By national pride, I mean Russian national pride: "Bow to the demands of the Yankees? Never!" (Yup, we still need WTO. So we'd give you the absolute minimum, lip service if possible, until we are there.)
Polonium poisoning, IF it is what it appears to be to me, is a public reminder to all KGB (FSB, whatever) employees: you don't defact and go deriding the service unpunished. If you don't like this sort of a (de facto) contract, don't join the Russian security service. Or, at least, live silently if you choose to leave the service mid-way.
Just to explain this private exchange (sorry for a disclosure), this is a former student of my professor (well, a student of mine, too) who once chose to be a guitar player in Russia over taking a PhD in quantum optics. We could of course wonder what he thinks of allofmp3.com from a musician's position.
We haven't heard of you a while. Artem, I'd be glad if you contact me.
I'm in Russia, and I am an avid and price-sensitive media consumer. So let me make a prognosis.
1. Allofmp3.com will be closed, law or not, if the top of the government, i.e. Putin personally, orders it. Our government regularly follows such orders regardless of the law (by the way I'm not happy at all with it). The question is if Putin finds it fitting to "bow to the demands" of a foreign state, which I hope he will not, for the national pride reasons.
2. A slower solution that would satisfy the U.S. in the internet trade would be changing our Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights. Here it depends on the Duma, which I think will not act on this without a request from the executive branch (see above). (Even given such a request, Duma may decide to refuse to bow to external demands, or simply not see it a high priority in their lawmaking.)
3. "Keeping raids at the same level" is not going to stop domestic sale of unlicensed disks. I often hear staff of media outlets complaining about raids and mass confiscations of their stock, but all that it has achieved by now is intermittent supply of some quality DVD copies (like DVD-9 of obscure titles), and somewhat higher prices (at most +50%).
I agree with you. Any scientific or technological development in a foreign country is a threat to the United States.
Conveniently you overlook the fact that your own space program (in case you are for its continuation and not against) still needs a strong competition in order to secure funding to move along. Where would it be today without the chilling news in 1950s and 1960s of Russians getting ahead of the U.S. in space?
Janis Research makes a closed-cycle adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator system that can cool things down to 0.1 K, requires no maintenance, and is tabletop-sized (well, at the limit of the definition: the two boxes, wessel + compressor, weight over 200 kg when added together).
Their site seems to be down right now, but it must be a temporary glitch.
If you know what happens to the jettisoned object, it's a fine policy. I understand that, after being pushed in the back direction from the station (i.e. behind it in the orbit), junk gets slowed down by whatever thin extent of athmosphere is at this attitude, and burns up in the atmosphere un a matter of days or weeks. The article also says that larger and denser objects may take longer before burn up, but they can be tracked by the ground stations (do they use radars?). If this outcome can be made predictable and the range of possible orbits before burn up is known, there is no problem then.
If you can replace your computer like a drinking cup or a chair, you are not using it for much.
...in which case, you do NOT need a new computer, except when your existing one is 6+ years old. So I don't quite get why those people would replace a machine every six months. Is buying a new machine in a store cheaper than having a clean operating system install (to get rid of viruses and spyware)?
Most rich people think it's cheaper to buy a new Dell every 6 months than call the idiots at "geek squad" to tinker for a few hours and then charge $300+ for cleaning the PC when you can get a new one for $250.00-$280.00.
This is perfectly fine provided the new PC works out of the box for you. If you are a typical professional working on a computer beyond casual web browsing, you need to install software, customize settings, transfer old files, get accustomed to new features and bugs, calibrate and/or get used to the new monitor (in case you do image work), etc. For me, this would take several hectic working days.
If you can replace your computer like a drinking cup or a chair, you are not using it for much.
I agree that language skills are important. I don't know about other countries, but in Russia one of the two obligatory entry exams at any university is the Russian language exam (essay). Those who pass it poorly have to settle for less popular professions and schools where the entry competition is weak. By and large the language skill is considered a core one at this point. There are exceptions: a few students skip the entry exams by having priorily shown an exceptional skill in the general subject of their future profession at competitions organized by the university (math/physics/chemistry "school olympics"), or one can pay the full price for his education (the entry requirements are often lower for paying students).
"A Deepness in the Sky" is a excellent novel. If you like SF, it's a must read.
Those few Slashdot readers for whom buying a paper book would be impractical can get an electronic text on a pirate channel. <pirate> Launch an IRC chat client (Opera browser has one built in) and join the room bookz on Undernet, Europe. Once there, enter the line
!EBrarian Hugo 2000 Winner Novel - Vinge, Vernor - A Deepness in the Sky.rar
For simplicity I have skipped the search stage here, listing a file that would probably be accessible for some time. You could get a list of all files by typing e.g.
Specify the country please. Last time I tried to register at the iTunes Music Store, they weren't willing to serve Russian customers at all (it was not possible to use a credit card with owner's address in Russia, as well as most other countries).
Allofmp3's music used to be three times cheaper per MB two years ago. I guess it's their avoidance effort (offshore incorporation, lawyers, etc.) as well as some sort of financial insurance for such a relatively risky operation it has become, that make up the bulk of their distribution costs now.
Thank you for the answer. I'm reposting the image you've reeferred to in an open access (its original location required some sort of academic or territorially-restricted access: I couldn't initially download it to Russia, had to browse through an external university server).
No, I see the island. I mean the large group of big dots to the right side of the image, a bit away from the coast. NYT writes that's a map they snapped over Rumsfield's shoulder. So this can just be the American fleet stationed in the Sea of Japan, I suppose?
I think in the west you overrate the importance of oil, too. The People's Republic of Korea has successfully progressed to switching most of its cars to alternative, environmental-friendly biofuel.
Before, choosing a credit card was like: do you want Pepsi or Cola with that? Same practical result (you get some water into your body), different aestetic preference.
There actually is a good number of places that sell only one brand of carbonated drinks. But any place that does take a credit card I have seen up to now, always takes both Visa and MasterCard. I have sometimes been wondering what's the difference between the two if every place takes either.
And now, finally, I have a solid reason to choose between Visa and MasterCard, aesthetic preferences aside (e.g. which name sound better or what logo is prettier). Is this actually the only shop in the world that takes just one of the cards? Or am I unaware of other examples?
As it happens, I don't have to switch the card brand: I use a MasterCard.
Take Google off your list. For the majority of uses, changing a search engine is as easy as typing a different URL. People use Google because it currently is the best.
You are not planning properly. With such an unpredictable thing as incoming email delivery attempts, the infrastructure should be able to handle a sudden several fold increase at least. It's OK to have your server utilised by more than 50% of its capacity, but then it must have a graceful failure mode.
For example, mail servers of my provider (pair.com) would drop the resource-consuming Bayesian check if the server becomes overloaded (and possibly other checks if the situation gets worse, but I've never seen that). It occasionally results in a few spams slipping into customer's inboxes, but nothing like a total communication outage.
assuming that one could teleport the (admittedly enormous) collection of states in a living being, would the matter "receiving" the information then live, or remain inert?
Are you familiar with biophysics enough to know the state of our knowledge on this question? I am not, so I'm asking you.
One informal opinion (see at the end of the article) is that quantum teleportation might be not needed to recreate a person. "Classical" measurements might suffice. It is also pointed out that NMR and ESR tomography machines in hospitals disturb some quantum states inside the patient, yet this does not change a person.
Slashdot Mirror
P.S. I can't find your contact info, so mail me your phone number please.
By national pride, I mean Russian national pride: "Bow to the demands of the Yankees? Never!" (Yup, we still need WTO. So we'd give you the absolute minimum, lip service if possible, until we are there.)
Polonium poisoning, IF it is what it appears to be to me, is a public reminder to all KGB (FSB, whatever) employees: you don't defact and go deriding the service unpunished. If you don't like this sort of a (de facto) contract, don't join the Russian security service. Or, at least, live silently if you choose to leave the service mid-way.
Just to explain this private exchange (sorry for a disclosure), this is a former student of my professor (well, a student of mine, too) who once chose to be a guitar player in Russia over taking a PhD in quantum optics. We could of course wonder what he thinks of allofmp3.com from a musician's position.
We haven't heard of you a while. Artem, I'd be glad if you contact me.
Why not, if you hint at your real identity.
I'm in Russia, and I am an avid and price-sensitive media consumer. So let me make a prognosis.
1. Allofmp3.com will be closed, law or not, if the top of the government, i.e. Putin personally, orders it. Our government regularly follows such orders regardless of the law (by the way I'm not happy at all with it). The question is if Putin finds it fitting to "bow to the demands" of a foreign state, which I hope he will not, for the national pride reasons.
2. A slower solution that would satisfy the U.S. in the internet trade would be changing our Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights. Here it depends on the Duma, which I think will not act on this without a request from the executive branch (see above). (Even given such a request, Duma may decide to refuse to bow to external demands, or simply not see it a high priority in their lawmaking.)
3. "Keeping raids at the same level" is not going to stop domestic sale of unlicensed disks. I often hear staff of media outlets complaining about raids and mass confiscations of their stock, but all that it has achieved by now is intermittent supply of some quality DVD copies (like DVD-9 of obscure titles), and somewhat higher prices (at most +50%).
I agree with you. Any scientific or technological development in a foreign country is a threat to the United States.
Conveniently you overlook the fact that your own space program (in case you are for its continuation and not against) still needs a strong competition in order to secure funding to move along. Where would it be today without the chilling news in 1950s and 1960s of Russians getting ahead of the U.S. in space?
Janis Research makes a closed-cycle adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator system that can cool things down to 0.1 K, requires no maintenance, and is tabletop-sized (well, at the limit of the definition: the two boxes, wessel + compressor, weight over 200 kg when added together).
Their site seems to be down right now, but it must be a temporary glitch.
If you know what happens to the jettisoned object, it's a fine policy. I understand that, after being pushed in the back direction from the station (i.e. behind it in the orbit), junk gets slowed down by whatever thin extent of athmosphere is at this attitude, and burns up in the atmosphere un a matter of days or weeks. The article also says that larger and denser objects may take longer before burn up, but they can be tracked by the ground stations (do they use radars?). If this outcome can be made predictable and the range of possible orbits before burn up is known, there is no problem then.
If you can replace your computer like a drinking cup or a chair, you are not using it for much.
...in which case, you do NOT need a new computer, except when your existing one is 6+ years old. So I don't quite get why those people would replace a machine every six months. Is buying a new machine in a store cheaper than having a clean operating system install (to get rid of viruses and spyware)?
Most rich people think it's cheaper to buy a new Dell every 6 months than call the idiots at "geek squad" to tinker for a few hours and then charge $300+ for cleaning the PC when you can get a new one for $250.00-$280.00.
This is perfectly fine provided the new PC works out of the box for you. If you are a typical professional working on a computer beyond casual web browsing, you need to install software, customize settings, transfer old files, get accustomed to new features and bugs, calibrate and/or get used to the new monitor (in case you do image work), etc. For me, this would take several hectic working days.
If you can replace your computer like a drinking cup or a chair, you are not using it for much.
I agree that language skills are important. I don't know about other countries, but in Russia one of the two obligatory entry exams at any university is the Russian language exam (essay). Those who pass it poorly have to settle for less popular professions and schools where the entry competition is weak. By and large the language skill is considered a core one at this point. There are exceptions: a few students skip the entry exams by having priorily shown an exceptional skill in the general subject of their future profession at competitions organized by the university (math/physics/chemistry "school olympics"), or one can pay the full price for his education (the entry requirements are often lower for paying students).
Have you read raw unselected correspondence from the Indian campaigns? Or you have read letters picked by an editor and published somewhere?
"A Deepness in the Sky" is a excellent novel. If you like SF, it's a must read.
Those few Slashdot readers for whom buying a paper book would be impractical can get an electronic text on a pirate channel. <pirate> Launch an IRC chat client (Opera browser has one built in) and join the room bookz on Undernet, Europe. Once there, enter the line
!EBrarian Hugo 2000 Winner Novel - Vinge, Vernor - A Deepness in the Sky.rar
For simplicity I have skipped the search stage here, listing a file that would probably be accessible for some time. You could get a list of all files by typing e.g.
@seek Vinge Deepness Sky
</pirate>
Specify the country please. Last time I tried to register at the iTunes Music Store, they weren't willing to serve Russian customers at all (it was not possible to use a credit card with owner's address in Russia, as well as most other countries).
Allofmp3's music used to be three times cheaper per MB two years ago. I guess it's their avoidance effort (offshore incorporation, lawyers, etc.) as well as some sort of financial insurance for such a relatively risky operation it has become, that make up the bulk of their distribution costs now.
Thank you for the answer. I'm reposting the image you've reeferred to in an open access (its original location required some sort of academic or territorially-restricted access: I couldn't initially download it to Russia, had to browse through an external university server).
No, I see the island. I mean the large group of big dots to the right side of the image, a bit away from the coast. NYT writes that's a map they snapped over Rumsfield's shoulder. So this can just be the American fleet stationed in the Sea of Japan, I suppose?
They do use cars for delivery of goods, agriculture, etc.
I think in the west you overrate the importance of oil, too. The People's Republic of Korea has successfully progressed to switching most of its cars to alternative, environmental-friendly biofuel.
what's so huge and brightly lit off the eastern shore of South Korea, in the sea?
Before, choosing a credit card was like: do you want Pepsi or Cola with that? Same practical result (you get some water into your body), different aestetic preference.
There actually is a good number of places that sell only one brand of carbonated drinks. But any place that does take a credit card I have seen up to now, always takes both Visa and MasterCard. I have sometimes been wondering what's the difference between the two if every place takes either.
And now, finally, I have a solid reason to choose between Visa and MasterCard, aesthetic preferences aside (e.g. which name sound better or what logo is prettier). Is this actually the only shop in the world that takes just one of the cards? Or am I unaware of other examples?
As it happens, I don't have to switch the card brand: I use a MasterCard.
Take Google off your list. For the majority of uses, changing a search engine is as easy as typing a different URL. People use Google because it currently is the best.
You are not planning properly. With such an unpredictable thing as incoming email delivery attempts, the infrastructure should be able to handle a sudden several fold increase at least. It's OK to have your server utilised by more than 50% of its capacity, but then it must have a graceful failure mode.
For example, mail servers of my provider (pair.com) would drop the resource-consuming Bayesian check if the server becomes overloaded (and possibly other checks if the situation gets worse, but I've never seen that). It occasionally results in a few spams slipping into customer's inboxes, but nothing like a total communication outage.
Sonds to me like this is the right type of action against you. It should be painfully non-profitable to host spammers.
assuming that one could teleport the (admittedly enormous) collection of states in a living being, would the matter "receiving" the information then live, or remain inert?
Are you familiar with biophysics enough to know the state of our knowledge on this question? I am not, so I'm asking you.
One informal opinion (see at the end of the article) is that quantum teleportation might be not needed to recreate a person. "Classical" measurements might suffice. It is also pointed out that NMR and ESR tomography machines in hospitals disturb some quantum states inside the patient, yet this does not change a person.