It's part and parcel of the election year re-election package being kicked out by Bush-Let's-Do-The-Moon-Again. Hubble is being cut off because of the "new commitment" that NASA has to face. *snort*
The kicker is in the amount of funding that was allocated for the new agency goals. They're not serious one bit. It's just friccin PR. Scientists, astronauts, engineers, all over the world, even, are screaming about Hubble, yet despite the commitment to HST by the people who actually use and support it the politicos, including our new head of NASA, are standing firm.
Now if ol' Dubya does get re-elected, and tries/manages to ram a really serious funding package thru Congress/House for NASA ($1 billion a year, come on! - try more like $15bill+ per year additional at least!) then I'll eat the words I've posted here about this, on rice paper, no salt.
No reason why we couldn't do it with non-reusable vehicles. Launch a unmanned flight with the parts, rendezvous, send the manned flight, fix. It'd be a challenge, but we could do it. IF WE WANTED TO.
Except that the Soyuz is just a taxi, and because of the shuttle, the US has absolutely no manned craft left other than shuttle, and zero heavy lift capability.
I remember my physics teacher, while we were watching the first shuttle landing, saying something to the effect of (forget his exact words) the space program being on it's way to dying, because NASA was putting all it's eggs in one basket. Damn, I wish I remembered his words, the way he put it was so profoundly prophetic that it astounded me at the time, and especially after Challenger - and the main reason it does, is that despite all the new "spaceplane" projects that have been proposed, aye, and even funded, since the mid-80s, NOT ONE HAS FLOWN TO ORBIT. NOT ONE. TENS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN WASTED FOR NOTHING, because the political will to see the projects (X33, DCX, etc) evaporated.
Uh huh. Political footballs. Pork. Dammit.
When the military mothballed Vandenburg was when I figured the game was pretty much up WRT to tax-funded manned space flight. I was so damned mad I spent a whole week researching reasons why not to do it, and writing letters to Congresscritters. Military money might at least have meant us building more shuttles, and flying more, and perhaps have meant safer ones. I'm not as sure of that as I used to be, but it certainly looked like a good bet back then. Bastards.
All that optimism a quarter century ago in school, and it's still a field for the elite.
Man, were we overly optimistic.... and one of the reasons I hate the whole Vietnam fiasco is that it sucked the life out of this country (and I've heard a lot of Viet-Vets say the same, so please don't flame)
Yep. Just another offshoot of the FedGov's corporate welfare plan. Nothing new there, move along, Consumer. Oh, and buy more products.
Before anyone starts talking about how supporting corporations with Federal tax money is a good idea, please explain to me the logic behind the S&L bailouts. Corporate Pork in our tax budget just works *so well*/sarcasm
I seem to recall reading once that part of what produced the 'clumping' of the early universe might have been quantum black holes produced in the BB. Notwithstanding the debate over whether QBH can exist, is this still relevant theory?
Curious....
SB (amateur astronomer who loves his 20x80 Celestron binocs, Dobsonian 8" F4 and *extremely* dark skies here in SD)
This has been argued on slashdot a couple times before, and I am also wondering why we don't do it that way. If we have to attach a package to it to safely deorbit it (and you can bet the public and the world will demand that be done) then let's boost it.
Heck, if shuttle safety is a problem, sell Hubble to some company who is willing to do a teleoperated boost (and possibly repair, although that would be difficult). But at least keep it up there. The company could sell access to it until it dies, and sooner or later it's going to be easier to send someone up to fix the thing.
Given what I've seen coming out of NASA about this, it looks to me like pure political games with maybe a grain of truth in them. It's disgusting no matter how one looks at it. The administration threw NASA a tiny bone in the form of a horridly underfunded Moon/Mars initiative, and good science projects are getting slaughtered (remember what happened with the ISS, anyone?).
Sigh. NASA's goal should be science, not manned spaceflight. Message to the federal government: Leave manned spaceflight to the private corporations, fix the regulations to give companies incentive to do it, and get the hell out of their way.
I would hope, at least, that they would improve the electronics and construction materials. Lots of advances in those field since Hubble was designed & built two decades ago.
Doing so is probably not trivial, but it's not a full redesign either.
Heck, with the advances in manufacturing, we could probably get three new Hubbles for the price of one. I bet there's a lot of astronomers/astrophyscists out there who'd give a lot for better access to a Hubble.
Now what would really be interesting is if NASA could hold a public fundraiser to offset costs and launch a Hubble II that would allow access by amateur astronomers...:)
Oh, and the Ultra DF is amazing. I thought the first Deep Field was astounding, but this one... holy, moley....
Well, my TKD learning was twenty years ago...but from what I hear, you're right ( my instructor was an old friend, at the time, circa '82). I know little or nothing about modern schools/teaching, other than what I hear from people like you.
I do get some chuckles out of the advertisements I see, but am not in a position to gainsay them in any serious manner. Sigh. Getting old sucks (out of shape for this, too many broken bones and other basic ailments)
Dance. Heh. It can be called a dance, tho. As long as you don't have to use it - then it's called brutal frontage, as I understand. Or is that an old saying now, too? But put simple, as you said, it's not a dance. Only the graceful on the mat can call it a dance. In real life, when used, I called it survival. Weird, how that changes, eh?
He bought the drinks, and dinner. It wasn't inexpensive. I offered to, but he'd not hear of it. I guess one could consider that getting kicked. I don't. I considered it making peace. After nearly 21 years, it was worth it; considering the circumstances, kicking his ass would have been redundant. I could have. What would have been the point?
There are times in one's life when you just have to let shit go. I did.
Not trolling, but why do I have the distinct feeling that sooner or later every human behavior which is not parallel to some psychologically defined normal will be labeled?
Is it just me, or is this getting a little overboard? There are 6+ billion people on this planet, and on the one hand we celebrate the uniqueness of people, but on the other hand we have to label all those who don't fall within some certain category of "normal"?
Does anyone else smell a lot of bullshit here?
Just because some people don't have the skills (preface your term to that here) that other people do, we have to give them a label as having a syndrome or some other psychosis?
Asperger Syndrome kids have great difficulty recognizing the visual cues in a face for example
Ever played poker?
Such people are very sensitive to being crowded, or loud or sudden noises
So what? I don't like crowds, either, but I can read people very well. Perhaps that's why hanging out in crowds sucks. Anyone who's just sat and watched the interactions in a crowd of people knows what I mean.
Think of all the little things that kind of irritate you a little - people interrupting you when concentrating, strong smells, sirens, etc.
That's 99% of humanity, if you add a few definitions of irritation to your list, like, Muzak - add that to that list and it'll skew your statistics to hell.
people with Asp. Syn. don't have that trivial self control - they have to make a concious effort to not be overwhelmed by such "little things".
Sometimes I can deal with them, sometimes I can't - like hearing the same friccin' music at work all the time. Sometimes I shut it out - and sometimes I'm nearly postal at hearing the same crap again, and again, and again. Is that a "little thing"?
Think of all the little things that kind of irritate you a little - people interrupting you when concentrating, strong smells, sirens, etc. You're likely able to just tolerate them without thinking about it - people with Asp. Syn. don't have that trivial self control - they have to make a concious effort to not be overwhelmed by such "little things".
To their advantage most of them also tend to be really smart and/or have superb memory.
Crap.
Well, shit, not to toot my own horn, but I guess I fall into those categories. So do most of the people in the world who are irritated at the repetitious bullshit (TV ads, ClearChannel playlists, 4000 years of politicians and their same ol' screeds, etc) that we have to deal with all the time.
This is not a troll - and I'm sorry - but reading this, and the links I googled about AS - it's not that it pisses me off personally, but it strikes me as very, very bad science, driven by an agenda, said agenda being money. As I said above, sooner or later, given the niche to be filled, every human behavior can/will be be explained under some "syndrome" or another. Certainly we're going that way with our politics.
So tell me, thrillseeker - what does your nick say about how you view life, versus what you said? I'm insanely curious:) Lord, I'd buy you a whole evenings worth of drinks/dinner just to listen. Not that I'd agree with you:)
I'm sorry, but this strikes me as being right along the lines of the "Don't judge people" crap that I used to hear as a kid. Judge people? The main thing that distinguishes intelligence from non-intel is that we have the ability to make internal decisions about our surroundings - including other members of our own species - and yet we're not supposed to do so? WTF?
Count me out of the human "race".
Man,/rant and all, but there's too much of the so-called analyzing of consciousness that's getting way out of hand. A lot of it is becoming voodoo science. But it's big business nowadays. Crap, it's a whole fucking industry. Some of it has some decent science
Yeah, but it's much cheaper to drink at home, and surf slashdot *grin*
One can only socialize 20 hours a day (Overtime hours) the rest of the time you don't want to see another human being until the heat death of the universe, and even that would be too soon./joke for clueless
Ditto, here. TKD, also. Never considered a psycho, AFAIK, but the bullying just stopped after I got my first belt. Might have had something to do with me demolishing a certain asshole in my sophomore year.
I ran into one of the bullies who terrorized me during junior high recently in a bar in my hometown. His take on it was that I had "changed" and there was something about me that told him not to try it anymore, so he looked for easier targets.
He'd really changed, too, when we talked. We'd both grown up a lot, and it was a great evening of conversation and reminiscence, and laughter at how stupid we both were. Holy memory, batman....thanks, DD
My parents are in virus hell right now. They've been using PCs for years, at work and at home, but their home machines are hopelessly infected, despite having the newest and up to date versions of Norton's AV software. They both have numerous stories of *work* machines being infected, despite the best the Mayo Clinic's techs could do (and those techs are good, I've talked to them before)
I'm a thousand miles away, and they only thing I could tell them was to try to find a local tech who wasn't swamped. *snort*
All the techs here where I live are drowning in infected machines, and even though they know I'm not an XP monkey, they're calling me anyway. I'm working overtime at my job, at home went linux-only some time ago; I don't know enough about XP to diagnose and fix the boxes anymore. Not that I want to, 5 years of windows support hell was enough. But they're calling anyway...they are desperate for help.
Say what you like about clueless users (my Dad at least knows not to open attachments at random, but he got infected over DSL hours before autoupdate tried to patch his machine) but the first couple months of this year are really hurting users and techs alike.
I have a feeling that this year is going to be the endgame for any trust in Microsoft Windows security. Let's face it, this is only going to get worse, no matter how many people try to educate their users, no matter what patches are released by Microsoft, it's just going to continue to get worse. Most of the techs calling me have already seen the writing on the wall. A few of them are considering getting out of the Windows business altogether.
You know, a part of me is saying "oh, shit, here we go again, like Melissa Klez etc was" but another part of me is planning on installing linux on some machines when I take my vacation and see my folks this summer.... somehow, I doubt they're going to need a lot of convincing this time around. Not how I want to spend my vacation with my folks - who I rarely see - but if it helps them at least have secure machines, then so be it.
What a clusterfuck. $45/year. Heh. *snort* Bullshit. BULLSHIT. Come on now, let's be realistic already. 2 years ago Microsoft started their "Security Initiative" and this year so far promises to be the worst wrt to security problems in their OS.
Man, I don't bash Microsoft for the fun of it (except when they say stupid shit) but this is INSANE. God, I thought Win98 was insecure. Egg on my face. I really wish XP had lived up to it's promises./RANT
So if some thug rapes your sister, kills your pets, and burns your house, because his ideology is "What is yours belongs to me" are you still going to respect his integrity?
I'm not trolling, I just find your worldview to be extremely naive, and hope that it doesn't change the hard way. Peace and love is all great, and some of the world lives that way. Some lives the other extreme. Some of the world just doesn't give a fuck about what you think. That's the way it is.
I had a friend once who was murdered by a one of the 2nd type of people. I was in the courtroom when this representative of the human race was tried and convicted. Sorry, I cannot and will never have any respect for his "physical or psychological integrity". He's a piece of gutter scum, pure and simple, and being that it was not by any means his first offense, had proved that to the world.
A well written, elegant piece of code can be regarded, and probably will be, as art - meaning a beautiful creation - by those with the knowledge to appreciate it. So how exactly is this different from "art" as you used it?
I remember, many, many years ago, first seeing a couple of the more advanced sort routines out there. The one I'm thinking of was a quicksort - and it took my breath away. (Mind you, this was a *long* time ago:)
I regarded it as art for it's simplicity and elegance, compared to what I was using at the time. This kind of epiphany happens a lot in the coding world.
Hell, for that matter, the first time I understood special relativity was no different. I still regard it as a brilliant piece of outside-box thinking and creative genius, built on prior work or no.
Oh, and if you think recipes can't be art, you're eating at McDonald's too much:) A delicious, visually enticing, and subtle dish is very much an art form. Ask any food snob:)
I would hope that Darl's lawyers have informed him when he may and may not carry. If not, and if he got caught/convicted, that'd be some really major public egg on his face after his public statements about it.
Personally I think his whole statement stinks. He *just recently* decided to carry a gun, from fears for his personal safety? Well, Darl, I hope you received some competent training; with your public statements and your declaration to the world that you're carrying a gun (stupid thing to say publicly, really) you come across to me as being a danger to *everyone around you*. Meanwhile in any case I have to regard you as a half-trained nitwit. Sorry, but that's the way I see it.
I don't know about Craftsman...haven't bought in years, don't have a catalog around. I think there's an online one tho:)
SB
Re:NO, YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL
on
The Memory Masters
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Who was whoring for karma? He was being a sarcastic ass and I threw it back in his face. Whoever modded me up did so on their own.
Look at my posting history and tell me I really care all that much about karma.
Dingwit.
SB
Re:Correlation between memory and intelligence?
on
The Memory Masters
·
· Score: 1
I meant speculation being the difference between some hard science (ie, idiot savants and demonstrated abilities) about the definition of intelligence - and that definition has been badly misused in a lot of western science, particularly in the "sciences" of sociology and psychology. Metaphysical speculation is a whole different field.:) - or should it be:( ?
Of course everything is speculation. But one does, for the sake of discussion, have to take at least the local reality. ANYWAY...
WRT to the book - Thanks, I will. It's on request from the sdf system. Hope I can make the time to read it thoroughly. Sounds interesting.
This comment is kind of offtopic, but does it ever occur to you that the "sciences" of psych, soc, and neurochem are converging on metaphysics to the point where there will be no other way to tell them apart other than the opinions of those involved (at least for some time)? *grin*/start personal opinion/
That said, there are some of those disciplines which I regard as somewhere between theory and vodoo science (psychology in particular, some aspects of physio) erk:)/end/
The ability to invent is decidedly not memory. The scope and depth that determines how well that ability functions, is based on implicit and explicit memory.
That's exactly what I was saying. But you said that intelligence=memory. I say that intelligence = the ability to look outside of memory, to find solutions outside of acquired knowledge.
Implicit or explicit, doesn't matter. Ask Einstein. He was so totally outside that few even recognized what he was saying for years, and his work didn't even enter most phys pub consciousness for longer.
Intelligence uses memory as a tool. It is not memory. Repeat after me: Intelligence is not memory! Memory is a asset, not what has caused us to evolve. It's the ability to step outside of our memories, our traditions, our established institutions, that has driven our technological (tho not necessarily our social) evolution, and created new memories for us to debunk and/or confirm.
You need to store the function neurally, in order to execute it later on in life.
Oh, BS:) If that were true, there would be no such thing as creativity. Creativity is original by definition, whether it's in the sciences, music, socialogy, or wetf. Come on now, you're arguing that everything that we create in our lives is stored in our brains beforehand. It just doesn't wash, ok? If every new conception that has changed the human condition was based on our memory, then there would have been no advances. Grok?
You're trying to say, essentially, that we don't evolve. That we can't evolve past what we remember, because memory is what defines us as a species. Sorry, but it just doesn't wash. If that was true, we'd still be back in the pre-fire stage. Nothing would ever be invented, because nobody would have thought past their memories. There's not this nebulous thing called "an ability to invent". It's called - well, I define it so - intelligence. It's what seperates us from the trilobytes.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you; but this sounds suspiciously PC. (removes tinfoil hat) - so, then, define the "ability" to invent for me. Is this an innate ability or a learned ability?
What would you define it as? I define it as the the factor that differentiates intelligence from non-intelligence. If a critter can come up with new ways to deal with it's environment outside of and independent of evolution, that, to me, is intelligence. It's not a black and white, either. I know it's not a very popular view, and I don't really care much:) Neither am I a Greenie; I eat meat. Just to clarify that, in case there are trolls lurking.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, it's quite obvious.
It's part and parcel of the election year re-election package being kicked out by Bush-Let's-Do-The-Moon-Again. Hubble is being cut off because of the "new commitment" that NASA has to face. *snort*
The kicker is in the amount of funding that was allocated for the new agency goals. They're not serious one bit. It's just friccin PR. Scientists, astronauts, engineers, all over the world, even, are screaming about Hubble, yet despite the commitment to HST by the people who actually use and support it the politicos, including our new head of NASA, are standing firm.
Now if ol' Dubya does get re-elected, and tries/manages to ram a really serious funding package thru Congress/House for NASA ($1 billion a year, come on! - try more like $15bill+ per year additional at least!) then I'll eat the words I've posted here about this, on rice paper, no salt.
Does anyone really think that's going to happen?
SB
No reason why we couldn't do it with non-reusable vehicles. Launch a unmanned flight with the parts, rendezvous, send the manned flight, fix. It'd be a challenge, but we could do it. IF WE WANTED TO.
Except that the Soyuz is just a taxi, and because of the shuttle, the US has absolutely no manned craft left other than shuttle, and zero heavy lift capability.
I remember my physics teacher, while we were watching the first shuttle landing, saying something to the effect of (forget his exact words) the space program being on it's way to dying, because NASA was putting all it's eggs in one basket. Damn, I wish I remembered his words, the way he put it was so profoundly prophetic that it astounded me at the time, and especially after Challenger - and the main reason it does, is that despite all the new "spaceplane" projects that have been proposed, aye, and even funded, since the mid-80s, NOT ONE HAS FLOWN TO ORBIT. NOT ONE. TENS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN WASTED FOR NOTHING, because the political will to see the projects (X33, DCX, etc) evaporated.
Uh huh. Political footballs. Pork. Dammit.
When the military mothballed Vandenburg was when I figured the game was pretty much up WRT to tax-funded manned space flight. I was so damned mad I spent a whole week researching reasons why not to do it, and writing letters to Congresscritters. Military money might at least have meant us building more shuttles, and flying more, and perhaps have meant safer ones. I'm not as sure of that as I used to be, but it certainly looked like a good bet back then. Bastards.
Sigh.
SB
Me, too.
All that optimism a quarter century ago in school, and it's still a field for the elite.
Man, were we overly optimistic.... and one of the reasons I hate the whole Vietnam fiasco is that it sucked the life out of this country (and I've heard a lot of Viet-Vets say the same, so please don't flame)
SB
Yep. Just another offshoot of the FedGov's corporate welfare plan. Nothing new there, move along, Consumer. Oh, and buy more products.
/sarcasm
Before anyone starts talking about how supporting corporations with Federal tax money is a good idea, please explain to me the logic behind the S&L bailouts. Corporate Pork in our tax budget just works *so well*
SB
I seem to recall reading once that part of what produced the 'clumping' of the early universe might have been quantum black holes produced in the BB. Notwithstanding the debate over whether QBH can exist, is this still relevant theory?
Curious....
SB
(amateur astronomer who loves his 20x80 Celestron binocs, Dobsonian 8" F4 and *extremely* dark skies here in SD)
This has been argued on slashdot a couple times before, and I am also wondering why we don't do it that way. If we have to attach a package to it to safely deorbit it (and you can bet the public and the world will demand that be done) then let's boost it.
Heck, if shuttle safety is a problem, sell Hubble to some company who is willing to do a teleoperated boost (and possibly repair, although that would be difficult). But at least keep it up there. The company could sell access to it until it dies, and sooner or later it's going to be easier to send someone up to fix the thing.
Given what I've seen coming out of NASA about this, it looks to me like pure political games with maybe a grain of truth in them. It's disgusting no matter how one looks at it. The administration threw NASA a tiny bone in the form of a horridly underfunded Moon/Mars initiative, and good science projects are getting slaughtered (remember what happened with the ISS, anyone?).
Sigh. NASA's goal should be science, not manned spaceflight. Message to the federal government: Leave manned spaceflight to the private corporations, fix the regulations to give companies incentive to do it, and get the hell out of their way.
SB
I've wondered that myself.
I would hope, at least, that they would improve the electronics and construction materials. Lots of advances in those field since Hubble was designed & built two decades ago.
Doing so is probably not trivial, but it's not a full redesign either.
Heck, with the advances in manufacturing, we could probably get three new Hubbles for the price of one. I bet there's a lot of astronomers/astrophyscists out there who'd give a lot for better access to a Hubble.
Now what would really be interesting is if NASA could hold a public fundraiser to offset costs and launch a Hubble II that would allow access by amateur astronomers...
Oh, and the Ultra DF is amazing. I thought the first Deep Field was astounding, but this one
SB
Well, my TKD learning was twenty years ago...but from what I hear, you're right ( my instructor was an old friend, at the time, circa '82). I know little or nothing about modern schools/teaching, other than what I hear from people like you.
I do get some chuckles out of the advertisements I see, but am not in a position to gainsay them in any serious manner. Sigh. Getting old sucks (out of shape for this, too many broken bones and other basic ailments)
Dance. Heh. It can be called a dance, tho. As long as you don't have to use it - then it's called brutal frontage, as I understand. Or is that an old saying now, too? But put simple, as you said, it's not a dance. Only the graceful on the mat can call it a dance. In real life, when used, I called it survival. Weird, how that changes, eh?
Cheers
SB
He bought the drinks, and dinner. It wasn't inexpensive. I offered to, but he'd not hear of it. I guess one could consider that getting kicked. I don't. I considered it making peace. After nearly 21 years, it was worth it; considering the circumstances, kicking his ass would have been redundant. I could have. What would have been the point?
There are times in one's life when you just have to let shit go. I did.
SB
Not trolling, but why do I have the distinct feeling that sooner or later every human behavior which is not parallel to some psychologically defined normal will be labeled?
:) Lord, I'd buy you a whole evenings worth of drinks/dinner just to listen. Not that I'd agree with you :)
/rant and all, but there's too much of the so-called analyzing of consciousness that's getting way out of hand. A lot of it is becoming voodoo science. But it's big business nowadays. Crap, it's a whole fucking industry. Some of it has some decent science
Is it just me, or is this getting a little overboard? There are 6+ billion people on this planet, and on the one hand we celebrate the uniqueness of people, but on the other hand we have to label all those who don't fall within some certain category of "normal"?
Does anyone else smell a lot of bullshit here?
Just because some people don't have the skills (preface your term to that here) that other people do, we have to give them a label as having a syndrome or some other psychosis?
Asperger Syndrome kids have great difficulty recognizing the visual cues in a face for example
Ever played poker?
Such people are very sensitive to being crowded, or loud or sudden noises
So what? I don't like crowds, either, but I can read people very well. Perhaps that's why hanging out in crowds sucks. Anyone who's just sat and watched the interactions in a crowd of people knows what I mean.
Think of all the little things that kind of irritate you a little - people interrupting you when concentrating, strong smells, sirens, etc.
That's 99% of humanity, if you add a few definitions of irritation to your list, like, Muzak - add that to that list and it'll skew your statistics to hell.
people with Asp. Syn. don't have that trivial self control - they have to make a concious effort to not be overwhelmed by such "little things".
Sometimes I can deal with them, sometimes I can't - like hearing the same friccin' music at work all the time. Sometimes I shut it out - and sometimes I'm nearly postal at hearing the same crap again, and again, and again. Is that a "little thing"?
Think of all the little things that kind of irritate you a little - people interrupting you when concentrating, strong smells, sirens, etc. You're likely able to just tolerate them without thinking about it - people with Asp. Syn. don't have that trivial self control - they have to make a concious effort to not be overwhelmed by such "little things".
To their advantage most of them also tend to be really smart and/or have superb memory.
Crap.
Well, shit, not to toot my own horn, but I guess I fall into those categories. So do most of the people in the world who are irritated at the repetitious bullshit (TV ads, ClearChannel playlists, 4000 years of politicians and their same ol' screeds, etc) that we have to deal with all the time.
This is not a troll - and I'm sorry - but reading this, and the links I googled about AS - it's not that it pisses me off personally, but it strikes me as very, very bad science, driven by an agenda, said agenda being money. As I said above, sooner or later, given the niche to be filled, every human behavior can/will be be explained under some "syndrome" or another. Certainly we're going that way with our politics.
So tell me, thrillseeker - what does your nick say about how you view life, versus what you said? I'm insanely curious
I'm sorry, but this strikes me as being right along the lines of the "Don't judge people" crap that I used to hear as a kid. Judge people?
The main thing that distinguishes intelligence from non-intel is that we have the ability to make internal decisions about our surroundings - including other members of our own species - and yet we're not supposed to do so? WTF?
Count me out of the human "race".
Man,
Yup. Mod parent up +5 Wisdom.
:)
If you are ever in western SD, I'll buy you a drink
SB
Yeah, but it's much cheaper to drink at home, and surf slashdot *grin*
One can only socialize 20 hours a day (Overtime hours) the rest of the time you don't want to see another human being until the heat death of the universe, and even that would be too soon.
SB
Geez, and all this time I thought that was what karma was for.
:)
I've got to get out more
SB
Mod parent up
Ditto, here. TKD, also. Never considered a psycho, AFAIK, but the bullying just stopped after I got my first belt. Might have had something to do with me demolishing a certain asshole in my sophomore year.
I ran into one of the bullies who terrorized me during junior high recently in a bar in my hometown. His take on it was that I had "changed" and there was something about me that told him not to try it anymore, so he looked for easier targets.
He'd really changed, too, when we talked. We'd both grown up a lot, and it was a great evening of conversation and reminiscence, and laughter at how stupid we both were. Holy memory, batman....thanks, DD
SB
Viruses. Let's not forget those.
/RANT
My parents are in virus hell right now. They've been using PCs for years, at work and at home, but their home machines are hopelessly infected, despite having the newest and up to date versions of Norton's AV software. They both have numerous stories of *work* machines being infected, despite the best the Mayo Clinic's techs could do (and those techs are good, I've talked to them before)
I'm a thousand miles away, and they only thing I could tell them was to try to find a local tech who wasn't swamped. *snort*
All the techs here where I live are drowning in infected machines, and even though they know I'm not an XP monkey, they're calling me anyway. I'm working overtime at my job, at home went linux-only some time ago; I don't know enough about XP to diagnose and fix the boxes anymore. Not that I want to, 5 years of windows support hell was enough. But they're calling anyway...they are desperate for help.
Say what you like about clueless users (my Dad at least knows not to open attachments at random, but he got infected over DSL hours before autoupdate tried to patch his machine) but the first couple months of this year are really hurting users and techs alike.
I have a feeling that this year is going to be the endgame for any trust in Microsoft Windows security. Let's face it, this is only going to get worse, no matter how many people try to educate their users, no matter what patches are released by Microsoft, it's just going to continue to get worse. Most of the techs calling me have already seen the writing on the wall. A few of them are considering getting out of the Windows business altogether.
You know, a part of me is saying "oh, shit, here we go again, like Melissa Klez etc was" but another part of me is planning on installing linux on some machines when I take my vacation and see my folks this summer.... somehow, I doubt they're going to need a lot of convincing this time around. Not how I want to spend my vacation with my folks - who I rarely see - but if it helps them at least have secure machines, then so be it.
What a clusterfuck. $45/year. Heh. *snort* Bullshit. BULLSHIT. Come on now, let's be realistic already. 2 years ago Microsoft started their "Security Initiative" and this year so far promises to be the worst wrt to security problems in their OS.
Man, I don't bash Microsoft for the fun of it (except when they say stupid shit) but this is INSANE. God, I thought Win98 was insecure. Egg on my face. I really wish XP had lived up to it's promises.
SB
Someone has to tell Darl that he's not supposed to "conceal" the shotgun down the front of his pants - no matter how he thinks it boosts his ego.
SB
Isn't checking into a hotel/motel under a false name illegal?
A quick google showed only some info from some hotels, but not any real legal info (my google skills are deserting me, pffft
SB
So if some thug rapes your sister, kills your pets, and burns your house, because his ideology is "What is yours belongs to me" are you still going to respect his integrity?
I'm not trolling, I just find your worldview to be extremely naive, and hope that it doesn't change the hard way. Peace and love is all great, and some of the world lives that way. Some lives the other extreme. Some of the world just doesn't give a fuck about what you think. That's the way it is.
I had a friend once who was murdered by a one of the 2nd type of people. I was in the courtroom when this representative of the human race was tried and convicted. Sorry, I cannot and will never have any respect for his "physical or psychological integrity". He's a piece of gutter scum, pure and simple, and being that it was not by any means his first offense, had proved that to the world.
SB
Neither is some "art" (as you used the term).
It's all in the eye of the beholder.
A well written, elegant piece of code can be regarded, and probably will be, as art - meaning a beautiful creation - by those with the knowledge to appreciate it. So how exactly is this different from "art" as you used it?
I remember, many, many years ago, first seeing a couple of the more advanced sort routines out there. The one I'm thinking of was a quicksort - and it took my breath away. (Mind you, this was a *long* time ago
I regarded it as art for it's simplicity and elegance, compared to what I was using at the time. This kind of epiphany happens a lot in the coding world.
Hell, for that matter, the first time I understood special relativity was no different. I still regard it as a brilliant piece of outside-box thinking and creative genius, built on prior work or no.
Oh, and if you think recipes can't be art, you're eating at McDonald's too much
SB
I would hope that Darl's lawyers have informed him when he may and may not carry. If not, and if he got caught/convicted, that'd be some really major public egg on his face after his public statements about it.
Personally I think his whole statement stinks. He *just recently* decided to carry a gun, from fears for his personal safety? Well, Darl, I hope you received some competent training; with your public statements and your declaration to the world that you're carrying a gun (stupid thing to say publicly, really) you come across to me as being a danger to *everyone around you*. Meanwhile in any case I have to regard you as a half-trained nitwit. Sorry, but that's the way I see it.
What a maroon.
SB
Utah is a "shall issue" state; scroll to
SB
LOL.
:)
Mod parent up...
I don't know about Craftsman...haven't bought in years, don't have a catalog around. I think there's an online one tho
SB
Who was whoring for karma? He was being a sarcastic ass and I threw it back in his face. Whoever modded me up did so on their own.
Look at my posting history and tell me I really care all that much about karma.
Dingwit.
SB
I meant speculation being the difference between some hard science (ie, idiot savants and demonstrated abilities) about the definition of intelligence - and that definition has been badly misused in a lot of western science, particularly in the "sciences" of sociology and psychology. Metaphysical speculation is a whole different field. :) - or should it be :( ?
/start personal opinion/
:) /end/
:) If that were true, there would be no such thing as creativity. Creativity is original by definition, whether it's in the sciences, music, socialogy, or wetf. Come on now, you're arguing that everything that we create in our lives is stored in our brains beforehand. It just doesn't wash, ok? If every new conception that has changed the human condition was based on our memory, then there would have been no advances. Grok?
:) Neither am I a Greenie; I eat meat. Just to clarify that, in case there are trolls lurking.
:)
Of course everything is speculation. But one does, for the sake of discussion, have to take at least the local reality. ANYWAY...
WRT to the book - Thanks, I will. It's on request from the sdf system. Hope I can make the time to read it thoroughly. Sounds interesting.
This comment is kind of offtopic, but does it ever occur to you that the "sciences" of psych, soc, and neurochem are converging on metaphysics to the point where there will be no other way to tell them apart other than the opinions of those involved (at least for some time)? *grin*
That said, there are some of those disciplines which I regard as somewhere between theory and vodoo science (psychology in particular, some aspects of physio) erk
The ability to invent is decidedly not memory. The scope and depth that determines how well that ability functions, is based on implicit and explicit memory.
That's exactly what I was saying. But you said that intelligence=memory. I say that intelligence = the ability to look outside of memory, to find solutions outside of acquired knowledge.
Implicit or explicit, doesn't matter. Ask Einstein. He was so totally outside that few even recognized what he was saying for years, and his work didn't even enter most phys pub consciousness for longer.
Intelligence uses memory as a tool. It is not memory. Repeat after me: Intelligence is not memory! Memory is a asset, not what has caused us to evolve. It's the ability to step outside of our memories, our traditions, our established institutions, that has driven our technological (tho not necessarily our social) evolution, and created new memories for us to debunk and/or confirm.
You need to store the function neurally, in order to execute it later on in life.
Oh, BS
You're trying to say, essentially, that we don't evolve. That we can't evolve past what we remember, because memory is what defines us as a species. Sorry, but it just doesn't wash. If that was true, we'd still be back in the pre-fire stage. Nothing would ever be invented, because nobody would have thought past their memories. There's not this nebulous thing called "an ability to invent". It's called - well, I define it so - intelligence. It's what seperates us from the trilobytes.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you; but this sounds suspiciously PC. (removes tinfoil hat) - so, then, define the "ability" to invent for me. Is this an innate ability or a learned ability?
What would you define it as? I define it as the the factor that differentiates intelligence from non-intelligence. If a critter can come up with new ways to deal with it's environment outside of and independent of evolution, that, to me, is intelligence. It's not a black and white, either. I know it's not a very popular view, and I don't really care much
Thanks for the view exchange
SB
Um.
Good point. The last time I read S. was around '91 or so.
Mud on my face, forsooth
Just out of curiosity, how long did it take to research your comment?
SB