I would like 12:00 noon every day to coincide with a local solar maximum. I realize that makes things difficult for, say, towns that are 50 miles east/west separated, so I'd be willing to keep the current time zones, and say that for the Eastern time zone, 12 noon every day corresponds to local solar maximum in Washington DC. This, to me, would be ideal. I was glad to see the idea implemented in Neal Stephenson's Anathem.
I know a lot of people hate what may seem to them to be random adjustments of the time. Personally, I like the way the time ends up aligning with daylight better after the adjustment, but I hate the way it's a big jump, all at once, twice a year. I would really like to see continuous adjustment of the time, such that noon is always the time at which the sun is at the highest point in the sky. Yes, this would be a pain for people who still wear watches, but I'd think we could manage it for all the core infrastructure (i.e. networks and stuff).
TZ
This is very similar to finding bugs in QA phase of software (or hardware) testing. The only way you're going to stop finding bugs is if you stop looking for them...
I think part of the problem is that these companies really don't have expertise in computer systems. For ages, they've been building mechanical doo-hickeys, and I think they've got a pretty good idea how to build and test mechanical doo-hickeys. But now they're throwing computer systems on everything and just going with it (like the bulk of other software companies). Guess what. Computer systems (we're talking here a combination of hardware and software) require testing. Lots and LOTS of testing. I believe they don't have the expertise they need for that. I remember when I graduated from college (2001), I stopped at the Honda booth at the career fair and tried to talk to them. "Oh, we're looking for mechanical engineers, we don't really need computer engineers." "Really? With the increased computer control you're building into your vehicles, you don't need computer engineers? ok, then..." And this is what you get when you have mechanical engineers throw together software to control your vehicles.
Doesn't make it Gonzo. Gonzo is when the journalist becomes personally invested in, and part of, the story itself. Gonzo would be if Junod let Roth "gork" him. The article was a pretty good read though.
I hope I'm not ruining your day, but the Foundation series was indeed carried on after Asimov's departure. A trio of books (Foundation's Fear, Foundation's Triumph, and Foundation and Chaos) called the Second Foundation Trilogy were written by Gregory Benford, David Brin, and Greg Bear. They're all apparently well-known SF authors, but I'd never heard of them before. These are prequels, focussing on Hari Seldon's establishing of the Foundation(s). None of them are particularly enjoyable.
TZ
The jocks in football jerseys are the "extramuros", the people who live outside the mathic concents. Most of the extras have nothing against the avout, but some (those in the video) do not trust the avout and become violent. The extramuros culture in Anathem is pretty reminiscent of the culture described in Snow Crash (consumerism run amok). For the record, there are not many fight scenes in the book, so I don't know why the video was so heavy on the kung-fu. If you enjoyed Snow Crash and / or Cryptonomicon and enjoy math-based humour (xkcd anyone?), then I'd highly recommend Anathem. I read an advance copy a while ago, then sent it on to a friend of mine who also enjoyed it.
As for the video, it really only makes sense if you've already read the book, so it's not particularly successful IMO.
TZ
in that video. Especially considering that there are only like 2 or 3 fight scenes in the whole book. The video also managed to avoid mentioning math, which is weird. The "monks" in the video are "math monks", not "kung-fu monks" (although there are some people in the book that are both). The scene at the beginning with Erasmus and Ala is pretty cool though. anyways, the book is awesome.
Right on all counts. Car wax (I use the cheap green bucket of turtle wax) fills in some of the scratches (that's how it makes your car shiny again, you know) and can sometimes return a disc to readable condition, at least long enough to rip it and then stick it back in the case and don't use it again. I have never tried any sort of abrasive polish to try to actually remove scratches, but theoretically that could work too. Having tried to sand lacquer finishes to a mirror polish, I can imagine it would be difficult to pull off, though.
And as you say, if the top foil layer is damaged, all bets are off. There's no recovering that data, it's gone. BTW, lots of people don't know that the foil layer is actually on the top of the CD, not the bottom. Therefore, CDs with lots of paint on the top are preferable to CDs with no art / paint on the top, as the paint provides a layer of protection for the foil. Now for some fun, take a cheap CDR, with no paint on the top, stick a piece of duct tape on the top, then quickly rip it off. You may be surprised what comes with the tape...
I quite liked it (but I like almost everything else by Stephenson, though I couldn't abide Quicksilver). Yes, the book is long, in that it has nearly 1000 pages (probably over, if you include the glossary and a handful of math proofs / dialogs at the end). But it didn't _feel_ long to me. You only even get a hint at what the plot is, maybe 200 pages in. Everything up until then was basically world exposition and character development. But again, it didn't feel slow-paced to me (like Quicksilver did).
It does, however, include some similar ideas as Snow Crash, with one group of people arguing that symbols have inherent meaning, and another group arguing that symbols are only given meaning by context. If you don't like meandering thoughts and discussions, then you probably wouldn't like Anathem (or anything else by Stephenson for that matter).
OK, so a lot of us have probably thought of throwing it all away and starting over again (myself included), but "balls of steel" it ain't. Smacks more of escapism to me. I will, however, echo your wish of the best to him.
Having gotten into digital photography and high dynamic range imaging lately, I can see how this thing would be great for photographers / artists. But how do you drive it? Does your average video card have the capability to drive this? I thought most consumer hardware was pretty much limited to 24-bit colour. (Or what they call 32-bit but is really 24-bit plus an 8-bit alpha channel.)
TZ
that these experiments were solely intended to allow Japan to continue it's whaling operations (under the guise of said "research") and that everyone involved probably knew the experiments were ridiculous and a scam.
So it's not like this is some mad scientist thing or anything. Just business. As usual.
TZ
Re:The obvious solution
on
Geekonomics
·
· Score: 1
Boy, you weren't joking around with your username.
Slashdot Mirror
TZ
These things are awesome. The ones I've got were built in the mid 90s and still clicking.
TZ
... and more like fraud. TZ
I know a lot of people hate what may seem to them to be random adjustments of the time. Personally, I like the way the time ends up aligning with daylight better after the adjustment, but I hate the way it's a big jump, all at once, twice a year. I would really like to see continuous adjustment of the time, such that noon is always the time at which the sun is at the highest point in the sky. Yes, this would be a pain for people who still wear watches, but I'd think we could manage it for all the core infrastructure (i.e. networks and stuff). TZ
This is very similar to finding bugs in QA phase of software (or hardware) testing. The only way you're going to stop finding bugs is if you stop looking for them...
TZ
TZ
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(ECSE 2001)
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I have the Power!
TZ
Synthetic benchmarks aren't applicable to all users! Who knew?
TZ
I hope I'm not ruining your day, but the Foundation series was indeed carried on after Asimov's departure. A trio of books (Foundation's Fear, Foundation's Triumph, and Foundation and Chaos) called the Second Foundation Trilogy were written by Gregory Benford, David Brin, and Greg Bear. They're all apparently well-known SF authors, but I'd never heard of them before. These are prequels, focussing on Hari Seldon's establishing of the Foundation(s). None of them are particularly enjoyable.
TZ
As for the video, it really only makes sense if you've already read the book, so it's not particularly successful IMO.
TZ
I would say, yes. Soooo, not a particularly successful video. Really what I was getting at.
TZ
TZ
And as you say, if the top foil layer is damaged, all bets are off. There's no recovering that data, it's gone. BTW, lots of people don't know that the foil layer is actually on the top of the CD, not the bottom. Therefore, CDs with lots of paint on the top are preferable to CDs with no art / paint on the top, as the paint provides a layer of protection for the foil. Now for some fun, take a cheap CDR, with no paint on the top, stick a piece of duct tape on the top, then quickly rip it off. You may be surprised what comes with the tape...
TZ
I quite liked it (but I like almost everything else by Stephenson, though I couldn't abide Quicksilver). Yes, the book is long, in that it has nearly 1000 pages (probably over, if you include the glossary and a handful of math proofs / dialogs at the end). But it didn't _feel_ long to me. You only even get a hint at what the plot is, maybe 200 pages in. Everything up until then was basically world exposition and character development. But again, it didn't feel slow-paced to me (like Quicksilver did).
It does, however, include some similar ideas as Snow Crash, with one group of people arguing that symbols have inherent meaning, and another group arguing that symbols are only given meaning by context. If you don't like meandering thoughts and discussions, then you probably wouldn't like Anathem (or anything else by Stephenson for that matter).
TZ
TZ
I saw that one too. Very cool, but $20k falls outside of the "budgetary reach" thing for me, so no matter if you link it or not.
TZ
Damn you, that was the one that stood out to me too, as being really cool and within budgetary reach.
TZ
Having gotten into digital photography and high dynamic range imaging lately, I can see how this thing would be great for photographers / artists. But how do you drive it? Does your average video card have the capability to drive this? I thought most consumer hardware was pretty much limited to 24-bit colour. (Or what they call 32-bit but is really 24-bit plus an 8-bit alpha channel.)
TZ
So it's not like this is some mad scientist thing or anything. Just business. As usual.
TZ
TZ
I can put off purchasing a PS3 that much longer.
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TZ
Well duh. We are all made of stars. (Thanks for the physics lesson, Moby.)
TZ