I couldn't agree more. Believing in dark matter is in the same league as believing in ghosts. Can't see it, can't touch it, but we use it to explain all sorts of odd experiences.
I'm truly not trying to flame(bait) but there are so many people ready to take dark matter as a literal truth, but scoff at any notion of the supernatural.
And as for all those people only to willing to apply Occam's Razor to anything vaguely mystical - where are they now? What's more likely - incomplete knowledge of the long distance properties/influence of gravity, or 'dark matter'?
Just to clarify though, when I read the thread, it was so old that I though nobody would bother to moderate in it any more, and that a good post like K.'s would be lost forever. I was wrong on that count, which has made me feel better about the whole thing.
Kjella, that's a great post. Unfortunately I think/.ers these days are frightened by a well reasoned and insightful comment. But please don't let that stop you from posting:)
on the other hand, apple is not innovating the micro pc market via the mac mini. apple is following the lead of what's already been done for many years in the x86 market
The thing is, is that Google is becoming much more than "just a search engine". Have you seen the range of services they offer these days?
Microsoft have missed the boat again. Not only that, but they had really no idea where it was headed in the first place. Sure, search will be important but it has always been important, even in the days of library card indexes. Google's future is in a web 'platform'. They've got the tech and the brains to do it. And right now, it's obvious that the head honcho's and Microsoft have their heads up their arses so far that they just can't see the bigger picture.
True to form for the current Slashdot style, moderators have put more effort into marking posts "Troll" and "Flamebait" rather than modding all your posts Insightful.
Why? Who knows. But you're making my friends lists, so I can see your posts in the future.
And it does all this without an annoying "pop" sound and that ridiculous speech bubble popping out of the taskbar, interrupting whatever you might actually be doing at the time - because, God forbid, you might actually be using the computer for something productive rather than waiting for the OS to tell you it's done something clever.
IMHO that's the one thing that will likely never be addressed in Longhorn - sensible, intuitive, and unobtrusive user space. Microsoft seem determined to make it more and more intrusive with each update.
Longhorn: Twice as many Little Yellow Speech Bubbles and Talking Question Marks!
Or use a firewall with packet inspection to block any outgoing connections.
I realise that for a lot of users this would result in "just another thing to click yes to syndrome" but if enough people use it, it would make the data gathered pretty useless.
BTW, if you've got a Mac and value your privacy you should get Little Snitch (no affiliation) to do exactly this.
Eah, sorry this reply is late. I've been in the country!
Anyway, you're pushing my memory, but try "Time Enough for Love". The characters from that turn up in many later books, with the same kind of themes. Now, I can kind of appreciate that he was trying to explore alternative social structures, but if you read enough of his work I think it's fairly easy to see that it's not so much an exploration as a personal fetish.
Well, I might not say Heinlein sucks, but he certainly is a bigoted, womanising, condescending, self righteous pedophile mother-lover.
He's one author who's social views really offend me. Which is a shame because some of his writing is pretty good.
Anyway - wayyyy off topic, but I don't mind saying it logged in because I'm happy that I've found other people who feel the same. Even if I don't know who you are.
No - I remember this too. I think it was a step-down transformer/switch...something like that. The system became fairly efficient in the first 100 iterations, seemed to do nothing in the next 500 iterations, and then suddenly became super efficient.
They tried creating a new design based off the final iteration, without unused components - the design didn't work. It seems that even though some components weren't even connected to the system, they system wouldn't function without them! - the quantum level effects mentioned my the parent.
I'd be really happy if someone found this article, or actually knew exactly what I am remembering. In my mind this study would have enormous relevance for self-replicating/modifying kit.
Re:Apple as an indicator of future dominance.
on
Apple Backs Blu-ray
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· Score: 2, Informative
To be fair - there was a time when ALL you could get for computers was DVD-RAM drives. I can't remember if this was a technical limitation, or a move of the DVD consortium to separate computer formats from video (ie to stop piracy).
Yes - the really dangerous criminals were shipped to Australia - the ones who performed heinous crimes like stealing a loaf of bread to feed their starving family, or loitering in the nice parts of town.
The guys who only did petty crimes like murder were kept in nice prisons like the Clink in South London.
Although I'm of course being sarcastic, you might have some idea now of why "a fair go" is such a treasured concept in Australia.
Here in Australia we're lucky to have Madman releasing all kinds of good stuff - including Steamboy and all Studio Gibli's films. They used to be a DVD only outfit, but since last year have been distributing films too.
Upshot is, I went to see Steamboy late last year. It is visually spectacular, although I thought the plot was really disappointing. It's basically another "evil-creature/machine-stomps all over Tokyo", except it's not Tokyo it's 19thC London. Seemed a real shame that they went to so much trouble with the animation, and had a really nice premise, but let it all down with a poor story.
Well that or I've got a bit older and pickier now;) Go see it anyway.
Interestingly enough, when set on shuffle play I have found that iTunes and the iPod (well, my old 10gb 1st gen anyway) tend to play songs that are close together in the database. They seem to have a relatively limited 'reach' either side of the current song.
I've never figured if this was just a programming mistake or limitation, or if it was actually intentional.
Ok - it's not solar cells they're using - they're making a big green house.
Currently the best way to make big green houses is with an extruded plastic called ETFE. Sheets of ETFE are welded together to form inflatable pillows. The pillows are clamped together with aluminium extrusions.
Now ETFE and aluminium have extremely high embodied energy (that's the cost of energy used to make the finished material). They are very light materials, which does offset the embodied energy cost somewhat (as you're using less of the material to cover the same area as with steel or concrete for example), but remember we're talking about a 7 square kilometre area here.
Also the foundations to support a 1km high tower are going to be huge. There are some tricks, like tension structures that could be used, but they will still require huge mass footings - better known as concrete. One tonne of concrete will release about one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere during production and transportation.
I'm not trying to dismiss this project, but people should realise that it's going to be a long way from being "green".
(p.s. If anyone needs a big green house made, let me know. Our company designed the Eden project...we know how to do them!).
This glass has been around for a while now - it's made by a company called holo-pro.
Basically there is interlayer in/on the glass that has a very high reflectance from one particular direction only (this means you need to set up your projector in roughly the same spot each time if you move it around).
We're using it on a number of buildings around the place at the moment - it really enters into it's own league when it's in a 20m x 20m format;)
One of the soon to be completed large scale projects is here. I'll post some photo's when it's done.
I was in Serbia after the war there. I visited a beautiful farming region in the south (near Cacak). The US had shot at the orchards there with DU ammunition. The only possible reason was to 'ruin' the food.
It kind of suggest that the US armed forces are well aware of the affects of DU, and its potential to contaminate food/water/etc.
I'm actually wanting to start something like this. I've got a small collection stashed. If you want to add any to this collection, email me at : slashdot at alexmatovic.com
Slashdot Mirror
I'm truly not trying to flame(bait) but there are so many people ready to take dark matter as a literal truth, but scoff at any notion of the supernatural.
And as for all those people only to willing to apply Occam's Razor to anything vaguely mystical - where are they now? What's more likely - incomplete knowledge of the long distance properties/influence of gravity, or 'dark matter'?
Just to clarify though, when I read the thread, it was so old that I though nobody would bother to moderate in it any more, and that a good post like K.'s would be lost forever. I was wrong on that count, which has made me feel better about the whole thing.
a.
Errr...can you say "G4 Cube"?
I never thought of that - thanks!
Microsoft have missed the boat again. Not only that, but they had really no idea where it was headed in the first place. Sure, search will be important but it has always been important, even in the days of library card indexes. Google's future is in a web 'platform'. They've got the tech and the brains to do it. And right now, it's obvious that the head honcho's and Microsoft have their heads up their arses so far that they just can't see the bigger picture.
Also, you would not get auto-resolution of "Google.com.net" from "Google.com". You'd get "Google.net".
No one's flipping out, but a DNS attack on Google (if that's what it is) is pretty big 'News for Nerds'.
Why? Who knows. But you're making my friends lists, so I can see your posts in the future.
And it does all this without an annoying "pop" sound and that ridiculous speech bubble popping out of the taskbar, interrupting whatever you might actually be doing at the time - because, God forbid, you might actually be using the computer for something productive rather than waiting for the OS to tell you it's done something clever.
IMHO that's the one thing that will likely never be addressed in Longhorn - sensible, intuitive, and unobtrusive user space. Microsoft seem determined to make it more and more intrusive with each update.
Longhorn: Twice as many Little Yellow Speech Bubbles and Talking Question Marks!
Hmm...I didn't actually consider/know that PDF's had this capability. Have you got one/got a link to one to play around with?
I realise that for a lot of users this would result in "just another thing to click yes to syndrome" but if enough people use it, it would make the data gathered pretty useless.
BTW, if you've got a Mac and value your privacy you should get Little Snitch (no affiliation) to do exactly this.
Anyway, you're pushing my memory, but try "Time Enough for Love". The characters from that turn up in many later books, with the same kind of themes. Now, I can kind of appreciate that he was trying to explore alternative social structures, but if you read enough of his work I think it's fairly easy to see that it's not so much an exploration as a personal fetish.
Have a virtual +1 insightful. a.
He's one author who's social views really offend me. Which is a shame because some of his writing is pretty good. Anyway - wayyyy off topic, but I don't mind saying it logged in because I'm happy that I've found other people who feel the same. Even if I don't know who you are.
Now, come get me mods!
They tried creating a new design based off the final iteration, without unused components - the design didn't work. It seems that even though some components weren't even connected to the system, they system wouldn't function without them! - the quantum level effects mentioned my the parent.
I'd be really happy if someone found this article, or actually knew exactly what I am remembering. In my mind this study would have enormous relevance for self-replicating/modifying kit.
Renderman for OS X.
To be fair - there was a time when ALL you could get for computers was DVD-RAM drives. I can't remember if this was a technical limitation, or a move of the DVD consortium to separate computer formats from video (ie to stop piracy).
We're going to send you to our new penal colony - Channel 7 Melbourne - for being a smart arse!
The guys who only did petty crimes like murder were kept in nice prisons like the Clink in South London.
Although I'm of course being sarcastic, you might have some idea now of why "a fair go" is such a treasured concept in Australia.
Upshot is, I went to see Steamboy late last year. It is visually spectacular, although I thought the plot was really disappointing. It's basically another "evil-creature/machine-stomps all over Tokyo", except it's not Tokyo it's 19thC London. Seemed a real shame that they went to so much trouble with the animation, and had a really nice premise, but let it all down with a poor story.
Well that or I've got a bit older and pickier now ;) Go see it anyway.
I've never figured if this was just a programming mistake or limitation, or if it was actually intentional.
Currently the best way to make big green houses is with an extruded plastic called ETFE. Sheets of ETFE are welded together to form inflatable pillows. The pillows are clamped together with aluminium extrusions.
Now ETFE and aluminium have extremely high embodied energy (that's the cost of energy used to make the finished material). They are very light materials, which does offset the embodied energy cost somewhat (as you're using less of the material to cover the same area as with steel or concrete for example), but remember we're talking about a 7 square kilometre area here.
Also the foundations to support a 1km high tower are going to be huge. There are some tricks, like tension structures that could be used, but they will still require huge mass footings - better known as concrete. One tonne of concrete will release about one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere during production and transportation.
I'm not trying to dismiss this project, but people should realise that it's going to be a long way from being "green".
(p.s. If anyone needs a big green house made, let me know. Our company designed the Eden project...we know how to do them!).
Basically there is interlayer in/on the glass that has a very high reflectance from one particular direction only (this means you need to set up your projector in roughly the same spot each time if you move it around).
We're using it on a number of buildings around the place at the moment - it really enters into it's own league when it's in a 20m x 20m format ;)
One of the soon to be completed large scale projects is here. I'll post some photo's when it's done.
It kind of suggest that the US armed forces are well aware of the affects of DU, and its potential to contaminate food/water/etc.
I'm actually wanting to start something like this. I've got a small collection stashed. If you want to add any to this collection, email me at : slashdot at alexmatovic.com