It constantly amazes me that so many "technical" and "scientific" people on slashdot will just blindly accept environmental
reports without looking for the supporting facts.
Who needs nukes when you're at the top of a gravity well? All you have to do is drop rocks from really, really, really high up on the dirtsiders. Very cheap, very effective.
You could do nuclear testing on the moon, and it wouldn't make any difference except to the small, localized area where you do the testing, which would be radioactive rock instead of non-radioactive rock.
And then, decades later, you find out that the site you contaminated had great scientific importance, or was a potential source of sub-surface water, or whatever.
One simple guideline for sane behavior is this: don't make irreversable changes in something that you don't thoroughly understand.
Maybe I'm overly paranoid, but putting 1000W of power through a 1/4 inch phono plug for sustained periods of time would make me nervous.
Actually, for real power there are other types of connectors used, like the Speakon.
For my little 100W PA, though, or any small room set-up, I think the 1/4 inch phono plug is fine. (Except that it's the same connector used for unbalanced instrument cables, which would not be the case in a perfect world.)
'Course, I wouldn't put 1000W through zip cord (aka lamp cord) either.
110 volt 60 Hz really doesn't do much to you, in general.
All depends on how it hits you and how conductive you are. Taking 110 VAC cross-body (grab the conductor with one hand and a good ground with the other, so the current crosses your heart) while you're nice and sweaty could kill you, and a 110VAC applicance droppped into a bathtub is going to be very very messy; but I've been hit by it several times, with only one hand making contact (safety rule - when poking at a circuit, keep one hand behind your back), and other then hurting like a sonofabitch, I suffered no damage.
AC power cords could handle reasonable amounts of power at relatively low frequencies and were cheap and readily available.
Sure, zip cord makes fine speaker cable. But put a standard phono plug on the end, not a wall plug.
(Of course, then you've got the problem of telling speaker cables from instrument cables - both have 1/4 inch phono plugs (more formally, "tip-sleeve" plugs, I think), but instrument cable is coxial, speaker cable is two parallel conductors.
Coumputers - PCs - were common office equipment long before MS blighted the landscape in '95. And they were fairly common in homes, much more so than ham radio equipment.
These programs are working towards a goal that the expirimenter asks for.
No. If that was the case, he'd have gotten the oscillators he wanted. The programs are "working" towards succeeding under selection pressures - just like replicating biological organisms.
telephones and televisions aren't used by teachers to teach their students,
And, excepting classes involving programming or clerical skills, neither are computers. Education software, doesn't.
You might get taught the basics of machining with a standard Bridgeport mill, hand cranks and all, but ideally you would also be exposed to CNC mills, since CNC is a rapidly developing technology in the machining industry, much like computers are in many/most other industries.
I'm talking about core cirriculum, not voational education; and about PCs in the classroom, not embedded tech in the shop. Completely different issue.
Plus, the use of computers and the internet enables teachers and students to more easily and frequently communicate with each other.
Yeah, e-mail is great. And this needs computers in the classroom how exactly? "Gee, I'm stuck on this homework problem,. Think I'll bust into school and use hte computer there to send e-mail to my math teacher."
Instead of hand-scrawled notes on a transparency or blackboard, how about crisp, clean, easy to read lecture notes in a PowerPoint presentation?
I can think of nothing more detrimental to education than PowerPoint coming into the classroom. I have never yet seem a PowerPoint presentation that was worth the time it took to watch it, or that couldn't have been been better presented as a plain old piece of prose.
Look, computers are great. I've been fascinated by them since I used to decode punched cards at my daddy's knee for fun, and I've got a pretty good career going making them do stuff. But that doesn't mean that we should shoehorn them into every field of human endeavor.
The key to education is now the same as it was a hundred or a thousand years ago: a teacher who knows the material and who can connect with his or her students. Given limited resources, that's what we should be concentrating on - people, not gadgets.
Computers are a tool used by modern human society, and as such our society has decided to teach our children how to use them.
Fine, so long as we don't confuse "teaching our children to use them" with "using them to teach our children". There's entirely too much hype about the latter. As I said, a few computers for "Intro to Word Processing" and for programming classes is a very reasonable thing; but computers on every desk and "edutainment" software is a waste of time and money.
Claiming "computers in the classroom is an educational fad" is like claiming that telephones, televisions and automobiles are all passing fads.
Did you have classes in telephone or television use when you were in school? And most schools that offer driver's ed, at least around here, have it as an after school activity, not part of the core cirriculum.
Of course computers are here to stay. But as an educational tool - outside of the very limited roles of programming and "Intro to Word Processing" classes - they are the latest fad, destined to end up in the closet with filmstrip projectors, educational records and cassette tapes, and other dead media. Most of the money
put forward to buy computers and wire schools would be better spent on teacher salaries, textbooks, and fixing up dilapidated old buildings.
From what I've seen, most teachers actively resist teaching computers to students.
Good. They should.
Math teachers should be teaching math, not computer skills. English teachers should be teaching English, not computer skills. Physical Education teachers should be teaching physical eduaction (which, in an ideal world, would be much more than the sport of the week...but I digress), not computers.
"Computers in the classroom" is an educational fad that, in twenty years, we'll look back on the same way my generation looks back on filmstrips. (Beep.) It's silicon snake oil for the woes of our schools.
Keep the computers in programming classes, typing classes, maybe science labs for automatic data collection (but only for high school and college, let the young kids get their hands dirty with science). Otherwise, keep them out of the teacher's way.
you are free to either a) ask for more money so that you are content with your job or b) quit and go find another place of employment that does a better job of providing for your interests.
In theory, yes; in practice, rarely. When wealth and power are concentrated under the control of a few, the rest of us end up with little choice.
Or i suppose if your just anti-capitalist in general you could do c) go buy a cabin in the mountains somewhere and live as a hermit for the rest of your life.
Why in the world do you associate opposition to a fundamentaly broken system with a desire to be a hermit?
Wrong.... AA does not require you to practice any form of religion!
I'm sorry, but that is simply a lie. Five of the 12 Steps mention God (even if they say "as we understand him"), and the second of the "12 Traditions" of AA says "there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself..."
And being forced into worshipping your group or sponsor or organization as a "higher power" is no more acceptable than being forced into worshipping a diety.
I am a spiritual anarchist - I do not believe in any "higher power" any more than I beleive in a "higher authority", for both presuppose hierarchy.
If 12 Step programs work for you, great. (Though it's more likely to be due to social support than to the steps themselves.) But forcing anyone into "recovery" is a bad idea, and forcing a faith-based system on people - especially in the absense of evidence that it's better than the alternatives - is unconscionable.
The judge orders you to rehab. Wouldn't you be a little irked if a court inadvertently ordered you
practice a religion you want no part of?
Whaddya mean, "inadvertently"? Courts do it quite deliberately all the time, by forcing people to attend Alcholics Anonymous and other "12 step" religion-based rehab programs.
...because of the dot com bust, he mentioned that the jeans and the boots have to be left at home and I need to wear dress pants and shoes.
"Our stock price is in the basement! What do we do?" "Let's all change our clothes! That'll fix everything."
Any company whose management utters such a non-sequitor is in serious trouble. That makes as much sense as saying "because of the dot com bust, all employess must now shave their pubic hair weekly," or "because of the dot com bust, all employess must now whistle "Yankee Doodle" while walking backwards through the door when entering the office." It simply doesn't follow.
If the corporate reasoning is that flawed, I'd suggest you start looking for a new position before natural selection takes its toll on this company...
This means more of my hard earned money has to be spent on bullshit such as suits and the dry cleaning bill that accompany
them.
So tell 'em that if they want you to be a fashion model in addition to your other duties, you want a raise and an expenses allowance.
Well in the corp I work for, a dress code is mandatory.
Never understood companies that do stupid stuff like that...do they want software developers, or fashion models? I mean, I could do either sort of work, but I want to know what pay scale to negotiate on...
"Real technology guys" don't give a shit if other people are wearing t-shirts, three-piece suits, or are naked. Show me results, and so long as it's clean and doesn't smell bad I don't care what you're wearing.
Ah, would that it were so. But fact is, it's pretty easy to get people to believe that they need something that they have absolutely no use for whatsoever. It's been the basis of the American economy for decades.
Are you suggesting that you have a separate calendar app, contact database app, etc? What is benefit?
Benefit is choosing best calendar app, best contact database app, best e-mail app, etcetera. Even better - me choosing best e-mail app for me, you choosing best e-mail app for you, etcetera.
My Swiss army knife is an "integrated" solution. My toolbox isn't. Guess which one I'd grab for a serious piece of work?
Why is there no free software equivalent of Exchange? Because it's a useless piece of bloatware, that puts together functions that should be kept separate.
It's not being duplicated, because it's a bad piece of software.
Time and time again it has been proven that the housing and framework around these nuclear containers can easly take the
force of an explosion as well as the fall back to earth.
No. It hasn't been proven at all - there is entirely too little experimental and experiental data for any strong claims about the safety of RTG containment to be made.
Enough of these incidents being publicized will of necessity force authorities to moderate their behavior.
That's where Brin's idea breaks down. It doesn't force any such moderation of behavior. If it did, we wouldn't have hand any of the other incidents you mention, post-Rodney King.
So long as the majority is all-too-willing to see the rights of the minority trampled, a "transparent society" is no protection to the minority.
Free software's dependence upon Microsoft's fonts?
Sorry to be dense, but what dependance is that? My laptop is running a pretty stock RH 7.2 with no MS fonts and seems to work fine. So where's the dependence?
I seem to be missing the point of the furor. Of course, I also think anti-aliasing is a dumb idea, so I seem to be in the minority here when it comes to font issues...
I'd definitely recommend martial arts training, though you'll have to do your research to find a good school. (E-mail me if you want some specific pointes on what to look for.) Not only will a good style improve your strength, stamina, and flexibility, it will also develop your mind and spirit.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, the idea of a cabal of "politically correct" leftists is an invention of the the right...
There are idiots on both the left and the rigt who hold the idea that free speech is great - as long as you aren't saying anything that offends them.
And while you're at it, pick up a few issues of the Weekly World News and find out what the aliens are up to.
Just because it has the word "Skeptical" in the title doesn't mean that it contains sound reasoning. This book is written by someone with no credentials in the field, using questionable references.
Right. So don't blindly accept this book either.
Who needs nukes when you're at the top of a gravity well? All you have to do is drop rocks from really, really, really high up on the dirtsiders. Very cheap, very effective.
And then, decades later, you find out that the site you contaminated had great scientific importance, or was a potential source of sub-surface water, or whatever.
One simple guideline for sane behavior is this: don't make irreversable changes in something that you don't thoroughly understand.
Actually, for real power there are other types of connectors used, like the Speakon. For my little 100W PA, though, or any small room set-up, I think the 1/4 inch phono plug is fine. (Except that it's the same connector used for unbalanced instrument cables, which would not be the case in a perfect world.)
'Course, I wouldn't put 1000W through zip cord (aka lamp cord) either.
All depends on how it hits you and how conductive you are. Taking 110 VAC cross-body (grab the conductor with one hand and a good ground with the other, so the current crosses your heart) while you're nice and sweaty could kill you, and a 110VAC applicance droppped into a bathtub is going to be very very messy; but I've been hit by it several times, with only one hand making contact (safety rule - when poking at a circuit, keep one hand behind your back), and other then hurting like a sonofabitch, I suffered no damage.
Sure, zip cord makes fine speaker cable. But put a standard phono plug on the end, not a wall plug.
(Of course, then you've got the problem of telling speaker cables from instrument cables - both have 1/4 inch phono plugs (more formally, "tip-sleeve" plugs, I think), but instrument cable is coxial, speaker cable is two parallel conductors.
Any woman attracted by displays of conspicuous consumption is, ipso facto, not someone worth attracting.
No. If that was the case, he'd have gotten the oscillators he wanted. The programs are "working" towards succeeding under selection pressures - just like replicating biological organisms.
And, excepting classes involving programming or clerical skills, neither are computers. Education software, doesn't.
I'm talking about core cirriculum, not voational education; and about PCs in the classroom, not embedded tech in the shop. Completely different issue.
Yeah, e-mail is great. And this needs computers in the classroom how exactly? "Gee, I'm stuck on this homework problem,. Think I'll bust into school and use hte computer there to send e-mail to my math teacher."
I can think of nothing more detrimental to education than PowerPoint coming into the classroom. I have never yet seem a PowerPoint presentation that was worth the time it took to watch it, or that couldn't have been been better presented as a plain old piece of prose.
Look, computers are great. I've been fascinated by them since I used to decode punched cards at my daddy's knee for fun, and I've got a pretty good career going making them do stuff. But that doesn't mean that we should shoehorn them into every field of human endeavor.
The key to education is now the same as it was a hundred or a thousand years ago: a teacher who knows the material and who can connect with his or her students. Given limited resources, that's what we should be concentrating on - people, not gadgets.
Fine, so long as we don't confuse "teaching our children to use them" with "using them to teach our children". There's entirely too much hype about the latter. As I said, a few computers for "Intro to Word Processing" and for programming classes is a very reasonable thing; but computers on every desk and "edutainment" software is a waste of time and money.
Did you have classes in telephone or television use when you were in school? And most schools that offer driver's ed, at least around here, have it as an after school activity, not part of the core cirriculum.
Of course computers are here to stay. But as an educational tool - outside of the very limited roles of programming and "Intro to Word Processing" classes - they are the latest fad, destined to end up in the closet with filmstrip projectors, educational records and cassette tapes, and other dead media. Most of the money put forward to buy computers and wire schools would be better spent on teacher salaries, textbooks, and fixing up dilapidated old buildings.
Good. They should.
Math teachers should be teaching math, not computer skills. English teachers should be teaching English, not computer skills. Physical Education teachers should be teaching physical eduaction (which, in an ideal world, would be much more than the sport of the week...but I digress), not computers.
"Computers in the classroom" is an educational fad that, in twenty years, we'll look back on the same way my generation looks back on filmstrips. (Beep.) It's silicon snake oil for the woes of our schools.
Keep the computers in programming classes, typing classes, maybe science labs for automatic data collection (but only for high school and college, let the young kids get their hands dirty with science). Otherwise, keep them out of the teacher's way.
In theory, yes; in practice, rarely. When wealth and power are concentrated under the control of a few, the rest of us end up with little choice.
Why in the world do you associate opposition to a fundamentaly broken system with a desire to be a hermit?
I'm sorry, but that is simply a lie. Five of the 12 Steps mention God (even if they say "as we understand him"), and the second of the "12 Traditions" of AA says "there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself..."
And being forced into worshipping your group or sponsor or organization as a "higher power" is no more acceptable than being forced into worshipping a diety.
I am a spiritual anarchist - I do not believe in any "higher power" any more than I beleive in a "higher authority", for both presuppose hierarchy.
If 12 Step programs work for you, great. (Though it's more likely to be due to social support than to the steps themselves.) But forcing anyone into "recovery" is a bad idea, and forcing a faith-based system on people - especially in the absense of evidence that it's better than the alternatives - is unconscionable.
"Our stock price is in the basement! What do we do?" "Let's all change our clothes! That'll fix everything."
Any company whose management utters such a non-sequitor is in serious trouble. That makes as much sense as saying "because of the dot com bust, all employess must now shave their pubic hair weekly," or "because of the dot com bust, all employess must now whistle "Yankee Doodle" while walking backwards through the door when entering the office." It simply doesn't follow.
If the corporate reasoning is that flawed, I'd suggest you start looking for a new position before natural selection takes its toll on this company...
So tell 'em that if they want you to be a fashion model in addition to your other duties, you want a raise and an expenses allowance.
Never understood companies that do stupid stuff like that...do they want software developers, or fashion models? I mean, I could do either sort of work, but I want to know what pay scale to negotiate on...
"Real technology guys" don't give a shit if other people are wearing t-shirts, three-piece suits, or are naked. Show me results, and so long as it's clean and doesn't smell bad I don't care what you're wearing.
Benefit is choosing best calendar app, best contact database app, best e-mail app, etcetera. Even better - me choosing best e-mail app for me, you choosing best e-mail app for you, etcetera.
My Swiss army knife is an "integrated" solution. My toolbox isn't. Guess which one I'd grab for a serious piece of work?
Why is there no free software equivalent of Exchange? Because it's a useless piece of bloatware, that puts together functions that should be kept separate.
It's not being duplicated, because it's a bad piece of software.
No. It hasn't been proven at all - there is entirely too little experimental and experiental data for any strong claims about the safety of RTG containment to be made.
That's where Brin's idea breaks down. It doesn't force any such moderation of behavior. If it did, we wouldn't have hand any of the other incidents you mention, post-Rodney King.
So long as the majority is all-too-willing to see the rights of the minority trampled, a "transparent society" is no protection to the minority.
Sorry to be dense, but what dependance is that? My laptop is running a pretty stock RH 7.2 with no MS fonts and seems to work fine. So where's the dependence?
I seem to be missing the point of the furor. Of course, I also think anti-aliasing is a dumb idea, so I seem to be in the minority here when it comes to font issues...
I'd definitely recommend martial arts training, though you'll have to do your research to find a good school. (E-mail me if you want some specific pointes on what to look for.) Not only will a good style improve your strength, stamina, and flexibility, it will also develop your mind and spirit.
Shameless self promotion: my dojo's web site.