Sounds like he has a hypothisis, now if he applies the scientific model, constructs some proper, double blind experiments to prove it, while removing interfering factors, it might grow up to be a theroy.
Till then I'll continue listening to MP3s.
Google, and corporate responsibility,
on
Google vs. Evil
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Google, as a privately owned company has as much right to hold an opinion as I do. While I might not agree with every decision (and I don't) they've ever made, I applaud that they have the courage to do so. If more companies had the courage of their convictions, the corporate landscape would have a lot less festering swamps, in my opinion, and maybe we'd have had a couple less Enrons.
It's also worth pointing out that they understand that their decisions implicate a world stage. Google isn't a mom and pop store on mainstreet, small town USA. They have a large chunk of the world looking at them, and understand that with that power, comes responsibility. I don't see any evidence that they have used that power irresponsably yet.
Also be aware that doing some of these things may place you in violation of FCC type compiance rules if you do it yourself, without appropiate FCC licening and testing. I am unsure of the rules and regs outside the ham frequencies, but you might wanna look into, to ensure you're under whatever the max radiated power for the frequencies involved. Having said this, there is a fair bit of home brew info for both active and passive repeater systems available, and the theory on that stuff should point you in the right direction for handling the shorter wavelengths (higher freq) involved in gigahertz frequency work.
If this solution were to be implemented, it would only work if there was a 3rd party that could be trusted by all sides of the deal. The 3rd party would 'release' the software when the conditions of the agreement were met, and would certify that the software performs to the specifications made public.
Otherwise the scheme would tend to generate mistrust on the public's side of the equation. Perhaps someone like the EFF or the GNU people could hold the rights in escrow until the appointed date/cash level is reached.
Personally I prefer that we could all just trust each other to be reasonable.
Ya, well there is a point where glasses don't cut it, and since it's the presure inside her eyeball that is giving her problems, and not a question of focal points (she's losing her perephial vision, which is key when you're moving a large heavy object down the road at 60 mph, trying to avoid people doing silly things.)
I recall when I got my first modem. The concensus was that it was "like having the first telephone, who do you call?"
Lesson: never think you can see the whole picture from a piece of isolated technology. Modems begot the internet, broadband, and who knows what next?
Who knows what the Segway will beget 30 yrs in the future, not I. Maybe it will not catch on and maybe it will become as ubiquitious as the internet is now. Who knows? Certianly not I.
It's always safer to write off any new technology cynically, because odds are that a given technological advance won't catch on. On the other hand, noone ever gained anything writing off a technology before they see what comes of it.
Try to open your minds a bit folks!
Minupla
The reason my mom is looking at getting one.
on
Segway HT Starts Selling
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
She's 65, lives close to a downtown core, and her eyesight is getting bad enough that driving a car is becoming problematic, or will in the next couple of years. Segway would be a good solution for her.
Try to look outside yourself when you judge the worth of a product.
*laughs* Damn, that brings back memories, and reminds me why I had my escape code for my modem set to , back when I was running a BBS on my C-64. Harder for some joker to get into a message that way:).
Re:A couple of inovative ideas
on
Ultimate Sleds?
·
· Score: 2
Wow, and they said I'd never amount to anything! Thanks!:)
A couple of thoughts come to mind. You could attach a large battery on your sled and heating coils to your runners... Turn on the juice, poof, no more snow and stopping will be imminate.
Another idea is to use sand to arrest yourself down to a speed where more traditional stoping methods (Flinstones was always my preference in my youth) will suffice.
Attach a chunk of 2x4 to the front with some decent nails driven through the front, hinge the 2x4 and flip them down and push down with your feet and hang on (because your sled will probably do an immediate 180, losing a substantal amount of speed int he process).
**WARNING: I will not be held responsible for damage to you, your seld or any incoming karmatic backlash for damage done to the trees:)**
Ah, the words of a person without a small ball of proto human distruction running around the house. Elmo would have enjoyed a short lifespan if it were not for backup copies:)
Logging in as root is the equivalent of opening up a piece of machinery with the warning label, "No user serviceable parts inside", ...and pouring in a bag of marbles ...and putting the machinery in a paint shaker:)
Thanks for a lucid an enlightening post. It's going into my "I might need this to show a user someday" file.
OK, Biochem was never my best subject, so I'm going to speak in generalities here. Yes, the laws of thermal dynamics say that you can never get equal energy out then what you put in. Consider the case of conventional fossil fuels tho. You put a spark in, and get a lot of energy out. What's going on there? Well obviously the energy is coming from the oil, which kindly dinos produced for us by eating lots of green leafy things, which grew by taking energy in from sunlight.
In the case of our sewage the same thing is the case, we're getting our energy by exploding Hydrogen, which was produced by some kindly humans eating green leafy things or things that ate green leafy things.
So, you could get your H{sub}2{/sub} out of the waste without terminally breaking any of the tenents of thermal dynamics, since what you are doing, rather then creating or destrying energy is converting it, with a big loss from the origional source (the sun).
My experiences with the Free Library
on
Sharing Doesn't Hurt
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I ran across the Free Library from a link in a/. comment, and read one of David Webers' books for the first time. I thereby discovered the Honor Harrington series of books of which I got to read the first title for free. I immediately put my friend onto the series who bought the first and subsequent volumes in dead-tree form. I myself discovered webscriptions.net where Baen sells electronic versions of their current and some back title list. I picked up the rest of the Honor series and have taken to reading most of my Baen series through webscriptions (heck, 10$ for 4-5 books, if I only ever read the one I bought that book bundle for, I break even, which has never been the case. If I read all 4-5 books (which is usually the case) I get them for 2-3$/book! A heck of a deal. Also ebooks work for me, I can load them on my palm when I'm working and don't have to carry a paperback with me to a client site, something that distracts from the professional air of a consultant working in 'managment' jobs).
So Baen has definately made money off the 2-3 books they gave me for free.
Incidentally, the author gets more money per book off of books I buy in e-format then they would if I went to the bookstore and bought a copy, and I can download them again if I lose my ecopy, and I save trees.
Relying on this is dangerous though, because of what a previous consulting firm I worked for called "The CNN Factor". If it comes out on a slow news day and you end up on Lou Dobbs, your stock will tank. Even if there are 1000 other firms doing exactly the same thing, even if it's 100% legal.
Hell, ask the folks at Anderson how having an image problem can equate to corporate suicide. You might get away with it 100 times, but time 101 you end up on CNN, and that's enough.
I adore my Logitech trackman FX. I've had it for years, Takes next to no desk space, and I don't have to pick it up when I need to turn farther in quake III, just wing the ball and let inertia do the rest while I pound the fire button... DeathSpirl!!! Mwhahahahahahaha:)
Quoted from: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/pipermail/ukcryp to/1998-December/003102.html "If you're talking about the British government or the American government, they're virtually permanently tapping all of our stuff and using voice and character recognition," Gregory says. "I know what technology they've got. "The Tunisians [where a new office is being set up] aren't as subtle as the Americans and the British. It's a bit like heavy breathing on the line."
However, even though Amnesty staff can automatically encode any message sent in Notes with its built-in encryption - certain staff use far stronger PGP encryption - Gregory says the US export ban on strong encryption still leaves it in a difficult situation.
Remember, not all countries that AI investigates can be as unsubtle as to beat passphrases out of people, and the person couriering the data need not have the passphrase to have it beat out of them.
Agreed. I'd point out though that the message I originally replied to seemed to take a more general "Why bother with PGP at all" sort of tone. The orig message has since gotten moderated into the ground, but that's beside the point:).
Read the previous article. The source for NAI's PGP was released. The change in policy was why P.Z. left NAI, but up till the very last version it was published source (as is traditional in cryptography software) so we could inspect the encryption and make sure it worked, and didn't contain any backdoors.
How about Amnesty International who uses PGP to keep their researchers who are in dangerous parts of the world, and the people who inform them safe from governments who would think nothing of searching their laptops? PGP has saved lives of good people who without it wouldn't have access to encryption secure enough to trust their lives with.
Think about that, how many computer programs would you trust your life with?
My understanding is that this is why Doctor Who had companions. *grins* and I always thought it was because The Doctor would have looked silly in a skirt that got shorter as the season went on:).
Seriously tho, ya. That's Brass's character's purpose a lot of the time I think, too, but it would get just as repetitive to have the characters constantly calling Brass over so they could explain it to us too, not to mention that with 2 or 3 investigations per episode, Brass would have to eat fewer doughnuts!:)
Re:Problem with CSI
on
The Rise of CSI
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Nothing new there, although they do make nice use of Brass on occasion as a stand in Watson to their Holmes. But this is a problem mystery shows, and novels have had for a long time. If your plot is going to be twisted, every now and again you need to explain it to Watson. I really don't see a good solution...
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds like he has a hypothisis, now if he applies the scientific model, constructs some proper, double blind experiments to prove it, while removing interfering factors, it might grow up to be a theroy.
Till then I'll continue listening to MP3s.
Google, as a privately owned company has as much right to hold an opinion as I do. While I might not agree with every decision (and I don't) they've ever made, I applaud that they have the courage to do so. If more companies had the courage of their convictions, the corporate landscape would have a lot less festering swamps, in my opinion, and maybe we'd have had a couple less Enrons.
It's also worth pointing out that they understand that their decisions implicate a world stage. Google isn't a mom and pop store on mainstreet, small town USA. They have a large chunk of the world looking at them, and understand that with that power, comes responsibility. I don't see any evidence that they have used that power irresponsably yet.
Also be aware that doing some of these things may place you in violation of FCC type compiance rules if you do it yourself, without appropiate FCC licening and testing. I am unsure of the rules and regs outside the ham frequencies, but you might wanna look into, to ensure you're under whatever the max radiated power for the frequencies involved. Having said this, there is a fair bit of home brew info for both active and passive repeater systems available, and the theory on that stuff should point you in the right direction for handling the shorter wavelengths (higher freq) involved in gigahertz frequency work.
If this solution were to be implemented, it would only work if there was a 3rd party that could be trusted by all sides of the deal. The 3rd party would 'release' the software when the conditions of the agreement were met, and would certify that the software performs to the specifications made public.
Otherwise the scheme would tend to generate mistrust on the public's side of the equation. Perhaps someone like the EFF or the GNU people could hold the rights in escrow until the appointed date/cash level is reached.
Personally I prefer that we could all just trust each other to be reasonable.
"Black holes are where God divided by zero." - Steven Wright
Ya, well there is a point where glasses don't cut it, and since it's the presure inside her eyeball that is giving her problems, and not a question of focal points (she's losing her perephial vision, which is key when you're moving a large heavy object down the road at 60 mph, trying to avoid people doing silly things.)
I recall when I got my first modem. The concensus was that it was "like having the first telephone, who do you call?"
Lesson: never think you can see the whole picture from a piece of isolated technology. Modems begot the internet, broadband, and who knows what next?
Who knows what the Segway will beget 30 yrs in the future, not I. Maybe it will not catch on and maybe it will become as ubiquitious as the internet is now. Who knows? Certianly not I.
It's always safer to write off any new technology cynically, because odds are that a given technological advance won't catch on. On the other hand, noone ever gained anything writing off a technology before they see what comes of it.
Try to open your minds a bit folks!
Minupla
She's 65, lives close to a downtown core, and her eyesight is getting bad enough that driving a car is becoming problematic, or will in the next couple of years. Segway would be a good solution for her.
Try to look outside yourself when you judge the worth of a product.
Don't forget Empire... That game has eaten way too much of my time over the years, and I still can't get past round 5 :).
*laughs* Damn, that brings back memories, and reminds me why I had my escape code for my modem set to , back when I was running a BBS on my C-64. Harder for some joker to get into a message that way :).
Wow, and they said I'd never amount to anything! Thanks! :)
A couple of thoughts come to mind. You could attach a large battery on your sled and heating coils to your runners... Turn on the juice, poof, no more snow and stopping will be imminate.
:)**
Another idea is to use sand to arrest yourself down to a speed where more traditional stoping methods (Flinstones was always my preference in my youth) will suffice.
Attach a chunk of 2x4 to the front with some decent nails driven through the front, hinge the 2x4 and flip them down and push down with your feet and hang on (because your sled will probably do an immediate 180, losing a substantal amount of speed int he process).
**WARNING: I will not be held responsible for damage to you, your seld or any incoming karmatic backlash for damage done to the trees
Ah, the words of a person without a small ball of proto human distruction running around the house. Elmo would have enjoyed a short lifespan if it were not for backup copies :)
Logging in as root is the equivalent of opening up a piece of machinery with the warning label, "No user serviceable parts inside", :)
...and pouring in a bag of marbles
...and putting the machinery in a paint shaker
Thanks for a lucid an enlightening post. It's going into my "I might need this to show a user someday" file.
OK, Biochem was never my best subject, so I'm going to speak in generalities here. Yes, the laws of thermal dynamics say that you can never get equal energy out then what you put in. Consider the case of conventional fossil fuels tho. You put a spark in, and get a lot of energy out. What's going on there? Well obviously the energy is coming from the oil, which kindly dinos produced for us by eating lots of green leafy things, which grew by taking energy in from sunlight.
In the case of our sewage the same thing is the case, we're getting our energy by exploding Hydrogen, which was produced by some kindly humans eating green leafy things or things that ate green leafy things.
So, you could get your H{sub}2{/sub} out of the waste without terminally breaking any of the tenents of thermal dynamics, since what you are doing, rather then creating or destrying energy is converting it, with a big loss from the origional source (the sun).
I ran across the Free Library from a link in a /. comment, and read one of David Webers' books for the first time. I thereby discovered the Honor Harrington series of books of which I got to read the first title for free. I immediately put my friend onto the series who bought the first and subsequent volumes in dead-tree form. I myself discovered webscriptions.net where Baen sells electronic versions of their current and some back title list. I picked up the rest of the Honor series and have taken to reading most of my Baen series through webscriptions (heck, 10$ for 4-5 books, if I only ever read the one I bought that book bundle for, I break even, which has never been the case. If I read all 4-5 books (which is usually the case) I get them for 2-3$/book! A heck of a deal. Also ebooks work for me, I can load them on my palm when I'm working and don't have to carry a paperback with me to a client site, something that distracts from the professional air of a consultant working in 'managment' jobs).
So Baen has definately made money off the 2-3 books they gave me for free.
Incidentally, the author gets more money per book off of books I buy in e-format then they would if I went to the bookstore and bought a copy, and I can download them again if I lose my ecopy, and I save trees.
Relying on this is dangerous though, because of what a previous consulting firm I worked for called "The CNN Factor". If it comes out on a slow news day and you end up on Lou Dobbs, your stock will tank. Even if there are 1000 other firms doing exactly the same thing, even if it's 100% legal.
Hell, ask the folks at Anderson how having an image problem can equate to corporate suicide. You might get away with it 100 times, but time 101 you end up on CNN, and that's enough.
I adore my Logitech trackman FX. I've had it for years, Takes next to no desk space, and I don't have to pick it up when I need to turn farther in quake III, just wing the ball and let inertia do the rest while I pound the fire button... DeathSpirl!!! Mwhahahahahahaha :)
*grins* isn't it though? ;)
Quoted from: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/pipermail/ukcryp to/1998-December/003102.html
"If you're talking about the British government or the American government,
they're virtually permanently tapping all of our stuff and using voice and
character recognition," Gregory says. "I know what technology they've got.
"The Tunisians [where a new office is being set up] aren't as subtle as the
Americans and the British. It's a bit like heavy breathing on the line."
However, even though Amnesty staff can automatically encode any message sent
in Notes with its built-in encryption - certain staff use far stronger PGP
encryption - Gregory says the US export ban on strong encryption still
leaves it in a difficult situation.
Remember, not all countries that AI investigates can be as unsubtle as to beat passphrases out of people, and the person couriering the data need not have the passphrase to have it beat out of them.
Agreed. I'd point out though that the message I originally replied to seemed to take a more general "Why bother with PGP at all" sort of tone. The orig message has since gotten moderated into the ground, but that's beside the point :).
Read the previous article. The source for NAI's PGP was released. The change in policy was why P.Z. left NAI, but up till the very last version it was published source (as is traditional in cryptography software) so we could inspect the encryption and make sure it worked, and didn't contain any backdoors.
How about Amnesty International who uses PGP to keep their researchers who are in dangerous parts of the world, and the people who inform them safe from governments who would think nothing of searching their laptops? PGP has saved lives of good people who without it wouldn't have access to encryption secure enough to trust their lives with.
Think about that, how many computer programs would you trust your life with?
My understanding is that this is why Doctor Who had companions. :).
:)
*grins* and I always thought it was because The Doctor would have looked silly in a skirt that got shorter as the season went on
Seriously tho, ya. That's Brass's character's purpose a lot of the time I think, too, but it would get just as repetitive to have the characters constantly calling Brass over so they could explain it to us too, not to mention that with 2 or 3 investigations per episode, Brass would have to eat fewer doughnuts!
Nothing new there, although they do make nice use of Brass on occasion as a stand in Watson to their Holmes. But this is a problem mystery shows, and novels have had for a long time. If your plot is going to be twisted, every now and again you need to explain it to Watson. I really don't see a good solution...