I think it's because for it to be that big, all matter and energy in the universe would have to have exceeded the speed of light to be where it is today or at least be moving at the speed of light away from the epicenter. Also, it doesn't account for the time needed for the universe's background radiation to become uniform (even out over time)
That's a hocus-pocus way of interpreting a probability curve.
The equation is really the probability of a specific outcome at any instant in time. In Schroedinger's cat's example, the cat is always either alive or dead (NEVER both at once or any state inbetween) -- you just don't know which until you look and see. The curve shows the probability a poison has already killed the cat over time. Just because something can be expressed as a wave and you don't know it's actual state until you observe it does NOT mean it exists in all probable states until you make that observation.
Like most instincts and emotions, it has its place, but should be controlled. It was likely the need for revenge that spawned the judicial system and set up a good reward/punishment system for our ancestors. Now that we have laws and systems to do the justice for us, we should supress our need for revenge when it urges us to do anything illegal or possibly harmful to ourselves or society in the long-term, but I'd say a little vengeance is healthy for all parties involved... it vents an emotion in one, and expresses the pain a previous action caused to another -- so they know they did something someone else percieved as wrong and are less likely to do it again for fear of similar consequences.
Not that I condone anything illegal, but some people do just get what they deserve;-)
I don't recall the Drake equation referring to "space-faring races", but merely intelligent ones at about our level of intelligence. We haven't discovered any reasonable method of faster-than-light travel, and there's no reason to believe any advanced society ever will. It may not be possible. If your version of the universe were true, we'd have each galaxy with its own civilization and each galaxy would either be in peaceful coexistance with other races in other galaxies, or at war with them -- and what a fertile ground the milky way would be having no presence there... seems they'd colonize or invade us rather quickly. I am assuming, of course, that intergalactic travel is about as trivial as interplanetary within a galaxy - but that's because we're talking about science fiction here and anything is possible when you can break the laws of known physics.
Science Fiction isn't a good indicator of reality. Noone has encountered a worm hole or discovered how a "warp drive" might be created. Even Hawking now believes that black holes lead to nowhere -- just mangle matter and energy, absorb them, and release them in another form over time. If any race advances further than we do, they may be limited to sub-light speeds just as we are. In that case, they'd be unlikely to colonize many star systems -- if any at all. They may only colonize planets in their home system, in which case, they'd only interfere with other intelligent races which may have evolved on those planets within their system -- unlikely but possible.
That's not to say that it can't happen -- just that you have to make a lot of assumptions about technology we do not have and have no theory on how to create in order to make the leap to "space faring races" that are in competiton with other life forms on other worlds for resources.
In the unlikely event that a race discovers faster-than-light travel and wishes to colonize every planet that can or will sustain life within their own galaxy, why would they stop there? If they can travel to the far side of their own galaxy easily, why not another galaxy as well? In fact, why not all galaxies? If the population grew exponentially and faster-than-light travel was easy enough, then the only limiting factor would be resources (nearly limitless given they can reach all planets in a galaxy), and the desire of the population to spread out and explore -- except possibly meeting another species that wasn't willing to share resources or wasn't very hospitable.
We know that life exists here on earth, about how the earth was formed, and how life likely began and evolved. Using those assumptions and our development and use of radio waves, we can make some assumptions to form the Drake equation about how likely a similar advance may occur elsewhere, but there are no variables for unknown technologies and advances. When you add in the variables for "what if we could travel faster than light, or snap our fingers like Q and make everyone turn into characters from Robin Hood?", then you've thrown science out of the equation in favor of science fiction and fantasy. There is no possible way to predict how and when any race could develop interstellar travel (because we don't even know if it's possible beyond ion drives and voyages measured in decades or centuries).
Radio waves are simple enough to discover after discovering electricity. It makes sense that they would be used for some level of communication by an advanced species given enough time, but interstellar travel isn't something that's so easily discovered. Granted, the planet may one day leave behind radio in favor of global fiber-optics, but I doubt we'll stop using the wireless technology of radio. It's unlikely that another race would either unless they've chosen laser transmission or discovered a way to transmit via entangled particles or gravity waves. We have begun to experiment with quantum transmission, but it's a long way from becoming a standard communication tool if it ever will. Lasers are by nature point-to-
Re:Every Theory Needs to be Tested....
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Testing Relativity
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I'd have to say there's no such thing as "proof" of anything in science. There is only "evidence".
You go from hypotheses to theories, theories to principles, principles to laws. (with a few steps inbetween of course)
All you're really saying is that the evidence is more strongly for something as it progresses towards a law. True, evolution is still a theory (or theories), but I'd say that breakthroughs in genetics lately are mounting enough evidence to call it "principles of evolution" soon -- if not already... If we find missing links and map all the genetic codes of all living things on earth and create a good genetic tree for how all life evolved, it may even become the laws of evolution.
Even laws can be "disproven" -- because they themselves are just really widely accepted guesses that have lots of evidence to support them.
You'll notice that we have laws of motion, yet atomic theory... b/c there are scientists out there that debate the existance of neutrons and the structure of the nucleus of atoms.
Also, there's theories everywhere in science. Sure, they're not as widely accepted as principles and laws, but they're more than just hypotheses.
AMD has used MMX since the K6, and the Athlon 64 currently uses SSE2. Both Intel and AMD have cross-licensing agreements to use each other's technology. (AMD and Intel have had a cross-licensing agreement since 1976 -- later renewed and expanded in 1981) I'm sure they licensed SSE2 to AMD along with a deal to be able to use AMD's 64-bit instructions
One company is just usually faster to the market with one new extension or another because they developed it themselves. If it takes hold, they either license it to the other or give it to the other under a current license. It's in Intel's best interest to keep AMD around to avoid being called a monopoly, so rather than let AMD die due to lack of a standard it needs to survive in the marketplace, they throw it a bone. (Think Microsoft and Apple) Of course, Intel makes it difficult by not licensing socket and slot types anymore, but the basic architecture is still licensed.
It wouldn't surprise me if Intel asked to see AMD's specs in case they wanted to one day include their technology & then used that info to build a compatable processor. I'm sure that Intel could use 3DNow! instructions if it wanted to, but simply chooses not to. (Why give AMD any credit for making something useful when you have other extensions that can do the same job?)
3DNow is somewhat of an extension of MMX, SSE was a response to that, and then you have 3DNow Pro and SSE2, etc. etc.. They just keep evolving the multimedia extensions. SSE2 seems to be the latest thing, so both Athlon 64 and Intel chips support it. I'm sure Intel will have SSE3 and SSE4 out soon and eventually AMD will license those as well --- if it doesn't already have rights to any new technologies from intel for the next few years.
That was incredibly informative.
The previous benchmarks I'd seen with hyperthreading showed a boost in some areas and a loss in others to where it seemed to almost even out on benchmarks -- with only a slight improvement due to hyperthreading overall, but that was when hyperthreading first came out and I don't recall the benchmarks covering dual processors at the time. I kept thinking... why don't they just boost the clock speed? It's a bigger improvement than this.
I had no idea that multiple cores with hyperthreading could provide such a boost. wow... so much to look forward to, it makes me feel like my next system will be obsolete before I even buy it online next week.. lol.
I hadn't thought of the fact that one could (or would want to) do both... have multiple processors WITH hyperthreading enabled.
I guess I should check out the benchmarks 'n see... most I've seen in the past showed that hyperthreading occasionally had a 5% increase and often had a 5% decrease in peroformance... it all seemed to even out to me, so I didn't get what the fuss was about.
Perhaps things have improved enough through better processor design and compiling w/ hyperthreading in mind since last I checked.
I believe AMD has plans to incorporate more than one CPU on-die in the future. First 2, then 4, etc.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to "hyperthreading" when dual and quad processors come standard on desktop systems for home users.
I look at Hyperthreading as a quick hack to improve response times on a few things. It's a minor speed boost as well, but I think it has enough drawbacks to merit it as only a minor improvement which may not always be a good idea to have enabled. I doubt it will stick around once true dual-processor systems are in the majority, though that's not going to be anytime soon.
In any case, Intel knows it's not a major marketing point or they'd be screaming "Hyperthreading is what you have to have!" like they did w/ MMX.
My response is more like "Hyperthreading... woohoo... call me when you come up with something more interesting."
I think all of the questions were answered without question and the story itself was almost a perfect gnostic christian allegory.
The Matrix itself is a wireless network. All of the ships "broadcast their signal" and hack into the matrix. It's all done by radio, so it's not that much of a stretch that Neo has tapped into a wireless connection which allows him to interact with machines and "see" anything connected to the matrix in the real world. This also explains why he can ONLY see things connected to the machines and/or the matrix when he's blind. He can't see normal humans they are not jacked-in and tunnels and ships, etc.
As for Neo being connected to the source, it makes sense in that part of him (whether that's his "code" in the matrix which is part of his personality in the real world or is part of his internal programming within his bio-implants or whatever). Part of Neo is something that came from the machine world, so he is connected. Maybe the oracle inserted this code w/ a cookie or candy, or maybe it was there since his birth & it was meant to be. In any case, he represents the christian savior Jesus and pure love/hope/redemption. Though he is man and sometimes has the doubts of a man (like Jesus), he is also part God (machine god = the source). He has powers given to him through his connection with god & can affect both this world (the matrix) and the spiritual world (the real world) He is of our world, yet transends it into the next. He takes on Smith, who is the embodiment of evil/sin/death, and actually takes that "sin" into his body by allowing Smith to take him over. He sacrifices himself in order to destroy "sin's" hold on the world (the matrix) so that humans can be free. The end result is that order is restored, the battle between good and evil is over for a while. Any person in the matrix can now know "god" (the truth that their world is made by someone else)and be "saved"(by accepting reality and/or leaving the matrix for zion) or stay in their ingorant existance. Anyone who chooses can become a child of Zion (another name for Jerusalem/city of the jews, etc).
Part of this comes from the numerous examples of Neo being called "savior". One guy states "You're my savior, man. My own personal Jesus christ". Others call him the one, their only hope, the blind messiah, etc. etc. His love interest is Trinity -- another name for the holy trinity of god,christ,and holy spirit. The First matrix (real world) was a paradise (like Eden). But, man couldn't accept it, so the matrix(earth) was made to accomidate man's imperfections. Neo was the inevitable result of it's construction -- a way to free man from bondage. (Just as Jesus was the inevitable sacrifice that had to be made in order to restore the bridge between man and god... so that peace could be made between them). In the Matrix Universe, according to the Animatrix, it was the humans that started the war. The machines aren't evil. They simply act as a God to create a world for man, to give him rules and to punish man and control him, yet not destroy him. Neo provided a bridge for peace between them again & hope for their future coexistance. The Oracle's guardian's name is Sereph -- which is a name for a type of Angel. It's most likely he was around when the first Paradise matrix was created. The Marovingian (a name for a class of people who believed themselves to be of the bloodline of Jesus) and his cronies represent the corrupt Jewish Priests which know something of the truth, but have perverted the religion and refuse to allow Jesus(Neo) to spoil the status quo. Cypher is the Judas of the story because he's lost his faith in Neo and betrays him. Jesus's(Neo's) coming was foretold and there were many other messiahs that were imposters. The parallels go on and on, but the whole story is about choice. Neo(Jesus) chose to do what he did to save the world(matrix) and let the souls who have crossed over from that world have peace with god (the source). Also, people can choose whether they w
That's true, and as we've already seen with the blackouts and brownouts, distribution is already a huge problem that needs to be tackled. I've heard of some areas using superconducting wires with refridgerated systems to help in this area... and it's been quite cost-effective.
Most versions of the tale use the terms ghost and spirit interchangably. The movie Scrooged's version uses the line "You'll be visited by 3 ghosts."
Although I agree the original had a spirit as in a kindly etherial protector that was never a mortal man, other versions of the tale have used human spirits which would be referred to as ghosts.
It was a metaphor -- a "ghost of Christmas present" of sorts -- which is why he put it in quotes and used the term "of sorts". Metaphors often involve stating one thing as a fact when implying it is merely like something else.
It's somewhat similar to a simile only without the term "like" or "as". Though, some might argue that it was a simile since he used "of sorts" which could be an alternative to "like" or "as."
Southpark uses metaphors constantly & The FBI Agent was playing the part of the ghost of MUSIC present. It was a page right out of Dicken's "A Christmas Carol." You can go watch the movie "Scrooged" to see a more modern version of the idea, or watch the older movies based on the book, or go read the book itself. It's quite good.
I can't speak for the whole of the US, but our local power plant cannot convert to nuclear simply due to lack of public support.
Laws prevent them from converting a coal-burning plant which was designed to be easily converted to nuclear if/when laws changed. There's no monetary barrier preventing them... it's a legal issue.
They also tell me that nuclear "breeder" reactors are much more efficient and produce less waste than earlier nuclear reactors. It makes me wonder how much research is going into developing new nuclear generators and recycling of hazardous materials when we have laws hampering the construction of new facilities.
One nuclear plant can produce about as much electricity as 100 coal-burning plants, which would make it very cost-effective both in terms of cost per kilowatt and in terms of facilities and maintainence fees for electrical companies -- they'd only have to maintain 1/100th of the facilities they currently use if they converted completely. Of course, nuclear energy is a non-renewable resource -- just like coal. Although we have enough to last us for the forseeable future... we'll run out of that, too. That is, unless we discover new deposits or that the theory is true that the earth's core contains massive quantities of Uranium. (Some people theorize the earth is a giant nuclear reactor itself, others say there simply may be large deposits of uranium near the core -- they could both be wrong;-).
I'm not sure where you get "unconstitutional" out of that. It doesn't prevent spammers from targeting anyone in the US. It simply means that they can't send e-mails to people that they aren't 100% sure where they are located. Instead of mining for e-mail addresses alone, they'd have to come up with a way to mine the person's name and address along with it -- or even citizenship of a particular state in case that individual merely works in one state, but resides in another. Simply because a law makes a type of business more difficult doesn't make it unconstitutional. Like any regulation on business, a business will have to comply -- usually causing them some time and effort.
It's not the state's fault that a spammer's business model relies on e-mailing strangers they have no data on other than their e-mail address. The spammers will have to resort to asking more questionairres and purchasing lists of names, addresses, and e-mail addresses to better comply with state laws.
A state law can apply to any person or business who conducts business within the state in question. This individual or company is definitely doing business in Missouri by soliciting Missouri citizens via e-mail which puts the spammer under Missouri Jurisdiction. Simply because the Internet was used doesn't remove the business's obligation to ensure that they are adhering to state laws. In this case, it is up to the spammer to know which state the person they are spamming is from and what state and local laws apply.
If, for instance, they had called Missouri cell phone numbers instead and violated a state law, they could be held liable regardless of whether that Missouri citizen answered their cell phone in the state of Missouri (say they were on vacation in Florida for instance or Hawaii) b/c the phone was listed in Missouri.
State laws regarding this are very broad and have been upheld for a very long time. Even if you are a supplier to a business in a state, you can often be considered "doing business" within the state if that business is a significant enough portion of your own business. It's quite common for businesses who are said to have business within the state -- regardless of where they are geographically located -- to be forced to adhere to state laws when their actions affect businesses or individuals within the state.
This is especially true for laws concerning contracts.
While you are correct that states cannot regulate interstate commerce, they can and do regulate businesses within their state and those which do business with businesses and individuals within their state.
Usually states' interferance is only prevented when they cause significant harm to interstate commerce that is only travelling through the state such as trucks or trains carrying cargo. I recall, for instance, that trucks when riding through one state were required to actually change their mud flaps covering their tires several times to comply with different state laws regarding their shape and size. That was changed b/c it burdened interstate commerce & those state laws were struck down.
A state law can apply to any person or business who conducts business within the state. Even if you are a supplier to a business in a state, you can often be considered "doing business" with the state if that business is a significant enough portion of your own business. It's quite common for businesses who are said to have business within the state -- regardless of where they are geographically located -- can be prosecuted under state laws when their actions affect businesses or individuals within the state. This is especially true for laws concerning contracts.
Thank you! I was looking for this file on shareaza, but didn't see it right away. It's so much nicer than trying to get quicktime's streaming to work on a page that's being hammered w/ requests. The dern QT6 stopped w/ only 10% of the video every time I tried!
.9 repeating as a result is an error in division logic
It exists only because division is done "improperly" in a sense. 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 = 3/3 = 1... however if you use the infinitely repeating decimal places, you get.3 repeating +.3 repeating +.3 repeating =.9 repeating or 1.
The remainders from the 3 division problems addd up to a total which should not have left a remainder to divide by, thus giving 1 insead of the.9 repeating.
ex: 1/1 = 1 , but you can also say 1/1 is.9 repeating b/c of "incorrect" long division which leaves a remainder it should not have left -- which is in the case of every instance of.9 repeating. 1 goes into 1.9 times leaving.1 which 1 goes into.09 times, leaving.01, and so on to infinity b/c the proper answer should have simply been 1 -- but.9 repeating to infinity is also a solution.
This number does not "approach" 1, but is 1 in a different notation. The CAUSE of the infinite repeating 9's is due to the remainder which should not be there in the first place. To think of it as a number which is 1 minus infinite decimal places of zeros with a 1 somewhere at the end of infinity is not only rediculous, but impossible as nothing ever reaches infinity, much less goes past it.
uh... no. This is the difference between displaying a value as fraction or a whole number in base 10 mathematics. 1/3 is.3 repeating 2/3 is.6 repeating and 3/3 is.9 repeating or 1. They are equivilants -- not approximations.
actually, you are wrong. This isn't a function with limits. It's simple math.
3/3 = 1, but if you instead put in 0.9 in long-division, you get a remainder of 3 which means the next slot would be another 9 giving a remainder of 3 and repeating forever. Try it on paper with long division...
1/3 is.3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333 33333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333 33333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333 3333333333333333333333333 etc.
3/3 if you put in.9 instead of 1 at the top in long division, you get a remainder of 3 (because 3*0.9 is 2.7, leaving.3 which when divided by.09 gives.27 leaving a remainder of.03 thus being divided by.009 gives.027 w/ a remainder of.003... infinity)
Also, logically, the difference between.9 repeating and 1 is that at some point past infinity, there is a unit subtracted from the last digit leaving a 9... since there is no such thing as infinity +1, there is no "last" digit from which to subtract a unit from and at infinity,.9 repeating is exactly = to 1 -- not approaching it as in a function.
The idea of numbers repeating to infinity is really a math trick. if.9 repeating did not exactly = 1, then 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 could not exactly = 1, which must be true for 3/3 =1.
The same way 1/3 can be expressed as.33333333 in long-division where 3 goes into 1 three times leaving remainder 1 over and over all the way to infinity, 3 can go into 3 nine times leaving remainder 3 for infinity giving.9999999
I see the Republicans as the lesser of two evils... usually because their wacko ideas affect me less than the Dems wacko ideas.
I hate the patriot act, the new homeland defense position (b/c really, the CIA,FBI, and NSA aren't working together any better), and the disregard for the environment... oh, and the blatant wussing out against big business like Microsoft during the antitrust trial. I'm also not real big on spending billions on a war that wasn't really necessary.. but, I do like the tax cuts and privitazation of some parts of government.
With the Dems, I don't like thier idea of Social Security as a right -- it was an experiment during the depression that has since failed & should have an option to "opt out" if we wish to actually save our money for retirement instead of throwing it away -- It's been proven you'd earn more putting the $ in a savings account than giving it to the government to hold for you for when you are old and gray. I also don't care for their "health care for free for everyone" bit b/c someone somewhere is going to have to pay for it & I don't want the government deciding whether or not I need a new kidney, etc.
The Democrats are all about higher taxes and free rides -- but, with a side-order of helping the environment with legalized discrimination (affermative action). They do occasionally help expand or affirm freedoms, though.
The Republicans are all about lower taxes, more tax breaks, smaller government (usually -- apparently this president didn't get the memo on that), state rights, and unfortunately religious wackos which want to end abortion, stop genetic testing, cloning, embryo experiments with stem cells, etc. and somehow want to "bring America back to God" as if the founders were all Christians -- which they weren't. They also want to protect big business and keep the status quo which I hate b/c monopolies have wayyyy too much power & huge corporate conglomerates do as well.
I'm for freedom above all else unless it directly harms another person -- go run naked in the streets if you like kinda thing, but don't injure anyone physically while doing it. lol. I like SMALL government b/c government doesn't really need to DO anything but make rules, protect us from criminals & terrorists, and provide essential services which we might not pay for on our own unless taxed. I think most powers that can be controlled by the states should be instead of making federal laws which mandate how things should be done -- so long as individuals rights aren't violated. Let California do things their way and South Carolina do things their way for the most part & everyone will be happy.
I think I'm more of a libertarian than dem or republican, but I see myself as a moderate. I want more freedom, less taxes (becuase so much of that money goes to things you and I wouldn't want it going to if we had a choice about it), smaller government, tighter controls on crooked business people, and more representation of what the people actually want instead of what hollywood, microsoft, time warner, and other business that line the pockets of congressmen want.
Maybe one day we'll get internet voting secure and reliable & will have better representation in government. I'd love it if every bill that had to pass not only had to be signed by the president, but also get more than a 50% vote from the American people... That'd tell 'em where to shove their outrageous spending;-) Or maybe someone will come up with an even better idea. Though, I bet if we all got to vote on whether or not to pass the DMCA, it wouldn't have ever become law.
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I think it's because for it to be that big, all matter and energy in the universe would have to have exceeded the speed of light to be where it is today or at least be moving at the speed of light away from the epicenter. Also, it doesn't account for the time needed for the universe's background radiation to become uniform (even out over time)
my university recently killed fortran, cobol, and qbasic and replaced those courses with c++ and java. Fortran's days are numbered.
That's a hocus-pocus way of interpreting a probability curve. The equation is really the probability of a specific outcome at any instant in time. In Schroedinger's cat's example, the cat is always either alive or dead (NEVER both at once or any state inbetween) -- you just don't know which until you look and see. The curve shows the probability a poison has already killed the cat over time. Just because something can be expressed as a wave and you don't know it's actual state until you observe it does NOT mean it exists in all probable states until you make that observation.
Like most instincts and emotions, it has its place, but should be controlled. It was likely the need for revenge that spawned the judicial system and set up a good reward/punishment system for our ancestors. Now that we have laws and systems to do the justice for us, we should supress our need for revenge when it urges us to do anything illegal or possibly harmful to ourselves or society in the long-term, but I'd say a little vengeance is healthy for all parties involved... it vents an emotion in one, and expresses the pain a previous action caused to another -- so they know they did something someone else percieved as wrong and are less likely to do it again for fear of similar consequences. Not that I condone anything illegal, but some people do just get what they deserve ;-)
Science Fiction isn't a good indicator of reality. Noone has encountered a worm hole or discovered how a "warp drive" might be created. Even Hawking now believes that black holes lead to nowhere -- just mangle matter and energy, absorb them, and release them in another form over time. If any race advances further than we do, they may be limited to sub-light speeds just as we are. In that case, they'd be unlikely to colonize many star systems -- if any at all. They may only colonize planets in their home system, in which case, they'd only interfere with other intelligent races which may have evolved on those planets within their system -- unlikely but possible.
That's not to say that it can't happen -- just that you have to make a lot of assumptions about technology we do not have and have no theory on how to create in order to make the leap to "space faring races" that are in competiton with other life forms on other worlds for resources.
In the unlikely event that a race discovers faster-than-light travel and wishes to colonize every planet that can or will sustain life within their own galaxy, why would they stop there? If they can travel to the far side of their own galaxy easily, why not another galaxy as well? In fact, why not all galaxies? If the population grew exponentially and faster-than-light travel was easy enough, then the only limiting factor would be resources (nearly limitless given they can reach all planets in a galaxy), and the desire of the population to spread out and explore -- except possibly meeting another species that wasn't willing to share resources or wasn't very hospitable.
We know that life exists here on earth, about how the earth was formed, and how life likely began and evolved. Using those assumptions and our development and use of radio waves, we can make some assumptions to form the Drake equation about how likely a similar advance may occur elsewhere, but there are no variables for unknown technologies and advances. When you add in the variables for "what if we could travel faster than light, or snap our fingers like Q and make everyone turn into characters from Robin Hood?", then you've thrown science out of the equation in favor of science fiction and fantasy. There is no possible way to predict how and when any race could develop interstellar travel (because we don't even know if it's possible beyond ion drives and voyages measured in decades or centuries).
Radio waves are simple enough to discover after discovering electricity. It makes sense that they would be used for some level of communication by an advanced species given enough time, but interstellar travel isn't something that's so easily discovered. Granted, the planet may one day leave behind radio in favor of global fiber-optics, but I doubt we'll stop using the wireless technology of radio. It's unlikely that another race would either unless they've chosen laser transmission or discovered a way to transmit via entangled particles or gravity waves. We have begun to experiment with quantum transmission, but it's a long way from becoming a standard communication tool if it ever will. Lasers are by nature point-to-
You go from hypotheses to theories, theories to principles, principles to laws. (with a few steps inbetween of course)
All you're really saying is that the evidence is more strongly for something as it progresses towards a law. True, evolution is still a theory (or theories), but I'd say that breakthroughs in genetics lately are mounting enough evidence to call it "principles of evolution" soon -- if not already... If we find missing links and map all the genetic codes of all living things on earth and create a good genetic tree for how all life evolved, it may even become the laws of evolution.
Even laws can be "disproven" -- because they themselves are just really widely accepted guesses that have lots of evidence to support them.
You'll notice that we have laws of motion, yet atomic theory... b/c there are scientists out there that debate the existance of neutrons and the structure of the nucleus of atoms.
Also, there's theories everywhere in science. Sure, they're not as widely accepted as principles and laws, but they're more than just hypotheses.
So much for the flame war.. lol
I think i need a new monitor.. It's going to take forever to clean this one properly.. hahahaha That was great!
One company is just usually faster to the market with one new extension or another because they developed it themselves. If it takes hold, they either license it to the other or give it to the other under a current license. It's in Intel's best interest to keep AMD around to avoid being called a monopoly, so rather than let AMD die due to lack of a standard it needs to survive in the marketplace, they throw it a bone. (Think Microsoft and Apple) Of course, Intel makes it difficult by not licensing socket and slot types anymore, but the basic architecture is still licensed.
It wouldn't surprise me if Intel asked to see AMD's specs in case they wanted to one day include their technology & then used that info to build a compatable processor. I'm sure that Intel could use 3DNow! instructions if it wanted to, but simply chooses not to. (Why give AMD any credit for making something useful when you have other extensions that can do the same job?)
3DNow is somewhat of an extension of MMX, SSE was a response to that, and then you have 3DNow Pro and SSE2, etc. etc.. They just keep evolving the multimedia extensions. SSE2 seems to be the latest thing, so both Athlon 64 and Intel chips support it. I'm sure Intel will have SSE3 and SSE4 out soon and eventually AMD will license those as well --- if it doesn't already have rights to any new technologies from intel for the next few years.
More info on x86 extensions at Evolution of Extensions
That was incredibly informative. The previous benchmarks I'd seen with hyperthreading showed a boost in some areas and a loss in others to where it seemed to almost even out on benchmarks -- with only a slight improvement due to hyperthreading overall, but that was when hyperthreading first came out and I don't recall the benchmarks covering dual processors at the time. I kept thinking... why don't they just boost the clock speed? It's a bigger improvement than this.
I had no idea that multiple cores with hyperthreading could provide such a boost. wow... so much to look forward to, it makes me feel like my next system will be obsolete before I even buy it online next week.. lol.
I hadn't thought of the fact that one could (or would want to) do both... have multiple processors WITH hyperthreading enabled. I guess I should check out the benchmarks 'n see... most I've seen in the past showed that hyperthreading occasionally had a 5% increase and often had a 5% decrease in peroformance... it all seemed to even out to me, so I didn't get what the fuss was about.
Perhaps things have improved enough through better processor design and compiling w/ hyperthreading in mind since last I checked.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to "hyperthreading" when dual and quad processors come standard on desktop systems for home users.
I look at Hyperthreading as a quick hack to improve response times on a few things. It's a minor speed boost as well, but I think it has enough drawbacks to merit it as only a minor improvement which may not always be a good idea to have enabled. I doubt it will stick around once true dual-processor systems are in the majority, though that's not going to be anytime soon.
In any case, Intel knows it's not a major marketing point or they'd be screaming "Hyperthreading is what you have to have!" like they did w/ MMX.
My response is more like "Hyperthreading... woohoo... call me when you come up with something more interesting."
The Matrix itself is a wireless network. All of the ships "broadcast their signal" and hack into the matrix. It's all done by radio, so it's not that much of a stretch that Neo has tapped into a wireless connection which allows him to interact with machines and "see" anything connected to the matrix in the real world. This also explains why he can ONLY see things connected to the machines and/or the matrix when he's blind. He can't see normal humans they are not jacked-in and tunnels and ships, etc.
As for Neo being connected to the source, it makes sense in that part of him (whether that's his "code" in the matrix which is part of his personality in the real world or is part of his internal programming within his bio-implants or whatever). Part of Neo is something that came from the machine world, so he is connected. Maybe the oracle inserted this code w/ a cookie or candy, or maybe it was there since his birth & it was meant to be. In any case, he represents the christian savior Jesus and pure love/hope/redemption. Though he is man and sometimes has the doubts of a man (like Jesus), he is also part God (machine god = the source). He has powers given to him through his connection with god & can affect both this world (the matrix) and the spiritual world (the real world) He is of our world, yet transends it into the next. He takes on Smith, who is the embodiment of evil/sin/death, and actually takes that "sin" into his body by allowing Smith to take him over. He sacrifices himself in order to destroy "sin's" hold on the world (the matrix) so that humans can be free. The end result is that order is restored, the battle between good and evil is over for a while. Any person in the matrix can now know "god" (the truth that their world is made by someone else)and be "saved"(by accepting reality and/or leaving the matrix for zion) or stay in their ingorant existance. Anyone who chooses can become a child of Zion (another name for Jerusalem/city of the jews, etc).
Part of this comes from the numerous examples of Neo being called "savior". One guy states "You're my savior, man. My own personal Jesus christ". Others call him the one, their only hope, the blind messiah, etc. etc. His love interest is Trinity -- another name for the holy trinity of god,christ,and holy spirit. The First matrix (real world) was a paradise (like Eden). But, man couldn't accept it, so the matrix(earth) was made to accomidate man's imperfections. Neo was the inevitable result of it's construction -- a way to free man from bondage. (Just as Jesus was the inevitable sacrifice that had to be made in order to restore the bridge between man and god... so that peace could be made between them). In the Matrix Universe, according to the Animatrix, it was the humans that started the war. The machines aren't evil. They simply act as a God to create a world for man, to give him rules and to punish man and control him, yet not destroy him. Neo provided a bridge for peace between them again & hope for their future coexistance. The Oracle's guardian's name is Sereph -- which is a name for a type of Angel. It's most likely he was around when the first Paradise matrix was created. The Marovingian (a name for a class of people who believed themselves to be of the bloodline of Jesus) and his cronies represent the corrupt Jewish Priests which know something of the truth, but have perverted the religion and refuse to allow Jesus(Neo) to spoil the status quo. Cypher is the Judas of the story because he's lost his faith in Neo and betrays him. Jesus's(Neo's) coming was foretold and there were many other messiahs that were imposters. The parallels go on and on, but the whole story is about choice. Neo(Jesus) chose to do what he did to save the world(matrix) and let the souls who have crossed over from that world have peace with god (the source). Also, people can choose whether they w
That's true, and as we've already seen with the blackouts and brownouts, distribution is already a huge problem that needs to be tackled. I've heard of some areas using superconducting wires with refridgerated systems to help in this area... and it's been quite cost-effective.
Although I agree the original had a spirit as in a kindly etherial protector that was never a mortal man, other versions of the tale have used human spirits which would be referred to as ghosts.
It was a metaphor -- a "ghost of Christmas present" of sorts -- which is why he put it in quotes and used the term "of sorts". Metaphors often involve stating one thing as a fact when implying it is merely like something else.
It's somewhat similar to a simile only without the term "like" or "as". Though, some might argue that it was a simile since he used "of sorts" which could be an alternative to "like" or "as."
Southpark uses metaphors constantly & The FBI Agent was playing the part of the ghost of MUSIC present. It was a page right out of Dicken's "A Christmas Carol." You can go watch the movie "Scrooged" to see a more modern version of the idea, or watch the older movies based on the book, or go read the book itself. It's quite good.
Laws prevent them from converting a coal-burning plant which was designed to be easily converted to nuclear if/when laws changed. There's no monetary barrier preventing them... it's a legal issue.
They also tell me that nuclear "breeder" reactors are much more efficient and produce less waste than earlier nuclear reactors. It makes me wonder how much research is going into developing new nuclear generators and recycling of hazardous materials when we have laws hampering the construction of new facilities.
One nuclear plant can produce about as much electricity as 100 coal-burning plants, which would make it very cost-effective both in terms of cost per kilowatt and in terms of facilities and maintainence fees for electrical companies -- they'd only have to maintain 1/100th of the facilities they currently use if they converted completely. Of course, nuclear energy is a non-renewable resource -- just like coal. Although we have enough to last us for the forseeable future... we'll run out of that, too. That is, unless we discover new deposits or that the theory is true that the earth's core contains massive quantities of Uranium. (Some people theorize the earth is a giant nuclear reactor itself, others say there simply may be large deposits of uranium near the core -- they could both be wrong ;-).
It's not the state's fault that a spammer's business model relies on e-mailing strangers they have no data on other than their e-mail address. The spammers will have to resort to asking more questionairres and purchasing lists of names, addresses, and e-mail addresses to better comply with state laws.
A state law can apply to any person or business who conducts business within the state in question. This individual or company is definitely doing business in Missouri by soliciting Missouri citizens via e-mail which puts the spammer under Missouri Jurisdiction. Simply because the Internet was used doesn't remove the business's obligation to ensure that they are adhering to state laws. In this case, it is up to the spammer to know which state the person they are spamming is from and what state and local laws apply.
If, for instance, they had called Missouri cell phone numbers instead and violated a state law, they could be held liable regardless of whether that Missouri citizen answered their cell phone in the state of Missouri (say they were on vacation in Florida for instance or Hawaii) b/c the phone was listed in Missouri.
State laws regarding this are very broad and have been upheld for a very long time. Even if you are a supplier to a business in a state, you can often be considered "doing business" within the state if that business is a significant enough portion of your own business. It's quite common for businesses who are said to have business within the state -- regardless of where they are geographically located -- to be forced to adhere to state laws when their actions affect businesses or individuals within the state.
This is especially true for laws concerning contracts.
While you are correct that states cannot regulate interstate commerce, they can and do regulate businesses within their state and those which do business with businesses and individuals within their state.
Usually states' interferance is only prevented when they cause significant harm to interstate commerce that is only travelling through the state such as trucks or trains carrying cargo. I recall, for instance, that trucks when riding through one state were required to actually change their mud flaps covering their tires several times to comply with different state laws regarding their shape and size. That was changed b/c it burdened interstate commerce & those state laws were struck down.
A state law can apply to any person or business who conducts business within the state. Even if you are a supplier to a business in a state, you can often be considered "doing business" with the state if that business is a significant enough portion of your own business. It's quite common for businesses who are said to have business within the state -- regardless of where they are geographically located -- can be prosecuted under state laws when their actions affect businesses or individuals within the state. This is especially true for laws concerning contracts.
Much appreciated!
Actually, this has been done in a way with the International Phonetic Alphabet and one specifically just for English
It exists only because division is done "improperly" in a sense. 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 = 3/3 = 1... however if you use the infinitely repeating decimal places, you get .3 repeating + .3 repeating + .3 repeating = .9 repeating or 1.
The remainders from the 3 division problems addd up to a total which should not have left a remainder to divide by, thus giving 1 insead of the .9 repeating.
ex: 1/1 = 1 , but you can also say 1/1 is .9 repeating b/c of "incorrect" long division which leaves a remainder it should not have left -- which is in the case of every instance of .9 repeating. 1 goes into 1 .9 times leaving .1 which 1 goes into .09 times, leaving .01, and so on to infinity b/c the proper answer should have simply been 1 -- but .9 repeating to infinity is also a solution.
This number does not "approach" 1, but is 1 in a different notation. The CAUSE of the infinite repeating 9's is due to the remainder which should not be there in the first place. To think of it as a number which is 1 minus infinite decimal places of zeros with a 1 somewhere at the end of infinity is not only rediculous, but impossible as nothing ever reaches infinity, much less goes past it.
uh... no. This is the difference between displaying a value as fraction or a whole number in base 10 mathematics. 1/3 is .3 repeating 2/3 is .6 repeating and 3/3 is .9 repeating or 1. They are equivilants -- not approximations.
3/3 = 1, but if you instead put in 0.9 in long-division, you get a remainder of 3 which means the next slot would be another 9 giving a remainder of 3 and repeating forever. Try it on paper with long division...
1/3 is .3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333 33333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333 33333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333 3333333333333333333333333 etc.
3/3 if you put in .9 instead of 1 at the top in long division, you get a remainder of 3 (because 3*0.9 is 2.7, leaving .3 which when divided by .09 gives .27 leaving a remainder of .03 thus being divided by .009 gives .027 w/ a remainder of .003... infinity)
Also, logically, the difference between .9 repeating and 1 is that at some point past infinity, there is a unit subtracted from the last digit leaving a 9... since there is no such thing as infinity +1, there is no "last" digit from which to subtract a unit from and at infinity, .9 repeating is exactly = to 1 -- not approaching it as in a function.
The idea of numbers repeating to infinity is really a math trick. if .9 repeating did not exactly = 1, then 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 could not exactly = 1, which must be true for 3/3 =1.
The same way 1/3 can be expressed as .33333333 in long-division where 3 goes into 1 three times leaving remainder 1 over and over all the way to infinity, 3 can go into 3 nine times leaving remainder 3 for infinity giving .9999999
I hate the patriot act, the new homeland defense position (b/c really, the CIA,FBI, and NSA aren't working together any better), and the disregard for the environment... oh, and the blatant wussing out against big business like Microsoft during the antitrust trial. I'm also not real big on spending billions on a war that wasn't really necessary.. but, I do like the tax cuts and privitazation of some parts of government.
With the Dems, I don't like thier idea of Social Security as a right -- it was an experiment during the depression that has since failed & should have an option to "opt out" if we wish to actually save our money for retirement instead of throwing it away -- It's been proven you'd earn more putting the $ in a savings account than giving it to the government to hold for you for when you are old and gray. I also don't care for their "health care for free for everyone" bit b/c someone somewhere is going to have to pay for it & I don't want the government deciding whether or not I need a new kidney, etc.
The Democrats are all about higher taxes and free rides -- but, with a side-order of helping the environment with legalized discrimination (affermative action). They do occasionally help expand or affirm freedoms, though.
The Republicans are all about lower taxes, more tax breaks, smaller government (usually -- apparently this president didn't get the memo on that), state rights, and unfortunately religious wackos which want to end abortion, stop genetic testing, cloning, embryo experiments with stem cells, etc. and somehow want to "bring America back to God" as if the founders were all Christians -- which they weren't. They also want to protect big business and keep the status quo which I hate b/c monopolies have wayyyy too much power & huge corporate conglomerates do as well.
I'm for freedom above all else unless it directly harms another person -- go run naked in the streets if you like kinda thing, but don't injure anyone physically while doing it. lol. I like SMALL government b/c government doesn't really need to DO anything but make rules, protect us from criminals & terrorists, and provide essential services which we might not pay for on our own unless taxed. I think most powers that can be controlled by the states should be instead of making federal laws which mandate how things should be done -- so long as individuals rights aren't violated. Let California do things their way and South Carolina do things their way for the most part & everyone will be happy.
I think I'm more of a libertarian than dem or republican, but I see myself as a moderate. I want more freedom, less taxes (becuase so much of that money goes to things you and I wouldn't want it going to if we had a choice about it), smaller government, tighter controls on crooked business people, and more representation of what the people actually want instead of what hollywood, microsoft, time warner, and other business that line the pockets of congressmen want.
Maybe one day we'll get internet voting secure and reliable & will have better representation in government. I'd love it if every bill that had to pass not only had to be signed by the president, but also get more than a 50% vote from the American people... That'd tell 'em where to shove their outrageous spending ;-) Or maybe someone will come up with an even better idea. Though, I bet if we all got to vote on whether or not to pass the DMCA, it wouldn't have ever become law.