There's a big difference there. Driving a car can cause immediate harm to those around you, whereas seeing a movie, or any form of media, cannot. Is someone going to die because a 7 year old drove a car into them? Yes. Is someone going to die because a 7 year old saw a movie with sex and profanity in it? No. ---
Shouldn't the parents make their own moral decisions, instead of you forcing your opinion on them? No one is forcing you to watch South Park, but you are trying to force them not to.
Your opinion as a person is worth a lot more to me than your opinion as a Christian. As a group, Christians are one of my least favorite (some sections are better than others, but as a group). Then again, some of my best friends are Christian.
Also, you probably discriminate against religions. Would you allow kids to worship Satan in schools if they were also allowed to worship God? I think that religion should be seperated from learning, but if they must mix, then complete freedom must be granted. If one group can post the Christian 10 Commandments, then another should be able to post the analog from their religion.
"Mom" is a word which represents a caring, nuturing class of women who have the BEST interest of the children in mind. To me, "Mom" is simply the person who is my biological mother. That doesn't mean that I don't love her, or that she doesn't love me, or that she *doesn't* have my best interest in mind. Just that that is not part of the definition.
Also, the mother in Katz's story also cared for her children. She just has different opinions than yours on what is appropriate for them. If you expect people to respect your opinions, you must respect theirs as well. ---
I am of the opinion that people should not be idiots. They should be able to decide for themselves what is right for them. The only way people can develop discrimination is by seeing and experiencing a wide variety of choices. If you cut out the choices most consider bad, then the bad parts of the 'good' ones seem worse (did that make sense? read it again).
If you argue against showing kids satanism, you must also argue against showing them other religions. Without knowing the choices, your religious 'freedom' is worth nothing.
It's not only the "15year old male"s that agree with Katz's viewpoint. It's also the people who believe in thinking for yourself, instead of letting others make all the decisions for you. ---
To make 3D chips: use holography. It'll only work for optical computers, but there were articles on it two years ago, so it's probably been researched for longer. AFAIK, it's not near production yet, but with some of the recent advances in optical computing (transistor, for instance), it may be just around the corner. ---
Indeed. The only way I can think of, off hand, would be an optical computer, using holograms to place the paths, etc. This is being researched in several places already. And, the heat produced by light is low enough that little cooling is needed.
To make cubic CPUs using current materials, it would need to be cooled a LOT, and use materials through which heat flows quickly. ---
Part of the idea behind quantum computers is that they don't use energy once they are started (on a given calculation, and those can get *very* complicated). In short, there won't be a manual way to pull the plug. Communications with the outside world, however, will take energy, so I don't think you have to worry. ---
Will FPGA chips be relagated to similar specialized tasks (like video compression or speech recognition) or will they truly be useful for general purpose computers?
NO. FPGA is specifically made so that it can be used for any application. How it ends up being used will depend on the cost/performance. ---
It's true, the coding paradigm will be different, on the low level, since it will have to deal directly with logic gates, rather than having some set commands. This also means that it would be easy to implement emulation of any given processor, since the low-level command set can simply be exchanged. I'm sure that when it is released, low-level libraries will be released with it, to make it easier to code for. After all, who wants to write telecommunications suites in AND gates?
Hopefully low-level commands will be implemented as libraries, rather than being built into each compiler, as that will make it easier to change libaries if a faster/better one comes out. With any luck, we'll end up using a nice, high-level language, at least for most apps. ---
There is another online-only comic called Kevin and Kell. The writer of it also writes two other comics, which are syndicated offline, but Kevin and Kell is only syndicated online.
The first strip is from September 3, 1995. So online comics can obviously support themselves. BTW, there are ads on the site, but I think he makes most of his money from selling it to online newspapers/comic archives/etc. ---
'twould appear so, as just before bugbear3001's post is a post by bugbear3000 at -3 (set the threshhold to -3 in the URL, don't try to use the forms). ---
The only way that could be done would be putting something over the monitor. Either that, or using material that can be polarized/depolarized by running an electric current through it (which exists). I'm not sure how expensive it is, though. ---
There is already a (commercial) program out there that can do that. It actually uses two keys, so if you use one key, you get the actual message, but if you use the other key, you get the fake message. No 'rubbish' required (though padding messages is a good security measure no matter what). I believe it used elliptic curves, which is a bit out of style lately. I'm not sure what the company is called. ---
Yes, but without the hardware (the CPU, motherboard, HD and RAM, NOT the modem), they could turn on the machine and point and click. The reason command lines were the only thing around is because the machines couldn't support a GUI. Now they can. ---
Why not use biotech to make us stronger rather than letting natural selection do it? Admittedly, that will prevent the reduction of the population, but it will also prevent the massive emotional strife that occurs whenever someone dies (at least with many people).
Biotech can cause the same increase in strength that is caused by removing the weak, but without the death. It just needs to be applied properly (simply killing the disease doesn't work, you need to make the people immune, so that similar diseases will have a lower chance of having an effect.) ---
Well, I have no problems on spelling (I rarely use a spell checker and rarely need one), but as for writing... I can't handwrite somethings at 70 words per minutes, but I can type that fast, and usually do, at least when I'm dashing of a quick note to someone (as most of my letters are). I can also save my missives, and edit/revise them if I want. It's a lot easier to make drafts when I don't have to rewrite everything. ---
What is wrong with biotech? And what's wrong with the products thereof?
I don't see any problems with disease resistant plants. And I would have no problems with being disease resistant myself ('cept that they can't use the same methods, for many and varied reasons). While I suppose it is possible for the crops to become weeds, if it's done right (which requires research and experimentation), then there will not be problems
I also have no problems with experimentation on animals, and yes, humans. Being a furry and a transformationist, that's actually one of the things I look forward to in the next few decades (I wanna new body!).
Experimentation on humans also has major medical benefits. If your kidney was becoming disfunctional, would you rather they grow you a new one from your own cells (or DNA at least), or have to wait and, maybe, get one from a donor? I'd rather have the first, myself.
Knowlege is a valuable thing, and all stopping the research will do is slow down the increase in knowlege. It won't stop it, as illicit research will still continue, but it will make it be in the hands of those who would use it to do exactly what those who wish to stop the research are fearing. And we will have no defense, no way to counter it.
I'd say biotech is one of the best things to happen to us this century. Without it, many of the advance that proponents of nanotech envision would be impossible (particularly medical nano). Without it, we would be unable to grow skin for burn victims, and, according to some reports, soon entire new organs.
Slashdot Mirror
There's a big difference there. Driving a car can cause immediate harm to those around you, whereas seeing a movie, or any form of media, cannot.
Is someone going to die because a 7 year old drove a car into them? Yes.
Is someone going to die because a 7 year old saw a movie with sex and profanity in it? No.
---
Lying is not inherently evil. It is a tool. Only purposes can be evil. In this case, Katz's purpose was good, so, he DID do something good.
---
Shouldn't the parents make their own moral decisions, instead of you forcing your opinion on them? No one is forcing you to watch South Park, but you are trying to force them not to.
Your opinion as a person is worth a lot more to me than your opinion as a Christian. As a group, Christians are one of my least favorite (some sections are better than others, but as a group). Then again, some of my best friends are Christian.
Also, you probably discriminate against religions. Would you allow kids to worship Satan in schools if they were also allowed to worship God? I think that religion should be seperated from learning, but if they must mix, then complete freedom must be granted. If one group can post the Christian 10 Commandments, then another should be able to post the analog from their religion.
"Mom" is a word which represents a caring, nuturing class of women who have the BEST interest of the children in mind.
To me, "Mom" is simply the person who is my biological mother. That doesn't mean that I don't love her, or that she doesn't love me, or that she *doesn't* have my best interest in mind. Just that that is not part of the definition.
Also, the mother in Katz's story also cared for her children. She just has different opinions than yours on what is appropriate for them. If you expect people to respect your opinions, you must respect theirs as well.
---
I am of the opinion that people should not be idiots. They should be able to decide for themselves what is right for them. The only way people can develop discrimination is by seeing and experiencing a wide variety of choices. If you cut out the choices most consider bad, then the bad parts of the 'good' ones seem worse (did that make sense? read it again).
If you argue against showing kids satanism, you must also argue against showing them other religions. Without knowing the choices, your religious 'freedom' is worth nothing.
It's not only the "15year old male"s that agree with Katz's viewpoint. It's also the people who believe in thinking for yourself, instead of letting others make all the decisions for you.
---
To make 3D chips: use holography. It'll only work for optical computers, but there were articles on it two years ago, so it's probably been researched for longer. AFAIK, it's not near production yet, but with some of the recent advances in optical computing (transistor, for instance), it may be just around the corner.
---
Indeed. The only way I can think of, off hand, would be an optical computer, using holograms to place the paths, etc. This is being researched in several places already. And, the heat produced by light is low enough that little cooling is needed.
To make cubic CPUs using current materials, it would need to be cooled a LOT, and use materials through which heat flows quickly.
---
What does MEEPT mean?
---
Part of the idea behind quantum computers is that they don't use energy once they are started (on a given calculation, and those can get *very* complicated). In short, there won't be a manual way to pull the plug. Communications with the outside world, however, will take energy, so I don't think you have to worry.
---
Will FPGA chips be relagated to similar specialized tasks (like video compression or speech recognition) or will they truly be useful for general purpose computers?
NO. FPGA is specifically made so that it can be used for any application. How it ends up being used will depend on the cost/performance.
---
It's true, the coding paradigm will be different, on the low level, since it will have to deal directly with logic gates, rather than having some set commands. This also means that it would be easy to implement emulation of any given processor, since the low-level command set can simply be exchanged. I'm sure that when it is released, low-level libraries will be released with it, to make it easier to code for. After all, who wants to write telecommunications suites in AND gates?
Hopefully low-level commands will be implemented as libraries, rather than being built into each compiler, as that will make it easier to change libaries if a faster/better one comes out. With any luck, we'll end up using a nice, high-level language, at least for most apps.
---
There is another online-only comic called Kevin and Kell. The writer of it also writes two other comics, which are syndicated offline, but Kevin and Kell is only syndicated online.
The first strip is from September 3, 1995. So online comics can obviously support themselves. BTW, there are ads on the site, but I think he makes most of his money from selling it to online newspapers/comic archives/etc.
---
'twould appear so, as just before bugbear3001's post is a post by bugbear3000 at -3 (set the threshhold to -3 in the URL, don't try to use the forms).
---
The only way that could be done would be putting something over the monitor. Either that, or using material that can be polarized/depolarized by running an electric current through it (which exists). I'm not sure how expensive it is, though.
---
In response to where other people found it:
I saw it on the shelf right next to the MS-Win copy of CTP. Made me gape. Then cheer.
---
There is already a (commercial) program out there that can do that. It actually uses two keys, so if you use one key, you get the actual message, but if you use the other key, you get the fake message. No 'rubbish' required (though padding messages is a good security measure no matter what). I believe it used elliptic curves, which is a bit out of style lately. I'm not sure what the company is called.
---
Yes, but without the hardware (the CPU, motherboard, HD and RAM, NOT the modem), they could turn on the machine and point and click. The reason command lines were the only thing around is because the machines couldn't support a GUI. Now they can.
---
Please... PLEASE oh admins of /., give us killfiles!
---
Why not use biotech to make us stronger rather than letting natural selection do it? Admittedly, that will prevent the reduction of the population, but it will also prevent the massive emotional strife that occurs whenever someone dies (at least with many people).
Biotech can cause the same increase in strength that is caused by removing the weak, but without the death. It just needs to be applied properly (simply killing the disease doesn't work, you need to make the people immune, so that similar diseases will have a lower chance of having an effect.)
---
Well, I have no problems on spelling (I rarely use a spell checker and rarely need one), but as for writing... I can't handwrite somethings at 70 words per minutes, but I can type that fast, and usually do, at least when I'm dashing of a quick note to someone (as most of my letters are). I can also save my missives, and edit/revise them if I want. It's a lot easier to make drafts when I don't have to rewrite everything.
---
What is wrong with biotech? And what's wrong with the products thereof?
I don't see any problems with disease resistant plants. And I would have no problems with being disease resistant myself ('cept that they can't use the same methods, for many and varied reasons). While I suppose it is possible for the crops to become weeds, if it's done right (which requires research and experimentation), then there will not be problems
I also have no problems with experimentation on animals, and yes, humans. Being a furry and a transformationist, that's actually one of the things I look forward to in the next few decades (I wanna new body!).
Experimentation on humans also has major medical benefits. If your kidney was becoming disfunctional, would you rather they grow you a new one from your own cells (or DNA at least), or have to wait and, maybe, get one from a donor? I'd rather have the first, myself.
Knowlege is a valuable thing, and all stopping the research will do is slow down the increase in knowlege. It won't stop it, as illicit research will still continue, but it will make it be in the hands of those who would use it to do exactly what those who wish to stop the research are fearing. And we will have no defense, no way to counter it.
I'd say biotech is one of the best things to happen to us this century. Without it, many of the advance that proponents of nanotech envision would be impossible (particularly medical nano). Without it, we would be unable to grow skin for burn victims, and, according to some reports, soon entire new organs.
Rhys Dyfrgi
---