Re:Not offtopic, but shows misperceptions
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The Web Is 16 Today
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I think the "History of the Internet" owes a heck of a lot to the companies that commercialized the Internet (e PSINet, UUNET, Netcom, Digex, etc.) They took a research network and expanded it into the pr0n-clogged metaverse we love today!
Pigouvian taxes like carbon taxes don't do good by giving politicians money, they do good by making it more expensive for people to emit carbon, thus reducing the least productive uses of carbon emitting fuels. Make no mistake, these carbon taxes will reduce economic growth, at least in the short term.
Of course, if these taxes lead to innovation to make non-carbon emitting forms of energy such as nuclear fission become less expensive, it may lead to enhanced economic growth in the long term, but that is highly speculative.
This kind of cost-benefit analysis done by economists is very important. However I am sure that the report will be looked at closely by development economists who will take a closer look at the effect of Pigouvian carbon taxes on reducing economic growth.
My own thoughts are that if poor countries enacted policies that increased their own economic freedom, it is possible that rapid economic growth could allow these poor countries to better handle global climate change challenges, and have less overall GDP loss because of carbon emissions. Think: being able to afford sea walls, setting up early warning systems to reduce losses due to floods, being able to afford canals and desalination plants to avoid water shortages.
Also I am now sure how ready the developing world is to effectively enforce and police Pigouvian carbon emission taxes. The whole war on drugs thing doesn't seem to be working very well, even in developed countries. China may have the government security (terror) apparatus to effectively enforce carbon emission laws, but India does not, and much of Africa does not either.
Let's not forget that Humans may have come close to extinction about 70,000 years ago perhaps reaching a low point of 2,000 people. So we should be happy we have all these people now!
Methanol absorbs water, so it is actually very difficult to transport compared with gasoline or oil. It generally cannot be sent over pipeline, for instance.
So hydrogen as a gas is actually easier to transport by pipeline than methanol as a fluid.
If someone would port Ekiga (http://www.ekiga.org/ formerly GnomeMeeting) to Windows, there might be some hope for SIP!
The key to Skype and SightSpeed (www.sightspeed.com) is that they are cross-platform and have solution to the NAT problem. But they are both non-standard. And they both work really well:)
Ekiga has a solution to the NAT problem using STUN servers, but until someone writes a Windows port for it, there will not be massive usage of Ekiga.
The IT profession is growing faster than other occupations in part because it fell harder during the recession that followed the dot-com bust. In mid-2004, IT unemployment stood at 5.3%, after the industry shed 160,000 jobs in just three years. The IT unemployment rate last month [June 2006] was 2.2%, the lowest it has been since the beginning of the decade, according to InformationWeek's analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics data...
From mid-2004 to June of this year [2006], the number of IT jobs grew 5.6%, far outpacing other professions. The number of employed accountants grew 3%, attorneys 0.4%, and registered nurses fell 1.4%. The number of managers across all professions rose 3.4%.
Radio SETI is really a waste of time. Optical SETI is the logical choice because;
1) Visible light-emitting devices are smaller and lighter than microwave or radio-emitting devices. 2) Visible light-emitting devices produce higher bandwidths and can consequently send information much faster. 3) Interference from natural sources of microwaves is more common than from visible sources. 4) Naturally occurring nanosecond pulses of light are mostly likely nonexistent, although there are all kinds of radio signals that could be similar to intentional SETI transmissions. Thus Optical SETI does not require grid computing to find signals. 5) Exact frequencies of light are not required, as nanosecond unfiltered light pulses would still outshine the planet's star by over 30 times.
Optical SETI detection out to 100 light-years is doable today, with a bit more work optical SETI out to 1,000 light-years is possible.
You are thinking about the applications of the original codec at AM IBOC rates, which have been resolved. The FM codec never had a problem because of the higher data rates.
There are other interesting aspects of HD Radio as well. NPR is using the HD radio technology on FM mainly to provide multiple audio streams per station to meet the needs of different audiences, rather than enhanced audio quality.
"Net Neutrality" Digital Discrimination or Regulatory Gamesmanship in Cyberspace?
The regulatory regime envisioned by Net neutrality mandates would also open the door to a great deal of potential "gaming" of the regulatory system and allow firms to use the regulatory system to hobble competitors. Worse yet, it would encourage more FCC regulation of the Internet and broadband markets in general.
The Internet is the success it is today because the FCC did not regulate it. Let's not screw that up.
You can't just "train a satellite" on something, spy satellites are generally in a low earth orbit moving at around four miles per second, and have the capability of only looking in a small region (a few hundred miles on a side). While most parts of the earth are covered once or twice a day by a spy sat, it is only for a brief period of time. It is impossible to follow an aircraft with a spy satellite.
Typical orbits for KH-12's are 202 x 689 km, inclination near 90 degrees (meaning twice a day coverage of most areas).
During the 1880s output of monopolistic industries grew seven times faster than the overall economy, while prices in these industries were generally falling--even faster than the 7% rate of decline that occurred in the economy as a whole. Free market economist Milton Friedman states that he initially agreed with the underlying principles of antitrust laws (breaking up monopolies and oligopolies and promoting more competition), but came to the conclusion that they do more harm than good.
The current head of the Federal Reserve is on record as claiming that the Great Depression was a result of a failure of government macroeconomic policy. Business cycles creates recessions, but it takes a macroeconomic failure of a central bank to create depressions. That is the global track record, and the reason why the dot-com implosion created only a recession, not a depression.
"By allowing persistent declines in the money supply and in the price level, the Federal Reserve of the late 1920s and 1930s greatly destabilized the U.S. economy and, through the workings of the gold standard, the economies of many other nations as well."
true Capitalism should not require any Government influence as it's normally designed
However the actual history of economic development shows that economies perform better with a combination of 1) economic freedom and 2) effective government protection of private property rights.
In Somalia, there is no regulation, and there is also no government protection of property rights, thus the economy is not doing well (although Somalia is doing better than Zimbabwe where the government is regulating the economy into the toilet).
Strong and effective government institutions that protect private property rights through transparent & fair judicial practices are a key enabler of prosperity. Government regulations on economic transactions that do things other than protect property rights are not. That is the real-world track record.
From Larry Kudlow's interview with the President: MR. KUDLOW: Well, yesterday, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman hinted that you might change position on the ethanol tariff, particularly with respect to Brazil. I guess there's a 54-cent tariff on that thing.
And the market responded--gasoline futures dropped nine cents, a huge drop. If you had a few of those you'll be back to $2.25 at the pump. Will you drop the tariff on--
PRESIDENT BUSH: I do want to work with Congress on that. I think it makes sense to--when there's a time of shortage of a product that's needed, so that the consumers can have a reasonable price, it seems to me to make sense to address those shortages, and dropping a tariff will enable the foreign export of ethanol into our markets, which will particularly help on our coasts. And yeah, I've talked to Congress about that.
The interesting thing is that there are public radio stations that receive money from CPB that are not members of NPR and carry no NPR programming, and similarly there are also TV stations that receive money from CPB that are not members of PBS (like MegaHertz Networks). Not a lot, but some.
The "membership dues and programming fees from over 780 independent radio stations" of course come from member stations that receive Community Service Grants from CPB...plus stations get Department of Commerce PTFP Grants, and states support state networks and university stations. So it isn't really correct to say "not a goddamn red cent comes from your taxes." But yes, there is a lot of corporate and individual money coming into public broadcasting.
The low percent numbers of Federal funding public broadcasting is a bit misleading, because that number is just direct Federal funding. The membership dues and programming fees come from member stations, who themselves receive Community Service Grants from CPB. Individual stations also get money from the Department of Commerce Public Telecommunications Facilities Program grants. Other government money comes from the states to state public broadcasting networks or indirectly through state college and university stations.
My rough guestimate is that ~40% of public broadcasting money comes from some government, and the rest is corporate and individual contributions.
Advances in empirical work in economics bolsters much traditional economic theory blowing Socialism out of the water and ending the concept of the zero-sum-economy that drives war, rent seeking, and reduces economic growth through socialist and protectionist policies.
Similar to the empirical discoveries in biology that bolstered Darwin, until today only nutcakes believe in Creationism.
I put my money on Quantum Computing. This represents a true paradigm shift in computing. I also think MRAM may also be very revolutionary (but many thought the same thing about magnetic bubble memory, so we'll see...)
The other big thing is the results of novel understanding of molecular biology, based on the development of rapid DNA sequencing technology.
Your problem is that you are single. My wife makes as much as I do, so we have no problem affording a fairly expensive house. Once the mortgage is paid down a bit, we can refinance and bring down the monthly payments and have kids.
The recent plateau and then slight rise of poverty rates is tied closely to the expansion of single-parent families. It is much easier to make it with a partner. Which is why I support gay marriage!
My great uncle grew up in a tenament in Brooklyn in the 1920's, three or four people to a room, no indoor toilets! Yet he got a Ph.D. in biology and became a leader in the study of infectious disease in the 1950's.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the "History of the Internet" owes a heck of a lot to the companies that commercialized the Internet (e PSINet, UUNET, Netcom, Digex, etc.) They took a research network and expanded it into the pr0n-clogged metaverse we love today!
Pigouvian taxes like carbon taxes don't do good by giving politicians money, they do good by making it more expensive for people to emit carbon, thus reducing the least productive uses of carbon emitting fuels. Make no mistake, these carbon taxes will reduce economic growth, at least in the short term.
Of course, if these taxes lead to innovation to make non-carbon emitting forms of energy such as nuclear fission become less expensive, it may lead to enhanced economic growth in the long term, but that is highly speculative.
This kind of cost-benefit analysis done by economists is very important. However I am sure that the report will be looked at closely by development economists who will take a closer look at the effect of Pigouvian carbon taxes on reducing economic growth.
My own thoughts are that if poor countries enacted policies that increased their own economic freedom, it is possible that rapid economic growth could allow these poor countries to better handle global climate change challenges, and have less overall GDP loss because of carbon emissions. Think: being able to afford sea walls, setting up early warning systems to reduce losses due to floods, being able to afford canals and desalination plants to avoid water shortages.
Also I am now sure how ready the developing world is to effectively enforce and police Pigouvian carbon emission taxes. The whole war on drugs thing doesn't seem to be working very well, even in developed countries. China may have the government security (terror) apparatus to effectively enforce carbon emission laws, but India does not, and much of Africa does not either.
Let's not forget that Humans may have come close to extinction about 70,000 years ago perhaps reaching a low point of 2,000 people. So we should be happy we have all these people now!
Methanol absorbs water, so it is actually very difficult to transport compared with gasoline or oil. It generally cannot be sent over pipeline, for instance.
So hydrogen as a gas is actually easier to transport by pipeline than methanol as a fluid.
If someone would port Ekiga (http://www.ekiga.org/ formerly GnomeMeeting) to Windows, there might be some hope for SIP!
:)
The key to Skype and SightSpeed (www.sightspeed.com) is that they are cross-platform and have solution to the NAT problem. But they are both non-standard. And they both work really well
Ekiga has a solution to the NAT problem using STUN servers, but until someone writes a Windows port for it, there will not be massive usage of Ekiga.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.
Radio SETI is really a waste of time. Optical SETI is the logical choice because;
1) Visible light-emitting devices are smaller and lighter than microwave or radio-emitting devices.
2) Visible light-emitting devices produce higher bandwidths and can consequently send information much faster.
3) Interference from natural sources of microwaves is more common than from visible sources.
4) Naturally occurring nanosecond pulses of light are mostly likely nonexistent, although there are all kinds of radio signals that could be similar to intentional SETI transmissions. Thus Optical SETI does not require grid computing to find signals.
5) Exact frequencies of light are not required, as nanosecond unfiltered light pulses would still outshine the planet's star by over 30 times.
Optical SETI detection out to 100 light-years is doable today, with a bit more work optical SETI out to 1,000 light-years is possible.
Optical SETI paper
You are thinking about the applications of the original codec at AM IBOC rates, which have been resolved. The FM codec never had a problem because of the higher data rates.
There are other interesting aspects of HD Radio as well. NPR is using the HD radio technology on FM mainly to provide multiple audio streams per station to meet the needs of different audiences, rather than enhanced audio quality.
"Net Neutrality"
Digital Discrimination or Regulatory
Gamesmanship in Cyberspace?
The regulatory regime envisioned by Net neutrality mandates would also open the door to a great deal of potential "gaming" of the regulatory system and allow firms to use the regulatory system to hobble competitors. Worse yet, it would encourage more FCC regulation of the Internet and broadband markets in general.
The Internet is the success it is today because the FCC did not regulate it. Let's not screw that up.
You can't just "train a satellite" on something, spy satellites are generally in a low earth orbit moving at around four miles per second, and have the capability of only looking in a small region (a few hundred miles on a side). While most parts of the earth are covered once or twice a day by a spy sat, it is only for a brief period of time. It is impossible to follow an aircraft with a spy satellite.
Typical orbits for KH-12's are 202 x 689 km, inclination near 90 degrees (meaning twice a day coverage of most areas).
In Maryland, you only need to file a $100 registration to run for Congress.
You will want a lawyer and an accountant to make sure you don't get sued for campaign censorship oops I mean campaign finance laws.
From Wikipedia:
During the 1880s output of monopolistic industries grew seven times faster than the overall economy, while prices in these industries were generally falling--even faster than the 7% rate of decline that occurred in the economy as a whole. Free market economist Milton Friedman states that he initially agreed with the underlying principles of antitrust laws (breaking up monopolies and oligopolies and promoting more competition), but came to the conclusion that they do more harm than good.
Indeed, I know people who have become rich from stock options or other equity investments, none who have become rich from just their salary.
at causing the great depression
The current head of the Federal Reserve is on record as claiming that the Great Depression was a result of a failure of government macroeconomic policy. Business cycles creates recessions, but it takes a macroeconomic failure of a central bank to create depressions. That is the global track record, and the reason why the dot-com implosion created only a recession, not a depression.
From Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke:
"By allowing persistent declines in the money supply and in the price level, the Federal Reserve of the late 1920s and 1930s greatly destabilized the U.S. economy and, through the workings of the gold standard, the economies of many other nations as well."
true Capitalism should not require any Government influence as it's normally designed
However the actual history of economic development shows that economies perform better with a combination of 1) economic freedom and 2) effective government protection of private property rights.
In Somalia, there is no regulation, and there is also no government protection of property rights, thus the economy is not doing well (although Somalia is doing better than Zimbabwe where the government is regulating the economy into the toilet).
Strong and effective government institutions that protect private property rights through transparent & fair judicial practices are a key enabler of prosperity. Government regulations on economic transactions that do things other than protect property rights are not. That is the real-world track record.
The beginning of the 20th century is a good example.
And what exactly are you talking about?
Just because politicians came along with anti-trust laws doesn't mean they were either required or effective, much like Prohibition.
From Larry Kudlow's interview with the President:
MR. KUDLOW: Well, yesterday, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman hinted that you might change position on the ethanol tariff, particularly with respect to Brazil. I guess there's a 54-cent tariff on that thing.
And the market responded--gasoline futures dropped nine cents, a huge drop. If you had a few of those you'll be back to $2.25 at the pump. Will you drop the tariff on--
PRESIDENT BUSH: I do want to work with Congress on that. I think it makes sense to--when there's a time of shortage of a product that's needed, so that the consumers can have a reasonable price, it seems to me to make sense to address those shortages, and dropping a tariff will enable the foreign export of ethanol into our markets, which will particularly help on our coasts. And yeah, I've talked to Congress about that.
The interesting thing is that there are public radio stations that receive money from CPB that are not members of NPR and carry no NPR programming, and similarly there are also TV stations that receive money from CPB that are not members of PBS (like MegaHertz Networks). Not a lot, but some.
The "membership dues and programming fees from over 780 independent radio stations" of course come from member stations that receive Community Service Grants from CPB...plus stations get Department of Commerce PTFP Grants, and states support state networks and university stations. So it isn't really correct to say "not a goddamn red cent comes from your taxes." But yes, there is a lot of corporate and individual money coming into public broadcasting.
The low percent numbers of Federal funding public broadcasting is a bit misleading, because that number is just direct Federal funding. The membership dues and programming fees come from member stations, who themselves receive Community Service Grants from CPB. Individual stations also get money from the Department of Commerce Public Telecommunications Facilities Program grants. Other government money comes from the states to state public broadcasting networks or indirectly through state college and university stations.
My rough guestimate is that ~40% of public broadcasting money comes from some government, and the rest is corporate and individual contributions.
Advances in empirical work in economics bolsters much traditional economic theory blowing Socialism out of the water and ending the concept of the zero-sum-economy that drives war, rent seeking, and reduces economic growth through socialist and protectionist policies.
Similar to the empirical discoveries in biology that bolstered Darwin, until today only nutcakes believe in Creationism.
I put my money on Quantum Computing. This represents a true paradigm shift in computing. I also think MRAM may also be very revolutionary (but many thought the same thing about magnetic bubble memory, so we'll see...)
The other big thing is the results of novel understanding of molecular biology, based on the development of rapid DNA sequencing technology.
Your problem is that you are single. My wife makes as much as I do, so we have no problem affording a fairly expensive house. Once the mortgage is paid down a bit, we can refinance and bring down the monthly payments and have kids.
The recent plateau and then slight rise of poverty rates is tied closely to the expansion of single-parent families. It is much easier to make it with a partner. Which is why I support gay marriage!
Actually I have met plenty of Iraqis who rejoiced at the fall of Saddam Hussein and love the U.S. for invading Iraq and toppling him.
My great uncle grew up in a tenament in Brooklyn in the 1920's, three or four people to a room, no indoor toilets! Yet he got a Ph.D. in biology and became a leader in the study of infectious disease in the 1950's.