If anything Karma changes should be eliminated due to politically motivated moderation in this section. Some serious damage could occur to someone's account that is diametrically opposed to the rest of the Slashdot mentality. I think that is the most important point of your post. Editors should be aware that it may drive readers away if the spectrum of political opinions on/. narrows. The same goes for unfair editor moderation as the other posts suggest.
I wonder how stable the whole moderation thing is. I don't think it is 100% stable, i.e. for every unfair post/mod from the one side there is retaliation from the other side. Maybe, if a certain group feels that their view is underrepresented on slashdot => leaves => view is underrepresented even more so => vicious circle. Is probably very interesting to look at the moderation system from a nonlinear dynamics point of view(*).
Nerds may agree on technology (aww, ok, not always, Java vs. C++, KDE vs. Gnome, but the arguments are not *that* harsh), but politics is another matter.
(*) - Slashdot should spit out summary data on the moderation, i.e. how many mod points were given etc. Maybe one can find interesting things in these time series:)
Mod parent up! This discussion thread looks like if newton's law is the last theory there is about gravity. But Einstein has invented/discovered general relativity now nearly 90 years ago.
And yes, gravitational waves have been at least indirectly observed (there was a nobel prize for that discovery!).
So, general relativity has some experimental/observational data which supports it. It's probably not the last word about gravity, but it is a significant refinement of newton's theory.
And, if you consider special relativity correct but you also want to have FTL gravity interactions, it follows pretty easily that you could transmit information backwards in time which would be weird and has not been observed.
You've seen The Core recently I take it? No, thanks. I haven't got TV and have only seen 3 movies (or so) in cinema this year.
I don't know where do you get your information from, but the last that I've read was article (damn, where's the source) about the atmosphere creating a magnetic field itself if it would be hit by solar ions/wind.
Anyway, you would still have the solar wind penetrating into the stratosphere in significant amounts if there is no magnetic field. H2O would break up into H+O and the H gets lost in space, in the end leaving you with a CO2 atmosphere like the venus has (no magnetic field). A better outcome?
Re:Couldn't be done in U.S.
on
China Goes Nuclear
·
· Score: 1, Informative
But AFAIK, pebble bed reactors work at fairly high temperatures. If air leaks into the reactor vessel and the fuel starts to burn, it would get really messy.
Not that I oppose nuclear power, though. But safety should be a major design factor.
He, thanks for pointing out that it is "Potassium". I knew something was wrong with "Kalium":) It's Kalium in germany.
Re:Nuclear energy works!
on
China Goes Nuclear
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Another idea I once heard about(*) about was to dilute the radioactive waste in the earth's magma. The earth is pretty big and even if we would switch to 100% nuclear energy, it would hardly be noticeable that volcanic eruptions get a bit more radioactive.
The only problem is that research needs to be done how, where and if it is possible to use steady downward magma flows which would take the stuff with them. But this research would be probably worth it, considering all the geological information you would also get from it.
For the anti nuclear nuts here which even dislike such a solution: Did you know that that magnetic field depends on the natural radioactivity in the inner earth? Yes, the Kalium 40 keeps the earth's core molten and therefore able to generate the currents which cause the earth's magnetic field, which shield us from dangerous radiation...:-)
(*) - I can't find the source now... maybe it was a/. post.
Maybe not aliens (I'm sometimes to sceptical to get excited, although I'd like to be:) but new astrophysical phenomena. AFAIK, pulsars (these fast spinning dead stars with rotational periods in the msec-sec range) were discovered as someone looked at the data and though "wow, aliens, this periodic signal".
Speaking as a rather left-wing european, I must say that indymedia isn't an "information outlet". They only spread their opinion. Really. From what I have read, I'm disappointed and also ashamed because their view of the world is rather primitive.
"News" about leftist "anti-fascism" riots, anti nuclear and anti biotech.
Uhoh, I did that myself but stopped as I heard how toxic the substances are which will be generated by this process!
Some components (especially older ones, and you're probably desoldering lots of *old* boards) are made flame resistant, and heating them produces really nasty stuff. You aren't heating them with a temperature-controlled soldering iron, you're using an uncontrolled heat gun, mine can melt glass!
I read it in several magazines here in germany. Maybe someone has a link? A quick google turned nothing up.
At least, I would take several precautions, such a doing this outside, wearing a gas mask etc.
Also there's much lead on older boards. 40% in the solder (Sb60Pb).
People already freak out about the lead and, at least here in the EU, lead containing solder will be, IMHO, phased out in 2006. I'm now using more and more lead free solder myself (for the hobby work), but more as a general precaution (it's available and not *too* much more expensive), and, of course, I also solder older boards without worrying too much. But heating lead very much may produce lead fumes - I do not want to inhale them.
I also think that painting with water soluble chalk is ok, even if it is done semi-automatically. But a big company shouldn't probably be allowed to chalk advertisements everywhere... it's also about the scale.
In cologne (I'm from germany) there's an activist who writes (political) statements onto billboards in the subways. I think even this is ok. Damage, yes, but also only temporal, like chalk on the street (since the advertisements get replaced every few weeks). Since it also increases the value of the advertisements - they get look at be cause there are interesting things to read(!), so there was no lawsuit yet. Of course it would be not ok if another company starting glueing advertisements on top of the existing ones.
What I don't like is private property being smeared with permanent paint. It's permanent, it's vandalism. Somehow, as a liberal you have to accept this "as art" or you'll be considered as a conservative, right-wing oldie by your sometimes a bit too liberal fellows. [Actually it's the same about legalizing drugs, stopping nuclear power plants etc. but don't get me started ont that:) ]
in an emergency, pick it up and dial 911 - the call must go through or the phone company is in a lot of trouble. Heh... but before, you're probably in a lot of trouble!
Thanks alot! Over all, it seems that most/.ers are now just these terrible java zealots. I've written a very similar comment above. First of all we should stop saying JVM==Java.
First of all, Java!=JVM. Please make this distinction. I won't discuss the pros and cons of Java as a language here, just the JVM. You can use gcj to GNU-compile Java and you'll get very close to the performance of GNU-compiled C++ which is what one would expect. Note that I said GNU-compiled because there still commercial compilers which produce better code, in terms of execution speed. [Of course, I hope GCC will overtake them, but that's an unrelated issue:)]
Mod me troll flamebait, whatever - but the JVM is slow, not only on start up.
The empirical argument IMHO, todays average real world JVM app *is* slower than the average real world compiled app. And, no, I do not talk about the startup time only. GUI code is slow. Network/File I/O is slow. Show me a JVM app (app, not test case!) with a native compiled equivalent which is slower. You won't find any.
MAYBE there is the *theoretical possibility* of JIT being faster than compiled/hand optimized assembly code. But this is purely theoretical. I have yet to see real world apps and not some made-up testcases with matching peephole optimizations for a particular architecture where this is the case. There are still uneccessary virtual method calls, wasted stack space etc. in JIT code.
The theoretical argument, mixed with personal opinion:) Doing JIT with JVM code involves steps very similar to decompilation [JVM->IntermediateCode->Target] because in JVM code, no information about higher-level structure is preserved. This reconstruction is computationally very expensive (google: decompilation problems) so only approximative algorithms are used, leading to non-optimal code. There are reasons why e.g. the ANDF format preserves much more information than JVM code.
A possible solution I think LLVM is a nice project that could bring all the VM hype of Java to C/C++/CommonLisp/Perl/Python/BiglooScheme etc. And Java! Sure LLVM still lacks many things, the VM code isn't much more descriptive than JVM code etc. But it is independent, and it is growing. An LLVM applet plugin for Mozilla would be nice:)
This is also a partly political thing. Why do FLOSS Java developers accept the fact that Java and JVM are so tightly coupled? Maybe this helps Sun's goals (to spread the platform Java) but technically, it is clearly an inferiour solution.
If you're already designing an external microchip, why not design a whole little recorder? ACK. Shouldn't be too hard. For example, use an Atmel AVR 8-bit microcontroller and a DiskOnChip flash memory (really cheap for the 8-16MB range) + an electret microphone. All neccessary parts for 10EUR/$ and great flexibility.
I would also have severe privacy concerns with always-on recording and later editing.
[Disclaimer, IANAE (economist), but studying physics and I'm currently reading through statistical physics textbooks with fairly interesting econophysics chapters.]
I thought about the same. If everyone applies the found patterns and algorithms, the amount time you will be able to forecast the market will just drop to zero. One is essentially extracting money from the patterns and if everyone is doing that, no one can be left, so the predictability will be gone. For me, this looks like collectively hunting a rainbow.
What maybe even worse if many people use the same or similar algorithms for trading. I think this could very well lead to grave instabilities (100% herd behaviour).
Slashdot Mirror
If anything Karma changes should be eliminated due to politically motivated moderation in this section. Some serious damage could occur to someone's account that is diametrically opposed to the rest of the Slashdot mentality. /. narrows. The same goes for unfair editor moderation as the other posts suggest.
:)
I think that is the most important point of your post. Editors should be aware that it may drive readers away if the spectrum of political opinions on
I wonder how stable the whole moderation thing is. I don't think it is 100% stable, i.e. for every unfair post/mod from the one side there is retaliation from the other side.
Maybe, if a certain group feels that their view is underrepresented on slashdot => leaves => view is underrepresented even more so => vicious circle. Is probably very interesting to look at the moderation system from a nonlinear dynamics point of view(*).
Nerds may agree on technology (aww, ok, not always, Java vs. C++, KDE vs. Gnome, but the arguments are not *that* harsh), but politics is another matter.
(*) - Slashdot should spit out summary data on the moderation, i.e. how many mod points were given etc. Maybe one can find interesting things in these time series
Thanks. That's the spirit of what I was trying to say in my post :)
Mod parent up!
This discussion thread looks like if newton's law is the last theory there is about gravity. But Einstein has invented/discovered general relativity now nearly 90 years ago.
And yes, gravitational waves have been at least indirectly observed (there was a nobel prize for that discovery!).
So, general relativity has some experimental/observational data which supports it. It's probably not the last word about gravity, but it is a significant refinement of newton's theory.
And, if you consider special relativity correct but you also want to have FTL gravity interactions, it follows pretty easily that you could transmit information backwards in time which would be weird and has not been observed.
You've seen The Core recently I take it?
No, thanks. I haven't got TV and have only seen 3 movies (or so) in cinema this year.
I don't know where do you get your information from, but the last that I've read was article (damn, where's the source) about the atmosphere creating a magnetic field itself if it would be hit by solar ions/wind.
Anyway, you would still have the solar wind penetrating into the stratosphere in significant amounts if there is no magnetic field. H2O would break up into H+O and the H gets lost in space, in the end leaving you with a CO2 atmosphere like the venus has (no magnetic field). A better outcome?
But AFAIK, pebble bed reactors work at fairly high temperatures. If air leaks into the reactor vessel and the fuel starts to burn, it would get really messy.
Not that I oppose nuclear power, though. But safety should be a major design factor.
He, thanks for pointing out that it is "Potassium". I knew something was wrong with "Kalium" :)
It's Kalium in germany.
Another idea I once heard about(*) about was to dilute the radioactive waste in the earth's magma. The earth is pretty big and even if we would switch to 100% nuclear energy, it would hardly be noticeable that volcanic eruptions get a bit more radioactive.
:-)
/. post.
The only problem is that research needs to be done how, where and if it is possible to use steady downward magma flows which would take the stuff with them. But this research would be probably worth it, considering all the geological information you would also get from it.
For the anti nuclear nuts here which even dislike such a solution: Did you know that that magnetic field depends on the natural radioactivity in the inner earth? Yes, the Kalium 40 keeps the earth's core molten and therefore able to generate the currents which cause the earth's magnetic field, which shield us from dangerous radiation...
(*) - I can't find the source now... maybe it was a
Lasers aren't actually parallel. They are diffraction limited.
Correct! I also want to point that even though "absorption" may sound like nothing (especially in space), it is actually an exponential process.
For big distances, the exp(-x) process will dominate the 1/(r^2) process, i.e. absorption will dominate beam widening.
You have a rather clear view in space, though.
Yes... and there is also a seti@home page for the signal candidate.
is here on
Scotsman.com.
it is "something"!!
:) but new astrophysical phenomena.
Maybe not aliens (I'm sometimes to sceptical to get excited, although I'd like to be
AFAIK, pulsars (these fast spinning dead stars with rotational periods in the msec-sec range) were discovered as someone looked at the data and though "wow, aliens, this periodic signal".
Speaking as a rather left-wing european, I must say that indymedia isn't an "information outlet". They only spread their opinion. Really. From what I have read, I'm disappointed and also ashamed because their view of the world is rather primitive.
"News" about leftist "anti-fascism" riots, anti nuclear and anti biotech.
No, thanks.
oops. sn60pb :)
Uhoh, I did that myself but stopped as I heard how toxic the substances are which will be generated by this process!
Some components (especially older ones, and you're probably desoldering lots of *old* boards) are made flame resistant, and heating them produces really nasty stuff. You aren't heating them with a temperature-controlled soldering iron, you're using an uncontrolled heat gun, mine can melt glass!
I read it in several magazines here in germany. Maybe someone has a link? A quick google turned nothing up.
At least, I would take several precautions, such a doing this outside, wearing a gas mask etc.
Also there's much lead on older boards. 40% in the solder (Sb60Pb).
People already freak out about the lead and, at least here in the EU, lead containing solder will be, IMHO, phased out in 2006. I'm now using more and more lead free solder myself (for the hobby work), but more as a general precaution (it's available and not *too* much more expensive), and, of course, I also solder older boards without worrying too much.
But heating lead very much may produce lead fumes - I do not want to inhale them.
I also think that painting with water soluble chalk is ok, even if it is done semi-automatically. But a big company shouldn't probably be allowed to chalk advertisements everywhere... it's also about the scale.
:) ]
In cologne (I'm from germany) there's an activist who writes (political) statements onto billboards in the subways. I think even this is ok. Damage, yes, but also only temporal, like chalk on the street (since the advertisements get replaced every few weeks). Since it also increases the value of the advertisements - they get look at be cause there are interesting things to read(!), so there was no lawsuit yet. Of course it would be not ok if another company starting glueing advertisements on top of the existing ones.
What I don't like is private property being smeared with permanent paint. It's permanent, it's vandalism. Somehow, as a liberal you have to accept this "as art" or you'll be considered as a conservative, right-wing oldie by your sometimes a bit too liberal fellows. [Actually it's the same about legalizing drugs, stopping nuclear power plants etc. but don't get me started ont that
in an emergency, pick it up and dial 911 - the call must go through or the phone company is in a lot of trouble.
Heh... but before, you're probably in a lot of trouble!
It can be both. In the real world, "or" is "^". But on slashdot, "or" is OR, i.e. "|" :-)
I just saw self-cooling beer barrels in our supermarket here in germany. But they were pretty expensive, about 50EUR for 30l...
Thanks alot! /.ers are now just these terrible java zealots.
Over all, it seems that most
I've written a very similar comment above. First of all we should stop saying JVM==Java.
First of all, Java!=JVM. Please make this distinction. I won't discuss the pros and cons of Java as a language here, just the JVM. You can use gcj to GNU-compile Java and you'll get very close to the performance of GNU-compiled C++ which is what one would expect. Note that I said GNU-compiled because there still commercial compilers which produce better code, in terms of execution speed. [Of course, I hope GCC will overtake them, but that's an unrelated issue :)]
:)
:)
Mod me troll flamebait, whatever - but the JVM is slow, not only on start up.
The empirical argument
IMHO, todays average real world JVM app *is* slower than the average real world compiled app. And, no, I do not talk about the startup time only. GUI code is slow. Network/File I/O is slow. Show me a JVM app (app, not test case!) with a native compiled equivalent which is slower. You won't find any.
MAYBE there is the *theoretical possibility* of JIT being faster than compiled/hand optimized assembly code. But this is purely theoretical. I have yet to see real world apps and not some made-up testcases with matching peephole optimizations for a particular architecture where this is the case. There are still uneccessary virtual method calls, wasted stack space etc. in JIT code.
The theoretical argument, mixed with personal opinion
Doing JIT with JVM code involves steps very similar to decompilation [JVM->IntermediateCode->Target] because in JVM code, no information about higher-level structure is preserved. This reconstruction is computationally very expensive (google: decompilation problems) so only approximative algorithms are used, leading to non-optimal code. There are reasons why e.g. the ANDF format preserves much more information than JVM code.
A possible solution
I think LLVM is a nice project that could bring all the VM hype of Java to C/C++/CommonLisp/Perl/Python/BiglooScheme etc. And Java!
Sure LLVM still lacks many things, the VM code isn't much more descriptive than JVM code etc. But it is independent, and it is growing. An LLVM applet plugin for Mozilla would be nice
This is also a partly political thing. Why do FLOSS Java developers accept the fact that Java and JVM are so tightly coupled? Maybe this helps Sun's goals (to spread the platform Java) but technically, it is clearly an inferiour solution.
Hey, congrats to the 10,000,000th post! 55 replies so far and still growing :)
Actually, I have a similar picture hanging on the wall, attributed to a series of photographs taken from the MIR space station.
I think the difference here is that it has a much higher resolution!
If you're already designing an external microchip, why not design a whole little recorder?
ACK. Shouldn't be too hard. For example, use an Atmel AVR 8-bit microcontroller and a DiskOnChip flash memory (really cheap for the 8-16MB range) + an electret microphone. All neccessary parts for 10EUR/$ and great flexibility.
I would also have severe privacy concerns with always-on recording and later editing.
Sorry.
"... no one can be left.." should read ".. no money can be left...".
[Disclaimer, IANAE (economist), but studying physics and I'm currently reading through statistical physics textbooks with fairly interesting econophysics chapters.]
I thought about the same.
If everyone applies the found patterns and algorithms, the amount time you will be able to forecast the market will just drop to zero. One is essentially extracting money from the patterns and if everyone is doing that, no one can be left, so the predictability will be gone. For me, this looks like collectively hunting a rainbow.
What maybe even worse if many people use the same or similar algorithms for trading. I think this could very well lead to grave instabilities (100% herd behaviour).