This strikes me as very strange. When I was at the U of A, the student union had a standing offer of cash for quality notes, which they would package, publish, and sell to students during the next term. Guess its an American thing...
While I believe that there will be localized utility failures, and a lot of consumer electronics will fail (Any dates in mid-80's automobile computer systems?), my only major concern is the possibility of militias, cults, or other assorted lunatics launching massive biological/nuclear/explosive/chemical/etc. attacks around the world. While such things could happen anytime, the unstable extremists who would do something along these lines are more likely to try to do such things on signifigant dates. Even a small attack with minimal casualties could create a nation-wide panic, possibly even inciting riots, as the portion of the public that is sitting at home watching CNN with their gun(s) in hand decide that their city could be next in line for whatever type of attack the talking head is describing.
The original series is looked back at with fondness for a good reason: It ended before it got too old, unlike almost every single American tv series. Each show was new, in at least some way. Each show of each series since then has felt less and less original. Combined with comparisons to previous Trek series, they wind up recycling their own story lines, and also have to be distinct from other SciFi shows/movies/books. In the 1960's, Trek was original. Noone had really seen something like this before. In the 1980's, the only people who hadn't seen everything TNG was doing were the youngsters like me. DS9 was fairly new to people (like me again) who hadn't seen a certain other sci-fi series on cable. Voyager... well Voyager's just bad.
The article talks alot about the crew of the original ship being more interesting. They are. Even though the characters are under-developed and over-acted, they had much stronger relations to each other. Because of the simplicity of the characters, clear dynamics were easily created. The later series characters all evolved (somewhat), and had more complex relationships that changed over the span of the series. While this would seem like a Good Thing, it isn't in this case. With the simple, immediate relationships in the original series, the viewer could quickly get involved in the story. Of course, if the original series had been allowed to drag out forever like most American series, the weak characters would have become incredibly boring and trite.
In the end, the franchise is dying because Trek is becoming just one of many sci-fi shows, instead of the only one. And it doesn't compare favourably most of the time.
Ok, I've reread the article. They do talk about the new research indicating that new nuerons can form in all parts of the brain. However, this really doesn't seem to be the point of the article. The new research is actually written of for ~20% of the article. The first half of the first section is a long introduction, and the second section is a review of the current thinking on the importance of the "brain-formative" years of early life. The article reminds me of many a high school paper that was stretched to meet a word count requirement.
Don't missunderstand me. I agree that unbiased reporting is a Good Thing. What I was trying to express is that I feel that an article isn't worthwhile unless there is new research that supports one of the two scientific camps' positions.
It seems to me that this Times article is saying "Noone knows for sure, but some people think this, and others think the opposite." Write an article when someone can actually influence the arguement one way or the other.
cascade Pronunciation: (")kas-'kAd Function: noun Etymology: French, from Italian cascata, from cascare to fall, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin casicare, from Latin casus fall
1 : a steep usually small fall of water; especially : one of a series 2 a : something arranged or occurring in a series or in a succession of stages so that each stage derives from or acts upon the product of the preceding [blood clotting involves a biochemical cascade] 2 b : a fall of material (as lace) that hangs in a zigzag line 3 : something falling or rushing forth in quantity [a cascade of sound] [a cascade of events]
Although I've never heard of a river or mountain range specifically named the Cascades, I have heard the term before. As I understand it, a cascade is basically a rapid in the river. Cascades are therefore "whitewater" areas in the river. I've always heard it pronounced kass-kades.
I tend to agree with the original post. Gameboy won because it had games worth playing. I bought Sega's handheld, because of its colour capabilities. It killed batteries like you wouldn't believe, and I never found a single game for it that didn't suck.
Hey, I'd love to relagate my truck to out-of-town travel and transportation of material. But as it stands, I just can't handle the inconvienince and aggravation involved in public transit.
How do you propose to convince millions of North Americans to switch from a 20 minute commute to a hour+ bus/train ride, on a vehicle that is either very hot or very cold, requiring one to wait in the weather, show up either 20 minutes early or 20 minutes late to work/school, purchase only what can easily be carried and held in both hands, and prevents easy travel out of town?
Maybe the shirts that they had for themselves had NO2. I'm not really sure, since I've never had one. I've never actually used anything illegal... Guess I should have said AFAIK..... hippie crack??
Anyhow. Your right, its not possible to remove all bugs in large software, and increasing complexity increases bug counts. Maybe if software makers are held responsible for a significant effort (Yes, that is vague. Vague legal terms like this are what we have judges for, to set the precedent on what constitutes significant effort.) to fix any bugs in released software, they would be encouraged to improve their code and perform real quality testing before release, rather than bloating it with new (and mostly unwanted/unnecessary) features.
Since everyone seems to be using the auto industry as a comparison: The car companies issue recalls whenever they find a defect in the design. They often do this before the Federal government forces them too. If data/time/money loss caused by bad code design was comparable to injury/damage caused by bad auto design, perhaps software would reach a point where patching is rare, and things work as advertised in the first place, similar to the auto industry?
Kinda messy, but I think I got my point across....
It seems to me that both the x000 mile tunnel, or a ?? mile track up the side of a mountain would both be pretty much ruined by the first tectonic activity in the area.
I kinda had the impression that was pretty much Lockheed's fault. "Wait a minute, you mean to tell me Lockheed still uses the imperial system? Where the hell did they get there engineering degrees?" As understood it, even the US military uses metric for their systems. Lockheed's making 21st century equipment using 19th century measurements?
I can believe it. I don't touch type because it's awkward, especially on a standard keyboard. I have a natural keyboard at home that I use two handed, and tend to type one-handed at work on the standard sized boards. (I have rather large hands)
Slashdot Mirror
This strikes me as very strange. When I was at the U of A, the student union had a standing offer of cash for quality notes, which they would package, publish, and sell to students during the next term. Guess its an American thing...
While I believe that there will be localized utility failures, and a lot of consumer electronics will fail (Any dates in mid-80's automobile computer systems?), my only major concern is the possibility of militias, cults, or other assorted lunatics launching massive biological/nuclear/explosive/chemical/etc. attacks around the world. While such things could happen anytime, the unstable extremists who would do something along these lines are more likely to try to do such things on signifigant dates.
Even a small attack with minimal casualties could create a nation-wide panic, possibly even inciting riots, as the portion of the public that is sitting at home watching CNN with their gun(s) in hand decide that their city could be next in line for whatever type of attack the talking head is describing.
The original series is looked back at with fondness for a good reason: It ended before it got too old, unlike almost every single American tv series. Each show was new, in at least some way. Each show of each series since then has felt less and less original. Combined with comparisons to previous Trek series, they wind up recycling their own story lines, and also have to be distinct from other SciFi shows/movies/books.
In the 1960's, Trek was original. Noone had really seen something like this before. In the 1980's, the only people who hadn't seen everything TNG was doing were the youngsters like me. DS9 was fairly new to people (like me again) who hadn't seen a certain other sci-fi series on cable. Voyager... well Voyager's just bad.
The article talks alot about the crew of the original ship being more interesting. They are. Even though the characters are under-developed and over-acted, they had much stronger relations to each other. Because of the simplicity of the characters, clear dynamics were easily created. The later series characters all evolved (somewhat), and had more complex relationships that changed over the span of the series. While this would seem like a Good Thing, it isn't in this case. With the simple, immediate relationships in the original series, the viewer could quickly get involved in the story. Of course, if the original series had been allowed to drag out forever like most American series, the weak characters would have become incredibly boring and trite.
In the end, the franchise is dying because Trek is becoming just one of many sci-fi shows, instead of the only one. And it doesn't compare favourably most of the time.
Ok, I've reread the article. They do talk about the new research indicating that new nuerons can form in all parts of the brain. However, this really doesn't seem to be the point of the article. The new research is actually written of for ~20% of the article. The first half of the first section is a long introduction, and the second section is a review of the current thinking on the importance of the "brain-formative" years of early life. The article reminds me of many a high school paper that was stretched to meet a word count requirement.
Don't missunderstand me. I agree that unbiased reporting is a Good Thing. What I was trying to express is that I feel that an article isn't worthwhile unless there is new research that supports one of the two scientific camps' positions.
It seems to me that this Times article is saying "Noone knows for sure, but some people think this, and others think the opposite." Write an article when someone can actually influence the arguement one way or the other.
Then the
slashdot slash
dot
account that I set up shouldn't be shared?
(BTW, there's a space b4 and after the dot pswd)
While I've heard "legos" alot more since I got older, when I was young enough to have my own, they were "lego" to me and everyone I knew.
Best thing about Phantom Menace: Gave me an excuse to buy some lego. I've got an X-wing sitting on top of my tower.
Looky what I found...
cascade
Pronunciation: (")kas-'kAd
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from Italian cascata, from cascare to fall, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin casicare, from Latin casus fall
1 : a steep usually small fall of water; especially : one of a series
2 a : something arranged or occurring in a series or in a succession of stages so that each stage derives from or acts upon the product of the preceding [blood clotting involves a biochemical cascade]
2 b : a fall of material (as lace) that hangs in a zigzag line
3 : something falling or rushing forth in quantity [a cascade of sound] [a cascade of events]
They're that too.
Although I've never heard of a river or mountain range specifically named the Cascades, I have heard the term before. As I understand it, a cascade is basically a rapid in the river. Cascades are therefore "whitewater" areas in the river. I've always heard it pronounced kass-kades.
Resonance Cascade Failure, anyone?
I tend to agree with the original post. Gameboy won because it had games worth playing. I bought Sega's handheld, because of its colour capabilities. It killed batteries like you wouldn't believe, and I never found a single game for it that didn't suck.
Hey, I'd love to relagate my truck to out-of-town travel and transportation of material. But as it stands, I just can't handle the inconvienince and aggravation involved in public transit.
How do you propose to convince millions of North Americans to switch from a 20 minute commute to a hour+ bus/train ride, on a vehicle that is either very hot or very cold, requiring one to wait in the weather, show up either 20 minutes early or 20 minutes late to work/school, purchase only what can easily be carried and held in both hands, and prevents easy travel out of town?
They already do. The cop doesn't even have to be there. It's called photo radar.
Because if recreational drugs are gone, then all that's left are the (for some reason) socially acceptable valium, ritalin, and prozak.
Maybe the shirts that they had for themselves had NO2. I'm not really sure, since I've never had one. I've never actually used anything illegal... Guess I should have said AFAIK..... hippie crack??
Same campaign that Nitrous Oxide users got such a kick out of? Just say NO is funny as he11 when your sucking lauging gas.
Oh goody. An old-school capitalist....
Anyhow. Your right, its not possible to remove all bugs in large software, and increasing complexity increases bug counts. Maybe if software makers are held responsible for a significant effort (Yes, that is vague. Vague legal terms like this are what we have judges for, to set the precedent on what constitutes significant effort.) to fix any bugs in released software, they would be encouraged to improve their code and perform real quality testing before release, rather than bloating it with new (and mostly unwanted/unnecessary) features.
Since everyone seems to be using the auto industry as a comparison: The car companies issue recalls whenever they find a defect in the design. They often do this before the Federal government forces them too. If data/time/money loss caused by bad code design was comparable to injury/damage caused by bad auto design, perhaps software would reach a point where patching is rare, and things work as advertised in the first place, similar to the auto industry?
Kinda messy, but I think I got my point across....
It seems to me that both the x000 mile tunnel, or a ?? mile track up the side of a mountain would both be pretty much ruined by the first tectonic activity in the area.
I kinda had the impression that was pretty much Lockheed's fault. "Wait a minute, you mean to tell me Lockheed still uses the imperial system? Where the hell did they get there engineering degrees?" As understood it, even the US military uses metric for their systems. Lockheed's making 21st century equipment using 19th century measurements?
I can believe it. I don't touch type because it's awkward, especially on a standard keyboard. I have a natural keyboard at home that I use two handed, and tend to type one-handed at work on the standard sized boards. (I have rather large hands)