"entropy is a thorough bitch"
Agreed! Quantum mechanics, M theory, whatever, is nothing--once we figure out thermodynamcs, then I'll be impressed with the (abstract) mental capabilities human race.
I agree with you. Though there is no "evidence", the big bang is wrong--you can tell because theres not an either/or (aka cyclic, aka eastern, aka ying yang) explanation. Anything put across as without an opposite has to be wrong. Either that, or all of group theory (math of symmetries) is wrong. Take your pick, I personallyt prefer the symmetric version.
I doubt AOL has anything to do with it. If you remember, CNN regularly employs a small division (corporate, not military) of U.S. Army Psyops people, you know, the guys that are supposed to brainwash and mislead the BadGuys. They (CNN) regularly tows the U.S. Administration's line, all too happy to report or not report things as the military sees fit. The news in this country has been biased for quite a long time (say, 70 years at least), so this isn't anything new.
There are some reports here, here, and here. A general thing from the military is here. I don't have time to find a more radical critique, as I'm in the middle of class.
My opinion though is that the executives are lying concering what they knew, it just isn't feasable that top corporate executives wouldn't at least gets a little wink wink from their secretaries or whoever. They may not have encouraged it, but they certainly acquised. The U.S. military has a long tradition, at least since the perpetual wars we've been fighting since Vietnam (read your history books, we've been in constant war since WWII), of actively manipulating the domestic press to suit its own purposes. In addition to active maniplation, they lie constantly in press briefings. Whether they have a good reason to do this, I have no idea, but they're certainly not acting like the Constitution decrees.
...it just wasn't popular. There's a big difference, what with corporations dictating mass appeal. OS/2 just didn't have the $$$.
Re:Biologists and Psychologists Abuse this...
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Digital Biology
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Actually, computer viruses are programs that were written by someone with intent. Real viruses and their ancestors evolved from nothing (read: non-organic matter) and are an instrinsic feature of life on this planet...unless a computer viruses spontaneously organizes itself out of nowhere and spreads throughout the networks, the anaology really isn't that tight. My linux box at least isn't running around, writing its own code yet.
I can't wait until someone figures out how to peddle porn to all the little kids with internet capable gaming systems. Those things are so powerful now, I bet streaming video would look real nice...
Maybe I should clarify my drunken rambling...my point was just that computers in 10 or 20 years will be off the wall. I'm personally tired of people speculating about the future of computers. Noone knows for sure its all just people wagging their egos. Even Alan just has his head up his ass, so focused on coding. In 20 years computers won't even resemble anything remotely close to what we have now. We'll be using DNA grafted into our skin or something I don't know. And in 30 years....Jesus, I doubt the term "OS" or "Application" will even have any meaning. Programming probally won't even exist as we know it know.
Um...isn't everything going to be an internet app in 10 years? It took us less than 10 years for the net (read: WWW) to hit hardcore mainstream. In that time computers went from geek ware intel 286s to Pentium 4s with mainstream users who didn't even know what a mouse pointer was.
My point is, in 10 years, everyone is going to want to use a computer, use the internet, and use them both together, seamlessly, all the time. On everything, from comptuers to PDAs to the fridge. We'll have computers that'll blow your mind and enough bandwidth (well, maybe not enough) to do just about anything. Linux and windows won't have anything to do with this. Get over it. The only thing will matter is the user interface. The computer won't matter, because they'll be extremely powerful, and the OS won't matter, because most people won't even be able to say what "OS" stands for. The only way to get consistent interfaces across multiple platforms that are internet ready is to just have them be IAs and have it all run off a central server. The dumb terminal will have its revenge.
Seems like they (governments) would want microsoft to exist. My logic is this: computers can't remain free forever. They're too powerful. Either the state/etc gets subverted to the computer or the computer to the state. And since someone can always come along a blow up a computer or take control of a pipeline, I'd be surprised if governments just sit back and let people use computers to undermine them. It'd would be real nice if everyone used microsoft products in a decade, and the government just decided to step in a nationalize the whole thing.
Pure speculation of course, but something is going to have to give pretty soon. Computers are just too powerful.
Haven't we screwed up our planet enough? Why would we even want to go to Mars without even figuring out how to provide a decent, respectable life for people here? It's not like we need to just keep spreading expodentially over the entire damn universe.
Actually, if you own a copy of the institutional version, you don't have to regiser with MS and can feel free to copy as much as you want. The keys are just there to make things difficult, as they know they'll stick make tons from business and universities that can't afford to be caught using pirated software.
Haha. I hope they realize this thing'll be impossible to secure. You'd have to have a police state or something close to it to regulate and set the baby up, protect it from damages.
I can't wait to throw a party when someone hacks it.
Re:Sure, it was started by the DoD, but...
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Collateral Damage
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P.S. You know one of those freedoms is called freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. I'm exercising it now. The government gave me that unconditionally, and they're in no way immune from any sort of comment or criticism now that the gun is pointed the other way.
Re:Sure, it was started by the DoD, but...
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Collateral Damage
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Check out my other post, re: using bombs.
Otherwise, you need to grow up. Take a look around you. People aren't here (America) for freedom. They're here for security. There's a big difference. Your freedoms will disapear in an instant when security becomes a problem. The reason we have security is because we kill very very effectively. Theres no other way to do it.
You have freedoms because we're the richest, most powerful empire the world has ever seen, and we can kill people faster, quicker, and cheaper. Freedoms aren't created out of thin air, you know, just like energy can't be. It has to come from somewhere and it comes off the backs of about 4 billion+ people, probally more, elsehwere in the world, who we fuck on a daily basis so they don't fuck us. So don't give me this moralist hypocrite shit. Everyones got plenty of blood on their hands.
Oh, and by the way, America isn't all nice and pretty. Theres plenty of poor, fucked people in this country who feed your freedoms as well. Plenty of immigrants, plenty of sweatshops. In fact, last I checked, your pretty Department of Defense ran a few massive sweat shops in Appalachia. They're doing such a wonderful job of helping protect those freedoms, huh?
Then again, if you read the news, or the occassional book, you'd know this.
Re:Sure, it was started by the DoD, but...
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Collateral Damage
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Well assuming you dropped the bomb, sure. But last I checked, people pay to have people fight for them. In that case its not about whose smart and whose not, since you didn't just create the bomb out of your own genius, targeted it to maximum efficiency, etc. You're just along for the ride, like everyone else. The fist reference was to the chap who wanted to kick me out of this fine American country of ours, since he wanted to show his smarts by dropping a bomb on me, rather than using the age-old addage of "man, i'll fuck you up".
LOL. 'George W not a extremist.' HAHAHAHA. Good one. I like. Where are you from, the Fed or something?
On a more reasonable note, the guys too fucking dumb to be anything but a pawn, you know. Since he can't even conjugate verbs correctly, his cabinet and daddy's friends keep him on a tight leash.
The 48 billion is the recent rise, which puts us at 370 billion total or something, which means what we spend on our military is roughly equivilant to what half or more of the world spends on everything (water, eelectricity, dear o dear central plumbing and malaria pills).
Oh, and BTW, that little Balkan war, that was of course not over humanitarian issues either. This is proved quite easily by the fact that theres not been a shred of evidence that there were mass butcherings going on before we went over there--in other words, they (politicians, newspapers, military) lied to us.
Re:Sure, it was started by the DoD, but...
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Collateral Damage
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· Score: 1
Ha you prick. I vote, I pay my taxes. I probally paid for some of this damn war. Its called freedom of speech. I'll say whatever i damn well please. You got a problem with that?
Cruise missile? Jesus. No wonder this country is heading down the shitter. People don't even want to fight with their fists, they want some 20 year old pimply faced kid dropping bombs from 30k feet for them instead, while they sit on their fat ass and watch TV.
What the hell is wrong with you. Can't you read? Go to the library, pull out your history books, and you'll see that America, like every powerful country in the history of man, has never acted out of humanitarian intersts. Theres a quick way of proving this, since this (America) is the land of the Almighty Dollar: the recent defense budget up, at what, 48 billion or something, is equal to the entire foreign aid of europe. Meaning, what we give in humanitarian assistance to other people is effectively zero. It only seems like alot because you're thinking with your ass, which has a little propaganda-laced newpaper probally stuck up it. Don't believe what you read in the newspapers kid. Well, at least don't believe American newspapers will tell you the truth about America. If you read foreign news you'll see this quite rapidly, and I'm not even talking China'a People Daily. The damn Brits even have better coverage of what we do and they're obviously part of the whole System.
I Agree!
Sure, in Real Life he's a rich, card-carrying Republican asshole, but on screen, he's damn fun to watch.
Sure, it was started by the DoD, but...
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Collateral Damage
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· Score: 1
Hey, you know, America doesn't own or control the entire Internet. So comments like how wonderful and brave our (I'm american) soldiers are, who are running around killing and butchering people the world over, is a little fucking inappropriate considering some of the readers of/. are probally being fucked by America right now. Almost all of the people in the world hate those soldiers and the people who pay their taxes to support it. Something to think about.
What I mean is, computers are probally the most significant, far reaching, invention that humans, and our human ancestors, have ever invented--just short of fire, in fact. Well, I guess agriculture beats out computers. But that puts em at third place. By loose logic, it follows that software and code being developed and given away for FREE on those machines has the potential to shape and transform human society more than almost anything else. You wanna start the next revolution? Think Marx was right? Stick your ass into high gear, code like mad, and trust me, you will shake the titans of industry. Some call those people tyrants. You'd be hero, you know. After all, computers programmers will control the future, I think that much is clear. Well, maybe not. The military will control the future. But programmers will get to write the history books, and if you think Bill Gates is going to go down favorably in the history books written by a bunch of programmers, you're probally quite mistaken.
I think we need to clear up our terminology a bit.
The term "evolution" describes a process that can only occur in the present. Things do not evolve in the past or evolve in the future, they evolve now. While you're sitting here reading this, evolution is occuring all over the world, in every single species, humans included. Evolution is not an either/or situation, it is a description of a population distribution that is changing. WHY it is changing, we have no fucking clue. We say it is changing towards the 'fittest' member of the population, but we have no real way yet of determining in advance who will be fit and who will not be. So don't get your underwear in such a tight knot.
In other words, "evolution" is a physical process of the universe. It is as inherent to the laws of nature as the 2nd law of thermodynamics. In fact, the reasons why creatures evolve, or why things evolve in general, is directly linked to thermodynamics, information content, and entropy. Evolution is quite firmly based in these laws, which I think its fair to say, are irrefutable.
That doesn't mean you have to act out your life as if what I said has any meaning. You wanna worshop elephants or a big white man in the sky, go ahead. But to say evolution doesn't exist or isn't occuring right now is like saying that things fall away from gravitational force, and not towards it.
Slashdot Mirror
"entropy is a thorough bitch"
Agreed! Quantum mechanics, M theory, whatever, is nothing--once we figure out thermodynamcs, then I'll be impressed with the (abstract) mental capabilities human race.
;)
I agree with you. Though there is no "evidence", the big bang is wrong--you can tell because theres not an either/or (aka cyclic, aka eastern, aka ying yang) explanation. Anything put across as without an opposite has to be wrong. Either that, or all of group theory (math of symmetries) is wrong. Take your pick, I personallyt prefer the symmetric version.
fascists!
There are some reports here, here, and here. A general thing from the military is here. I don't have time to find a more radical critique, as I'm in the middle of class.
My opinion though is that the executives are lying concering what they knew, it just isn't feasable that top corporate executives wouldn't at least gets a little wink wink from their secretaries or whoever. They may not have encouraged it, but they certainly acquised. The U.S. military has a long tradition, at least since the perpetual wars we've been fighting since Vietnam (read your history books, we've been in constant war since WWII), of actively manipulating the domestic press to suit its own purposes. In addition to active maniplation, they lie constantly in press briefings. Whether they have a good reason to do this, I have no idea, but they're certainly not acting like the Constitution decrees.
Correct, like that saying, he who values security over freedom will soon find he has neither.
...it just wasn't popular. There's a big difference, what with corporations dictating mass appeal. OS/2 just didn't have the $$$.
Actually, computer viruses are programs that were written by someone with intent. Real viruses and their ancestors evolved from nothing (read: non-organic matter) and are an instrinsic feature of life on this planet...unless a computer viruses spontaneously organizes itself out of nowhere and spreads throughout the networks, the anaology really isn't that tight. My linux box at least isn't running around, writing its own code yet.
I can't wait until someone figures out how to peddle porn to all the little kids with internet capable gaming systems. Those things are so powerful now, I bet streaming video would look real nice...
Maybe I should clarify my drunken rambling...my point was just that computers in 10 or 20 years will be off the wall. I'm personally tired of people speculating about the future of computers. Noone knows for sure its all just people wagging their egos. Even Alan just has his head up his ass, so focused on coding. In 20 years computers won't even resemble anything remotely close to what we have now. We'll be using DNA grafted into our skin or something I don't know. And in 30 years....Jesus, I doubt the term "OS" or "Application" will even have any meaning. Programming probally won't even exist as we know it know.
My point is, in 10 years, everyone is going to want to use a computer, use the internet, and use them both together, seamlessly, all the time. On everything, from comptuers to PDAs to the fridge. We'll have computers that'll blow your mind and enough bandwidth (well, maybe not enough) to do just about anything. Linux and windows won't have anything to do with this. Get over it. The only thing will matter is the user interface. The computer won't matter, because they'll be extremely powerful, and the OS won't matter, because most people won't even be able to say what "OS" stands for. The only way to get consistent interfaces across multiple platforms that are internet ready is to just have them be IAs and have it all run off a central server. The dumb terminal will have its revenge.
Seems like they (governments) would want microsoft to exist. My logic is this: computers can't remain free forever. They're too powerful. Either the state/etc gets subverted to the computer or the computer to the state. And since someone can always come along a blow up a computer or take control of a pipeline, I'd be surprised if governments just sit back and let people use computers to undermine them. It'd would be real nice if everyone used microsoft products in a decade, and the government just decided to step in a nationalize the whole thing. Pure speculation of course, but something is going to have to give pretty soon. Computers are just too powerful.
Haven't we screwed up our planet enough? Why would we even want to go to Mars without even figuring out how to provide a decent, respectable life for people here? It's not like we need to just keep spreading expodentially over the entire damn universe.
Actually, if you own a copy of the institutional version, you don't have to regiser with MS and can feel free to copy as much as you want. The keys are just there to make things difficult, as they know they'll stick make tons from business and universities that can't afford to be caught using pirated software.
I can't wait to throw a party when someone hacks it.
P.S. You know one of those freedoms is called freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. I'm exercising it now. The government gave me that unconditionally, and they're in no way immune from any sort of comment or criticism now that the gun is pointed the other way.
Otherwise, you need to grow up. Take a look around you. People aren't here (America) for freedom. They're here for security. There's a big difference. Your freedoms will disapear in an instant when security becomes a problem. The reason we have security is because we kill very very effectively. Theres no other way to do it.
You have freedoms because we're the richest, most powerful empire the world has ever seen, and we can kill people faster, quicker, and cheaper. Freedoms aren't created out of thin air, you know, just like energy can't be. It has to come from somewhere and it comes off the backs of about 4 billion+ people, probally more, elsehwere in the world, who we fuck on a daily basis so they don't fuck us. So don't give me this moralist hypocrite shit. Everyones got plenty of blood on their hands.
Oh, and by the way, America isn't all nice and pretty. Theres plenty of poor, fucked people in this country who feed your freedoms as well. Plenty of immigrants, plenty of sweatshops. In fact, last I checked, your pretty Department of Defense ran a few massive sweat shops in Appalachia. They're doing such a wonderful job of helping protect those freedoms, huh?
Then again, if you read the news, or the occassional book, you'd know this.
Well assuming you dropped the bomb, sure. But last I checked, people pay to have people fight for them. In that case its not about whose smart and whose not, since you didn't just create the bomb out of your own genius, targeted it to maximum efficiency, etc. You're just along for the ride, like everyone else. The fist reference was to the chap who wanted to kick me out of this fine American country of ours, since he wanted to show his smarts by dropping a bomb on me, rather than using the age-old addage of "man, i'll fuck you up".
On a more reasonable note, the guys too fucking dumb to be anything but a pawn, you know. Since he can't even conjugate verbs correctly, his cabinet and daddy's friends keep him on a tight leash.
Oh, and BTW, that little Balkan war, that was of course not over humanitarian issues either. This is proved quite easily by the fact that theres not been a shred of evidence that there were mass butcherings going on before we went over there--in other words, they (politicians, newspapers, military) lied to us.
Cruise missile? Jesus. No wonder this country is heading down the shitter. People don't even want to fight with their fists, they want some 20 year old pimply faced kid dropping bombs from 30k feet for them instead, while they sit on their fat ass and watch TV.
What the hell is wrong with you. Can't you read? Go to the library, pull out your history books, and you'll see that America, like every powerful country in the history of man, has never acted out of humanitarian intersts. Theres a quick way of proving this, since this (America) is the land of the Almighty Dollar: the recent defense budget up, at what, 48 billion or something, is equal to the entire foreign aid of europe. Meaning, what we give in humanitarian assistance to other people is effectively zero. It only seems like alot because you're thinking with your ass, which has a little propaganda-laced newpaper probally stuck up it. Don't believe what you read in the newspapers kid. Well, at least don't believe American newspapers will tell you the truth about America. If you read foreign news you'll see this quite rapidly, and I'm not even talking China'a People Daily. The damn Brits even have better coverage of what we do and they're obviously part of the whole System.
I Agree!
Sure, in Real Life he's a rich, card-carrying Republican asshole, but on screen, he's damn fun to watch.
Hey, you know, America doesn't own or control the entire Internet. So comments like how wonderful and brave our (I'm american) soldiers are, who are running around killing and butchering people the world over, is a little fucking inappropriate considering some of the readers of /. are probally being fucked by America right now. Almost all of the people in the world hate those soldiers and the people who pay their taxes to support it. Something to think about.
What I mean is, computers are probally the most significant, far reaching, invention that humans, and our human ancestors, have ever invented--just short of fire, in fact. Well, I guess agriculture beats out computers. But that puts em at third place. By loose logic, it follows that software and code being developed and given away for FREE on those machines has the potential to shape and transform human society more than almost anything else. You wanna start the next revolution? Think Marx was right? Stick your ass into high gear, code like mad, and trust me, you will shake the titans of industry. Some call those people tyrants. You'd be hero, you know. After all, computers programmers will control the future, I think that much is clear. Well, maybe not. The military will control the future. But programmers will get to write the history books, and if you think Bill Gates is going to go down favorably in the history books written by a bunch of programmers, you're probally quite mistaken.
The term "evolution" describes a process that can only occur in the present. Things do not evolve in the past or evolve in the future, they evolve now. While you're sitting here reading this, evolution is occuring all over the world, in every single species, humans included. Evolution is not an either/or situation, it is a description of a population distribution that is changing. WHY it is changing, we have no fucking clue. We say it is changing towards the 'fittest' member of the population, but we have no real way yet of determining in advance who will be fit and who will not be. So don't get your underwear in such a tight knot.
In other words, "evolution" is a physical process of the universe. It is as inherent to the laws of nature as the 2nd law of thermodynamics. In fact, the reasons why creatures evolve, or why things evolve in general, is directly linked to thermodynamics, information content, and entropy. Evolution is quite firmly based in these laws, which I think its fair to say, are irrefutable.
That doesn't mean you have to act out your life as if what I said has any meaning. You wanna worshop elephants or a big white man in the sky, go ahead. But to say evolution doesn't exist or isn't occuring right now is like saying that things fall away from gravitational force, and not towards it.