Hear, hear, to Avebury being better than Stonehenge. When I was a lad you could walk in amongst the stones at Stoneghenge and climb on them, now you have to keep 50 yards away, what a shame. And Silbury Hill is just opposite West Kennet Longbarrow, which was started about 3500 B.C. Silbary, Avebury and West Kennet are all within about a 5 mile radius
Whew! Imagine the fun the neighbours could have watching which room you're in: "They're watching TV, they're watching TV, they've put the the kettle on, they're watching TV...." I'm sure it will be worth the effort of setting up 32 receivers and a suitable transmitter and calibrating it - all so the neighbours can work out which room I'm in.
The winter evenings are going to just fly by.....
Gary Powers was shot down in a U2 at 70,000 ft in 1960. They thought that couldn't be shot down by a surface to air missile too.
49 years later, the max altitude of a surface to air missile is 5,000 ft less? I don't think so.
Balloons can go way higher than 65,000 feet, the record is 53Km, i.e. more like 150,000ft. Put it up there and it might be safe
When Rimmer left Red Dwarf, his parting speech was something like:
"After all of the time we have spent together, and all of the adventures that we have been through, I have come to think of you as..... people I have met"
Damned with faint praise.
I don't understand what this continual battle over browser speed is all about. Surely 99% of the delay on any page is fetching the data off the internet? Who cares if 8ms or 10ms of the 500ms delay is due to browser speed. Is this really relevant to the normal user? Is this just universities on the internet backbone trying to measure tiny delays in some browser pissing contest?
I'm with BT (British Telecom). They publish their cap, but they will not allow me any way of telling how much how much data has been downloaded. The whole family uses the PC, from the 6-year old upwards, so it is literally impossible to tell how much data is being transmitted by streaming video etc.
Crazy. They will put up my monthly charge if I exceed their limit, but they won't tell me what I'm using!
"I didn't invent the English language. I have to use a language that someone else created in order to talk to you. So the process by which something is created is always incremental".
What a terrible analogy. Language was created by many people, therefore ALL inventing is incremental.
You might as well say, I didn't grow this log, it grew over hundreds of years, therefore falling off it must take hundreds of years.
I think I know what he was trying to say. He was trying to say that to invent a better mousetrap, someone had to invent the drawing board and the pencil, and the first mousetrap, etc. That doesn't prove that you don't walk down the hall and stop dead saying "Swipe me! I've just invented the ultimate mousetrap!". ONly production problems from there on in.
Depends also, on the level of integrity required. If your software is a drawing package and the bug is that you cannot save drawings, then maybe you should have a patch on the internet in 48 hours, but if you have an aircraft flight control system, then maybe release in four weeks (analyse problem, design fix, risk review of knock-on effects of changes, code review of changes, update of test simulators, review simulator updates, write silumation tests, review simulation tests, test changes, review test results, write test reports, get clearance for flight trials, write flight trial tests, perform flight trials, analyse flight test data, write reports, submit for certification, etc), would be seen as impossibly fast.
What is to be lost if your quick fix fails?
Have been reading about the way that Germany slipped into fascism. In a milder, slower way the USA seems to be following the same path. The USA seems to be heading towards the belief that the government must make decisions for the populace because 'the people will make irrational decisions'. You can see where that leads. Stop it now, I suggest.
If a link to porn is illegal, how about a link to a link to porn? If that's illegal, then a link-to-a-link-to-a-link etc. Eventually any link becomes illegal, probably.
Is there a way to get from any site to any other only by clicking on links? Probably.
One thing that I think has a strong effect is that American culture is more 'anti-intellectual' than some other countries. In other words there is less respect given to intellectual activities, (in school and out). So, at school, kids will get little or no respect for doing well at their subjects, (being cool, being good at sports counts for more), out of school the 'clever' solution is not wanted, ('keep it simple', make it strong, tough and reliable, etc).
This is obviously not a 100% correlation as I'm sure that some readers will feel that they know schools which are the opposite.
However it does explain some odd things which are different between US and say, European culture. Some examples might be cars - where would a high revving V10 or V12 engine be developed - Europe. Where would a four-wheel drive electronically controlled transmission be developed - Japan. Where would a rugged off roader be developed - US.
In US films, the baddy is clever and the simple 'normal guy' hero has to defeat his cleverness. In a European-style film, say James Bond, the hero is clever, the villians often stupid.
French TV routinely has debates about philosophy. Ask a frenchman/woman who their favourite philosopher is - they'll probably have one and be able to debate merits of others. The US has shows which concentrate on the lesson that strength/beauty are the most important attributes.
And lastly - schools are seen as less relevant. Cleverness, education is seen as necessary to get a job, not a character strength. Even the clever things people do, ("I built a nuclear reactor at home") tend to be be home made, single person activities. NASA, JPL, Caltech etc are the very examples of corporate 'cleverness' and they are taken as SOOO hard that nomal people need not apply, ("This is easy, it's not rocket science").
And don't get me started on George Bush.
So to get kids to study you have to give them something out of it tht they will want, rather than being declared a "Nerd"
Much longer for red doesn't mean long, it might be 3 picoseconds instead of 1. Anyway, if you play quake you want to play for red, because you will get the best update seeing the blue team
Slashdot Mirror
What about Bhopal? Thousands of people dead from an accident at a Union Carbide plant?
Not roughly 3 GJ, but roughly 2.99!!!!! Clearly not written by anyone who understands engineering!
Hear, hear, to Avebury being better than Stonehenge. When I was a lad you could walk in amongst the stones at Stoneghenge and climb on them, now you have to keep 50 yards away, what a shame. And Silbury Hill is just opposite West Kennet Longbarrow, which was started about 3500 B.C. Silbary, Avebury and West Kennet are all within about a 5 mile radius
Whew! Imagine the fun the neighbours could have watching which room you're in: "They're watching TV, they're watching TV, they've put the the kettle on, they're watching TV...." I'm sure it will be worth the effort of setting up 32 receivers and a suitable transmitter and calibrating it - all so the neighbours can work out which room I'm in. The winter evenings are going to just fly by.....
Every single one of the electrons in my Macbook has been around since the beginning of the universe. Beat that.
Gary Powers was shot down in a U2 at 70,000 ft in 1960. They thought that couldn't be shot down by a surface to air missile too. 49 years later, the max altitude of a surface to air missile is 5,000 ft less? I don't think so. Balloons can go way higher than 65,000 feet, the record is 53Km, i.e. more like 150,000ft. Put it up there and it might be safe
When Rimmer left Red Dwarf, his parting speech was something like: "After all of the time we have spent together, and all of the adventures that we have been through, I have come to think of you as..... people I have met" Damned with faint praise.
I don't understand what this continual battle over browser speed is all about. Surely 99% of the delay on any page is fetching the data off the internet? Who cares if 8ms or 10ms of the 500ms delay is due to browser speed. Is this really relevant to the normal user? Is this just universities on the internet backbone trying to measure tiny delays in some browser pissing contest?
Why do you think you're not drinking recycled urine...and much worse?
I'm with BT (British Telecom). They publish their cap, but they will not allow me any way of telling how much how much data has been downloaded. The whole family uses the PC, from the 6-year old upwards, so it is literally impossible to tell how much data is being transmitted by streaming video etc. Crazy. They will put up my monthly charge if I exceed their limit, but they won't tell me what I'm using!
"I didn't invent the English language. I have to use a language that someone else created in order to talk to you. So the process by which something is created is always incremental".
What a terrible analogy. Language was created by many people, therefore ALL inventing is incremental. You might as well say, I didn't grow this log, it grew over hundreds of years, therefore falling off it must take hundreds of years.
I think I know what he was trying to say. He was trying to say that to invent a better mousetrap, someone had to invent the drawing board and the pencil, and the first mousetrap, etc. That doesn't prove that you don't walk down the hall and stop dead saying "Swipe me! I've just invented the ultimate mousetrap!". ONly production problems from there on in.
Depends also, on the level of integrity required. If your software is a drawing package and the bug is that you cannot save drawings, then maybe you should have a patch on the internet in 48 hours, but if you have an aircraft flight control system, then maybe release in four weeks (analyse problem, design fix, risk review of knock-on effects of changes, code review of changes, update of test simulators, review simulator updates, write silumation tests, review simulation tests, test changes, review test results, write test reports, get clearance for flight trials, write flight trial tests, perform flight trials, analyse flight test data, write reports, submit for certification, etc), would be seen as impossibly fast. What is to be lost if your quick fix fails?
Have been reading about the way that Germany slipped into fascism. In a milder, slower way the USA seems to be following the same path. The USA seems to be heading towards the belief that the government must make decisions for the populace because 'the people will make irrational decisions'. You can see where that leads. Stop it now, I suggest.
If a link to porn is illegal, how about a link to a link to porn? If that's illegal, then a link-to-a-link-to-a-link etc. Eventually any link becomes illegal, probably. Is there a way to get from any site to any other only by clicking on links? Probably.
One thing that I think has a strong effect is that American culture is more 'anti-intellectual' than some other countries. In other words there is less respect given to intellectual activities, (in school and out). So, at school, kids will get little or no respect for doing well at their subjects, (being cool, being good at sports counts for more), out of school the 'clever' solution is not wanted, ('keep it simple', make it strong, tough and reliable, etc). This is obviously not a 100% correlation as I'm sure that some readers will feel that they know schools which are the opposite. However it does explain some odd things which are different between US and say, European culture. Some examples might be cars - where would a high revving V10 or V12 engine be developed - Europe. Where would a four-wheel drive electronically controlled transmission be developed - Japan. Where would a rugged off roader be developed - US. In US films, the baddy is clever and the simple 'normal guy' hero has to defeat his cleverness. In a European-style film, say James Bond, the hero is clever, the villians often stupid. French TV routinely has debates about philosophy. Ask a frenchman/woman who their favourite philosopher is - they'll probably have one and be able to debate merits of others. The US has shows which concentrate on the lesson that strength/beauty are the most important attributes. And lastly - schools are seen as less relevant. Cleverness, education is seen as necessary to get a job, not a character strength. Even the clever things people do, ("I built a nuclear reactor at home") tend to be be home made, single person activities. NASA, JPL, Caltech etc are the very examples of corporate 'cleverness' and they are taken as SOOO hard that nomal people need not apply, ("This is easy, it's not rocket science"). And don't get me started on George Bush. So to get kids to study you have to give them something out of it tht they will want, rather than being declared a "Nerd"
Much longer for red doesn't mean long, it might be 3 picoseconds instead of 1. Anyway, if you play quake you want to play for red, because you will get the best update seeing the blue team