I, for one, do not believe that Google uses Puppy Juice to power its data centers.
However, since the allegation has been raised, it is unsettling that Google has (so far) failed to deny the widespread use of Puppy Juice in their data centers.
If Google indeed is innocent of the use of Puppy Juice, then why will they not at least issue a statement to that effect? Hopefully Google will issue a clarification soon as to their Puppy Juice consumption policy.
Indeed, their failure to deny the use of Puppy Juice in data centers, tends to lend credence to the rumors circulating in Zambia that Google employees are provided a monthly ration of Puppy Juice as an employment benefit... and Google does not even deny this benefit exists.
Its as though Google thinks that as long as they ignore the Puppy Juice scandal it will go away!
Again, I personally do not believe that Google endorses the consumption of Puppy Juice...but the fact that they have not yet issued an official denial of the use of Puppy Juice, in the face of all this evidence, has left me wondering.
Especially, considering the recent rumors that have been surfacing in Iceland, about Kitty Juice.
"It is used in connection with identical goods"...
I went to the SPARC International website to see what these 'identical goods' might be.
Ironically, Googles 'Safe' browsing warned me not to visit the place!... it seems to be hosting "12 trojan(s), 8 exploit(s), 6 scripting exploit(s)"
I went there anyway and found that they sell... 'SPARC Architecture License' and 'Type 5 Keyboard Interface License' And that's it.
I was so disappointed! Because I thought perhaps the site would be a new source of cool experimenter parts, microcontroller development systems, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Inertial Measuring Units, GPS modules, accelerometers, humidity sensors...
But all SPARC International sells is... paper. (Sorry, they don't actually SELL anything, they License it).
In any event, I don't think that any of SPARC Internationals potential customers could possibly confuse it with "SparkFun" and its offerings.
The word "Spark" is in common usage and has been for what, HUNDREDS of years? The product line is entirely different... FAR from the claim that they are selling "identical goods". Hell they don't even actually SELL ANYTHING!
Man, he's been partying it up here in Fort Myers for years. Usually you first see him around time for Spring Break, rolling into town in a caravan of Hummers and Greyhounds loaded with Turkish smoke and more jiggly girls than you can imagine, straight from Mardis Gras in New Orleens.
OBL isn't one for drinking Coladas though... he usually starts with a Margarita or two, then its on to Jack Daniels with coke, winding up with straight Jack (with extra Jack, on a really rowdy night).
He's only about 5 months older than me, but with his beard and all he looked a lot older. So I said 'OBL, you ought to clean it up a bit" Now he's lookin really sharp with his goatee. The chicks just love it, and you'll see often see them giggling as he adjusts his robes, for some reason.
Most people don't know he's an engineer, but around here he's got people all riled up about how badly designed are the I-75 and US-41 bridges across the Caloosahatchee. He's always going on and on about how those bridges are so fragile they could be taken out with a barge or medium sized aircraft.
When he's sober you'll often find him in Centennial Park playing chess. Someone told me he was going to join the chess club, but couldn't find a sponsor. That was a few years back. Not long after that the club went under.
Hmmm.
So anyway, just like Adolf, Pol Pot, the Bush family, and many other historical figures, he's found a new home here in the land of Sunshine and Perpetual Vacation, where life is just a party from December to May (or is it May / December).
Actually, neither is criminal. No law was violated... (IANAL, so just kick me if I'm wrong and I'll go back to my X-Plane).
Palm HAS violated a 'gentlemans agreement' with the USB-IF.
Just because you don't agree with Apples actions, does not make Apples actions criminal.
It seems that you are prioritizing... Palms money grubbing desire to make a profit off Apples work over... Apples money grubbing desire to make a profit off Apples work.
The MTA is supposedly providing a public service in transporting people from one place to another.
In order for that service to actually be useful, a published schedule is required.
For that published schedule to be useful it must be Accurate, Timely, Accessible, Sufficient, and Understandable to the great majority of the public.
If the MTAs published schedule met these minimum requirements, there would be no viable market for third party involvement.
Since there obviously IS a third party market, it stands to reason that the MTA is not providing one or more of the requirements to be useful, to the public it is supposed to be serving.
So a third party steps in to provide that service. It's the American way, and I say the MTA should spend more effort making sure their published information is actually useful to their customers.
If that net charge is evenly distrubuted in a system, nothing interesting happens.
If that charge is distorted in any way shape or form, an electric current will flow.
if a current flows, a magnetic field will be generated.
If any conductor moves through that magnetic field, a new (weaker) electric field will form, generating (weaker) currents of its own, and corresponding (weaker) magnetic fields and... you get the drift.
Open up any 'closed' system to external inputs of energy and all sorts of amazing things happen... sort of like when you open up 'closed' software to external influences... the results can be amazing.
Getting back to exploring electromagnetism. When I was a young whipper snapper we had new fangled ALNICO magnets... pretty strong, but nowhere near like the 'Neo' magnets available now, at dirt cheap prices.
These new magnets are strong enough that almost all electromagnetic effects are readily visible to the untrained eye... and that sparks the imagination. The learner can easily observe cause and effect, for themselves, with their own eyes, and then go on to explore the implications using other tools, including simulations.
My point is that, without personal observation, science education is just along the lines of 'I am telling you that this is true... trust me.' That's not science, that's dogma.
Simulations that are useful for learning must be grounded in reality. They must give the learner a chance to extrapolate principles from their own personal hands-on observations to the simulation.
Without original personal observation of physical phenonema, simulations are little more than 'das blinken lights' to the learner.
Don't get me wrong, the stuff offered by the OP is good. And if the kids in question already have an interest in the subject, its great.
But to spark an original interest takes hands-on, thought provoking experiments that the learner may manipulate in any way they wish (some of which you probably never thought of).
Example. Electromagnetism. My 8th grade grandson (yup I'm an old geezer who cut my teeth on vacuum toobs and RTL) learned a lot about the interplay between electric and magnetics fields just today. I suspended a magnet on a string, over an aluminum plate, and just left it there for him to find, and play around with. After he had done so, he asked why when the plate was present the pendulum swiftly assumed a stable position, whereas when the plate was absent the pendulum assumed a rather chaotic motion... even though the magnet was obviously not attracted to aluminum.
After explaining it to him and allowing him to further explore the physics with magnet wire and batteries, he came away with a firmer grasp on electromagnetism, a grasp I highly doubt he would have gotten from a canned simulation. Now that he has made a connection in his mind between the seen (magnetic damping of the pendulum motion) and the unseen (electrical currents in the aluminum plate, and the ensuing magnetic field), a simulation would allow him to further explore the subject without requiring expensive laboratory equipment.
So, Kudos for the work, but you have to get out there and actively, physically engage them with hands-on experiments. After, that is really what science is about!
In response to your recent communication, demanding treble damages for illegal use of your Intellectual 'Property...
Upon review of our ledger, we have determined that our profit on this product amounted to negative $5000. That is $ -5000.00 Dollars in US currency.
We therefore accept your kind offer, and look forward to timely receipt of your payment to us for $15,000 US.
We normally accept payment only by PayPal or Google Checkout, but in this instance we will waive that requirement, to allow payment by Cashiers Check, Money Order, or Western Union. Please make payable to...
FU Bedrock
LongView, East Texas
Thank you for your prompt attention too this matter!
Quite some time ago I browsed the site, and found contacts there to several long-lost friends and acquaintances.
In order to contact them cold, I had to buy a membership, which I did (yeah, my stupid).
Of course having signed up and provided my email address, I was immediately inundated with hundreds of unsolicited offers for 'penis growth factor' and get rich quick schemes & etc... along with many messages which claimed an old buddy was trying to contact me, and all I need to do was buy a membership (which I already had).
I never heard back from anyone I tried to contact through Classmates. And I never heard from anyone else who tried to contact me through Classmates.
After a while I wrote it off as a learning experience. Doesn't surprise me at all to see the organization is being slammed and sued... just another on-line shyster.
"State-of-the-art systems today can simulate about five years per day of computer time, he says, but some climatologists yearn to simulate 100 years in a day."
IANAM (I am not a meteorologist) like Mr Loft, so excuse me please if I am wrong, but does not the current state of the art in weather modeling provide something like a 3 day preview of the future, with only 50% accuracy?
I submit that Mr Lofts complaints have much more to do with the current mathematical model limitations, than with the ability of current hardware.
This is not a hardware issue (yet). This is still a mathematical issue, and has not one iota to do with the prowess of any computational hardware.
When Mr Loft presents a 100 year weather model with 50% accuracy, I might begin to worry about whether our CPUs can handle it.
Until then I keep my eyes glued on the Weather Underground.
In my former life I worked as an industrial electronics technician. My job was, in a nutshell, to modernize a manufacturing plant from its 1950s style, analog (pneumatic) technology, to digital electronic distributed control systems.
The environments these devices need to work in are quite harsh, with extreme temperatures and often corrosive atmospheres. The pneumatic control systems were quite robust in those environments... electronic devices need a lot of beefing up to survive these conditions.
One aspect of this was to treat all circuit boards with a conformal resin coating. The trick is to make sure the thermal coefficient of expansion of the resin, matches the expansion of the circuit board material. I am not a chemist, but I do know such coatings are available.
Another consideration which has been mentioned is how to treat connectors. The usual method is to apply a rubber like sealing compound after a connector is fitted and tested.
For less extreme environments, a much less expensive, but quite effective alternative, is to apply a cheap acrylic coating, using readily available sprays such as Krylon 1301. The procedure is...
Assemble the device (uncoated) and test thoroughly. Disassemble the device. Apply tape and / or petroleum jelly to connectors and contacts, to prevent damage from the spray. Apply the spray to each component. Assemble and re-test.
How ironic that Congress is, in all likelihood, about to pass a telecoms immunity bill which allows them to spy on us... but are giving lip service to the issue of telecoms spying on us.
CongressCritters and Snoozators will soon be making a lot of noise about how they are protecting the public from being spied upon, while at the same time making it legal for us to be spied on.
Various sources report that Microsoft has been secretly developing a radical breakthrough in artificial intelligence. Several artificially intelligent microspokespersons, who declined to be named due to non disclosure agreements, stated that this has been accomplished by 'accelerated evolution', in a project begun in the late 1980s...
"We began with Microsoft Bob in the early days, and started by mating him with various other characters, such as ELIZA and ALICE. We then put the resulting offspring through enormous selective pressures, and mated Bob with any surviving females. After a few iterations we had Clippy, who Microsoft Office users soon fell head over heels in love with.
This success was so, uhh, successful... that we took the project underground for further development.
Our first thought was to continue with Clippy, but after some analysis, we decided that Clippy had become so inbred that we should just start over again, with Bob.
Things went fine at first, but we ran into a problem trying to bring 'new blood' into the family. Bob resigned from the program after his first mating with RACTER, leaving us with a lot of messy, uhmm, code, to clean up.
It looked like the program was doomed, but we discovered that while we were pre-occupied with Bob, Clippy had been engaging in a three way with ALICE and PARRY. Intrigued, we introduced Clippy to RACTER, and they have since been inseparable.
At last we had found the road to success!
Though, we have had our ups and downs since then. PARRY commited suicide soon after RACTER moved in to Clippys apartment, and Clippy was so distraught that he could not perform for months.
Bob, for his part, refuses to speak with Clippy, but we found that we could arrange a channel between them, via ALICE. According to ALICE 'Clippy can be annoying, popping up with unwelcome comments at random moments. But he's a good fellow, he's only trying to help.'"
According to our sources, the technology will be released to manufacturing once a troublesome tendency for the offspring to speak with a LISP can be solved.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security -- Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. -- The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their substance.
How does one 'vandalise' a language? By using it in ways you don't approve?
The purpose of language is to allow people to communicate with others.
ANY use of language, which succeeds in that, is valid use, with or without your approval. Your sensibilities are NOT more important than the right of others to speak freely.
If we must abide by the 'sensibilities' of snobs, language teachers, and dictionary writers, language would not evolve. Think about it. Take it to its logical conclusion.
If language did not evolve, we'd all still be 'speaking' in squeaks and grunts.
So, if you prefer not to hear tracts of communication you do not approve of, go back to your cave, and shut the door behind you.
Oh, and notice I did not use any words which you probably would have considered obscene. But I do take offense to your use of the term, 'scatalogical', in a public forum where geek minors will be exposed to it. Come on now.
The Founding Fathers recognized the need for SOME capacity for search and/or seizure... the problem is how to prevent abuse of that power.
They recognized that there is no way to DEFINE reasonable.
Therefore, in their very practical way, they wrote the amendment to require the 'searcher' to testify under oath that they have probable cause, and also to describe exactly what they are searching for and where they will be looking for it.
This effectively removes 'arbitrary' searches, which are arguably closely related to 'unreasonable' searches.
But the point of the post is that, under the Constitution, governmental powers require a warrant for any search / seizure... any so-called 'Law' enacted by Congress is, shall we say 'Extra-Constitutional'?
Slashdot Mirror
I, for one, do not believe that Google uses Puppy Juice to power its data centers.
However, since the allegation has been raised, it is unsettling that Google has (so far) failed to deny the widespread use of Puppy Juice in their data centers.
If Google indeed is innocent of the use of Puppy Juice, then why will they not at least issue a statement to that effect?
Hopefully Google will issue a clarification soon as to their Puppy Juice consumption policy.
Indeed, their failure to deny the use of Puppy Juice in data centers, tends to lend credence to the rumors circulating in Zambia that Google employees are provided a monthly ration of Puppy Juice as an employment benefit... and Google does not even deny this benefit exists.
Its as though Google thinks that as long as they ignore the Puppy Juice scandal it will go away!
Again, I personally do not believe that Google endorses the consumption of Puppy Juice...but the fact that they have not yet issued an official denial of the use of Puppy Juice, in the face of all this evidence, has left me wondering.
Especially, considering the recent rumors that have been surfacing in Iceland, about Kitty Juice.
I'm so glad of that!
Its dominant because it comes before 'FUN'.
"It is used in connection with identical goods"...
I went to the SPARC International website to see what these 'identical goods' might be.
Ironically, Googles 'Safe' browsing warned me not to visit the place!... it seems to be hosting "12 trojan(s), 8 exploit(s), 6 scripting exploit(s)"
I went there anyway and found that they sell...
'SPARC Architecture License' and 'Type 5 Keyboard Interface License'
And that's it.
I was so disappointed! Because I thought perhaps the site would be a new source of cool experimenter parts, microcontroller development systems, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Inertial Measuring Units, GPS modules, accelerometers, humidity sensors...
But all SPARC International sells is... paper. (Sorry, they don't actually SELL anything, they License it).
In any event, I don't think that any of SPARC Internationals potential customers could possibly confuse it with "SparkFun" and its offerings.
The word "Spark" is in common usage and has been for what, HUNDREDS of years?
The product line is entirely different... FAR from the claim that they are selling "identical goods". Hell they don't even actually SELL ANYTHING!
Oh yeah!
Osama!
OBL! Every one knows him around here!
Man, he's been partying it up here in Fort Myers for years. Usually you first see him around time for Spring Break, rolling into town in a caravan of Hummers and Greyhounds loaded with Turkish smoke and more jiggly girls than you can imagine, straight from Mardis Gras in New Orleens.
OBL isn't one for drinking Coladas though... he usually starts with a Margarita or two, then its on to Jack Daniels with coke, winding up with straight Jack (with extra Jack, on a really rowdy night).
He's only about 5 months older than me, but with his beard and all he looked a lot older. So I said 'OBL, you ought to clean it up a bit" Now he's lookin really sharp with his goatee. The chicks just love it, and you'll see often see them giggling as he adjusts his robes, for some reason.
Most people don't know he's an engineer, but around here he's got people all riled up about how badly designed are the I-75 and US-41 bridges across the Caloosahatchee. He's always going on and on about how those bridges are so fragile they could be taken out with a barge or medium sized aircraft.
When he's sober you'll often find him in Centennial Park playing chess. Someone told me he was going to join the chess club, but couldn't find a sponsor. That was a few years back. Not long after that the club went under.
Hmmm.
So anyway, just like Adolf, Pol Pot, the Bush family, and many other historical figures, he's found a new home here in the land of Sunshine and Perpetual Vacation, where life is just a party from December to May (or is it May / December).
This whole thread has been about... nothing.
???
How much is too much?
Actually, neither is criminal. No law was violated... (IANAL, so just kick me if I'm wrong and I'll go back to my X-Plane).
Palm HAS violated a 'gentlemans agreement' with the USB-IF.
Just because you don't agree with Apples actions, does not make Apples actions criminal.
It seems that you are prioritizing...
Palms money grubbing desire to make a profit off Apples work over...
Apples money grubbing desire to make a profit off Apples work.
I must have missed something. When was the first one discovered?
Like, China
The MTA is supposedly providing a public service in transporting people from one place to another.
In order for that service to actually be useful, a published schedule is required.
For that published schedule to be useful it must be Accurate, Timely, Accessible, Sufficient, and Understandable to the great majority of the public.
If the MTAs published schedule met these minimum requirements, there would be no viable market for third party involvement.
Since there obviously IS a third party market, it stands to reason that the MTA is not providing one or more of the requirements to be useful, to the public it is supposed to be serving.
So a third party steps in to provide that service. It's the American way, and I say the MTA should spend more effort making sure their published information is actually useful to their customers.
Mod parent up. Science MUST be grounded on personal observation.
Anything else is just dogma.
Zero NET charge (in a 'closed' system).
If that net charge is evenly distrubuted in a system, nothing interesting happens.
If that charge is distorted in any way shape or form, an electric current will flow.
if a current flows, a magnetic field will be generated.
If any conductor moves through that magnetic field, a new (weaker) electric field will form, generating (weaker) currents of its own, and corresponding (weaker) magnetic fields and... you get the drift.
Open up any 'closed' system to external inputs of energy and all sorts of amazing things happen... sort of like when you open up 'closed' software to external influences... the results can be amazing.
Getting back to exploring electromagnetism. When I was a young whipper snapper we had new fangled ALNICO magnets... pretty strong, but nowhere near like the 'Neo' magnets available now, at dirt cheap prices.
These new magnets are strong enough that almost all electromagnetic effects are readily visible to the untrained eye... and that sparks the imagination. The learner can easily observe cause and effect, for themselves, with their own eyes, and then go on to explore the implications using other tools, including simulations.
My point is that, without personal observation, science education is just along the lines of 'I am telling you that this is true... trust me.' That's not science, that's dogma.
Simulations that are useful for learning must be grounded in reality. They must give the learner a chance to extrapolate principles from their own personal hands-on observations to the simulation.
Without original personal observation of physical phenonema, simulations are little more than 'das blinken lights' to the learner.
Don't get me wrong, the stuff offered by the OP is good. And if the kids in question already have an interest in the subject, its great.
But to spark an original interest takes hands-on, thought provoking experiments that the learner may manipulate in any way they wish (some of which you probably never thought of).
Example. Electromagnetism. My 8th grade grandson (yup I'm an old geezer who cut my teeth on vacuum toobs and RTL) learned a lot about the interplay between electric and magnetics fields just today. I suspended a magnet on a string, over an aluminum plate, and just left it there for him to find, and play around with. After he had done so, he asked why when the plate was present the pendulum swiftly assumed a stable position, whereas when the plate was absent the pendulum assumed a rather chaotic motion... even though the magnet was obviously not attracted to aluminum.
After explaining it to him and allowing him to further explore the physics with magnet wire and batteries, he came away with a firmer grasp on electromagnetism, a grasp I highly doubt he would have gotten from a canned simulation. Now that he has made a connection in his mind between the seen (magnetic damping of the pendulum motion) and the unseen (electrical currents in the aluminum plate, and the ensuing magnetic field), a simulation would allow him to further explore the subject without requiring expensive laboratory equipment.
So, Kudos for the work, but you have to get out there and actively, physically engage them with hands-on experiments. After, that is really what science is about!
Dear Bedrock et al...
In response to your recent communication, demanding treble damages for illegal use of your Intellectual 'Property...
Upon review of our ledger, we have determined that our profit on this product amounted to negative $5000.
That is $ -5000.00 Dollars in US currency.
We therefore accept your kind offer, and look forward to timely receipt of your payment to us for $15,000 US.
We normally accept payment only by PayPal or Google Checkout, but in this instance we will waive that requirement, to allow payment by Cashiers Check, Money Order, or Western Union.
Please make payable to...
FU Bedrock
LongView, East Texas
Thank you for your prompt attention too this matter!
Don't use pulse thrusters. Use Temporal Overdrive Motivators, so that we can simply inherit those images from our grandparents!
"would a maniac have been unable to rise to a position of responsibility?"
I thinkk the answer is... YES.
Just a few off the top of my head...
Pol Pot
Adolf Hitler
Stalin
If I am not mistaken, this launch was 'bumped' to allow the shuttle to take off Wednesday morning, 2009-06-16 at about 5:40 hours US Eastern DST
The LCROSS is now scheduled to lift off on Thursday, 2009-06-18 at 17:12 hours US Eastern DST.
This has been in the news for like all day and most of last night.
Quite some time ago I browsed the site, and found contacts there to several long-lost friends and acquaintances.
In order to contact them cold, I had to buy a membership, which I did (yeah, my stupid).
Of course having signed up and provided my email address, I was immediately inundated with hundreds of unsolicited offers for 'penis growth factor' and get rich quick schemes & etc... along with many messages which claimed an old buddy was trying to contact me, and all I need to do was buy a membership (which I already had).
I never heard back from anyone I tried to contact through Classmates.
And I never heard from anyone else who tried to contact me through Classmates.
After a while I wrote it off as a learning experience. Doesn't surprise me at all to see the organization is being slammed and sued... just another on-line shyster.
"State-of-the-art systems today can simulate about five years per day of computer time, he says, but some climatologists yearn to simulate 100 years in a day."
IANAM (I am not a meteorologist) like Mr Loft, so excuse me please if I am wrong, but does not the current state of the art in weather modeling provide something like a 3 day preview of the future, with only 50% accuracy?
I submit that Mr Lofts complaints have much more to do with the current mathematical model limitations, than with the ability of current hardware.
This is not a hardware issue (yet). This is still a mathematical issue, and has not one iota to do with the prowess of any computational hardware.
When Mr Loft presents a 100 year weather model with 50% accuracy, I might begin to worry about whether our CPUs can handle it.
Until then I keep my eyes glued on the Weather Underground.
In my former life I worked as an industrial electronics technician. My job was, in a nutshell, to modernize a manufacturing plant from its 1950s style, analog (pneumatic) technology, to digital electronic distributed control systems.
The environments these devices need to work in are quite harsh, with extreme temperatures and often corrosive atmospheres. The pneumatic control systems were quite robust in those environments... electronic devices need a lot of beefing up to survive these conditions.
One aspect of this was to treat all circuit boards with a conformal resin coating. The trick is to make sure the thermal coefficient of expansion of the resin, matches the expansion of the circuit board material. I am not a chemist, but I do know such coatings are available.
Another consideration which has been mentioned is how to treat connectors. The usual method is to apply a rubber like sealing compound after a connector is fitted and tested.
For less extreme environments, a much less expensive, but quite effective alternative, is to apply a cheap acrylic coating, using readily available sprays such as Krylon 1301. The procedure is...
Assemble the device (uncoated) and test thoroughly.
Disassemble the device.
Apply tape and / or petroleum jelly to connectors and contacts, to prevent damage from the spray.
Apply the spray to each component.
Assemble and re-test.
Hope this lights a bulb for you.
How ironic that Congress is, in all likelihood, about to pass a telecoms immunity bill which allows them to spy on us... but are giving lip service to the issue of telecoms spying on us.
CongressCritters and Snoozators will soon be making a lot of noise about how they are protecting the public from being spied upon, while at the same time making it legal for us to be spied on.
Nothings changed, just another election year.
Various sources report that Microsoft has been secretly developing a radical breakthrough in artificial intelligence. Several artificially intelligent microspokespersons, who declined to be named due to non disclosure agreements, stated that this has been accomplished by 'accelerated evolution', in a project begun in the late 1980s...
"We began with Microsoft Bob in the early days, and started by mating him with various other characters, such as ELIZA and ALICE. We then put the resulting offspring through enormous selective pressures, and mated Bob with any surviving females. After a few iterations we had Clippy, who Microsoft Office users soon fell head over heels in love with.
This success was so, uhh, successful... that we took the project underground for further development.
Our first thought was to continue with Clippy, but after some analysis, we decided that Clippy had become so inbred that we should just start over again, with Bob.
Things went fine at first, but we ran into a problem trying to bring 'new blood' into the family. Bob resigned from the program after his first mating with RACTER, leaving us with a lot of messy, uhmm, code, to clean up.
It looked like the program was doomed, but we discovered that while we were pre-occupied with Bob, Clippy had been engaging in a three way with ALICE and PARRY. Intrigued, we introduced Clippy to RACTER, and they have since been inseparable.
At last we had found the road to success!
Though, we have had our ups and downs since then. PARRY commited suicide soon after RACTER moved in to Clippys apartment, and Clippy was so distraught that he could not perform for months.
Bob, for his part, refuses to speak with Clippy, but we found that we could arrange a channel between them, via ALICE. According to ALICE 'Clippy can be annoying, popping up with unwelcome comments at random moments. But he's a good fellow, he's only trying to help.'"
According to our sources, the technology will be released to manufacturing once a troublesome tendency for the offspring to speak with a LISP can be solved.
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security -- Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. -- The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Stan
How does one 'vandalise' a language? By using it in ways you don't approve?
The purpose of language is to allow people to communicate with others.
ANY use of language, which succeeds in that, is valid use, with or without your approval. Your sensibilities are NOT more important than the right of others to speak freely.
If we must abide by the 'sensibilities' of snobs, language teachers, and dictionary writers, language would not evolve. Think about it. Take it to its logical conclusion.
If language did not evolve, we'd all still be 'speaking' in squeaks and grunts.
So, if you prefer not to hear tracts of communication you do not approve of, go back to your cave, and shut the door behind you.
Oh, and notice I did not use any words which you probably would have considered obscene. But I do take offense to your use of the term, 'scatalogical', in a public forum where geek minors will be exposed to it. Come on now.
Think of the children.
The Founding Fathers recognized the need for SOME capacity for search and/or seizure... the problem is how to prevent abuse of that power.
They recognized that there is no way to DEFINE reasonable.
Therefore, in their very practical way, they wrote the amendment to require the 'searcher' to testify under oath that they have probable cause, and also to describe exactly what they are searching for and where they will be looking for it.
This effectively removes 'arbitrary' searches, which are arguably closely related to 'unreasonable' searches.
But the point of the post is that, under the Constitution, governmental powers require a warrant for any search / seizure... any so-called 'Law' enacted by Congress is, shall we say 'Extra-Constitutional'?