Frank Lloyd Wright is an architect.
The article is about mathematics.
Being a ground-breaking architect is not the same as being a ground-breaking mathematician.
It follows that the parent comment is offtopic.
Wright wasn't a professional mathematician, but he knew enough math to do architecture. Furthermore, I submit that architecture is applied geometry.
Agreed, Wright wasn't a math genius. But the original article isn't about genius, per se -- it's about mathematical skill, which he did possess to some degree. The question is about the effect of age on skill, not the absolute level of skill.
Penelope Bonsall, director of the Federal Election Commission's Office of Election Administration, which helps set guidelines for the voting process, said that the possibility of vote tampering has always existed and that the possibilities were no greater with computers.
"When you're dealing with computer scientists, they deal in a world of theoretics, and under that scenario anything is possible," Ms. Bonsall said. "If you probe a little further, the chance of these failures, the risk of that happening wide-scale in a national election is almost nil."
To which I say: BWAH-HAH-HAH-HAH-HAH, HAH-HAH-HAH... !!!
"Defect" is a good word for bad code -- a machine word for a machine environment.
"Spoilage" makes more sense for corrupted data. When my floppy disk passes too near a magnet, the disk suffers from a kind of rot -- less mechanical, more organic in nature.
Okay, granted, heisenbugs appear more mysterious than, say, bohr bugs.
But the same is true in both cases: nothing is mysterious if you know the facts.
The problem -- the cause of Mystery -- is that we may not have the capacity to get and understand the facts. Source code, compiler behavior, object code, operating system behavior -- the level of complexity may exceed our smarts.
What we in the West call "bugs", the Japanese call "spoilage". I find this nomenclature honest and refreshing. "Bug" implies that the problem is some independent agent, when in fact the problem is the "spoiled" code itself.
Not good enough. The true ultimate number would last into the afterlife. That way, we could call dead people, and not have to remember a special post-mortem phone number.
Much superior to the old postal method of contacting dead people, via the dead-letter office....
"Mitnick says hackers bring special skills to the job, while Painter says a criminal is a criminal."
They're both right. Remember It Takes a Thief...?
Strictly speaking though, it's not polite to call Mitnick a criminal. The preferred term is ex-convict, indicating that he was convicted for his crime(s), and has "paid his debt to society".
I agree with Tsunamio's points about why Gaming is less brain-rotting than TV:
* No ads (no TV commercials, anyway);
* Not as passive.
* Social interaction
Indeed, computers generally less brain-rotting that TV -- certainly in the #2 sense: TV is passive, computing (gaming, websurfing, whatever) is active.
Slashdot Mirror
And if Fuller were alive, he would weep large, salty tears....
....
Large, salty, geodesic tears
Fancy words always impress the moderators.
And they're a great way to get women into bed! (Fancy words, that is -- not the moderators.)
Of course, the hard thing, as in all electric generation, is getting the generator to spin, which isn't done with the hard drives.
...
....
True; the article doesn't address the issue of spin, other than the author used a small metal lathe to bench-test the alternator.
It's not a ground-breaking invention, I'm sure this sort of thing has cropped up periodically over the decades in science fairs.
And the author is selling magnets online -- let's not overlook this motive (though I think it's reasonable and I might do the same).
But the article is engaging, and for those (such as myself) who don't know the details of building an alternator, it's a good introduction.
Furthermore, the author states, right at the top:
In the effort to build my own low RPM alternator for small wind/water power applications
It's this laudable motive that makes the article worth SlashDot's time. We are (on a good day, anyway) the successors to the Whole Earth Catalog
"Does Gaming Reduce Productivity?"
....
I could answer this question, but first I have to play some Unreal Tournament
Frank Lloyd Wright is an architect.
The article is about mathematics.
Being a ground-breaking architect is not the same as being a ground-breaking mathematician.
It follows that the parent comment is offtopic.
Wright wasn't a professional mathematician, but he knew enough math to do architecture. Furthermore, I submit that architecture is applied geometry.
Agreed, Wright wasn't a math genius. But the original article isn't about genius, per se -- it's about mathematical skill, which he did possess to some degree. The question is about the effect of age on skill, not the absolute level of skill.
Frank Lloyd Wright did his most celebrated work after the age of fifty.
(PS: Snicker, snort.)
"Open the Itanium register sets, HAL."
...."
"I'm sorry, Dave. I can't do that
They had a calculator embeded in their skin as a tat.. and it really functioned.
... anyone got details?
Far out! This would be a great SlashDot item
How about programmable animated tattoos using skin-mountable biofoil?
The idea appears in K.W. Jeter's Farewell Horizontal, an engaging novel about motorcycle gang warfare on the outer face of a miles-high cylinder.
"Defect" is a good word for bad code -- a machine word for a machine environment.
"Spoilage" makes more sense for corrupted data. When my floppy disk passes too near a magnet, the disk suffers from a kind of rot -- less mechanical, more organic in nature.
Okay, granted, heisenbugs appear more mysterious than, say, bohr bugs.
But the same is true in both cases: nothing is mysterious if you know the facts.
The problem -- the cause of Mystery -- is that we may not have the capacity to get and understand the facts. Source code, compiler behavior, object code, operating system behavior -- the level of complexity may exceed our smarts.
Defect is good. I can work with defect.
Good point Chuck.
Furthermore, since eericson's gripe is not relevant to my thread ("Mysterious?"), he/she should start another.
What we in the West call "bugs", the Japanese call "spoilage". I find this nomenclature honest and refreshing. "Bug" implies that the problem is some independent agent, when in fact the problem is the "spoiled" code itself.
Software faults are not mysterious -- people are ignorant.
I once watched a co-worker use a shop vac inside a very dusty PC. The shop vac sucked a chip out of its socket ....
" ... multiple police agencies conducting simultaneous wiretaps must not learn of one another ..."
...!
...
Hoo-boy, this is going to lead to some interesting cases of mistaken identity
Makes me think of PKD's A Scanner Darkly
As the old Cold-War-era joke goes:
"... (one number for life... the ultimate!)"
....
Not good enough. The true ultimate number would last into the afterlife. That way, we could call dead people, and not have to remember a special post-mortem phone number.
Much superior to the old postal method of contacting dead people, via the dead-letter office
The Cisco Kid wasn't a friend of mine ... doo doo doo doo ....
"Mitnick says hackers bring special skills to the job, while Painter says a criminal is a criminal."
...?
They're both right. Remember It Takes a Thief
Strictly speaking though, it's not polite to call Mitnick a criminal. The preferred term is ex-convict, indicating that he was convicted for his crime(s), and has "paid his debt to society".
When the audience can watch the finished scene, complete with CGI, as the actors are filming it -- now that would be realtime!
I agree with Tsunamio's points about why Gaming is less brain-rotting than TV:
* No ads (no TV commercials, anyway);
* Not as passive.
* Social interaction
Indeed, computers generally less brain-rotting that TV -- certainly in the #2 sense: TV is passive, computing (gaming, websurfing, whatever) is active.