They could just be having their server redirect any GET requests (or some subset of all possible GET requests, like all their articles) to a lower-bandwidth version by checking if HTTP_REFER="slashdot".
They don't need a "concept" of self to "refer" or "view" themselves or those ants around them. It's possible to build self-referential systems that are completely mechanical in nature. Any programming system with recursion has this ability, for example.
So close...the pictures I've seen of the bowers always show some walls rather than a huge house, and as far as I know the bowers paint the inside of their 'house', whereas the species I'm thinking of does not. I think the mysterious bird is from South America.
There's a species of tropical birds (sorry I forget the name) where the male is responsible for building the house. So it gathers all the sticks and builds itself a multi-story house. Then is clears out the ground floor so its nice and clean. Then it goes out and gathers the finest flowers it can find and groups them into a pile on the ground floor. It does the same thing with the finest fruits. Then it lines the entrance-way to the house with some more fruit. Then, very proud of itself, it calls for the females to come check out his crib. Whoever builds the nicest house gets the hottest chicks. If that's not "smart and intelligent", then I don't know what is. And no, I'm not making this up.
We refer to the communal insects as workers, drones, and queens, and you're assuming that they view eachother in the same fashion. For all we know, they refer to themselves as "worker who's good at finding x part of y leaf", "worker who's good at regurgitating food", "worker who's exceptionally good at cleaning off the young"...etc etc. The biology terms are just convenient classifications for us stupid, time-strapped humans and do not refect reality.
A huge swarth of people who get convicted for life or death are poor and stupid minorities who are sentenced with usually little more than one person saying "I swear I saw the defendent...sure it was dark but I swear it!" The criminal justice system in the country (U.S.) is in such a poor state that I don't see how digital evidence is such a huge step backwards. Do you really think it would have been easier to free (or convict) O.J. if the photos of the crimescene were digital?
*shrug* You don't find it a little strange that out of the 300 million people in this country, our two choices for President are not only going to be from the same college, but from the same secret society that has a mere 800 living members?
I mean, seriously....haven't they been paying attention to the friendly hackers? Once it gets popular we'll break the DRM faster than Bush can say "weapons of mass destruction."
Considering most people in the U.S. don't have broadband, this seems rather premature. And would those with broadband really want to wait an hour or ten to watch what, compared to a DVD, is pixelated crap? Would you really want to invite your gf to watch some grainy compressed video or would you splurge on the $3 DVD rental?
Alot of this has to do more with the traditional media than the internet--it works like this: a) the news-companies (all 4 of them, these days) pick the favored cadidate for president, the one that people don't think is a sell-out, and talk him up for about a year. Then b) turn on him with 2 months before the primaries and publishing nothing but horrible things about him. Then c) the regular establishment guy win the election and things go on as normal.
Don't believe me? The news on Dean was pure shit nonsense right before the primaries. All they covered was crap like "ohhhh, he has a temper!" "oooh he's angry" "ooohhh, he looks like a groundhog!" (seriously, does anyone give a damn if he has a temper? he'd have to deal with generals and foreign leaders on a daily bassis, he'd better have a damned temper!) And then, Kerry wins the 'popular' vote for in Iowa and New Hampshire, and everyone declares Dean dead-in-the-water. Except, wait, he won more delegates than Kerry, which, in a delgate rate, put him in the lead.
People talk about how Dean isn't presidential enough, or Dean is too liberal, or whatever nonsense. The fact of the matter is that the media played those parts up at the expense of his other traits, and the Grand Ol' Internet didn't change any of that.
WAKE UP! This isn't the 50's! It no longer takes any skill to write code for 90% of the world's applications! Programmers spent too much time and money writing code to make their code-writing easier, and now you're wondering why all it takes is a mouse and VisualBasic to write a production-level application. PROGRAMMING IS EASY! Which means you can a) try to code for NASA or the military, b) start your own company, c) move up in the corporate ranks where planning is more important than coding, or d) move to India.
Corporations want code thats easy to write, easy to debug, has limited impact, and can be taught to anyone. This will allow them to still at least break even while reducing risk immensely, in turn increasing their profits elsewhere. THEY DON'T WANT YOUR PROGRAMMING SKILLS. (this is why IT is often billed as an "expense" rather than as an "investment" in most corporate accounting books)
Easy: We cannot import from India more than the sum of what we export (to all countries).
Not true: when we export too much, we can just over there and blow it all to hell. Unless you count going to war an export, in which case we're set anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
LONG LIVE THE SCTROLL!
OMG! This is the map to the hidden WMD in Iraq!! Someone, call a Republican!
They could just be having their server redirect any GET requests (or some subset of all possible GET requests, like all their articles) to a lower-bandwidth version by checking if HTTP_REFER="slashdot".
They don't need a "concept" of self to "refer" or "view" themselves or those ants around them. It's possible to build self-referential systems that are completely mechanical in nature. Any programming system with recursion has this ability, for example.
So close...the pictures I've seen of the bowers always show some walls rather than a huge house, and as far as I know the bowers paint the inside of their 'house', whereas the species I'm thinking of does not. I think the mysterious bird is from South America.
There's a species of tropical birds (sorry I forget the name) where the male is responsible for building the house. So it gathers all the sticks and builds itself a multi-story house. Then is clears out the ground floor so its nice and clean. Then it goes out and gathers the finest flowers it can find and groups them into a pile on the ground floor. It does the same thing with the finest fruits. Then it lines the entrance-way to the house with some more fruit. Then, very proud of itself, it calls for the females to come check out his crib. Whoever builds the nicest house gets the hottest chicks. If that's not "smart and intelligent", then I don't know what is. And no, I'm not making this up.
They probably admire your efficiency in your support of the Hive.
We refer to the communal insects as workers, drones, and queens, and you're assuming that they view eachother in the same fashion. For all we know, they refer to themselves as "worker who's good at finding x part of y leaf", "worker who's good at regurgitating food", "worker who's exceptionally good at cleaning off the young"...etc etc. The biology terms are just convenient classifications for us stupid, time-strapped humans and do not refect reality.
The campers of the world must be rejoicing.
A huge swarth of people who get convicted for life or death are poor and stupid minorities who are sentenced with usually little more than one person saying "I swear I saw the defendent...sure it was dark but I swear it!" The criminal justice system in the country (U.S.) is in such a poor state that I don't see how digital evidence is such a huge step backwards. Do you really think it would have been easier to free (or convict) O.J. if the photos of the crimescene were digital?
Kerry went to Yale, but was in Skull and Bones. The Real Establishment.
BEND OVER. (+ 7: You're working for The Man now, buddy)
HIRE A LAWYER.
Great, just what America needs, another huge-assed phallus.
You Republicans are just still pissed off that Clinton was the most popular president since Kennedy and too smart to let you shoot him.
mmmmmm......nanopr0n.
I mean, seriously....haven't they been paying attention to the friendly hackers? Once it gets popular we'll break the DRM faster than Bush can say "weapons of mass destruction."
Considering most people in the U.S. don't have broadband, this seems rather premature. And would those with broadband really want to wait an hour or ten to watch what, compared to a DVD, is pixelated crap? Would you really want to invite your gf to watch some grainy compressed video or would you splurge on the $3 DVD rental?
Don't believe me? The news on Dean was pure shit nonsense right before the primaries. All they covered was crap like "ohhhh, he has a temper!" "oooh he's angry" "ooohhh, he looks like a groundhog!" (seriously, does anyone give a damn if he has a temper? he'd have to deal with generals and foreign leaders on a daily bassis, he'd better have a damned temper!) And then, Kerry wins the 'popular' vote for in Iowa and New Hampshire, and everyone declares Dean dead-in-the-water. Except, wait, he won more delegates than Kerry, which, in a delgate rate, put him in the lead.
People talk about how Dean isn't presidential enough, or Dean is too liberal, or whatever nonsense. The fact of the matter is that the media played those parts up at the expense of his other traits, and the Grand Ol' Internet didn't change any of that.
It's another duplicate for christ's sake.
Heh, somehow, frowing at the Marines doesn't seem to be very effective...
Corporations want code thats easy to write, easy to debug, has limited impact, and can be taught to anyone. This will allow them to still at least break even while reducing risk immensely, in turn increasing their profits elsewhere. THEY DON'T WANT YOUR PROGRAMMING SKILLS. (this is why IT is often billed as an "expense" rather than as an "investment" in most corporate accounting books)
Face it people, RMS is right.
Thats cause Tim writes in Java and ColdFusion. Tim Sr. still programs in Cobol and Fortran, and is thoroughly over-booked.
Not true: when we export too much, we can just over there and blow it all to hell. Unless you count going to war an export, in which case we're set anyway.