuring car movements by launching bowling balls at them".
So "subtler measurements" means you don't disturb the "quantum state"? How obvious is this that it's taken us 20 years?
Quantum theory, while strong on the applied math, seems to be riddled with absolute nonsense as a logical model. They proposed particles being "aware".
I'll also make another prediction; that the very nature of "quantum" or better stated "we can't find an electron halfway between orbital shells" -- is that waves interact with other waves on their peaks, or when in opposite phase. So this entire paradigm of "particles for every force" would also exactly fit "everything is a wave function on some type of medium -- whether you call it Pixels or the Aether."
Anyway, that's my 2 cents on the matter -- but I'm only making sense of it based upon the theory -- not the math. So I'm not going after the "proofs" but the "visualization" of the concepts involved.
"Uncertainty" has always been a problem with measurement -- not with physics itself.
Well the terrorists only act in ways that advance our military and business interests. If they attacked a nuclear facility, people might begin to realize that no matter the difference in current efficiency; solar and wind don't blow up when contractors cut corners.
Al Qaeda his very helpful to the CIA and FBI in making sure they can invade countries, or limit the Constitution.
Hopefully you can now add up all the mysteries of why our bogus security costs so much but accomplishes so little beyond spying on citizens.
I don't think his jailing has anything to do with "free speech".
What this film producer did was clearly fraud, as he ruined the reputations of actors and bilked investors by not letting them know what the film was going to be about. Free Speech isn't protected in the case where someone's INTENT is to cause harm -- and his use of a phony alias and later dubbing over the picture shows his intent before and after the picture was made.
Having said that, I don't think people in the Middle East were totally inspired to anger by this film -- I think they were already angry due to our REAL bombing, troop presence and use of drones without declaring war.
It seems to me that this is just more of "upping the ante on the house of cards" that has built our Police State ever since 9/11.
You see, if Julian Assange can be listed as an "enemy of the state" -- then all of a sudden, what Bradley Manning did puts him under the rubric of "aiding the enemy." So he isn't any longer a whistleblower who is getting tortured, while people who used white phosphorous to massacre people in Fallujah get a pass (because we have occasionally commit war crimes to impress the enemy we cannot be messed with).
They've shut down humanitarian aide to places like Palestine. You can be disappeared for associating with Al Qaeda. Who the F$ck is Al Qaeda? Well, it's whoever is associating with them because someone at the FBI says so. It doesn't matter that the CIA funds an Al Qaeda associated group in Iran because it's anti-government (in Iran), and that group that "liberated" Libya was allegedly the same. I don't know who they are but a group that seems to create an excuse wherever we need one and does just what we want -- EXCEPT on 9/11. And we know they did it because of a badly doctored videotape which several secret service agencies from other countries called a fake.
There are journalists arrested, we've got people detained in Iraq - even though THAT was an illegal and bogus war -- we have to punish the people who fought back, because they were wrong?
It really is merely public opinion that stops our government from knocking off Julian Assange with a drone attack. What's really the difference between people in Europe and people in Pakistan other than more press and better PR? Everyone has a heart beat and is innocent until proven guilty.
>> The only real enemy I see here is Robber Barons hiding behind flags alleging foreign enemies that we do business with. WTF?
Have you heard about the influence of Money? It'll work in Sweden too.
Bradley Manning hasn't even been charged yet, while he waits out Room 101 -- I'm sure he'll get a proper charge with all the evidence he can provide after they've got their hands on Assange. It would work even better to quash "rogue journalists" who aren't beholden to a large multinational corporation like the ones we allow to give us news, if Assange just disappears. Everyone already worried about a police state will use their imaginations to wonder at the "anal probing" and drug testing that will go on, and the people who don't wonder, will continue thinking that Pravda and Al Jazeera are less credible than NPR.
One or two of the "rape accusers" were working for a far right wing media company with ties to the CIA. The other, dropped her charges and fled to Israel -- she was contacted by the first lady to bring forth testimony. I wonder what motivated THEM to let Assange shack up?
Next time, the CIA/Mossad won't be hiring amateurs who really don't have the cold blooded spirit to make the crime seem worse and press their charges. Assange is just lucky they didn't find Kiddie Porn on his laptop -- but my guess is he has better than an average firewall.
Rove is rumored to be spearheading the efforts against Assange --so you can realize how much integrity is being brought to bare.
We don't need to think that there is a witch hunt against Assange, I'm sure that England is ready to break into embassies all the time on the say-so of a Swedish prosecutor for an alleged broken condom.
And we can use your analogy better if we suppose that Oxygen kills these aliens.
So suppose while removing the job for the alien and giving it to an earthling for mere ounces of gold per day, they pipe in their atmosphere wherever they set up shops, and start killing off the indigenous life. Did L. Ron Hubbard already make this movie? OK, moving on...
So while ruining our planet, they reduce jobs at home -- and any company competing with them will have to lower wages to ounces of gold or ship that job to earth.
It wasn't necessary to kill humans they exploited with their Fluorine Gases -- but they are fucking Capitalists. Sometimes they just kill indigenous people for the Hell of it, because ultimately, Sadists get the CEO jobs because decent people tend to be pussies. Explain why Chiquita banana hired death squads while you're at it.
LOL. Are you the last person on the planet to realize that the US is the intractable enemy? What, is Iran supposed to stop going towards nuclear weapons because -- hey NOT having WMDs worked out great for Iraq. The assumption that we were trying to be diplomatic with Iraq and Afghanistan flies in the face of the history. Afghanistan offered up Bin Laden if the US would try him in a neutral country and George Bush insulted their manhood, hospitality and religion then invaded anyway, and ordered troops to stand down while they offered a bounty to the people they just insulted if they'd get Bin Laden (or so we were told). Again, we have to believe the version of events of consummate liars who are trying to bring Democracy and Mining companies to Afghanistan.
Then through countless programs that tried and failed to find WMDs, Bush got congress to agree to an invasion provided he could find them afterward. Likely Congress was interested in the invasion as well because rich multinationals put them in office just like the cowboy.
Libya copped to some terrorist attack on a plane, and said Saddam has WMDs, and they became OK again to trade with -- despite not changing their repressive ways. Then when huge sums of oil were found and Gaddafi wanted to trade in non Dollar denominations and say no to Central Banking (apparently having learned nothing from Saddam), the CIA started sending money to whatever insurgent group was in the country (happened to call itself Al Qaeda), and then Gaddafi gets raped by a knife. Ye gods of Democracy were served.
>> I don't know what Iran is supposed to do - or any nation. They either bend over to the companies our Military is fighting for, or they get raped anyway. So maybe you got YOUR anti-hippy version of events, but I happen to remember that the Hippies were damn right about the Vietnam war, and people like you are still credulous assholes thinking that our War was anything but a racket.
You might think it's some liberal peace activist type speaking to a bunch of hippie protesters. But you'd be wrong: it's Dwight D Eisenhower.
I wouldn't be surprised, but today, Nixon is to the left of the "socialist" Obama. From this perspective, Eisenhower was a stinking hippy.
Look -- absolutely ALL of these issues we've got with "dumb government moves" has to do with how politicians get elected.
Term limits are dumb because we already have Congress campaigning every two years, so they are on a money train, and then if you kick them out (after 5 years they get retirement benefits thanks to Republican lawmakers), you only empower the lobbyists and unelected experts who groom them to get elected.
I'm sure Exxon was happy to step in and fund candidates and that's how you've still got subsidies for oil companies to find oil (what, would they stop doing that?), and no money for Fusion or alternatives.
>> Until we have totally taxpayer financed elections we will save pennies and be suckered for pounds. Oh, and I think that it's better to have CAREER public servants because we've had too many people do favors and become millionaire consultants for the industries they were supposed to oversee.
Getting turned on is NOT disrespectful -- it's about how you treat a lady. Obviously, there is a bit of construction worker competing with the geek factor here on Slashdot.
Now, anyone who isn't getting a boner about hot shells falling down the cleavage of a D-Cup lady as she's pounding out 50 Cal bullets just isn't a hot blooded American male. Sometimes "respect" can be confused with "irredeemably metro".
>> Anyway, no offense to anyone here - these are just jokes!
New Orleans would be fine if the Army Corps of Engineers would let the river take it's natural course. I think the main thing that keeps New Orleans at threat is this desire to make it a riverboat city and the killing off of swamp land on the Gulf.
A good compromise is to merely divert a token amount of water to run by the city -- and let the rest of the river follow the lowest course to the Ocean.
If planning for everyone could start to supersede what helps a few become really wealthy -- a lot of "dumb decisions" an complex intractable problems would mysteriously disappear.
Sounds a lot like "technology" is like evolution in this sense. Organisms that improve and adapt don't understand WHY they are changing or what -- merely, the better creator or widget is preserved.
I think there are some expert systems that try this with computer models now -- in fact, there was a twisted antenna, that was completely designed by computer models that had random changes, and then ones that gave a better signal profile survived. The resulting antenna was counter intuitive but was a great improvement.
So science can create a technology that counter-inuitively, arrives at answers without any good science being used at all.
Human's eventually will create a computer that thinks -- but I'm firmly of the belief that they will be "grown" from technology rather than planned with science.
"this would be extremely unlikely to happen."
Right and that's just as unlikely as Julian Assange getting a rape charge for not wearing a condom -- which you have to wonder where was the plaintiff in all this.
Is it more improbable that the British Courts used French laws to justify the extradition in the first place?
Is it more improbable than all the crazy stories we get each week that justify yet another screw job by a major corporation and the gymnastics their PR agents go through to excuse it?
Oh, and that PayPal and banks who seem to do transactions with crime lords, murderers and even Eric Prince, somehow thought it too objectionable to do business with Wikileaks and shut down their credit -- isn't that improbable?
I don't think improbable means what you think it used to mean. Sure you are probably right on the law -- but that completely assumes that any of this at any point was about justice.
You are forgetting plausible deniability.
People who beat their chest about American exceptionalism and STILL think we invaded Iraq to Liberate people -- and if they don't appreciate it, they should be nuked -- need to have at least a flimsy flag pin covering up the hit job.
Sure, anyone with sense knows this is all about taking down Wikileaks -- but with enough faith, you can beat your chest and say; "Serves him right for raping women -- you don't approve of raping women do you?"
They aren't going to bother with details that he will be extradited without being charged -- that the English court had to use an obscure rule in the French courts to even take a "summons" by a prosecutor seriously. It could only imagine how hard it would be shot down if a US prosecutor ordered a British Supreme Court judge to fly to the USA to answer charges of bribery. These guys should have to PROVE no money has changed hands -- or are they merely helping the powerful beat up on the powerless with trumped up nonsense for the sport of it?
>> Everything we do now is for show -- and we have to window-dress bailouts to Bank of America after they bet on Credit Default Swaps AGAIN and lost -- and they are too big to fail, but apparently we can't lose those jobs that are going to the Philippines as they outsource their call centers -- so what exactly does FAILURE look like other than rich crooked pigs crying instead of a thousand more poor people in their place?
Wikileaks is all about pulling down the curtain and they are upsetting the oligarchy by doing what the media and press USED TO DO before they bought them all out. NPR doesn't even do a story about Monsanto anymore -- because they get paid by Monsanto.
>> The end result is that this country is going to fail because it has no mechanism to solve these problems or hold corrupt people to task -- it is extremely creative in how to engineer the destruction of any whistleblowers via two courts in other countries, however.
It's a Homeland Security flunky -- he's got "stimulus money". The WHOLE point of Homeland Security was a jobs program that produced nothing of value. The POINT of spending $22,000 on a router but not using it is to KEEP stimulus money from doing any good for the people.
I don't care if anyone thinks this is "over the top" or "tin foil hat" -- what better explanation is their for this kind of nonsense? He found a slightly plausible way to spend money -- might as well be a short band microwave scanner for TSA. $1 Million for the product $0 to train anyone how to use it.
What is HS allegedly protecting us from? Our world is no more dangerous than it was 40 years ago -- yet we've got these jerks up in everyone's grill and the NSA or SOMEONE reading every electronic transmission.
It really makes me angry that this guy intercedes and finds a way to take money that could be helping people -- he might as well be burning it. Security theater is just another farce like billion dollar stealth bombers that fly 2 hours a year. It's only real use it to keep everyone in line and to break up any movement before it can do something about the corruption.
Likely 90% of the people calling themselves Al Qaeda work at the FBI -- and everyone on TV preaches Austerity to help our economy. Meanwhile -- someone diverts Stimulus funds to make sure there is no stimulus. This probably happens with the help of loyal errand boys like this HS stooge all over the country --- the only difference is this little toady got caught.
Wasn't the whole POINT of the TSA to waste taxpayer money doing nothing?
I heard through the grape vine that Homeland Security sends dump-trucks with their offices supplies into the desert at night. You can only use so many post-it notes to write; "#2 in Al Qaeda caught / blowed up!"
Quick -- someone look busy!
Mosquitoes are happy too!
But warm nights are NOT GOOD for most crops besides soybeans.
However, Canadians can now enjoy a Spring.
1) Buy Ten-foot-pole.
2) Rent a flame retardant Hasmat suite (too expensive to buy it).
3) Hire some bystander who is oblivious to contents of manilla envelope.
4) Send innocent bystander on fools errand to present climate data.
5) While in underground bunker; DUCK!
You got modded as "Funny", but I think there is ample evidence (but no proof) that Bin Laden was working for the Saudi Royal family to re-direct the anti royal sentiment of the people to other targets; notably, instead of blowing stuff up because they still had oligarchs -- they became upset about US military bases and Saddam Hussein ruling Iraq in an improperly non-religious way.
It's also funny because if you try and contact Al Qaeda -- you should be 99% sure it's an FBI agent. At what point do we even know there is an Al Qaeda beyond a few papers in Bin Laden's Motel 6 love nest in Pakistan? He might have been running Al Qaeda, but when you are in a blind cell -- how do you know who you've been getting order's from? Is that call for a "pizza delivery" to the office a coded message, or are you actually delivering pizzas? At what point does Al Qaeda just become a CIA/FBI franchise directing anti-government hatred in a way that supports the authoritarian factions of the government the same way Al Qaeda supported the Saudi Royal Family? If Mexico ends up turning into America's "Palestine" -- doesn't that help both the Cheap Labor demands of business and the "need for an enemy" demands of the security state?
If nobody ever loads their underwear with C4 -- what happens to the "job creators" at the TSA?
I mean, OBL was a Saudi Prince after all. Leading an anti-Saudi group that ended up fighting for freedom in Afghanistan and shaking it's fist at some oligarch outside the country (Saddam). Why do you think Pakistan and India fight over Kashmir? Because there is 90% illiteracy in Pakistan -- they NEED to fight over something they are never going to change or they will cut the throats of the leaders and teachers.
The CIA worked closely with Bin Laden for a long time -- until it didn't. Of course -- the CIA is an amalgam of hard working field operatives, well educated Harvard grads doing data collection, and self-serving corporate errand boys who run the show.
Then we had 9/11 and we were told by the Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight with 100% certainty what happened and how -- but we weren't allowed to investigate. But LOOK over there! We need to invade Afghanistan because a group that 99% of the country probably never heard of trained there -- and we need to invade Iraq because some oil buddies got kicked out of the sweet deals. There was more "al Qaeda" living and training in Germany and South Florida than in the two nations we invaded. That's almost as funny as saying FBI -- only, they seem to find ex meth addicts to lure into Al Qaeda because it's obvious none of their terrorists could order pizza from a phone book.
Oh, and while the NeoCons who failed and are busy lecturing everyone about "REAL SECURITY" are at it - they dust of this Authoritarian Wet Dream called the "Patriot Act" that was written in 1999 for just such an occasion. Dick Cheney started the NSA internal spying program BEFORE 9/11 -- so maybe the votes in Congress might make sense if you think of Extortion -- which is why no Democracy can last with internal spying programs.
>> Let's all yuck it up as we choose between the Leveraged Buyout King, and the smooth talking PR agent who's to the right of Nixon.
Wow -- I suppose you should just drive your car into a brick wall - because apparently -- some ALARMIST might say; "If you don't break, you are going to crash!"
DDT didn't cause huge amounts of destruction because it was banned -- it's still circulating in the environment and some birds still have thin egg shells as a result.
- we were going to all starve to death
- we were going to run out of oil
- we were going to run out of fresh water
- we were covering our country in landfills
Gee I suppose let's all go out and waste all this stuff because it will NEVER run out. The projection is that by 2030 we will START starving to death -- right now, some third world countries do starve because of grain speculation creating shortages -- but there truly is enough food produced to feed everyone on the planet.
The Oil companies are now mining expensive OIL SANDS in Canada and are investing money in fresh water supplies -- so how smart are you?
In desperate need for mod points.... ... can I mod this up to 11?