Even hard sf isn't that hard
on
Daemon
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· Score: 1
Consider Moondust. How does the boat thing skim over the dust? There is no atmosphere so it can't be riding on a cushion of air like a ground effect vehicle or a hovercraft. It skims (as opposed to rides like a wheeled or tracked vehicle) so it must float on the dust as if it was water (ie. is kept up by the density of the dust rather than the mechanical robustness of the particles). If so, then an earthquake would not unsettle the density.
I'm starting to see cracks in the "hard science"...
One of the things that photographers really liked about Leica film cameras is that they use very quiet shutters, allowing them to be used for unobtrusive candid shots.
Perhaps this law might consider banning Leicas too.
Like most laws of this sort, there is almost no chance of making it work.
You mean a technical manual?
on
Daemon
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· Score: 4, Insightful
If you want technical accuracy then I suggest reading one of those O Reilly animal books. It would by no means be a thriller. A techie might cringe when the laws of physics get abused. A relationship psychologist probably cringes when reading chicklit and they all fall in love and hive happily ever after. A ballistics expert probably cringes when the good guy manages to fire two head shots at 50 yards. A real forensic scientist spews when CSI can solve a crime between two ad breaks.
All works of fiction are just fiction for entertainment purposes. Get over it.
When you move heat, you're concentrating the heat and making the hot side hotter. Heat sinks are rated in Watts/degree so a heat sink that is 10 degrees above ambient will dump heat 5 times as fast as a heat sink at 2 degrees above ambient. Thus, a Peltier device pumping heat into a heatsink will cause the heatsink to run hotter and work more effectively.
Kubuntu 8.10 was shipped with KDE4. I think a lot of the reason for this is that Shuttleworth has said that Ubuntu needs to be more like OSX and likes the shiny pixel show.
Unfortunately what seems to have got lost is that OSX uses shiny pixel shows to improve understanding and just for their own sake.
KDE4 seems to have a whole lot of gratuitous pixel shows that do nothing except show off the programmers' abilities to play with graphics.
I'm a KDE user since long ago and can't stomach KDE4. The pointless graphics just annoy. I'm very happy with 3.5.
Now I fully understand that the KDE folk are playing with new architectures etc and these will take a good time to stabilise. But then it should not have been rolled out in a major distro. What's broken is putting it in Kubununtu.
Most people installing a distro want the damn thing to work properly. They don't want to be guinea pigs.
The integrators don't just stick on whatever sticker they choose.
The integrator has to submit test units to Microsoft certified labs who charge a testing/certification fee to run a Microsoft specified set of tests that certifies the the unit is worthy of having the sticker. In other words, MS said it is OK to put whatever sticker an a particular device. As part of this, Microsoft should have done all the driver tests etc. so when MS blame the integrators for bad drivers etc then that's also a bit hollow: they passed MS tests and MS said that they are OK.
If the taxpayer is doing the investing then the taxpayers (ie the government) should own the networks. The private telcos are free to compete and provide better services. If the taxpayers invest in private telcos then the taxpayers should have partial ownership of the telcos and profits should go back to the people (ie govermnet).
After all, the big bank bail out is not by just giving money to the banks. The government has bought loans from the banks.
The way economists measure "value" does not distinguish between creating value by manufacture or by branding.
As far as any economic measures go, Nike created $59 of value when they take a $1 pair of imported sneakers and sell them off for $60.
Branding is one of USA's strongest exports: Coke, for instance, sells licensing to quite a few worldwide companies to sell stuff with a Coke label on it.
The sick part about branding is that it is all just image and does not actually produce any tangible value. If times get tight then people will quickly shy away from their Nikes and buy the same product under the Yoyo brand for $10.
Schools are particularly vulnerable to pilfering and burglary, so if you do have laptops make sure you have some physical means of securing them. Same deal for other equipment.
If you are putting in a new school-wide network then wifi is probably a good idea. Just remember that every kid/teacher with a wifi-capable cell phone will try to use it too.
If the school is being wired from scratch then put a couple of Cat6s into every classroom. These can always be reticulated withion a classroom with switches or wifi.
If you had a Verifiable College Degree from an Authentic University, then more women would listen to your opinions and you'd get MORE ACTION. Why spend hours studying for a degree when you can call 1-800-IMAGRADUATE and get College, Masters or even DOCTORATE Degrees within One WEEK!!!
Really good employees will learn and improve no matter where they are. Put them through a bad company and they emerge still positive with some great ideas on how to make things better etc. The crappy ones are the cry babies who blame everything on the management etc.
If nothing else, seeing how they responded to their time at MS is a great way to judge personality.
Whenever I see "They didn't know better back then." I get that feeling that in 50 years time they'll be saying the same of us - those dumb bastards that lived with that pathetic 2009 technology.
I'm sure those guys back then were just as smug about their technology as we are now.
With a 24000 half life it has gone from 99.96% to approx 99.85%. This stuff is still green. You need to keep it for at least 10k years to be cellar matured.
This sort of saving it getting to be pretty typical of a lot of "green marketing". Make a big deal out of the very tiny savings and ignore the big stuff. Save the 1W or so, but ignore the fact that the computer as a whole uses a lot of power.
The problem with just fixing and selling the small stuff is that this can actually be counter-productive. "Green guilt" has a positive purpose: make people feel bad so they do less of that bad thing. The "eco products" counter that: buy our xxx and you don't have to feel bad. This would be OK except that people often then modify their behavior. Someone that feels bad for driving 5 miles with an SUV might feel they're doing the planet good when they drive 100 miles with a Prius.
Same deal here. I don't feel bad about leaving my computer on any more because the monitor is now using zero Watts.
People need to learn that during a 9/11 they should not use phone services (cell or landline) except for vital comms. Cut the twitter, OMG! video to friends and all that crap. Leave the airwaves for those that need it. Same deal for cars etc. Stay away and leave the roads for emergency vehicles.
Yeah, we all know that the whole country is big, but the cities are relatively small. Why is it that people drop calls while driving through some areas of Silicon Valley?
My brother is an international tour guide and uses a cellphone in places like Rwanda which has about the same coverage density as USA. Is that what the USA industry really wants to be compared to?
If people continue to pay high prices for shit service then where is the motivation to improve the infrastructure? They might bitch, they might grumble, but they still pay.
Hardly a charitable act. Do you really think the providers were going to miss an opportunity like this? They'd have pretty much been guaranteed 100% utilization of equipment that often stands relatively idle.
As for the content.... more does not mean better. Having millions sending vids and pics shot with crappy cellphone lenses was hardy of benefit. A few real camera crews with real cameras provided all the really useful (ie worth viewing) material.
The boss is fighting for his promotion and survival too. Mr Nice Guy might do his job well, but he isn't handy with a knife in the corporate trenches and his honesty can let the boss down. Mr Backstabber is handy in the trenches, knows when to STFU, and understands that if he helps cover the bosses back the boss will keep him around.
Look after the boss' interests and he'll look after you.
Don't confuse the company's best interests with the boss' best interests.
Earth might be broken in some ways, but it is (most likely) a lot better environment than anything else out there. Earth is a far better starting position than Mars or whatever and fixing what's broken here would be far more achievable than trying to build a viable human-sustaining ecosystem on some other planet.
As one female friend told me: "You're the marrying kind, not the fucking kind" so I didn't score too well at college, but did better afterwards.
Same deal with employment. If your company/IT department think like a singles bar looking for one night stands and will screw over each other and customers for a quick buck then being nice means nothing and you need to out-asshole the others to get ahead.
If, instead, your company/IT department are there to build long-term relationships, satisfying service and repeat business, then being nice is very important.
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I'm starting to see cracks in the "hard science"...
Perhaps this law might consider banning Leicas too.
Like most laws of this sort, there is almost no chance of making it work.
A techie might cringe when the laws of physics get abused. A relationship psychologist probably cringes when reading chicklit and they all fall in love and hive happily ever after. A ballistics expert probably cringes when the good guy manages to fire two head shots at 50 yards. A real forensic scientist spews when CSI can solve a crime between two ad breaks.
All works of fiction are just fiction for entertainment purposes. Get over it.
When you move heat, you're concentrating the heat and making the hot side hotter. Heat sinks are rated in Watts/degree so a heat sink that is 10 degrees above ambient will dump heat 5 times as fast as a heat sink at 2 degrees above ambient. Thus, a Peltier device pumping heat into a heatsink will cause the heatsink to run hotter and work more effectively.
Unfortunately what seems to have got lost is that OSX uses shiny pixel shows to improve understanding and just for their own sake.
KDE4 seems to have a whole lot of gratuitous pixel shows that do nothing except show off the programmers' abilities to play with graphics.
I'm a KDE user since long ago and can't stomach KDE4. The pointless graphics just annoy. I'm very happy with 3.5.
Now I fully understand that the KDE folk are playing with new architectures etc and these will take a good time to stabilise. But then it should not have been rolled out in a major distro. What's broken is putting it in Kubununtu.
Most people installing a distro want the damn thing to work properly. They don't want to be guinea pigs.
The integrator has to submit test units to Microsoft certified labs who charge a testing/certification fee to run a Microsoft specified set of tests that certifies the the unit is worthy of having the sticker. In other words, MS said it is OK to put whatever sticker an a particular device. As part of this, Microsoft should have done all the driver tests etc. so when MS blame the integrators for bad drivers etc then that's also a bit hollow: they passed MS tests and MS said that they are OK.
After all, the big bank bail out is not by just giving money to the banks. The government has bought loans from the banks.
As far as any economic measures go, Nike created $59 of value when they take a $1 pair of imported sneakers and sell them off for $60.
Branding is one of USA's strongest exports: Coke, for instance, sells licensing to quite a few worldwide companies to sell stuff with a Coke label on it.
The sick part about branding is that it is all just image and does not actually produce any tangible value. If times get tight then people will quickly shy away from their Nikes and buy the same product under the Yoyo brand for $10.
If you are putting in a new school-wide network then wifi is probably a good idea. Just remember that every kid/teacher with a wifi-capable cell phone will try to use it too.
If the school is being wired from scratch then put a couple of Cat6s into every classroom. These can always be reticulated withion a classroom with switches or wifi.
Windows has a recycling bin but Apple still has trash.
If you had a Verifiable College Degree from an Authentic University, then more women would listen to your opinions and you'd get MORE ACTION.
Why spend hours studying for a degree when you can call 1-800-IMAGRADUATE and get College, Masters or even DOCTORATE Degrees within One WEEK!!!
If nothing else, seeing how they responded to their time at MS is a great way to judge personality.
I'm sure those guys back then were just as smug about their technology as we are now.
With a 24000 half life it has gone from 99.96% to approx 99.85%. This stuff is still green. You need to keep it for at least 10k years to be cellar matured.
The problem with just fixing and selling the small stuff is that this can actually be counter-productive. "Green guilt" has a positive purpose: make people feel bad so they do less of that bad thing. The "eco products" counter that: buy our xxx and you don't have to feel bad. This would be OK except that people often then modify their behavior. Someone that feels bad for driving 5 miles with an SUV might feel they're doing the planet good when they drive 100 miles with a Prius.
Same deal here. I don't feel bad about leaving my computer on any more because the monitor is now using zero Watts.
People need to learn that during a 9/11 they should not use phone services (cell or landline) except for vital comms. Cut the twitter, OMG! video to friends and all that crap. Leave the airwaves for those that need it. Same deal for cars etc. Stay away and leave the roads for emergency vehicles.
"Buy now while stocks last".
My brother is an international tour guide and uses a cellphone in places like Rwanda which has about the same coverage density as USA. Is that what the USA industry really wants to be compared to?
If people continue to pay high prices for shit service then where is the motivation to improve the infrastructure? They might bitch, they might grumble, but they still pay.
As for the content.... more does not mean better. Having millions sending vids and pics shot with crappy cellphone lenses was hardy of benefit. A few real camera crews with real cameras provided all the really useful (ie worth viewing) material.
There are hundreds of other competing sources doing a better job. /. should rather stick to what it can do well.
Look after the boss' interests and he'll look after you.
Don't confuse the company's best interests with the boss' best interests.
Earth might be broken in some ways, but it is (most likely) a lot better environment than anything else out there. Earth is a far better starting position than Mars or whatever and fixing what's broken here would be far more achievable than trying to build a viable human-sustaining ecosystem on some other planet.
Surely there is no need for two new buzzwords. The light trucks have wheels so they are also COWs. Or do COLTs only work for OMG Pink Pony calls.
Same deal with employment. If your company/IT department think like a singles bar looking for one night stands and will screw over each other and customers for a quick buck then being nice means nothing and you need to out-asshole the others to get ahead.
If, instead, your company/IT department are there to build long-term relationships, satisfying service and repeat business, then being nice is very important.