Loved Rendezvous with Rama (something that still needs to be made into a movie). The books that came after, not so much. The fourth book is cringe worthy bad. The Foundation series, with the right author, could be continued. Not going to say that would be easy, but Second Foundation Trilogy put out a few years ago didn't really go anywhere. I haven't read all of the Ringworld series yet, but I feel it hasn't aged quite as well. Maybe not a reboot, just some rewriting?
On the other hand there needs to be a stop to all the endless Star Wars and Star Trek novels being pumped out.
Warning! Anecdotal evidence ahead, my own two cents, etc....
My wife is a teacher now for 6 years and from what I can make of it, teachers are there own worse enemy when it comes to any improvements in the schools. They regularly resist any change, argue over almost any point, and back stab each other the smallest perceived slight. I think, at least in part, its comes from just a lot of burn out and frustration with students, but as I said this comes to be second hand from my wife so I know I don't have the clearest view.
My wife was an accountant and got her MBA before deciding to get out of the corporate life and to take up teaching. She went through an accelerated course to get her teaching degree. Now teaching business at the high school level for several years, but continues to be look down on by many of the teachers at the school. She didn't get a normal degree in education, she one of the "transplants". Such narrow mindedness....
Since we have yet to find life elsewhere we still don't know what conditions are needed for it to successfully rise on a planet. It could be argued that the sun is a better star for life as it's habitable zone around it is larger than a K class star and has a better chance at having a planet in it. Likewise the earth could be the right size as a larger planet magnetic field is stronger and doesn't allow enough cosmic rays in to generate mutations in DNA to kick off evolution.
So true...if only scientist would develop bistromathics "On a waiter's bill pad, numbers dance. Reality and unreality collide on such a fundamental level that each becomes the other and anything is possible."
Is another X-files. A big hit that they can milk for years, and in all likelihood drive into the ground. Fox usually doesn't want to wait too long for a hit, its sink or swim with them.
I still like my share of fox shows, but lets be realistic about their marketing, this is after all the people who brought us "Hole in the Wall"
Well it's not standards, its just that all the text books, hand out material, and tests are centered around Microsoft Office.
My wife teaches computer science to 8th graders and the IT Manager wanted to switch from MS Office to Open Office. He got a little ahead of himself and installed on it on a few PC in her class. My wife was none to pleased. Her problem with it wasn't that he wanted to change, its just that all her teaching material was centered around MS Office (specifically the 2003 version). When they go for new text books and materials she will be more than happy to work it out with him.
Now, before all of you start hitting the keyboard telling me there is no difference between one word processor and another, hear me out...If you would have asked me a few years ago before my wife taught computer apps I would have agreed with you. I believed that younger generation, raised with computers, would have no trouble with such things. Sadly I was wrong. I have watched these kids and many are just as lost in a spreadsheet or word processor as my 60 year old father is with his PC. My wife still has to go through step by step (and lots of screen shots).
While you seem to have all the answers and the rest of us that might even dare to argue with you must be complete liberal twits..could you possibly give this a look - Who Caused the Economic Crisis
Not that I'm trying to make a defense of the Democrats, they do share the blame for this. But I've been listing to my share of Fox News and the story seems to be that there are many people to blame for this, but lets get those dirty democrats and nail them to the wall as much as possible.
I used to be constantly unhappy on my job until I found a way to vent. Typically I randomly reset someone's passwords, shutdown a server for no reason, or throttle down the internet bandwidth. When asked what going on I just blame a Microsoft patch. Trust me this is much better way to get the anger out than trying to horsewhip a user (I tried it, wouldn't recommend it)
More seriously, if the job is getting you down look to change the environment. If another job isn't possible look to transfer to at least another position in the company. Never do something that makes you miserable.
This is beginning to remind me of the story "The Light of Other Days". In it the technology is discovered to allow anyone to view someone else, no mater where they are (Wormhole CAM). The concept of privacy is completely destroyed.
I think what I liked most about Batman Begins is that it gave a reasonable explanation as to why Bruce Wayne would dress up like a bat. As much as Batman is a skilled fighter, he is also good at using psychological warfare on his opponents. Consider that during the fight at the docks, he had been playing enough mind games on the crooks that they were off balanced when he attacked them in a large group.
Now granted in real life most people would piss their pants laughing at a guy dressed up like a giant bat (also a viable attack strategy) but the idea is that batman is such a terrifying character that you are thrown off and are easier to take down.
Okay, I don't really listen to your radio program Mr. Limbaugh, but from what I can tell it seems your a complete jackass. However, as a life long IT guy, I've always tried to help out a user even if they are a nut case.
2.) Email backup with Time Machine - You failed to mention just what email program you are using, I fear you may be using Apple Mail. If so you have you have my condolences as Apple Email is not truly an email program, but some sort of psychological test program designed at driving its users insane. I suggest using thunderbird - http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/. There are many add-on for backup email. Again its free and easy to use.
Somewhere along the line Apple got this reputation that ANY thing they make is solid gold and perfect in all ways. I can assure you this is very much not true. Hopefully this helps and lets you get back to your insane rantings.
I'm not totally convinced by the quantum mind arguments but I do agree that little effects can lead to big changes (butterfly wings and all that). It seems to me that if the many worlds theory is correct that at the beginning (big bang or what not) that each quantum state of a universe subdivision would end up with very different universes (galaxies in different locations, different states of matter, even different physical laws if the changes were enough).
So how exactly does this work? In the article the author talks about in one universe you avoid a near collision, in another you hit a car and die, and in another you hit the car but survive. How does the quantum state of one atom in one universe end up with a car crash and in another no crash? I realize this just example, but the popular conception of the many worlds is that you would have very different histories between each universe - if I went left in stead of right. But the only difference between each universe would be small quantum fluctuations, just how much difference do we end up with?
I've been messing around with Windows long enough to remember the 16bit to 32bit application jump made many years ago (When Windows NT 3.1 came out). A lot of the same stuff was said, lack of 32bit apps, huge memory requirements (32 MB of memory!), poor driver support (not that 16bit windows was a lot better). Windows on Windows is nothing new, you still use WOW32 when access a 16bit app in XP.
A good movie to watch is a made for TV movie called Hiroshima made in 1995. It shows the Japanese perspective as well as President Truman's decision to use it the bomb.
I've yet to see a good stragety game on any of the console and it still sucks play a FPS with a controller.
HDTVs are still not that common in an American house hold and I don't see all that amazing graphics power of the PS3 or Xbox360 looking that good on a standard TV.
So when that changes (Mind you, I know it will) ask this question again.
I recently left a company where they were working on Sarbanes-Oxly (SOX). At that company, at least, it was a huge waste of time and by the time I left a black hole that sucked up out IT budget and most of our time.
Don't get me wrong, the idea behind the law is a good one, but the problem as I saw it is that its too vague in definition of what is a controlled system. Basically as I understood it any system that touched the financial records needed to be audited and controlled. For a smaller company with an IT staff of only 12 that can be a crushing overhead.
We had consultants brought in to help us figure out how to get complaint and as with normal consultant they were completely useless. When ever they didn't know an answer they said that the auditors would explain the correct procedure, that we were not expected to pass the audit the first time around. It didn't help that our manager saw this as an opportunity to force new rules on other departments that would give IT more power in "process improvements" for the company.
I left the company for a smaller private run company that doesn't have to bother with SOX audits. That was 5 months ago and my former company is still wrestling with getting compliant. The audit has been pushed back several times and apparently the consulting company that was brought in is going to be the one to audit us...
Take a moment to think about and see if that doesn't make you go cross-eyed....
There are parts of the new series that are great but I'm still waiting to see where the writers are going with it.
The first episode (33) was good, and last weeks episode with Starbuck crashing on the moon had the nice touch of actually having a planet that didn't have a breathable atmosphere. How many times in Star Trek did they happen to crash land on planet that had just the right amount of oxygen?
However didn't help when she was able to fly the cyclon ship with just yanking on some nerve cords. A little to convenient for me. The science guy - Gias something - keeps seeing the blond cyclon lady, seems like a rip off on the neural chip used in Farscape.
Anyway, at least the renewal gives me a bit of hope with the sci-fi channel. After canceling Farscape and G vs. E I had pretty much given up on them.
I can't remember its name but this reminds me of story I read some years ago about a human colony in another solar system that has its star and planet pushed out of the galaxy at great speed. In the story it was not a black hole but some kinda superbeing that pushed them off.
First off I'm not a chemist so please excuse me if this is totally off base.
Is it possible that the surface of Titan is basically a hydrocarbon mix that is basically like slush or jelly? With the cold temperature and higher atmospheric pressure wouldn't that turn all the ethane and methane into something not unlike diesel fuel when its really cold? This would explain the relative smooth face of Titan
Hmmm...maybe the Huygens probe will just bounce when it lands.
I visted in the summer of 2000. I thought that after 20 years there really wouldn't be much to see from the eruption. I was very wrong. There are still whole valleys with little tree growth and only the decaying remains of the forest that was around the volcano. There is a whole lake that was created from the melted snow on volcano when it blew. It was really cool seeing a piece of pumice (sp?) bigger than me setting by the road.
If any "advanced" alien culture finds us I for one am hoping that we have nothing they want.
We likely don't.
We keep thinking intelligent alien life is going to work like us, think along the same lines. We only have our race as an example to work with.
But lets say an alien race is some type of group mind / hive race. The concept of infighting among their own race would be incomprehensible. They would have no more chance of understanding us as we would them.
If an alien race was 1000 ly away and could mount an expedition to our world and get here in a reasonable amount of time, what would we have that they would want?
Land? Easier to terra form or build worlds closer to them.
Oil? Yeah right, with their zero-point quantum reactors (or what ever techno babble you want to use) the concept of burning fissile fuels are pointless.
Food? Maybe humans make a nice snack. But with an alien biology that would be radically different from us we would likely be inedible.
So it not so much as the advanced alien race might be nice and fuzzy as it is radically different from us in a biological and technological ways. Our needs and wants would be so different from each other that there would be little that we could get from each other.
Maybe that's why SETI has not heard much. Everybody else has figured out there is not much to say to each other.
Slashdot Mirror
...can we reboot a few book series?
Loved Rendezvous with Rama (something that still needs to be made into a movie). The books that came after, not so much. The fourth book is cringe worthy bad.
The Foundation series, with the right author, could be continued. Not going to say that would be easy, but Second Foundation Trilogy put out a few years ago didn't really go anywhere.
I haven't read all of the Ringworld series yet, but I feel it hasn't aged quite as well. Maybe not a reboot, just some rewriting?
On the other hand there needs to be a stop to all the endless Star Wars and Star Trek novels being pumped out.
Warning! Anecdotal evidence ahead, my own two cents, etc....
My wife is a teacher now for 6 years and from what I can make of it, teachers are there own worse enemy when it comes to any improvements in the schools. They regularly resist any change, argue over almost any point, and back stab each other the smallest perceived slight. I think, at least in part, its comes from just a lot of burn out and frustration with students, but as I said this comes to be second hand from my wife so I know I don't have the clearest view.
My wife was an accountant and got her MBA before deciding to get out of the corporate life and to take up teaching. She went through an accelerated course to get her teaching degree. Now teaching business at the high school level for several years, but continues to be look down on by many of the teachers at the school. She didn't get a normal degree in education, she one of the "transplants". Such narrow mindedness....
Since we have yet to find life elsewhere we still don't know what conditions are needed for it to successfully rise on a planet. It could be argued that the sun is a better star for life as it's habitable zone around it is larger than a K class star and has a better chance at having a planet in it. Likewise the earth could be the right size as a larger planet magnetic field is stronger and doesn't allow enough cosmic rays in to generate mutations in DNA to kick off evolution.
So true...if only scientist would develop bistromathics
"On a waiter's bill pad, numbers dance. Reality and unreality collide on such a fundamental level that each becomes the other and anything is possible."
Is another X-files. A big hit that they can milk for years, and in all likelihood drive into the ground. Fox usually doesn't want to wait too long for a hit, its sink or swim with them.
I still like my share of fox shows, but lets be realistic about their marketing, this is after all the people who brought us "Hole in the Wall"
Well it's not standards, its just that all the text books, hand out material, and tests are centered around Microsoft Office.
My wife teaches computer science to 8th graders and the IT Manager wanted to switch from MS Office to Open Office. He got a little ahead of himself and installed on it on a few PC in her class. My wife was none to pleased. Her problem with it wasn't that he wanted to change, its just that all her teaching material was centered around MS Office (specifically the 2003 version). When they go for new text books and materials she will be more than happy to work it out with him.
Now, before all of you start hitting the keyboard telling me there is no difference between one word processor and another, hear me out...If you would have asked me a few years ago before my wife taught computer apps I would have agreed with you. I believed that younger generation, raised with computers, would have no trouble with such things. Sadly I was wrong. I have watched these kids and many are just as lost in a spreadsheet or word processor as my 60 year old father is with his PC. My wife still has to go through step by step (and lots of screen shots).
While you seem to have all the answers and the rest of us that might even dare to argue with you must be complete liberal twits..could you possibly give this a look - Who Caused the Economic Crisis
Not that I'm trying to make a defense of the Democrats, they do share the blame for this. But I've been listing to my share of Fox News and the story seems to be that there are many people to blame for this, but lets get those dirty democrats and nail them to the wall as much as possible.
I used to be constantly unhappy on my job until I found a way to vent. Typically I randomly reset someone's passwords, shutdown a server for no reason, or throttle down the internet bandwidth. When asked what going on I just blame a Microsoft patch. Trust me this is much better way to get the anger out than trying to horsewhip a user (I tried it, wouldn't recommend it)
More seriously, if the job is getting you down look to change the environment. If another job isn't possible look to transfer to at least another position in the company. Never do something that makes you miserable.
This is beginning to remind me of the story "The Light of Other Days". In it the technology is discovered to allow anyone to view someone else, no mater where they are (Wormhole CAM). The concept of privacy is completely destroyed.
I think what I liked most about Batman Begins is that it gave a reasonable explanation as to why Bruce Wayne would dress up like a bat. As much as Batman is a skilled fighter, he is also good at using psychological warfare on his opponents. Consider that during the fight at the docks, he had been playing enough mind games on the crooks that they were off balanced when he attacked them in a large group.
Now granted in real life most people would piss their pants laughing at a guy dressed up like a giant bat (also a viable attack strategy) but the idea is that batman is such a terrifying character that you are thrown off and are easier to take down.
Okay, I don't really listen to your radio program Mr. Limbaugh, but from what I can tell it seems your a complete jackass. However, as a life long IT guy, I've always tried to help out a user even if they are a nut case.
1.) Screen Sharing - Use VNC. http://www.redstonesoftware.com/products/vine/server/vineosx/index.html. Its free, easy to use, and if someone whines about it being insecure - kick them, hard.
2.) Email backup with Time Machine - You failed to mention just what email program you are using, I fear you may be using Apple Mail. If so you have you have my condolences as Apple Email is not truly an email program, but some sort of psychological test program designed at driving its users insane. I suggest using thunderbird - http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/. There are many add-on for backup email. Again its free and easy to use.
Somewhere along the line Apple got this reputation that ANY thing they make is solid gold and perfect in all ways. I can assure you this is very much not true. Hopefully this helps and lets you get back to your insane rantings.
I'm not totally convinced by the quantum mind arguments but I do agree that little effects can lead to big changes (butterfly wings and all that). It seems to me that if the many worlds theory is correct that at the beginning (big bang or what not) that each quantum state of a universe subdivision would end up with very different universes (galaxies in different locations, different states of matter, even different physical laws if the changes were enough).
So how exactly does this work? In the article the author talks about in one universe you avoid a near collision, in another you hit a car and die, and in another you hit the car but survive. How does the quantum state of one atom in one universe end up with a car crash and in another no crash? I realize this just example, but the popular conception of the many worlds is that you would have very different histories between each universe - if I went left in stead of right. But the only difference between each universe would be small quantum fluctuations, just how much difference do we end up with?
Nasa's Deep Space 1 first used ION Propulsion several years ago. http://nmp.nasa.gov/ds1/tech/sep.html
I've been messing around with Windows long enough to remember the 16bit to 32bit application jump made many years ago (When Windows NT 3.1 came out). A lot of the same stuff was said, lack of 32bit apps, huge memory requirements (32 MB of memory!), poor driver support (not that 16bit windows was a lot better). Windows on Windows is nothing new, you still use WOW32 when access a 16bit app in XP.
A good movie to watch is a made for TV movie called Hiroshima made in 1995. It shows the Japanese perspective as well as President Truman's decision to use it the bomb.
Well put!
Really, if your faith depends on whether or not the world is 6000 years old or man was originally a pile of dirt then you need a new faith...
Huh, we are not just heading towards another dark age, we are running full speed towards it.
The two basic arguements against consoles -
I've yet to see a good stragety game on any of the console and it still sucks play a FPS with a controller.
HDTVs are still not that common in an American house hold and I don't see all that amazing graphics power of the PS3 or Xbox360 looking that good on a standard TV.
So when that changes (Mind you, I know it will) ask this question again.
I recently left a company where they were working on Sarbanes-Oxly (SOX). At that company, at least, it was a huge waste of time and by the time I left a black hole that sucked up out IT budget and most of our time.
Don't get me wrong, the idea behind the law is a good one, but the problem as I saw it is that its too vague in definition of what is a controlled system. Basically as I understood it any system that touched the financial records needed to be audited and controlled. For a smaller company with an IT staff of only 12 that can be a crushing overhead.
We had consultants brought in to help us figure out how to get complaint and as with normal consultant they were completely useless. When ever they didn't know an answer they said that the auditors would explain the correct procedure, that we were not expected to pass the audit the first time around. It didn't help that our manager saw this as an opportunity to force new rules on other departments that would give IT more power in "process improvements" for the company.
I left the company for a smaller private run company that doesn't have to bother with SOX audits. That was 5 months ago and my former company is still wrestling with getting compliant. The audit has been pushed back several times and apparently the consulting company that was brought in is going to be the one to audit us...
Take a moment to think about and see if that doesn't make you go cross-eyed....
There are parts of the new series that are great but I'm still waiting to see where the writers are going with it.
The first episode (33) was good, and last weeks episode with Starbuck crashing on the moon had the nice touch of actually having a planet that didn't have a breathable atmosphere. How many times in Star Trek did they happen to crash land on planet that had just the right amount of oxygen?
However didn't help when she was able to fly the cyclon ship with just yanking on some nerve cords. A little to convenient for me. The science guy - Gias something - keeps seeing the blond cyclon lady, seems like a rip off on the neural chip used in Farscape.
Anyway, at least the renewal gives me a bit of hope with the sci-fi channel. After canceling Farscape and G vs. E I had pretty much given up on them.
I can't remember its name but this reminds me of story I read some years ago about a human colony in another solar system that has its star and planet pushed out of the galaxy at great speed. In the story it was not a black hole but some kinda superbeing that pushed them off.
First off I'm not a chemist so please excuse me if this is totally off base.
Is it possible that the surface of Titan is basically a hydrocarbon mix that is basically like slush or jelly? With the cold temperature and higher atmospheric pressure wouldn't that turn all the ethane and methane into something not unlike diesel fuel when its really cold? This would explain the relative smooth face of Titan
Hmmm...maybe the Huygens probe will just bounce when it lands.
I visted in the summer of 2000. I thought that after 20 years there really wouldn't be much to see from the eruption. I was very wrong. There are still whole valleys with little tree growth and only the decaying remains of the forest that was around the volcano. There is a whole lake that was created from the melted snow on volcano when it blew. It was really cool seeing a piece of pumice (sp?) bigger than me setting by the road.
If any "advanced" alien culture finds us I for one am hoping that we have nothing they want.
We likely don't.
We keep thinking intelligent alien life is going to work like us, think along the same lines. We only have our race as an example to work with.
But lets say an alien race is some type of group mind / hive race. The concept of infighting among their own race would be incomprehensible. They would have no more chance of understanding us as we would them.
If an alien race was 1000 ly away and could mount an expedition to our world and get here in a reasonable amount of time, what would we have that they would want?
Land? Easier to terra form or build worlds closer to them.
Oil? Yeah right, with their zero-point quantum reactors (or what ever techno babble you want to use) the concept of burning fissile fuels are pointless.
Food? Maybe humans make a nice snack. But with an alien biology that would be radically different from us we would likely be inedible.
So it not so much as the advanced alien race might be nice and fuzzy as it is radically different from us in a biological and technological ways. Our needs and wants would be so different from each other that there would be little that we could get from each other.
Maybe that's why SETI has not heard much. Everybody else has figured out there is not much to say to each other.