Are they possible?
I once bought lead foil advertised at "ten thousanths of an inch thick" thinking it might provide the envelope for a lead balloon.
Sadly it was 10/1000 inches thick not 1/10000 inches thick.
I think a balloon made from gold foil is possible but getting lead to the same thickness may not be.
The climatic situation is desperate. Feedbacks such as Siberian Methane, the loss of Artic Sea Ice and the Amazon Forests disintegrating will interact. Siberia's already 5 degC hotter; Artic Sea Ice at an all time low; and the Amazon has had summers that are dangerously dry.
Don't argue about the cost. Just get on with doing something. Tax carbon so until energy sources are carbon zero or carbon negative.
I don't have much luck with laptops or any computing hardware.
I have got fed up with breaking in new ones and additionally
would like to work on other computers, such as at friends or relations
or simply at the office. I am also fed up with lugging my laptop
around.
So what I'm trying to do is keep my work on an external USB disk.
I have found that copying Python and my Python programs to the
disk allows me to run from the disk on windows machines. Python
does not have to use the windows registry and my programs can use
relative disk locations.
I use a few little CherryPy servers and Firefox (even IE) to run
HTML/javascript . That seems to work quite well. I am also looking for
other programs that will run from my external disk. I am trying
to get to the situation where I can just plug in and start work -
without having to register anything or get my credit card out.
The aversion to credit card use is often irritation at the process
rather than the actual sum paid. Which brings me to editors. Does
anyone know of a good editor that I can do this with? Similar to my
favourite Ultraedit so at least I have something half decent when
I plug into a new machine.
'I have always had a very strong work ethic, but have been disinterested in the academic and I firmly believe that educational qualifications should not be the main yardstick by which people are measured. If you can cut corners academically to reach the same goal this should always be done. I also believe that academic cheating is a good thing ( if you can get away with it) because it gets you through the educational process to areas of life and work where you can really prove your worth to an employer having overcome the "academic results" stumbling block.'
And later...
In Evidence and Education in our Education and Training Section there is a quote from Alison Wolf's book "Does Education Matter"
"...we cannot conclude... that the skills that employers are actually using and looking for are indeed the ones gained late in the day. The most valuable could have been acquired much earlier - by age fourteen, sixteen or eighteen - and we have seen strong suggestions that this may indeed be the case."
Appearing before the Commons Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development last year, Carleton University paleoclimatologist Professor Tim Patterson testified, "There is no meaningful correlation between CO2 levels and Earth's temperature over this [geologic] time frame.
CO2 and Temerature plots for the past 450,000 years from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Some people think largely with words and grammatical structures. In his early days I think Chomsky thought we all thought using something like his transformational grammars. In this model words (linguistic symbols) almost become the meaning.
Other people think more in concepts which are less dependent on verbal ability. Such people can be more creative being less resticted by the tyranny of dictionary definitions. But they are often express themselves poorly, having to translate from their own concepts, which won't nessarily have one-to-one mappings withwords, into a linear verbal stream.
The wordy are more "machine-like" than those that use concepts. But in time perhaps machines will make more use of concept formation.
Having done a bit of phrase structured syntax analysis back in the 60s and, learning from a paperback adulation of Chomsky what tranformational grammars were, I thought "Is that all it is?"
From time to time I get to speak to people in the academic linguistics racket: professors, students etc. Unwittingly they impress on me the uselessness of linguistics over the past 30 years or so. But how did it get so influential? This would be an interesting topic for research.
Instead of hundreds universities world-wide lining up students to be force-fed Chomsky grammars why not let them gain some real research skills and find out how this transformational pixie dust grew into the acaemic industry it is today.
I started in computing, in 1967, I remember the promise "English to Chinese by next year".
to see so many people grasping at straws. No easy technological fixes can stop our current lifestyles from screwing up the world:
The snows of Kilamanjaro are almost gone The dreamy Maldives drowned and overrun The polar bears will have no place to roam They'll lounge their listless lives on solid ground
Casting storms across the Gulf of Mexico Will God's true aim hit Mickey Mouse and Co Or will countless sad old dreamers rue the day When the brothels of New Orleans are blown away
Wind farms, while necessary, are a classic example of what environmentalists
call an "end of the pipe solution." Instead of tackling the problem - our
massive demand for energy - at source, they provide less damaging means of
accommodating it. Or part of it.
The Whinash project, by replacing
energy generation from power stations burning fossil fuel, will reduce
carbon dioxide emissions by 178,000 tonnes per year.
This is impressive,
until you discover that a single jumbo jet, flying from London to Miami
and back every day, releases the climate change equivalent of 520,000 tonnes
of carbon dioxide per year.
One daily connection between Britain and
Florida costs three giant wind farms.
For "wind" read "wave" and you've got it.
Some fixes may be worth doing... but they are still fixes.
Concrete accounts for about one sixth of all the man-made carbon dioxide globally. It's about time we used something completely different.
The snows of Killomanjaro are almost gone The dreamy Muldives drowned and overrun The polar bears will have no place to roam They'll live their listless lives on solid ground
I have been waiting for a "Patent Pending" to tell./ers about my MEP, Richard Corbett. I think he is th only Labour party MEP on the right side. He tells me...
I thought I would update you on this issue following recent developments.
This issue is far from settled as there is a considerable difference of views between the European Parliament's first reading position and the political agreement reached in the Council (which has only just been formally adopted, but with growing reticence in some national
governments).
The text can only become law if it is approved in identical terms by both the Council (national ministers from each country) and the European
Parliament, with up to three readings in each institution.
My position is as follows:
I am not in favour of patenting of software as in the US.
Europe needs a uniform legal approach to stop the drift towards extending patentability to areas, which would not have been traditionally allowed, and to stop patentability of pure business methods, algorithms or mathematical methods.
Software products as such, must not be patented.
Opensource software must be allowed to flourish and the Commission must ensure that this Directive must not have adverse effects on opensource software and small software developers.
Patents and the threat of litigation must not be used as an anti- competitive weapon to squeeze out small companies.
Thank you for contacting me on this important matter.
The UK Government's Office of Government Commerce has a heavyweight methodology for controlling the procurement of IT projects. This is meant to stop the endless IT cock-ups.
Can big projects ever be properly controlled? And do heavyweight procurement methods encourage the procurers to make projects even bigger so they don't have to do it again next year.
I asked David Bowe's office for a copy of the letter after reading the comments on Slashdot. He had told me of the letter when I tackled him on the issue on his recent visit to York.
I just can't believe that he wrote a stock letter to Bertie Ahern dictated by some party functionary so that I could draw it out of him to later post it on Slashdot.
I am actually a Labour Party member - rather uncomfortable at the moment - and Arlene McCarthy would certainly not get my vote. But it seems to me that David Bowe has listened to representations from constituents like myself and done something about it. So in in this case Labour get my vote - and I have been known to vote otherwise!
Software programs are essentially the bringing together of a number of ideas into a package for sale. Just like works of art, they are already protected in legal terms by copyright. It is therefore difficult to see the added value of patenting, if anything there is the potential to create legal uncertainty for copyright holders through patent inflation, largely because when putting together their 'ideas' into a program they will not know they are infringing someone else's patents until they are sued!
I am extremely concerned to hear reports that the Irish presidency may be reaching a deal regarding the issue of Software Patents that would be seriously detrimental to the software industry, particularly in the area of ?free? and ?open-source? software. Having considered a number of detailed representations, I think there are some convincing arguments here.
As you are aware this was an issue of contention when the original legislative proposal came before the European Parliament for its first reading in September. On that occasion concerns were raised about the potential of software patents to stifle this creative and growing industry and potentially monopolise information. The European Parliament therefore opposed the Commission?s view and voted to shore up the existing situation in the EU, whereby software remains un-patentable and a number of other freedoms of publication are guaranteed.
Software programs are essentially the bringing together of a number of ideas into a package for sale. Just like works of art, they are already protected in legal terms by copyright. It is therefore difficult to see the added value of patenting, if anything there is the potential to create legal uncertainty for copyright holders through patent inflation, largely because when putting together their ?ideas? into a program they will not know they are infringing someone else?s patents until they are sued!
We do not want to create a volatile situation where litigation abounds, and where innovation is stifled with the freedom of creation and publication jeopardised by powerful monopolies on what is essentially only information. It has been put to me
/Continued.............
that under the current proposal a situation could arise where a software patent holder can censor publication by the author of an original program. I hope you will agree that this represents potentially a legal and logistical nightmare which runs contrary to the objectives of all those who support greater transparency of patenting.
Surely, creating a situation where patent attorneys in the largest firms are able to make further financial gains at the expense of the consumer as well as of smaller software companies is putting the interests of US big-hitters before our own European industry? I put this scenario to you, not only in your capacity as EU President, but as the head of a nation which has made a number of strides in recent years, with a vital and growing economy which owes much to the creative boom enjoyed in the IT sector in the late 1990s.
I urge you to give careful consideration to any agreement that might arise.
"For my part I am more than happy to be judged on my record?for example playing a leading rule in introducing the toughest legislation in the world on the control of GMOs, on the landfilling of waste, on pollution control, on PCBs and the Seveso Directive which aims to prevent dangerous chemicals being released through explosions and other accidents.
"I am also proud that on my home territory, here in Yorkshire the impact of European legislation, backed by Labour MEPs like myself, has ensured that we now have amongst the best beaches in the country...proof positive that we really do make a difference."
David Bowe, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, has already written to Bertie Ahern to complain about the way the Irish presidency secured political approval for a new draft of the controversial software patents - against the wishes of the European Parliament.
This shows that some of our MEPs are on the right side. For the up-coming election David is third on the Labour ticket. Due to a reduction of MEPs in our area, he's the one whose job is on the line. A vote for Labour is a vote for David - the other Labour candidates will know their fate already - in or out.
It would be a pity if David lost out because of the "Blair effect". He's the one that fought for clean beaches, removing chromium from cement, etc. A very good hard working "green" MEP.
We'll fly you over burning forests We'll walk you through the starving hoardes We'll show you drowned and bloated corpses At a price you CAN afford
You'll glide above the sky in comfort You'll sleep your nights in quiet hotels You'll sit and watch our views in comfort Of mankind in a thousand hells
Arma G Heddon
Alternatively we could really try to understand the science. It's a bit of a bore.
But we could start with the BBC.
I agree. the "BBC is possibly the closest thing we have to impartial journalism" but it is in that club run by the "great and good".
I also agree with. "Still, I suppose that the latest story is written by someone who has Clue. I'm told that they exist, even at the BBC." The BBC does make some factual mistakes that slashdotters could easily correct. (But they are usually better than the alternatives.)
The BBC is said to have a process called "copperbottoming" which ensures only people who are in the club of the great and the good get a look-in on serious programmes. The trouble is these "copperbottomed" people don't always get their facts right and often have their own axes to grind.
I use a Stowaway Portable Keyboard from Think Outside with my Palm. It's fantastic for taking notes - nicer to use than my usual keyboards. Lovely key action and it unfolds like a device from "The Fifth Element". And when I fold it up, the final click is as close as I get to an orgasm these days.
It's a bit fragile for someone as clumsy as me, but when I broke my first one, I rushed out for a replacement. I don't think I'd bother to carry the Palm if I didn't have it.
Shape is underestimated - also layout
on
Can You Raed Tihs?
·
· Score: 1
As Simon says uppercase is difficult to read because uppercase words are not easily recognised by their shape. But we should also be more aware of layout and location as cues for understanding.
When reading a report, I automatically remember where important points are on the page and where that page is relative to the whole report. I don't remember (or even read) paragraph numbers and page numbers.
Slsahtot has a good layout when you are in the articles. Slashdot also has good search facilities. But sometimes it's difficult to find "the article I read last week which had an interesting item that mentioned something about a new computer language", when I can't remember its name.
Some sort of graphical interface might help - a bit like a windows desktop with a week's topics on it. This might be something like a map with spots on it (only in this case laying out the days rather than towns and cities). This would enable people like me to follow up our vauge memories and remember more once we had found the context.
See Gole's map of UK blogs for a mapping example. It's a bit rough and ready but you can get the idea.
Their "Why gole works" starts
This is not a mapping site. It is a way to remember where you put, or found, things on the web by placing sites on a reasonably familiar background. Animals can recall and recognise spatial displays. No animal and not all humans can remember sequences of words.
Slashdot Mirror
Are they possible? I once bought lead foil advertised at "ten thousanths of an inch thick" thinking it might provide the envelope for a lead balloon. Sadly it was 10/1000 inches thick not 1/10000 inches thick. I think a balloon made from gold foil is possible but getting lead to the same thickness may not be.
The climatic situation is desperate. Feedbacks such as Siberian Methane, the loss of Artic Sea Ice and the Amazon Forests disintegrating will interact. Siberia's already 5 degC hotter; Artic Sea Ice at an all time low; and the Amazon has had summers that are dangerously dry.
Don't argue about the cost. Just get on with doing something. Tax carbon so until energy sources are carbon zero or carbon negative.
... so should slashdot.
Which school? Where?
I can already meet almost all of my energy needs with solar-powered shingles on my roof.
Can you give more details?
I don't have much luck with laptops or any computing hardware.
I have got fed up with breaking in new ones and additionally would like to work on other computers, such as at friends or relations or simply at the office. I am also fed up with lugging my laptop around.
So what I'm trying to do is keep my work on an external USB disk. I have found that copying Python and my Python programs to the disk allows me to run from the disk on windows machines. Python does not have to use the windows registry and my programs can use relative disk locations.
I use a few little CherryPy servers and Firefox (even IE) to run HTML/javascript . That seems to work quite well. I am also looking for other programs that will run from my external disk. I am trying to get to the situation where I can just plug in and start work - without having to register anything or get my credit card out.
The aversion to credit card use is often irritation at the process rather than the actual sum paid. Which brings me to editors. Does anyone know of a good editor that I can do this with? Similar to my favourite Ultraedit so at least I have something half decent when I plug into a new machine.
Any other advice would be gratefully received.
http://arestudentsmiddleclasswankers.org.uk/#19nov 99b says"
... that the skills that employers are actually using and looking for are indeed the ones gained late in the day. The most valuable could have been acquired much earlier - by age fourteen, sixteen or eighteen - and we have seen strong suggestions that this may indeed be the case."
'I have always had a very strong work ethic, but have been disinterested in the academic and I firmly believe that educational qualifications should not be the main yardstick by which people are measured. If you can cut corners academically to reach the same goal this should always be done. I also believe that academic cheating is a good thing ( if you can get away with it) because it gets you through the educational process to areas of life and work where you can really prove your worth to an employer having overcome the "academic results" stumbling block.'
And later...
In Evidence and Education in our Education and Training Section there is a quote from Alison Wolf's book "Does Education Matter"
"...we cannot conclude
Appearing before the Commons Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development last year, Carleton University paleoclimatologist Professor Tim Patterson testified, "There is no meaningful correlation between CO2 levels and Earth's temperature over this [geologic] time frame.
t ok.co2.gif h ics/tempplot5.gif
CO2 and Temerature plots for the past 450,000 years from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/trends/co2/graphics/vos
http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/trends/temp/vostok/grap
No meaningful correlation!!!
Nutter: A person who is regarded as eccentric or mad.
FCKEditor? I won't remember that tomorrow or even in a few minutes time.
ajaxWrite! I'll remember that for years.
Some people think largely with words and grammatical structures. In his early days I think Chomsky thought we all thought using something like his transformational grammars. In this model words (linguistic symbols) almost become the meaning.
Other people think more in concepts which are less dependent on verbal ability. Such people can be more creative being less resticted by the tyranny of dictionary definitions. But they are often express themselves poorly, having to translate from their own concepts, which won't nessarily have one-to-one mappings withwords, into a linear verbal stream.
The wordy are more "machine-like" than those that use concepts. But in time perhaps machines will make more use of concept formation.
in recent times, the cycle is destroyed and there is a sudden upsurge in C02 levels near present times. It is very clearly anonomalous.
See a graph of just how anomalous it is at townplan.org/CO2.htm
Having done a bit of phrase structured syntax analysis back in the 60s and, learning from a paperback adulation of Chomsky what tranformational grammars were, I thought "Is that all it is?"
From time to time I get to speak to people in the academic linguistics racket: professors, students etc. Unwittingly they impress on me the uselessness of linguistics over the past 30 years or so. But how did it get so influential? This would be an interesting topic for research.
Instead of hundreds universities world-wide lining up students to be force-fed Chomsky grammars why not let them gain some real research skills and find out how this transformational pixie dust grew into the acaemic industry it is today.
I started in computing, in 1967, I remember the promise "English to Chinese by next year".
to see so many people grasping at straws. No easy technological fixes can stop our current lifestyles from screwing up the world:
The snows of Kilamanjaro are almost gone
The dreamy Maldives drowned and overrun
The polar bears will have no place to roam
They'll lounge their listless lives on solid ground
Casting storms across the Gulf of Mexico
Will God's true aim hit Mickey Mouse and Co
Or will countless sad old dreamers rue the day
When the brothels of New Orleans are blown away
Wind power is a technological fix for a political problem... So is wave power
George Monbiot in this article writes:
For "wind" read "wave" and you've got it.
Some fixes may be worth doing... but they are still fixes.
I thought I would update you on this issue following recent developments.
This issue is far from settled as there is a considerable difference of views between the European Parliament's first reading position and the political agreement reached in the Council (which has only just been formally adopted, but with growing reticence in some national governments).
The text can only become law if it is approved in identical terms by both the Council (national ministers from each country) and the European Parliament, with up to three readings in each institution.
My position is as follows:
- I am not in favour of patenting of software as in the US.
-
Europe needs a uniform legal approach to stop the drift towards extending patentability to areas, which would not have been traditionally allowed, and to stop patentability of pure business methods, algorithms or mathematical methods.
-
Software products as such, must not be patented.
-
Opensource software must be allowed to flourish and the Commission must ensure that this Directive must not have adverse effects on opensource software and small software developers.
-
Patents and the threat of litigation must not be used as an anti- competitive weapon to squeeze out small companies.
Thank you for contacting me on this important matter.Richard Corbett MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber
The UK Government's Office of Government Commerce has a heavyweight methodology for controlling the procurement of IT projects. This is meant to stop the endless IT cock-ups.
See www.gatewayreview.org.uk for a very sceptical view on this.
Can big projects ever be properly controlled? And do heavyweight procurement methods encourage the procurers to make projects even bigger so they don't have to do it again next year.
Python has triple quoted strings (eg. ''' a string ''') which preserve whitespace.
These can contain format strings like C
Fill a Python dictionary with the necessary values:ThengivesThe HTML string could, of course be longer (and still preserve whitespace:and the dictionary might beThis Python statementwill output the following HTML:But this seems too elementary. Have I misunderstood?
I asked David Bowe's office for a copy of the letter after reading the comments on Slashdot. He had told me of the letter when I tackled him on the issue on his recent visit to York.
I just can't believe that he wrote a stock letter to Bertie Ahern dictated by some party functionary so that I could draw it out of him to later post it on Slashdot.
I am actually a Labour Party member - rather uncomfortable at the moment - and Arlene McCarthy would certainly not get my vote. But it seems to me that David Bowe has listened to representations from constituents like myself and done something about it. So in in this case Labour get my vote - and I have been known to vote otherwise!
See the rest of the letter above.
This doesn't sound like some MEP clone to me.
"For my part I am more than happy to be judged on my record?for example playing a leading rule in introducing the toughest legislation in the world on the control of GMOs, on the landfilling of waste, on pollution control, on PCBs and the Seveso Directive which aims to prevent dangerous chemicals being released through explosions and other accidents.
"I am also proud that on my home territory, here in Yorkshire the impact of European legislation, backed by Labour MEPs like myself, has ensured that we now have amongst the best beaches in the country...proof positive that we really do make a difference."
David Bowe, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, has already written to Bertie Ahern to complain about the way the Irish presidency secured political approval for a new draft of the controversial software patents - against the wishes of the European Parliament.
This shows that some of our MEPs are on the right side. For the up-coming election David is third on the Labour ticket. Due to a reduction of MEPs in our area, he's the one whose job is on the line. A vote for Labour is a vote for David - the other Labour candidates will know their fate already - in or out.
It would be a pity if David lost out because of the "Blair effect". He's the one that fought for clean beaches, removing chromium from cement, etc. A very good hard working "green" MEP.
But we could start with the BBC.
I agree. the "BBC is possibly the closest thing we have to impartial journalism" but it is in that club run by the "great and good".
I also agree with. "Still, I suppose that the latest story is written by someone who has Clue. I'm told that they exist, even at the BBC." The BBC does make some factual mistakes that slashdotters could easily correct. (But they are usually better than the alternatives.)
The BBC is said to have a process called "copperbottoming" which ensures only people who are in the club of the great and the good get a look-in on serious programmes. The trouble is these "copperbottomed" people don't always get their facts right and often have their own axes to grind.
It's very hard to correct or question them. See smugbastardsatthebeeb.org.uk.
I use a Stowaway Portable Keyboard from Think Outside with my Palm. It's fantastic for taking notes - nicer to use than my usual keyboards. Lovely key action and it unfolds like a device from "The Fifth Element". And when I fold it up, the final click is as close as I get to an orgasm these days.
It's a bit fragile for someone as clumsy as me, but when I broke my first one, I rushed out for a replacement. I don't think I'd bother to carry the Palm if I didn't have it.
As Simon says uppercase is difficult to read because uppercase words are not easily recognised by their shape. But we should also be more aware of layout and location as cues for understanding.
When reading a report, I automatically remember where important points are on the page and where that page is relative to the whole report. I don't remember (or even read) paragraph numbers and page numbers.
Slsahtot has a good layout when you are in the articles. Slashdot also has good search facilities. But sometimes it's difficult to find "the article I read last week which had an interesting item that mentioned something about a new computer language", when I can't remember its name.
Some sort of graphical interface might help - a bit like a windows desktop with a week's topics on it. This might be something like a map with spots on it (only in this case laying out the days rather than towns and cities). This would enable people like me to follow up our vauge memories and remember more once we had found the context.
See Gole's map of UK blogs for a mapping example. It's a bit rough and ready but you can get the idea.
Their "Why gole works" starts