Broadcast TV is sooooooo April 2007. I though this site was supposed to be about news not ancient history. Did they dig up another Tyrannosaurus Rex watching commercials on Fox or something?
I don't think its that bleak for the US. With the amount the US spend on their defense budget, particularly aircraft/avionics and missile technology I have always though it likely that one day someone will come up with a cheap but effective defense such that a lot of striking power is instantly removed from the US and they have to adopt a less belligerent tone. Similar to what happened with Britain's navy. Once their expensive battleships ruled the seas until it became glaringly obvious how vulnerable they were to a few cheap aircraft. It wasn't the end of Britain but it did severely damage her ability to project global power. HMS IHaveBigGuns could no longer be confidently sent off to threaten some city unless it was accompanied by an even more expensive carrier group to protect it.
Maybe someone will come up with a foolproof radar and AA missile combo or a stealth missile platform that can be maneuvered close enough to a carrier group to sink most of it. Success in war is frequently about economics. Who ever can afford to fight longest will win. If I can sink your billion dollar battlegroup anchored off my coast using a few million dollars worth of missiles, negotiation becomes a much cheaper and more attractive proposition (I know the US still has a lot of nukes to fall back on but using them in anger for anything short of the US or a major ally actually being physically invaded is likely to cause so much backlash it will have been a self defeating exercise).
I don't see anyone developing new offensive technology in the short term such that the US is being threatened but I can see a day in the not so distant future when carrier groups can no longer be sent to a region for fear of being sunk or air campaigns are not a viable option because most the planes are likely to shot down. It's not going to be the end of the US, just means they can no longer wield the big stick with impunity.
Exactly what I was thinking. Even the rotweiller interviewers on the BBC's NewsNight team frequently can't even get a yes or no answer from their political interviewees to simple direct questions. Is it embarassing for the politicians? Yes, but no where near as damaging for most of them as opening their mouths to demonstrate just how incompetent they are. Most politicians are accomplished media actors these days and highly adept at taking 5 mins and 6 thousand words to say absolutely nothing of any meaning or relevance to the question they were actually asked.
They want to redefine it because for some reason the International Prototype in Paris is slowly getting lighter over time (apparently its 50 micro grams lighter now). So they looking for something a little more constant and based on scientific principles in the same way they redefined the metre from a platinum rod to the distance travelled by light in absolute vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
You are correct. They should just use a single atom of unobtanium and keep it in a chamber where gravity is increased to the point that it weighs 1 Kg.
Shootings similar to but not on the same scale do happen occasionally. In most countries you can get hold of some sort weapon if you really try eg a shotgun but access to automatic weapons and ammunition helps reduce the risk of the heavily armed shooting rampage. Unfortunately this is changing situation though. Its becoming relatively easy to get hold of automatic weapons in parts of London now for example.
And the freedom to do as I please I would find lots of things boring and disturbing as well. Its funny how those who are no longer dependent upon anyone after reaping the rewards of the current systems are the ones telling us all how things should be.
Now I have visions of all these school kids being given ecstasy pills so that they can discover what drugs are about for themselves. When does the crack discovery program start?
Its a surprising oversight for such a time sensitive activity and quite easy to stumble upon I would have though. It does point to a lack of end to end testing though or else the testers were just not paying attention as long as a trade was accepted.
Richard Stallman will throw his toys out of his pram, declare Open Source to be evil communism and start a new movement OAC (Obfuscated Assembly Code) and declare Obfuscated Assembly to be the one true way for source code. He demand all sources be closed but will still decry cash payment for software products and will insist on payment with body parts from the user, eg a couple of fingers to get you a spreadsheet package (you wont need those fingers to count any more anyway).
Schools should use teach intelligent design. They should educate their students about gods actions. They should expand their evolution-only view.
Why do you think no non-geeks care about real history in our time? They don't know what intelligent design is like, because no one educated them.
Now can you see whats wrong with your desire to stick you agenda down the throats of school kids?
So are you trying to say one marketing droid is more credible than another? The whole turbo memory issue is dubious at the moment. Under certain load conditions and system configurations it does appear to offer decent performance improvements but can frequently degrade general performance. It's currently more attractive to the manufacturers than the end user though because it's a lot cheaper for them to put in flash memory rather than ram and let the user take the performance hit. I'm curious about what happens when the flash memory fails. Have you got a new paperweight or does the OS just ignore it and carry on with the ram available? HP have opted against it as well because they feel theres no substantial benefit from what is still quite immature technology.
Google lying to push their desktop search with its close to the bone privacy policies or the way that most people so far have just taken whatever Google say about their major competitor as being fact. I know this is Slashdot but I would expect a supposedly clued up technical audience to be aware of how easy it is to disable windows search in Vista. Whats next? Will Google want Yahoo messenger disabled as well because it's a bit of a resource hog and that might impact on Google desktop search performance?
Slashdot Mirror
Broadcast TV is sooooooo April 2007. I though this site was supposed to be about news not ancient history. Did they dig up another Tyrannosaurus Rex watching commercials on Fox or something?
I don't think its that bleak for the US. With the amount the US spend on their defense budget, particularly aircraft/avionics and missile technology I have always though it likely that one day someone will come up with a cheap but effective defense such that a lot of striking power is instantly removed from the US and they have to adopt a less belligerent tone. Similar to what happened with Britain's navy. Once their expensive battleships ruled the seas until it became glaringly obvious how vulnerable they were to a few cheap aircraft. It wasn't the end of Britain but it did severely damage her ability to project global power. HMS IHaveBigGuns could no longer be confidently sent off to threaten some city unless it was accompanied by an even more expensive carrier group to protect it.
Maybe someone will come up with a foolproof radar and AA missile combo or a stealth missile platform that can be maneuvered close enough to a carrier group to sink most of it. Success in war is frequently about economics. Who ever can afford to fight longest will win. If I can sink your billion dollar battlegroup anchored off my coast using a few million dollars worth of missiles, negotiation becomes a much cheaper and more attractive proposition (I know the US still has a lot of nukes to fall back on but using them in anger for anything short of the US or a major ally actually being physically invaded is likely to cause so much backlash it will have been a self defeating exercise).
I don't see anyone developing new offensive technology in the short term such that the US is being threatened but I can see a day in the not so distant future when carrier groups can no longer be sent to a region for fear of being sunk or air campaigns are not a viable option because most the planes are likely to shot down. It's not going to be the end of the US, just means they can no longer wield the big stick with impunity.
When Physics challenged me to a thumb wrestling deathmatch I ran away and hid under my desk before it could give me a wedgie.
Nice attemp at a cover up. We all know the computers were really confiscated by the RIAA for filesharing.
Exactly what I was thinking. Even the rotweiller interviewers on the BBC's NewsNight team frequently can't even get a yes or no answer from their political interviewees to simple direct questions. Is it embarassing for the politicians? Yes, but no where near as damaging for most of them as opening their mouths to demonstrate just how incompetent they are. Most politicians are accomplished media actors these days and highly adept at taking 5 mins and 6 thousand words to say absolutely nothing of any meaning or relevance to the question they were actually asked.
So we can can have comments in parallel.
want us to toil in their underground sugar caves....
They want to redefine it because for some reason the International Prototype in Paris is slowly getting lighter over time (apparently its 50 micro grams lighter now). So they looking for something a little more constant and based on scientific principles in the same way they redefined the metre from a platinum rod to the distance travelled by light in absolute vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
You are correct. They should just use a single atom of unobtanium and keep it in a chamber where gravity is increased to the point that it weighs 1 Kg.
on a supposedly geek site.
Almost every phone can be bought without a contract, you just pay more for it.
Shootings similar to but not on the same scale do happen occasionally. In most countries you can get hold of some sort weapon if you really try eg a shotgun but access to automatic weapons and ammunition helps reduce the risk of the heavily armed shooting rampage. Unfortunately this is changing situation though. Its becoming relatively easy to get hold of automatic weapons in parts of London now for example.
will be snails pace when we get warp technology.
Wooo it works!!!
What possible side effects could there be to being a plastic based life form?
And the freedom to do as I please I would find lots of things boring and disturbing as well. Its funny how those who are no longer dependent upon anyone after reaping the rewards of the current systems are the ones telling us all how things should be.
Now I have visions of all these school kids being given ecstasy pills so that they can discover what drugs are about for themselves. When does the crack discovery program start?
It looks like you can chat to ghosts with their video chat. Well done Apple for going beyond the grave.
Its a surprising oversight for such a time sensitive activity and quite easy to stumble upon I would have though. It does point to a lack of end to end testing though or else the testers were just not paying attention as long as a trade was accepted.
Richard Stallman will throw his toys out of his pram, declare Open Source to be evil communism and start a new movement OAC (Obfuscated Assembly Code) and declare Obfuscated Assembly to be the one true way for source code. He demand all sources be closed but will still decry cash payment for software products and will insist on payment with body parts from the user, eg a couple of fingers to get you a spreadsheet package (you wont need those fingers to count any more anyway).
Schools should use teach intelligent design. They should educate their students about gods actions. They should expand their evolution-only view. Why do you think no non-geeks care about real history in our time? They don't know what intelligent design is like, because no one educated them.
Now can you see whats wrong with your desire to stick you agenda down the throats of school kids?
to insert a new name and email address so Steve, Bill and a couple of RIAA execs can become the biggest uploaders in the history of filesharing.
So are you trying to say one marketing droid is more credible than another? The whole turbo memory issue is dubious at the moment. Under certain load conditions and system configurations it does appear to offer decent performance improvements but can frequently degrade general performance. It's currently more attractive to the manufacturers than the end user though because it's a lot cheaper for them to put in flash memory rather than ram and let the user take the performance hit. I'm curious about what happens when the flash memory fails. Have you got a new paperweight or does the OS just ignore it and carry on with the ram available? HP have opted against it as well because they feel theres no substantial benefit from what is still quite immature technology.
Google lying to push their desktop search with its close to the bone privacy policies or the way that most people so far have just taken whatever Google say about their major competitor as being fact. I know this is Slashdot but I would expect a supposedly clued up technical audience to be aware of how easy it is to disable windows search in Vista. Whats next? Will Google want Yahoo messenger disabled as well because it's a bit of a resource hog and that might impact on Google desktop search performance?