Exactly. It is tricky but nearly always possible, through good design, to create a system that works for different skill levels of users. It can be easy to use, easy to start learning, easy to install, with functionality that is easy to discover, and still be highly reliable, customizable, and efficient for people who use it all day every day.
Helios was way cooler. It was headed for continuous flight several years ago. Unfortunately it met an untimely end. I think NASA should rebuild it and continue the work. Some of the, um, pundits, on this thread don't seem to have the faintest about how it could work, but it is an awesome concept: solar panels collect all day, generating enough power to fly and to charge the hydrogen fuel cells, which power the craft all night. And it can fly high enough to be above the weather, so the sunshine will be consistent. Wicked.
why is wiretapping US citizens NOT OK while tapping foreigners OK?!?!?!
Because a government's primary job is protecting it citizens.
That includes
protecting their rights to privacy
protecting them from hostile actions of other governments and non-governmental organitzations, and
protecting their economic interests by creating beneficial (or at least not harmful) relationships with other nations
Tasks 2 and 3 are accomplished much better with excellent information about those other governments, nations, and non-governmental organizations, i.e. intelligence.
Those foreigners are people, you are correct. But the fact that they are foreigners means that they have their own government, whose job is to look after *their* interests. And believe me, *their* government has no qualms about coming here and collecting all the intelligence they can on us, and *their* government is not going to extend whatever protections they have to our citizens.
Your pushy persnickety perspicaciousness is tryannical! Linguistical opressor!! Don't you know that words want to be free?? Free to promisciously commingle with superfluous suffixal partners of their choosing? Of course, some editors around here might be giving them a little too much freedom... </jokey-joke>
Here's further justification for the growing concern of the increasing amounts of space garbage orbiting our planet
Absolutely false. That was not space junk. It was atmospheric junk, which is not a problem because it falls, burns, and rapidly becomes either vaporized or on the ground. The problem with space junk is that it just sits there in orbit and never goes away. And the orbit that it is in could cross your orbit with an extremely high closing velocity.
If we could get all of our space junk to become atmospheric junk, the problem would be solved.
But was it spicy vegetarian chili, in a commemorative tote bag? Green chili?
That gross "wallowing in its own fat" chili they have at Hard Times?
I have seen chili fly, usually after it was accompanied by a little too much booze, but I haven't seen airliners spontaneously burst forth from the flying chili. Would be cool tho.
Re:Perhaps it is calculation, not memorization
on
Wednesday Is Pi Day
·
· Score: 1
The calculations are quite tricky...
I grant that, but memorizing 100k digits is tricky, too.
I am just saying that considering the difficulty of each, I think it is entirely possible and plausible, perhaps even probable, that someone mastered the calculations and computed the digits. They also may have found shortcuts or new computation methods that made it easier.
Has there been any record of someone memorizing 100k units of anything that is not computable?
Perhaps it is calculation, not memorization
on
Wednesday Is Pi Day
·
· Score: 1
While there are certainly ways to memorize lots of things, the extremely high number of digits leads me to suspect that they are calculating rather than memorizing. If you got good enough at doing the calculations in your head, you could effectively go on reciting the digits indefinitely.
Hey, don't pick on "Over the Hedge"! I liked that movie.
And the scientific explanation of Hammie drinking an energy drink an speeding up to many times the speed of light was totally plausible.
Beneath the surface of the desert planet we will find huge stores of water and the spice melange, which will allow us to see into the future, which will enable us to travel among the stars. It's actually the poop of some giant monster worms creatures, but who cares, let's eat it anyway.
CSS is a great idea, but doing it in practice blows because the browsers vary so much in their implementation.
The most useful thing I have found to help is
QuirksMode Browser Compatability Tests. I think this guy is insane to have spent so much time testing every single feature in (nearly) every browser, but it is very, very useful to see exactly which browsers support what.
I love TiVo. It rocks. I can never go back to non-TiVo tv.
But one thing that gets on my nerves is the long, long, long time it takes to rearrange the priority order in the Season Passes. Firstly, anything that runs this long can and should be done in the background. Secondly, the job is not that hard - a decent algorithm should be able to re-plan the to-do list in very little time, certainly a few seconds or less. My old DirecTV Tivo took a long time to do it, and my new DirecTV HD DVR with TiVo takes more than five minutes to do this, during which I cannot use it for anything else. Absolutely ridiculous, and very frustrating.
I know I could create a more efficient algorithm and I'm offering to help. If you want my help pls contact me. We might even be able to make a deal where I only get compensated if I improve the performance of the algorithm. It would save millions precious minutes of their lives, and make them happier with their TiVo systems. Let's talk.
Dude. That is a frighteningly complete and detailed analysis of mind altering substances. Disturbing and yet utterly fascinating. I hope you are ok after doing all that shit. If writing and command of English is any measure, I guess you're doing better than most people around here.
it is probable that what has actually been "selected" is related more to cultural than genetic differences.
Indeed. Bloom starts with the concept of genetic evolution via group competition, and then evolves the concept to the infinitely faster evolution and spread of "memes" (ideas) and competition between the groups/cultures/subcultures/superorganisms that form around these memes. To me this was a vivid and credible explanation of the forces driving the cultural conflict we see today.
For a much more in depth look at this check out
Howard Bloom's "The Lucifer Principle".
It is an amazing new insight on how evolution really works, as competition between groups (superorganisms). He analyzes in depth the mechanisms that make drive this process. One of the main mechanisms is the pecking order, and the affect of an organism's (including a human) status in the pecking order on its biology is significant and surprising. I thought this book was amazing, revolutionary, and jam-packed with new ideas that ring true, supported by research from all corners of science.
The article mentions the
"Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology."
Is this for real? Sounds like something Bart Simpson would say while spanking to Jeri Ryan. Speaking of which, is Jeri a member? I, for one, am totally in favor of Women and Technology. And Anita Borg.
Hey Darl. Didn't know you were here.
Not a subscriber? Here, using this open source-based site, trying to get something for free? Or are you getting ready to sue/. for publishing the content of your message?
Foretold in "Cradle to Cradle"
on
Corn-Based Plastic
·
· Score: 3, Informative
This kind of thing was described/foretold/requested in the book
"Cradle to Cradle"
, by William McDonough & Michael Braungart, which after reading the/. review I bought and read. (BTW, here is
their
company)
An interesting read. Lots of propaganda, but lots of really good ideas, and a few real results, too.
Other related links
here
and
here.
Dude, stop trying to hose things up. If hollywood likes to portray us as cool, suave, mysterious techno-elite with exciting and interesting jobs, which occasionally require a bit of intrigue, and always involve a whizz-bang 3D VR GUI, what's not to like? It's much better than the truth, and worlds better than the hollywood geek stereotype of yesteryear (think "Revenge of the Nerds"). The geek populance needs all the help they can get with the chicks. And we also need all the help we can get attracting the top talent of tomorrow. Trying to "correct" someone who thinks you are cool is idiocy. And we are cooler than we think, anyway.
I was thinking about this case, and realized, if there is one company that has made a lot of money from public domain stories, it is Disney.
Think about it, what is the origin of the stories in "Snow White", "Sleeping Beauty", "Beauty and the Beast", "Cinderella", "Aladdin"?
These are all stories that are in the public domain, most of them fairy tales that appear in "The Brothers Grimm Household Tales" among other collection. "Tarzan" is in the public domain. "Treasure Island", "The Sword in the Stone", "Robin Hood"?
When your really think about it, the fact that they are trying to prevent stories from enterring the public domain is even more hypocritical.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly. It is tricky but nearly always possible, through good design, to create a system that works for different skill levels of users. It can be easy to use, easy to start learning, easy to install, with functionality that is easy to discover, and still be highly reliable, customizable, and efficient for people who use it all day every day.
Some links.
Because a government's primary job is protecting it citizens.
That includes
- protecting their rights to privacy
- protecting them from hostile actions of other governments and non-governmental organitzations, and
- protecting their economic interests by creating beneficial (or at least not harmful) relationships with other nations
Tasks 2 and 3 are accomplished much better with excellent information about those other governments, nations, and non-governmental organizations, i.e. intelligence.Those foreigners are people, you are correct. But the fact that they are foreigners means that they have their own government, whose job is to look after *their* interests. And believe me, *their* government has no qualms about coming here and collecting all the intelligence they can on us, and *their* government is not going to extend whatever protections they have to our citizens.
"...all-pervasive energy fields in the intervening space between the objects..."
a.k.a. "the Force"
Your pushy persnickety perspicaciousness is tryannical! Linguistical opressor!!
Don't you know that words want to be free?? Free to promisciously commingle with superfluous
suffixal partners of their choosing? Of course, some editors around here might be giving them
a little too much freedom...
</jokey-joke>
The answer is 2. The number 1 may not be copyrightable (yet) but Starbucks has a trademark on 20.
Hey, this Persian rug I just bought seems to have several holes in it!
Absolutely false. That was not space junk. It was atmospheric junk, which is not a problem because it falls, burns, and rapidly becomes either vaporized or on the ground. The problem with space junk is that it just sits there in orbit and never goes away. And the orbit that it is in could cross your orbit with an extremely high closing velocity.
If we could get all of our space junk to become atmospheric junk, the problem would be solved.
But was it spicy vegetarian chili, in a commemorative tote bag? Green chili? That gross "wallowing in its own fat" chili they have at Hard Times? I have seen chili fly, usually after it was accompanied by a little too much booze, but I haven't seen airliners spontaneously burst forth from the flying chili. Would be cool tho.
I'm working on a computer that runs on DARK!
I grant that, but memorizing 100k digits is tricky, too.
I am just saying that considering the difficulty of each, I think it is entirely possible and plausible, perhaps even probable, that someone mastered the calculations and computed the digits. They also may have found shortcuts or new computation methods that made it easier.
Has there been any record of someone memorizing 100k units of anything that is not computable?
While there are certainly ways to memorize lots of things, the extremely high number of digits leads me to suspect that they are calculating rather than memorizing. If you got good enough at doing the calculations in your head, you could effectively go on reciting the digits indefinitely.
Hey, don't pick on "Over the Hedge"! I liked that movie. And the scientific explanation of Hammie drinking an energy drink an speeding up to many times the speed of light was totally plausible.
Beneath the surface of the desert planet we will find huge stores of water and the spice melange, which will allow us to see into the future, which will enable us to travel among the stars. It's actually the poop of some giant monster worms creatures, but who cares, let's eat it anyway.
CSS is a great idea, but doing it in practice blows because the browsers vary so much in their implementation.
The most useful thing I have found to help is QuirksMode Browser Compatability Tests. I think this guy is insane to have spent so much time testing every single feature in (nearly) every browser, but it is very, very useful to see exactly which browsers support what.
Mr. Mack,
I love TiVo. It rocks. I can never go back to non-TiVo tv.
But one thing that gets on my nerves is the long, long, long time it takes to rearrange the priority order in the Season Passes. Firstly, anything that runs this long can and should be done in the background. Secondly, the job is not that hard - a decent algorithm should be able to re-plan the to-do list in very little time, certainly a few seconds or less. My old DirecTV Tivo took a long time to do it, and my new DirecTV HD DVR with TiVo takes more than five minutes to do this, during which I cannot use it for anything else. Absolutely ridiculous, and very frustrating.
I know I could create a more efficient algorithm and I'm offering to help. If you want my help pls contact me. We might even be able to make a deal where I only get compensated if I improve the performance of the algorithm. It would save millions precious minutes of their lives, and make them happier with their TiVo systems. Let's talk.
Dude.
That is a frighteningly complete and detailed analysis of mind altering substances. Disturbing and yet utterly fascinating.
I hope you are ok after doing all that shit. If writing and command of English is any measure, I guess you're doing better than most people around here.
Damn!! Back to the drawing board on the rock band name.
Indeed. Bloom starts with the concept of genetic evolution via group competition, and then evolves the concept to the infinitely faster evolution and spread of "memes" (ideas) and competition between the groups/cultures/subcultures/superorganisms that form around these memes. To me this was a vivid and credible explanation of the forces driving the cultural conflict we see today.
For a much more in depth look at this check out Howard Bloom's "The Lucifer Principle". It is an amazing new insight on how evolution really works, as competition between groups (superorganisms). He analyzes in depth the mechanisms that make drive this process. One of the main mechanisms is the pecking order, and the affect of an organism's (including a human) status in the pecking order on its biology is significant and surprising. I thought this book was amazing, revolutionary, and jam-packed with new ideas that ring true, supported by research from all corners of science.
The article mentions the "Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology." Is this for real? Sounds like something Bart Simpson would say while spanking to Jeri Ryan. Speaking of which, is Jeri a member? I, for one, am totally in favor of Women and Technology. And Anita Borg.
Hey Darl. Didn't know you were here. /. for publishing the content of your message?
Not a subscriber? Here, using this open source-based site, trying to get something for free? Or are you getting ready to sue
This kind of thing was described/foretold/requested in the book "Cradle to Cradle" , by William McDonough & Michael Braungart, which after reading the /. review I bought and read. (BTW, here is
their
company)
An interesting read. Lots of propaganda, but lots of really good ideas, and a few real results, too.
Other related links
here
and
here.
Dude, stop trying to hose things up. If hollywood likes to portray us as cool, suave, mysterious techno-elite with exciting and interesting jobs, which occasionally require a bit of intrigue, and always involve a whizz-bang 3D VR GUI, what's not to like? It's much better than the truth, and worlds better than the hollywood geek stereotype of yesteryear (think "Revenge of the Nerds"). The geek populance needs all the help they can get with the chicks. And we also need all the help we can get attracting the top talent of tomorrow. Trying to "correct" someone who thinks you are cool is idiocy. And we are cooler than we think, anyway.
When your really think about it, the fact that they are trying to prevent stories from enterring the public domain is even more hypocritical.