US fuel tax is much lower, but does the US fuel tax cover the highway / road repair / construction / administration? Don't have the numbers but my guess is no.
So the EU subsidizes health care and the US subsidizes automobile culture. Europe has been around longer than the automobile, American suburbia was designed around the automobile. Without cheap transportation, much of America doesn't work as layed out.
On/. this will probably get modded Troll but... Flash is great for certain things. Want to design a GUI quickly? Sure you Java guys can speed through some tight code, but for the rest of us who don't have time for the 'extend applet call-me-Ishmael' Java coder mindset (or if the client wants their simple calculator during this calender year) Flash will have you up and running in a day or two.
Want to tell the client that their site will look the same across browsers without 2k of javascript and lingering uncertainty? Code for Flash 5, embed the fonts and cash the check.
Need some quick dancing spaghetti at the top of the page? No problem and small too.
Want to make a really annoying intro without a skip button? You have the power.
Every working musician has known this since Napster. Unless you're so succesful you've become a corporation (Metallica) file sharing is actually good for your business: free publicity. What is devaluing corporate music (besides quality control or lack thereof) is kids burning disks.
If, for some reason, teenagers want the new Korn disk, they pool they're money and buy one, burn two. Can you blaim them when a little pile of digital plastic is $17 at retail?
While it's old news on/. that the new digital free for all is probably good for actual players (and bad for the corporate lawyer types... choak... sob...) what isn't noticed is the audio techs that are now out of work. It's easier to make records with engineers and assistant engineers helping, but, as every professional engineer has found in the last few years, those days are over. There is no corporate money to pay some guy to set up expensive microphones all day on someone elses record. The recording studio industry of the 20th century is going the way of the hat makers.
These days, rather than raising the money and paying to record and mix in a dedicated room with some professionals, I track and mix most everything at home.
Good or bad for the music? You decide (probably both). Like it or not that's how we're going to do it now.
Aside to any audio techs still reading: I recently heard of an auction where a Studer 2" machine went for 8 grand (!?!?). I heard after the auction or I'd have a Studer in my living room.
Personal data storage into the terabyte, a vast global communications network, and the article is about the music industry's inability to deal with digital file sharing (?) I expected to look at the bottom and see it dated 1998. Seriously, in the '05, shouldn't a supercomputer guy be thinking about biological modeling (or something).
IMHO, Ray Kurzweil, master book/snake oil salesman that he is, is at least addressing some of the changes implied by the (what are we calling it now?) Information Explosion. If a GPS screen in your car and.16 c a song is what's happening then 'the man can't stop our music', but still...
We need some futurists that aren't being outrun by the present. Links, anyone?
I am an operative of an international terrorist organization. Due to the recent crackdown on our money laundering operations we are left without an ability to transfer money across borders. We beseech you in the name of, say, Allah to let us deposit $50,000 US dollars in your bank account, ten percent of which you can keep as a thanks for helping us in this struggle. To confirm your account number please transfer $100 US to dirtyrussianspammers.com. You will also recieve a special 30 day trial membership in jihadibabes.com, as well as a lifetime supply of Afgan viagra.
Re: Men watching women in the shower (which I'm all for BTW)
as the old saw goes:
higomous hoggomous, women monogomous
hoggomous higomous, man polygomous
sorry for the spelling and not googling the quote (hopfully that doesn't mod me troll)
Monogomy in women has been a survival trait - raising the kids and all. Men are descents of the guys who wanted to go into the next town and bang all the chicks.
For genuinely contradictory views: Any politician, just about anywhere, talking about 'sacrifice' : Do as I say, not as I do.
Or (perhaps flamebaiting some libertarians) - I don't believe in government intervention unless it comes from my moral standpoint.
(As I'm relatively old) This brought up immediate memories of the training sections in Starship Trooper -the book, dude- and The Forever War. If memory serves both went into detail about the dangers of powered armor.
I still want one. Especially if I can't have a flying car.
That was always my problem with SDI 'Star Wars'.
We (the US taxpayers) pay these people really well (at least the brass and contractors). If it worked, they would (should) just do it and we'd hear about it later. This isn't to give respect to the Military Industrial Complex or advocate a genocidal first strike, just living in a real world. While there are still wars on Earth, they will extend into space.
Music and health (=sex education) should be taught in the primary grades. Music very young helps with math and health is avoided culturally around here (USA).
Reading should be taught in the primary grades at the expense of everything else (above included).
Overall kids should be taught that learning is a lifelong project, and to not go to college if you're just passing time but to wait until there is a passion for a subject.
Teachers have to be valued more (paid more) but the political will for that will probably be lacking at least near term.
Analog audio technology was peaking around the time of studio one. If anyone thinks a tape echo sounds like a digital echo they haven't been listening.
Gibson is a very good writer but his handle has always been flavor more than technology.
Really strange image of 'Chicken Little', an enormous everliving vat grown chicken tissue that the radical conservationists hold their meetings inside.
I play stringed instruments. The guitar has passed through a well funded techno arms race since the early 50s but is still based on the older technology. The sitar stabilized technologically around 300 years ago.
Some linguist has a theory that music was used to teach counting, counting used to lead while taking aim at dinner with a spear.
Whether music has been improved by technology is OT but if someone wants a rant on that get in touch (Short Answer: yes and no)
Bruce Sterling(?) commented in Wired in the 90s that it was hard to write science fiction as we are now living in the future. "The NASDAJ is science fiction". (I added at the time - certainly fiction)
After 9/11 kids I knew who had grown up knowing only the media theme park that was America during the Clinton boom were shocked, scared and uncertain, but those that had read, for instance, Shockwave Rider or Stand On Zanzibar had already thought out some of the issues.
So go read The Sheep Look Up to get ready for the next 50 years.
I picked up Heinline in 5th grade and never looked back. A friend trying to get his teenage cousin to read gave her Sidhartha - a great book mind you but not a first book - I suggested a Heinline juvenile (or The Maltise Falcon).
More random observations
Read an article somewhere with someone (hey it was years ago) pointing out that science fiction novels were references to the times they were created during.
1984: Lots of grey burned out buildings and shifting superpower alliances is post WWII Britian.
Clockwork Orange: Crazed kids dressing funny and riding scooters in gangs -> Mod England in the 60s.
Science fiction also gives the writer freedom to explore issues from different perspectives: The Left Hand of Darkness is a very human book that needs the 'fantasy' to explore humanity. The Disposessed manages to frame political arguments without sectarian Earth references.
Would the moon (lack of atmosphere and all) have a longer standing record of solar events? We've only been monitoring the solar wind since (oblig FF ref), would Lunar 'soil samples' reveal evidence of 100 or 500 year storms?
PBS. Quote: "General Marshall later in August, however, did ask about the possibility of using atomic bombs in November to destroy Japanese divisions along the invasion beaches in Kyushu."
US southern Japan invasion plans included using nukes for tactical beach support. We know now that would effectively have doomed what US soldiers survived the landings.
The untold part of this story is cafes generally make their money in take out. If someone buys a cup of coffee an hour for 6 hours: $15 at best. + pastry or food.
Starbucks gives away wifi and power and, though they suck, they did manage to shift the price of coffee beans, hot water and paper cups up 500%.
I'll make the argument that the Simpson's is (was) the last great television show. Technologies as mass communcation mediums peak and then just sit there.
The 'record business', no matter what quality arguments you want to get into, peaked as a sociological force during the 60s. People still make compilations of music (disks, iTunes playlists, mastermixes, hell, there's a place in NJ that'll do a flexidisk) but nobody really cares that much anymore. Probably as it should be. Same could be said for the novel, the radio show and the movie.
Best.TV.Show.Ever:
See It Now. Edward Murrow changed the face of America in his encounter with the McCarthy hearings.
Nixon / Kennedy debate doesn't count as it wasn't a show.
I personally would give the Carson Tonight Show the nod. For years, a real bellweather of the nation.
Which, IMHO, makes The Simpsons Third.Best.TV.Show.Ever. By mixing classic cartoon humor with low and highbrow satire, The Simpson's summed up the content value of television, putting a capper to an age of sitcoms, cop shows and game shows - all designed to play between the commercials.
And now no one will care about TV (glad that's over). It's all websites from here on out.
Slashdot Mirror
US fuel tax is much lower, but does the US fuel tax cover the highway / road repair / construction / administration? Don't have the numbers but my guess is no.
So the EU subsidizes health care and the US subsidizes automobile culture. Europe has been around longer than the automobile, American suburbia was designed around the automobile. Without cheap transportation, much of America doesn't work as layed out.
I want rolling roads. (excuse me, flying cars)
On /. this will probably get modded Troll but ... Flash is great for certain things. Want to design a GUI quickly? Sure you Java guys can speed through some tight code, but for the rest of us who don't have time for the 'extend applet call-me-Ishmael' Java coder mindset (or if the client wants their simple calculator during this calender year) Flash will have you up and running in a day or two.
Want to tell the client that their site will look the same across browsers without 2k of javascript and lingering uncertainty? Code for Flash 5, embed the fonts and cash the check.
Need some quick dancing spaghetti at the top of the page? No problem and small too.
Want to make a really annoying intro without a skip button? You have the power.
All in all, a worthwhile tool.
Satelite radio with a subscription based revenue model.
Web allowing for an unlimited number of band sites / indie radio casts.
Broadcast radio delivering 'news' (read: Clear Channel spin) and what ends up in the top 40 (through quality, payola or a combination).
Excuse the Mao quote. Mabey the majors will end up sending the indie rockers away for reeducation (in the red states(?))
Every working musician has known this since Napster. Unless you're so succesful you've become a corporation (Metallica) file sharing is actually good for your business: free publicity. What is devaluing corporate music (besides quality control or lack thereof) is kids burning disks.
/. that the new digital free for all is probably good for actual players (and bad for the corporate lawyer types ... choak ... sob ...) what isn't noticed is the audio techs that are now out of work. It's easier to make records with engineers and assistant engineers helping, but, as every professional engineer has found in the last few years, those days are over. There is no corporate money to pay some guy to set up expensive microphones all day on someone elses record. The recording studio industry of the 20th century is going the way of the hat makers.
If, for some reason, teenagers want the new Korn disk, they pool they're money and buy one, burn two. Can you blaim them when a little pile of digital plastic is $17 at retail?
While it's old news on
These days, rather than raising the money and paying to record and mix in a dedicated room with some professionals, I track and mix most everything at home.
Good or bad for the music? You decide (probably both). Like it or not that's how we're going to do it now.
Aside to any audio techs still reading: I recently heard of an auction where a Studer 2" machine went for 8 grand (!?!?). I heard after the auction or I'd have a Studer in my living room.
Personal data storage into the terabyte, a vast global communications network, and the article is about the music industry's inability to deal with digital file sharing (?) I expected to look at the bottom and see it dated 1998. Seriously, in the '05, shouldn't a supercomputer guy be thinking about biological modeling (or something).
.16 c a song is what's happening then 'the man can't stop our music', but still ...
IMHO, Ray Kurzweil, master book/snake oil salesman that he is, is at least addressing some of the changes implied by the (what are we calling it now?) Information Explosion. If a GPS screen in your car and
We need some futurists that aren't being outrun by the present. Links, anyone?
...no wait ...
Greetings Mr Smithe;
I am an operative of an international terrorist organization. Due to the recent crackdown on our money laundering operations we are left without an ability to transfer money across borders. We beseech you in the name of, say, Allah to let us deposit $50,000 US dollars in your bank account, ten percent of which you can keep as a thanks for helping us in this struggle. To confirm your account number please transfer $100 US to dirtyrussianspammers.com. You will also recieve a special 30 day trial membership in jihadibabes.com, as well as a lifetime supply of Afgan viagra.
Re: Men watching women in the shower (which I'm all for BTW)
as the old saw goes:
higomous hoggomous, women monogomous
hoggomous higomous, man polygomous
sorry for the spelling and not googling the quote (hopfully that doesn't mod me troll)
Monogomy in women has been a survival trait - raising the kids and all.
Men are descents of the guys who wanted to go into the next town and bang all the chicks.
For genuinely contradictory views: Any politician, just about anywhere, talking about 'sacrifice' : Do as I say, not as I do.
Or (perhaps flamebaiting some libertarians) - I don't believe in government intervention unless it comes from my moral standpoint.
And of course: I want it fast, cheap and quality.
(As I'm relatively old) This brought up immediate memories of the training sections in Starship Trooper -the book, dude- and The Forever War. If memory serves both went into detail about the dangers of powered armor.
I still want one. Especially if I can't have a flying car.
they should be fired.
...
That was always my problem with SDI 'Star Wars'.
We (the US taxpayers) pay these people really well (at least the brass and contractors). If it worked, they would (should) just do it and we'd hear about it later. This isn't to give respect to the Military Industrial Complex or advocate a genocidal first strike, just living in a real world.
While there are still wars on Earth, they will extend into space.
Imagine there's no countries
Music and health (=sex education) should be taught in the primary grades. Music very young helps with math and health is avoided culturally around here (USA).
Reading should be taught in the primary grades at the expense of everything else (above included).
Overall kids should be taught that learning is a lifelong project, and to not go to college if you're just passing time but to wait until there is a passion for a subject.
Teachers have to be valued more (paid more) but the political will for that will probably be lacking at least near term.
TFA "Using astonishingly primitive predigital hardware"
Analog audio technology was peaking around the time of studio one. If anyone thinks a tape echo sounds like a digital echo they haven't been listening.
Gibson is a very good writer but his handle has always been flavor more than technology.
Pohl and Kornbluth 1953
Really strange image of 'Chicken Little', an enormous everliving vat grown chicken tissue that the radical conservationists hold their meetings inside.
Glad to see EE Doc Smith mentioned - restores my faith in /.
From what I can tell (haven't seen it) the Japanese movie is basically a Star Wars clone with names lifted from Galactic Patrol.
The Buck Rogers newspaper strips deserve a mention, as does Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon. Not cinematically, however.
I play stringed instruments. The guitar has passed through a well funded techno arms race since the early 50s but is still based on the older technology. The sitar stabilized technologically around 300 years ago.
Some linguist has a theory that music was used to teach counting, counting used to lead while taking aim at dinner with a spear.
Whether music has been improved by technology is OT but if someone wants a rant on that get in touch (Short Answer: yes and no)
Did you stop to think this over? Seems like a knee jerk small govt rant unrelated to the issue. For instance ...
>growing government bureaucracy.
This is a database.
>Would you not have a grievance if the government decided to take away your job?
Would you be comfortable with whoever was in power granting monopoly status to private sector scientific databasing?
Even if it wasn't your party?
>If we accept that it is the government's job to research medicine, should we also accept that it is the government's job to provide that medicine?
Isn't this two questions and can I say 'yes' and 'sometimes'?
At what point does this become 'protectionism'? The European's, for instance, do a lot of good research.
Bruce Sterling(?) commented in Wired in the 90s that it was hard to write science fiction as we are now living in the future. "The NASDAJ is science fiction". (I added at the time - certainly fiction)
After 9/11 kids I knew who had grown up knowing only the media theme park that was America during the Clinton boom were shocked, scared and uncertain, but those that had read, for instance, Shockwave Rider or Stand On Zanzibar had already thought out some of the issues.
So go read The Sheep Look Up to get ready for the next 50 years.
I picked up Heinline in 5th grade and never looked back. A friend trying to get his teenage cousin to read gave her Sidhartha - a great book mind you but not a first book - I suggested a Heinline juvenile (or The Maltise Falcon).
More random observations
Read an article somewhere with someone (hey it was years ago) pointing out that science fiction novels were references to the times they were created during.
1984: Lots of grey burned out buildings and shifting superpower alliances is post WWII Britian.
Clockwork Orange: Crazed kids dressing funny and riding scooters in gangs -> Mod England in the 60s.
Science fiction also gives the writer freedom to explore issues from different perspectives: The Left Hand of Darkness is a very human book that needs the 'fantasy' to explore humanity. The Disposessed manages to frame political arguments without sectarian Earth references.
This is a good introductory site for dilettantes like myself. The Wolfram site goes over my head pretty quickly.
Wiki beats both, although the pages aren't neon.
Excuse the ignorance (wait, this is slashdot ...)
Would the moon (lack of atmosphere and all) have a longer standing record of solar events? We've only been monitoring the solar wind since (oblig FF ref), would Lunar 'soil samples' reveal evidence of 100 or 500 year storms?
I didn't RTFA but
what I want is a touchscreen monitor - point and tap where you would mouse and qwerty for the rest.
PBS.
Quote: "General Marshall later in August, however, did ask about the possibility of using atomic bombs in November to destroy Japanese divisions along the invasion beaches in Kyushu."
Some discussion here
US southern Japan invasion plans included using nukes for tactical beach support. We know now that would effectively have doomed what US soldiers survived the landings.
The untold part of this story is cafes generally make their money in take out. If someone buys a cup of coffee an hour for 6 hours: $15 at best. + pastry or food.
Starbucks gives away wifi and power and, though they suck, they did manage to shift the price of coffee beans, hot water and paper cups up 500%.
IMHO the 'Age of Specialization' is passing. Why not be a plumber and a programmer? This has kept me afloat (sort of) through various booms and busts.
Either the culture of the US changes the way we value labor or we're in for a harsh decline toward the rest of the worlds minimum wage.
Best.TV.Show.Ever:
See It Now. Edward Murrow changed the face of America in his encounter with the McCarthy hearings.
Nixon / Kennedy debate doesn't count as it wasn't a show.
I personally would give the Carson Tonight Show the nod. For years, a real bellweather of the nation.
Which, IMHO, makes The Simpsons Third.Best.TV.Show.Ever. By mixing classic cartoon humor with low and highbrow satire, The Simpson's summed up the content value of television, putting a capper to an age of sitcoms, cop shows and game shows - all designed to play between the commercials.
And now no one will care about TV (glad that's over). It's all websites from here on out.
I'm waiting for the OS X release.