Something that I've wondered at, connected to this, is whether the 'Cambrian explosion' might mark the evolution of retroviruses.
Precambrian life forms may (from their morphology) have had extremely straightforward genomes with little repetition.
The introduction of retroviruses into their environment could have resulted in the kind of reduplication of genes that could, conceivably, have given rise to the kind of body-part diversification that marks the strange creatures of the Cambrian period.
Later, the increasing complexity of the genomes, introduction (through the early retroviruses) of introns may have provided some 'protection' from the retroviruses and so the 'explosion' slowed down.
Just a theory, and I have no idea as to how it could be tested.
"mitochondria propogate solely through the maternal line. and they have nothing to do with protein synthesis."
I know, I just threw it in as an example of something that is inherited from the mother only.
"if you weren't making your own ribosomes, you'd be a very unhappy camper, let me assure you."
Duh.
But you do need ribosomes, provided by the mother, in order to begin making your own ribosomes.
If ribosomes are not uniform across individuals, 'one size fits all' sort of thing, maybe ribosomes are a vector of inheritance just as mitochondria are (already) known to be.
"Specifically, it is always illegal to import a work that was made in a manner where, had US law applied, it would've been illegal, regardless of the local law where it was made."
Wow, no wonder the Saudis *finally* abolished slavery in, what, 1964?
Otherwise the yanks would have been legally unable to import their oil...
"Protein regulation can occur in a variety of way"
One which interests me is ribosomes.
For one thing, ribosomes can only be inherited from the mother. Clones, as we know them today inherit at least two things purely from the cell donor not from the DNA donor; mitochondria and ribosomes. Along with miscellaneous cell cytoplasm and organelles. Naturally ocurring identical twins are more identical than modern lab clones.
So, how much of a role do ribosomes play in determining how proteins get folded?
Do they just fold proteins up 'as they are directed'? Or do different ribosomes from different species fold differently?
Thats because the persistency of vnc type systems makes them percieved as being 'better' by most users because probably most of the time your network connection is not reliable enough (not just in terms of up/down-ness but in terms of changes in transfer rate and latency as the other traffic changes) for raw X to work *as*its*intended* (its a network transparent windowing system).
As new network technologies are introduced, 'X as it was intended' might become more practical, but the persistent nature of VNC-type systems makes them much more attractive for many other reasons than network bandwidth.
It can be like a 'virtual laptop' where you can hook into a custom desktop from some remote location, and sort of 'virtually close it down' (which works a lot better than 'suspend' on any real laptop!) and 'virtually carry it around'.
"When you connect to an XP or 2000 machine using RD, then the remote XP machine redirects all local console functions of that machine to your client. This has the effect of knocking out whoever is sitting at the local console of the machine you are RD'ing into"
Thank you for expressing that clearly!
It seems to be the biggest thing that people planning on using MS Rdesktop fail to grasp and will *not* believe until you demonstrate it in action.
'In other words - for every time a rabbit correctly "senses danger" they over-react to 99 completely benign events.'
If the rabbits 'learnt' that joggers are not a danger and stopped scampering away, how long would it take for non-vegetarian joggers to take advantage of this and pick up a rabbit dinner on the way?
So when the next version of the DivX codec comes out and you wind up with a CD with an avi using that codec and the earlier version of the codec won't play it, can this newfangled widget install the newer version?
"and migrate the system to using one kind of die like other gaming systems."
Oh yeah, like white wolf and their D6 system of dice pools... which, when you look at the combinatorial analysis of that system, is totally insane, counterintuitive and makes no sense whatsoever.
The sort of thing you refer to is fixable by appropriate granting of permissions to certain files or folders.
For example, create a 'gamers' group and allow full access to the c:\games folder for members of this group.
The sorts of problem I am referring to are the ones that can *never* be fixed.
I've even tried creating 'trampoline' (non-login account which can run a service and using runas to allow a nonprivileged user to run the games startup program).
This seldom works. In fact I doubt that its possible to work around this sort of copy protection bullshit in such a way as to allow a non-privileged user to run these games.
Under those conditions you should be evaluating exactly what sites your users need access to and arrange it so that those are the only sites which your proxy or firewall will allow access to.
We have a client who does this, and they run Linux desktops as well!
Squid does a remarkably good job of facilitating this sort of strapping down.
In my experience the main cause of applications failing to run as non-admin user is copy protection on games.
Frequently, these start up a service when they run. It would be very hard to make these work as non-admin.
Personally, the first thing I do when I find a game like this is download a no-cd patch/crack. Then I can run it unprivileged.
There are exceptions; the last icq client I tried won't even run as 'power user' and must be run as administrator.
The developers of this sort of rubbish need electric shocks applied to their genitalia every time someone gets infected through their crap application.
Slashdot Mirror
Only if you believe that source.
I read the link and I don't give it much credibility.
Next.
"c: the 8 glasses of water a day thing is an urban legend"
People who drink sugary caffeinated crud *will* lose more water and need to replace it.
Caffeine is, in case you never noticed, a diuretic. It makes you piss.
Sugar requires a fair amount of water to digest.
Put the two together and you have the very *reverse* of a thirst-quenching drink.
"I myself prefer a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius."
Me too.
I'd like to find somewhere nice to live that never gets above 15C
"If that were true, then why isn't there a corresponding set of industrially advanced countries in the cool south?"
Oh, you mean like Australia?
Something that I've wondered at, connected to this, is whether the 'Cambrian explosion' might mark the evolution of retroviruses.
Precambrian life forms may (from their morphology) have had extremely straightforward genomes with little repetition.
The introduction of retroviruses into their environment could have resulted in the kind of reduplication of genes that could, conceivably, have given rise to the kind of body-part diversification that marks the strange creatures of the Cambrian period.
Later, the increasing complexity of the genomes, introduction (through the early retroviruses) of introns may have provided some 'protection' from the retroviruses and so the 'explosion' slowed down.
Just a theory, and I have no idea as to how it could be tested.
"mitochondria propogate solely through the maternal line. and they have nothing to do with protein synthesis."
I know, I just threw it in as an example of something that is inherited from the mother only.
"if you weren't making your own ribosomes, you'd be a very unhappy camper, let me assure you."
Duh.
But you do need ribosomes, provided by the mother, in order to begin making your own ribosomes.
If ribosomes are not uniform across individuals, 'one size fits all' sort of thing, maybe ribosomes are a vector of inheritance just as mitochondria are (already) known to be.
DNA inheritance can only be part of the story.
"Specifically, it is always illegal to import a work that was made in a manner where, had US law applied, it would've been illegal, regardless of the local law where it was made."
Wow, no wonder the Saudis *finally* abolished slavery in, what, 1964?
Otherwise the yanks would have been legally unable to import their oil...
"Protein regulation can occur in a variety of way"
One which interests me is ribosomes.
For one thing, ribosomes can only be inherited from the mother. Clones, as we know them today inherit at least two things purely from the cell donor not from the DNA donor; mitochondria and ribosomes. Along with miscellaneous cell cytoplasm and organelles. Naturally ocurring identical twins are more identical than modern lab clones.
So, how much of a role do ribosomes play in determining how proteins get folded?
Do they just fold proteins up 'as they are directed'? Or do different ribosomes from different species fold differently?
Thats because the persistency of vnc type systems makes them percieved as being 'better' by most users because probably most of the time your network connection is not reliable enough (not just in terms of up/down-ness but in terms of changes in transfer rate and latency as the other traffic changes) for raw X to work *as*its*intended* (its a network transparent windowing system).
As new network technologies are introduced, 'X as it was intended' might become more practical, but the persistent nature of VNC-type systems makes them much more attractive for many other reasons than network bandwidth.
It can be like a 'virtual laptop' where you can hook into a custom desktop from some remote location, and sort of 'virtually close it down' (which works a lot better than 'suspend' on any real laptop!) and 'virtually carry it around'.
"When you connect to an XP or 2000 machine using RD, then the remote XP machine redirects all local console functions of that machine to your client. This has the effect of knocking out whoever is sitting at the local console of the machine you are RD'ing into"
Thank you for expressing that clearly!
It seems to be the biggest thing that people planning on using MS Rdesktop fail to grasp and will *not* believe until you demonstrate it in action.
'In other words - for every time a rabbit correctly "senses danger" they over-react to 99 completely benign events.'
If the rabbits 'learnt' that joggers are not a danger and stopped scampering away, how long would it take for non-vegetarian joggers to take advantage of this and pick up a rabbit dinner on the way?
"Don't be so naive. If Office is ever ported, it will be ported with IE, ActiveX, VBScript and all other goodness."
And it will only run as root.
Maybe even only in single user mode.
"White Wolf uses d10 for their rolls."
Well when I played it they used steaming great piles of D6... and the math was horrendous.
So when the next version of the DivX codec comes out and you wind up with a CD with an avi using that codec and the earlier version of the codec won't play it, can this newfangled widget install the newer version?
"Security Consulting, M-x spook, Z-150T, Steak Knife,"
Hahahaaa!!!
*emacs*!
"and migrate the system to using one kind of die like other gaming systems."
Oh yeah, like white wolf and their D6 system of dice pools... which, when you look at the combinatorial analysis of that system, is totally insane, counterintuitive and makes no sense whatsoever.
"rendering Solo a parapalegic. Watch for the CGI wheelchair!"
Yeah but will the wheelchair-bound Solo suck the juice out of human fetuses for the stem cells?
"I wish people would stop using acronyms like SCOTUS for US Supreme Court"
Hell yeah, I mean 'SCOTUS' sounds like something to do with Scotland. This could easily confuse people.
Instead, abbreviate 'Court' to 'Cr' rather than to 'C'.
And instead of abbreviating 'United States' as 'US' remember that its actually 'the United States of America' and abbreviate it to 'Um'
ie: 'SCrOTUm'
*Much* better.
Ok, let me clarify;
The sort of thing you refer to is fixable by appropriate granting of permissions to certain files or folders.
For example, create a 'gamers' group and allow full access to the c:\games folder for members of this group.
The sorts of problem I am referring to are the ones that can *never* be fixed.
I've even tried creating 'trampoline' (non-login account which can run a service and using runas to allow a nonprivileged user to run the games startup program).
This seldom works. In fact I doubt that its possible to work around this sort of copy protection bullshit in such a way as to allow a non-privileged user to run these games.
Under those conditions you should be evaluating exactly what sites your users need access to and arrange it so that those are the only sites which your proxy or firewall will allow access to.
We have a client who does this, and they run Linux desktops as well!
Squid does a remarkably good job of facilitating this sort of strapping down.
"One question we need to answer is whether the political Right and Left are diametrically opposed regarding authority."
This would depend on your locality...
When I came to NZ from the UK, the UK was under a savage Right wing regime (Mrs Thatcher) whereas NZ had what was called a 'Labor' government.
I had to write to my pals in the UK and explain that NZ had two Conservative parties; one was called the National party... the other the Labor party.
"What's next, campus police stopping people from taking pictures of the library?"
I thought that taking photos of any public building in the USA these days could result in arrest by the actual police?
In my experience the main cause of applications failing to run as non-admin user is copy protection on games.
Frequently, these start up a service when they run. It would be very hard to make these work as non-admin.
Personally, the first thing I do when I find a game like this is download a no-cd patch/crack. Then I can run it unprivileged.
There are exceptions; the last icq client I tried won't even run as 'power user' and must be run as administrator.
The developers of this sort of rubbish need electric shocks applied to their genitalia every time someone gets infected through their crap application.
I stand corrected! Cool!
:)
Lets hope it plays out that way
"Games are still a Windows domain."
For now.
(Ok so the Xbox runs a variation of Windows but...)
We already see game titles released for Xbox only.
How long will it be before the PC is a deprecated, legacy platform as far as game developers are concerned?
When you can no longer get games for a straight PC, only for Xbox and other consoles, will you switch then?