I RTFA, but it didn't discuss why 1 billion ly was such a big deal. Don't we look at stars (albeit clustered into galaxies) that are much farther away than that all the time? Is this a record for looking at individual stars?
...why it didn't stop every other country in the world from converting to metric decades ago...
Because the USA is one of the few countries (other than Canada) that (a) industrialized before about 1950 and (b) didn't have most of its existing industrial base wiped out in a world war or two.
...restricting the supply of a panacea could potentially result in higher profits...
This works while you have patent control. Once you lose the monopoly, though, this plan goes out the window, so this isn't really a long-term concern.
Some governments would rather not see portions of their populations vaccinated, because of corruption or other political factors (rebellions, civil wars, etc.).
Probably, but this has nothing to do with my point that greed isn't preventing panacaeas.
And certain governments would force the inventors of panaceas to give them the rights to produce cheap versions. That would undoubtedly benefit the population as a whole, but would serve as a major disincentive to produce said panacea.
Meaning that it probably would not benefit the population as a whole, unless one believes that no panacaea is better than an expensive one. But again, this has nothing to do with my point - I certainly agree that government theft disincentivizes research.
Won't help. Crichton will just write a novel in which chaos theory causes the Super-Vaccine to react with our genetic material in such a way that we all transform into dinosaurs.
I think it's simply very hard to produce a panacaea. I find it hard to believe that human greed is the reason we don't have more panacaeas. After all, if I had a vaccine that prevented all infectious diseases (say), think how much I could sell it for! Greed would drive my interest in developing and marketing this vaccine, not in holding it back.
Similarly, if you could create a computer system that never needed upgrading and had all the capabilities of existing systems, you could sell it for a hefty markup. But this is extremely hard to do.
Hmmmm, interesting. I don't see the advantages over XML if you do this, though. In fact, it seems worse (to me). What problems do you see this technique as solving?
OK, M[r|s] Deliberately Obtuse: SQL is not a data-exchange format, it's a query language. SQL is to relational data as XQuery is to XML. So it's a bit silly to say that if you want to exchange relational data, you should use SQL.
A good way to think of it is to imagine us as living on the skin of a balloon as it is being blown up. You are moving away from every other point uniformly, but you aren't near the "edge".
In more physics-friendly language, there are only two possibilities - either the universe is open or it's closed. If it's open, then it's infinite in all directions and there is no edge (we don't think this is the case, but it's still technically possible). If it's closed, then there simply is no edge because as you travel in any direction you curve around to head back where you came from.
It might also help to realize that while the visible universe may be "only" 14 billion light years or so in radius, the longest dimension of a closed universe could be several times this number due to inflationary expansion. So we may not be seeing everything that's actually out there.
Wow, under $10. I pay nearly $5 just for the privilege of getting a bill!
Get this - I have two properties, technically, because one of them is an unattached garage elsewhere in the condo development. The electric company can't combine two properties onto one bill, so I get two bills. The one for the garage gets (naturally) almost no usage - it's just raising and lowering the door, plus whatever wattage the light uses while it's on, plus whatever the main overhead bulb uses when my wife turns in on and forgets to turn it back off. Generally this adds up to under 1 kW-h per month; my usage is often "0". Nonetheless, my bill is still a minimum of $4.63.
I actually called the electric company and asked them to just read the meter once a year, but of course they couldn't do that. Unheard of! The meter reader is probably unionized and could bring a lawsuit if he didn't get paid to read that damn garage meter every month.
Same here. As my existing incandescents burn out, I replace them with CFs. From time to time I compare notes on energy usage in my condo with other people and I'm always way below them. Part of this is that my wife and I don't keep the house too frosty in the summer, but part of it is no doubt due to the CF bulbs. I live in a 2700 sf place and we rarely pay over $100 a month in electricity. In winter (when I'm paying for gas heat instead) the electricity bill is often around $50.
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Slashdot Mirror
I assume all your programs store dates with at least 5- or 6-digit years, right? Since you're thinking that far ahead?
When you read Slashdot, you are looking back in time approx. 1.7e-9 seconds*, assuming you sit about 50cm from your screen.
* May be more if you're reading a dupe.
I RTFA, but it didn't discuss why 1 billion ly was such a big deal. Don't we look at stars (albeit clustered into galaxies) that are much farther away than that all the time? Is this a record for looking at individual stars?
I claim it's both.
Because this is a computer-oriented forum, and here we realize that P implies Q does not mean that not-P implies not-Q. Duh!
Because the USA is one of the few countries (other than Canada) that (a) industrialized before about 1950 and (b) didn't have most of its existing industrial base wiped out in a world war or two.
Exactly, which is why America hasn't adopted the metric system wholesale.
Do pulsars dream of magnetic sheep?
This works while you have patent control. Once you lose the monopoly, though, this plan goes out the window, so this isn't really a long-term concern.
Probably, but this has nothing to do with my point that greed isn't preventing panacaeas.
Meaning that it probably would not benefit the population as a whole, unless one believes that no panacaea is better than an expensive one. But again, this has nothing to do with my point - I certainly agree that government theft disincentivizes research.
Won't help. Crichton will just write a novel in which chaos theory causes the Super-Vaccine to react with our genetic material in such a way that we all transform into dinosaurs.
Counterexamples: polio, smallpox.
I think it's simply very hard to produce a panacaea. I find it hard to believe that human greed is the reason we don't have more panacaeas. After all, if I had a vaccine that prevented all infectious diseases (say), think how much I could sell it for! Greed would drive my interest in developing and marketing this vaccine, not in holding it back.
Similarly, if you could create a computer system that never needed upgrading and had all the capabilities of existing systems, you could sell it for a hefty markup. But this is extremely hard to do.
But the Russian mafia is the government.
And they have nukes!
I can see the headlines now: BEVERLY HILLS CONVERTED TO PARKING LOT IN REPRISAL OVER ALLOFMP3 SUIT
In other words, between the Hollywood mafia and the Russian mafia?
Hmmmm, interesting. I don't see the advantages over XML if you do this, though. In fact, it seems worse (to me). What problems do you see this technique as solving?
OK, M[r|s] Deliberately Obtuse: SQL is not a data-exchange format, it's a query language. SQL is to relational data as XQuery is to XML. So it's a bit silly to say that if you want to exchange relational data, you should use SQL.
Silly lameness filter requires me to type something...
Could you send me a file in SQL format?
A good way to think of it is to imagine us as living on the skin of a balloon as it is being blown up. You are moving away from every other point uniformly, but you aren't near the "edge".
In more physics-friendly language, there are only two possibilities - either the universe is open or it's closed. If it's open, then it's infinite in all directions and there is no edge (we don't think this is the case, but it's still technically possible). If it's closed, then there simply is no edge because as you travel in any direction you curve around to head back where you came from.
It might also help to realize that while the visible universe may be "only" 14 billion light years or so in radius, the longest dimension of a closed universe could be several times this number due to inflationary expansion. So we may not be seeing everything that's actually out there.
Wow, under $10. I pay nearly $5 just for the privilege of getting a bill!
Get this - I have two properties, technically, because one of them is an unattached garage elsewhere in the condo development. The electric company can't combine two properties onto one bill, so I get two bills. The one for the garage gets (naturally) almost no usage - it's just raising and lowering the door, plus whatever wattage the light uses while it's on, plus whatever the main overhead bulb uses when my wife turns in on and forgets to turn it back off. Generally this adds up to under 1 kW-h per month; my usage is often "0". Nonetheless, my bill is still a minimum of $4.63.
I actually called the electric company and asked them to just read the meter once a year, but of course they couldn't do that. Unheard of! The meter reader is probably unionized and could bring a lawsuit if he didn't get paid to read that damn garage meter every month.
But I'm not bitter at all.
Same here. As my existing incandescents burn out, I replace them with CFs. From time to time I compare notes on energy usage in my condo with other people and I'm always way below them. Part of this is that my wife and I don't keep the house too frosty in the summer, but part of it is no doubt due to the CF bulbs. I live in a 2700 sf place and we rarely pay over $100 a month in electricity. In winter (when I'm paying for gas heat instead) the electricity bill is often around $50.
But they do! Luckily, for astronomers the periodic table is very simple:
1: Hydrogen
2 or higher: Metal
Kind of ironic, too, isn't it? I mean, that the movie that was uploaded was Entrapment?
Warning: Using FiOS may result in drowsiness, loss of appetite, nausea, uncontrolled bleeding, headaches, back pain, skin rash, hair loss, itching, athlete's foot, sore throat, blurred vision, tinnitus, and/or dry mouth. Do not use FiOS before operating heavy machinery or driving. FiOS should not be used with meals.
A gigaBIT? You can't even run XP on that.
Actually, he said "two thousand six..... ty". The last syllable wasn't heard because of the applause.