I guess this is all a matter of perspective. I doubt a race car driver will care if Toyota announces that they don't need to make the engine in a Camry any more powerful in the next model year. He'll still want the best possible engine for his race car and will upgrade it whenever possible.
With the exception of research, 99% of computer users have enough power, or rather could have enough power if it were a little cheaper.
So, for some applications computers are good enough. I think that the 1% of people using 50% of the clock cycles to do research is what computers are for, and the 99% of people surfing the web or playing Quake is a nifty application for computers but beside the main point. (Warning: 86% of the statistics in this paragraph were made up on the spot)
I "want" faster computers so that I can model chemical systems more accurately, not so that I get 300 fps instead of 200 fps playing Quake. Just because you don't have a real need for a faster computer doesn't mean no one does.
On the other hand, the mass market drives R&D and production, so as a practical matter the research dollars for faster processors is likely to taper off if demand does. In this we agree. From my perspective, this turn of events is unfortunate.
This arguement is ignoring a major point. Sure, home PCs, web servers, search engines, databases may all get fast enough that further computational speed is irrelevant.
But when computers are used for crunching numbers we still want machines to be as fast as possible. Supercomputers still exist today. Countries and companies are still spending millions to build parallel machines thousands of times faster than home PCs. They're doing this because the current crop of processors is not fast enough for what they want to calculate.
Current computational modeling of the weather, a nuclear explosion, the way a protein folds, a chemical reaction, or any of a large number of other important real-world phenomena is limited by current computational speed. Faster computers will aid these fields tremendously. More power is almost always better in mathematical modeling- I don't expect we'll ever get to the point where we have as much computational power as we want.
I remember when Netrek servers went from 5 fps to 10 fps. 1997 or so, much later than strictly necessary. Purists screamed bloody murder, but then again in netrek absolutely any change results in that reaction. The strange thing was that everything seemed to me to be going slowly, and nearly every player had the same reaction. I guess the human brain was using the step size taken between frames to judge velocities. My targetting was off for the first few weeks simply because I'd underestimate the velocity of enemy ships...
To paraphrase a misquote, 'Ten FPS should be enough for anybody!'
I see this as a variant of the 'opt-out' strategy without some of the disadvantages- i.e. without having to place one's address on a list (and we all know what that would lead to...) This would make opting out simple for the user- I'm certain all major email clients would enable spam filtering by this flag as soon as it was established. This is an attempt at compromise, not as desirable to the user as an 'opt-in' rule, but better than simple 'opt-out' and harder for the spammers to argue with than 'opt-in'.
On the other hand, I doubt that any of this is enforcable in any event.
The A7N8X (or any other of the NForce2 boards) is a far better choice than the A7V8X for AMD, particularly since you're already planning to get two sticks of fast RAM. See the Tom's Hardware article from several months ago.
"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. "
- Al Gore, on CNN's 'Late Edition" program, 9 March 1999.
No, he didn't claim to have anything to do with authorizing the DARPA project that ultimately led to the internet, as he didn't become a member of congress until 1977, well after ARPANET was up and running. Your version of what he claimed he did is no more true than that of the parent poster.
Even though he was one of the leading congressional supporters of the internet in the 80s, he did overstate his own role in its creation even if the quote is read in context. This was a bad mistake and led to inevitable criticism- but only some of that criticism was justified. He never claimed he'd invented the internet.
Planned Parenthood is certainly not a 'generally conservative group'. The pro-choice stance for which Planned Parenthood is one of the most prominent supporters is regarded as liberal in the US.
... if I write a letter to my congresscritter supporting an issue, I support that issue whether or not the original words are entirely mine. After all, presidents use speechwriters -- and this is entirely accepted as the norm (though Lincoln often wrote his own, but that's an aberration.) And yet we say that the president himself (or herself, someday in the future) supports the issue. Why should members of the public be ignored just because they have speechwriters, of a sort? It's the opinion that matters, not the form of the opinion, as long as it's not threatening or rude to another person.
I, too, am a skeptic, although probably not "one of the biggest skeptics out there.".
In particular, I'm quite skeptical of your claim to be "one of the biggest skeptics out there." Available evidence in the above post indicates that you are quite credulous.
i[sic] wonder why you didnt[sic] had[sic] pick up the british dictionaire[sic]?
My guess is that the main reason the OP used it was that dictionary.com is easier to remember and to search. He could have made the point that the way a modern language is spoken where it originally evolved should not a priori define that language, which runs counter to what the English might want. However, in this case the two versions of English under discussion agree. One abbreviated version of the OED is on line, and from that, definition 2 of ball:
"2 usually spherical object used in game,"does not require a 'ball' to be spherical, merely that it be used in a game. The non-spherical balls used the the games the US and Canada each call football fit this definition.
Also from the OED, the definition of footballagain is consistent with the games North Americans call football, given the above definition of ball: "1 large inflated usually leather ball. 2 team game played with this."
To what 900 year old English dictionary do you refer? The Oxford English Dictionary, which is the generally accepted UK dictionary, began to be compiled in 1857 and a complete edition was not published until 1928. There were previous British dictionaries, notably Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary, but I do not believe any exist which were written 900 years ago, and if they did, consulting them for modern definitions would be ridiculous.
Re:"Kil'n People" in the U.K.
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How is the word kiln pronounced in the U.K.? In some parts of the US the n is silent, which makes the double meaning even more obvious...
The other important function of the satellites and feature of the signals is that each satellite has an atomic clock and the signals sent include an accurate (at least on the order of nanoseconds) time the signal was sent. The difference in sending times of simultaneously recieved signals is then used to determine relative distances of each satellite to the reciever, which then is used to calculate the position of the reciever.
One other minor bit, more relevant to the military discussion- each satellite transmits on two different frequencies, but the other frequency is encoded and intended for use solely by the US military (and allies?). Using two different frequencies presumably allows for significantly increased accuracy, as diffraction based errors can be compensated for. In addition, this extra band makes it easy for the US military to turn off or to send intentionally deceptive signals on the public band in the event of armed conflict with an enemy who uses GPS...
Wolfenstein 3D was first and pretty popular, Doom was even more popular in large part because the first third of it was shareware and it added modem-based deathmatch (and cooperative play. No, no one actually played that even then.) If your definition of the first-person shooter genre includes head-to-head fighting then Doom is the first one, otherwise it'e Wolf3D.
Particles of antimatter have positive mass- this has been experimentally verified and matched all the popular theories. Negative matter is a different thing, and has been theorized, but would not be called anti-particles. (Well, I suppose one could theorize negative matter anti-particles to complement theoretical 'normal' negative matter particles, but that's not what you appear to be talking about.)
If something is given "judicial notice", it means that the courts accept it as factual.
Yes, but more than that, it means that it need not be argued or proven, the court accepts it without additional justification. The Supreme Court did not regard the military suitability of this particular weapon to be that; this does not mean that this claim is false, merely that the court did not accept that without any evidence (and there was none, as no defense was present to argue the case) The point of this distinction is that if a weapon is suitable for use in a militia, then it is protected by the second amendment.
If the issue is not settled, why do these laws get passed and the NRA just whines? You would think that they would fight these laws in the Supreme Court if the laws were unconstitutional, yet they typically do not.
The Supreme Court chooses which cases it sees. It has not chosen to see any 2nd Amendment cases since 1939. Neither the NRA nor any other non-governmental organization can force the US Supreme Court to see any particular case. They have declined to see several recent, germane to the 2nd amendment cases (declining to hear cases is not unusual in itself; most appeals are declined, as many many more cases are appealed to them than they have time to hear.)
But it was not every person. It was every able-bodied male. So does that mean that a state has a legal right to prevent women from owning guns? Sounds that way if we want to be strict constructionists.
No. See the Ninth Amendment. While the Bill of Rights does not address that case, it is a false statement that 'a state has a legal right to prevent women from owning guns.' The fact that a right is not addressed in the constitution (or in this case, a subset of that right) does not imply it does not exist, by the strictest of constructions.
Space in low earth orbit is about 5 K. Out where voyager is, the solar wind which is most of the mass around causes the temperatures to be higher...
Here's a graph which includes the logarithm of the temperature Voyager's reading of the solar wind plasma which surrounds it. Converting back from the logarithm, this temperature displayed here varies from about 5000 K to about 50000K. Of course, in such high vacuums the heat transfer is minimal. Another source for more detailed data is here.
Placing most electronics in 1 atmosphere of air at those temperatures would boil them, but that's as irrelevant as the 5 K comparison as this is high vacuum.
Specifically, this one which specifically forbids placing such a note in a USPS mailbox unless postage has been paid for it.
That's even assuming the "Dirty Cheap Viagra." peddler wouldn't be guilty of mail fraud. (which is much, much more commonly prosecuted than email fraud...)
Sure, you could pay to send the note via the USPS, but that's basically what AOL is asking the spammers to do anyhow...
Flaw in proof, perhaps google isn't evil!
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Turn the number backwards, and add 111 - the only triplet that can ever be prime.
Ah, but 111 isn't prime. (3*37=111). So clearly it must be left out.
Following the rest of the computation results in 1816 - the year Werner von Siemens was born.
No, that's the the opposite of how science works. A scientific hypothesis/theorem/law must be potentially disprovable, and is usually not provable. It's impossible to prove, say, special relativity. You can't ever test such a physics theorem completely. It is, however, disprovable. If someone discovers an experiment which produces results fundamentally inconsistent a given hypothesis/theorem/law it will be disproved (such as with some laws of classical physics were by double-slit experiments)
Moore's law is not provable, but is disprovable, so should not be rejected on that basis.
Slashdot Mirror
It's to distinguish them from the many photon-based multiplayer games.
However, you can no more weigh 64kg than you can be 64kg old or 64kg tall; kg is a measure of mass, not of weight.
I "want" faster computers so that I can model chemical systems more accurately, not so that I get 300 fps instead of 200 fps playing Quake. Just because you don't have a real need for a faster computer doesn't mean no one does.
On the other hand, the mass market drives R&D and production, so as a practical matter the research dollars for faster processors is likely to taper off if demand does. In this we agree. From my perspective, this turn of events is unfortunate.
But when computers are used for crunching numbers we still want machines to be as fast as possible. Supercomputers still exist today. Countries and companies are still spending millions to build parallel machines thousands of times faster than home PCs. They're doing this because the current crop of processors is not fast enough for what they want to calculate.
Current computational modeling of the weather, a nuclear explosion, the way a protein folds, a chemical reaction, or any of a large number of other important real-world phenomena is limited by current computational speed. Faster computers will aid these fields tremendously. More power is almost always better in mathematical modeling- I don't expect we'll ever get to the point where we have as much computational power as we want.
To paraphrase a misquote, 'Ten FPS should be enough for anybody!'
On the other hand, I doubt that any of this is enforcable in any event.
The A7N8X (or any other of the NForce2 boards) is a far better choice than the A7V8X for AMD, particularly since you're already planning to get two sticks of fast RAM. See the Tom's Hardware article from several months ago.
No, he didn't claim to have anything to do with authorizing the DARPA project that ultimately led to the internet, as he didn't become a member of congress until 1977, well after ARPANET was up and running. Your version of what he claimed he did is no more true than that of the parent poster.
Even though he was one of the leading congressional supporters of the internet in the 80s, he did overstate his own role in its creation even if the quote is read in context. This was a bad mistake and led to inevitable criticism- but only some of that criticism was justified. He never claimed he'd invented the internet.
Planned Parenthood is certainly not a 'generally conservative group'. The pro-choice stance for which Planned Parenthood is one of the most prominent supporters is regarded as liberal in the US.
Sincerely, Noren
Sounds horrifying, but who can be sued for it?
Unless you can identify a lawsuit target, there's no reason to blame your medical problems on it.
In particular, I'm quite skeptical of your claim to be "one of the biggest skeptics out there." Available evidence in the above post indicates that you are quite credulous.
"2 usually spherical object used in game,"does not require a 'ball' to be spherical, merely that it be used in a game. The non-spherical balls used the the games the US and Canada each call football fit this definition.
Also from the OED, the definition of footballagain is consistent with the games North Americans call football, given the above definition of ball: "1 large inflated usually leather ball. 2 team game played with this."
To what 900 year old English dictionary do you refer? The Oxford English Dictionary, which is the generally accepted UK dictionary, began to be compiled in 1857 and a complete edition was not published until 1928. There were previous British dictionaries, notably Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary, but I do not believe any exist which were written 900 years ago, and if they did, consulting them for modern definitions would be ridiculous.
How is the word kiln pronounced in the U.K.? In some parts of the US the n is silent, which makes the double meaning even more obvious...
One other minor bit, more relevant to the military discussion- each satellite transmits on two different frequencies, but the other frequency is encoded and intended for use solely by the US military (and allies?). Using two different frequencies presumably allows for significantly increased accuracy, as diffraction based errors can be compensated for. In addition, this extra band makes it easy for the US military to turn off or to send intentionally deceptive signals on the public band in the event of armed conflict with an enemy who uses GPS...
Wolfenstein 3D was first and pretty popular, Doom was even more popular in large part because the first third of it was shareware and it added modem-based deathmatch (and cooperative play. No, no one actually played that even then.) If your definition of the first-person shooter genre includes head-to-head fighting then Doom is the first one, otherwise it'e Wolf3D.
I'm feeling a little verklempt- talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic. The /. effect is neither science nor fiction. Discuss.
Particles of antimatter have positive mass- this has been experimentally verified and matched all the popular theories. Negative matter is a different thing, and has been theorized, but would not be called anti-particles. (Well, I suppose one could theorize negative matter anti-particles to complement theoretical 'normal' negative matter particles, but that's not what you appear to be talking about.)
In all seriousness, both Bad Taste and Meet the Feebles had scenes which qualify as astonishing, though probably not uplifting...
Here's a graph which includes the logarithm of the temperature Voyager's reading of the solar wind plasma which surrounds it. Converting back from the logarithm, this temperature displayed here varies from about 5000 K to about 50000K. Of course, in such high vacuums the heat transfer is minimal. Another source for more detailed data is here.
Placing most electronics in 1 atmosphere of air at those temperatures would boil them, but that's as irrelevant as the 5 K comparison as this is high vacuum.
It's very hot... in space. KHAAAAAAN!
That's even assuming the "Dirty Cheap Viagra." peddler wouldn't be guilty of mail fraud. (which is much, much more commonly prosecuted than email fraud...)
Sure, you could pay to send the note via the USPS, but that's basically what AOL is asking the spammers to do anyhow...
Following the rest of the computation results in 1816 - the year Werner von Siemens was born.
The Siemens corporation advertises on Google!
Google is really a front for the Siemens corporation. QED.
Moore's law is not provable, but is disprovable, so should not be rejected on that basis.
On the other hand, it's probably wrong, after all Ninety percent of everything is crud.