Would the man have been fired had it been any distributed computing program other than SETI? Was the man already warned? Article doesn't say.
Maybe the man was a border-line screw-up and this was the last straw. Or maybe he was too close to retirement, lost the political infighting, hit on the manager's wife, who knows.
It does seem, however, that the manager's ignorant attitude towards the SETI project had a strong influence on his firing decision. To be expected from a PHB.
from which we can calculate that blowing up a building with antimatter will cost about 3 trillion dollars
Or... for a mere trillion you could probably bribe any country into submission. You think Kim Jung Il would ever turn down a cool trillion? (Erm, never mind...)
The same technology which would allow us to produce antimatter cheaply enough to produce super-duper weapons, would also allow us to build and deploy interplanetary, and perhaps interstellar, spacecraft. Would we? Will we? Or maybe we'll just focus next on how to make our Sun go nova...
You see, you soak the equipment liberally in the gasoline, let it soak in real good. Then you light a match, throw it at the equipment. Make sure to stand back quickly, your eyebrows will thank you.
Then you buy new equipment. Smell gone.
(I think working in an abattoir-odored data center for any extended period of time would turn me into a vegetarian, all PETA jokes aside.)
Does anybody really think that the providers of centralized x would not be threatened by the prospect of decentralized x? And that, threatened, they would do nothing to stop or delay it? Has the cold war between proprietary and open source software taught us nothing?
...the very prospect of the massive decentralization of power generation that would result, would be seen as a mortal threat by the Powers That Be.
And the result? Massive cover-up. The technology would get shoved into the same warehouse as the Ark of the Covenant and the 80 mpg carburator. It'll be just like the SETI signal: wow, look at that! (next day) Nothing to see here, move along.
Think of all the industries that would be hurt: oil companies, nuclear power companies, electrical generation, coal mining companies, power distribution support, assorted engineering companies, construction companies (who make the power stations), mineral interests, etc. And the Oil Nations would fall on hard times.
Not only that, what would it do to the global geopolitical power structure? How do you knock out the power grid of some third world country, when it's all decentralized, and they have none?
The way rich people get rich and stay rich is by controlling a centralized supply of something which everybody wants. Everybody wants power, specifically electricity. Decentralize the electricity, and suddenly rich people find it hard to stay rich. They don't like that. And will do anything to prevent that.
Conventional fusion would be centralized: no problem. Cold fusion, being decentralized: big problem.
Just wondering, but how hard is it to get a copy of the game "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" over there? Are games with significant Nazi imagery banned?
And does the fact the Nazis are portrayed as the enemy make any difference?
I could understand it if the IOC only allowed certain sponsors banners to be displayed, or other large advertisements placed on Olympic grounds. Where they overstep their bounds is when they start to dictate to people's personal effects, such as clothing or possessions, beyond the requirements of safety and keeping the peace.
They could reasonably ban all weapons, for instance, and clothing with patently incendiary and vulgar slogans, but nothing else.
Of course, legally speaking, they can probably do all this and much more outrageous things, but they would probably (at least for now) think that the stink raised wouldn't be worth it.
commericals come first at the time the movie is suppose to start, then the previews, then the movie.
And it doesn't stop there. The movies have product placements as well. When I saw "I, Robot" a while back, in the first 3 minutes of the movie, there were 3 product placements, FedEx and Nike being two I remember. And they were worked into the dialog, not just some part of the background.
I'd be interested to know how far back this practice goes, because I remember "Back to the Future" had a pretty blatant pitch for Toyota (also worked into the dialog), and that was 1985. So what's next? Stopping the movie for a word from our sponsors, while locking the doors to the bathroom?
Microsoft's? Were Microsoft employees arrested, or just some poor dumb bastards who happened to use the software? This was not made clear...
In other news, I wonder how many high school seniors can name all the states that border the one they live in. Is this (lack of) geographical knowledge exactly as described, or somewhat hyped, as I suspect, for the media?
Filling/scanning a 100TB firewire drive is going to take a looong time.
Hmmm... if my estimates are correct, even with Firewire 800 (and ideal bandwidth usage), nearly 13 days. (Hopefully your hard disk wouldn't melt in the process.)
...'cuz if somebody can hijack the SoL, who knows where they might fly it! (Oh, and they should be very suspicious of anybody who has taken any Stone Temple Pilot training...)
So how can a local government body issue people a license to repair lawbreaking equipment?
Same way they can demand you pay a tax on all the marijuana you (not you personally) sell. You can actually buy marijuana tax stamps, which you are required to place on all bags of the stuff.
Weird. "Put these stamps on all the bags of the stuff we'll send you to jail for if we catch you."
Her father took a week just to get him to turn it on without recoiling
Well, it took like a month to get my Dad used to using matches. He was raised on using flint and iron to start fires, and it was a long time before he wouldn't bash the TV with his club, thinking evil spirits had taken over the "magic picture box."
I didn't RTFA, but it seems the publisher is making 2 claims: 1) They can use katie.com as a book title since it's not trademarked, and it's their 1st amendment right, and 2) For some vague "think of the children" reason, the current owner of katie.com should give it up.
1) OK, then... phone numbers are not trademarked. If I use my next door neighbor's phone number as the title of a book I should be OK, right? Probably up until I get sued for the cost of him changing his phone number and all associated costs. Imagine all the crank calls he'd receive at 3 am. This is why books and media started using 555 numbers.
2) I hate victim mentality that equates their suffering with entitlement. If you were a victim of something (esp. as a child), suddenly people are supposed to donate stuff to you, like domain names?!? ("Think of the Children!" the cynical demand heard everywhere...) Sure, it's a stretch to attribute the publishers' and lawyer's desires and expectations to their client, but she has the power to tell them "No! Not in my name, Asshole!"
katie.com was there long before the book was even a gleam in a publisher's eye, so Penguin Putnam can go suck it. I hope they get their ass sued off.
I've gotten that to work fine (using FreeDOS), except for a couple of problems. No support for sound, and with some games, especially on recent hardware (Athlons, P3's, P4's), they run really fast.
I wanted to fire up Return to Zork again, but it went through the intro in about 5 seconds, and silently.
And of course, there's no way to emulate physical media readers (i.e. 5.25" drives) if you want to get at your very old data.
(Oh, and if anybody knows where I can still download old DOS soundblaster drivers, I'd appreciate it. The Creative site has cut out much of their old stuff.)
Having a name like that is a survival mechanism. You see, when anybody's hunting them, by the time they say, "Hey, there's a Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur!" it's gotten away clean.
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Maybe the man was a border-line screw-up and this was the last straw. Or maybe he was too close to retirement, lost the political infighting, hit on the manager's wife, who knows.
It does seem, however, that the manager's ignorant attitude towards the SETI project had a strong influence on his firing decision. To be expected from a PHB.
Or... for a mere trillion you could probably bribe any country into submission. You think Kim Jung Il would ever turn down a cool trillion? (Erm, never mind...)
The same technology which would allow us to produce antimatter cheaply enough to produce super-duper weapons, would also allow us to build and deploy interplanetary, and perhaps interstellar, spacecraft. Would we? Will we? Or maybe we'll just focus next on how to make our Sun go nova...
Or as measured in Olympic swimming pools? Oh, my head asplode.
Then you buy new equipment. Smell gone.
(I think working in an abattoir-odored data center for any extended period of time would turn me into a vegetarian, all PETA jokes aside.)
Does anybody really think that the providers of centralized x would not be threatened by the prospect of decentralized x? And that, threatened, they would do nothing to stop or delay it? Has the cold war between proprietary and open source software taught us nothing?
And the result? Massive cover-up. The technology would get shoved into the same warehouse as the Ark of the Covenant and the 80 mpg carburator. It'll be just like the SETI signal: wow, look at that! (next day) Nothing to see here, move along.
Think of all the industries that would be hurt: oil companies, nuclear power companies, electrical generation, coal mining companies, power distribution support, assorted engineering companies, construction companies (who make the power stations), mineral interests, etc. And the Oil Nations would fall on hard times.
Not only that, what would it do to the global geopolitical power structure? How do you knock out the power grid of some third world country, when it's all decentralized, and they have none?
The way rich people get rich and stay rich is by controlling a centralized supply of something which everybody wants. Everybody wants power, specifically electricity. Decentralize the electricity, and suddenly rich people find it hard to stay rich. They don't like that. And will do anything to prevent that.
Conventional fusion would be centralized: no problem. Cold fusion, being decentralized: big problem.
Sounds like he was running from the law. Though, you usually pack light for something like that. Not as if you would have all that much time to pack.
How can you make a living being hounded by debt collectors? Didn't know it was a money making proposition.
And does the fact the Nazis are portrayed as the enemy make any difference?
Please. Bashcroft wouldn't know a gigabyte from a petabyte. This is what happens when the computer technophobe tries to sound savvy.
At least he can sing... ;)
The farmers market will never be the same.
They could reasonably ban all weapons, for instance, and clothing with patently incendiary and vulgar slogans, but nothing else.
Of course, legally speaking, they can probably do all this and much more outrageous things, but they would probably (at least for now) think that the stink raised wouldn't be worth it.
Yeah, unless you're wearing a Pepsi shirt...
I, for one, welcome our new corporate overlords. No, wait... no i don't.
And it doesn't stop there. The movies have product placements as well. When I saw "I, Robot" a while back, in the first 3 minutes of the movie, there were 3 product placements, FedEx and Nike being two I remember. And they were worked into the dialog, not just some part of the background.
I'd be interested to know how far back this practice goes, because I remember "Back to the Future" had a pretty blatant pitch for Toyota (also worked into the dialog), and that was 1985. So what's next? Stopping the movie for a word from our sponsors, while locking the doors to the bathroom?
In other news, I wonder how many high school seniors can name all the states that border the one they live in. Is this (lack of) geographical knowledge exactly as described, or somewhat hyped, as I suspect, for the media?
Sure, no moving parts is preferable, but it ain't no guarantee of immortality.
Hmmm... if my estimates are correct, even with Firewire 800 (and ideal bandwidth usage), nearly 13 days. (Hopefully your hard disk wouldn't melt in the process.)
...'cuz if somebody can hijack the SoL, who knows where they might fly it! (Oh, and they should be very suspicious of anybody who has taken any Stone Temple Pilot training...)
What they didn't say: it's about 4 feet long and weighs 300 pounds.
Same way they can demand you pay a tax on all the marijuana you (not you personally) sell. You can actually buy marijuana tax stamps, which you are required to place on all bags of the stuff.
Weird. "Put these stamps on all the bags of the stuff we'll send you to jail for if we catch you."
Well, it took like a month to get my Dad used to using matches. He was raised on using flint and iron to start fires, and it was a long time before he wouldn't bash the TV with his club, thinking evil spirits had taken over the "magic picture box."
1) OK, then... phone numbers are not trademarked. If I use my next door neighbor's phone number as the title of a book I should be OK, right? Probably up until I get sued for the cost of him changing his phone number and all associated costs. Imagine all the crank calls he'd receive at 3 am. This is why books and media started using 555 numbers.
2) I hate victim mentality that equates their suffering with entitlement. If you were a victim of something (esp. as a child), suddenly people are supposed to donate stuff to you, like domain names?!? ("Think of the Children!" the cynical demand heard everywhere...) Sure, it's a stretch to attribute the publishers' and lawyer's desires and expectations to their client, but she has the power to tell them "No! Not in my name, Asshole!"
katie.com was there long before the book was even a gleam in a publisher's eye, so Penguin Putnam can go suck it. I hope they get their ass sued off.
I wanted to fire up Return to Zork again, but it went through the intro in about 5 seconds, and silently.
And of course, there's no way to emulate physical media readers (i.e. 5.25" drives) if you want to get at your very old data.
(Oh, and if anybody knows where I can still download old DOS soundblaster drivers, I'd appreciate it. The Creative site has cut out much of their old stuff.)
Having a name like that is a survival mechanism. You see, when anybody's hunting them, by the time they say, "Hey, there's a Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur!" it's gotten away clean.