Seriously - there seems to be plenty of oil still. Maybe even more than was once thought. (Google "north pole oil" for details).
The unstated point of the whole question of "alternative" fuels probably has something to do with "global warming" (which probably IS happening) and the underlying assumption that we human critters have a gnat's-ass of influence on said warming (which we do - have a gnat's-ass worth of input, i.e. not much.) Google "The Great Global Warming Swindle" for some interesting links.
You can choose a "side", but think about it a bit first.
Efficiency implies a goal, a purpose. If you know our goal, please let us all know, there is a good living to be made in espousing a popular religion. Just don't say "42" is the answer... even if it is.
Meanwhile, I expect to reach Nirvana with no special effort whatsoever. Although I will be really surprised to know that, when the time comes.
The notion that money can be wasted (by spending it) is stupid.
It all contributes to the economy, which helps generate more money. In this case, I am sure a lot of the million dollars for the laptop goes into the cost of goods - supporting everyone in the supply chain from the diamond miners to the jewelers and artisans who created the art/wasteful object of your loathing. Then there is the "profit". Either way the money is somewhere. For all you know the money might end up for some use for which you do approve.
There is no difference, in principle, on people "wasting" money on luxury items than there is spending money any other way. When it comes right down to it, nobody "needs" anything more than food and shelter, assuming the world even "needs" people at all.
There is a continuum from needs-wants-excess/your definition of waste.
Personally I would not buy a million dollar laptop, either, however I think it is awesome that it is possible for someone to be able to do that if they so choose.
If you think there is something wrong with this world now, you'll rue the day that it is ruled by people who think they know best how to run it for everyone else.
b) Elected officials don't do things the way you would.
Are you on the weed or what?
Why do you not vote for someone who thinks like you do? Don't tell me it doesn't matter, because you already told me you didn't vote, so we can't really know, now can we?
Personally, I think the problem is that we have ended up with a binary choice for elected officals; Assholes and Dimwits. The de-facto two party system just doesn't cover the real-world spectrum of opinion, including those who self-select to opt out of the system because, wah, wah, there is noone who exactly represents them exactly.
change is incremental, but if you don't vote you are stuck with no hope of change. If everyone who didn't vote "because it doesn't matter" voted for someone other than the two big parties it might give those of us who vote holding our nose a hint that other out there care too.
I always vote.
Sometimes "my guy" wins, sometimes he loses. I am almost always disappointed either way, by the policies that the guy in office advocates. Usually it seems like elected officials do something, just to be doing something, which is almost always wrong.
Hmm, maybe there isn't much difference, other than the fact that I can at least say "I tried".
"Assembly language programming - it's a dirty job, but someone has to do it"
If we can get Mike Rowe to do an episode of Dirty Jobs on it, then it is "relevant", otherwise, no.
I've done my share of keeping the pipelines full and worrying about getting to what's in cache before it's flushed, but not for a while. Frankly most programmers don't care, and they don't "need" to.
Alas, sentiments aside, pragmatically, perhaps it really is a specialty field. Especially when the number of programmers who need to know assembly is expressed as a percentage of programmers.
If I went to my GP and he happened to have knowledge of an obscure disease because of a hobby of his, it would be great, but if he said, "I dunno, here is the name of a specialist" you would take it in stride.
Knowledge builds on on prior learnings. Computer science is getting old enough so that useful work can be done without every artisan and engineer in the field needs to dissect their own cadavers to know how to do something useful.
Everyone knows that "getting anywhere" at the PTO is impossible and would be rejected out of hand. The PTO employees are up on the current literature and the proofs of Zeno of Elea are fresh in their mind.
If we could pass laws/amendments to "sunset" EVERY existing law, then our esteemed representatives could spend their time deciding what laws are important enough to renew, rather than making up new malarkey.
I too am a programmer, and I have almost every scrap of code I ever wrote, including z80 assembly code to play "pong" on an analog oscilloscope. Why do I have it? I dunno, because I can. I don't even know where it is at this moment, but I THINK I have it on a cd-rom somewhere. And as long as that "archive bit" is set in my mind, it is ok (but if I couldn't find it, I'd just shrug and say, oh well...)
Text (code, misc letters) IS very small. Up until just a couple of years ago, all the "good stuff" would fit on a CD-R or two.
Now, I have several full DVD-Rs with copies of digital photos, and I just finished making 30+ more DVD's of (compressed data) that hold 60+ hours of old home video before the tapes rot.
By-and-large, there is a lot of crap that I personally don't feel a need to save (because I can always get it from somewhere else, if need be) but even "personal" stuff is adding up to 100's of Gigabytes.
Still, data is smaller than boxes of pictures and video tapes.
I didn't RTFA, but I don't see what the big deal is. From where I sit, I have computer power and data storage equivalent to what cost millions and millions of dollars at one time, in my own lifetime.
And it keeps getting cheaper...
I suspect, just like in the physical realm, "important" digital items will survive, thru shear duplication and media updates, far more often than "unimportant" items... like my family photos, but at least they have a shot.
Upload all your snapshots to a royalty free photo site and gain digital immortality via file hoarders. The only rub is that you can't let your pix be personal enough to trace back to you or the stalkers will get you.
Go to the compusa web site and see if you can still be "located".
Looks like ALL the stores in Southern California are gone - there are none in my area listed any more, and I know there were several in LA/Orange/San Diego.
Maybe they can only make money in smaller markets (by and large, that's all that's left, for their locations.)
Slashdot Mirror
Would you like the large dump or the small dump? Where do you want to save it?
Check this out for all the tactile comfort of cylinders, with the convenience of digital - paper tape is where it is at!
The unstated point of the whole question of "alternative" fuels probably has something to do with "global warming" (which probably IS happening) and the underlying assumption that we human critters have a gnat's-ass of influence on said warming (which we do - have a gnat's-ass worth of input, i.e. not much.) Google "The Great Global Warming Swindle" for some interesting links.
You can choose a "side", but think about it a bit first.
Efficiency implies a goal, a purpose. If you know our goal, please let us all know, there is a good living to be made in espousing a popular religion. Just don't say "42" is the answer... even if it is.
Meanwhile, I expect to reach Nirvana with no special effort whatsoever. Although I will be really surprised to know that, when the time comes.
It all contributes to the economy, which helps generate more money. In this case, I am sure a lot of the million dollars for the laptop goes into the cost of goods - supporting everyone in the supply chain from the diamond miners to the jewelers and artisans who created the art/wasteful object of your loathing. Then there is the "profit". Either way the money is somewhere. For all you know the money might end up for some use for which you do approve.
There is no difference, in principle, on people "wasting" money on luxury items than there is spending money any other way. When it comes right down to it, nobody "needs" anything more than food and shelter, assuming the world even "needs" people at all.
There is a continuum from needs-wants-excess/your definition of waste.
Personally I would not buy a million dollar laptop, either, however I think it is awesome that it is possible for someone to be able to do that if they so choose.
If you think there is something wrong with this world now, you'll rue the day that it is ruled by people who think they know best how to run it for everyone else.
b) Elected officials don't do things the way you would.
Are you on the weed or what?
Why do you not vote for someone who thinks like you do? Don't tell me it doesn't matter, because you already told me you didn't vote, so we can't really know, now can we?
Personally, I think the problem is that we have ended up with a binary choice for elected officals; Assholes and Dimwits. The de-facto two party system just doesn't cover the real-world spectrum of opinion, including those who self-select to opt out of the system because, wah, wah, there is noone who exactly represents them exactly.
change is incremental, but if you don't vote you are stuck with no hope of change. If everyone who didn't vote "because it doesn't matter" voted for someone other than the two big parties it might give those of us who vote holding our nose a hint that other out there care too.
I always vote.
Sometimes "my guy" wins, sometimes he loses. I am almost always disappointed either way, by the policies that the guy in office advocates. Usually it seems like elected officials do something, just to be doing something, which is almost always wrong.
Hmm, maybe there isn't much difference, other than the fact that I can at least say "I tried".
Each state has 2% of the Senate vote.
Montana seems to have 2 Democrat senators... maybe they should start a groundswell by voting in some libertarians who wouldn't put up for that stuff.
Over the long run, before all life is extinguished from Earth, I predict random forms of life will survive.
I can make my PayPal account available for those of you who wish to put a wager amount into my account for the duration of human history.
I pay 22:7 odds that I am right. Make your deposit today!
* "Viva"; dictionary.com def #5 = "long live"
If we can get Mike Rowe to do an episode of Dirty Jobs on it, then it is "relevant", otherwise, no. I've done my share of keeping the pipelines full and worrying about getting to what's in cache before it's flushed, but not for a while. Frankly most programmers don't care, and they don't "need" to.
Alas, sentiments aside, pragmatically, perhaps it really is a specialty field. Especially when the number of programmers who need to know assembly is expressed as a percentage of programmers.
If I went to my GP and he happened to have knowledge of an obscure disease because of a hobby of his, it would be great, but if he said, "I dunno, here is the name of a specialist" you would take it in stride.
Knowledge builds on on prior learnings. Computer science is getting old enough so that useful work can be done without every artisan and engineer in the field needs to dissect their own cadavers to know how to do something useful.
This news will be repeated again and again, reaching DUPE MAX sometime just AFTER the SOLAR MAX predicted.
It is not, however, a harbinger for the end of dupes.
The end of the world will be a coincidence. And, I might add, not very significant in the cosmic scheme of things.
I wonder how many times that unique MAC address is used...
MAC addresses are as unique as the EEPROMs they're printed on.
Even if we stipulate "DVD" rather than "CD", you are approaching 50 discs to equal the one tape.
But the truth is in the core idea of duplication. Info worth saving will be copied.
But don't forget high speed pizza delivery too!
Everyone knows that "getting anywhere" at the PTO is impossible and would be rejected out of hand. The PTO employees are up on the current literature and the proofs of Zeno of Elea are fresh in their mind.
Information wants to be free.
or
Good information is worth paying for!
Ahhhh.....
Password required ___________________
I dunno, I didn't see much after that. Pretty ugly.
For
Auto-Compiling Code from ParallelPlay
or
Auto-Play Parallelizer from Complay
or something...
[] I agree that I am not in any place that forbids me to check this box.
Unless of course, you physically destroy the banknotes.
If we could pass laws/amendments to "sunset" EVERY existing law, then our esteemed representatives could spend their time deciding what laws are important enough to renew, rather than making up new malarkey.
Text (code, misc letters) IS very small. Up until just a couple of years ago, all the "good stuff" would fit on a CD-R or two.
Now, I have several full DVD-Rs with copies of digital photos, and I just finished making 30+ more DVD's of (compressed data) that hold 60+ hours of old home video before the tapes rot.
By-and-large, there is a lot of crap that I personally don't feel a need to save (because I can always get it from somewhere else, if need be) but even "personal" stuff is adding up to 100's of Gigabytes.
Still, data is smaller than boxes of pictures and video tapes.
I didn't RTFA, but I don't see what the big deal is. From where I sit, I have computer power and data storage equivalent to what cost millions and millions of dollars at one time, in my own lifetime.
And it keeps getting cheaper...
I suspect, just like in the physical realm, "important" digital items will survive, thru shear duplication and media updates, far more often than "unimportant" items... like my family photos, but at least they have a shot.
Upload all your snapshots to a royalty free photo site and gain digital immortality via file hoarders. The only rub is that you can't let your pix be personal enough to trace back to you or the stalkers will get you.
Or, in modern vernacular, "chill out, dude."
Seriously - you can't "do" something helpful, unless you have a clear reason why you are doing it.
After all, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions"... which I personally think is a result of the Law of unintended consequences.
Looks like ALL the stores in Southern California are gone - there are none in my area listed any more, and I know there were several in LA/Orange/San Diego.
Maybe they can only make money in smaller markets (by and large, that's all that's left, for their locations.)
For good or ill, I don't know many regular users, of course it is lonely at times...