I'm aware of the socio-cultural aspects (for instance, being British I would describe a corporation in the plural) but I'm not convinced that's what's going on here. (Coincidentally, I'm currently reading "The Stuff of Thought" by Stephen Pinker.)
I was once the proud owner of a Sinclair ZX81 (in fact I still have it in the loft). It had a kilobyte of memory, but every individual byte was precious. You simply did not think in terms of kilobytes in day-to-day use, yet it was described as a 1K machine.
Furthermore, the very existence of the words decade, century and millennium demonstrates that we don't just think of years as discrete units. In Britain we also use slang to describe larger amounts of money: "ton", "monkey", "grand", etc.
I'd say that, if there's no detection of a signal from another world within the next 50 years or so, its a pretty safe bet that there is no one out there to reply.
Buddy, you seriously need to rethink your understanding of the size of the universe.
Now, with all of our fancy science of course, we know much better. We know that the universe is billions of years old, and that, we've not actually found a shred of life within it that is not from our planet. Not a peep out of SETI, a hello from another world - not even a cell on Mars- nothing. So, it really looks like, that, we can spread across the world and conquer it.
So, the upshot is that ancient man and today's scientists drew exactly the same conclusion.
Hardly. Today's scientists know that our observation horizon and the fraction of time we've been observing the universe is so miniscule it's incredibly unlikely we'd have observed alien life even if the universe were absolutely teeming with it.
You're over-analysing. Bits and bytes are certainly discrete units, yet are lumped together using kilo- and mega-. The reason years and dollars aren't is that they pre-date SI units.
It's time for electoral reform. As a precursor to that, I think reform of the media will be necessary.
I have a friend who's in political PR, and he tells me that my dream of "corrections in the media should be given equal billing to the original misinformation" (i.e. if you splash falsehoods onto the front page in big letters, you can't post your apology on page 79 column 5) will never happen: "never argue with someone who buys their ink in barrels". I think the very fact this truism is grounded in ink belies a 20th century mentality, but I don't know enough about the media to be able to judge whether he's right or not. Do any slashdot readers think a grassroots campaign to stop the media shooting first and asking questions later has legs?
What's good for the developer is good for the customer, if it leads to a thriving marketplace.
What the App Store has done is given people with technical skills but no MBA (like myself) an opportunity to get paid for implementing their ideas.
What remains to be seen is whether the chaff will drown out the wheat in the Android Market without the auditing process of the iTunes Store. Ratings are all well and good on YouTube, but viral videos aren't viruses. Android prides itself on not being locked down, but you can't have it both ways...
You're thinking from the customer's point of view. Before Google's offering, there really has been nothing to challenge Apple's App Store from a developer's point of view.
Screw letting it get its act together. One of the smaller standards bodies will become the de facto, and ISO's head can be placed on a pole in the public square as a reminder.
You're quite right that "sphincter.com" has probably been taken. But I'd be surprised if you could get "sphincter@gmail.com" or "sphincter@yahoo.com" either:)
I'm getting really thirsty, and wondering what to do about it. Besides drinking fluids (which are generally used by professional athletes), what do Slashdot readers think I should do about my problem?
Running your own domain isn't exactly "intended for home users". Google apps makes it easy to get your domain email through a decent webmail interface. What's the problem, exactly?!
Slashdot Mirror
I'm aware of the socio-cultural aspects (for instance, being British I would describe a corporation in the plural) but I'm not convinced that's what's going on here. (Coincidentally, I'm currently reading "The Stuff of Thought" by Stephen Pinker.)
I was once the proud owner of a Sinclair ZX81 (in fact I still have it in the loft). It had a kilobyte of memory, but every individual byte was precious. You simply did not think in terms of kilobytes in day-to-day use, yet it was described as a 1K machine.
Furthermore, the very existence of the words decade, century and millennium demonstrates that we don't just think of years as discrete units. In Britain we also use slang to describe larger amounts of money: "ton", "monkey", "grand", etc.
I'd say that, if there's no detection of a signal from another world within the next 50 years or so, its a pretty safe bet that there is no one out there to reply.
Buddy, you seriously need to rethink your understanding of the size of the universe.
Now, with all of our fancy science of course, we know much better. We know that the universe is billions of years old, and that, we've not actually found a shred of life within it that is not from our planet. Not a peep out of SETI, a hello from another world - not even a cell on Mars- nothing. So, it really looks like, that, we can spread across the world and conquer it.
So, the upshot is that ancient man and today's scientists drew exactly the same conclusion.
Hardly. Today's scientists know that our observation horizon and the fraction of time we've been observing the universe is so miniscule it's incredibly unlikely we'd have observed alien life even if the universe were absolutely teeming with it.
You're over-analysing. Bits and bytes are certainly discrete units, yet are lumped together using kilo- and mega-. The reason years and dollars aren't is that they pre-date SI units.
What geologists do *is* boring. But what they do when they get the rocks out of the bore-holes can be quite interesting!
(Thank you, I'll be here all week.)
Let he who is without idiocy cast the first aspersion...
The sentence to which you allude would be written "Worlds oldest found rocks found".
It's time for electoral reform. As a precursor to that, I think reform of the media will be necessary.
I have a friend who's in political PR, and he tells me that my dream of "corrections in the media should be given equal billing to the original misinformation" (i.e. if you splash falsehoods onto the front page in big letters, you can't post your apology on page 79 column 5) will never happen: "never argue with someone who buys their ink in barrels". I think the very fact this truism is grounded in ink belies a 20th century mentality, but I don't know enough about the media to be able to judge whether he's right or not. Do any slashdot readers think a grassroots campaign to stop the media shooting first and asking questions later has legs?
I think it just seems that way, because though corporations enoy the rights of people they bear few of the responsibilities...
I think so. Cause I was going to say, who's to say the bottled water isn't only expensive but also poisoned too?
When the largest well is poisoned, the safe alternative is the second-largest well (AKA the largest unpoisoned well).
Corporations enjoy the rights of people too now, you insensitive clod!
What's good for the developer is good for the customer, if it leads to a thriving marketplace.
What the App Store has done is given people with technical skills but no MBA (like myself) an opportunity to get paid for implementing their ideas.
What remains to be seen is whether the chaff will drown out the wheat in the Android Market without the auditing process of the iTunes Store. Ratings are all well and good on YouTube, but viral videos aren't viruses. Android prides itself on not being locked down, but you can't have it both ways...
You're thinking from the customer's point of view. Before Google's offering, there really has been nothing to challenge Apple's App Store from a developer's point of view.
They may have poisoned one well, but will people stop drinking well-water altogether?
Screw letting it get its act together. One of the smaller standards bodies will become the de facto, and ISO's head can be placed on a pole in the public square as a reminder.
Why was this modded "troll"? Would you mod IBM "troll" too?
You, sir, deserve the "funny" points I got!
I could tell you, but I'd have to chastise you.
Real men also build their own houses, plough their own fields, catch their own buffalo, direct their own episodes of "24", etc.
You're quite right that "sphincter.com" has probably been taken. But I'd be surprised if you could get "sphincter@gmail.com" or "sphincter@yahoo.com" either :)
They actually do. Why do you think they have so many employees? There's a heck of a lot of email out there to read.
I'm getting really thirsty, and wondering what to do about it. Besides drinking fluids (which are generally used by professional athletes), what do Slashdot readers think I should do about my problem?
I do not think that language works the way you think it works.
You answered your own question.
Running your own domain isn't exactly "intended for home users". Google apps makes it easy to get your domain email through a decent webmail interface. What's the problem, exactly?!
No, that was "talk like a pirate day". "Talk like a parrot day" is this week. Next week it'll be "talk like Poirot day". Mon dieu!