"It may not be anything more special then normal matter that doesn't glow. "
But that's just the thing. In some areas of space, say near a star or a galactic core, so much energy is blasting through space that no "normal matter" could not be luminescent. And yet, something in that area, that is *not* luminescent, is exerting a gravitational force.
bittorrent was not developed in response to drm. This may be slightly off topic, but please don't lump bittorrent, a file transfer protocol, with products that help index and search and share content.
It's not the problem of logistics, it's the impossibility of hundreds of millions of people, all with an opinion and something to say, trying to get anything accomplished at all. There *has* to be authority. I think Wikipedia is a good example for that argument -- the problems involving hot topics would never solve themselves. It wasn't democracy, it was anarchy.
I'm not sure how Slashdotters will feel about this opinion, but I'll try not to make an ass of myself and hope for the best.
I'd rather *not* have "Reality TV for Congress". I don't want to see every last second of their proceedings and discussions, and I don't think they should be subject to constant surveillance. There's two reasons for this: one, I know *I* would perform worse if my boss was video-recording my every move at work, and I wouldn't wish that upon anyone. A person needs the leeway to relax now and again to keep their sanity, especially with a stressful job. Two, we have a democratic *republic*. We elect officials who can do the time-consuming and difficult job of running the government for us, so we can worry about other things. And, perhaps more importantly, so that we don't have an *actual* democracy, which would devolve into chaos after we had our first 'government meeting' (imagine 300 million people in the same spot, trying to decide on anything).
I'm all for being vigilant and wary of the government. Pay attention to new legislation and rulings and praise the good and kick out the crap. But let's let them do their job with some degree of civility.
Heh, yeah, they mention Sacramento, so I'd imagine California.
Of course, even in California that doesn't mean anything, because there are ~25 CSU universities, just like there are ~11 UC universities. ("California State University" and "University of California")
I graduated from UC Davis and even I can't tell you why we have two university systems, each comprising a bunch of individual universities that (mostly) share the same name. I think the CSUs use to not hand out PhDs, or maybe not even Masters, but I'm not even sure about that anymore.
As for CSU Sac... I'm trying really really hard to not make a comment about 'Suck State', since nobody outside of UCD Band-uh! members would understand, and I'd probably get labeled a troll...:-P
I think a related question is, If you were one of the little photons or protons that never bounced off anybody and never went anywhere but
<crackpot catalyst='caffeine,crazy work hours'>
.. oh dang I just answered my own question.
I was going to ask, what do you see if you are on the edge of the universe? What if there was a big bang in which all matter began in a single spot, and you were one of the bits of photon or proton riding the furious wave of energy expanding behind you?
The answer is: we are! This *is* the edge of the universe!
What if that explains why we can only travel through time in one direction? What if our whole existence is at some ridiculous energy level ('riding the wave') that we just can't recognize because we have nothing to compare it to? Maybe a better question is, is there anything that *isn't* on the edge of the universe? If so, what would you see there?
</crackpot>
... uh.. um.. where was I?
Anyway, Einstein came up with special relativity after asking, "What does a photon see?". I'd like to ask the same thing of the edge of the universe. What do you see there? I suppose the answer would be boring in the case of a closed universe. It's sort of anticlimactic.
Well, don't forget that one of the concepts that makes QM so weird is that "things" (unfortunate terminology) aren't particles or waves of energy... they are both. Since this is weird, you have 'electron clouds' that represent probability or 'orbitals' that represent the different energy distributions in a quantized way, etc. etc., all trying to describe reality.
Anyway, the point is that electrons "are"/"can be" distinct, quantized doohickeys, so saying that 'the electron hopped' isn't physically inaccurate. If you have a bunch of free electrons cruising on one side of an insulator, individual electrons will pass through it by tunneling. I.e. their wave function extends through the insulator, so it can be 'found' there.
I used to know the empirically-derived equations that could model this, but... not now.:)
Sure, I'll take a swing at it (my credentials are shaky -- a BS in computational physics). This theory says that tunneling, a quantum mechanical process, lets an electron jump into the nervous system. That's equivalent to saying that a quantum mechanical process causes an electric current... something the nervous system uses extensively. I don't know if a single electron would be enough to trigger a signal, but two possibilities for the theory are (1) it *is* enough, (2) more than one electron tunnels.
It goes both ways for me. I agree that Heinlein can be juvenile, and his characters are often very sexist. The Number of the Beast, in particular, was extremely hard for me to read; I only had the strength the skim the last chapter and couldn't even tell you what the resolution was.
That might say more about me than it does Heinlein, though.:) Sometimes, I get the feeling that the sexism is tongue-in-cheek, as if to simply show how silly sexism is. As for the political statements, I think it's clear that he is 110% pro-capitalism, and doesn't see some of its flaws. But I'm sure worse could be said about a writer -- especially a sci-fi writer, who often deals with best-case scenarios anyway.
Further, a lot of his writing was periodical-style. That simply has to be appreciated in context, imho.:) The short stories of Heinlein and Asimov are some of my favorite pieces of fiction, because I love the format. Namely, take a neat idea, extrapolate a little, and ask your audience, "What if... ?". Dialog and plot are simple, because they aren't the point. I do prefer Asimov here, but Heinlein definitely had an impact on the genre.
Finally, I see that you didn't mention Starship Troopers. That is, by far, my favorite Heinlein book. I'd check it out.
These guys are doing the best with what they have. I would rather see a company work at delivering a completely free (libre) device, even if they can't go 100%, than see them give up and disappear.
In portable electronics, the best and neatest components are often proprietary, and in some cases the proprietary components have no worthwhile competition! This is not ideal, but it is reality. Does this mean we should entirely give up on companies and products that are as open as possible, yet still use these components? I don't think so. I think that making a few concessions, being successful, and showing the rest of the industry that customers embrace and love openness would be a spectacular plan. Some of the component vendors (*cough* TI) would do well to see the writing on the wall, but they won't see shit if non-realistic ideals prevent any project like the OpenMoko from getting off the ground.
Quasi-disclaimer: I'm a volunteer hacker/beta tester involved with Neuros, a company doing for media centers and other devices what FIC has done with phones. They're in the same predicament.
On the other hand, if you want to argue semantics, I would agree that it is incorrect for FIC to claim that the OpenMoko is 'completely open'. But to say that their *company* is completely open is fine. I.e. as long as they don't keep any secrets from their customers, I think they're doing pretty good.
When I turn 18, I'll be 2 years through college, and might just say "screw it" and not finish my education.
Bad idea!
Getting your degree gets you so much more than a line on a resume and a better income bracket. Note, however, that it does get you a nice line on your resume, and a better income bracket.;)
Honestly though, those 2 extra years will save you 10-15 in the work experience people will want to see if you don't have a degree. That's a decade of opportunities passing you by. And for what? Skipping the chance to have the 2 best years of your life so you can "get on with it"?
Maybe I don't know about the "Cartesian method of doubt", but it doesn't have anything to do with physics. Are you saying that if I measure something with a ruler, I should throw in a couple extra percentage points to the error calculation because I'm not sure if the universe exists? Jesus. Even if I *should*, what percentage should I throw in?
1. Whether or not you do something legal is not the issue. Whether a large pile of cash and trained professionals can keep you in litigation for years as you prove your actions were legal is.
2. Man, I wish I woulda been there when the first copyright lawyer discovered that downloads imply copying. I bet *he felt like he'd died, gone to heaven, then died again and gone to heaven's heaven.
Jesus Christ dude, one month? No wonder you got sick of it. If I got to level 60 in one month, not only would I not want to play WoW anymore, I would also want to kill myself.
There won't be a single black hat that reports on any exploits they find. By definition, any hacker that reports an exploit is a white hat. Saying that they are opening Vista to 'black hats' is just a silly PR statement.
"Build your product and say that MySQL is a prerequisite and required that the end-user must download and install it."
Well yeah, if you target OSS junkies, you aren't gonna make a dime selling OSS. Here's a concept: sell it to *everyone else*. A lot of people stand to benefit from OSS, even if they pay for it. Witness Apple's OS X.
I felt the same way you did at the end of high school. I'll tell you why: high school sucks. It is the worst possible way for everyone, and especially brainiacs, to get prepared for life. At the end of high school, I figured I could do anything, and that my intelligence gave me special privileges. Sure, my GPA wasn't awesome, but that's because I knew better to dirty my hands in this system for inferiors.
College came around and crushed, humbled, and rebuilt me. Now, rather than SAYING I can do anything I want to, I actually CAN do many of the things I want to, and I also know what those things ARE. I found out that lots of people who didn't seem 'smart' in high school are actually really brilliant, and that my smarts don't mean anything unless I apply them. I learned the world will not give me a cookie every time I tell myself, "but I'm smarter than these people!" I learned that I can't wing any and all tests that come my way (I just got smashed in a Numerical Analysis final.. sheesh). Haha, that reminds me.. if you go to college, do your homework! Man!
The Army bases its ad campaign on that sort of transformation. I'm sure there is truth to it. The bottom line is that you have to _get out and see what life is really like_. Throw everything from high school away. Realize that you are NOT one of the elite 2%, or if you are, that.02 * (population of world) is a big fucking number.
Ok, everybody seems to knocking LilyPond so far, so I thought I'd put out my initial opinion. I've been learning LaTeX recently, and in spite of the waves of horror you feel the first time you look at it, it is actually extremely good at what it does. Revelation, I know, but the point is it ISN'T made for high schoolers writing their history reports. Same thing with LilyPond here. It doesn't look easy, but then, typesetting music isn't easy. LilyPond and LaTeX are an order of magnitude less complex, even if the coefficient is higher than, say, MS Word or Finale. I know I would die if I had to write a book in Word.
Also note that this is not intended to be a replacement for Finale, but rather an entirely different way of getting the job done. They've taken to engraving what TeX took to typesetting.
The coolest thing about this project to me is that I was wondering earlier if anything existed.:) I thought, "If someone did it for typesetting, can't it be done for music?"
Didn't Japan say it was going to use Tron in all its school computers some time ago? And didn't Microsoft bring down the Hand of God (and the heavy hand of American supremacy) and make sure that didn't happen?
I don't see this actually happening. Strings will be pulled, trade penalties will be threatened, and Microsoft will stay at that 95% mark.
Slashdot Mirror
Well I just came up with this this very moment:
sed -i.bak file1 file2 ...
Backed up a bunch of files that I was going to do some experiments on.
"It may not be anything more special then normal matter that doesn't glow. "
But that's just the thing. In some areas of space, say near a star or a galactic core, so much energy is blasting through space that no "normal matter" could not be luminescent. And yet, something in that area, that is *not* luminescent, is exerting a gravitational force.
bittorrent was not developed in response to drm. This may be slightly off topic, but please don't lump bittorrent, a file transfer protocol, with products that help index and search and share content.
It's not the problem of logistics, it's the impossibility of hundreds of millions of people, all with an opinion and something to say, trying to get anything accomplished at all. There *has* to be authority. I think Wikipedia is a good example for that argument -- the problems involving hot topics would never solve themselves. It wasn't democracy, it was anarchy.
I'm not sure how Slashdotters will feel about this opinion, but I'll try not to make an ass of myself and hope for the best.
I'd rather *not* have "Reality TV for Congress". I don't want to see every last second of their proceedings and discussions, and I don't think they should be subject to constant surveillance. There's two reasons for this: one, I know *I* would perform worse if my boss was video-recording my every move at work, and I wouldn't wish that upon anyone. A person needs the leeway to relax now and again to keep their sanity, especially with a stressful job. Two, we have a democratic *republic*. We elect officials who can do the time-consuming and difficult job of running the government for us, so we can worry about other things. And, perhaps more importantly, so that we don't have an *actual* democracy, which would devolve into chaos after we had our first 'government meeting' (imagine 300 million people in the same spot, trying to decide on anything).
I'm all for being vigilant and wary of the government. Pay attention to new legislation and rulings and praise the good and kick out the crap. But let's let them do their job with some degree of civility.
Heh, yeah, they mention Sacramento, so I'd imagine California.
:-P
Of course, even in California that doesn't mean anything, because there are ~25 CSU universities, just like there are ~11 UC universities. ("California State University" and "University of California")
I graduated from UC Davis and even I can't tell you why we have two university systems, each comprising a bunch of individual universities that (mostly) share the same name. I think the CSUs use to not hand out PhDs, or maybe not even Masters, but I'm not even sure about that anymore.
As for CSU Sac... I'm trying really really hard to not make a comment about 'Suck State', since nobody outside of UCD Band-uh! members would understand, and I'd probably get labeled a troll...
<crackpot catalyst='caffeine,crazy work hours'>
I was going to ask, what do you see if you are on the edge of the universe? What if there was a big bang in which all matter began in a single spot, and you were one of the bits of photon or proton riding the furious wave of energy expanding behind you?
The answer is: we are! This *is* the edge of the universe!
What if that explains why we can only travel through time in one direction? What if our whole existence is at some ridiculous energy level ('riding the wave') that we just can't recognize because we have nothing to compare it to? Maybe a better question is, is there anything that *isn't* on the edge of the universe? If so, what would you see there?
</crackpot>
Anyway, Einstein came up with special relativity after asking, "What does a photon see?". I'd like to ask the same thing of the edge of the universe. What do you see there? I suppose the answer would be boring in the case of a closed universe. It's sort of anticlimactic.
Ok, enough rambling from the peanut gallery.
Well, don't forget that one of the concepts that makes QM so weird is that "things" (unfortunate terminology) aren't particles or waves of energy... they are both. Since this is weird, you have 'electron clouds' that represent probability or 'orbitals' that represent the different energy distributions in a quantized way, etc. etc., all trying to describe reality.
:)
Anyway, the point is that electrons "are"/"can be" distinct, quantized doohickeys, so saying that 'the electron hopped' isn't physically inaccurate. If you have a bunch of free electrons cruising on one side of an insulator, individual electrons will pass through it by tunneling. I.e. their wave function extends through the insulator, so it can be 'found' there.
I used to know the empirically-derived equations that could model this, but... not now.
Sure, I'll take a swing at it (my credentials are shaky -- a BS in computational physics). This theory says that tunneling, a quantum mechanical process, lets an electron jump into the nervous system. That's equivalent to saying that a quantum mechanical process causes an electric current... something the nervous system uses extensively. I don't know if a single electron would be enough to trigger a signal, but two possibilities for the theory are (1) it *is* enough, (2) more than one electron tunnels.
;)
Please excuse my undergraduate hand-waving.
Hehe, so she thinks her kids are as dumb as teenagers think their parents are?
That might say more about me than it does Heinlein, though. :) Sometimes, I get the feeling that the sexism is tongue-in-cheek, as if to simply show how silly sexism is. As for the political statements, I think it's clear that he is 110% pro-capitalism, and doesn't see some of its flaws. But I'm sure worse could be said about a writer -- especially a sci-fi writer, who often deals with best-case scenarios anyway.
Further, a lot of his writing was periodical-style. That simply has to be appreciated in context, imho. :) The short stories of Heinlein and Asimov are some of my favorite pieces of fiction, because I love the format. Namely, take a neat idea, extrapolate a little, and ask your audience, "What if... ?". Dialog and plot are simple, because they aren't the point. I do prefer Asimov here, but Heinlein definitely had an impact on the genre.
Finally, I see that you didn't mention Starship Troopers. That is, by far, my favorite Heinlein book. I'd check it out.
These guys are doing the best with what they have. I would rather see a company work at delivering a completely free (libre) device, even if they can't go 100%, than see them give up and disappear.
In portable electronics, the best and neatest components are often proprietary, and in some cases the proprietary components have no worthwhile competition! This is not ideal, but it is reality. Does this mean we should entirely give up on companies and products that are as open as possible, yet still use these components? I don't think so. I think that making a few concessions, being successful, and showing the rest of the industry that customers embrace and love openness would be a spectacular plan. Some of the component vendors (*cough* TI) would do well to see the writing on the wall, but they won't see shit if non-realistic ideals prevent any project like the OpenMoko from getting off the ground.
Quasi-disclaimer: I'm a volunteer hacker/beta tester involved with Neuros, a company doing for media centers and other devices what FIC has done with phones. They're in the same predicament.
On the other hand, if you want to argue semantics, I would agree that it is incorrect for FIC to claim that the OpenMoko is 'completely open'. But to say that their *company* is completely open is fine. I.e. as long as they don't keep any secrets from their customers, I think they're doing pretty good.
Bad idea!
Getting your degree gets you so much more than a line on a resume and a better income bracket. Note, however, that it does get you a nice line on your resume, and a better income bracket. ;)
Honestly though, those 2 extra years will save you 10-15 in the work experience people will want to see if you don't have a degree. That's a decade of opportunities passing you by. And for what? Skipping the chance to have the 2 best years of your life so you can "get on with it"?
-chreekat
What the fuck?
Maybe I don't know about the "Cartesian method of doubt", but it doesn't have anything to do with physics. Are you saying that if I measure something with a ruler, I should throw in a couple extra percentage points to the error calculation because I'm not sure if the universe exists? Jesus. Even if I *should*, what percentage should I throw in?
1. Whether or not you do something legal is not the issue. Whether a large pile of cash and trained professionals can keep you in litigation for years as you prove your actions were legal is.
2. Man, I wish I woulda been there when the first copyright lawyer discovered that downloads imply copying. I bet *he felt like he'd died, gone to heaven, then died again and gone to heaven's heaven.
-chreekat
* he, she, blah blah blah
-chreekat
There won't be a single black hat that reports on any exploits they find. By definition, any hacker that reports an exploit is a white hat. Saying that they are opening Vista to 'black hats' is just a silly PR statement.
If by 'skins' you mean give input into the hardware design or hack the firmware (like you can hack Linux), then yeah, it just amounts to skinning.
"Build your product and say that MySQL is a prerequisite and required that the end-user must download and install it."
Well yeah, if you target OSS junkies, you aren't gonna make a dime selling OSS. Here's a concept: sell it to *everyone else*. A lot of people stand to benefit from OSS, even if they pay for it. Witness Apple's OS X.
As if corporate execs aren't paid more than THEIR market worth. Can we outsource that, too?
I felt the same way you did at the end of high school. I'll tell you why: high school sucks. It is the worst possible way for everyone, and especially brainiacs, to get prepared for life. At the end of high school, I figured I could do anything, and that my intelligence gave me special privileges. Sure, my GPA wasn't awesome, but that's because I knew better to dirty my hands in this system for inferiors.
.02 * (population of world) is a big fucking number.
College came around and crushed, humbled, and rebuilt me. Now, rather than SAYING I can do anything I want to, I actually CAN do many of the things I want to, and I also know what those things ARE. I found out that lots of people who didn't seem 'smart' in high school are actually really brilliant, and that my smarts don't mean anything unless I apply them. I learned the world will not give me a cookie every time I tell myself, "but I'm smarter than these people!" I learned that I can't wing any and all tests that come my way (I just got smashed in a Numerical Analysis final.. sheesh). Haha, that reminds me.. if you go to college, do your homework! Man!
The Army bases its ad campaign on that sort of transformation. I'm sure there is truth to it. The bottom line is that you have to _get out and see what life is really like_. Throw everything from high school away. Realize that you are NOT one of the elite 2%, or if you are, that
-b
Ok, everybody seems to knocking LilyPond so far, so I thought I'd put out my initial opinion. I've been learning LaTeX recently, and in spite of the waves of horror you feel the first time you look at it, it is actually extremely good at what it does. Revelation, I know, but the point is it ISN'T made for high schoolers writing their history reports. Same thing with LilyPond here. It doesn't look easy, but then, typesetting music isn't easy. LilyPond and LaTeX are an order of magnitude less complex, even if the coefficient is higher than, say, MS Word or Finale. I know I would die if I had to write a book in Word. :) I thought, "If someone did it for typesetting, can't it be done for music?"
Also note that this is not intended to be a replacement for Finale, but rather an entirely different way of getting the job done. They've taken to engraving what TeX took to typesetting.
The coolest thing about this project to me is that I was wondering earlier if anything existed.
Didn't Japan say it was going to use Tron in all its school computers some time ago? And didn't Microsoft bring down the Hand of God (and the heavy hand of American supremacy) and make sure that didn't happen?
I don't see this actually happening. Strings will be pulled, trade penalties will be threatened, and Microsoft will stay at that 95% mark.