"externally programmable" pacemakers are already commonly available... They use a (very short range) wireless link to permit changes to system parameters.
It is highly unlikely that the pacemaker itself would ever be on the net, but THE PROGRAMMING DEVICE might very well be.
If somebody hacks the programming device, and grandpa comes in for a tune-up.... BSOD
"real engineers" are oriented towards problem solving, and making something that WORKS
"science person"s are concerned with discovery of novel phenomenna
In short--engineering is about getting the details right; science is about discovering what is possible. The problem with software engineering is that it is in general not disciplined enough to qualify as engineering.
1) All files shall be saved in a designated directory (MyDocs or equivalent). No saving files in random spots like program directories, etc. User can branch the directory as he/she sees fit. At my place, the directory is C:\username\
2) PC must be left on and connected to the network at all times
These are easy to enforce, and at least around here it is explicit in the employee manual that failure to follow them is a dismissable offense.
Once you get this far, all you need is the network compatible backup utility of your choice (we use Iomega Peerless drives). Pretty painless in our small office...
yea, well--wasn't the deadline to be broadcasting HDTV about a month ago?
what percentage of the nation is able to receive much of anything resembling HDTV?
And has the FCC pulled anybody's liscense for failing to meet that deadline?
The problem isn't just Ford.
Experian is even worse--they got inquiries for complete credit reports for entire neighborhoods (consecutive addresses, accordig to NYT....) and it didn't raise a flag anywhere?
Boeing did not TEST these--they performed an evaluation. Most likely, the evaluation was a paper (or computer) study of the underlying physics of CoolChip's proposed device. The purpose of an evaluation is to assess the POSSIBILITY of a device.
They did not test hardware--there is no hardware to test. This device is years (at best) from being manufactured
The impossible is easy. It's the unfeasible that poses the problem.
Nobody can even hazard a guess at accurate answers to any of your questions.
Boeing performed an EVALUATION not a TEST. The evaluation is a paper (and maybe computational simulation, if they want to spend the $$) project. The goal of such an eval is to answer the "is it possible" question, not to answer the "is it feasible" question.
These are concepts (aka vaporware), not chips. Even if everything they claim is true, it's going to be a number of years before they're commercially available.
The impossible is easy. Its the unfeasible that poses the problem....
Of course a robot can make granny happy... the robot comes with a research assistant, and a support team, all of whom pay attention to granny while she's paying attention to the 'bot. It's easy to imagine getting a year or more of amusement based on novelty alone, at least for the early adopters.
Once the researchers (and the $$)go away, I'm betting that the things end up in some storage closet.
PS--you can buy dog food for about a decade for the cost of an aibo.
dad gave you a quarter, the fed's gave the computing industry a few billion, what the heck, that seems like a fair comparison...
You're confusing two arguments here--we can debate the merits of government intervention (aka subsidies & grants) in R&D , or we can debate regulation (the mythical mandated bus you throw out), but it's important to remember that they're not the same thing....
I stand by my assertion that commoditization had more to do with PC growth than adaptation of mature manufacturing technologies (which have matured far more since).
You're changing your story--that wasn't your assertion, and it isn't what I took issue with.
What you asserted was
"No government intervention was required for this industry to take off"
The manufacturing technologies (e.g. optical lithography and clean rooms) and specific devices (e.g disk drives) that were absolutely required for the birth of the PC were HEAVILY subsidized by the government. Without these the PC industry certainly never would have taken off, because it wouldn't have been born at all.
I'd consider the PC such a radical departure from mainframe....
You'd consider wrong then.
Let's see you make a PC without optical lithography, or a disk drive, or an operating system, or any of the host of other enabling technologies that were originally developed for mainframes
"The PC Industry......No government intervention was required for this industry to take off"
I take substantial issue with the historic accuracy of that statement. The computing industry was heavily subsidized by the federal government for 40 years prior to the commercialization of the PC. To ignore all that subsidized infrastructure development and to start counting $$$ with the release of the PC is disingenous at best.
and you can't be bothered to read the article either
Finally, "it has no basis in the constitution" is just wrong, because the Constitution is the sole source of authority for the Federal Government to make laws. If copyright didn't come from the Constitution, then it is an illegal law.
I recall clearly from junior high school that the constitution empowers the congress to make laws, except in those areas where the constitution forbids it. This brings us to the concept of "legal rights"---as the article that you couldn't be bothered to read rather clearly explains....
The price of a bare stick from pricewatch is irrelevant. A much more useful benchmark is Dell's current upcharge of $160 to go from 256 to 512 Meg-- rounding down, this comes to ~$0.50 per additional Meg of RAM.
If some idiot codemonkey uses an extra 20Meg "because it doesn't matter", that effectively adds $10 dollars to the marginal cost of the PC necessary to run it.
Multiply that by a few million PC's (or few hundred million if we're talking Office or Acrobat) and you're starting to talk about real money....
Don't have time to read the relevant patents in depth this morning, but at first glance it seems that the Mimeo "virtual whiteboard" would be a significant piece of prior art that would limit the scope of this patent...
"but it's easy to look at a painting or a statue that's in progress and see work being done"
This is just as much nonsense about art as lines per day is a ridiculous metric for code. The issue isn't how much, it's how much that's GOOD.... Why is it that all forms of endeavor that don't involve writing code get no respect on/. ?
For that matter, your insights about management aren't much better--consider that managers might want progress reports to reduce the risk of the project failing, not to reduce the risk of getting fired WHEN the project fails.... Not every manager is pointy-headed, and not every code-jockey is a genius.......
Slashdot Mirror
no problem-- just like at the public library, charge a fine if it isn't returned on time...
P2P networks - "Can we have immunity to steal intellectual property, as long as we call it "sharing""?
"externally programmable" pacemakers are already commonly available... They use a (very short range) wireless link to permit changes to system parameters.
It is highly unlikely that the pacemaker itself would ever be on the net, but THE PROGRAMMING DEVICE might very well be.
If somebody hacks the programming device, and grandpa comes in for a tune-up.... BSOD
The difference is simple--
"real engineers" are oriented towards problem solving, and making something that WORKS
"science person"s are concerned with discovery of novel phenomenna
In short--engineering is about getting the details right; science is about discovering what is possible. The problem with software engineering is that it is in general not disciplined enough to qualify as engineering.
yea, sure... I'll use a 20 character random name as my email address--that'll make it really easy for the people that I WANT to get email from...
a billion isn't nearly what it used to be...
2) PC must be left on and connected to the network at all times
These are easy to enforce, and at least around here it is explicit in the employee manual that failure to follow them is a dismissable offense.
Once you get this far, all you need is the network compatible backup utility of your choice (we use Iomega Peerless drives). Pretty painless in our small office...
yea, well--wasn't the deadline to be broadcasting HDTV about a month ago? what percentage of the nation is able to receive much of anything resembling HDTV? And has the FCC pulled anybody's liscense for failing to meet that deadline?
I'll be willing to bet my first-born that digital TV won't be dominant mode of broadcast in 2006..
The problem isn't just Ford. Experian is even worse--they got inquiries for complete credit reports for entire neighborhoods (consecutive addresses, accordig to NYT....) and it didn't raise a flag anywhere?
They did not test hardware--there is no hardware to test. This device is years (at best) from being manufactured
The impossible is easy. It's the unfeasible that poses the problem.
Boeing performed an EVALUATION not a TEST. The evaluation is a paper (and maybe computational simulation, if they want to spend the $$) project. The goal of such an eval is to answer the "is it possible" question, not to answer the "is it feasible" question.
These are concepts (aka vaporware), not chips. Even if everything they claim is true, it's going to be a number of years before they're commercially available.
The impossible is easy. Its the unfeasible that poses the problem....
Segway will be allowed on the sidewalk because poor people and obnoxious teenagers won't be able to afford them...
ewwwww
Of course a robot can make granny happy... the robot comes with a research assistant, and a support team, all of whom pay attention to granny while she's paying attention to the 'bot. It's easy to imagine getting a year or more of amusement based on novelty alone, at least for the early adopters.
Once the researchers (and the $$)go away, I'm betting that the things end up in some storage closet.
PS--you can buy dog food for about a decade for the cost of an aibo.
You're confusing two arguments here--we can debate the merits of government intervention (aka subsidies & grants) in R&D , or we can debate regulation (the mythical mandated bus you throw out), but it's important to remember that they're not the same thing....
You're changing your story--that wasn't your assertion, and it isn't what I took issue with.
What you asserted was
"No government intervention was required for this industry to take off"
The manufacturing technologies (e.g. optical lithography and clean rooms) and specific devices (e.g disk drives) that were absolutely required for the birth of the PC were HEAVILY subsidized by the government. Without these the PC industry certainly never would have taken off, because it wouldn't have been born at all.
You'd consider wrong then.
Let's see you make a PC without optical lithography, or a disk drive, or an operating system, or any of the host of other enabling technologies that were originally developed for mainframes
I take substantial issue with the historic accuracy of that statement. The computing industry was heavily subsidized by the federal government for 40 years prior to the commercialization of the PC. To ignore all that subsidized infrastructure development and to start counting $$$ with the release of the PC is disingenous at best.
Finally, "it has no basis in the constitution" is just wrong, because the Constitution is the sole source of authority for the Federal Government to make laws. If copyright didn't come from the Constitution, then it is an illegal law.
I recall clearly from junior high school that the constitution empowers the congress to make laws, except in those areas where the constitution forbids it. This brings us to the concept of "legal rights"---as the article that you couldn't be bothered to read rather clearly explains....
The price of a bare stick from pricewatch is irrelevant. A much more useful benchmark is Dell's current upcharge of $160 to go from 256 to 512 Meg-- rounding down, this comes to ~$0.50 per additional Meg of RAM.
If some idiot codemonkey uses an extra 20Meg "because it doesn't matter", that effectively adds $10 dollars to the marginal cost of the PC necessary to run it.
Multiply that by a few million PC's (or few hundred million if we're talking Office or Acrobat) and you're starting to talk about real money....
WOW...
and, btw, IANAL
This is just as much nonsense about art as lines per day is a ridiculous metric for code. The issue isn't how much, it's how much that's GOOD.... Why is it that all forms of endeavor that don't involve writing code get no respect on /. ?
For that matter, your insights about management aren't much better--consider that managers might want progress reports to reduce the risk of the project failing, not to reduce the risk of getting fired WHEN the project fails.... Not every manager is pointy-headed, and not every code-jockey is a genius.......
"technically I just couldn't do it" can be parsed a number of ways.... Consider, for instance, the following possible interpretations
(my PC was turned off when I tried), so "technically....."--- emphasis on "technically"
(I haven't studied the nuances of the relevant programming language), so "technically I... " ---emphasis on "I"
(I signed a contract agreeing not to), so "technically I just couldn't..." ---emphasis on couldn't
Just call me paranoid...but they may still be out to get me