Greg Bear'sDarwin's Radio is an interesting sci-fi what-if exercise into the notion of sudden leaps of evolutionary change in humans. It's also a slow read, lots of technical discussion of all things genetic; but it's worth a look. Even won a few awards, according to his site.
As for six fingers sprouting up, I think that only happens in inbred royalty and certain religious sects, doesn't it?;)
Read the article, was surprised to find little news in it; the ultra-right wing survivalists have been sending the same message for years (along with quite a few other ones, ahem): our energy infrastructure is vulnerable. Sure, our latest tech toys depend on the juice, but so do the basics, like home heating and AC, and pre-wireless communications.
And that's just part of the picture; ask anyone who has had their water service interrupted for more than a day; no water means no hygiene and no hydration (once any handy supplies of drinkables are exhausted). No hygiene means an increase in the spread of disease, long term. Attack the basics, and it all adds up to a heck of a lot more than just our technology going down.
Mmmm, dunno; they positioned their Itanium based ones to run Linux, but I don't know if it's been back-ported to run on PA-8500 or PA-8600 chips. HP's own web pages no longer mention the V series, so perhaps the local reseller can tell you.
Considering that the article says they're replacing some older HP hardware with the new Linux setup, I'm curious to know what boxes they propose to run the Linux on... assuming they had the beefiest HP hardware from 3 years ago, those would be some big boxes; a V2500 or V2600 could hold up to 32 CPU and 32Gb of RAM, as I recall...
Oh yeah! I was a total Tempest freak back then... never made it to the black level, I wasn't that good.
(light blue level or white level, I think... about 500-600K points??)
Discussed buying a spinknob for my friend's MAME setup so that we could play it; it's just unplayable with a joystick or anything else but the knob. Have any Slashdotters tried this yet?
Yeah, that's what caught my eye too... the disturbingly accurate portrayal of late 70's American clothing.
I'm reminded of Denis Leary's take on that: "Here we were in the middle of the Sexual Revolution, wearing clothes that guaranteed we couldn't get laid..." And as for the 70's hairdos, I don't think today's women will go for the effort required to create/maintain them.
The Atari working pics are great, though...tasty geek history... illustrating the concept of what video game parlors could have been, had any women actually shown up.;)
Wouldn't worry about it; I'm not even sure if JarJar is really going to be a senator or not; one plot work-up that I've seen has him as Amidala's bodyguard. I'd post the link for that work-up, but it seems the site is gone now; it was out back in 2000, and partially based on what the stage crew saw (i.e. most things done in CGI will be a wild guess until this spring).
Between this and the Segway scooter...
on
Digital Lifestyle
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· Score: 0, Offtopic
I guess I'll have to pack some more fat padding onto my ass, as it appears that I'll be spending even more of my life sitting down, if this vision of the future comes true.
re: the other poster who mentioned the Disney-like tones of this futuristic vision, I last saw Disney's Epcot center in 1996, and boy was it dated then... I certainly hope they've reconsidered some of the stuff in their 'world of the future' displays.
... his plans for the sure-to-be-awesome Dieter movie...
And yes, I'm just kidding... it would have been as bad as the other bottom of the barrel SNL movies (anybody ever see that 'Pat' one? Not just a zero-star rating, negative stars were in order for that one.) Too bad that the Bond camp has to insist on bleeding the Bond turnip to the last drop... I loved the Bond films while growing up, but the whole concept is now, sadly, anachronistic. Hang it up, Bondies, and let Mikey have his fun.
No need to be so pessimistic... the course of human events is not so linear that we can look at a downward trend in the space program and say that it will eventually die off. Sure, it'll take a great sales job to convince the bottom 90% that'd rather watch WWF and the Springer show than read a book or at least contemplate what the heck is up there in the sky... but when the political and economic scene stabilize, and new money and (hopefully) new blood enter the space program, it'll be back on track in no time.
It's also important to keep in mind that many nations, not just the US, are pushing forward with their space exploration, and that more cooperative efforts among nations may be the bridge that gets us over the wall of affordability.
Hate to agree, since I own a bit of Palm stock in my portfolio;)... but this weekend, I cruised for a new cell phone and ran into one with Palm functionality built in. When I heard the price, I just said 'Next!' and moved on. Same for the standalone Palms... the stock was a better value than their product.
They've got some cool stuff, but the price points just aren't low enough for the current economy.
Haven't you seen any movies on Ancient Rome? All the Romans spoke with British accents back then;)
As for this game, I still don't get a feel for how much customization I can (or have to) do to create a game with it... if I could create a character with the voice/accent from 'Minsc' of BG2, I'd do it right off the bat ("Butts will be liberally kicked in good measure!"). The game makers have to produce for the audience that they're selling to, and if the big market is North America, well...
Re:Still don't need it...
on
Time for a Beer?
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· Score: 2, Funny
There are other sects which look Amish, but are not... e.g. lots of Mennonites here in Ohio, with the big beards and the simple clothing. They drive cars and use other more modern stuff.
On the other hand, I'm sure ol' Abe Yoder and his Amish kin could give the Mendocino weed merchants some tips on 'natural cultivation' techniques...
that they're looking to charge money for more things on their system. It happened for the online personals, some features of the fantasy sports (which I'd guess will be all pay-to-play by next year), and now I get a survey pop-up when I go to movies.yahoo.com, asking me whether I use their content as a basis for choosing what movies I'm going to watch. Shuh, as if!
But hey, if people choose to pay for it, Yahoo will choose to charge for it...
Heh, no, not CMRC, but we do deal with companies in that business space... thanks for the warning.
If CMRC is monitoring Slashdot posts, they'd be more advanced than most; I know that the Yahoo message boards are more commonly monitored because people tend to go crazy when they post there, and because there's no moderation.
America was founded partly on the notion of common civic spaces -- taverns, greens.
Free exchange of ideas, perhaps, but not necessarily the infrastructure to support them.
A lot of cyber-idealists thought the Net was becoming our new common space. That hasn't happened. Nasty teenagers, spammers and greedy corporatists have made common turf on the Net either too expensive, hostile or annoying for most people to spend much time on.
I disagree. People who would never have connected before are connecting to discuss and share the issues that were important to them before the Net became the commercial entity that it is. Granted there are a few potholes in the InfoSupHiway, but if the Net was as hostile as described, the multitude of IRC nets, portal-provided interest groups, LiveJournal groups, etc. would not be growing as they are now. All it takes is moderation (as in moderated newsgroups) and active administration by those who provide the service.
... this article says that Amazon finally has turned a profit. So I'm sure the 'well-cadenced' line workers have something to be proud of, while Mr. Bezos' stock takes a big boost in pre-market trading...
I worked a few awful temp jobs shortly after getting out of college (back when 'entry level' stuff didn't exist in IT), so I can sympathize with the narrator of the Silicon Valley story.
But at the same time, this story happens in thousands of businesses around the country, every day of the year. The pay is low, the work is tedious, and the management oppressive and degrading. Where I work now, the fulfillment center is the major part of our company... supply-chain services, as it is being touted nowadays. It's the 'new economy' that was made so much around the start of 2000... but it's still the same old labor-intensive machine. So, IMHO, there's really little news to see here, for those of us who have worked outside the cubicle.
Slashdot Mirror
As for six fingers sprouting up, I think that only happens in inbred royalty and certain religious sects, doesn't it? ;)
But as the article stated, Id makes roughly $1 million per employee... hell, at that clip, Carmack can buy back John Romero's car.
(oh I can feel the karma draining away on this one...)
And that's just part of the picture; ask anyone who has had their water service interrupted for more than a day; no water means no hygiene and no hydration (once any handy supplies of drinkables are exhausted). No hygiene means an increase in the spread of disease, long term. Attack the basics, and it all adds up to a heck of a lot more than just our technology going down.
Still, I'll bet it's fun to watch! The site needs some .mpgs to illustrate this doohickey in motion...
Mmmm, dunno; they positioned their Itanium based ones to run Linux, but I don't know if it's been back-ported to run on PA-8500 or PA-8600 chips. HP's own web pages no longer mention the V series, so perhaps the local reseller can tell you.
Considering that the article says they're replacing some older HP hardware with the new Linux setup, I'm curious to know what boxes they propose to run the Linux on... assuming they had the beefiest HP hardware from 3 years ago, those would be some big boxes; a V2500 or V2600 could hold up to 32 CPU and 32Gb of RAM, as I recall...
Discussed buying a spinknob for my friend's MAME setup so that we could play it; it's just unplayable with a joystick or anything else but the knob. Have any Slashdotters tried this yet?
I'm reminded of Denis Leary's take on that: "Here we were in the middle of the Sexual Revolution, wearing clothes that guaranteed we couldn't get laid..." And as for the 70's hairdos, I don't think today's women will go for the effort required to create/maintain them.
The Atari working pics are great, though...tasty geek history... illustrating the concept of what video game parlors could have been, had any women actually shown up. ;)
Episode 2 Spoilerage
Wouldn't worry about it; I'm not even sure if JarJar is really going to be a senator or not; one plot work-up that I've seen has him as Amidala's bodyguard. I'd post the link for that work-up, but it seems the site is gone now; it was out back in 2000, and partially based on what the stage crew saw (i.e. most things done in CGI will be a wild guess until this spring).
re: the other poster who mentioned the Disney-like tones of this futuristic vision, I last saw Disney's Epcot center in 1996, and boy was it dated then... I certainly hope they've reconsidered some of the stuff in their 'world of the future' displays.
And yes, I'm just kidding... it would have been as bad as the other bottom of the barrel SNL movies (anybody ever see that 'Pat' one? Not just a zero-star rating, negative stars were in order for that one.) Too bad that the Bond camp has to insist on bleeding the Bond turnip to the last drop... I loved the Bond films while growing up, but the whole concept is now, sadly, anachronistic. Hang it up, Bondies, and let Mikey have his fun.
It's also important to keep in mind that many nations, not just the US, are pushing forward with their space exploration, and that more cooperative efforts among nations may be the bridge that gets us over the wall of affordability.
They've got some cool stuff, but the price points just aren't low enough for the current economy.
As for this game, I still don't get a feel for how much customization I can (or have to) do to create a game with it... if I could create a character with the voice/accent from 'Minsc' of BG2, I'd do it right off the bat ("Butts will be liberally kicked in good measure!"). The game makers have to produce for the audience that they're selling to, and if the big market is North America, well...
Amen. I don't need to find beer... beer finds me.
On the other hand, I'm sure ol' Abe Yoder and his Amish kin could give the Mendocino weed merchants some tips on 'natural cultivation' techniques...
But hey, if people choose to pay for it, Yahoo will choose to charge for it...
In other words, with lungs like those, she's 'unnaturally aspirated' ;)
Heh, don't know about this Kimble guy, but I do know that when the cash has dried up, the women move on... ;)
If CMRC is monitoring Slashdot posts, they'd be more advanced than most; I know that the Yahoo message boards are more commonly monitored because people tend to go crazy when they post there, and because there's no moderation.
Free exchange of ideas, perhaps, but not necessarily the infrastructure to support them.
A lot of cyber-idealists thought the Net was becoming our new common space. That hasn't happened. Nasty teenagers, spammers and greedy corporatists have made common turf on the Net either too expensive, hostile or annoying for most people to spend much time on.
I disagree. People who would never have connected before are connecting to discuss and share the issues that were important to them before the Net became the commercial entity that it is. Granted there are a few potholes in the InfoSupHiway, but if the Net was as hostile as described, the multitude of IRC nets, portal-provided interest groups, LiveJournal groups, etc. would not be growing as they are now. All it takes is moderation (as in moderated newsgroups) and active administration by those who provide the service.
... this article says that Amazon finally has turned a profit. So I'm sure the 'well-cadenced' line workers have something to be proud of, while Mr. Bezos' stock takes a big boost in pre-market trading...
But at the same time, this story happens in thousands of businesses around the country, every day of the year. The pay is low, the work is tedious, and the management oppressive and degrading. Where I work now, the fulfillment center is the major part of our company... supply-chain services, as it is being touted nowadays. It's the 'new economy' that was made so much around the start of 2000... but it's still the same old labor-intensive machine. So, IMHO, there's really little news to see here, for those of us who have worked outside the cubicle.
And temp agencies? Don't even get me started...