In my experience, people who argue for stronger "IP protection" and the possibility to trade with ideas are often those with few ideas of their own (and hence think there is great value in them, I guess).
The first argument I agree was a good one---it did reduce the code footprint.
However, the way I see it, points 3 and 4 (and possibly 2, depending on what you meant with "overhead") are basically attempts to do in hardware what can be done in software. Perhaps these were valid points at the time when memory was expensive, as you say, but at least in the long run didn't turn out to be very effective. Yet, we are still stuck with CISC processors because of x86 backward compatibility (although they internally are more like RISC processors).
I am certainly no expert either though, so please feel free to correct me on this.
Perhaps we should create a program that enumerates every thought, and formats them as patent applications, and files.
Of course, the patent authorities would counter by raising fees the for filing an application enough to either choke the DDoS or fund salaries for more patent office clerks.
What you want is an operating system that employs the principle of least privilege, something most operating systems have been lacking far too long by now (imho). That combined with a tiny and extremely closely analysed micro-kernel would yield a very secure OS.
In fact, this is what the Coyotos project aims at. I'm sure there are others as well. What is interesting with Coyotos however is that they are implementing the kernel in a programming language (BitC) that allows them to formally verify security and correctness properties.
It would be cool if Dell could make sure that dual boot people could reinstall windows in a differently sized partition, though -- if they could make sure that you get the installation CDs or whatever else you need to do that. I haven't really been following things, but I hear that some people get machines with ghost backups of windows instead of a real install CD. That sort of thing is a problem from a practical point of view for a linux guy who wants the ability to dual boot.
I am writing this running Gentoo on a Dell that came without any real install CD, as you describe. However, resizing the primary windows partition was easy enough using the GParted LiveCD (which works well even with NTFS partitions). The only thing that bugs me is that the install CD is replaced by "restore partitions" that occupy two of the primary partitions in the partition table.
Why you would ever argue in terms of an approximation instead of the real thing is beyond me.
Well, if one set out to define "West" on Antarctica (where the "real thing" isn't applicable) you might as well, albeit arbitrarily, choose to make it conform with the common approximation.
Anyway, I wasn't arguing anything. I was merely making an observation.
I don't think it is relevant to the actual definition of West Antarctic ice sheet, but Antarctica isn't centered on the magnetic pole, so a compass would give you a sensible west direction if you used it there.
Here is a map marking the magnetic south pole as of 1990, located in the see outside Antarctica.
Sure some agencies can access our information because it's centralized, but if we don't want them to see something, it's not hard to encrypt it.
Traffic analysis would still be a problem. They would still know how you were talking to, how often and to some extent what the nature of the communication.
You don't seriously think Microsoft would let a guy as familiar with Linux as this work in the Linux lab and tweak Linux for maximum performance for their tests, do you?
I imagine it would even be profitable for Microsoft to pay skilled people like him only to keep them from contributing to the Linux community...
The difference is that if an ISP taps in on your traffic and it gets out, it will reflect badly on them. It would probably even be called a scandal. But with Google, people actually expect them to log and analyse everything they do. We happily feed them records of our interests and social relations, and few ever thinks about it.
I think also, that we're emotionally wired to believe that we actually can and are having an impact.
Perhaps. But I think it is evident that we are also emotinally wired not to regard ourselves as the "bad guys", or that we are, each personally and as a community, responsible for all kinds of bad things going on in the world.
No, that is not how a microwave oven works. The cooking chamber is a Faraday cage, essentially keeping the waves inside until they are absorbed by the food. More than 3/4 of the energy emitted by the magnetron ends up in the egg. That is why you risk destroying your microwave oven if you run it without any substance inside that contains fat or water molecules to absorb the energy.
Just as a thought experiment though: An egg weighs about 60 g. Let's assume, for simplicity, that it consists entirely of water. Heating 1 g of water 1 centigrade requires 4.2 J of energy. Protein denatures at about 45 deg C (I think), but for the entire egg to become "boiled" it will probably reach an avarage temperature of more than that, say 55 deg C. If we start at room temperature, we have to heat the egg 30 centigrades. That would require 60 g * 30 deg C * 4.2 J = 7560 J = 7560 Ws.
So under the most ideal circumstances, it is still theoretically impossible for the oven to boil the egg in less than 10 s (a typical microwave oven has a 750 W emitter). In reality, I am guessing it would take about 30 s. Perhaps someone with a spare egg could try to verify this empirically? (I suggest cracking it in a plate first, though.)
I don't think that is going to cook an egg in the time claimed.
No kidding. 4 W (as the article assumes) is 0.5% of the power output of my micowave oven. They claim the egg is boiled in 3 minutes = 180 s. So the microwave oven would boil it in less than 1 s, which it definitely doesn't. (And then we have assumed that all the 4 W goes into the egg, when in reality perhaps 5-10 % of it does.)
Many of the brightest mathematicians in history (and societies like the ancient Greeks, in general) consider algorithms to be "truths" which already exist. Humans simply discover them.
...and this isn't restricted to software patents. There are many patents on specific medical uses of certain plants found in Africa and other places, even cases where the interesting properties of these plants have been known by natives for generations.
I don't know, but if you can patent a specific use of something you discover that is otherwise largely (but not completely) unknown... then technically, considering the unexplored vastness of software patent databases, wouldn't it also be possible to patent a specific application of a patent that you discover in a patent database? =P
I think "suggested" would be a better word than "estimated".
Fair enough.
Suggested to help explain the size of dinosaurs
...and insects, I think. Insects should be even more limited in size by the oxygen concentration since they use tracheal respiration to transport oxygen through their bodies.
True, which I think speaks quite strongly against the possibility of such a catastrophe.
Still, isn't one of the conjectures in the Gaia hypothesis that the gas composition depend on algae and phytoplankton (among other things) which in turn depend on factors such as sea temperature? And the fact that the atmospheric composition remains constant is explained as a result of self-regulation induced by such organisms. Thus, according to the theory, if we heat up the Earth too much it might "suddenly" flip to a different equilibrium with a different atmosphere.
I think his idea that civilization as a whole will collapse is absurd - in past centuries we have survived the loss of significant parts of our population (such as during the Black Death) and our culture continued - but that does not mean we should not be worried - we could be in for severe world-wide water and food shortages, and extremes of climate and flooding.
I haven't RTFA nor TFB, so I should keep my mouth shut, but I just want to point one thing out:
If I have understood the Gaia hypothesis correctly, it claims that the Earth could "flip over" into a different equilibrium if enough pressure is put on the biosphere. That could for example mean that the oxygen level in the atmosphere changes permanently. (It has been estimated that it was 35% when dinosaurs walked the Earth, as opposed to 21% today.) The Black Death was bad, but I don't think it gets anywhere near how bad adapting to a different atmosphere would be.
I have no idea how probable this is though---I think it is extremely improbable---but on the other hand it would also be extremely bad. Extremely bad.
I haven't had time to try Colemak myself so, being a programmer myself, I'm not sure either. However, since I'm using a swedish keyboard otherwise, the placement of {, },;, etc can't possibly be worse. (For example, { is given by Alt Gr + 7.)
This layout I also find interesting, and they seem to have considered programming during the design.
Slashdot Mirror
In my experience, people who argue for stronger "IP protection" and the possibility to trade with ideas are often those with few ideas of their own (and hence think there is great value in them, I guess).
However, the way I see it, points 3 and 4 (and possibly 2, depending on what you meant with "overhead") are basically attempts to do in hardware what can be done in software. Perhaps these were valid points at the time when memory was expensive, as you say, but at least in the long run didn't turn out to be very effective. Yet, we are still stuck with CISC processors because of x86 backward compatibility (although they internally are more like RISC processors).
I am certainly no expert either though, so please feel free to correct me on this.
Wasn't it essentially that motto that once gave us the CISC architecture, which most people today agree was't such a great idea...?
Of course, the patent authorities would counter by raising fees the for filing an application enough to either choke the DDoS or fund salaries for more patent office clerks.
In fact, this is what the Coyotos project aims at. I'm sure there are others as well. What is interesting with Coyotos however is that they are implementing the kernel in a programming language (BitC) that allows them to formally verify security and correctness properties.
I am writing this running Gentoo on a Dell that came without any real install CD, as you describe. However, resizing the primary windows partition was easy enough using the GParted LiveCD (which works well even with NTFS partitions). The only thing that bugs me is that the install CD is replaced by "restore partitions" that occupy two of the primary partitions in the partition table.
Well, if one set out to define "West" on Antarctica (where the "real thing" isn't applicable) you might as well, albeit arbitrarily, choose to make it conform with the common approximation.
Anyway, I wasn't arguing anything. I was merely making an observation.
Here is a map marking the magnetic south pole as of 1990, located in the see outside Antarctica.
Traffic analysis would still be a problem. They would still know how you were talking to, how often and to some extent what the nature of the communication.
I imagine it would even be profitable for Microsoft to pay skilled people like him only to keep them from contributing to the Linux community...
The difference is that if an ISP taps in on your traffic and it gets out, it will reflect badly on them. It would probably even be called a scandal. But with Google, people actually expect them to log and analyse everything they do. We happily feed them records of our interests and social relations, and few ever thinks about it.
Perhaps. But I think it is evident that we are also emotinally wired not to regard ourselves as the "bad guys", or that we are, each personally and as a community, responsible for all kinds of bad things going on in the world.
Just as a thought experiment though: An egg weighs about 60 g. Let's assume, for simplicity, that it consists entirely of water. Heating 1 g of water 1 centigrade requires 4.2 J of energy. Protein denatures at about 45 deg C (I think), but for the entire egg to become "boiled" it will probably reach an avarage temperature of more than that, say 55 deg C. If we start at room temperature, we have to heat the egg 30 centigrades. That would require 60 g * 30 deg C * 4.2 J = 7560 J = 7560 Ws.
So under the most ideal circumstances, it is still theoretically impossible for the oven to boil the egg in less than 10 s (a typical microwave oven has a 750 W emitter). In reality, I am guessing it would take about 30 s. Perhaps someone with a spare egg could try to verify this empirically? (I suggest cracking it in a plate first, though.)
No kidding. 4 W (as the article assumes) is 0.5% of the power output of my micowave oven. They claim the egg is boiled in 3 minutes = 180 s. So the microwave oven would boil it in less than 1 s, which it definitely doesn't. (And then we have assumed that all the 4 W goes into the egg, when in reality perhaps 5-10 % of it does.)
Yes, that crowd is radical. I am myself rather in the it's bad enough if there is a 1 in 10000 chance global warming will kill half of us crowd.
The sentence you quoted says that the "chance of finding life" is zero, not that there is zero chance of life.
Can there exist only good? Are you sure that does not implicate there is nothing?
I don't know, but if you can patent a specific use of something you discover that is otherwise largely (but not completely) unknown... then technically, considering the unexplored vastness of software patent databases, wouldn't it also be possible to patent a specific application of a patent that you discover in a patent database? =P
Fair enough.
Still, isn't one of the conjectures in the Gaia hypothesis that the gas composition depend on algae and phytoplankton (among other things) which in turn depend on factors such as sea temperature? And the fact that the atmospheric composition remains constant is explained as a result of self-regulation induced by such organisms. Thus, according to the theory, if we heat up the Earth too much it might "suddenly" flip to a different equilibrium with a different atmosphere.
I haven't RTFA nor TFB, so I should keep my mouth shut, but I just want to point one thing out:
If I have understood the Gaia hypothesis correctly, it claims that the Earth could "flip over" into a different equilibrium if enough pressure is put on the biosphere. That could for example mean that the oxygen level in the atmosphere changes permanently. (It has been estimated that it was 35% when dinosaurs walked the Earth, as opposed to 21% today.) The Black Death was bad, but I don't think it gets anywhere near how bad adapting to a different atmosphere would be.
I have no idea how probable this is though---I think it is extremely improbable---but on the other hand it would also be extremely bad. Extremely bad.
I think data behaves similar to gases. It expands to fill whatever space it occupies, and when you compress it the computer gets hotter.
"If cars drove in the speed of light there would be no accidents, because they would stay in the traffic such a short time." ;-)
He was really talking about how one can use extremes to understand a problem, though.
This layout I also find interesting, and they seem to have considered programming during the design.
Not necessarily. There are several newer keybord designs that claim to be even better than Dvorak. This one, for instance.