our cherished civil liberties -- the one aspect of America that truly makes us American.
I agree with you 99%, but I still see you're a victim of the American schooling system. In particular "our cherished civil liberties -- the one aspect of America that truly makes us American." Firstly, these civil liberties were imported from Britain and the Constitution largely codifies principles that were common law in Britain at the time. Secondly, American civil liberties have always trailed behind many places in the rest of the world. I'm thinking in particular of slavery, Jim Crow and segregation within my lifetime (and its remnants clearly visible in the ghettos a few blocks from where I live in Oakland today), internment, religious and political discrimination (if you're an American citizen you may be unaware of what questions visitors to the US are asked) and the disgraceful human rights black hole at Guantanamo today. What makes America truly American is economic freedom. If you have an asset or skill that someone else needs, America is the best place in the world for you - and that's why I moved to the US. And it's this freedom that has made the US the superpower that it is today. It has nothing to do with civil liberties, despite what they teach in American high schools as you pledge allegiance to the flag each morning.
The risk to any individual from one of these batteries was infinitesimal. All the web did was sow panic by allowing a small number of isolated stories to become replicated many times over on the web giving the impression that these laptop batteries were dangerous. If driving were made 10 times safer it would still be far riskier than owning one of these batteries and if the safety standards applied to these batteries were applied to cars we'd be driving around at 10mph with a runner in front of our cars waving a flag to warn people that we're coming.
If there's one thing that's missing in our modern hi-tech society it's modern hi-tech assessment of risk.
And by "embedded," Yager means "specialized." With a push of a button and a flip of switch, he predicts you'll be able to create a configured database and a mated J2EE server -- all thanks to Linux."
I've done a bit of embedded work myself. Driving hardware from microcontrollers, communicating via SPI ports, sampling A to D comverters, even hacking small linux boxes. And in all that time I've never had a need for a database mated with a J2EE server. In fact, despite playing with embedded systems, 20 years programming experience and currently being a Linux developer, I have no idea what such a beast is. Since when did "embedded" come to mean something that sounds like the kind of weenie stuff ecommerce people might use?
I found a problem that games people were having - a 3D rendering issue. Figured out a solution. Posted it to USENET. Was contacted about a job interview the next day. I wasn't even looking for a job in the business. But it does suggest a possible strategy: you need to try to find time to work on some project that'll impress people. Pick up Game Programming Gems M or GPU Gems N and look at the kinds of algorithms people are using. Many of the articles point out limitations or suggest future avenues for research. Try tackling one of these problems, and when you have a solution, tell everyone.
I don't think AI is the best word here - we're not after general intelligence, just smart algorithms in a specific domain. I've been thinking about this very problem - especially with respect to things like mysteries. One of the interesting things you need to model is the states of mind of NPCs. Who knows what, and who knows who knows what, and who knows who knows who knows what... Turns out there's already some good theory on how to do this - epistemic logic. This is a good place to start.
Die-hard ST fans weren't known often for being of the fairer sex.
True. But it's clear that she had to come from the subset of ST fans who are able to string words together into complete sentences, a skill that is almost unheard of among the majority of ST fans of the less fair sex.
Like I care. I'm not fat and I don't seek to dictate to other people what they should weigh.
* No $NATION$ Idol and other media brainwash
Obviously you've never been to a muslim country (I've visited two, not Iran). No other media brainwash? Ha ha! Just the muezzin's call from 5am every morning over loudspeakers telling you what to believe like something out of 1984. And if you want entertainment there's sure to be some public flogging to go and watch.
Public health insurance
Free universities
Good points. But not enough reasons to go and live under a tyranny where women are stoned for infidelity, where religious discrimination is the norm, where criminal 'justice' is barbaric. No thanks.
You would not notice much difference between living in Iran and living in the states.
Would you think someone is wrong for getting their mathematical knowledge about the lengths of the sides of right triangles out of the ancient writings of Pythagoras?
Where were you when the revolution in non-Euclidean geometry happened?
There were countless thousands of societies in existence over the world 2000 years ago. I've not heard of a single one I'd rather live in than a modern Western secular liberal capitalist democracy. I really don't think there's much to learn about ethics from a bunch of people living in the desert of the ancient Middle East. To use your crude dichotomy - "that shit just isn't true".
Tell you what. Try living in Iran for a year. Try practising a variety of religions, try enjoying the pleasures in life, try engaging in political activities, and try being a woman (if you're not). Then try the same in the US. Then decide which culture you'd like to see more able to impose its will on its neighbors.
I'm unhappy about the US throwing its weight around in the world arena. But I'm sure as hell even more unhappy about Iran being able to do the same.
Here are some definitions of rational I pulled off the web:
consistent with or based on or using reason; "rational behavior"; "a process of rational inference"; "rational thought"
intellectual: of or associated with or requiring the use of the mind; "intellectual problems"; "the triumph of the rational over the animal side of man"
capable of being expressed as a quotient of integers; "rational numbers"
rational number: an integer or a fraction
having its source in or being guided by the intellect (distinguished from experience or emotion); "a rational analysis"
I don't see that the weather could be described as rational by any of these definitions, even with a good stretch of the imagination.
The ability of a body to have cleared its orbit has all KINDS of things to do with the properties of the body itself. How massive is it? What's its diameter? How long has it been orbiting the sun?
If it was about how massive the body is, its diameter and how long it has been orbiting the Sun then the definition would have been in terms of how massive the body is, its diameter and how long it has been orbiting the Sun. This is like defining the temperature of a body by what reading you get when you hold a thermometer 1m away from the object for 30s, then move it away to 10m for 5s and then write down the result rounding up or down the nearest multiple of 3K.
they're answering the question, "Why isn't Pluto a planet?"
In other words, everyone has decided beforehand what the verdict should be for largely irrational reasons, and now they've managed to concoct a definition that carves its way through those prejudices in such a way that it managed to win a vote. I'm glad science doesn't work like this in other disciplines. Mathematicians can argue over whether zero is a natural number without some committee telling them what to do.
Apple aren't in the justice business and it's not their role here to dole out punishments. They fired these staff because they clearly have no respect for Apple's IP and yet many of Apple's assets are IP. Apple can't afford to employ such people. End of story. You can read into it all kinds of metaphysical garbage about the nature of punishment and justice and shades if grey, but it's all irrelevant.
Definitional irregularity for the sake of a young (76-year-old) tradition isn't my idea of how science should work.
And a definition like 'cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit' which has nothing to do with the properties of the planet itself, and is obviously a post hoc definition contrived to eliminate Pluto, is how science should work?
People are rational, its just that they are so complex that we can't fully understand and predict their actions.
I'll have to bookmark this comment. It's a particularly excellent example of an unfalsifiable statement that appears to have content but is actually completely vacuous.
You arguing with people trying to make the "intelligent point"...is the equivalent of you arguing with a 4-year old over the non-existence of God.
One day, when you have a spare moment, you might like to write a comment explaining this 'equivalence'.
Some scientists, running models and simulations of the solar systems may now change or in the future omit pluto as a calculation they need to include
If they need to include Pluto in their calculations, whatever they are, I doubt they'll be dropping it because the word planet has been redefined. What are you talking about?
So you're saying that if someone discovers hundreds of some astronomical body we can no longer use the original word because astronomical words come with quotas?
Slashdot Mirror
...companies offering to reinvent the computer and rediscover Australia.
Hey thanks! I was expecting -1, Flamebait.
Maybe that's a fair comment. But then you have to ask why there are so many Steve Jobs sluts and so few (any?) Dell sluts.
Well if you were able to run Oracle on a PIC I have to admit I'd be mightily impressed.
If there's one thing that's missing in our modern hi-tech society it's modern hi-tech assessment of risk.
PS I got back out of games a year later...
You're telling me. One time I accidentally clicked on something like this and my recommendations were skewed for months afterwards.
I'm unhappy about the US throwing its weight around in the world arena. But I'm sure as hell even more unhappy about Iran being able to do the same.
I'm sure that every home grown terrorist sitting on oilfields has been dealt with.
Since Newton we've known orbits are elliptical. What does the fact that Pluto's orbit is non-circular have to do with anything?
- consistent with or based on or using reason; "rational behavior"; "a process of rational inference"; "rational thought"
- intellectual: of or associated with or requiring the use of the mind; "intellectual problems"; "the triumph of the rational over the animal side of man"
- capable of being expressed as a quotient of integers; "rational numbers"
- rational number: an integer or a fraction
- having its source in or being guided by the intellect (distinguished from experience or emotion); "a rational analysis"
I don't see that the weather could be described as rational by any of these definitions, even with a good stretch of the imagination.Apple aren't in the justice business and it's not their role here to dole out punishments. They fired these staff because they clearly have no respect for Apple's IP and yet many of Apple's assets are IP. Apple can't afford to employ such people. End of story. You can read into it all kinds of metaphysical garbage about the nature of punishment and justice and shades if grey, but it's all irrelevant.
Here's another mnemonic for you: 'm' is for memory and 'm' is the first letter of 'mnemonic', a thing used to aid memory.
So you're saying that if someone discovers hundreds of some astronomical body we can no longer use the original word because astronomical words come with quotas?