I confess I haven't seen the movie. I hope the movie didn't say the first 3 clocks didn't work at sea.
The H1 worked quite well during its sea trial. Harrison could have won the Longitude prize based on the trial of the H1 if he hadn't been such a perfectionist, and declared he could do even better, thus putting off an immediate financial gain. By the time the H2 was ready, there was a change in leadership at the Royal Observatory, now hostile to Harrison's efforts.
(I'm writing this from memory, so I don't remember the details. I believe at least 3 of the clocks were tested at sea, some under conditions intended to make them look bad, such as not being wound consistently.)
No argument about the cost, although the prize money was well worth the effort for John Harrison personally. I still find it amazing that a mechanical clockwork can be so accurate.
Harrison's work was a triumph of craftsmanship, but no Captain could be expected to afford one, unless he came from a very wealthy family indeed. The British government wasn't going to pay for the cost of, an "atomic clock" if you will, in every ship either. In the end, it was producers of cheaper (and inferior) imitations that wound up in the pockets of Captains.
I said the AVERAGE digital watch, not lab-grade. Is the watch you are wearing now accurate within 8 seconds in 6 months? Mine certainly isn't. This was documented in a sea trial with one of Harrison's earlier clocks (H1 through H3, I don't recall which at the moment).
In spite of its appearance, the H4 is a bit too big to really be carried around as a watch.
Chronometer is a better term, since the Harrison clocks (the term used at the time) were specifically built for use at sea, include bi-metal parts to counter the effects of temperature changes, and were designed to run steadily even as the tension in the mainspring changed during the day, or while being wound.
Whether a true quote or not, I have always seen the point of the quote being that Capitalists do not generally help each other, or help the cause of freedom. The quote is a warning that we need to think beyond "it's just business" or "it's not my business what they do with it." How does it help the cause of freedom if Cisco, or any other business in a democracy, is willing to provide the means of repression?
Okay, I'll stick my neck out on another possible misquote.:-) As (I think) Benjamin Franklin said, "We must all hang together, or we will most assuredly hang separately."
It's interesting how many twists there are on the rope theme. That may be an indication it is indeed a fabricated quote that grew up around Lenin, just like the story about Washington and the cherry tree. Or, if the quote is real, it could be a matter of how different translators have interpreted the original Russian.
You can also find interesting quotes from Hitler that many of today's politicians would agree with, and quotes from our (USA) Founding Fathers they would condemn as radical propaganda.
Good Lord, man! Didn't you know? Cheezwhiz *is* a weapon of mass destruction!:-)
You are dead-on right about the importance of context. I do find it interesting that the defense made no attempt to cast the bottles, wicks, etc. in an innocent light. Perhaps this is because it was just a hearing, and not the trial. Or perhaps the defendant's attorney is not too quick on her feet.
Now perhaps if I could have been an observer during the FBI raid, I might have walked out of the house saying, "It's just a beer bottle collection, some home-made candles and candle-making supplies." Or, I might have walked out saying, "Thank God for the FBI!" The point being, we don't know the context.
The police are in the business of looking for criminal activity, are inclined to see the bad in everyday objects, and are professionally distrustful. It's an occupational hazard.
Finally, the police, once they latch upon a prime suspect, have been known to go to extremes to piece together innocent activities into a guilty whole, to the point of ignoring evidence that points to other, perhaps more likely suspects.
The police (or FBI) are not the only ones to exhibit this behavior of course. A scientist ignoring evidence that contradicts a pet theory comes to mind. The 1986 NASA Challenger explosion can be attributed, in part, to administrators not wanting to hear yet another reason to delay the mission.
My long-winded point being: If the police, FBI, ATF, whatever, have decided you are a Bad Person, perhaps because of things you have published, then they will be inclined to find a reason investigate you. From that point on, anything you do, or anything you own, could be interpreted in the worst possible light, because you may in fact be planing on something bad, and are simply clever at scattering things around to *appear* innocent.
So what about the raisethefist.com guy? Is he a home-grown terrorist wannabe, or a stupid kid who, given time, would have grown out of being anti-establishment like most ex-hippies did?
Wasn't it Joseph Stalin who said (paraphrasing here), "If you want to hang a capitalist, you can easily find another capitalist willing to sell you the rope."
This point was never addressed in the transcript by either the prosecution or the defense. Just that he had bottles, some wicks, and "petroleum products."
Well guess what, around my house I have empty bottles, wicks, and petroleum products too. Does this mean I too have an "unlicensed firearm?"
The empty bottles are sitting in the recycle bin. The wicks go with my antique Aladdin lamps, which burn "petroleum products", such as kerosene, lamp oil, or Exxon's "Clearlite". In other words, I'm simply prepared for power outages. Oh yes, I also have a gas can for the lawnmower.
Clearly, an FBI agent on a fishing expedition could make me out as being in possession of weapons of mass distruction. The same would probably hold true for almost anyone's house.
Right you are. Andy Warhol turned a can of tomato soup into art, after all.
The same could be said of almost any consumer device, from cars to toasters. A lot of design work (industrial art) goes into everyday things to make them more visually appealing. Cars don't appeal to people strictly for their functional uses.
Richard Hatch has been campaigning for a new Battlestar Galactica for years, making the rounds of several SF cons (like Dragoncon in Atlanta) to raise support and money, and to report his progress to fans.
Now someone else comes along and says, "Gee, we like this idea. Let's make our own version of BG and cut out Hatch and the other original actors."
You should know Richard Hatch has worked long and hard for a new series, including producing a really slick trailer for the show with modern CGI at his own expense. Now he is being repaid with the shaft.
So in other words, you're warning against drawing a possibly false correlation between increased fantasy violence, and decreased real street-crime violence. I agree that pointing to one factor (animated violence) is way too simplistic. But, it does demonstrate that there is no statistically significant correlation between fantasy violence and real violence/crimes.
The real point is: If actual crime and violence are going down, then why are the media and polititions ignoring reality? I believe it is a cynical attempt to increase circulation and garner votes. And what long-term damage to individual rights and liberties will result from these short-term gains by the media and polititions?
Quite so. Where else do we get the term "Yellow Journalism?" Newspapers in the early 20th century began to put on a show of impartiality only because it increased circulation.
I don't see flaming as anything new; it did, however, take some standing in one's community to get away with it. The Web has provided an easier forum for the masses to join in the fun. Some of the best flames I've ever seen have been historical quotes from Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, and others. Some of my favorites include:
"Dear Sir: Your manuscript is both good and original. However, the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good."
"If you were my husband, I'd put poison in your tea."
"If you were my wife, I'd drink it."
"You will either die by hanging, or from some loathsome disease."
"The former should I embrace your politics; the latter should I embrace your mistress."
I bought an Apex 600A about a week ago when Circuit City restocked, and yes, my unit has the hidden menu.
However, as I only have region 1 DVD's, I have no idea if the disabling feature truely works. Can anyone recommend any web sites selling DVD's from other regions? OTOH, is there any point in acquiring PAL format DVD's, when my US TV is NSxx (whatever the abbreviation is)?
Right. In the original book story, the human animals wore no clothes. After all, the only time you see an animal with clothes is when we choose to dress them up, like the chimp movie parodies, or when some lady puts a sweater on her dog.
Animals don't care about clothes, and neither did the humans on the Ape planet, which, by the way, really was a different planet than Earth. Also, there was no confusion about the astronaut being a local animal. He wore clothes and he could speak.
Forgive my ignorance, but I thought a subpoena had to be delivered, in person, by a properly authorized agency, such as a sheriff.
How, then, can Matel's lawyers expect to e-mail subpoenas, when there is no guarantee of delivery, and no certifiable way of being certain the right parties named have, in fact, received a summons?
IANAL, but it seems to me that any so-called subpoena delivered in an improper manner would be laughed out of court.
High availability? Sorry, even if one intel box is 90% reliable, 8 are 99.999999% reliable.
Sorry, but you are figuring your reliability the wrong way around. If you only need 1 or 2 boxes worth of horsepower, then, yes, 8 boxes provides high availability.
OTOH, if you are attempting to gang multiple Intel boxes together to replace mainframe capacity (ignoring I/O bandwidth in this example), then the more boxes you have, the greater the chance one of them will be down.
Let's give PC hardware a break, and assume 99% reliability instead of your figure of 90%. If you need 50 Intel boxes to replace a mainframe, at 99% reliability each, then overall reliability (all 50 machines working at the same time) is 0.9^50, or about a 60% chance. In other words, at any one time, there is a 40% chance 1 of your boxes is down. If you need at least 50 working boxes, then you better have >50 boxes linked together.
It gets worse with more boxes. Do you need 100 boxes working all the time? The odds of keeping 100 boxes running (each with an individual chance of 99%) is 0.9^100, or about 36.6%.
Meanwhile, that mainframe you were so keen to dump probably had an uptime availibility of at least 99.95%.
Don't forget, burning oil is only ONE use for petroleum. Think of all the other products that are made with petroleum, such as a wide variety of plastics, medicines, paving material, etc.
I imagine that sometime in the future, our desendents will be shocked to learn in history lessons that the first use put to such an incredibly valueble resource was to simple burn it as a fuel.
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I confess I haven't seen the movie. I hope the movie didn't say the first 3 clocks didn't work at sea.
The H1 worked quite well during its sea trial. Harrison could have won the Longitude prize based on the trial of the H1 if he hadn't been such a perfectionist, and declared he could do even better, thus putting off an immediate financial gain. By the time the H2 was ready, there was a change in leadership at the Royal Observatory, now hostile to Harrison's efforts.
(I'm writing this from memory, so I don't remember the details. I believe at least 3 of the clocks were tested at sea, some under conditions intended to make them look bad, such as not being wound consistently.)
No argument about the cost, although the prize money was well worth the effort for John Harrison personally. I still find it amazing that a mechanical clockwork can be so accurate.
Harrison's work was a triumph of craftsmanship, but no Captain could be expected to afford one, unless he came from a very wealthy family indeed. The British government wasn't going to pay for the cost of, an "atomic clock" if you will, in every ship either. In the end, it was producers of cheaper (and inferior) imitations that wound up in the pockets of Captains.
I said the AVERAGE digital watch, not lab-grade. Is the watch you are wearing now accurate within 8 seconds in 6 months? Mine certainly isn't. This was documented in a sea trial with one of Harrison's earlier clocks (H1 through H3, I don't recall which at the moment).
In spite of its appearance, the H4 is a bit too big to really be carried around as a watch.
Chronometer is a better term, since the Harrison clocks (the term used at the time) were specifically built for use at sea, include bi-metal parts to counter the effects of temperature changes, and were designed to run steadily even as the tension in the mainspring changed during the day, or while being wound.
The interesting thing about the Harrison clocks, is not only were they the GPS of their day, they were also the atomic clocks of their day.
The Harrison clocks, created in the 1700's, are still more accurate than your average digital watch today.
Franklin was, of course, the very model of an American entrepreneur who combined industry, innovation and high sense of public service.
And that's very thing that seems to be missing today; the "high sense of public service." Witness Enron. We could use more Franklins.
Whether a true quote or not, I have always seen the point of the quote being that Capitalists do not generally help each other, or help the cause of freedom. The quote is a warning that we need to think beyond "it's just business" or "it's not my business what they do with it." How does it help the cause of freedom if Cisco, or any other business in a democracy, is willing to provide the means of repression?
:-) As (I think) Benjamin Franklin said, "We must all hang together, or we will most assuredly hang separately."
Okay, I'll stick my neck out on another possible misquote.
Thanks for the correction and all the sources.
It's interesting how many twists there are on the rope theme. That may be an indication it is indeed a fabricated quote that grew up around Lenin, just like the story about Washington and the cherry tree. Or, if the quote is real, it could be a matter of how different translators have interpreted the original Russian.
You can also find interesting quotes from Hitler that many of today's politicians would agree with, and quotes from our (USA) Founding Fathers they would condemn as radical propaganda.
Good Lord, man! Didn't you know? Cheezwhiz *is* a weapon of mass destruction! :-)
You are dead-on right about the importance of context. I do find it interesting that the defense made no attempt to cast the bottles, wicks, etc. in an innocent light. Perhaps this is because it was just a hearing, and not the trial. Or perhaps the defendant's attorney is not too quick on her feet.
Now perhaps if I could have been an observer during the FBI raid, I might have walked out of the house saying, "It's just a beer bottle collection, some home-made candles and candle-making supplies." Or, I might have walked out saying, "Thank God for the FBI!" The point being, we don't know the context.
The police are in the business of looking for criminal activity, are inclined to see the bad in everyday objects, and are professionally distrustful. It's an occupational hazard.
Finally, the police, once they latch upon a prime suspect, have been known to go to extremes to piece together innocent activities into a guilty whole, to the point of ignoring evidence that points to other, perhaps more likely suspects.
The police (or FBI) are not the only ones to exhibit this behavior of course. A scientist ignoring evidence that contradicts a pet theory comes to mind. The 1986 NASA Challenger explosion can be attributed, in part, to administrators not wanting to hear yet another reason to delay the mission.
My long-winded point being: If the police, FBI, ATF, whatever, have decided you are a Bad Person, perhaps because of things you have published, then they will be inclined to find a reason investigate you. From that point on, anything you do, or anything you own, could be interpreted in the worst possible light, because you may in fact be planing on something bad, and are simply clever at scattering things around to *appear* innocent.
So what about the raisethefist.com guy? Is he a home-grown terrorist wannabe, or a stupid kid who, given time, would have grown out of being anti-establishment like most ex-hippies did?
Wasn't it Joseph Stalin who said (paraphrasing here), "If you want to hang a capitalist, you can easily find another capitalist willing to sell you the rope."
Thanks a lot, Cisco.
This point was never addressed in the transcript by either the prosecution or the defense. Just that he had bottles, some wicks, and "petroleum products."
Well guess what, around my house I have empty bottles, wicks, and petroleum products too. Does this mean I too have an "unlicensed firearm?"
The empty bottles are sitting in the recycle bin. The wicks go with my antique Aladdin lamps, which burn "petroleum products", such as kerosene, lamp oil, or Exxon's "Clearlite". In other words, I'm simply prepared for power outages. Oh yes, I also have a gas can for the lawnmower.
Clearly, an FBI agent on a fishing expedition could make me out as being in possession of weapons of mass distruction. The same would probably hold true for almost anyone's house.
Right you are. Andy Warhol turned a can of tomato soup into art, after all.
The same could be said of almost any consumer device, from cars to toasters. A lot of design work (industrial art) goes into everyday things to make them more visually appealing. Cars don't appeal to people strictly for their functional uses.
Yep, old words are pressed into new uses all the time. Just like your "dial" example:
Computer -- An occupation (like banker). One who performs calculations for a living.
Dashboard -- The curved piece of wood in front of a buggy that keeps the horse from "dashing" mud up onto you.
Hey dud, it's not Wanderungenmitpenguinenborkborkbierdrinkinundsowei ter, but das Wanderungenmitpenguinenborkborkbiergetrinkenundsow eiter.
:-)
I just know this is going to make a big difference in your life.
(Ducking the empty beer bottles thrown my way.)
BTW, the comment area seems to force an unwanted blank into the middle of the Wander~1 words.
Richard Hatch has been campaigning for a new Battlestar Galactica for years, making the rounds of several SF cons (like Dragoncon in Atlanta) to raise support and money, and to report his progress to fans.
Now someone else comes along and says, "Gee, we like this idea. Let's make our own version of BG and cut out Hatch and the other original actors."
You should know Richard Hatch has worked long and hard for a new series, including producing a really slick trailer for the show with modern CGI at his own expense. Now he is being repaid with the shaft.
So in other words, you're warning against drawing a possibly false correlation between increased fantasy violence, and decreased real street-crime violence. I agree that pointing to one factor (animated violence) is way too simplistic. But, it does demonstrate that there is no statistically significant correlation between fantasy violence and real violence/crimes.
The real point is: If actual crime and violence are going down, then why are the media and polititions ignoring reality? I believe it is a cynical attempt to increase circulation and garner votes. And what long-term damage to individual rights and liberties will result from these short-term gains by the media and polititions?
Quite so. Where else do we get the term "Yellow Journalism?" Newspapers in the early 20th century began to put on a show of impartiality only because it increased circulation.
I don't see flaming as anything new; it did, however, take some standing in one's community to get away with it. The Web has provided an easier forum for the masses to join in the fun. Some of the best flames I've ever seen have been historical quotes from Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, and others. Some of my favorites include:
"Dear Sir: Your manuscript is both good and original. However, the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good."
"If you were my husband, I'd put poison in your tea."
"If you were my wife, I'd drink it."
"You will either die by hanging, or from some loathsome disease."
"The former should I embrace your politics; the latter should I embrace your mistress."
Right you are.
I bought an Apex 600A about a week ago when Circuit City restocked, and yes, my unit has the hidden menu.
However, as I only have region 1 DVD's, I have no idea if the disabling feature truely works. Can anyone recommend any web sites selling DVD's from other regions? OTOH, is there any point in acquiring PAL format DVD's, when my US TV is NSxx (whatever the abbreviation is)?
Hey, I've got an idea for a patent. "A method of inducing cats to exercise by chasing them with a large Supersoaker water pistol."
And how about, "A method of exercising donkeys by dangling a carrot at the end of a stick."
Right. In the original book story, the human animals wore no clothes. After all, the only time you see an animal with clothes is when we choose to dress them up, like the chimp movie parodies, or when some lady puts a sweater on her dog.
Animals don't care about clothes, and neither did the humans on the Ape planet, which, by the way, really was a different planet than Earth. Also, there was no confusion about the astronaut being a local animal. He wore clothes and he could speak.
Forgive my ignorance, but I thought a subpoena had to be delivered, in person, by a properly authorized agency, such as a sheriff.
How, then, can Matel's lawyers expect to e-mail subpoenas, when there is no guarantee of delivery, and no certifiable way of being certain the right parties named have, in fact, received a summons?
IANAL, but it seems to me that any so-called subpoena delivered in an improper manner would be laughed out of court.
Duh! The calculations should be 0.99^50 and 0.99^100. The resulting odds in my post are correct, I just wrote the calculations wrong.
Sorry, but you are figuring your reliability the wrong way around. If you only need 1 or 2 boxes worth of horsepower, then, yes, 8 boxes provides high availability.
OTOH, if you are attempting to gang multiple Intel boxes together to replace mainframe capacity (ignoring I/O bandwidth in this example), then the more boxes you have, the greater the chance one of them will be down.
Let's give PC hardware a break, and assume 99% reliability instead of your figure of 90%. If you need 50 Intel boxes to replace a mainframe, at 99% reliability each, then overall reliability (all 50 machines working at the same time) is 0.9^50, or about a 60% chance. In other words, at any one time, there is a 40% chance 1 of your boxes is down. If you need at least 50 working boxes, then you better have >50 boxes linked together.
It gets worse with more boxes. Do you need 100 boxes working all the time? The odds of keeping 100 boxes running (each with an individual chance of 99%) is 0.9^100, or about 36.6%.
Meanwhile, that mainframe you were so keen to dump probably had an uptime availibility of at least 99.95%.
Don't forget, burning oil is only ONE use for petroleum. Think of all the other products that are made with petroleum, such as a wide variety of plastics, medicines, paving material, etc.
I imagine that sometime in the future, our desendents will be shocked to learn in history lessons that the first use put to such an incredibly valueble resource was to simple burn it as a fuel.