I expect this really is semi-big news for those that may need extra ammo to get management to buy off on using Oracle & Sun products where they're appropriate. But I do agree that Sun and Oracle are definitely hoping to tag something onto a lot of people's tech budgets.:)
I grew up in rural North Carolina, where any knowledge beyond that needed to operate equipment in a hosiery mill was considered a waste of time by many. So apparently the UK isn't special in this regard.:)
Wow...a comment on a Python story...about somebody wanting to be a lumberjack...can't....resist....
The Lumberjack Song from "Monty Python's Flying Circus" Continued from Petshop, Barber, or a variety of other Python sketches....
I never wanted to do this job in the first place! I... I wanted to be...
A LUMBERJACK!
(piano vamp)
Leaping from tree to tree! As they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia! With my best girl by my side! The Larch! The Pine! The Giant Redwood tree! The Sequoia! The Little Whopping Rule Tree! We'd sing! Sing! Sing!
Oh, I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay, I sleep all night and I work all day.
CHORUS: He's a lumberjack, and he's okay,
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
I cut down trees, I eat my lunch, I go to the lava-try. On Wednesdays I go shoppin' And have buttered scones for tea.
Mounties: He cuts down trees, he eats his lunch,
He goes to the lava-try.
On Wednesdays 'e goes shoppin'
And has buttered scones for tea.
CHORUS
I cut down trees, I skip and jump, I like to press wild flowers. I put on women's clothing, And hang around in bars.
Mounties: He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps,
He likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on women's clothing
And hangs around.... In bars???????
CHORUS
I chop down trees, I wear high heels, Suspendies and a bra. I wish I'd been a girlie Just like my dear papa.
Mounties: He cuts down trees, he wears high heels
Suspendies?? and a.... a Bra????
(spoken, raggedly) What's this? Wants to be a *girlie*? Oh, My!
And I thought you were so rugged! Poofter!
CHORUS
All: He's a lumberjack, and he's okaaaaaaayyy..... (BONG)
If people want to drop $1000+ on these processors even when they don't need them, I say more power to them. Intel & AMD can take that money and use it to design more powerful chips that will benefit those that do need them (and I'll have to pay less for an FX-60 when I actually need one).:)
No problem. Pebble bed reactors seem like a good idea to me, since the designs I've read about seem to be pretty resistant to damage by high temperatures. They still have a chain reaction, though.;)
I understand that some breeder designs require an initial stock of fuel in addition to the material from which new fuel will be created, but as far as I could tell this fuel was just part of the reactor, not an "external source." I can't imagine any reason to say that the high-yield fuel isn't part of the reactor.
Could you please point me to some reference that says breeder reactors don't have a chain reaction and can't melt down? I haven't been able to find any such information in anything I've read.
As a bonus, breeder reactors are much safer since the core can't achieve cain reaction on it's own and therefore can't cause a melt down.
I'm not sure what you mean by this, because (1) a nuclear reactor without a chain reaction isn't useful, and (2) meltdown can occur in a shut-down reactor from heat produced by decay of fission products. If you meant they can't go critical, that's wrong too - a reactor that can't go critical is also useless.
My primary reason for choosing Python is that it "stays the hell out of my way" better than other languages - it just seems that it doesn't demand so much from me to accomplish common tasks. As others have said, it seems to fit my brain a lot better than any other programming language I've ever tried.
That said, I get uneasy about the "peformance and speed" hopes people are starting to pile on PyPy. If you look at their mission statement, speed/performance isn't in there. Yes, the PyPy folks are a sharp group of people, and they may come up with some fantastic performance improvements, but that doesn't appear to be high on the list of priorities.
This is an instance of a decision being made over something that has nothing to do with politics intrinsicly based on politics.
The./ summary/headline is misleading - please note the first paragraph of TFA starts with: "Research into how evolution works has been named top science achievement of 2005..." (emphasis mine)
IMHO there's enough legitimate and useful research mentioned in the article to actually warrant making note of it in a "list of major endeavours."
How would they feel if groups of people who say excelled at spiritual aspects of life, which apparently are beyond the reach of so many of these people, and simply stated that the realization of intelligent design was the top epiphany of 2005?
What does "excelled at spiritual aspects of life" actually mean? This is a serious question - I really do want to know what you mean by this. Also, are you implying that these "scientists and academics" are all somehow morally or spiritually crippled?
(FWIW, I apologize in advance for asking a serious question on/.)
The amino acids must be left handed and not right handed.
So you mean to say that life can only work with left-handed organic molecules? I wasn't aware that there was a preference like that built into the universe - wouldn't all our biological chemistry still work if everything was replaced with its stereoisomer? It sounds like you're assuming that all life must use the exact same biochemistry as life on Earth.
The probability of the formation of a simple protein comes out to 1 in 1.28x10^175.
Such an outrageously large improbability might be correct for a given protein springing forth in one step from constituent components, but I expect that there's a whole bunch of pathways (via assembly of smaller pieces) that could lead to the assembly of a given protein. These multiple pathways built from smaller, more probable, steps should drastically reduce the probability of a given protein being formed from its constituent parts.
If I'm misunderstanding something here please clue me in. I'm not opposed to learning something new.
Good thing those ingredients are available locally; I can't imagine how much it would cost to buy them near a star named "IRS 46."
Re:His name is Guido?
on
Guido Goes Google
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Once an external project is prototyped and "proof of concept"ed they move to a faster language.
Based on what I've heard from people that work there, this is not always the case (I assume you're talking about re-writing entire applications in "something faster" after the Python prototype proves the concept). Sometimes it's not necessary to optimize the shit out of everything; to do so would be a waste of resources. One of the nice things about Python is that you can re-implement hotspots in other languages (such as C or C++) without having to rewrite the whole application (yes, I know you can do that sort of thing in other languages, too).
Lol, Europe is f'd up too but for some reason when I get back from trips abroad you really get a different perspective of US attitudes and backward/sheltered thinking.
Maybe because there's a lot more people in Europe with "happened right on my doorstep" experience with fascism? I expect most people in the US view fascism as something that happens to other countries (which probably makes us sooo much more vulnerable to it).
I wish I had mod points, because I feel the same way. While I programming in and of itself hasn't become rote or boring to me, the kind of programs I'm often asked to work on are mundane and don't require much in the way of skill or creativity (some software companies seem to be afraid of taking on anything that might actually be hard to figure out). That's why I'm going back to school to get back into math and physics - it exposes me to a lot of new and different problems that I can work on.
Technology has caught up, and we're back to the way things have always been.
Except that, unlike a generation or two ago, the technology makes it possible for governments and businesses (and criminals) to dig through a lot of information rapidly, without having to bother to travel to your home town to talk to Joe at the market. It lets them "connect the dots" in a way that hasn't ever been possible before. Making up sets of dots that one might not want to have connected is left as an exercise for the reader.
A nuclear reactor cannot blow up like a nuclear bomb...
FWIW: according to one graduate-level textbook I've read about nuclear reactor design, a poorly designed fast-fission reactor can indeed explode "like a nuclear bomb" given the right type of accident. The design mentioned did not require highly enriched fuel, but it would be a "wimpy" explosion as nukes go (maybe only a few hundred tons of TNT), but that would still be very nasty as a conatamination spreader.
So basically, pass an electric current though low-density hydrogen-boron in a coffee can, and you get spontaneous fusion - so much so, you get over-unity? Somehow, it strikes me as a little too easy to be true.
While I will remain skeptical of Mr. Lerner's claims until they're reproducible (whether in a reputable lab or in a home energy reactor I can buy at Home Depot), I don't think he's claiming to have an "over-unity" machine here. Every other time I've seen that phrase used, it's in reference to a contraption built by the free energy crowd. I think Lerner is just claiming to have built a device that obtains energy from fusion, not from the vacuum, or fairy dust, or whatever the latest free energy fad is.
Slashdot Mirror
I expect this really is semi-big news for those that may need extra ammo to get management to buy off on using Oracle & Sun products where they're appropriate. But I do agree that Sun and Oracle are definitely hoping to tag something onto a lot of people's tech budgets. :)
If you have a Python 2.4 interpreter handy:
>>>l = ['01011001', '01001111', '01010101', '01001110', '01000101', '01010010', '01000100']
>>>''.join([chr(int(i, 2)) for i in l])
'YOUNERD'
I grew up in rural North Carolina, where any knowledge beyond that needed to operate equipment in a hosiery mill was considered a waste of time by many. So apparently the UK isn't special in this regard. :)
Wow...a comment on a Python story...about somebody wanting to be a lumberjack...can't....resist....
.... a Bra????
r jackSong
The Lumberjack Song from "Monty Python's Flying Circus"
Continued from Petshop, Barber, or a variety of other Python sketches....
I never wanted to do this job in the first place!
I... I wanted to be...
A LUMBERJACK!
(piano vamp)
Leaping from tree to tree! As they float down the mighty rivers of
British Columbia! With my best girl by my side!
The Larch!
The Pine!
The Giant Redwood tree!
The Sequoia!
The Little Whopping Rule Tree!
We'd sing! Sing! Sing!
Oh, I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay,
I sleep all night and I work all day.
CHORUS: He's a lumberjack, and he's okay,
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
I cut down trees, I eat my lunch,
I go to the lava-try.
On Wednesdays I go shoppin'
And have buttered scones for tea.
Mounties: He cuts down trees, he eats his lunch,
He goes to the lava-try.
On Wednesdays 'e goes shoppin'
And has buttered scones for tea.
CHORUS
I cut down trees, I skip and jump,
I like to press wild flowers.
I put on women's clothing,
And hang around in bars.
Mounties: He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps,
He likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on women's clothing
And hangs around.... In bars???????
CHORUS
I chop down trees, I wear high heels,
Suspendies and a bra.
I wish I'd been a girlie
Just like my dear papa.
Mounties: He cuts down trees, he wears high heels
Suspendies?? and a
(spoken, raggedly) What's this? Wants to be a *girlie*? Oh, My!
And I thought you were so rugged! Poofter!
CHORUS
All: He's a lumberjack, and he's okaaaaaaayyy..... (BONG)
Stolen from here: http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Scripts/TheLumbe
If people want to drop $1000+ on these processors even when they don't need them, I say more power to them. Intel & AMD can take that money and use it to design more powerful chips that will benefit those that do need them (and I'll have to pay less for an FX-60 when I actually need one). :)
No problem. Pebble bed reactors seem like a good idea to me, since the designs I've read about seem to be pretty resistant to damage by high temperatures. They still have a chain reaction, though. ;)
I understand that some breeder designs require an initial stock of fuel in addition to the material from which new fuel will be created, but as far as I could tell this fuel was just part of the reactor, not an "external source." I can't imagine any reason to say that the high-yield fuel isn't part of the reactor.
Could you please point me to some reference that says breeder reactors don't have a chain reaction and can't melt down? I haven't been able to find any such information in anything I've read.
"Get in mah belly!"
My primary reason for choosing Python is that it "stays the hell out of my way" better than other languages - it just seems that it doesn't demand so much from me to accomplish common tasks. As others have said, it seems to fit my brain a lot better than any other programming language I've ever tried.
That said, I get uneasy about the "peformance and speed" hopes people are starting to pile on PyPy. If you look at their mission statement, speed/performance isn't in there. Yes, the PyPy folks are a sharp group of people, and they may come up with some fantastic performance improvements, but that doesn't appear to be high on the list of priorities.
The ./ summary/headline is misleading - please note the first paragraph of TFA starts with: "Research into how evolution works has been named top science achievement of 2005..." (emphasis mine)
IMHO there's enough legitimate and useful research mentioned in the article to actually warrant making note of it in a "list of major endeavours."
What does "excelled at spiritual aspects of life" actually mean? This is a serious question - I really do want to know what you mean by this. Also, are you implying that these "scientists and academics" are all somehow morally or spiritually crippled?
(FWIW, I apologize in advance for asking a serious question on /.)
Oops, sorry for the error in the next to last paragraph. That last sentence there should read "drastically increase the probability..."
So you mean to say that life can only work with left-handed organic molecules? I wasn't aware that there was a preference like that built into the universe - wouldn't all our biological chemistry still work if everything was replaced with its stereoisomer? It sounds like you're assuming that all life must use the exact same biochemistry as life on Earth.
Such an outrageously large improbability might be correct for a given protein springing forth in one step from constituent components, but I expect that there's a whole bunch of pathways (via assembly of smaller pieces) that could lead to the assembly of a given protein. These multiple pathways built from smaller, more probable, steps should drastically reduce the probability of a given protein being formed from its constituent parts.
If I'm misunderstanding something here please clue me in. I'm not opposed to learning something new.
Good thing those ingredients are available locally; I can't imagine how much it would cost to buy them near a star named "IRS 46."
I wish I had mod points, because I feel the same way. While I programming in and of itself hasn't become rote or boring to me, the kind of programs I'm often asked to work on are mundane and don't require much in the way of skill or creativity (some software companies seem to be afraid of taking on anything that might actually be hard to figure out). That's why I'm going back to school to get back into math and physics - it exposes me to a lot of new and different problems that I can work on.
Except that, unlike a generation or two ago, the technology makes it possible for governments and businesses (and criminals) to dig through a lot of information rapidly, without having to bother to travel to your home town to talk to Joe at the market. It lets them "connect the dots" in a way that hasn't ever been possible before. Making up sets of dots that one might not want to have connected is left as an exercise for the reader.
We should start with telephone sanitizers and the like, but I can't imagine we'd need to send away more than about a third of the population.
Oh, how I wish I had mod points.... :)
While I will remain skeptical of Mr. Lerner's claims until they're reproducible (whether in a reputable lab or in a home energy reactor I can buy at Home Depot), I don't think he's claiming to have an "over-unity" machine here. Every other time I've seen that phrase used, it's in reference to a contraption built by the free energy crowd. I think Lerner is just claiming to have built a device that obtains energy from fusion, not from the vacuum, or fairy dust, or whatever the latest free energy fad is.