It strikes me that you believe that calculus is useless in the first place... it's probably the single most useful field of mathematics:
You need calculus to
describe and find solutions to motion problems
maximize or minimize functions (e.g. optimizing the cost of producing something)
talk about any relationship between two variables that's close to zero
straighten out complicated functions to handle them with computers (e.g. Taylor-series)
FreeBSD can make a pretty good desktop machine. It has a really lean base system and using the ports system you can get all the software you want.
Once you get your GUI running you won't notice any difference.
In terms of administration and setup I'd compare FreeBSD with Slackware Linux. You will need to do some config file editing to get stuff done, but FreeBSD has a very well documented and easy-to-understand configuration system (you can basically set all the important system preferences in the/etc/rc.conf file).
While I definitely agree that your hardware is humble and still lives up to what you need to do with it, one has to consider the a dual PPRO was probably really expensive high-end machine back when it was new....
So unless you bought it used you probably spent a lot of bucks on it back when people would laugh at you and say "Well, what overkill.. What can your PPRO practically do that my old 386 with DOS and Word 5.0 can't?"
Re:Reminds me of a poem
on
A Worm's Worm
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· Score: 1
That's exactly what they are doing to CD sent to music magazines.
Some record company actually burns those prereleases for every reviewer, prints the name of the reviewer on the CD and watermarks the data accordingly. If any of those files is found on the net then they exactly know whose fault it was:-P
A different way to prevent leaking is being exercised by Sony: They send a discman to every reviewer with the CD to be reviewed already in it. I don't have to mention that the discman is of course sealed and has to be returned within a couple of weeks.
I think this is the third time in a couple of hours that someone spelled "dimensional" like "dimentional".. Is it just me or does ist really look like Slashdot is taken over by 5th graders?
You state this as if you really knew what you were talking about, BUT:
To get that clear, a "dimension" is just not what sci-fi movies tell us, it's not a parallel world or something it's just what we learned in Geometry: A direction an object can extend into spatially, or timewise. The 11 dimension in String Theory are spatial or time-dimension, but *within* our universe, that is there is no evil twin of yourself in the 6th dimension or something..
Additionally those extra dimension are thought to be rolled and don't have direct influence on everyday physics. They are essentially just mathematical methods to make String Theory mathematically sane.
Re:Issues with the euro in day-to-day life
on
The Euro
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· Score: 1
No 25cent coins? True, but you know, what I really want is a 99 cent coin and, for that matter, a 1.99 bill.:)
Now, that would make it easy to buy coffee or get some of those cool Low Price offers;)
Re:So what ASCII value will the Euro be?
on
The Euro
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· Score: 1
On fairly new keyboards here in Europe is in the lower right corner of the E key (AltGr+E) and support for the Euro symbol has been there for quite a while now.
Windows 98 was the first OS to support the symbol in all fonts that shipped with it, Win95 did it with a patch and Linux has had it for a while too.
Anyway, I'm excited and will try to find all those D-Mark coins I've lost behind cupboards, my desk etc.. to get them all exchanged into new, good-looking Euros:)
For some odd reason I have the feeling that I have heard all of that before... A big problem is that even if I could explain how the eye evolved (which it certainly did), would you understand it? I probably wouldn't, because I am not a biologist, and you aren't either, are you? So, would every explanation just be stupid evolutionist crap?
It is so easy to believe in something like creation, because it doesn't require you to actually think and find out stuff. And doesn't it give you this warm cozy feeling too, to know that you, as a human, are god's darling? Come on, people... These are not the Middle Ages!
You say that it would require an infinite time for evolution to happen. Actually, you "quickly see" that, so please quote the equations and evidence that make you think so. If it's something you made up just writing your message or if it is a bible quote, it doesn't count, naturally.
To be honest, this entire discussion is really weird IMHO. I am a citizen of Germany and lived in the US for one year as an exchange student. Nowhere else have I ever seen people believing in crazy stuff like creationism. About two thirds of the German population are Christians, but never have I heard anyone telling me things like "...bible to be understood in a literal way.." or the well-known creationism crap.
Sorry, folks, it just doesn't make sense.
The same procedure as every year, James
on
Gadgets of 2002
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· Score: 1
If I were rich, I would by a lot of those cool thingies for sure (actually, I'd probably buy out thinkgeek.com), but as I am a poor student, I won't.
Actually, I am quite happy with my good old RioPMP300 and as long as copyright issues and copy-protected CDs aren't an issue I won't be a new mp3 player. I don't need that..
Wait a minute... I do need new stuff... I am just trying to get myself into believing I got everything I want...
More MBytes... NOW!!:)
Our problem is that we think like the humans we are.. That includes a pretty large amount of overestimation of our own abilities. The human kind of intelligence is probably *not* the only one that can exist.
Trying to copy the human brain (neural networks etc.) is not only hardly possible, it wouldn't be what we want. The human brain does not provide the best kind of intelligence for analyzing stock data, creating optimized electrical circuits or whatever. It is optimized on remembering pictures, sounds, faces and communicating with other humans. An intelligent machine would require different abilities.
Let's not be too arrogant and conclude that because our first attempts of creating intelligence failed we'll never achieve it.. Maybe just rethink what intelligence actually is.
Paying per call would actually be pretty cool, as you wouldn't have to care about how long you talk..
Actually, in Germany (and most other European countries) you pay per minute or per second.
Average charge per minute is between US cent 10 and 90 depending on your plan.
Charging per second can actually be much cheaper if you don't talk to long (naturally)
It seems to me that a lot of times one part of the European government doesn't know what another part is doing..
What they are trying to do is
a) to protect European business interests (encouraging cryptography) to prevent the US from stealing information and
b) to protect European business interests by allowing companies to get patents for software products.. ?!
Sounds kind of weird.. I think the first thing (a) sounds very reasonable because it is proven that Echelon has been used for spying on allies after the end of the Cold War, but I don't know about (b).. There are enough legal instruments to protect software right now and considering the encryption key issue: The government has a right to get your key to decrypt data in criminal investigation, but at no other time and for no different purpose..
I think the main question (at least for me) is not how *fast* my connection is, but how much i have to pay. Here in Europe we don't usually have flat rates and have to pay about 1 us cent for every minute of online time. For browsing the web it doesn't really matter whether all those pages build up really quickly or rather slowly because I'll always need more time to read the stuff than I need to download it.
Considering big downloads a faster connection is better, because it saves time and thereby money.
But if I could get a flat rate like it is usual in North America I probably wouldn't care if my download takes a couple of hours or so. That's what a second phone line (or ISDN) is for.
Just my 2p..
I don't think the 49g is a TI clone. I switched it to RPN first thing after I bought it and it behaves like a 48 with MetaKernel + some additional functionality.
HP tried to make it look "cool" by using those rubber keys and the metal blue color. That was a bad idea, because it doesn't look like the professional tool it is.
There are some HP48 emulators for UNIX/Linux on http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/pc/emulators/
X48 is available for most UNICES and there are ROM files, too (HP allowed the 48's ROM files to be downloaded sometime in 2000)
Having used my HP49 for quite some time now I have to say that it really is a great piece of engineering.
It is true that the main usage field for HP calculators is engineering and science, but in my opinion HP should have tried to sell more calculators to high school students and schools, because if someone is used to use TIs he is unlikely to switch to HP unless forced (after all, 170$ for an HP49g is not exactly cheap).
It's a pity to see the HP calcs go. Let's hope the HP calculator community keeps being vital.
Slashdot Mirror
describe and find solutions to motion problems
maximize or minimize functions (e.g. optimizing the cost of producing something)
talk about any relationship between two variables that's close to zero
straighten out complicated functions to handle them with computers (e.g. Taylor-series)
I could go on and on about that.. Come on!
Once you get your GUI running you won't notice any difference.
In terms of administration and setup I'd compare FreeBSD with Slackware Linux. You will need to do some config file editing to get stuff done, but FreeBSD has a very well documented and easy-to-understand configuration system (you can basically set all the important system preferences in the /etc/rc.conf file).
Give it a shot, you just might like it.
Not only that, but he also gets modded +5 for every single one of those posts... I wish I could do that :P
While I definitely agree that your hardware is humble and still lives up to what you need to do with it, one has to consider the a dual PPRO was probably really expensive high-end machine back when it was new....
So unless you bought it used you probably spent a lot of bucks on it back when people would laugh at you and say "Well, what overkill.. What can your PPRO practically do that my old 386 with DOS and Word 5.0 can't?"
That would be Swift.
Some record company actually burns those prereleases for every reviewer, prints the name of the reviewer on the CD and watermarks the data accordingly. If any of those files is found on the net then they exactly know whose fault it was :-P
A different way to prevent leaking is being exercised by Sony: They send a discman to every reviewer with the CD to be reviewed already in it. I don't have to mention that the discman is of course sealed and has to be returned within a couple of weeks.
Why do all these General Motors references keep popping up in the comments, I wonder.. Doesn't anyone know that Chrysler is owned by Mercedes??
I think this is the third time in a couple of hours that someone spelled "dimensional" like "dimentional".. Is it just me or does ist really look like Slashdot is taken over by 5th graders?
To get that clear, a "dimension" is just not what sci-fi movies tell us, it's not a parallel world or something it's just what we learned in Geometry: A direction an object can extend into spatially, or timewise. The 11 dimension in String Theory are spatial or time-dimension, but *within* our universe, that is there is no evil twin of yourself in the 6th dimension or something..
Additionally those extra dimension are thought to be rolled and don't have direct influence on everyday physics. They are essentially just mathematical methods to make String Theory mathematically sane.
Now, that would make it easy to buy coffee or get some of those cool Low Price offers ;)
Windows 98 was the first OS to support the symbol in all fonts that shipped with it, Win95 did it with a patch and Linux has had it for a while too.
Anyway, I'm excited and will try to find all those D-Mark coins I've lost behind cupboards, my desk etc.. to get them all exchanged into new, good-looking Euros :)
Zeppelins probably wouldn't work, because they'd be far to big to be useful, IMHO.
I suppose planes would need huge wings in order to work, because they need to cover a much bigger area to get lifted.
It is so easy to believe in something like creation, because it doesn't require you to actually think and find out stuff. And doesn't it give you this warm cozy feeling too, to know that you, as a human, are god's darling? Come on, people... These are not the Middle Ages!
You say that it would require an infinite time for evolution to happen. Actually, you "quickly see" that, so please quote the equations and evidence that make you think so. If it's something you made up just writing your message or if it is a bible quote, it doesn't count, naturally.
To be honest, this entire discussion is really weird IMHO. I am a citizen of Germany and lived in the US for one year as an exchange student. Nowhere else have I ever seen people believing in crazy stuff like creationism. About two thirds of the German population are Christians, but never have I heard anyone telling me things like "...bible to be understood in a literal way.." or the well-known creationism crap.
Sorry, folks, it just doesn't make sense.
If I were rich, I would by a lot of those cool thingies for sure (actually, I'd probably buy out thinkgeek.com), but as I am a poor student, I won't. Actually, I am quite happy with my good old RioPMP300 and as long as copyright issues and copy-protected CDs aren't an issue I won't be a new mp3 player. I don't need that.. Wait a minute... I do need new stuff... I am just trying to get myself into believing I got everything I want... More MBytes... NOW!! :)
Our problem is that we think like the humans we are.. That includes a pretty large amount of overestimation of our own abilities. The human kind of intelligence is probably *not* the only one that can exist. Trying to copy the human brain (neural networks etc.) is not only hardly possible, it wouldn't be what we want. The human brain does not provide the best kind of intelligence for analyzing stock data, creating optimized electrical circuits or whatever. It is optimized on remembering pictures, sounds, faces and communicating with other humans. An intelligent machine would require different abilities. Let's not be too arrogant and conclude that because our first attempts of creating intelligence failed we'll never achieve it.. Maybe just rethink what intelligence actually is.
Paying per call would actually be pretty cool, as you wouldn't have to care about how long you talk.. Actually, in Germany (and most other European countries) you pay per minute or per second. Average charge per minute is between US cent 10 and 90 depending on your plan. Charging per second can actually be much cheaper if you don't talk to long (naturally)
It seems to me that a lot of times one part of the European government doesn't know what another part is doing.. What they are trying to do is a) to protect European business interests (encouraging cryptography) to prevent the US from stealing information and b) to protect European business interests by allowing companies to get patents for software products.. ?! Sounds kind of weird.. I think the first thing (a) sounds very reasonable because it is proven that Echelon has been used for spying on allies after the end of the Cold War, but I don't know about (b).. There are enough legal instruments to protect software right now and considering the encryption key issue: The government has a right to get your key to decrypt data in criminal investigation, but at no other time and for no different purpose..
I think the main question (at least for me) is not how *fast* my connection is, but how much i have to pay. Here in Europe we don't usually have flat rates and have to pay about 1 us cent for every minute of online time. For browsing the web it doesn't really matter whether all those pages build up really quickly or rather slowly because I'll always need more time to read the stuff than I need to download it. Considering big downloads a faster connection is better, because it saves time and thereby money. But if I could get a flat rate like it is usual in North America I probably wouldn't care if my download takes a couple of hours or so. That's what a second phone line (or ISDN) is for. Just my 2p..
I don't think the 49g is a TI clone. I switched it to RPN first thing after I bought it and it behaves like a 48 with MetaKernel + some additional functionality. HP tried to make it look "cool" by using those rubber keys and the metal blue color. That was a bad idea, because it doesn't look like the professional tool it is.
There are some HP48 emulators for UNIX/Linux on http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/pc/emulators/ X48 is available for most UNICES and there are ROM files, too (HP allowed the 48's ROM files to be downloaded sometime in 2000)
Having used my HP49 for quite some time now I have to say that it really is a great piece of engineering.
It is true that the main usage field for HP calculators is engineering and science, but in my opinion HP should have tried to sell more calculators to high school students and schools, because if someone is used to use TIs he is unlikely to switch to HP unless forced (after all, 170$ for an HP49g is not exactly cheap).
It's a pity to see the HP calcs go. Let's hope the HP calculator community keeps being vital.