It wasn't really until I was investigation particle physics (14-ish) that I began to ask again about the nature of existence in depth. Big-Bang theory doesn't fix questions on origination any more than saying "god made it". But I certainly wasn't religious as a kid. My first religious thought, as I said, was an simple atheistic notion of God being disproved by the existence of suffering.
Anyway, vis-a-vis hallucination. Brains-in-jars, malicious aliens, minds as computer programs, pick your poison. There lies skepticism - pretty much my position, but with God! [a la Descartes]. That's why I say God's touch is as real, possibly more real (no I can't tell you what that means) than any thing else I've experienced. Those around me thought I was on drugs; I thought after my initial experience of God that I had a brain tumour. May be I am deluded but if so about God then also about all of reality - in which case I know nothing nor ever will and all of existence is then futile to me.
So I proceed thus - assume reality lacks malevolence in its very nature and so based on what I know first hand put faith in God.
>>> "The only people who believe in such things do it because of "faith" (aka the lack of evidence)."
As I suspect you realise I'm a Christian, though as a child of about 9 or 10 I pretty much ascribed (unknowingly) to the epicurean paradox as presenting a proof of God not existing - earthquake victims were my initial catalyst to this line of thinking. As I became more scientific in my approach to life as a teenager I became an agnostic - I'm still of the opinion that this is the only scientific position.
But then I had an experience which presented me with a quandry. I experienced God. Now, that's about the most real thing that ever happened to me and is only refutable for me as much as the fact that I am sitting here typing this response. So for me the scientific approach is belief in God, like I believe in chocolate or anything else I've experienced.
Sadly, as (IIRC, and I'm not sure I do!) a paraphrase of Hume's definition of a miracle goes, a miracle when presented to someone as truth is denied as implausible [by definition, otherwise it would simply be a fact of nature].
So by Faith I believe.
Nor am I naive enough to expect my testimony is enough to convince anyone on it's own. But I do believe that the creator has a continuing part in the course of creation.
Thanks for the "chat" anyhow.
[http://www.americanthinker.com/2006/12/humes_miracle_prison_how_they.html] --- Incidentally using the phrase "political groups who wish to use the government to force the teaching of their faith have a similar goal as the taliban" is rather harsh. Jesus came to bring the message that we should love God and one another. The history of Christian philosophy has been one of convincing by deeds and words of the verity of the transforming nature of Christ. The Taliban were/are a group mixed from military leaders and islamic fascist bent on forcing their interpretation of sharia on a population. In a christian state you are free to believe what you wish (though restrictions on action are imposed). In an islamist state the law requires death for certain beliefs whether they are detrimental to others or not - for example if your born into a muslim family and become apostate. These positions don't appear particularly analogous to me.
And it's balanced and reasonable until your last paragraph.
Assuming an omnipotent creator - why can't she choose creation to continue through the medium of evolution. Evolution involves a certain degree of random genetic variation (by cosmic rays and other radiation at least) which leaves a nice little hole for slight perturbations to be applied by the creatrix (which perturbations then can bifurcate into new subspecies, etc.).
>>> "The sort of anti-social behavior you describe wouldn't really be "fit" because the chances of it working consistently over time are small."
>>> "The closer the relation, the more DNA in common (closer and closer to being an exact twin). If you make a sacrifice that saves the lives of your family members, and your brothers and sisters go on to reproduce, then MORE of your genes go on to live than if you had been selfish and they all died."
If I kill them all myself to convince my tribe I'm a nutter and will murder any of them that takes a step out of line. Then I use that tribe to conquer neighbouring tribes, then countries. And I sleep with as many "good" mates as possible. I'd have passed on more of my pure gene line as opposed to that polluted by the minute variations of my siblings.
Wouldn't I?
Indeed probably my best option is to use some scientists to clone me and implant the eggs in all females of child-bearing age in each people group conquered. That should see off a bit of genetic diversity.
>>> What if the severely disabled (with the ability and the inclination to reproduce) have the genes for AIDs resistance? Bird-flu resistance?
But I thought the majority opinion here was that we're here to replicate our DNA. In which case someone who doesn't have AIDS/HIV or bird-flu should be going all out to ensure those genetic elements that can provide cures are lost.
AFAIK the most successful reproducer was Ghengis Khan, he didn't show much empathy if the legends are to be believed. Disable your competition (other men), impregnate as many females as possible - surely that's the logical conclusion for evolutionists as that will ensure survival of _your_ genes.
>>> Assuming the OLPC machines really do get to the kids (rather than being sold to enrich politically connected adults) in places like Nigeria, a big advantage would be that it would give the kids direct access to books that can't easily be interfered with.
Well, it seems that the OLPC machines aren't going to enrich (*) politically connected Nigerian adults but instead they're going to be week-long playthings for "western" journalists instead.
I don't recall reading in the article the guys justification for buying a machine that was intended to educate a Nigerian child?
-- * I assumed you meant educate, but reading that back I'm being naive, you meant "get sold by"(?) - too late.
>>> "something that is actually useful to graphic designers."
Don't worry, drop-shadows and rounded corners are coming in CSS3.
You can already have lots of shades of grey with text that's minimally contrasting and too small to read alongside completely unrelated images of flowers or girls smiling or something.:0p>
The northern part of Russia from the Kola Peninsula to the island of Sakhalin is in the sub arctic climatic zone, which features are a long and cold winter and a short but warm summer. Within this zone, in Jakutiya, is the town of Oymyakon, where the absolute minimum of temperature (-71 C) for the northern hemisphere of the Earth has been observed. There the average temperature of January is -49 C, of July 15 C."
But it does appear that even Oymyakon - the coldest permanently inhabited place (there's an antarctic ice station that's colder) - can have summer temps of +25degC.
>>> "It was only through the work of fans who taped shows on primitive recorders and..."
Presumably those fans were prosecuted and the recordings destroyed as recording from TV for anything other than "time-shifting" remains copyright infringement in the UK.
AC >>> "Hey, the executive who agreed the deal may be working for the BBC today, but he won't be next year!"
I think you're being overly optimistic. The executive may be working for the BBC today but he's also looking after his mate from Oxford who owns the production company he just booked for next season and hearing a pitch from his own^H^H^H wife's company for a lucrative deal... allegedly.
That makes the situation a good deal worse. It's not just a couple of inept people (or maybe one) it's a completely broken system. Those with at least a [lowest] Restricted clearance would have access to the GSI. If anyone below them has access then the data is almost certainly already compromised and available on the Russian black market.
It gets worse though. Apparently there is no external access to the database allowed. According to protocol (if reports today are correct) people should have been invited to visit the facility to view the data (and they only wanted the reasonably harmless NINO data). Instead the entire DB was sent in the post.
If this wasn't potentially going to cripple me financially (along with any of 25 million others) then I'd laugh.
sepluv >>> "if they have to send a large database between government departments, I'd imagine it should be done over a secure public-key encrypted VPN. If, secure telecoms channels do not exist between government departments"
"For example, xGSI, an extra-secure variant of the GSI, has exceptionally strong firewalls and other security arrangements that enable it to handle materials rated by Central government at up to CONFIDENTIAL level."
GSi is warranted by CESG but I can't find anything about particular key types or systems used (not suprisingly). There's certainly details of systems produced with CESG that use PK just to determine the key type to use for an end to end encryption. After my last few minutes of searching I thoroughly expect a visit from MI5 at 5am in the morning!
Most (but not all) of the creativity behind the lexicon comes from the mind of Rowling or whoever she was inspired by. Hence this work is derivative.
On another note - I like the way the lawyers asked for a paper copy so they'd have at least one instance of real-world (not internet) copyright infringement to sue with... "look they're already handing out paper copies to whoever asks for them and so have materially damaged our poor client to the tune of $200 billion".
Meh. Rowling should do the right thing by the creative community and drop the case. She probably will anyway, just after the defendants sign over 10% more profits than they wanted to.
>>> BTW. WHY are parents letting their 13 year olds on a site like this?
You make it sound like it's a hardcore porn site.
I think letting a child use a social networking site like facebook is akin to letting them ride on a bus by themselves - bear with me: Someone can say something inappropriate to your kid on a bus, show them dirty pictures, whisper in their ear,... whatever; buses aren't made to promote this sort of thing; it's just a consequence of malevolence in society; buses are comparatively safe places to be.
[I wonder if facebook blocks known anonymising proxies and such to ensure a real world IP can still be traced?]
My opinion may change when my kids (I only have one right now) reach 13.
If you recognise that at least a portion of your readership - which you rely on for ad revenues - is not from the US then, whilst remaining US-centric in the "articles" posted, you can at least pander a little to those who don't eat-sleep-drink US geek culture by being explicit about terse references.
Just an idea.
Oh yeah and don't use overlong sentences like I do.
Well of course now my kids 9 months he doesn't switch the roomba on. He's programmed his lego mindstorms to do that for him when the dirt-sensor detects the lowered reflectivity of the floor...
[Sorry, couldn't help it. Kids _are_ amazing. Our lad's 2-and-a-third and can switch on mobile phone, plug in and switch on (or off!) appliances, use the CD player, make a cube of chocolate cover a square metre... he's a bit of a wimp though so I think roomba would be too hard for him!]
On the article. Summary: kids like to interact with stuff. Basically the rest of the behaviour is standard (eg J has been known to kiss and hug a small toy train or helicopter, and encourage me to too; things that stop moving have "gone to bed, night night", etc.).
I gather you pay VAT (17.5%) on imports over a certain (low) value. There are recent reports about capitalising on the weak dollar by purchasing in the US. But it turns out that you can only really benefit by travelling to the US personally - because you get an allowance on purchases when you go on holiday of a couple hundred quid (or something like that).
Sucks.
You can probably do something like import to Guernsey (island between France and UK, tax haven) and then import from there. Hmmm.
>>> He does not own nor can he own a trademark unless it is registered.
Wrong, read all the other posts pointing out the difference between a trademark (a distinct indicator representing the origin of goods/services) and _registered_ trademarks.
"Simple Dog" wouldn't be allowed in the field of dog training I suspect. But in internet advertising it's certainly distinctive and not descriptive and could be used as a trademark.
Finally, you are protected (in the jurisdictions I've come across, UK, EU, US) when you use a trademark to provide commentary or complaint provided that you're not defaming (ie libelling) the trademark owner or passing-off.
So basically. You'd have to try hard to be more wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
It wasn't really until I was investigation particle physics (14-ish) that I began to ask again about the nature of existence in depth. Big-Bang theory doesn't fix questions on origination any more than saying "god made it". But I certainly wasn't religious as a kid. My first religious thought, as I said, was an simple atheistic notion of God being disproved by the existence of suffering.
The Christian message - well Jesus said it was the most important thing: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2022:34-40;&version=49;
Anyway, vis-a-vis hallucination. Brains-in-jars, malicious aliens, minds as computer programs, pick your poison. There lies skepticism - pretty much my position, but with God! [a la Descartes]. That's why I say God's touch is as real, possibly more real (no I can't tell you what that means) than any thing else I've experienced. Those around me thought I was on drugs; I thought after my initial experience of God that I had a brain tumour. May be I am deluded but if so about God then also about all of reality - in which case I know nothing nor ever will and all of existence is then futile to me.
So I proceed thus - assume reality lacks malevolence in its very nature and so based on what I know first hand put faith in God.
>>> "The only people who believe in such things do it because of "faith" (aka the lack of evidence)."
As I suspect you realise I'm a Christian, though as a child of about 9 or 10 I pretty much ascribed (unknowingly) to the epicurean paradox as presenting a proof of God not existing - earthquake victims were my initial catalyst to this line of thinking. As I became more scientific in my approach to life as a teenager I became an agnostic - I'm still of the opinion that this is the only scientific position.
But then I had an experience which presented me with a quandry. I experienced God. Now, that's about the most real thing that ever happened to me and is only refutable for me as much as the fact that I am sitting here typing this response. So for me the scientific approach is belief in God, like I believe in chocolate or anything else I've experienced.
Sadly, as (IIRC, and I'm not sure I do!) a paraphrase of Hume's definition of a miracle goes, a miracle when presented to someone as truth is denied as implausible [by definition, otherwise it would simply be a fact of nature].
So by Faith I believe.
Nor am I naive enough to expect my testimony is enough to convince anyone on it's own. But I do believe that the creator has a continuing part in the course of creation.
Thanks for the "chat" anyhow.
[http://www.americanthinker.com/2006/12/humes_miracle_prison_how_they.html]
---
Incidentally using the phrase "political groups who wish to use the government to force the teaching of their faith have a similar goal as the taliban" is rather harsh. Jesus came to bring the message that we should love God and one another. The history of Christian philosophy has been one of convincing by deeds and words of the verity of the transforming nature of Christ. The Taliban were/are a group mixed from military leaders and islamic fascist bent on forcing their interpretation of sharia on a population. In a christian state you are free to believe what you wish (though restrictions on action are imposed). In an islamist state the law requires death for certain beliefs whether they are detrimental to others or not - for example if your born into a muslim family and become apostate. These positions don't appear particularly analogous to me.
And it's balanced and reasonable until your last paragraph.
Assuming an omnipotent creator - why can't she choose creation to continue through the medium of evolution. Evolution involves a certain degree of random genetic variation (by cosmic rays and other radiation at least) which leaves a nice little hole for slight perturbations to be applied by the creatrix (which perturbations then can bifurcate into new subspecies, etc.).
>>> "The sort of anti-social behavior you describe wouldn't really be "fit" because the chances of it working consistently over time are small."
Proof?
>>> "The closer the relation, the more DNA in common (closer and closer to being an exact twin). If you make a sacrifice that saves the lives of your family members, and your brothers and sisters go on to reproduce, then MORE of your genes go on to live than if you had been selfish and they all died."
If I kill them all myself to convince my tribe I'm a nutter and will murder any of them that takes a step out of line. Then I use that tribe to conquer neighbouring tribes, then countries. And I sleep with as many "good" mates as possible. I'd have passed on more of my pure gene line as opposed to that polluted by the minute variations of my siblings.
Wouldn't I?
Indeed probably my best option is to use some scientists to clone me and implant the eggs in all females of child-bearing age in each people group conquered. That should see off a bit of genetic diversity.
If he bought it on the high-street in his home town for local prices, I concede.
If he bought it from the back of a fridge-shop in Lagos then I'm sooo right. That extra money ain't going to pay for more OLPC's.
The article: "In late November I returned from Nigeria with a sample of the XO laptop."
Sure doesn't sound like a buy-one send-one deal to me.
>>> What if the severely disabled (with the ability and the inclination to reproduce) have the genes for AIDs resistance? Bird-flu resistance?
But I thought the majority opinion here was that we're here to replicate our DNA. In which case someone who doesn't have AIDS/HIV or bird-flu should be going all out to ensure those genetic elements that can provide cures are lost.
AFAIK the most successful reproducer was Ghengis Khan, he didn't show much empathy if the legends are to be believed. Disable your competition (other men), impregnate as many females as possible - surely that's the logical conclusion for evolutionists as that will ensure survival of _your_ genes.
?
>>> Assuming the OLPC machines really do get to the kids (rather than being sold to enrich politically connected adults) in places like Nigeria, a big advantage would be that it would give the kids direct access to books that can't easily be interfered with.
Well, it seems that the OLPC machines aren't going to enrich (*) politically connected Nigerian adults but instead they're going to be week-long playthings for "western" journalists instead.
I don't recall reading in the article the guys justification for buying a machine that was intended to educate a Nigerian child?
--
* I assumed you meant educate, but reading that back I'm being naive, you meant "get sold by"(?) - too late.
>>> "something that is actually useful to graphic designers."
:0p>
Don't worry, drop-shadows and rounded corners are coming in CSS3.
You can already have lots of shades of grey with text that's minimally contrasting and too small to read alongside completely unrelated images of flowers or girls smiling or something.
Excerpt from: http://grumen.karelia.ru/?uid=-1&land=eng&page=4_0&lap=0&res=10
"The Northern part of Russia
The northern part of Russia from the Kola Peninsula to the island of Sakhalin is in the sub arctic climatic zone, which features are a long and cold winter and a short but warm summer. Within this zone, in Jakutiya, is the town of Oymyakon, where the absolute minimum of temperature (-71 C) for the northern hemisphere of the Earth has been observed. There the average temperature of January is -49 C, of July 15 C."
But it does appear that even Oymyakon - the coldest permanently inhabited place (there's an antarctic ice station that's colder) - can have summer temps of +25degC.
>>> "It was only through the work of fans who taped shows on primitive recorders and ..."
Presumably those fans were prosecuted and the recordings destroyed as recording from TV for anything other than "time-shifting" remains copyright infringement in the UK.
AC >>> "Hey, the executive who agreed the deal may be working for the BBC today, but he won't be next year!"
... allegedly.
I think you're being overly optimistic. The executive may be working for the BBC today but he's also looking after his mate from Oxford who owns the production company he just booked for next season and hearing a pitch from his own^H^H^H wife's company for a lucrative deal
That makes the situation a good deal worse. It's not just a couple of inept people (or maybe one) it's a completely broken system. Those with at least a [lowest] Restricted clearance would have access to the GSI. If anyone below them has access then the data is almost certainly already compromised and available on the Russian black market.
It gets worse though. Apparently there is no external access to the database allowed. According to protocol (if reports today are correct) people should have been invited to visit the facility to view the data (and they only wanted the reasonably harmless NINO data). Instead the entire DB was sent in the post.
If this wasn't potentially going to cripple me financially (along with any of 25 million others) then I'd laugh.
sepluv >>> "if they have to send a large database between government departments, I'd imagine it should be done over a secure public-key encrypted VPN. If, secure telecoms channels do not exist between government departments"
From my time in the UK Patent Office (now UKIPO) we had very limited access to a system called GSI, government secure internet. I don't know the level of security it has but a little googling turns up http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/reports/lpt/200102/local%20government%20secure%20intranet.doc with a bit of info. Included in that doc is this line:
"For example, xGSI, an extra-secure variant of the GSI, has exceptionally strong firewalls and other security arrangements that enable it to handle materials rated by Central government at up to CONFIDENTIAL level."
GSi is warranted by CESG but I can't find anything about particular key types or systems used (not suprisingly). There's certainly details of systems produced with CESG that use PK just to determine the key type to use for an end to end encryption. After my last few minutes of searching I thoroughly expect a visit from MI5 at 5am in the morning!
>>> Money aside, I don't know whether to keep the beater (which gets about 20mpg) or get a newer car.
Neither. Rearrange your life to walk; ride a bike or hire a car if absolutely necessary.
Below in which direction? Don't you need to say where you are?
There are (at least) derivative works too.
... "look they're already handing out paper copies to whoever asks for them and so have materially damaged our poor client to the tune of $200 billion".
Most (but not all) of the creativity behind the lexicon comes from the mind of Rowling or whoever she was inspired by. Hence this work is derivative.
On another note - I like the way the lawyers asked for a paper copy so they'd have at least one instance of real-world (not internet) copyright infringement to sue with
Meh. Rowling should do the right thing by the creative community and drop the case. She probably will anyway, just after the defendants sign over 10% more profits than they wanted to.
>>> I have held both an XO and an Eee in my hands (and a ClassMate, too)
So you have quite big hands?
>>> BTW. WHY are parents letting their 13 year olds on a site like this?
... whatever; buses aren't made to promote this sort of thing; it's just a consequence of malevolence in society; buses are comparatively safe places to be.
You make it sound like it's a hardcore porn site.
I think letting a child use a social networking site like facebook is akin to letting them ride on a bus by themselves - bear with me: Someone can say something inappropriate to your kid on a bus, show them dirty pictures, whisper in their ear,
[I wonder if facebook blocks known anonymising proxies and such to ensure a real world IP can still be traced?]
My opinion may change when my kids (I only have one right now) reach 13.
If you recognise that at least a portion of your readership - which you rely on for ad revenues - is not from the US then, whilst remaining US-centric in the "articles" posted, you can at least pander a little to those who don't eat-sleep-drink US geek culture by being explicit about terse references.
Just an idea.
Oh yeah and don't use overlong sentences like I do.
At least someone realises that we're not all Americans.
Well of course now my kids 9 months he doesn't switch the roomba on. He's programmed his lego mindstorms to do that for him when the dirt-sensor detects the lowered reflectivity of the floor ...
... he's a bit of a wimp though so I think roomba would be too hard for him!]
[Sorry, couldn't help it. Kids _are_ amazing. Our lad's 2-and-a-third and can switch on mobile phone, plug in and switch on (or off!) appliances, use the CD player, make a cube of chocolate cover a square metre
On the article. Summary: kids like to interact with stuff. Basically the rest of the behaviour is standard (eg J has been known to kiss and hug a small toy train or helicopter, and encourage me to too; things that stop moving have "gone to bed, night night", etc.).
I gather you pay VAT (17.5%) on imports over a certain (low) value. There are recent reports about capitalising on the weak dollar by purchasing in the US. But it turns out that you can only really benefit by travelling to the US personally - because you get an allowance on purchases when you go on holiday of a couple hundred quid (or something like that).
Sucks.
You can probably do something like import to Guernsey (island between France and UK, tax haven) and then import from there. Hmmm.
>>> People building their own systems like was done in the article aren't that retarded.
Not all of them are anyway!
Well the best price for that card in the UK (could only find one vendor with the EVGA one) is £172. That's about $350.
Rough figures:
Athton 64 X2 4000 = £42
Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H = £45
2x 1GB PC2-6400 = £80 (kingston, or £60 for cheaper brand)
GPU + CPU + Mobo + RAM = £339 (about $700)
--
http://bridgehosting.net/cheap-gaming-rig ?
>>> He does not own nor can he own a trademark unless it is registered.
Wrong, read all the other posts pointing out the difference between a trademark (a distinct indicator representing the origin of goods/services) and _registered_ trademarks.
"Simple Dog" wouldn't be allowed in the field of dog training I suspect. But in internet advertising it's certainly distinctive and not descriptive and could be used as a trademark.
Finally, you are protected (in the jurisdictions I've come across, UK, EU, US) when you use a trademark to provide commentary or complaint provided that you're not defaming (ie libelling) the trademark owner or passing-off.
So basically. You'd have to try hard to be more wrong.