"Weather is a fundamentally chaotic system, with sensitive dependence on initial conditions."
It is true that the initial conditions are one aspect of the problem. As you state the initial conditions can be improved by observations and better analysis of these data (which requires a lot of CPU horsepower).
Another aspect is that the numerical weather forecast models themselves introduce noise. This happens because we cannot currently resolve all physically important processes in the system due to limitations in computer power (and scientific understanding - but that is another issue). With more computer power it is possible to increase the spatial and temporal resolution of the models and thereby hopefully decrease the errors introduced by the model.
"I don't think that you should underestimate the problem, granted most of don't run a major risk but they do try, and as you will acknowledge, trying leads to learning..."
I agree. We should remember that North Korea channels most of its funds to the military - and that in spite of the poverty it has already developed ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.
But the audio monitor might come in handy when your child sleeps outside. Maybe it is not normal in USA to have your baby sleep in a baby carriage in the garden? It is quite common here in Denmark - and no people don't steal our children from our gardens.
Of course caps lock is still necessary. I receive lots of emails from Nigerian business men in all capital letters. Without caps lock it would be terribly difficult for them to write all these excellent business proposals.
Well, I guess one of the reasons that we have not encountered problems yet is that we are part of a liberalised electricity market (we sell and buy electricity to/from Norway, Sweden and Germany mainly). Germany also produces quite a lot of wind energy while Norway in particular but also Sweden get a lot of their energy from water turbines. You might therefore argue that our region will not have a wind production of 50% in 2030.
There seems to be a lot of research (in Denmark) going into how to handle more wind power. It seems like the solution is not one simple measure but based on a number of different angles of attack.
Here is a paper and link to an EU project about this subject:
Wind energy is already useful. In Denmark (which is a world leader in wind energy) we have the capacity to cover 20% of our electricity consumption by wind energy in a normal wind year.
This rate is climbing quickly and by 2030 we will cover 50% of our electricity usage by wind energy. It is probably not possible to go much higher due to the fluctuating nature of wind energy - but the technology to produce cheap wind energy is already here. If we combine wind energy with other clean energy sources (like nuclear power for example) it is thus not that hard to imagine a future with clean electricity.
Of course we will also have to use clean energy sources for heating and transportation. In my opinion the most obvious savings come from reductions in energy usage in these areas for example by imposing mandatory isolation in building regulations (but I might be wrong).
And you can also install a Firefox extension that disables Flash scripts (or whatever they are called) by default and only runs them if you click them.
http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/#flashblo ck
I recently changed browser from Mozilla to Mozilla Firebird mainly for one reason. In Mozilla Firebird you can download (one click) an extension that blocks flash animations. If you then click on the flash animation it will play. That is one great feature for a user who is tired of flash adds.
Of course, in real life not all are born equal. What I was trying to convey was that, in my opinion, society should work towards giving, e.g. disabled people, equal opportunity (though I do realise that it is a goal that cannot be reached in full).
Equal opportunity does not mean that everybody will be able to become astronauts. But it does mean that most people will have greater opportunity to shape their lives according to their wishes than in other societies.
And sure society is influencing how you live your life. But we also have a choice for ourselves. In my 'dream society' this choice is maximised.
Well, I prefer a society where roles are not "given". I prefer that people are handed as much freedom as possible to shape their own lives as they see fit.
Your proposition seem to based on the premise that all should be equal in all respects and therefore it should not matter what role you have in society. That is not one of my priorities. I would like a society with equal opportunities - then people have the responsibility to shape their own future (for good or for bad).
You clearly missed the point in my signature. It has nothing to do with pessimism. Karl Popper (famous natural philosopher) wrote a book after WW2 called "The Open Society and its enemies" as a defence of democracy and a critique of totalitarian rule (including fascism, communism and various religious ways to rule).
In the book he argues that democracy has an incremental approach to society building whereas e.g. communism (and political islam for that sake) has a "revolutionary" approach. The point is that those who promise us paradise on Earth after we have made the society in whatever way they would like us to - they have always ended up giving us hell on Earth (Soviet Union, Iran, Afghanistan and so on).
Well, I don't think that it is a very subjective decision. If it is clear that you are making a rip-off of some copyrighted work you are guilty of copyright violation - period.
Are you sure the specifics of the legal systems had much to do with with the governmental abuse? I don't recall Hitler ever bothering much about the law. Not that I'm saying that the specifics of a legal system are not important - but maybe you are stretching it a bit. Btw. what countries are you thinking of (Norway has never suffered from governmental abuse afaik)?
"Jury trials are the other vital pillar of legal freedom in Anglo nations: if the jury don't like a law, they acquit, and there is nothing the prosecutor can do about it."
Is that freedom? I thought that the rule of law was a pillar of freedom. What you are stating sounds more like a system encouraging arbitrary judgements.
Does anyone know if this has anything to do with the "Shield" technology Microsoft has recently been promoting (without saying what it is)?
If so, I think there is reason to be worried about being shut off "The Secure Net (TM)" as a *nix, Mac or whatever user. Anyone remember the Microsoft Network?
I agree with most of your post. But Castle don't have to prove that they did'nt use the GPL-ed code. The owner(s) of the GPL-ed code would have to take Castle to court and prove that Castle did use the code in question.
>The person in Denmark could also appeal to the ECJ because Denmark as a EU member state is under the jurisdiction of the court.
Are you sure of this? After rejecting the Maastricht Treaty the Danes got 4 exemptions from the Treaty. One of these were certain aspects of the legal cooperation.
One hospital in Denmark is currently making knee operations using a programmed robot. The success rate for the "robot surgeon" were far above that of human surgeons.
In case anything goes wrong a human surgeon is standing by.
Because all art builds on the past. If Disney were not allowed to use and modify the stories of great authors the World would never have seen a lot of those great Disney tales.
Similarly someone might build on the stories of Disney in the future and produce even greater stories - particularly if he/she does not have to worry about being sued/
Slashdot Mirror
"Weather is a fundamentally chaotic system, with sensitive dependence on initial conditions."
It is true that the initial conditions are one aspect of the problem. As you state the initial conditions can be improved by observations and better analysis of these data (which requires a lot of CPU horsepower).
Another aspect is that the numerical weather forecast models themselves introduce noise. This happens because we cannot currently resolve all physically important processes in the system due to limitations in computer power (and scientific understanding - but that is another issue). With more computer power it is possible to increase the spatial and temporal resolution of the models and thereby hopefully decrease the errors introduced by the model.
And if you read the top stories they are:
- Microsoft Invades Cuba
- Microsoft Monkey Colony on Mars
If it has slipped past anyone MS Linux is a parody;-)
"I don't think that you should underestimate the problem, granted most of don't run a major risk but they do try, and as you will acknowledge, trying leads to learning..."
I agree. We should remember that North Korea channels most of its funds to the military - and that in spite of the poverty it has already developed ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.
But the audio monitor might come in handy when your child sleeps outside. Maybe it is not normal in USA to have your baby sleep in a baby carriage in the garden? It is quite common here in Denmark - and no people don't steal our children from our gardens.
"Just as Microsoft has gone through a wrenching transformation from a combative bully to a mature corporate citizen"
I guess MS is just one of those bullies who never grows up - and ends up in jail as an adult. Not that I would shed any tears if that happened.
Does anyone know what dotGNU proposes to do?
From their website it seems that they are making some kind of decentralized "passport". Is The Liberty Alliance also pushing a decentralized solution?
Of course caps lock is still necessary. I receive lots of emails from Nigerian business men in all capital letters. Without caps lock it would be terribly difficult for them to write all these excellent business proposals.
Well, I guess one of the reasons that we have not encountered problems yet is that we are part of a liberalised electricity market (we sell and buy electricity to/from Norway, Sweden and Germany mainly). Germany also produces quite a lot of wind energy while Norway in particular but also Sweden get a lot of their energy from water turbines. You might therefore argue that our region will not have a wind production of 50% in 2030.
There seems to be a lot of research (in Denmark) going into how to handle more wind power. It seems like the solution is not one simple measure but based on a number of different angles of attack.
Here is a paper and link to an EU project about this subject:
http://www.risoe.dk/rispubl/SYS/ris-r-1441.htm
http://www.wilmar.risoe.dk/
Wind energy is already useful. In Denmark (which is a world leader in wind energy) we have the capacity to cover 20% of our electricity consumption by wind energy in a normal wind year.
This rate is climbing quickly and by 2030 we will cover 50% of our electricity usage by wind energy.
It is probably not possible to go much higher due to the fluctuating nature of wind energy - but the technology to produce cheap wind energy is already here. If we combine wind energy with other clean energy sources (like nuclear power for example) it is thus not that hard to imagine a future with clean electricity.
Of course we will also have to use clean energy sources for heating and transportation. In my opinion the most obvious savings come from reductions in energy usage in these areas for example by imposing mandatory isolation in building regulations (but I might be wrong).
And you can also install a Firefox extension that disables Flash scripts (or whatever they are called) by default and only runs them if you click them. http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/#flashblo ck
I recently changed browser from Mozilla to Mozilla Firebird mainly for one reason. In Mozilla Firebird you can download (one click) an extension that blocks flash animations. If you then click on the flash animation it will play. That is one great feature for a user who is tired of flash adds.
Of course, in real life not all are born equal. What I was trying to convey was that, in my opinion, society should work towards giving, e.g. disabled people, equal opportunity (though I do realise that it is a goal that cannot be reached in full).
Equal opportunity does not mean that everybody will be able to become astronauts. But it does mean that most people will have greater opportunity to shape their lives according to their wishes than in other societies.
And sure society is influencing how you live your life. But we also have a choice for ourselves. In my 'dream society' this choice is maximised.
Well, I prefer a society where roles are not "given". I prefer that people are handed as much freedom as possible to shape their own lives as they see fit.
Your proposition seem to based on the premise that all should be equal in all respects and therefore it should not matter what role you have in society. That is not one of my priorities. I would like a society with equal opportunities - then people have the responsibility to shape their own future (for good or for bad).
You clearly missed the point in my signature. It has nothing to do with pessimism. Karl Popper (famous natural philosopher) wrote a book after WW2 called "The Open Society and its enemies" as a defence of democracy and a critique of totalitarian rule (including fascism, communism and various religious ways to rule).
In the book he argues that democracy has an incremental approach to society building whereas e.g. communism (and political islam for that sake) has a "revolutionary" approach. The point is that those who promise us paradise on Earth after we have made the society in whatever way they would like us to - they have always ended up giving us hell on Earth (Soviet Union, Iran, Afghanistan and so on).
Well, I don't think that it is a very subjective decision. If it is clear that you are making a rip-off of some copyrighted work you are guilty of copyright violation - period.
...but you are only allowed to watch it if you stay for the entire lecture.
Are you sure the specifics of the legal systems had much to do with with the governmental abuse? I don't recall Hitler ever bothering much about the law. Not that I'm saying that the specifics of a legal system are not important - but maybe you are stretching it a bit. Btw. what countries are you thinking of (Norway has never suffered from governmental abuse afaik)?
"Jury trials are the other vital pillar of legal freedom in Anglo nations: if the jury don't like a law, they acquit, and there is nothing the prosecutor can do about it."
Is that freedom? I thought that the rule of law was a pillar of freedom. What you are stating sounds more like a system encouraging arbitrary judgements.
Does anyone know if this has anything to do with the "Shield" technology Microsoft has recently been promoting (without saying what it is)?
If so, I think there is reason to be worried about being shut off "The Secure Net (TM)" as a *nix, Mac or whatever user. Anyone remember the Microsoft Network?
I agree with most of your post. But Castle don't have to prove that they did'nt use the GPL-ed code. The owner(s) of the GPL-ed code would have to take Castle to court and prove that Castle did use the code in question.
>The person in Denmark could also appeal to the ECJ because Denmark as a EU member state is under the jurisdiction of the court.
Are you sure of this? After rejecting the Maastricht Treaty the Danes got 4 exemptions from the Treaty. One of these were certain aspects of the legal cooperation.
One hospital in Denmark is currently making knee operations using a programmed robot. The success rate for the "robot surgeon" were far above that of human surgeons.
In case anything goes wrong a human surgeon is standing by.
Because all art builds on the past. If Disney were not allowed to use and modify the stories of great authors the World would never have seen a lot of those great Disney tales.
Similarly someone might build on the stories of Disney in the future and produce even greater stories - particularly if he/she does not have to worry about being sued/
>Including phone books?
Sure - but the information in phone book is not copyrighted. Copyright only covers the implementation of some work - not the information in the work.
The big Java nasties are bounds checking and...
If speed is what you need - IBM has proposed some relaxations in the JVM from e.g. bounds checking. I don't know if and when this will be implemented.