"Why aren't we out exploring?" Did I really read this? I'll tell you why. Did you build a spaceship capable of interstellar travel this morning and not tell anybody? No? Okay, well did you at least write a check to NASA for the $50 billion that they estimated the Mars direct mission would cost? No? Well, then there's a couple of reasons.
Let me guess... account manager? or marketing maybe? I know it's some job where you wear a tie to work and make a lot of loud phone calls...
Did anyone see the great BBC documentary on exploring/colonizing Mars that was shown over the weekend? Not only was it great to see some nerd candy on TV, but they raised a couple of good points that I think may be relevant to the current discussion.
The BBC program said that when we finally do colonize mars, we'll probably bring a couple of species with us - mainly some *very* strong strains of plants (wheat i think) that can thrive in the martian soil (when enclosed in a greenhouse of course). And bees - yep, bees, because they're tough, easy to keep, make honey, and can pollinate plants. (I thought it was interesting that they had already scoured the earth for some organisms that they thought could do well there.)
And also, the documentary said that the answer to the question of whether there is life on Mars may not be known for a long long time because on this planet, life hides in corners of the Earth that you'd never expect, like the antarctic, or inside a bubbling geyser. You'd basically have to dissect all of Mars to be sure it's lifeless.
So after watching the documentary and then reading this article, I think it's clear that despite this planet's radically different atmosphere, not only *could* life exist there, but that some species from our world and their world may be more transplantable than you'd think.
In the old days you worried about viruses. Now, the companies themselves try to take control of your desktop in order to shove ads down your throat. It's a shame you can't trust software developers anymore but at least there's programs like Ad Aware, ZoneAlarm, Popup Stopper, etc that help you fight back. (And negative ratings on download.com help punish spyware-pushing companies too.)
Wireless is mainstream now and they're coming out with the next generation, and Red Hat/Mandrake/etc *still* hasn't caught up. Why can't red hat detect my 18 month old Wavelan card and give me the options to configure it properly on install? Instead, it's a weeklong nightmare of scouring the internet looking for responses to messages like "help! Here are my error messages, how do i get this to work?". Laptop + wireless + linux would be the perfect mobile terminal if they could just get their act together. This new release shows just how far behind they are.
When I was at UUNET Worlcom, a lot of the technically savvy gurus were leaving and getting replaced by generic political project manager types. If you work for one of those, no matter what they promise you, you'll never see a promotion or more than a 5% raise. If you're lucky enough to get a tech guru turned manager, then you'll be in good shape and will enjoy yourself. Unfortunately they're few and far between.
For the record, I worked at UUNET, got no raise or promotion for two years, left to join a startup, it failed so i went back to UUNET (getting a nice raise), then learned enough to go contractor, and never looked back.
Appliances are always so far behind the times. When appliances first came out, at a time when home LANs were taking off, they all connected to the internet through dial-up. Ugh. So now that 802.11b's the thing everyone's into, we're seeing the next wave of appliances, and they support... ethernet. Good job, guys!
- "What am I doing here? I don't even speak Chinese"
I did use one, buddy. The 5300cs. Crashed 10 times a day. Swapped the motherboard (it was recalled). Still crashed 10 times a day. Upgraded my OS. Still crashed ten times a day. No, i wasn't running weird extensions or anything, it would crash constantly on a stock install + netscape or IE.
I spent $2600 on that piece of crap and replaced it within a year... not with an Apple, of course. Too bad because I love working under MacOS, but Apple lost a customer for life with that machine.
Picture yourself now as the kindly grandfather to all your developers. They're full of energy, but young and inexperienced. But they have a lot of good ideas too, and ultimately it's up to them to get the job done. (i.e. they have delivery responsibility.)
Spend a lot of time talking to your developers. Ask them questions like: "How do you think this should be structured?" or "Are there any new technologies you might want to use?" or "What do you think the most difficult part of this project will be?" or "Is there any piece here we could make reusable?" Keep the discussions going on all through the project. "What parts are you having trouble with?" "Did it work as well as you expected?" "What would you do differently if you had to do the project again?"
BTW You may know all the answers already, but a) that doesn't mean jack because you're not the one doing the project, and b) i guarantee you that the two of you will come up with better answers than either person could alone.
Also one of the secrets to good grandfathers is that they don't have anything to prove to anyone anymore - they've had their day in the sun. So if you still think you're still alpha male, don't be an architect, you'll just be a prick nobody wants to work with. Keep developing and prove that your kung fu's the best. But if you're ready to develop the next generation of developers, then great, go for it.
(FWIW I'm half manager, half architect, a good combo i think.)
"The layer of carbon-based molecules is less than one ten-millionth of an inch thick, far thinner than the equivalent structure in current silicon transistors."
What's this "far thinner" and "less than one ten-millionth" nonsense? Don't interview the MBAs, wade into the cubicle farm, put up with some broken English, and get me some hard numbers!
Here's my math: One ten millionth of an inch is 0.00254 microns. (2.54 millimicrons?:-) ) Is this number comparable to current 0.18 and 0.13 manufacturing processes? Does this mean the practical limit is about 3 or 4 billion transistors? (100x the athlon.)
Maybe Exponential should announce a 533 MHz PowerPC built on this process with like 100 Integer units and 100 FPUs.:-)
GPS's don't like urban environments
on
GPS Meets PCS
·
· Score: 1
Cool idea, but anybody who's used a GPS knows they have serious limitations. They don't work indoors or next to buildings. So unless you're standing in a field somewhere, your phone's going to send the cops a bunch of question marks.
My GPS, a Garmin Etrack, worked great on my road trip from DC to Florida. But now I live in Singapore and it sits on a shelf. If I'm lost it's a lot easier to ask for directions than to go find a football field and stand in the middle of it waiting for it to find the satellites.
Slashdot Mirror
"Why aren't we out exploring?" Did I really read this? I'll tell you why. Did you build a spaceship capable of interstellar travel this morning and not tell anybody? No? Okay, well did you at least write a check to NASA for the $50 billion that they estimated the Mars direct mission would cost? No? Well, then there's a couple of reasons.
Let me guess... account manager? or marketing maybe? I know it's some job where you wear a tie to work and make a lot of loud phone calls...
Did anyone see the great BBC documentary on exploring/colonizing Mars that was shown over the weekend? Not only was it great to see some nerd candy on TV, but they raised a couple of good points that I think may be relevant to the current discussion.
The BBC program said that when we finally do colonize mars, we'll probably bring a couple of species with us - mainly some *very* strong strains of plants (wheat i think) that can thrive in the martian soil (when enclosed in a greenhouse of course). And bees - yep, bees, because they're tough, easy to keep, make honey, and can pollinate plants. (I thought it was interesting that they had already scoured the earth for some organisms that they thought could do well there.)
And also, the documentary said that the answer to the question of whether there is life on Mars may not be known for a long long time because on this planet, life hides in corners of the Earth that you'd never expect, like the antarctic, or inside a bubbling geyser. You'd basically have to dissect all of Mars to be sure it's lifeless.
So after watching the documentary and then reading this article, I think it's clear that despite this planet's radically different atmosphere, not only *could* life exist there, but that some species from our world and their world may be more transplantable than you'd think.
How far away can you hear it?
.ogg files would sound so much better out of that AM radio. :-P
In the old days you worried about viruses. Now, the companies themselves try to take control of your desktop in order to shove ads down your throat. It's a shame you can't trust software developers anymore but at least there's programs like Ad Aware, ZoneAlarm, Popup Stopper, etc that help you fight back. (And negative ratings on download.com help punish spyware-pushing companies too.)
Wireless is mainstream now and they're coming out with the next generation, and Red Hat/Mandrake/etc *still* hasn't caught up. Why can't red hat detect my 18 month old Wavelan card and give me the options to configure it properly on install? Instead, it's a weeklong nightmare of scouring the internet looking for responses to messages like "help! Here are my error messages, how do i get this to work?". Laptop + wireless + linux would be the perfect mobile terminal if they could just get their act together. This new release shows just how far behind they are.
When I was at UUNET Worlcom, a lot of the technically savvy gurus were leaving and getting replaced by generic political project manager types. If you work for one of those, no matter what they promise you, you'll never see a promotion or more than a 5% raise. If you're lucky enough to get a tech guru turned manager, then you'll be in good shape and will enjoy yourself. Unfortunately they're few and far between.
For the record, I worked at UUNET, got no raise or promotion for two years, left to join a startup, it failed so i went back to UUNET (getting a nice raise), then learned enough to go contractor, and never looked back.
Appliances are always so far behind the times. When appliances first came out, at a time when home LANs were taking off, they all connected to the internet through dial-up. Ugh. So now that 802.11b's the thing everyone's into, we're seeing the next wave of appliances, and they support... ethernet. Good job, guys!
- "What am I doing here? I don't even speak Chinese"
I did use one, buddy. The 5300cs. Crashed 10 times a day. Swapped the motherboard (it was recalled). Still crashed 10 times a day. Upgraded my OS. Still crashed ten times a day. No, i wasn't running weird extensions or anything, it would crash constantly on a stock install + netscape or IE.
I spent $2600 on that piece of crap and replaced it within a year... not with an Apple, of course. Too bad because I love working under MacOS, but Apple lost a customer for life with that machine.
Picture yourself now as the kindly grandfather to all your developers. They're full of energy, but young and inexperienced. But they have a lot of good ideas too, and ultimately it's up to them to get the job done. (i.e. they have delivery responsibility.)
Spend a lot of time talking to your developers. Ask them questions like: "How do you think this should be structured?" or "Are there any new technologies you might want to use?" or "What do you think the most difficult part of this project will be?" or "Is there any piece here we could make reusable?" Keep the discussions going on all through the project. "What parts are you having trouble with?" "Did it work as well as you expected?" "What would you do differently if you had to do the project again?"
BTW You may know all the answers already, but a) that doesn't mean jack because you're not the one doing the project, and b) i guarantee you that the two of you will come up with better answers than either person could alone.
Also one of the secrets to good grandfathers is that they don't have anything to prove to anyone anymore - they've had their day in the sun. So if you still think you're still alpha male, don't be an architect, you'll just be a prick nobody wants to work with. Keep developing and prove that your kung fu's the best. But if you're ready to develop the next generation of developers, then great, go for it.
(FWIW I'm half manager, half architect, a good combo i think.)
"The layer of carbon-based molecules is less than one ten-millionth of an inch thick, far thinner than the equivalent structure in current silicon transistors."
:-) ) Is this number comparable to current 0.18 and 0.13 manufacturing processes? Does this mean the practical limit is about 3 or 4 billion transistors? (100x the athlon.)
:-)
What's this "far thinner" and "less than one ten-millionth" nonsense? Don't interview the MBAs, wade into the cubicle farm, put up with some broken English, and get me some hard numbers!
Here's my math: One ten millionth of an inch is 0.00254 microns. (2.54 millimicrons?
Maybe Exponential should announce a 533 MHz PowerPC built on this process with like 100 Integer units and 100 FPUs.
Cool idea, but anybody who's used a GPS knows they have serious limitations. They don't work indoors or next to buildings. So unless you're standing in a field somewhere, your phone's going to send the cops a bunch of question marks. My GPS, a Garmin Etrack, worked great on my road trip from DC to Florida. But now I live in Singapore and it sits on a shelf. If I'm lost it's a lot easier to ask for directions than to go find a football field and stand in the middle of it waiting for it to find the satellites.