In a finite universe with a finite age, it most certainly will, because it will take time to heat up enough to emit light.
Did you even read your own link?
"We live inside a spherical shell of "Observable Universe" which has radius equal to the lifetime of the Universe. Objects more than about 15 thousand million years old are too far away for their light ever to reach us."
15 thousand million, or rather 15 BILLION years is a long way down the road. It also implies that the universe is at least 15 BILLION years of age. Let's not forget that people who subscribe to the whole "big bang" religion feel that all this matter used to be a heck of a lot closer together, and thus you probabably could have seen everything a lot clearer about 10 billion years ago or such.
Things are cooling. The red shift persists. Yeah, I'd have to say that the universe is still expanding. No need for physics to back up that observation. But it also means that anything greater than 15 billion years ago is impossible to observe. Let's all play stupid and assume that there wasn't anything there before that time, OK? No... That's not OK. In the observable 15 billion years the light has reached us. It's just faint because the universe is expanding in every direction at approximately 12 million miles every minute.
Oh, and since the original article says the universe is only about 70 billion light years across, and we can only see about 15 billion light years out... Um... How can they tell that there are boundaries? But I digress. There are so many flaws in today's pop-astrophysics that I shudder to address the endless "Why is the sky black" questions.
Few cosmologists today disagree that that the Universe's age is finite, even though the simplest models supported by the data suggest it is infinite in extent.
OK, I will disagree with the whole idea/notion that the universe is of finite age, and that it all began with a "big bang". The evidence? Well... admittedly, it's as flimsy as everyone else's but let's face it: Even in an expanding universe, you could vector the known matter back to it's origin to see where it all came from. But Guess What!? YOU CAN'T! It's impossible to vector the origin. Why? There was no singular origin to begin with.
At least that's *my* theory, and I'm stickin' to it.
Now about the part where light hasn't had time to reach us... Well, it has reached us. Use a telescope and you can see that the light is there. It's just faint because it was weakened. What weakened it? Ultra absorbing matter that you can't see? No... It was weakened by the physical expansive property of space itself.
Yes, space has properties. If it didn't, the matter and energy of the universe couldn't exist within it.
Certainly... It's known as Olbers' Paradox after the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers. If you look up into the night sky (on a clear night) you will see stars in every direction. But at some points the sky starts to look black... until you get out your trusty telescope and start focusing in to see that there are more stars out there! (Actually they'd be more likely galaxies at this point...) Olbers theorised that light from these stars was absorbed by gas and dust occupying deep space. Unfortunately there simply is not enough gas and dust in space to make an appreciable difference to light as it travels from distant stars. But the point is, that if the universe were closed/finite then all that matter fusing itself into energy would eventually fill the container and incinarate the entire universe.
You know, it doesn't matter how much food you stick in the oven, it will all get burnt if you leave it in there long enough. But guess what?! The evidence shows that the universe is COOLING! (The global warming crowd gasps in disbelief.) Yep, as the laws of thermodynamics explain, rapid expantion is leading us to the big chill!
But quite frankly, I'm not in the karma class of Steven Hawkings, so whatever I tell you will most likely be met with endless circular arguments that tend to lack a point.
OK, nevermind the part where you use a piece of sports equipment to describe the nature of the cosmos, let's look at the trouble with a finite universe: Conservation of Energy! We'd all go blind and burn to a freakin' crisp! The only reason the sky is black is because the universe is not only infinite, but it's also simultaneously expanding to absorb the energy. ("Absorb" is actually a poor choice of words, but its effect is similar.)
Oh, and the part where they are measuring the background radiation and determining that the vibration patterns don't coinside with an infinite universe? Rubbish! Even though space is infinet, the matter and energy are obviously not as plentiful, so don't confuse matter/energy with space.
Space by itself has some amazing properties even without matter/energy, but unfortunately you have to use matter and energy to observe/measure it.
-- No matter how attractive you think she is, some guy out there is long since tired of putting up with her crap.
There is just no substitute for that cap when it comes to cleaning out your ears. It just feels "right".
Otherwise, I couldn't care less what kind of pen/ink I use to sign my checks and credit card receipts.
Besides, no one looks at modern handwritten documents except for the prosecution, so use disappearing ink whenever possible.
Since we're on the subject of voting, who's the favored candidate for the paranoid tin-foiled hat wearing/.er like myself?
At this point I'm voting none of the above, but maybe some of you can come up with some better options below.
Re:Who cares?
on
NYT on RFID
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· Score: 5, Insightful
For some reason I'm always a little dissappointed whenever I see people list the reasons why I should be concerned. They usually point out the "dirty magazine collection" or something else dealing with those "embarassing" issues. Quite frankly, this isn't something to be worried about so long as you haven't been doing anything wrong.
But what is worrying is when information about you is used in ways to control your behaviour. For instance, if you are thinking about quitting smoking and purchase the patches to help with the cravings. Those interested will track your movements along with the movements of other "quitters" to place smoking triggers along your path to make it that much hard for you to shake the habit.
Perhaps you're a person who has bought a lottery ticket or two. Suddenly you're flooded with all kinds of gambling offers. Sure, you can say no to their offers, but what will others think when they see you getting that barage of junk mail to visit all those cassinos? What will your boss think when they start sending those offers to your office?
Most of us live lives of moderation. We like to take in occasional vices, but we mostly try to keep things pretty mundane. But this isn't allowed in the corperate world. They have to seek out potentially new exploits to justify getting an MBA. Any information that they can get will allow them to find a wedge between you and your better judgement.
I know, I know... You're too smart for their tactics. You're in control of your own destiny. It doesn't bother you when they mercilessly pick away at you. You're just content to sit back in your recliner watching "Matlock" re-runs on cable.
The sad part is, people don't see any value in privacy, because they don't realize the benefits it allows. Being anonymous allows you to have your turn next in line, and receive the same amount of respect as a person who is twice as affluent as your are. Once your personal worth is on the table with everyone else's, your value in society has just been broadcasted, and you will wait until those more worthy have been served no matter how long you've been waiting. You may never be served at that rate...
Oh, but you'll just head on to their competitors, right? Think again. They bought the same list. They also know that you'll be more desperate than before since they knew where you were coming from... Now they can really ream your wallet *IF* they decide you're worth having as a customer.
Privacy also allows you to be forgiven for your past mistakes more easily. Who hasn't made a mistake or exercised poor judgement when they were more youthful? It's the foundation of experience, but if your subordinates know every detail, they aren't as likely to be as subordinate. How can you credibly jump on them for making the same mistakes you used to?
Privacy has a very real value for people in society. It's not just about dirty magazines or illicite affairs. It's about not having to worry what the score is every moment of your life. It about not having to be publicly humiliated at unexpected moments. It's about maintaining person dignity and self-respect.
If you don't have any respect for yourself to keep private things private, how can you expect anyone else to respect you as well?
From the article: "What we're seeing is that those voluntary efforts are insufficient, and the repercussions are vast."
Did I miss a meeting? Is this not Slashdot? I'm skimming through the posts and seeing a lot of cammoring that seems to approve regulating software. IS NOT LINUX A VOLUNTARY EFFORT?! Hand this guy a copy of Knoppix and tell him to crack it!
The biggest problem with computers on the internet today is the number of people who ran out and bought a computer because it looked like an interactive television. Hold the end user responsible for what their computer does.
I like to view my computer as one of my best friends... Proverbially, man's best friend is a dog... In other words, a pet. Think of it in this light: Do you sue the kennel when your dog bites your neighbor? No... You sue the kennel for selling you a dog with physical defect, but not a personality defect. You are responsible for your pet's actions, even if the kid down the street was shooting him with the super soaker, makes the dog mad, and the dog goes out on a rampage biting old ladies.
So if your computer goes out and bites another system, then you should be responsible for the cleanup costs regardless of who or what made it go off like that. Sure, it may sound harsh, but if it takes a few "Bonzai Buddy" users out of the pool, I doubt the net will suffer too greatly.
Let's face it, If I want to read the paper, I don't need a CD, or a paper. I have the internet. Dayton Daily for my local news, and Huston Chronical is great for comics, and Slashdot for a mixed bag of ariticles that I usually find more interesting than what any one media provider can provide.
My only complaint with online papers is that they don't carry local advertisers. I'd love to read the online paper and see ads for local merchants just like reading the old fashioned news print. Heck... Send it to your printer and get a coupon for boneless chicken breasts at $.99/lb down at the local Kroger.
Alas, online papers don't follow the same paradigm as their successful predicessor... Instead I see ads for match.com and other online services I'll never subscribe to. This is where I don't get it: People who surf online still have lives offline. (I know this is Slashdot, but admit it, you occasionally squint at that bright thing up in that big blue ceiling.) When will companies realise they can combine local content with local advertisers for products people might be interested in buying when they step outside the door in their locale?
but I wouldn't trust any data to an OPERATING SYSTEM that is in beta.
But I'd trust my data on a beta OS before trusting the worm infested nightmare unleashed by some multi-billion dollar software company. It's a matter of perspective, but the order goes like this:
Alpha - We know it's got problems, but the concept seems sound
Beta - If it has any problems, we haven't been able to find them.
Commercial/Final/Stable - We can't find any problems, and neither could our beta testers, so it must be your fault.
Many times, beta passes directly into the third stage without modification, but it's a crap-shoot no matter who you trust.
OK mods, feel free to put me in my place but this one touched a nerve:
The fact of the matter is, wether or not you like HAM radio, the public should *NOT* have to depend on private citizens to get the help they need in the event of an emergency. Is it a nice "safety net"? Yes. But do I want to depend on a bunch of HAM radio operators to direct rescue efforts? Not really. I pay taxes for services like that, not for say, giving illegal aliens drivers licenses, as we (will) do here in California.
I sure as hell wouldn't want to rely on a coward who puts their faith in their tax dollars over humanity. If I'm not mistaken, everyone in this country is entitled to be a private citizen, even if your tax dollars are paying for their training so they can risk their lives to save your cowardly butt because you don't think the lowly amatuer has any value in the event of an emergency. What kind of smug attitude are you going to have when your "tax paid professionals" can't get to you because they've got an overwhelming crisis on their hands? Do you think your almighty tax dollars are going to miraculously pull your butt out if the fire? It's people that save people regardless of their government appointed titles.
Let's just keep raising more and more idiots who are totally convinced that it's always best to lay their like a dead duck until the "real help arrives" because no one wants to risk volunteering in a crisis because they have no self-reliant skills.
"Oh no... Please don't try to help me. I'll just wait for my tax paid professionals to arrive. They're so much more valuable than anything you have to offer."
It's hard to steal an identity if you don't have one, but think of the potential benefits of stealing an identity that is considered worthless to the rest of society. "The bum did it," defense will suddenly emerge as the latest sacrificial lamb for societal ills because any one of them can easily be tracked, picked up, and conveniently given credit where society (mass media) demands accountability, and the real culprit has the wherewithall to arrange the unwilling sacrifice.
But I'm not too worried about this. Historically, any system that refuses to accept the fact that it has philosophical flaws and correct its philosophical flaws is eventually going to self-implode.
Support the spread of poverty! Because the only possible way you'll ever look richer, is if the poor look even poorer.
-- I just knew I should have posted this as AC... Why didn't I take my own good advice?
I've always suspected Microsoft would one day make a move similar to what you're talking about, but then again, I also see a subscription based culture in so many other areas as well.
What to shop at a particular grocery store? First you have to be a subscriber before you can even enter the front door. Care to buy a car? Not in the future. You will only be able to lease it. Buy a TV? Think again. You lease your new HDTV from your TV Content Provider.
Essentially, you will be nickle and dimed to death with subscription fees for everything. The concept of "Ownership" will be used only in reference to the person(s) held legally responsible/liable. The brave new economy will have all the compassion of a fly-by-night cell phone contract: "I'd like to cancel my service" "Certainly, that will be $1000" "What?! Never mind! It's cheaper to keep her." "Whatever you say, that will be $750." "For what?!" "Sir, according to your contract, you agreed to pay $500 in the event that you initiated a cancelation of your service, and an additional $250 consultation fee for realizing that you didn't want to cancel after all. All totalled that will be $1250." "What?! You just said $750 a minute ago." "That was before I explained the agreement to you. That's an additional $500. You're up to $1750 now. Care to go for $2250?" "Hold on a minute! I'm looking at the contract that I signed with you people, and NO WHERE does it state anything about..." "I'm sorry sir, but paragraph 7c of that contract clearly states that you agree to accept the terms of all future contracts that we pull out of our ass. That will be $4500, please." "FOR WHAT?! OH... Nevermind." [click]
-- Brian: Do you ever listen to yourself talk? Peter: I drift in and out.
...I hate to see the rest of the computer stores out there attempting to sell it.
What always gets me are the stores that sell computer parts and custom built machines with or without OS. You'd think these people would know a little more about Linux than its mere existance. After all, WinXP has that lovely Product Activation feature to ensure endless headaches for anyone seeking to make radical upgrades or build a custom box. I'd love to have a local computer store that at least pretended to like Linux... Or better yet- Know enough about the hardware they sell to be able to inform you if a decent Linux driver was available for that device.
Buy the cheap-o box Wipe the hard drive Install your favorite Linux distro Enjoy!
-- Click HERE [imsogullible.com] to test your gullibility.
"That will require creating materials and testing them with a sensitive spin detector."
And this is where it's all hinged... The "sensitive spin detector". What is a "spin detector"? I still haven't seen or heard everything, but this gem is going to get a special note in my memory bank. How exactly does one measure the spin of an electron? How do you know that you've got your spin detector focused in on the correct electron in the first place? Just how sensitive is this spin detector? Is it as sensitive as my b.s. detector?
-- Pull the other one, and my pants will fall down.
"You must think, consider, design and re-design the experiments. Then you'll test it unmanned for a few years and THEN..."
You left out the part about the IP lawyers who will ensure that this will ultimately get swallowed up in a massive pile of red tape, and drain it of any hope for success.
Sorry about the pessimism, but I lump consumer space flight in with finding a cure for cancer.
-- In my great great grandchildren's lifetime? I'll still doubt it.
Perhaps the "very lonely, depressed, negative, anti-social, brilliant people" are simply attracted to technology, and not necessary a product of it...?
I'm inclined to agree, but I also see the technology as exacerbating the problem. From the article:
"...They took nerd and created monster or troll..."
This is where I see the downward spiral come into play. The obscured moral of the story is that people need to realize the most important under-utilized feature that technology has to offer is the off button.
I got wine to work. I'm going to write a paper on it some day soon. Still a few bugs, but damn it's so much nicer than tucking my tail and returning to "Gatesland". Here's a few pointers: If you're going to install wine via RPM, you will *STILL* need the source because it has the config, system.ini, and win.ini sample files. You *WILL* have to create the/.wine directory structure manually in the/home/*(user)/.wine/c_drive where *(user) is your user name. You *MUST* edit the sample config file so all the fake window drives corrispond to the directories and mount points with your system. (eg: Drive D:/mnt/cdrom) And once everything is in place you have to go into the/usr/bin directory and type the magical incantation: winecfg.
This is by no means foolproof, and I'll bet some Linux geek will slam me for not doing it right or doing it the hard way. See, the Linux geeks out there won't give you a freakin' step by step. They give you RTFM. It's their revenge for having been picked on in grade school.
-- I'm not in a creative tagline mood at the moment.
Look at the Gamecube. Is that a CD drive in there?
Oh yeah... I wondered what that was.../me stupid. Sorry about that, but they did seem to hold on to the cartridge format for what seemed an eternity even when everyone else moved to the CD format. They (Nintendo) argued that it loaded faster and was less prone to destruction. Well, what's less prone to destruction than net based games/software? With no mass storage, a unique digital ID for each console, and a handy little lan plug on the back, Nintendo could charge you $20 a month for access to every game they ever released and plan to release. No existing console could top that.
Besides, no one would be hacking the cheap hardware to make low cost Linux servers, install mod chips, or whatever. You'd actually have to pay to play and the digitally encrypted ID would ensure that no one could cheat. That's my prediction anyway. I could be wrong...
Damn... They really did put a CD in that thing after all?
This radical new concept could be prelude to a subsciption based service where you would never have to actually buy the games, but rather pay for play access on any game that has been released for it. Since Nintendo always sticks to cartrige based games anyway, this would be easy for them to rapidly deliver over a typical broadband service.
-- I always thought Nintendo was the Japanese word for "No Blood".
Sometimes small companies are worse than larger ones when it comes to politics. Many small companies are family owned and operated. I've learned that this means that as a valued employee, you will never be considered a part of the family. It's like being the maid/butler who's always suspected to be stealing the silver when no one is looking, so they always watch you like a hawk. Living under a microscope can be hell. It's best to find medium to large companies that you can become anonymous within.
Another great alternative is to find people you get along with and form a partnership.
-- I forgot where I put my collection of tag lines...
I don't think I would ever "subscribe" to a site. Perhaps I would donate if they made it simple enough, but subscribe? No thanks.
On a side note, a donation to a website may be tax deductable, but a subscription can be taxed.
Heck, I couldn't get people to go to a website even if I paid them. And now people think I'm going to drop a dime every time I visit their crappy site? HA! Starting/Creating a website is (for the most part) CHEAP! I don't care how much you claim your site costs to operate. If you've got sufficient traffic to necessitate big-bucks-bandwidth, then you should be able to get willing advertisers that can pay. (See local radio and TV business models for success stories.) There's over 17,000 three letter combinations, and ALL OF THEM have been registered as a dot com. This does not include all the dictionary words that have been snagged up, and the myriad of compound words that are being used. Rest assured that with so many domains out there, there will always be FREE websites. Those who think their stuff is too cool for us freeloaders will probably find themselves out of business unless they can lobby enough laws to make running a website illegal without a required payment for access. I know those pesky pointy haired lawyer types can lobby some insane laws, but somehow I think they won't be able to stop the "free content" available on the internet without ultimately killing the whole thing...
Maybe in 2005 we can all sit back and lament, "Who knew? That whole internet craze thing was just a fad after all!"
-- Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.
with the internet was with usenet over the computer lab's VAX on the college campus. It was dreadful even then, but today it's earned it's nickname as the "Useless" news groups.
If the internet needs even more spam, trolls, and pr0n than before, leave it to usenet to be the leader. Personally, I don't think this internet thing will ever catch on. It's just a fad...
You would think that a thankless job with no pay would be easy to get, but you would be wrong.
If I dropped everything to run off and chase my dream of being a lobbiest, I'd be reclassified as an unemployed homeless vagrant before my final paycheck arrived at my last known address. Mind you, I'm only joking about it being my dream, but I've always assumed that money talks and bs walks. If you don't have some support behind you (aka money) no one seems to take your ideas seriously, and I hear that student loan creditors will find you and hound you no matter where you go. How is it that people who seek an internship in politics can afford so much of their time? Do these people lack the human need for personal toiletries, shelter, food, and sleep? I admire those who have the fortitude to follow through with such goals, but if so many are clammoring for attention, the failure rate for such individuals must be staggering. It boggles the mind!
--
Try to imagine the universe to be perfect and without flaw... But let's face it: God's imagination works better than yours.
Slashdot Mirror
Did you even read your own link?
15 thousand million, or rather 15 BILLION years is a long way down the road. It also implies that the universe is at least 15 BILLION years of age. Let's not forget that people who subscribe to the whole "big bang" religion feel that all this matter used to be a heck of a lot closer together, and thus you probabably could have seen everything a lot clearer about 10 billion years ago or such.
Things are cooling. The red shift persists. Yeah, I'd have to say that the universe is still expanding. No need for physics to back up that observation. But it also means that anything greater than 15 billion years ago is impossible to observe. Let's all play stupid and assume that there wasn't anything there before that time, OK? No... That's not OK. In the observable 15 billion years the light has reached us. It's just faint because the universe is expanding in every direction at approximately 12 million miles every minute.
Oh, and since the original article says the universe is only about 70 billion light years across, and we can only see about 15 billion light years out... Um... How can they tell that there are boundaries? But I digress. There are so many flaws in today's pop-astrophysics that I shudder to address the endless "Why is the sky black" questions.
OK, I will disagree with the whole idea/notion that the universe is of finite age, and that it all began with a "big bang". The evidence? Well... admittedly, it's as flimsy as everyone else's but let's face it: Even in an expanding universe, you could vector the known matter back to it's origin to see where it all came from. But Guess What!? YOU CAN'T! It's impossible to vector the origin. Why? There was no singular origin to begin with.
At least that's *my* theory, and I'm stickin' to it.
Now about the part where light hasn't had time to reach us... Well, it has reached us. Use a telescope and you can see that the light is there. It's just faint because it was weakened. What weakened it? Ultra absorbing matter that you can't see? No... It was weakened by the physical expansive property of space itself.
Yes, space has properties. If it didn't, the matter and energy of the universe couldn't exist within it.
You know, it doesn't matter how much food you stick in the oven, it will all get burnt if you leave it in there long enough. But guess what?! The evidence shows that the universe is COOLING! (The global warming crowd gasps in disbelief.) Yep, as the laws of thermodynamics explain, rapid expantion is leading us to the big chill!
But quite frankly, I'm not in the karma class of Steven Hawkings, so whatever I tell you will most likely be met with endless circular arguments that tend to lack a point.
Oh, and the part where they are measuring the background radiation and determining that the vibration patterns don't coinside with an infinite universe? Rubbish! Even though space is infinet, the matter and energy are obviously not as plentiful, so don't confuse matter/energy with space.
Space by itself has some amazing properties even without matter/energy, but unfortunately you have to use matter and energy to observe/measure it.
--
No matter how attractive you think she is, some guy out there is long since tired of putting up with her crap.
There is just no substitute for that cap when it comes to cleaning out your ears. It just feels "right".
Otherwise, I couldn't care less what kind of pen/ink I use to sign my checks and credit card receipts. Besides, no one looks at modern handwritten documents except for the prosecution, so use disappearing ink whenever possible.
--
This space for rent.
At this point I'm voting none of the above, but maybe some of you can come up with some better options below.
But what is worrying is when information about you is used in ways to control your behaviour. For instance, if you are thinking about quitting smoking and purchase the patches to help with the cravings. Those interested will track your movements along with the movements of other "quitters" to place smoking triggers along your path to make it that much hard for you to shake the habit.
Perhaps you're a person who has bought a lottery ticket or two. Suddenly you're flooded with all kinds of gambling offers. Sure, you can say no to their offers, but what will others think when they see you getting that barage of junk mail to visit all those cassinos? What will your boss think when they start sending those offers to your office?
Most of us live lives of moderation. We like to take in occasional vices, but we mostly try to keep things pretty mundane. But this isn't allowed in the corperate world. They have to seek out potentially new exploits to justify getting an MBA. Any information that they can get will allow them to find a wedge between you and your better judgement.
I know, I know... You're too smart for their tactics. You're in control of your own destiny. It doesn't bother you when they mercilessly pick away at you. You're just content to sit back in your recliner watching "Matlock" re-runs on cable.
The sad part is, people don't see any value in privacy, because they don't realize the benefits it allows. Being anonymous allows you to have your turn next in line, and receive the same amount of respect as a person who is twice as affluent as your are. Once your personal worth is on the table with everyone else's, your value in society has just been broadcasted, and you will wait until those more worthy have been served no matter how long you've been waiting. You may never be served at that rate...
Oh, but you'll just head on to their competitors, right? Think again. They bought the same list. They also know that you'll be more desperate than before since they knew where you were coming from... Now they can really ream your wallet *IF* they decide you're worth having as a customer.
Privacy also allows you to be forgiven for your past mistakes more easily. Who hasn't made a mistake or exercised poor judgement when they were more youthful? It's the foundation of experience, but if your subordinates know every detail, they aren't as likely to be as subordinate. How can you credibly jump on them for making the same mistakes you used to?
Privacy has a very real value for people in society. It's not just about dirty magazines or illicite affairs. It's about not having to worry what the score is every moment of your life. It about not having to be publicly humiliated at unexpected moments. It's about maintaining person dignity and self-respect.
If you don't have any respect for yourself to keep private things private, how can you expect anyone else to respect you as well?
"What we're seeing is that those voluntary efforts are insufficient, and the repercussions are vast."
Did I miss a meeting? Is this not Slashdot? I'm skimming through the posts and seeing a lot of cammoring that seems to approve regulating software. IS NOT LINUX A VOLUNTARY EFFORT?! Hand this guy a copy of Knoppix and tell him to crack it!
The biggest problem with computers on the internet today is the number of people who ran out and bought a computer because it looked like an interactive television. Hold the end user responsible for what their computer does.
I like to view my computer as one of my best friends... Proverbially, man's best friend is a dog... In other words, a pet. Think of it in this light: Do you sue the kennel when your dog bites your neighbor? No... You sue the kennel for selling you a dog with physical defect, but not a personality defect. You are responsible for your pet's actions, even if the kid down the street was shooting him with the super soaker, makes the dog mad, and the dog goes out on a rampage biting old ladies.
So if your computer goes out and bites another system, then you should be responsible for the cleanup costs regardless of who or what made it go off like that. Sure, it may sound harsh, but if it takes a few "Bonzai Buddy" users out of the pool, I doubt the net will suffer too greatly.
My only complaint with online papers is that they don't carry local advertisers. I'd love to read the online paper and see ads for local merchants just like reading the old fashioned news print. Heck... Send it to your printer and get a coupon for boneless chicken breasts at $.99/lb down at the local Kroger.
Alas, online papers don't follow the same paradigm as their successful predicessor... Instead I see ads for match.com and other online services I'll never subscribe to. This is where I don't get it: People who surf online still have lives offline. (I know this is Slashdot, but admit it, you occasionally squint at that bright thing up in that big blue ceiling.) When will companies realise they can combine local content with local advertisers for products people might be interested in buying when they step outside the door in their locale?
But I'd trust my data on a beta OS before trusting the worm infested nightmare unleashed by some multi-billion dollar software company. It's a matter of perspective, but the order goes like this:
- Alpha - We know it's got problems, but the concept seems sound
- Beta - If it has any problems, we haven't been able to find them.
- Commercial/Final/Stable - We can't find any problems, and neither could our beta testers, so it must be your fault.
Many times, beta passes directly into the third stage without modification, but it's a crap-shoot no matter who you trust.The fact of the matter is, wether or not you like HAM radio, the public should *NOT* have to depend on private citizens to get the help they need in the event of an emergency. Is it a nice "safety net"? Yes. But do I want to depend on a bunch of HAM radio operators to direct rescue efforts? Not really. I pay taxes for services like that, not for say, giving illegal aliens drivers licenses, as we (will) do here in California.
I sure as hell wouldn't want to rely on a coward who puts their faith in their tax dollars over humanity. If I'm not mistaken, everyone in this country is entitled to be a private citizen, even if your tax dollars are paying for their training so they can risk their lives to save your cowardly butt because you don't think the lowly amatuer has any value in the event of an emergency. What kind of smug attitude are you going to have when your "tax paid professionals" can't get to you because they've got an overwhelming crisis on their hands? Do you think your almighty tax dollars are going to miraculously pull your butt out if the fire? It's people that save people regardless of their government appointed titles.
Let's just keep raising more and more idiots who are totally convinced that it's always best to lay their like a dead duck until the "real help arrives" because no one wants to risk volunteering in a crisis because they have no self-reliant skills.
"Oh no... Please don't try to help me. I'll just wait for my tax paid professionals to arrive. They're so much more valuable than anything you have to offer."
/flame off.
It's hard to steal an identity if you don't have one, but think of the potential benefits of stealing an identity that is considered worthless to the rest of society. "The bum did it," defense will suddenly emerge as the latest sacrificial lamb for societal ills because any one of them can easily be tracked, picked up, and conveniently given credit where society (mass media) demands accountability, and the real culprit has the wherewithall to arrange the unwilling sacrifice.
But I'm not too worried about this. Historically, any system that refuses to accept the fact that it has philosophical flaws and correct its philosophical flaws is eventually going to self-implode.
Support the spread of poverty! Because the only possible way you'll ever look richer, is if the poor look even poorer.
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I just knew I should have posted this as AC... Why didn't I take my own good advice?
Here, here! Any idiot can burn down a barn!
On a slightly unrelated note: Why is Dayton (SW Ohio) totally dark in the after picture? As far as I know, we've had full power the entire time.
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Give me a break... just when I finally had a breakthrough, my server crashed.
What to shop at a particular grocery store? First you have to be a subscriber before you can even enter the front door. Care to buy a car? Not in the future. You will only be able to lease it. Buy a TV? Think again. You lease your new HDTV from your TV Content Provider.
Essentially, you will be nickle and dimed to death with subscription fees for everything. The concept of "Ownership" will be used only in reference to the person(s) held legally responsible/liable. The brave new economy will have all the compassion of a fly-by-night cell phone contract:
"I'd like to cancel my service"
"Certainly, that will be $1000"
"What?! Never mind! It's cheaper to keep her."
"Whatever you say, that will be $750."
"For what?!"
"Sir, according to your contract, you agreed to pay $500 in the event that you initiated a cancelation of your service, and an additional $250 consultation fee for realizing that you didn't want to cancel after all. All totalled that will be $1250."
"What?! You just said $750 a minute ago."
"That was before I explained the agreement to you. That's an additional $500. You're up to $1750 now. Care to go for $2250?"
"Hold on a minute! I'm looking at the contract that I signed with you people, and NO WHERE does it state anything about..."
"I'm sorry sir, but paragraph 7c of that contract clearly states that you agree to accept the terms of all future contracts that we pull out of our ass. That will be $4500, please."
"FOR WHAT?! OH... Nevermind." [click]
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Brian: Do you ever listen to yourself talk?
Peter: I drift in and out.
What always gets me are the stores that sell computer parts and custom built machines with or without OS. You'd think these people would know a little more about Linux than its mere existance. After all, WinXP has that lovely Product Activation feature to ensure endless headaches for anyone seeking to make radical upgrades or build a custom box. I'd love to have a local computer store that at least pretended to like Linux... Or better yet- Know enough about the hardware they sell to be able to inform you if a decent Linux driver was available for that device.
Buy the cheap-o box
Wipe the hard drive
Install your favorite Linux distro
Enjoy!
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Click HERE [imsogullible.com] to test your gullibility.
And this is where it's all hinged... The "sensitive spin detector". What is a "spin detector"? I still haven't seen or heard everything, but this gem is going to get a special note in my memory bank. How exactly does one measure the spin of an electron? How do you know that you've got your spin detector focused in on the correct electron in the first place? Just how sensitive is this spin detector? Is it as sensitive as my b.s. detector?
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Pull the other one, and my pants will fall down.
You left out the part about the IP lawyers who will ensure that this will ultimately get swallowed up in a massive pile of red tape, and drain it of any hope for success.
Sorry about the pessimism, but I lump consumer space flight in with finding a cure for cancer.
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In my great great grandchildren's lifetime? I'll still doubt it.
I'm inclined to agree, but I also see the technology as exacerbating the problem. From the article:
This is where I see the downward spiral come into play. The obscured moral of the story is that people need to realize the most important under-utilized feature that technology has to offer is the off button.
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Test your Linux IQ: Press CTRL-ALT-BSP
This is by no means foolproof, and I'll bet some Linux geek will slam me for not doing it right or doing it the hard way. See, the Linux geeks out there won't give you a freakin' step by step. They give you RTFM. It's their revenge for having been picked on in grade school.
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I'm not in a creative tagline mood at the moment.
Oh yeah... I wondered what that was.../me stupid. Sorry about that, but they did seem to hold on to the cartridge format for what seemed an eternity even when everyone else moved to the CD format. They (Nintendo) argued that it loaded faster and was less prone to destruction. Well, what's less prone to destruction than net based games/software? With no mass storage, a unique digital ID for each console, and a handy little lan plug on the back, Nintendo could charge you $20 a month for access to every game they ever released and plan to release. No existing console could top that.
Besides, no one would be hacking the cheap hardware to make low cost Linux servers, install mod chips, or whatever. You'd actually have to pay to play and the digitally encrypted ID would ensure that no one could cheat. That's my prediction anyway. I could be wrong...
Damn... They really did put a CD in that thing after all?
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It doesn't take a genious to burn down a barn.
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I always thought Nintendo was the Japanese word for "No Blood".
Another great alternative is to find people you get along with and form a partnership.
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I forgot where I put my collection of tag lines...
On a side note, a donation to a website may be tax deductable, but a subscription can be taxed.
Heck, I couldn't get people to go to a website even if I paid them. And now people think I'm going to drop a dime every time I visit their crappy site? HA! Starting/Creating a website is (for the most part) CHEAP! I don't care how much you claim your site costs to operate. If you've got sufficient traffic to necessitate big-bucks-bandwidth, then you should be able to get willing advertisers that can pay. (See local radio and TV business models for success stories.) There's over 17,000 three letter combinations, and ALL OF THEM have been registered as a dot com. This does not include all the dictionary words that have been snagged up, and the myriad of compound words that are being used. Rest assured that with so many domains out there, there will always be FREE websites. Those who think their stuff is too cool for us freeloaders will probably find themselves out of business unless they can lobby enough laws to make running a website illegal without a required payment for access. I know those pesky pointy haired lawyer types can lobby some insane laws, but somehow I think they won't be able to stop the "free content" available on the internet without ultimately killing the whole thing...
Maybe in 2005 we can all sit back and lament, "Who knew? That whole internet craze thing was just a fad after all!"
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Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.
If the internet needs even more spam, trolls, and pr0n than before, leave it to usenet to be the leader. Personally, I don't think this internet thing will ever catch on. It's just a fad...
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Mandrake + Wine = -need(MS Windows)
If I dropped everything to run off and chase my dream of being a lobbiest, I'd be reclassified as an unemployed homeless vagrant before my final paycheck arrived at my last known address. Mind you, I'm only joking about it being my dream, but I've always assumed that money talks and bs walks. If you don't have some support behind you (aka money) no one seems to take your ideas seriously, and I hear that student loan creditors will find you and hound you no matter where you go. How is it that people who seek an internship in politics can afford so much of their time? Do these people lack the human need for personal toiletries, shelter, food, and sleep? I admire those who have the fortitude to follow through with such goals, but if so many are clammoring for attention, the failure rate for such individuals must be staggering. It boggles the mind!
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Try to imagine the universe to be perfect and without flaw...
But let's face it: God's imagination works better than yours.