Honestly enough, I've never really understood any but the most literal creationist's objections to evolution. I mean, why aren't they protesting dinosaurs? Isn't the Earth supposed to be too young for them to have existed?
Many have this quaint notion that they all died on the ark, and before the flood they were stomping around together with humans. At one time they were touting some impressions in a lake bed in Texas as fossilized footprint proof of the coexistence of Dinosaurs and humans at the same time, though they seem to have since given up on that one-- possibly because there was some evidence that someone had attempted to carve human toes on some of the supposedly human prints which turned out to actually be just more dino prints upon closer inspection.
Frankly, I think it must be the creationists themselves which are the "missing link" and therefore provide the most significant evidence for evolution...
If you don't ever want to discover that your data is inaccessible, you have to think about whether or not you'll let individual users set any encryption passwords, and how to make sure there's always more than one person who knows any given encryption passwords, and whether or not you'll let all the people who may know a given password get on the same airplane. Because if someone forgets, gets hit by a bus, gets pissed off at the company, etc., you may just find some data just became inaccessible...
Did we learn NOTHING from the last 8 years? Any student of history should know that when the administration changes (which it does every 4-8 years), treaties with things such as weapons bans or admonitions on prisoner (oh, I'm sorry, the word is detainee this week) treatment (such as torture) are often summarily ignored or otherwise completely undermined by new administrations who will justify to themselves the national need to do whatever the hell they want.
If Bush/Cheney did ANYTHING for international relations, it's the clear demonstration that US treaties aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
But there is a way out of it and for some reason they seem unwilling to do it. Write a new OS, virtualize old Windows for "legacy support" and eventually all the software vendors will port their code to work with the new Microsoft OS natively just as they did with Mac OS X. I can't imagine why Microsoft is unwilling to do that... got any suggestions anyone?
Isn't it obvious? It takes YEARS and many iterations to develop a mature modern OS from scratch. Linux for example, has been around for nearly 20 years now (I installed my first distro in 1991 IIRC, Slackware v0.9 or something like that). You don't just start developing a new OS and have a stable and fully competitive produce ready to ship in the next couple of years. It's a huge job to do well. And you can't just throw money at the problem and/or browbeat your employees with chair-throwing threats to make it happen.
On the other hand, they could just buy SCO (From Novell though, I gather) and leverage that, which at least likely has a better kernel and security models than Vista/W7, even if development of SCO has been rather stagnant for the last several years. The only problem is, they'd probably end up giving up a lot of customer lock-ins in the process, something they just can't bring themselves to do, due to significant low self-esteem over their ability to compete on a truly level playing field.
[tinfoil-hat]
I suspect things don't operate that efficiently unless someone has a stronger than usual motivation to get the update out. A serious hole in the DRM code seems like it might do it...
[/tinfoil-hat]
Raymond Scott, jazz composer and inventor, was VERY protective of his ideas. Many of his best ones he took to his grave. Consequently, he's known for his music and not for his inventions.
Moral: If someone steals your ideas, you should consider it a complement and thank them.
And I'm sure someone else will be willing to argue that it is the compiler's job to deal with all this.
But no, the design of the OS, the compiler, the target program, and undoubtedly the behavior of the end-user will likely all have some role in optimizations of this nature. Welcome to the world of parallel processing.
As for the code not working on other FPGAs, maybe the researcher should not use real chips to check the iterations. A simulated one which conforms to the spec exactly and upon where quirks and such are expected, dies or sends a signal back to the AI program. Testing after the fact on real chips to verify the AI didn't exploit bugs in the simulator would be more proper procedure.
The point was to have it take into account the physical characteristics of the device, where things such as capacitance between the physical segments could actually be utilized to their advantage. A simulator probably wouldn't provide this level of accuracy. Testing against an array of devices running at different temperatures, etc., could help make the design more robust however. These problems are specifically addressed by Adrian Thompson in his papers on the subject.
Alternative medicine is bunk is beside the point..
on
Trick or Treatment
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· Score: 1
It's pretty clear that most of the alternative medicine is pure hogwash. BUT, what those who like to point this out usually FAIL to observe, is the main REASON IT IS SO POPULAR.
The reason is, the fact that "mainstream" medicine is seriously biased by a conflict of interest with the pharmiceutical companies. Alternatives sell because people don't like the funny business going on in mainstream medicine, and the funny business going on in alternative medicine seems at least cheaper and apparently leaves them more in control.
Books like this will have NO effect whatsoever on the problem when they completely ignore its root.
ID says in effect, that it is not possible for God to design a universe that is indistinguishable from random. And since so far, that is the sort of universe in which we live, it looks to me that ID, if it weren't nonsense, would actually constitute proof that God doesn't exist...
When you look at individuals who have suffered brain damage or degenerative brain diseases, you see that their "consciousness" can be fragmented or incomplete in a whole variety of ways (read most anything by Oliver Sachs for some specific examples, or carry on a conversation with someone with Alzheimer's).
Apologists have tried to argue that their "soul" has flown the coop or is halfway-out of them or simply some "connections" to the body are broken or something, but that seems a much more convoluted argument and fails to explain much of the observed phenomena.
Certainly memory is often impaired, which if it were a function of the "soul" would presumably exist somewhere, yet access to it is clearly limited in many individuals. So go ahead, make up a lot of voodoo to explain it so that it includes a "soul," but don't expect the convoluted rain-dance around the evidence to be very convincing.
The speed of your provider is about as important-- Sprint has a couple USB modem models that will apparently do the full EVDO speed of their system. And verizon has one or two as well-- I don't know that one modem is any better than the other. It's the *phones* that have a zillion features making it hard to choose...
...as I'm about in the market for a new mobile device. However, after doing some research, there are two fairly serious showstoppers with the G1. T-Mobile's network speed appears to be pretty sucky, and the G1 won't tether as of yet. Both of these things can be fixed, but until they are, I'll probably be buying a USB modem that'll do EVDO from Sprint or Verizon plus a 39.95/mo phone (which the G1 ain't). I'm leaning towards a Palm Centro at the moment. I figure I'll get something like the G1 eventually, but if they don't get these problems fixed before the Neo Freerunner becomes a viable alternative, Google is going to miss their window.
Decades ago I worked for Tektronix as repair tech in a field office. EVERY piece of gear that came into the shop first went into the wash rack. That entailed:
1) removing the side panels
2) hosing it down with a soap spray virtually identical to the one used at your local self-serve car wash
3) rinsing with water
4) Placing the device in the drying ovens for about 3 days. I'm not sure the temp, but it was relatively low, like 150 degrees I think. Care was needed to make sure the transformer devices, which were sometimes in cans, were positioned so they would drain, as they otherwise could pool water that wouldn't dry in 3 days.
We never had a failure due to water issues, and the devices included old vacuum tube gear with paper caps (waxed, so there's no problem), up to the latest integrated circuit equipment. Almost all of the devices had a CRT & associated high voltage supply as well.
The moral of the story is, water will generally not hurt electronics if they're powered off at the time. Making sure it's really DRY is critical though, as it may take longer than you think, and if you're not using a drying oven even longer. But soap and water is what we used everyday and it always did the trick. We had stuff coming in that had been in garages for years that had mouse-nests made in them, items that were in a fire and had been blackened and were hosed down by the fire department, gear that had oil spilled all over it, stuff in all sorts of conditions.
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Honestly enough, I've never really understood any but the most literal creationist's objections to evolution. I mean, why aren't they protesting dinosaurs? Isn't the Earth supposed to be too young for them to have existed?
Many have this quaint notion that they all died on the ark, and before the flood they were stomping around together with humans. At one time they were touting some impressions in a lake bed in Texas as fossilized footprint proof of the coexistence of Dinosaurs and humans at the same time, though they seem to have since given up on that one-- possibly because there was some evidence that someone had attempted to carve human toes on some of the supposedly human prints which turned out to actually be just more dino prints upon closer inspection.
Frankly, I think it must be the creationists themselves which are the "missing link" and therefore provide the most significant evidence for evolution...
If you don't ever want to discover that your data is inaccessible, you have to think about whether or not you'll let individual users set any encryption passwords, and how to make sure there's always more than one person who knows any given encryption passwords, and whether or not you'll let all the people who may know a given password get on the same airplane. Because if someone forgets, gets hit by a bus, gets pissed off at the company, etc., you may just find some data just became inaccessible...
Oh, yeah, and also remember that the Democrats could have done something about it via impeachment, BUT THEY DIDN'T.
Did we learn NOTHING from the last 8 years? Any student of history should know that when the administration changes (which it does every 4-8 years), treaties with things such as weapons bans or admonitions on prisoner (oh, I'm sorry, the word is detainee this week) treatment (such as torture) are often summarily ignored or otherwise completely undermined by new administrations who will justify to themselves the national need to do whatever the hell they want.
If Bush/Cheney did ANYTHING for international relations, it's the clear demonstration that US treaties aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
But there is a way out of it and for some reason they seem unwilling to do it. Write a new OS, virtualize old Windows for "legacy support" and eventually all the software vendors will port their code to work with the new Microsoft OS natively just as they did with Mac OS X. I can't imagine why Microsoft is unwilling to do that... got any suggestions anyone?
Isn't it obvious? It takes YEARS and many iterations to develop a mature modern OS from scratch. Linux for example, has been around for nearly 20 years now (I installed my first distro in 1991 IIRC, Slackware v0.9 or something like that). You don't just start developing a new OS and have a stable and fully competitive produce ready to ship in the next couple of years. It's a huge job to do well. And you can't just throw money at the problem and/or browbeat your employees with chair-throwing threats to make it happen.
On the other hand, they could just buy SCO (From Novell though, I gather) and leverage that, which at least likely has a better kernel and security models than Vista/W7, even if development of SCO has been rather stagnant for the last several years. The only problem is, they'd probably end up giving up a lot of customer lock-ins in the process, something they just can't bring themselves to do, due to significant low self-esteem over their ability to compete on a truly level playing field.
I'm sticking with incandescents. Even if you pack several color LEDs together, you still get a light spectrum that sucks.
Yeah, and don't get him started on female sociopaths...
The guy probably left indexing turned on and is running McAfee or Norton. Those things are enough to suck the life out of any PC hardware...
[tinfoil-hat]
I suspect things don't operate that efficiently unless someone has a stronger than usual motivation to get the update out. A serious hole in the DRM code seems like it might do it...
[/tinfoil-hat]
Raymond Scott, jazz composer and inventor, was VERY protective of his ideas. Many of his best ones he took to his grave. Consequently, he's known for his music and not for his inventions.
Moral: If someone steals your ideas, you should consider it a complement and thank them.
I suppose it's possible someone has *already* been doing that. Isn't robots.txt a voluntary scheme?
Being self employed is, in many ways, the same as being employed 24/7.
And I'm sure someone else will be willing to argue that it is the compiler's job to deal with all this.
But no, the design of the OS, the compiler, the target program, and undoubtedly the behavior of the end-user will likely all have some role in optimizations of this nature. Welcome to the world of parallel processing.
As for the code not working on other FPGAs, maybe the researcher should not use real chips to check the iterations. A simulated one which conforms to the spec exactly and upon where quirks and such are expected, dies or sends a signal back to the AI program. Testing after the fact on real chips to verify the AI didn't exploit bugs in the simulator would be more proper procedure.
The point was to have it take into account the physical characteristics of the device, where things such as capacitance between the physical segments could actually be utilized to their advantage. A simulator probably wouldn't provide this level of accuracy. Testing against an array of devices running at different temperatures, etc., could help make the design more robust however. These problems are specifically addressed by Adrian Thompson in his papers on the subject.
It's pretty clear that most of the alternative medicine is pure hogwash. BUT, what those who like to point this out usually FAIL to observe, is the main REASON IT IS SO POPULAR.
The reason is, the fact that "mainstream" medicine is seriously biased by a conflict of interest with the pharmiceutical companies. Alternatives sell because people don't like the funny business going on in mainstream medicine, and the funny business going on in alternative medicine seems at least cheaper and apparently leaves them more in control.
Books like this will have NO effect whatsoever on the problem when they completely ignore its root.
Hell, I don't even like Emacs-- you have to take your fingers of the home position to hit the function keys. Lame.
ID says in effect, that it is not possible for God to design a universe that is indistinguishable from random. And since so far, that is the sort of universe in which we live, it looks to me that ID, if it weren't nonsense, would actually constitute proof that God doesn't exist...
A virus written by a "script kiddie," then...
When you look at individuals who have suffered brain damage or degenerative brain diseases, you see that their "consciousness" can be fragmented or incomplete in a whole variety of ways (read most anything by Oliver Sachs for some specific examples, or carry on a conversation with someone with Alzheimer's).
Apologists have tried to argue that their "soul" has flown the coop or is halfway-out of them or simply some "connections" to the body are broken or something, but that seems a much more convoluted argument and fails to explain much of the observed phenomena.
Certainly memory is often impaired, which if it were a function of the "soul" would presumably exist somewhere, yet access to it is clearly limited in many individuals. So go ahead, make up a lot of voodoo to explain it so that it includes a "soul," but don't expect the convoluted rain-dance around the evidence to be very convincing.
Tsk tsk. All this faith in anarchy. Bugs Bunny we salute you...
And nobody has claimed free markets are perfect, just better then the alternatives.
It seems to me that all these yahoos arguing to "don't regulate, just let the market sort it out," are saying it's perfect by implication.
The speed of your provider is about as important-- Sprint has a couple USB modem models that will apparently do the full EVDO speed of their system. And verizon has one or two as well-- I don't know that one modem is any better than the other. It's the *phones* that have a zillion features making it hard to choose...
...as I'm about in the market for a new mobile device. However, after doing some research, there are two fairly serious showstoppers with the G1. T-Mobile's network speed appears to be pretty sucky, and the G1 won't tether as of yet. Both of these things can be fixed, but until they are, I'll probably be buying a USB modem that'll do EVDO from Sprint or Verizon plus a 39.95/mo phone (which the G1 ain't). I'm leaning towards a Palm Centro at the moment. I figure I'll get something like the G1 eventually, but if they don't get these problems fixed before the Neo Freerunner becomes a viable alternative, Google is going to miss their window.
This is that guy who thinks "culture" is synonymous with high-production-value television programming.
Decades ago I worked for Tektronix as repair tech in a field office. EVERY piece of gear that came into the shop first went into the wash rack. That entailed: 1) removing the side panels 2) hosing it down with a soap spray virtually identical to the one used at your local self-serve car wash 3) rinsing with water 4) Placing the device in the drying ovens for about 3 days. I'm not sure the temp, but it was relatively low, like 150 degrees I think. Care was needed to make sure the transformer devices, which were sometimes in cans, were positioned so they would drain, as they otherwise could pool water that wouldn't dry in 3 days.
We never had a failure due to water issues, and the devices included old vacuum tube gear with paper caps (waxed, so there's no problem), up to the latest integrated circuit equipment. Almost all of the devices had a CRT & associated high voltage supply as well.
The moral of the story is, water will generally not hurt electronics if they're powered off at the time. Making sure it's really DRY is critical though, as it may take longer than you think, and if you're not using a drying oven even longer. But soap and water is what we used everyday and it always did the trick. We had stuff coming in that had been in garages for years that had mouse-nests made in them, items that were in a fire and had been blackened and were hosed down by the fire department, gear that had oil spilled all over it, stuff in all sorts of conditions.