The US has some ability to use wind, geothermal, and hydro-based electrical generators, and a greater ability to use solar and nuclear (not nuke-uler, no matter how many times the President says it that way).
The big problem in coming up with energies which don't pollute is that they aren't particularly mobile - all of the above methods require multiple acres of land per plant to be effective (except solar, but that requires a big set of batteries for cloudy days...)
What hydrogen gives us is fuel which is MOBILE, and more effective than our current chemical batteries.
So if we move toward a hydrogen-powered car/truck/bus/whatever, then we will have a smaller number of pollution generators. Yes they'll pollute MORE than the cars did, but when we focus our effort to grab the extra 2% (or whatever) efficiency out of the plant, we'll get a tremendous benefit. That's much easier than trying to get the same 2% bonus on umpteen bazillion cars/buses/trucks/whatever...
>tens of thousands of programmers just to do line-by-line code audits
Wasn't that part of what caused the problem in the first place? I would think that having some small number of people review an entire large codebase would ensure that they could keep the moving parts together, and understand their interaction. The emergent properties of a complex system like Windows are different than the discreet properties of all of the components.
Isn't that pretty much what the DOS shell is nowadays? Given that the current windows builds run on the NT kernel, DOS compatability (and a couple of friends of mine still use wordperfect for DOS;) is provided via emulator.
Now, should they make something which will emulate the entire NT/XP framework? Heh. Some of us call that "Macintosh":)
Re:Examples of Math books for lay people
on
Prime Obsession
·
· Score: 2, Informative
For that matter, I forgot Flatland by Albee and Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Hofstadter...
Examples of Math books for lay people
on
Prime Obsession
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Try Mathematics for the Million by Hogben - it's fantastic, and the most coherent Calculus explanation I've ever encountered.
>>All five seasons of B5 were written before the shooting of the pilot episode.
Not quite - what there was was a consistent, single story arc which had FAR more detail than a typical series. The episodes were written on a season-by-season basis. JMS wrote the entirety of season 3 himself, but had help for some of the episodes in other seasons.
I agree that this approach allowed a much richer story to develop, and made it the best SF TV series we've seen yet.
[ flamebait]That said, the 1st and 5th seasons were comparatively weak (only on the level of good Star Trek, say) [ / flamebait]
The total amount of plant life on the planet is much lower than it was in even the recent past.
The articles I've read have all pointed to a CHANGE in the nature of the plantlife on the planet - increasing algae and other simple plants, and decreasing large trees and more specialized plants. That would be consistent with environmental change, as the simplest organisms are the most able to adapt. I have not read anything before which argues that TOTAL plantlife is decreasing. If your statement is correct, I would be quite concerned.
My opinion is that you can only truly understand gear when it's failing: show me what happens when you cram 100Mbps down a T1 interface - do packets drop, or does the router punk out? Show me what happens when, while you're doing that, you hot-swap two of the other cards. What happens when you do a processor-fail-over while under load?
Also, attack the box - look for what's listening, and pound it with every known security vulnerability. Tell me whether passwords are stored as one-way-hashes ONLY, and what are the pwd recovery procedures? Does SSH cost extra?
I don't think this is correct with regard to diabetes. 100 years ago, most type I diabetics died within 5 years of diagnosis, which was generally under 20. Thus very, very few type I diabetics had children. Since the development of insulin, the typical lifespan went to 30 years after diagnosis, and now thankfully (my stepfather is a type-I diabetic) can be well over 40 years after diagnosis (and the number is increasing). This means that a typical diabetic will have the opportunity to reproduce, thus increasing the prevalence of diabetic genes in the pool.
Mind you, I'm not complaining - I know a bunch of diabetics (and am related to several) - I hope that diabetes eventually becomes like astigmatism: an annoyance which can be treated, as opposed to one of the most lethal diseases in the modern world.
>>>You still need roads everywhere, anyhow, to deliver heavy goods (like building material and furniture). And a car can go anywhere there's a decent road (and an SUV where the roads are truly rotten and many places where they're just dirt paths or nonexistent), rather than being limited to the pricey rails.
That's correct, but a non-trivial percentage of traffic is NOT delivery or heavy loads. In my area (Washington DC), the suburbs and exurbs are not well-served by mass transit of any kind, and this could improve the masses' ability to commute to work, the grocery store, etc. It doesn't have to be perfect - if it can reduce passenger car traffic by 20%, it's probably worth it.
>> Creative would be far better off developing a hybrid MP3/MP4 system, and push MP4. Apple has far too much tied up in MP3 hardware to switch quickly, which would give Creative a massive head-start.
hmm - I was under the impression that AAC = m4a = MP4. Is that not correct?
Try Survival Research Laboratories if you want wanton mayhem - long before robot wars or battlebots, they were in the robotic mayhem business. My favorite is "A bitter message of hopeless grief" (sounds like a Morrissey song...)
While I empathize for the fellow's plight, I do technical interviews all the time for my company (consulting arm of a large, nationwide telco), and we're having a heck of a time finding qualified high-end people (we pay high-end too) who have both LAN and WAN experience: we need people we can drop into a contract on day 2. I think that the job issue is very localized...
It would be hard to find a single source which is less biased, but NPR does have a relatively strong liberal/progressive bias with regard to social issues, and an internationalist/UN bias with regard to foreign policy issues.
To highlight a specific issue, examine the variety of coverage of Israel:
From the truly antisemitic (The Guardian, UK) to the strong anti-Israel bias (BBC) to the somewhat anti-Israel bias (Washington Post, New York Times, NPR) to the somewhat pro-Israel bias (Wall Street Journal) to the strong pro-Israel bias (Washington Times, Jerusalem Post)
If you look at coverage of any specific event, you'll see a wide range of perspectives on the same "facts" with some groups being more willing to challenge the "facts" than others.
Also, Morning Edition and ATC try to be fair, and do better than most at it, but many of the syndicated shows (Diane Rehm, the World, etc) are strikingly biased.
What, NPR isn't enough of a LEFTwing propoganda machine for you?
That doesn't include the large quantity of other media lefties - documentary filmmakers, journalists, etc.
That said, you're correct that the left wing folks have not done a good job articulating what's good about their positions and opinions. I asked several seriously Democratic friends of mine to articulate what was good about Kerry, and most of them were only able to say "he's not Bush" or hit Bush with some insult. That's not particularly compelling to me, and it appears not to have been compelling to the rest of the country.
I'd have to say that I'm not a troll - I vehemently disagree with the outlook you're espousing, and thought that the [[extreme views]] should not pass by un-commented-upon.
In your hatred of religion of all stripes, you're as guilty of fanaticism as any of those you criticize.
Personally, I'd rather live in a world of Mother Teresas than a world of rabid anti-religionists or a world of bin Ladens, even though I thoroughly disagree with her outlook and am most certainly not a Christian.
I'd recommend a thorough exploration of the good and bad of all viewpoints, and while religion has certainly produced some seriously evil and screwed up people, it has also done tremendous good for the world. On the other hand, the prominent secular ideologies of the prior century didn't turn out so well (Facism, Communism, National Socialism). The Gripping hand, however, is that you can't judge a cause by the quality of the people following it (Heinlein).
In summary, you stated that you view adherents of any religion to be the equivalent of the taliban, and seem to think that that viewpoint is defensible. It would be laughable, except you seem to be a decent writer, which makes it instead a pity.
Slashdot Mirror
The key in what you said is "deployed" -
The US has some ability to use wind, geothermal, and hydro-based electrical generators, and a greater ability to use solar and nuclear (not nuke-uler, no matter how many times the President says it that way).
The big problem in coming up with energies which don't pollute is that they aren't particularly mobile - all of the above methods require multiple acres of land per plant to be effective (except solar, but that requires a big set of batteries for cloudy days...)
What hydrogen gives us is fuel which is MOBILE, and more effective than our current chemical batteries.
So if we move toward a hydrogen-powered car/truck/bus/whatever, then we will have a smaller number of pollution generators. Yes they'll pollute MORE than the cars did, but when we focus our effort to grab the extra 2% (or whatever) efficiency out of the plant, we'll get a tremendous benefit. That's much easier than trying to get the same 2% bonus on umpteen bazillion cars/buses/trucks/whatever...
Ahh, MULE was one the best games I've ever played - I've bought a C64 emulator just for that purpose, but it's not the same :(
Anyone want to write a new version of this game?
(for that matter, Mail Order Monsters was fantastic too...)
Last I checked, Russia was an Asian country. You might be thinking of Ukraine or Belarus, perhaps?
The original mac had both 128K and 512K flavors, and the 512K model was relatively usable.
>tens of thousands of programmers just to do line-by-line code audits
Wasn't that part of what caused the problem in the first place? I would think that having some small number of people review an entire large codebase would ensure that they could keep the moving parts together, and understand their interaction. The emergent properties of a complex system like Windows are different than the discreet properties of all of the components.
Isn't that pretty much what the DOS shell is nowadays? Given that the current windows builds run on the NT kernel, DOS compatability (and a couple of friends of mine still use wordperfect for DOS ;) is provided via emulator.
:)
Now, should they make something which will emulate the entire NT/XP framework? Heh. Some of us call that "Macintosh"
For that matter, I forgot Flatland by Albee and Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Hofstadter...
Try Mathematics for the Million by Hogben - it's fantastic, and the most coherent Calculus explanation I've ever encountered.
So I think these should be "Slashverts"
The ticket price is for the whole seat
BUT YOU'LL ONLY NEED THE EDGE!
>>All five seasons of B5 were written before the shooting of the pilot episode.
Not quite - what there was was a consistent, single story arc which had FAR more detail than a typical series. The episodes were written on a season-by-season basis. JMS wrote the entirety of season 3 himself, but had help for some of the episodes in other seasons.
I agree that this approach allowed a much richer story to develop, and made it the best SF TV series we've seen yet.
[ flamebait]That said, the 1st and 5th seasons were comparatively weak (only on the level of good Star Trek, say) [ / flamebait]
What is your source for this statement:
The total amount of plant life on the planet is much lower than it was in even the recent past.
The articles I've read have all pointed to a CHANGE in the nature of the plantlife on the planet - increasing algae and other simple plants, and decreasing large trees and more specialized plants. That would be consistent with environmental change, as the simplest organisms are the most able to adapt. I have not read anything before which argues that TOTAL plantlife is decreasing. If your statement is correct, I would be quite concerned.
My opinion is that you can only truly understand gear when it's failing: show me what happens when you cram 100Mbps down a T1 interface - do packets drop, or does the router punk out? Show me what happens when, while you're doing that, you hot-swap two of the other cards. What happens when you do a processor-fail-over while under load?
Also, attack the box - look for what's listening, and pound it with every known security vulnerability. Tell me whether passwords are stored as one-way-hashes ONLY, and what are the pwd recovery procedures? Does SSH cost extra?
That's the type of testing I'd like to see.
Thanks for asking,
I think the quote you're looking for is "rewrite fullwise upsub antefilling."
I don't think this is correct with regard to diabetes. 100 years ago, most type I diabetics died within 5 years of diagnosis, which was generally under 20. Thus very, very few type I diabetics had children. Since the development of insulin, the typical lifespan went to 30 years after diagnosis, and now thankfully (my stepfather is a type-I diabetic) can be well over 40 years after diagnosis (and the number is increasing). This means that a typical diabetic will have the opportunity to reproduce, thus increasing the prevalence of diabetic genes in the pool.
Mind you, I'm not complaining - I know a bunch of diabetics (and am related to several) - I hope that diabetes eventually becomes like astigmatism: an annoyance which can be treated, as opposed to one of the most lethal diseases in the modern world.
>>>You still need roads everywhere, anyhow, to deliver heavy goods (like building material and furniture). And a car can go anywhere there's a decent road (and an SUV where the roads are truly rotten and many places where they're just dirt paths or nonexistent), rather than being limited to the pricey rails.
That's correct, but a non-trivial percentage of traffic is NOT delivery or heavy loads. In my area (Washington DC), the suburbs and exurbs are not well-served by mass transit of any kind, and this could improve the masses' ability to commute to work, the grocery store, etc. It doesn't have to be perfect - if it can reduce passenger car traffic by 20%, it's probably worth it.
>> Creative would be far better off developing a hybrid MP3/MP4 system, and push MP4. Apple has far too much tied up in MP3 hardware to switch quickly, which would give Creative a massive head-start.
hmm - I was under the impression that AAC = m4a = MP4. Is that not correct?
Try Survival Research Laboratories if you want wanton mayhem - long before robot wars or battlebots, they were in the robotic mayhem business. My favorite is "A bitter message of hopeless grief" (sounds like a Morrissey song...)
While I empathize for the fellow's plight, I do technical interviews all the time for my company (consulting arm of a large, nationwide telco), and we're having a heck of a time finding qualified high-end people (we pay high-end too) who have both LAN and WAN experience: we need people we can drop into a contract on day 2. I think that the job issue is very localized...
Not a contradiction, because other outlets have stronger biases. I agree that NPR != Salon, but that doesn't mean that they are bias-free.
It would be hard to find a single source which is less biased, but NPR does have a relatively strong liberal/progressive bias with regard to social issues, and an internationalist/UN bias with regard to foreign policy issues.
To highlight a specific issue, examine the variety of coverage of Israel:
From the truly antisemitic (The Guardian, UK)
to the strong anti-Israel bias (BBC)
to the somewhat anti-Israel bias (Washington Post, New York Times, NPR)
to the somewhat pro-Israel bias (Wall Street Journal)
to the strong pro-Israel bias (Washington Times, Jerusalem Post)
If you look at coverage of any specific event, you'll see a wide range of perspectives on the same "facts" with some groups being more willing to challenge the "facts" than others.
Also, Morning Edition and ATC try to be fair, and do better than most at it, but many of the syndicated shows (Diane Rehm, the World, etc) are strikingly biased.
What, NPR isn't enough of a LEFTwing propoganda machine for you?
That doesn't include the large quantity of other media lefties - documentary filmmakers, journalists, etc.
That said, you're correct that the left wing folks have not done a good job articulating what's good about their positions and opinions. I asked several seriously Democratic friends of mine to articulate what was good about Kerry, and most of them were only able to say "he's not Bush" or hit Bush with some insult. That's not particularly compelling to me, and it appears not to have been compelling to the rest of the country.
Take a look at "Second Going" by James Tiptree, referenced here - amazon link for a story with a similar premise.
I'd have to say that I'm not a troll - I vehemently disagree with the outlook you're espousing, and thought that the [[extreme views]] should not pass by un-commented-upon.
In your hatred of religion of all stripes, you're as guilty of fanaticism as any of those you criticize.
Personally, I'd rather live in a world of Mother Teresas than a world of rabid anti-religionists or a world of bin Ladens, even though I thoroughly disagree with her outlook and am most certainly not a Christian.
I'd recommend a thorough exploration of the good and bad of all viewpoints, and while religion has certainly produced some seriously evil and screwed up people, it has also done tremendous good for the world. On the other hand, the prominent secular ideologies of the prior century didn't turn out so well (Facism, Communism, National Socialism). The Gripping hand, however, is that you can't judge a cause by the quality of the people following it (Heinlein).
In summary, you stated that you view adherents of any religion to be the equivalent of the taliban, and seem to think that that viewpoint is defensible. It would be laughable, except you seem to be a decent writer, which makes it instead a pity.
>>Since I consider all religions quite offensive, and fervent believers of any faith to be slime equal to the Taliban,
Clearly the comments of a rational, moderate mind.
It might be worth drawing a distinction between Mother Teresa and Osama bin Laden, don't you think?