Secondly, copyright EXPLICITLY covers a specific organisation of data. No other organisation, even of the same data, is covered by copyright. That's why dictionary writers can't sue Slashdot posters.
Interesting. So if we posted source code, from say, a large software company, sdrawkcab*, or rot13 encoded, etc. Is that sufficiently "reorganized" enough to invalidate the copyright?
This is not a flame, but a legitimate question: If we posted source code for copyleft-ed software that is purposely reorganized, then would would we render the software's copyleft protection void?
*think Middle - Eastern. No this is not a racial slur, but how do some cultures read
Intense heat and pressure building within Spud Zepplin mounted and ruptured his thin skin, which festered, hissed, and shot forth: " Applying a term that is basically a racial epithet for "poor white trash" to a different class of trash entirely seems ironically appropriate"
Alright, so you won't mind at all if someone uses another racial epithet (possibly starting with a letter between M and O) to describe certain pharmaceutical dealers? Or is something only offensive if it offends you personally?
When has Vandal meant anything different from "one who vandalizes", before your school chose to use it as their mascot?
Doscratese said in post 32 "To those of you who don't believe in genome mapping or sequencing, IMHO, this is the only way to go. we're basically reverse engineering humans. well, that's what you do when you have working binaries but no docs, sourcecode or cpu design: you reverse engineer the hell out of it until you find out all of the above (if you can). "
OK, let's look at this as reverse - engineering humans.
Typically in a reverse - engineering scenario, among a *great* number of other things, one does: 1) find and decipher the source code. 2) theorize , hypothesize, and otherwize draw conclusions about what the parts do individually and in relation to one another in order to create the whole. 3) experiment with these parts individually or in new sequences and combinations, eventually creating a new whole
If this article is correct (draw your own conclusions), then we have completed step 1. Now, we will move on to step 2, trying to find the "meaning" and "purpose" behind each chromosome. A good deal of this has already been done, and I know it will be completed "real soon now".
What I'm interested in is step 3: Reassembling and recreating new life. That's a big responsibility.
1)When we create a life form that is missing a few chromosomes - and someone will, to experiment - is that a new species or is that still human?
2)How many new species will be created? At what point will sentient synthetic life be called "human"?
3) If John Q's DNA is taken without his consent and used to create a child, then whose child is it? Who must pay child support? Does the adult child have a right to locate her biological father?
4) When scientists have created new human-like life, who owns the "soul" or "destiny" of that lifeform? The scientist who created it? The lifeform itself? Is it assumed to be subhuman? Will it be regarded as a working animal, regardless of cognitive ability?
And for the religious people out there: How do you think God will respond when Wolfgang Alexander Williams IV, PHD (an old fashioned, "birth" human) is summoned to the pearly gates, and brags that he has patented seven new species under the genus Homo, all of which are his own creation and his own design. Will we hear a deep belly-laugh from the clouds, or something more fierce?
This song has it all: Catchy tune, simple lyrics, and every red-blooded American who is older than 23 knows the chorus by heart.
And You said there's been no good music in the last 20 years.
And how could you possibly overlook the prophetic genius in Wierd Al Yankovic's clappy tune, "First I was a Hippie, then I was a Stock Broker, Now I am a Hippie Again" How many people will be singing THAT in June?
But it frankly scares the crap out of me that someone may actually believe that I _AM_ trying to make an honest counter-argument.
We are bombarded by the ever so catchy-enough-to-get-stuck-in-your-head, but otherwise mesmorisingly moronic, timeless and lifeless tune "Breaking up is hard to do?"
Hornby is also the author of _About_a_Boy_, a powerful read for anyone who was outcast from superpopulartrendyathleticspiffyelitesociety through school (wasn't that all of us?), and inspirational for anyone who has ever considered volunteering time to becoming a Big Brother / Big Sister...my application is in the mail.
About a boy would have been an excellent add on for the price of being different articles/rants, but I hadn't read it and so couldn't recommend it then.
"As a telephone support professional, I have occasionally taken calls from a relay agent who is reading messages typed to her, by a hearing-challenged person, through a TTY machine.
Much confusion has been caused because the TTY agent makes many of the typical "uneducated" guesses that typical end-users would make, for example typing ";" when she heas me say "colon", et cetera. The hearing-challenged person on the other end has no reason NOT to take the misspellings or mis-typed characters literally, unless he knows the difference.
Complicating the situation is the fact that TTY Relay agents are forbidden from communicating individually with either party. For instance, If I remind the relay agent that "the backslash is the key above the enter key on your keyboard" then the the agent is not supposed to type "/". The agent is supposed to type "the backslash is the key above the enter key on your keyboard", exactly as I said it. this irritates me and, of course, the end-user as well.
Has any slashdotter actually interfaced with a TTY machine? I do not know whether TTY emulation (a la LINUX) is the same as a text telephone machine. I'm guessing NO. I've been researching the Internet for three days, but the only TTY machine information I can find is lists of features of "black boxes for sale".
I have found some software - modem combinations, but the consensus that I'm getting from the sales people from The TTY store, HARC, and Ultratec is that I must have a specialized modem and the end-user's TTY must support ASCII, apparenty not a common feature. This is of no use, as I'm on a LAN and behind a firewall.
Can anyone point me to good information regarding the use of TTY emulation on a PC to interface with an actual TTY machine?"
Digiflesh. Thank you for using Digiflesh Thought [tm]
Upgrade to Thought 2012 NOW.
Included in this new, exciting release are:
The inclusion of our patented mutlidigit maipulation module, which allows users the ability to use ALL TEN FINGERS on BOTH ARMS at the SAME TIME
The ability to think thoughts about our Digiflesh's major competitors without the mild intracranial shock (they must be approved thoughts. Thoughts that are not approved have not been "debugged.")
Bug FIXES!
Bugs repaired:
1) The I - before - e rule is now universally applied. Digiflesh has approached Webster, Colliers, Harvard, and others in order to update the standard English language in to support this important technological breakthrough.
2) End users are now able to "autoboot", following a battery failure. the prevous, archaic method of nutrient suppply is used in this instance, to allow the user to "wake up" for the amount of time necessary to plug in to their charging units to recharge.
It is important that users realize that Thought 2012 is for advanced thinkers only. Persons who do not use their brains for business purposes are encouraged to use Digiflesh Idiot. Digiflesh Idiot has better Game and Hormone support.
And now, back to your regularly scheduled neural processes.
Who here has used the twiddler, and did it feel better or worse than the 104? I like the idea of hanging my arms anywhere I like, and switching hands, but I'm not sure it improves movement overall.
What other 1-handed keyboards would you consider, or would you consider them at all?
Re:Why do people get this superority kick from ris
on
A New DeCSS
·
· Score: 2
Ok so if I decide to swallow gasoline and light a match near my mouth am I not an intelligent person? Tell me how making risky choices makes me inherently better? -slashdot-terminal
It doesn't. But failing to examine choices because they *seem* risky is a short-sighted and useless display of cowardice. Galileo, Socrates, Ghandi, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Einstein, and other great challengers in history examined the common mores, saw their flaws, and worked to overcome them. The actions and thoughts that they proposed were ridiculous at first. They all faced humiliation - at the very least - and all but two (Rosa and Einstin) lost their lives for their cause.
Darwin Award winners, OTOH, do risky things because they are risky (read "fun") things to do. That's stupid. One might argue that they deserved their fate.
The power you have, and may choose to wield, comes from own intelligence and ingenuity. Just don't let them over-rule your common sense or sense of decency.
Instant computing. When you click something it is done. You don't think about it, you don't wait, it IS. As in it works as fast as when you drop something. You open your hand and its gone, no waiting. The death of progress bars. The % symbol goes homeless.
As noble a goal as this sounds, the only way this could possibly be achieved, is to become 100% complacent with software's present capabilities (whenever you choose to define as present )
To state it another way (and to terribly misquote thousands of other developers who have said the same):
Hardware developers' sole purpose is to increase the capabilities of hardware, ie number of CPU cycles, storage, et. al. available to perform tasks (and, optionally, to reduce the number of cycles necessary to perform some hardware-specific functions)
Software developers' sole purpose is to utilize those CPU cycles to perform constructive (or at least entertaining) tasks. As Hardware speed increases, consumers demand that software progresses to provide additional capabilities, ie justify the need for additional hardware.
As software grows to need additional hardware speed, hardware developers are forced to provide additional speed & other resources.
Hardware and software developers are in a perpetual race of hardware speed vs. software capabilities. The race is called progress. The victor is the consumer.
Granted, we designed equivalents for WWII without pentium-class desktops, but we won the war because we (read:Allies) created the computing power necessary to crack Enigma. _______________________________
(bogometer reading: obvious blatant flasehood, temporarily assuming perfect recording and interpretation to prove a point. imagine...)
They recently discovered an authentic audiovisual recording of a gladiator fight in the Flavian Amphitheatre dated Circa 90 AD. Captured in the ancient Roman film are Titus, hundreds of high-ranking, hobnobbing patricians, a bloody battle that makes Ben Hur look terribly tame, and a view of an architectural achievement that scientists have previously been able to only theorize about: The Colosseum's roof.
Scientists at the University of Greece have added this tape to the recently discovered collections of Socrates' filmed lessons and thousands of morality plays that served as entertainment on the day.
"We had always had evidence that the Romans were an advanced culture, but only recently...discovered how barbaric those fights actually were..."
"It's especially surprising, considering the last five minutes of the_film_, that it survived at all. "At one point in the film, the person filming was apparently struck down, by a Colosseum Guard... One voice suggested that the filming was ordered by Titus himself... the guard didn't like hearing that...we heard someone lecturing him on the value of the film they were using, and berating him on using it to film common, everyday entertainment... An altercation apparently became bloody off camera, and the film ends shortly after that.
"Apparently the film was stolen by someone else at the event...the last five minutes give us pause to realize how significant this discovery actually is."
My point: The historical significance of poop culture (misspelt, but it sticks) is not so much about the show, but what's around the entertainment. Who are we to say what will be irrelevent in thousands of years? _______________________________
I think DeBeers has more Money and product than Microsoft.
Debeers= Diamond Cartel. Effectively, the Only company that serves as an origional source for Diamonds. All Jewelry companies buy diamonds from dealers who buy them from DeBeers. No viable choices exist, except for the Pink diamond mines in Australia.
There are sources in the US, but DeBeers bought out Congress in the mid 1800's, who passed economic, safety, and environmental laws that effectively made diamond mining unprofitable in the Americas, or made deals like these _______________________________
Minors who file tax returns effectively forgo this right, when they concede that another taxpayer (mommy & Daddy) can claim them as a dependent. Look at your 1040 this year. _______________________________
Reminds me of a another bot that's out there somewhere in planning: a slugbot:-) Ought to go out on nights, search for slugs (i think it was by IR...), pick em up (container->ferment->energy). Although i'm not quite sure what area the robot was developed for.... Farms? nah....
Alternatively, the slugbot could also carry around a small amount of salt, the intent of course being to salt the slugs in order to amaze and disgust youngish humanoids who choose to wear curly pigtails.
Note: The above is not, nor is it intended to be, a sexist statement. There is a high likelyhood that youngish male humanoids who choose to wear curly pigtails would show just as much disgust as their female counterparts. Probably moreso.
Some of us actually look forward to a time when we can upgrade these pathetic, fragile meat bodies. I'm just saddened that it is not likely to happen before I'm dead.
And 640K is about enough for anybody.
And the integrated circuit is useless.
And We can close down the patent office because everything has already been invented. This actually WAS argued in congress, IIRC, in the late 19th century.
Why do you think that? This research will give us a "permanent" eye replacement within 10 years or so, and "upgrades" within 6 months after that. There is also research about a neural interface that we will implement also within 10-15 years. see Neural computing discussion Granted, this research is preliminary, but the speed of these announcements is astounding.
Unless you're already eighty, you will definately see industrial, and possibly commercial, cybournetic implants within your lifetime.
What do you suppose will happen if society as we know it ends, the power grid fails and there is a nuclear holocaust? I'll give you a hint. Gold will be devalued.
First of all, I am a strong believer that we will all be here on January 1, at 0:01.00, yelling "dud!", arguing with each other about how much M$ SUX!!!!! LINUX RULEZ!!! and yelling FIRST P0ST!!!!!!!!! That means the power, the phone co, and "th'Internet" will be "turned on."
However, there is, IMHO, a striking flaw in your argument:
If society as we know it ends, then:
The value of money will take an initial plummet, then gradually decline towards it's weight in paper.
The monetary system is not based on the value of the paper that it's printed on. Money is inherently worthless absent officially sanctioned assigned value (IE Uncle Sam says it's worth something). Absent this sanction, the green paper with pretty designs would be returned to its essenially worthless state.
For example: During the Texas revolutionary period, Texan troops commonly refused American "greenbacks" as wages because if Mexico won the war, the American cash would be rendered worthless. Any store that DID accept greenbacks credited 20 cents on the dollar. Even this did not create a great profit margin for the shopkeepers, because it often cost them 60-70 cents to trade it to their suppliers.
Another example: there is no value to Russian rubles. Granted, there economy is recovering slowly, but until the Russian economy regains its power, the currency represented by their economy is without value.
Precious metals and stones, however, have consistently retained SOME, albeit fluctuating, value. Gold has been used for centuries as the standard for value and beauty, as have rubies, pearls, emeralds, etc. Hence the draw of these items. "Well, I can't get bread for these 5,000,000,0000 centavos, but he'll trade me a steak for Grandmother's diamond necklace."
The fact that they had to download a "fuckin" applett or a "friggin, or "freakin" sadly worked against Etoy.
Despite any noble shows of free press/expression, there is still a bias in the courts against anything midldly profane.
If the message sufficiently lacking in "good, decent, holy, Red-White-and-Blue" then its bad and evil and underground and should be thwarted. _______________________________
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting. So if we posted source code, from say, a large software company, sdrawkcab*, or rot13 encoded, etc. Is that sufficiently "reorganized" enough to invalidate the copyright?
This is not a flame, but a legitimate question: If we posted source code for copyleft-ed software that is purposely reorganized, then would would we render the software's copyleft protection void?
*think Middle - Eastern. No this is not a racial slur, but how do some cultures read
Alright, so you won't mind at all if someone uses another racial epithet (possibly starting with a letter between M and O) to describe certain pharmaceutical dealers? Or is something only offensive if it offends you personally?
When has Vandal meant anything different from "one who vandalizes", before your school chose to use it as their mascot?
Not that it's any of my business (never used *bsd), but if I read a post like this, I'd tell him to go ahead.
Just fork off!
Doscratese said in post 32 "To those of you who don't believe in genome mapping or sequencing, IMHO, this is the only way to go. we're basically reverse engineering humans. well, that's what you do when you have working binaries but no docs, sourcecode or cpu design: you reverse engineer the hell out of it until you find out all of the above (if you can). "
OK, let's look at this as reverse - engineering humans.
Typically in a reverse - engineering scenario, among a *great* number of other things, one does:
1) find and decipher the source code.
2) theorize , hypothesize, and otherwize draw conclusions about what the parts do individually and in relation to one another in order to create the whole.
3) experiment with these parts individually or in new sequences and combinations, eventually creating a new whole
If this article is correct (draw your own conclusions), then we have completed step 1. Now, we will move on to step 2, trying to find the "meaning" and "purpose" behind each chromosome. A good deal of this has already been done, and I know it will be completed "real soon now".
What I'm interested in is step 3: Reassembling and recreating new life. That's a big responsibility.
1)When we create a life form that is missing a few chromosomes - and someone will, to experiment - is that a new species or is that still human?
2)How many new species will be created? At what point will sentient synthetic life be called "human"?
3) If John Q's DNA is taken without his consent and used to create a child, then whose child is it? Who must pay child support? Does the adult child have a right to locate her biological father?
4) When scientists have created new human-like life, who owns the "soul" or "destiny" of that lifeform? The scientist who created it? The lifeform itself? Is it assumed to be subhuman? Will it be regarded as a working animal, regardless of cognitive ability?
And for the religious people out there: How do you think God will respond when Wolfgang Alexander Williams IV, PHD (an old fashioned, "birth" human) is summoned to the pearly gates, and brags that he has patented seven new species under the genus Homo, all of which are his own creation and his own design. Will we hear a deep belly-laugh from the clouds, or something more fierce?
Tell me again how old "fish heads" is?
This song has it all:
Catchy tune, simple lyrics, and every red-blooded American who is older than 23 knows the chorus by heart.
And You said there's been no good music in the last 20 years.
And how could you possibly overlook the prophetic genius in Wierd Al Yankovic's clappy tune, "First I was a Hippie, then I was a Stock Broker, Now I am a Hippie Again"
How many people will be singing THAT in June?
But it frankly scares the crap out of me that someone may actually believe that I _AM_ trying to make an honest counter-argument.
We are bombarded by the ever so catchy-enough-to-get-stuck-in-your-head, but otherwise mesmorisingly moronic, timeless and lifeless tune "Breaking up is hard to do?"
Few people are elected Presedent because everyone likes them. Most are elected because they are disliked the least
About a boy would have been an excellent add on for the price of being different articles/rants, but I hadn't read it and so couldn't recommend it then.
"As a telephone support professional, I have occasionally taken calls from a relay agent who is reading messages typed to her, by a hearing-challenged person, through a TTY machine.
Much confusion has been caused because the TTY agent makes many of the typical "uneducated" guesses that typical end-users would make, for example typing ";" when she heas me say "colon", et cetera. The hearing-challenged person on the other end has no reason NOT to take the misspellings or mis-typed characters literally, unless he knows the difference.
Complicating the situation is the fact that TTY Relay agents are forbidden from communicating individually with either party. For instance, If I remind the relay agent that "the backslash is the key above the enter key on your keyboard" then the the agent is not supposed to type "/". The agent is supposed to type "the backslash is the key above the enter key on your keyboard", exactly as I said it. this irritates me and, of course, the end-user as well.
Has any slashdotter actually interfaced with a TTY machine? I do not know whether TTY emulation (a la LINUX) is the same as a text telephone machine. I'm guessing NO. I've been researching the Internet for three days, but the only TTY machine information I can find is lists of features of "black boxes for sale".
I have found some software - modem combinations, but the consensus that I'm getting from the sales people from The TTY store, HARC, and Ultratec is that I must have a specialized modem and the end-user's TTY must support ASCII, apparenty not a common feature. This is of no use, as I'm on a LAN and behind a firewall.
Can anyone point me to good information regarding the use of TTY emulation on a PC to interface with an actual TTY machine?"
This thought brought to you by...
Digiflesh.
Thank you for using Digiflesh Thought [tm]
Upgrade to Thought 2012 NOW.
Included in this new, exciting release are:
The inclusion of our patented mutlidigit maipulation module, which allows users the ability to use ALL TEN FINGERS on BOTH ARMS at the SAME TIME
The ability to think thoughts about our Digiflesh's major competitors without the mild intracranial shock (they must be approved thoughts. Thoughts that are not approved have not been "debugged.")
Bug FIXES!
Bugs repaired:
1) The I - before - e rule is now universally applied. Digiflesh has approached Webster, Colliers, Harvard, and others in order to update the standard English language in to support this important technological breakthrough.
2) End users are now able to "autoboot", following a battery failure. the prevous, archaic method of nutrient suppply is used in this instance, to allow the user to "wake up" for the amount of time necessary to plug in to their charging units to recharge.
It is important that users realize that Thought 2012 is for advanced thinkers only. Persons who do not use their brains for business purposes are encouraged to use Digiflesh Idiot. Digiflesh Idiot has better Game and Hormone support.
And now, back to your regularly scheduled neural processes.
Who here has used the twiddler, and did it feel better or worse than the 104? I like the idea of hanging my arms anywhere I like, and switching hands, but I'm not sure it improves movement overall.
What other 1-handed keyboards would you consider, or would you consider them at all?
It doesn't. But failing to examine choices because they *seem* risky is a short-sighted and useless display of cowardice. Galileo, Socrates, Ghandi, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Einstein, and other great challengers in history examined the common mores, saw their flaws, and worked to overcome them. The actions and thoughts that they proposed were ridiculous at first. They all faced humiliation - at the very least - and all but two (Rosa and Einstin) lost their lives for their cause.
Darwin Award winners, OTOH, do risky things because they are risky (read "fun") things to do. That's stupid. One might argue that they deserved their fate.
The power you have, and may choose to wield, comes from own intelligence and ingenuity. Just don't let them over-rule your common sense or sense of decency.
It does. Select OPTIONS from the TOOLS menu. Under the VIEW tab, select the formatting marks that you want to appear.
Instant computing. When you click something it is done. You don't think about it, you don't wait, it IS. As in it works as fast as when you drop something. You open your hand and its gone, no waiting. The death of progress bars. The % symbol goes homeless.
As noble a goal as this sounds, the only way this could possibly be achieved, is to become 100% complacent with software's present capabilities (whenever you choose to define as present )
To state it another way (and to terribly misquote thousands of other developers who have said the same):
Hardware developers' sole purpose is to increase the capabilities of hardware, ie number of CPU cycles, storage, et. al. available to perform tasks (and, optionally, to reduce the number of cycles necessary to perform some hardware-specific functions)
Software developers' sole purpose is to utilize those CPU cycles to perform constructive (or at least entertaining) tasks. As Hardware speed increases, consumers demand that software progresses to provide additional capabilities, ie justify the need for additional hardware.
As software grows to need additional hardware speed, hardware developers are forced to provide additional speed & other resources.
Hardware and software developers are in a perpetual race of hardware speed vs. software capabilities. The race is called progress. The victor is the consumer.
Try designing an F-16, an M-60 without Autocad.
Granted, we designed equivalents for WWII without pentium-class desktops, but we won the war because we (read:Allies) created the computing power necessary to crack Enigma.
_______________________________
(bogometer reading: obvious blatant flasehood, temporarily assuming perfect recording and interpretation to prove a point. imagine...)
... One voice suggested that the filming was ordered by Titus himself... the guard didn't like hearing that...we heard someone lecturing him on the value of the film they were using, and berating him on using it to film common, everyday entertainment... An altercation apparently became bloody off camera, and the film ends shortly after that.
They recently discovered an authentic audiovisual recording of a gladiator fight in the Flavian Amphitheatre dated Circa 90 AD. Captured in the ancient Roman film are Titus, hundreds of high-ranking, hobnobbing patricians, a bloody battle that makes Ben Hur look terribly tame, and a view of an architectural achievement that scientists have previously been able to only theorize about: The Colosseum's roof.
Scientists at the University of Greece have added this tape to the recently discovered collections of Socrates' filmed lessons and thousands of morality plays that served as entertainment on the day.
"We had always had evidence that the Romans were an advanced culture, but only recently...discovered how barbaric those fights actually were..."
"It's especially surprising, considering the last five minutes of the_film_, that it survived at all.
"At one point in the film, the person filming was apparently struck down, by a Colosseum Guard
"Apparently the film was stolen by someone else at the event...the last five minutes give us pause to realize how significant this discovery actually is."
My point: The historical significance of poop culture (misspelt, but it sticks) is not so much about the show, but what's around the entertainment. Who are we to say what will be irrelevent in thousands of years?
_______________________________
I think DeBeers has more Money and product than Microsoft.
Debeers= Diamond Cartel. Effectively, the Only company that serves as an origional source for Diamonds. All Jewelry companies buy diamonds from dealers who buy them from DeBeers. No viable choices exist, except for the Pink diamond mines in Australia.
There are sources in the US, but DeBeers bought out Congress in the mid 1800's, who passed economic, safety, and environmental laws that effectively made diamond mining unprofitable in the Americas, or made deals like these
_______________________________
In fact, as an adult, you DO.
Minors who file tax returns effectively forgo this right, when they concede that another taxpayer (mommy & Daddy) can claim them as a dependent. Look at your 1040 this year.
_______________________________
Reminds me of a another bot that's out there somewhere in planning: a slugbot :-)
Ought to go out on nights, search for slugs (i think it was by IR...), pick em up (container->ferment->energy). Although i'm not quite sure what area the robot was developed for.... Farms? nah....
Alternatively, the slugbot could also carry around a small amount of salt, the intent of course being to salt the slugs in order to amaze and disgust youngish humanoids who choose to wear curly pigtails.
Note: The above is not, nor is it intended to be, a sexist statement. There is a high likelyhood that youngish male humanoids who choose to wear curly pigtails would show just as much disgust as their female counterparts. Probably moreso.
_______________________________
kids with keyboards who need to be spanked.
As opposed to geeks with keyboards who want to be spanked?
_______________________________
Some of us actually look forward to a time when we can upgrade these pathetic, fragile meat bodies. I'm just saddened that it is not likely to happen before I'm dead.
And 640K is about enough for anybody.
And the integrated circuit is useless.
And We can close down the patent office because everything has already been invented. This actually WAS argued in congress, IIRC, in the late 19th century.
Why do you think that? This research will give us a "permanent" eye replacement within 10 years or so, and "upgrades" within 6 months after that. There is also research about a neural interface that we will implement also within 10-15 years. see Neural computing discussion Granted, this research is preliminary, but the speed of these announcements is astounding.
Unless you're already eighty, you will definately see industrial, and possibly commercial, cybournetic implants within your lifetime.
_______________________________
No kidding! this is the "it's humor...laugh" department, right? I thought this post was hilarious!
_______________________________
What do you suppose will happen if society as we know it ends, the power grid fails and there is a nuclear holocaust?
I'll give you a hint. Gold will be devalued.
First of all, I am a strong believer that we will all be here on January 1, at 0:01.00, yelling "dud!", arguing with each other about how much M$ SUX!!!!! LINUX RULEZ!!! and yelling FIRST P0ST!!!!!!!!! That means the power, the phone co, and "th'Internet" will be "turned on."
However, there is, IMHO, a striking flaw in your argument:
If society as we know it ends, then:
The value of money will take an initial plummet, then gradually decline towards it's weight in paper.
The monetary system is not based on the value of the paper that it's printed on. Money is inherently worthless absent officially sanctioned assigned value (IE Uncle Sam says it's worth something). Absent this sanction, the green paper with pretty designs would be returned to its essenially worthless state.
For example: During the Texas revolutionary period, Texan troops commonly refused American "greenbacks" as wages because if Mexico won the war, the American cash would be rendered worthless. Any store that DID accept greenbacks credited 20 cents on the dollar. Even this did not create a great profit margin for the shopkeepers, because it often cost them 60-70 cents to trade it to their suppliers.
Another example: there is no value to Russian rubles. Granted, there economy is recovering slowly, but until the Russian economy regains its power, the currency represented by their economy is without value.
Precious metals and stones, however, have consistently retained SOME, albeit fluctuating, value. Gold has been used for centuries as the standard for value and beauty, as have rubies, pearls, emeralds, etc. Hence the draw of these items. "Well, I can't get bread for these 5,000,000,0000 centavos, but he'll trade me a steak for Grandmother's diamond necklace."
_______________________________
The fact that they had to download a "fuckin" applett or a "friggin, or "freakin" sadly worked against Etoy.
Despite any noble shows of free press/expression, there is still a bias in the courts against anything midldly profane.
If the message sufficiently lacking in "good, decent, holy, Red-White-and-Blue" then its bad and evil and underground and should be thwarted.
_______________________________
I happen to like the german term.
"Luckless Bonsai" seems to cover it.
_______________________________