Let us not forget Ursula K. LeGuin. Of course the Earthsea (now a fourbook) trilogy is very good, but she also wrote many other greats . . . Left Hand of Darkness quite notable.
I believe it was talk. I wrote a script that would "alert" the target person by popping the xeyes on their screen periodically and then would initiate the talk session, so I mostly remember my script name, but talk rings a bell. That was another thing I loved about X11 . . . the thing allowed you to pop windows up on any display. Everyone wanted to work at the unix machines because they were so fun. The Windows machines were (and still are) for the mundane and boring.
Before you could do IM and such, there were great xWindows programs that would essentially do the same thing. I'm talking out of my ass here, but it seems like X11 had it all. Is it possible that this could still become the standard for other (non *nix) platforms?
I remember dreaming at the time that Win95 would be somehow built on X11 . . .
My gut reaction is one of agreement. I have thought about using MySQL for my own apps, because I have been using, well, Access (where is my asbestos jacket . ..), as my clients all have Access (sigh . . . back in the MSDos 3.x days I liked MS). But I am curious about this.
Seems like an app that stores it's data in a GPLd database does not then become GPL. Is there a good FAQ that answers GPL questions? I do not speak legaleeze so reading the GPL itself does me little good.
I'm an engineer, so I don't really know math I just use it a bit, but isn't expressing Pi in this way how we go about solving for it's digits? IE, c = 2 * pi * r, so, pi = c/(2r) = c/d. So, draw a circle.
Measure circumference exactly,
then measure diameter exactly.
You can now express pi as a mixed number. I suppose that step 1 (measuring c) presents a bit of a challenge. But this is what I always set out to do when trying to figure out how to solve pi out to 100 digits (never got there). If this is the wrong track, how else would it be done?
True. I went to see the movie "Tapeheads" based on a scene in the TV trailer. The scene was cut from the movie . . . wouldn't that be false advertising?
Even though I know the story, I still don't want to see any previews or trailers before I see the movie. I suppose this means burying my head in the sand for the next six months . . .
If you are implying that I was making a pedantic smart ass comment, then that of course is your opinion. It was not at all my intention. Most of the people I spend time with would still accept the word "disease" in the way that I described. I was merely pointing out the semantic difference.
disease, or dis-ease does not imply a viral or bacterial type infection. Nor does it imply any other illness for which you might go to the hospital and take some pills. It implies simply that there is something within that is causing some kind of problem: physical, mental, or spiritual. Our society suffers from much disease.
I think that the record companies, as well as the artists, if they can manage to form a strong coalition, could do something about it. Artists eventually have the power to gain strength over recording companies, and have done so as recording studios and equipment continue to move into the independant realm (even I have an ADAT).
Seems the Radio stations and these useless midlemen (indies -- they are not adding any value) are saying "pay or we won't play". If artists (and lables) stood up to them and said, fine, don't play, and instead went to another business model to get the music heard (live venues, encouraged listener concert taping, etc) then they could sell their wares without the need of the radio stations. Then the stations go under and can be bought for cheap . . . by artist coalitions etc.
Hmmm. Perhaps corona would be better than natural light. Is fresh air a new brand of compressed air? Will it clean my slides better than the older canned air before a scan?
There's plenty you can do to uncompress the spine daily. Not many people are into it, but I've seen men in their 90s who move, bend, flex better than most humans at any age. The effects of gravity on aging are pretty much totally preventable.
No doubt. This sounds like a really bad deal for the test subjects. These would have to be people who are at least fairly active and in some decent shape, or the impact of the study would almost certainly be lessened. You'd have to pay me a lot more before I put my body through something like that.
Actually going to space? Well now, I'd do that for free.
The other reason is to build (or assemble) an interstellar/interplanetary ship for lauch from LEO rather from Earth. This could greatly reduce the cost/risk of such an endeavor, as much cost is incurred in the first 100 miles of the trip (earth surface to orbiting the earth).
Of course, this does make some assumptions about the source of fuel for the propulsion system. And if all of the materials come from the earth's surface you can't quite argue energy conservation, but let's assume a nuclear reactor propulsion system. The raw components could be lifted to the space hangar where assembly takes place. This would reduce the risks associated with a nuclear powered rocket.
I'm sure given enough time and people we could find many other reasons to be in space . . .
Yeah, and we should make them out of hemp paper that can be used for rolling up a nice big spliff. Blotter paper would be good too, for when you can't carry the vial.
Regarding Windows being the only target for viruses, I have always assumed that this is simply due to the overwhelming opportunity that windows presents. Think of car thieves: if a certain make and model was quite easy to steal, then that make and model will show up as the most stolen. If windows did not exist
imagine there's no windows, it's easy if you try, nothing to crash or reboot, pigs would surely fly . . . ok I'm no Lennon and it's early
then would there not be viruses on the next biggest target (something would be in the place of windows)? Hackers (the malicious kind) used to break into Unix systems left and right. They would plant malicious code that would gather user name/password, delete data, and otherwise generally screw with the systems. I find it hard to believe that this kind of activity would not eventually lead to worms and viruses of some kind on these systems. Windows just made it very, very easy and happened to be on a lot of systems which all of the sudden were accessable.
Sure, that is a possibility. However, there are certain advantages to each car being responsible for it's own state in the system. The analogy I like comes from object oriented design. If you were designing a large simulation or model of a complex system, where each member of the system was fully represented on it's own node (ie, computer), then having each node solely responsible for reporting it's TSPI (Time-space-positional information) to the system, then there is less computational load at a centralized command center. This provides for decentralized execution and thinking. Also from a financial and infrastructure point of view it is easier to retrofit cars with the necessary technology, but harder to do so with the roads.
I'm pretty sure both concepts are being looked at though, and whenever implemented you will see both styles depending on the locality. By making each individual object smart you increase the flexibility of the system as a whole as well as reducing the cost and complexity of the centralized system processing. Air traffic control technologies are a good example. If planes were smart enough to know everything about their own position, and were reporting it to the central post, then the central post becomes simply a clearing house for information. Each plane can get information for only the subset of planes that are within a certain sphere, and can react accordingly. At the central command post there is a general viewing and alerting system in case there needs to be some override (human in the loop or not) for deconflicton.
It seems you could be misunderstanding the concept of large finite numbers. I would agree that we may never find such a planet, but it is not unreasonable to look for the hell of it. It is quite reasonable to think that one, or quite a few, could exist. Or that another planet that could support human like life forms could exist. There is nothing about our own piece of the universe that provides an example of a truly unique happening. Only our egos tell us that we must be unique. IMHO, nature and the universe demonstrate quite plainly that we are quite mundane.
"We haven't yet found an exact solar system analog, which would have a circular orbit and a mass closer to that of Jupiter. But this shows we are getting close," says Butler.
This statement sounds like an assumption of a progression. IE, since we've found one that is close to some attractive specifications, we are soon going to find one more exactly meeting those specifications. As I understand it, the logic of this is quite elusive. Just because I went fishing and caught a large fish does not mean that I will catch an even bigger fish.
What we are doing is getting better and better looks at what is out there. This does not imply that we will eventually find another Earth. While the probability of there being other Earth like planets out there is quite high (potentially), the likelihood of us finding them, let alone communicating with them or visiting them, is very low given our current knowledge of the universe and physics. Of course, tomorrow someone may discover a way to travel vast distances in space and time in the blink of an eye, and thereby making it very likely.
It's good to know what is out there though, regardless of being able to interact or not, as it will get humanity looking outward and may lead to a peaceful and unified Earth.
Trying to get at this kind of information through cell phones, while a compelling idea, is ultimately slightly off track. The Intelligent Vehicle Highway System (IVHS) is a program under FHA (part of DOT I believe) that is attempting to solve a number of problems like this. Essentially, cars and roads should be equipped with devices that will enable "the system" to give drivers and others the kind of information they need. For now cell phones are a good proxy for these devices, but in order to truly work the cars themselves should be equipped with a device that will transmit location information to the system. Big Brother watchers will freak out about that because it could mean that you could be tracked in your car at all locations. However, the implementation could also be done in such a way that there is no "individual" level detail in the system. (ie, a car is here, but no one could determine which car is here).
Combine this technology with cars that can sense TSPI of the cars around them and you have the makings of an "autopilot" for cars. Mass transportation will never really work unless it can provide individual flexibility. So cars themselves must become part of the mass transit system. On the highway you are part of the mass transit system, but when in local mode you have control back . . . but with good routing and status information to make life easier. The biggest problem in city traffic is those people who continuously change lanes because a) they don't really know where they are going or b) the person in front of them does not know where they are going. (too many participles left dangling . . . you get the idea).
I could go on, but I'm already way off topic and straying farther . . . Don't cell phones cause brain tumors anyway?
Laws that do offer protection for public broadcasts by prohibiting listening (cell wiretapping laws) or decrypting (DMCA) should be eliminated. Wiretapping laws make sense for wires, and other technologies that are inherently private, not for broadcasts, which are inherently public.
Great point . . . one I wish that more people had a handle on. Feel free to encrypt your broadcast to make sure (hopefully) that it remains secure, but don't expect some police activity to step in and prosecute someone who may intercept and tinker with your signal. This kind of police activity would fall into the "Orwellian" categories.
The remainder of this post has been removed and replaced with the following summation: ditto
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I believe it was talk. I wrote a script that would "alert" the target person by popping the xeyes on their screen periodically and then would initiate the talk session, so I mostly remember my script name, but talk rings a bell. That was another thing I loved about X11 . . . the thing allowed you to pop windows up on any display. Everyone wanted to work at the unix machines because they were so fun. The Windows machines were (and still are) for the mundane and boring.
I remember dreaming at the time that Win95 would be somehow built on X11 . . .
Seems like an app that stores it's data in a GPLd database does not then become GPL. Is there a good FAQ that answers GPL questions? I do not speak legaleeze so reading the GPL itself does me little good.
- Measure circumference exactly,
- then measure diameter exactly.
You can now express pi as a mixed number. I suppose that step 1 (measuring c) presents a bit of a challenge. But this is what I always set out to do when trying to figure out how to solve pi out to 100 digits (never got there). If this is the wrong track, how else would it be done?Even though I know the story, I still don't want to see any previews or trailers before I see the movie. I suppose this means burying my head in the sand for the next six months . . .
If you are implying that I was making a pedantic smart ass comment, then that of course is your opinion. It was not at all my intention. Most of the people I spend time with would still accept the word "disease" in the way that I described. I was merely pointing out the semantic difference.
disease, or dis-ease does not imply a viral or bacterial type infection. Nor does it imply any other illness for which you might go to the hospital and take some pills. It implies simply that there is something within that is causing some kind of problem: physical, mental, or spiritual. Our society suffers from much disease.
Seems the Radio stations and these useless midlemen (indies -- they are not adding any value) are saying "pay or we won't play". If artists (and lables) stood up to them and said, fine, don't play, and instead went to another business model to get the music heard (live venues, encouraged listener concert taping, etc) then they could sell their wares without the need of the radio stations. Then the stations go under and can be bought for cheap . . . by artist coalitions etc.
I suppose I'm a dreamer . . .
Hmmm. Perhaps corona would be better than natural light. Is fresh air a new brand of compressed air? Will it clean my slides better than the older canned air before a scan?
There's plenty you can do to uncompress the spine daily. Not many people are into it, but I've seen men in their 90s who move, bend, flex better than most humans at any age. The effects of gravity on aging are pretty much totally preventable.
Actually going to space? Well now, I'd do that for free.
Of course, this does make some assumptions about the source of fuel for the propulsion system. And if all of the materials come from the earth's surface you can't quite argue energy conservation, but let's assume a nuclear reactor propulsion system. The raw components could be lifted to the space hangar where assembly takes place. This would reduce the risks associated with a nuclear powered rocket.
I'm sure given enough time and people we could find many other reasons to be in space . . .
Yeah, and we should make them out of hemp paper that can be used for rolling up a nice big spliff. Blotter paper would be good too, for when you can't carry the vial.
imagine there's no windows, it's easy if you try, nothing to crash or reboot, pigs would surely fly . . . ok I'm no Lennon and it's early
then would there not be viruses on the next biggest target (something would be in the place of windows)? Hackers (the malicious kind) used to break into Unix systems left and right. They would plant malicious code that would gather user name/password, delete data, and otherwise generally screw with the systems. I find it hard to believe that this kind of activity would not eventually lead to worms and viruses of some kind on these systems. Windows just made it very, very easy and happened to be on a lot of systems which all of the sudden were accessable.
I'm pretty sure both concepts are being looked at though, and whenever implemented you will see both styles depending on the locality. By making each individual object smart you increase the flexibility of the system as a whole as well as reducing the cost and complexity of the centralized system processing. Air traffic control technologies are a good example. If planes were smart enough to know everything about their own position, and were reporting it to the central post, then the central post becomes simply a clearing house for information. Each plane can get information for only the subset of planes that are within a certain sphere, and can react accordingly. At the central command post there is a general viewing and alerting system in case there needs to be some override (human in the loop or not) for deconflicton.
It seems you could be misunderstanding the concept of large finite numbers. I would agree that we may never find such a planet, but it is not unreasonable to look for the hell of it. It is quite reasonable to think that one, or quite a few, could exist. Or that another planet that could support human like life forms could exist. There is nothing about our own piece of the universe that provides an example of a truly unique happening. Only our egos tell us that we must be unique. IMHO, nature and the universe demonstrate quite plainly that we are quite mundane.
This statement sounds like an assumption of a progression. IE, since we've found one that is close to some attractive specifications, we are soon going to find one more exactly meeting those specifications. As I understand it, the logic of this is quite elusive. Just because I went fishing and caught a large fish does not mean that I will catch an even bigger fish.
What we are doing is getting better and better looks at what is out there. This does not imply that we will eventually find another Earth. While the probability of there being other Earth like planets out there is quite high (potentially), the likelihood of us finding them, let alone communicating with them or visiting them, is very low given our current knowledge of the universe and physics. Of course, tomorrow someone may discover a way to travel vast distances in space and time in the blink of an eye, and thereby making it very likely.
It's good to know what is out there though, regardless of being able to interact or not, as it will get humanity looking outward and may lead to a peaceful and unified Earth.
Combine this technology with cars that can sense TSPI of the cars around them and you have the makings of an "autopilot" for cars. Mass transportation will never really work unless it can provide individual flexibility. So cars themselves must become part of the mass transit system. On the highway you are part of the mass transit system, but when in local mode you have control back . . . but with good routing and status information to make life easier. The biggest problem in city traffic is those people who continuously change lanes because a) they don't really know where they are going or b) the person in front of them does not know where they are going. (too many participles left dangling . . . you get the idea).
I could go on, but I'm already way off topic and straying farther . . . Don't cell phones cause brain tumors anyway?
Great point . . . one I wish that more people had a handle on. Feel free to encrypt your broadcast to make sure (hopefully) that it remains secure, but don't expect some police activity to step in and prosecute someone who may intercept and tinker with your signal. This kind of police activity would fall into the "Orwellian" categories.
The remainder of this post has been removed and replaced with the following summation: ditto