I read the comments in this thread. I did not read them all in detail. Too depressing. Not knowing the backstory you have missed the real significance of this news item.
Allow me to state that I am a long time resident of the state of Ohio and I am familiar with its politicians and their machinations.
First, the news item about Best Buy is not the real news. The real news is that the Ohio Attorney General is running for Governor in 2006 and he is looking for cover and for issues. He is looking for cover because his wing of the Republican party is caught up in fund raising and back stabbing scandals. He is looking for issues because the incumbent Republican Governor, Robert Taft (Grandson of the eponymous Senator and Great-grandson of President William Howard) balanced the budget in 2003 by increasing the sales tax by from 5% to 6%, a very unpopular move because it pushed Ohio's tax burden into the top 3 or 4 states in the country.
The Secretary of State who is a Republican, but who is not allied with the Governor or the AG, and who is the target of the AG's back stabing, has already cornered opposition to the sales tax increase as his issue.
This is the real story. This is not to say that Best Buy is innocent. It is to say that you should always watch the magician not the rabbit coming out of his hat.
During the last year I spent over $1,300 at Best Buy. I have no complaint about anything I bought there. I "spent" more than $13,000 on state taxes for the State of Ohio and I do not think I have gotten good value from the state.
Best Buy sells stuff in that is made somewhere else by somebody else. Like every other major retailer they up-sell and cross sell (try to get you to buy more expensive models and accessories) as best they can. All of the major retailers (except Fry) mentioned in this thread are present within a mile of the nearest Best Buy. I can usually shop all of them in a 45 minute trip. I do not rely on the young, underpaid, unsophisticated and undertrained staffs of these retailers, and neither should you. The era when merchants were deeply knowledgeable about their stock is gone. If I want knowledge, I research on the web or call friends who have relevant experience.
Every one of these retailers uses the same model. It focuses on low margins, high turnover and low costs. Wal*Mart is the archetype of the bred. You may denounce it if you wish, but it is where most Americans do most of their shopping. You can defend yourself against the flaws in this system (other systems have other flaws) by doing your research on-line, shopping carefully, ignoring the blandishments of salesmen, avoiding impulse purchases, and shunning credit. Just don't expect some politician to defend you. He has his own agenda, and come the next election he will be gone and you will be on your own
I Read 500 Plus Comments and You missed the Point
on
Best Buy Sued By Ohio
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· Score: 1
Actually I did not read them all in detail. Too depressing. I didn't see the caprine copulator, but he would have been just as relevant.
Allow me to state that I am a long time resident of the state of Ohio and I am familiar with its politicians and their machinations.
First, the news item about Best Buy is not the real news. The real news is that the Ohio Attorney General is running for Governor in 2006 and he is looking for cover and for issues. He is looking for cover because his wing of the Republican party is caught up in fund raising and back stabbing scandals. He is looking for issues because the incumbent Republican Governor, Robert Taft (Grandson of the eponymous Senator and Great-grandson of President William Howard) balanced the budget in 2003 by increasing the sales tax by from 5% to 6%, a very unpopular move because it pushed Ohio's tax burden into the top 3 or 4 states in the country.
The Secretary of State who is a Republican, but who is not allied with the Governor or the AG, and who is the target of the AG's backstabing, has already cornered opposition to the sales tax increase as his issue.
This is the real story. This is not to say that Best Buy is innocent. It is to say that you should always watch the magician not the rabbit coming out of his hat.
During the last year I spent over $1,300 at Best Buy. I have no complaint about anything I bought there. I "spent" more than $13,000 on state taxes for the State of Ohio and I do not think I have gotten good value from the state.
Best Buy sells stuff in that is made somewhere else by somebody else. Like every other major retailer they up-sell and cross sell (try to get you to buy more expensive models and accessories) as best they can. All of the major retailers (except Fry) mentioned in this thread are present within a mile of the nearest Best Buy. I can usually shop all of them in a 45 minute trip. I do not rely on the young, underpaid, unsophisticated and undertrained staffs of these retailers, and neither should you. The era when merchants were deeply knowledgeable about their stock is gone. If I want knowledge, I research on the web or call friends who have relevant experience.
Every one of these retailers uses the same model. It focuses on low margins, high turnover and low costs. Wal*Mart is the archetype of the bred. You may denounce it if you wish, but it is where most Americans do most of their shopping. You can defend yourself against the flaws in this system (other systems have other flaws) by doing your research on-line, shopping carefully, ignoring the blandishments of salesmen, avoiding impulse purchases, shunning credit. Just don't expect some politician to defend you. Come the next election he will be gone and you will be on your own.
Some forms of basic research should be publicly funded because they have no inherent reward. For example, Research on Black Holes.
Research on stock markets, is a whole different kettle of fish. He who achieves a superior understanding of the operation of markets may choose the nature and amount of his reward. This type of research will be amply funded by the private sector, and it is. Every major bank employs a large staff of PhD's in Finance, Economics, Physics, and Math, to research these issues. They are handsomly paid and very well supported. (one of these banks is the biggest APL shop around).
Dr. Mandelbrodt's request that the SEC should use public money to fund research on markets shows that he does not understand the distinction between these types of research. The SEC should not use money as he proposed. The SEC should use money to help it discharge its fundamental duty, which is the protection of investors.
A couple of prominent recent examples are high pressure sales of investments to soldiers and selling non-tradeable real estate trust shares to retirees [the Wall Street journal Story was much better, but is on their subscription only site that I cannot hack]. When the SEC figures out how to spot these types of scams before the newspapers, which are reactive organisms too, then they can start worrying about esoterica like the underlying mathmatcal basis of markets. Of course, by then chickens will have lips.
p.s.- read Alfred Bester's SF novel "The Stars My Destination", where teleportation and it's effects on society is a major theme. And, it happens to be arguably the best SF novel ever.
I am a lawyer. I have handled mergers. I cannot believe that the Justice Department could allow this to happen. I know they rolled over on the consent decree, but this would be too far even for them. Way too far.
I think the cold war ended years ago and that Russia is not a strategic rival of the United States. If anything we have common enemies and problems. But that is besides the point I wish to make.
My hope is that a major American aerospace company with sufficent access to capital and technology can joint venture this project with Energia.
A joint project would avoid a lot of nationalistic issues, which probably look pretty stupid when you are floating around in space, and would have better access to technology. This way NASA would have a usable vehicle long before it could design and contract one and probably at a lower cost.
Why should the network carry the overhead of translating the menomic URLs into IP addresses? The way I see it, these debates illustrate the weakness in the whole concept and point to the idea of just plain scraping it.
What should replace it? Nothing. If you want a specific IP address type it in. If you don't know it use a search engine.
My guess is that most folks spend very little time typing random urls into their browsers. They have a limited list of favorites or bookmarks or follow links in things they are reading. Some times they type in a url they see in an add or an article. Fine, give them a number. They have been using telephone numbers for a century.
" Yeah, and self-modifying-code was eventually abandoned because it played havoc with the then-new CPU caches and pipelines."
Which means this stuff will be bog slow on P4s.
Statutory definitions of the American customary system (if you want to call it a system) of weights and measures are explained in the note to 15 United States Code Section 205.
2.3. . . After 1959, the U.S. and the British inch were defined identically . . . A similar situation existed for the U.S. and the British pound, and many relationships, such as 12 inches = 1 foot, . . . , were the same in both countries; but there were some very important differences.
In the first place, the U.S. customary bushel and the U.S. gallon, and their subdivisions differed from the corresponding British Imperial units. Also the British ton is 2240 pounds, whereas the ton generally used in the United States is the short ton of 2000 pounds. The American colonists adopted the English wine gallon of 231 cubic inches. The English of that period used this wine gallon and they also had another gallon, the ale gallon of 282 cubic inches. In 1824, the British abandoned these two gallons when they adopted the British Imperial gallon, which they defined as the volume of 10 pounds of water, at a temperature of 62 EF, which, by calculation, is equivalent to 277.42 cubic inches. At the same time, they redefined the bushel as 8 gallons.
In the customary British system the units of dry measure are the same as those of liquid measure. In the United States these two are not the same, the gallon and its subdivisions are used in the measurement of liquids; the bushel, with its subdivisions, is used in the measurement of certain dry commodities. The U.S. gallon is divided into four liquid quarts and the U.S. bushel into 32 dry quarts. All the units of capacity or volume mentioned thus far are larger in the customary British system than in the U.S. system. But the British fluid ounce is smaller than the U.S. fluid ounce, because the British quart is divided into 40 fluid ounces whereas the U.S. quart is divided into 32 fluid ounces. . . We can mention again the common use, for body weight, in England of the stone of 14 pounds, this being a unit now unused in the United States, although its influence was shown in the practice until World War II of selling flour by the barrel of 196 pounds (14 stone). ..
Your Guidance Counsellor should be able to provide solid information on this subject. My children's high school has a deal with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute under which a student selected by the Science Department recieves a $10,000 a year 4 year scholarship to RPI. Your milage may vary, ask your guidance counsellor.
The terrible thing is that I read most of these when they were relatively new, of course, so was I. Nonetheless, I enjoyed them immensely. The following were my favorites:
Starship Troopers (1959) is a great coming of age story, and contains a profound meditation on the relationship between civil government and the military. Some folks have tarred it as "fascist" They have not read it or they simply do not understand what fascism really is. In fact the book attempts to square the circle between the desire for republican government and the necessity of military force. This is a serious issue and Heinlein's response to it is thoughtful and interesting.
Glory Road (1963) is a picaresque novel that is enormous fun.
Tunnel in the Sky (1955) and Citizen of the Galaxy (1957) are both "juvenile" novels, but I think they both merit consideration for the depth of character and the imagination of their social worlds.
The following are interesting, but lack the literary quality of the previous books.
Beyond This Horizon (first serialized in 1942) is the earliest SF that I know of that tackles genetic engineering. The book was so far ahead of its time that it referred to the Human Genome as being comprised of 48 chromosomes.
The Door into Summer (1957). IIRC the novel's action began in the 1970's and continued to 2000. I read it in the early 1960's.
Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) is kind of a cultural landmark, but as a novel it was as well characterized as Starship Troopers or Glory Road.
Method of Treating Chest Pain, Patent 6,457,474, Carl E. Hanson of St. Paul, Minn. This inventor has patented lime juice to replace nitroglycerin as a treatment for chest pain such as angina pectoris. Making the patented invention requires only modest skill. "Limeade in non-concentrated form," according to the document, "was prepared by opening a can of the Minute Maid brand Premium All Natural Frozen Concentrate for Limeade, removing the contents and placing it in a pitcher, adding approximately 52 fluid ounces (about 4.5 cans) of tap water to the frozen concentrate and stirring.
"The pitcher was placed in the refrigerator so that the contents would cool. I drank approximately 2 to 3 glasses of limeade daily and did not notice the reoccurrence of chest pain." The lime juice can also be administered intravenously or by the angina sufferer's placing the frozen concentrate directly into his or her mouth. "The present invention is advantageous in that a patient can easily determine if the medicine is properly ingested. Lime juice has a very noticeable taste that disappears after it leaves the mouth. Since the juice is regularly stored in the refrigerator or freezer, it can be quickly located by the patient, particularly at nighttime where the refrigerator light plays a helpful role."
Scientific American was not kidding. You could look it up. The patent was issued on October 1, 2002.
The gales of laughter must have reached the Patent Office, because the Director ordered the patent to be re-examined, which I assume means that it will be revoked. It is now apparent that you can file a patent on a ham sandwich and the Patent Office will issue it.
Legal research and other back-office work carried out at law firms may be among the next set of white-collar jobs to move offshore in big numbers. According to a recent study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, legal assistants and paralegals working in India on behalf of U.S. law firms earn, on average, between $6 and $8 per hour. That's about one-third of what their counterparts in the United States are paid.
Some of the largest law firms in the country are looking to take advantage of that discrepancy. John Halvey, who heads the technology finance and outsourcing group at New York-based Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCoy, says the 137-year-old firm is considering moving some back-office functions to India. In doing so, Halvey said at an offshore-outsourcing conference Monday in New York, the firm would simply be mirroring the behavior of its international business clients. "I can't think of a recent deal we did that didn't have an offshore component," Halvey said.
Method of Treating Chest Pain, Patent 6,457,474, Carl E. Hanson of St. Paul, Minn. This inventor has patented lime juice to replace nitroglycerin as a treatment for chest pain such as angina pectoris. Making the patented invention requires only modest skill. "Limeade in non-concentrated form," according to the document, "was prepared by opening a can of the Minute Maid brand Premium All Natural Frozen Concentrate for Limeade, removing the contents and placing it in a pitcher, adding approximately 52 fluid ounces (about 4.5 cans) of tap water to the frozen concentrate and stirring.
"The pitcher was placed in the refrigerator so that the contents would cool. I drank approximately 2 to 3 glasses of limeade daily and did not notice the reoccurrence of chest pain." The lime juice can also be administered intravenously or by the angina sufferer's placing the frozen concentrate directly into his or her mouth. "The present invention is advantageous in that a patient can easily determine if the medicine is properly ingested. Lime juice has a very noticeable taste that disappears after it leaves the mouth. Since the juice is regularly stored in the refrigerator or freezer, it can be quickly located by the patient, particularly at nighttime where the refrigerator light plays a helpful role."
Scientific American was not kidding. You could look it up. The patent was issued on October 1, 2002.
The gales of laughter must have reached the Patent Office, because the Director ordered the patent to be re-examined, which I assume means that it will be revoked.
Patent FAT? You could file a patent on fat thighs and the Patent Office would issue it.
None of the cars in this test will give you full control until you agree with their company lawyers. In some, you must do so every time you start up. The screen opens with a warning that such devices in cars are unholy distractions. You must click on "I agree."
Navigation systems work best when they show you where to go; that means some sort of display. Does any other in-car feature need such detailed visuals? Probably not (forget e-mail in cars). Yet the latest luxo crop has become screen dependent, to the point of ruination in the 7-series BMW.
"It wouldn't be that bad if they changed a few things." That's from the staff's most ardent 745i defender. The majority of us think iDrive, as BMW calls its computer interface, needs a clean-sheet redesign.
BMW tried to take over control of HVAC, audio, chassis settings, trip info, navigation, etc., with a screen. You make your choices with a single knob that turns, toggles, and clicks; it's a mouse substitute. Worse yet, the company forced ordinary controls into some contortion of the knob thing; for example, you must select the part of the seat you want to adjust by pressing a button, then twist or toggle a knob to make it move. Okay, but what was wrong with the old way?
In fact, the 745i has buttons and rockers scattered about the dash that let you adjust HVAC and do very basic radio/CD changes without using iDrive. But they're so haphazard in their logic that they only add to the annoyance.
We've given iDrive 18 months to persuade us. It failed. Now the F is in ink. Fearless prediction: The 745i will take a beating on resale.
BMW's pickle is made worse by the fact that it's all by itself at the irritating extreme. The Jaguar and the Lexus are very friendly; they have touch screens, surely the easiest input method, and they provide full HVAC and entertainment control without the screen. In fact, you needn't agree with their lawyers if you don't use the navigation.
Audi and VW are almost as screen-centric as BMW, but they have a critical improvement: Separate buttons, well-labeled, bring up the various menus. Their graphics are also vastly superior to BMW's. We find them relatively easy to operate, particularly the VW's.
Like Jaguar and Lexus, Mercedes doesn't force you to use the system for trivial jobs, but the basic controls operate on their own quirky logic.
The lawyers are right: Screens are distracting. And the friendliest cars depend on them the least. --PB
" Ironically, 50,000 people die every year from Automobile accidents and no one looks to blame Ford or GM for these deaths."
That is just not true. Automobile manufacturers are sued for damages created by crashes routinely. Furthermore, they are subject to Federal regulation of safety equipment and must recall defective models.
The ability to support the official language of the state of Israel is a key factor in what the goverment of the state of israel uses for computers.
Let alone the language that the users speak, read and write. I doubt that a majority of Israelis (and I have been there and done business with them) speak, read or write English fluently. OTOH, many of them came from arabic speaking countries or slavic countries. Many of them can hack a few words of English, but the only language that they all have in common is Hebrew.
I should deceive the expectation of the reader, if I passed in silence the fate of the Alexandrian library, as it is described by the learned Abulpharagius.
The spirit of Amrou was more curious and liberal than that of his brethren, and in his leisure hours, the Arabian chief was pleased with the conversation of John, the last disciple of Ammonius, and who derived the surname of Philoponus from his laborious studies of grammar and philosophy. Emboldened by this familiar intercourse, Philoponus presumed to solicit a gift, inestimable in his opinion, contemptible in that of the Barbarians -- the royal library, which alone, among the spoils of Alexandria, had not been appropriated by the visit and the seal of the conqueror. Amrou was inclined to gratify the wish of the grammarian, but his rigid integrity refused to alienate the minutest object without the consent of the caliph; and the well-known answer of Omar was inspired by the ignorance of a fanatic. "If these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless, and need not be preserved: if they disagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed." The sentence was executed with blind obedience: the volumes of paper or parchment were distributed to the four thousand baths of the city; and such was their incredible multitude, that six months were barely sufficient for the consumption of this precious fuel.
Since the "Dynasties" of Abulpharagius have been given to the world in a Latin version, the tale has been repeatedly transcribed; and every scholar, with pious indignation, has deplored the irreparable shipwreck of the learning, the arts, and the genius, of antiquity.
For my own part, I am strongly tempted to deny both the fact and the consequences. The fact is indeed marvelous. "Read and wonder!" says the historian himself: and the solitary report of a stranger who wrote at the end of six hundred years on the confines of Media, is overbalanced by the silence of two annalist of a more early date, both Christians, both natives of Egypt, and the most ancient of whom, the patriarch Eutychius, has amply described the conquest of Alexandria. The rigid sentence of Omar is repugnant to the sound and orthodox precept of the Mohammedan casuists, they expressly declare, that the religious books of the Jews and Christians, which are acquired by the right of war, should never be committed to the flames; and that the works of profane science, historians or poets, physicians or philosophers, may be lawfully applied to the use of the faithful. A more destructive zeal may perhaps be attributed to the first successors of Mohammed; yet in this instance, the conflagration would have speedily expired in the deficiency of materials.
I should not recapitulate the disasters of the Alexandrian library, the involuntary flame that was kindled by Caesar in his own defense, or the mischievous bigotry of the Christians, who studied to destroy the monuments of idolatry. But if we gradually descend from the age of the Antonines to that of Theodosius, we shall learn from a chain of contemporary witnesses, that the royal palace and the temple of Serapis no longer contained the four, or the seven, hundred thousand volumes, which had been assembled by the curiosity and magnificence of the Ptolemies. Perhaps the church and seat of the patriarchs might be enriched with a repository of books; but if the ponderous mass of Arian and Monophysite controversy were indeed consumed in the public baths, a philosopher may allow, with a smile, that it was ultimately devoted to the benefit of mankind.
Now go back and read that quote again. That's right. Edward Gibbon says it did not happen.
Slashdot Mirror
I read the comments in this thread. I did not read them all in detail. Too depressing. Not knowing the backstory you have missed the real significance of this news item.
Allow me to state that I am a long time resident of the state of Ohio and I am familiar with its politicians and their machinations.
First, the news item about Best Buy is not the real news. The real news is that the Ohio Attorney General is running for Governor in 2006 and he is looking for cover and for issues. He is looking for cover because his wing of the Republican party is caught up in fund raising and back stabbing scandals. He is looking for issues because the incumbent Republican Governor, Robert Taft (Grandson of the eponymous Senator and Great-grandson of President William Howard) balanced the budget in 2003 by increasing the sales tax by from 5% to 6%, a very unpopular move because it pushed Ohio's tax burden into the top 3 or 4 states in the country.
The Secretary of State who is a Republican, but who is not allied with the Governor or the AG, and who is the target of the AG's back stabing, has already cornered opposition to the sales tax increase as his issue.
This is the real story. This is not to say that Best Buy is innocent. It is to say that you should always watch the magician not the rabbit coming out of his hat.
During the last year I spent over $1,300 at Best Buy. I have no complaint about anything I bought there. I "spent" more than $13,000 on state taxes for the State of Ohio and I do not think I have gotten good value from the state.
Best Buy sells stuff in that is made somewhere else by somebody else. Like every other major retailer they up-sell and cross sell (try to get you to buy more expensive models and accessories) as best they can. All of the major retailers (except Fry) mentioned in this thread are present within a mile of the nearest Best Buy. I can usually shop all of them in a 45 minute trip. I do not rely on the young, underpaid, unsophisticated and undertrained staffs of these retailers, and neither should you. The era when merchants were deeply knowledgeable about their stock is gone. If I want knowledge, I research on the web or call friends who have relevant experience.
Every one of these retailers uses the same model. It focuses on low margins, high turnover and low costs. Wal*Mart is the archetype of the bred. You may denounce it if you wish, but it is where most Americans do most of their shopping. You can defend yourself against the flaws in this system (other systems have other flaws) by doing your research on-line, shopping carefully, ignoring the blandishments of salesmen, avoiding impulse purchases, and shunning credit. Just don't expect some politician to defend you. He has his own agenda, and come the next election he will be gone and you will be on your own
Actually I did not read them all in detail. Too depressing. I didn't see the caprine copulator, but he would have been just as relevant. Allow me to state that I am a long time resident of the state of Ohio and I am familiar with its politicians and their machinations. First, the news item about Best Buy is not the real news. The real news is that the Ohio Attorney General is running for Governor in 2006 and he is looking for cover and for issues. He is looking for cover because his wing of the Republican party is caught up in fund raising and back stabbing scandals. He is looking for issues because the incumbent Republican Governor, Robert Taft (Grandson of the eponymous Senator and Great-grandson of President William Howard) balanced the budget in 2003 by increasing the sales tax by from 5% to 6%, a very unpopular move because it pushed Ohio's tax burden into the top 3 or 4 states in the country. The Secretary of State who is a Republican, but who is not allied with the Governor or the AG, and who is the target of the AG's backstabing, has already cornered opposition to the sales tax increase as his issue. This is the real story. This is not to say that Best Buy is innocent. It is to say that you should always watch the magician not the rabbit coming out of his hat. During the last year I spent over $1,300 at Best Buy. I have no complaint about anything I bought there. I "spent" more than $13,000 on state taxes for the State of Ohio and I do not think I have gotten good value from the state. Best Buy sells stuff in that is made somewhere else by somebody else. Like every other major retailer they up-sell and cross sell (try to get you to buy more expensive models and accessories) as best they can. All of the major retailers (except Fry) mentioned in this thread are present within a mile of the nearest Best Buy. I can usually shop all of them in a 45 minute trip. I do not rely on the young, underpaid, unsophisticated and undertrained staffs of these retailers, and neither should you. The era when merchants were deeply knowledgeable about their stock is gone. If I want knowledge, I research on the web or call friends who have relevant experience. Every one of these retailers uses the same model. It focuses on low margins, high turnover and low costs. Wal*Mart is the archetype of the bred. You may denounce it if you wish, but it is where most Americans do most of their shopping. You can defend yourself against the flaws in this system (other systems have other flaws) by doing your research on-line, shopping carefully, ignoring the blandishments of salesmen, avoiding impulse purchases, shunning credit. Just don't expect some politician to defend you. Come the next election he will be gone and you will be on your own.
Some forms of basic research should be publicly funded because they have no inherent reward. For example, Research on Black Holes.
Research on stock markets, is a whole different kettle of fish. He who achieves a superior understanding of the operation of markets may choose the nature and amount of his reward. This type of research will be amply funded by the private sector, and it is. Every major bank employs a large staff of PhD's in Finance, Economics, Physics, and Math, to research these issues. They are handsomly paid and very well supported. (one of these banks is the biggest APL shop around).
Dr. Mandelbrodt's request that the SEC should use public money to fund research on markets shows that he does not understand the distinction between these types of research. The SEC should not use money as he proposed. The SEC should use money to help it discharge its fundamental duty, which is the protection of investors.
A couple of prominent recent examples are high pressure sales of investments to soldiers and selling non-tradeable real estate trust shares to retirees [the Wall Street journal Story was much better, but is on their subscription only site that I cannot hack]. When the SEC figures out how to spot these types of scams before the newspapers, which are reactive organisms too, then they can start worrying about esoterica like the underlying mathmatcal basis of markets. Of course, by then chickens will have lips.
What's a pop-up?
Mozilla User
Good news. Its still in print.
I am a lawyer. I have handled mergers. I cannot believe that the Justice Department could allow this to happen. I know they rolled over on the consent decree, but this would be too far even for them. Way too far.
My hope is that a major American aerospace company with sufficent access to capital and technology can joint venture this project with Energia.
A joint project would avoid a lot of nationalistic issues, which probably look pretty stupid when you are floating around in space, and would have better access to technology. This way NASA would have a usable vehicle long before it could design and contract one and probably at a lower cost.
Why should the network carry the overhead of translating the menomic URLs into IP addresses? The way I see it, these debates illustrate the weakness in the whole concept and point to the idea of just plain scraping it.
What should replace it? Nothing. If you want a specific IP address type it in. If you don't know it use a search engine.
My guess is that most folks spend very little time typing random urls into their browsers. They have a limited list of favorites or bookmarks or follow links in things they are reading. Some times they type in a url they see in an add or an article. Fine, give them a number. They have been using telephone numbers for a century.
'nuff said. /rant off
It turns them into mush?
" Yeah, and self-modifying-code was eventually abandoned because it played havoc with the then-new CPU caches and pipelines." Which means this stuff will be bog slow on P4s.
No, they are much funnier than these geeks. :-)
Statutory definitions of the American customary system (if you want to call it a system) of weights and measures are explained in the note to 15 United States Code Section 205.
The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a more detailed explanation of the American British, Imperial and Metric (SI) System in its Handbook 44 - Specifications, Tolerances, And Other Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices. Appendix C to the Handbook gives detailed tables of conversion among the various systems, and Appendix B explains a good deal of the history of the systems. Section 2.3 of that appendix gives an explanation of US/UK differences:
Will they be any good with plum sauce?
I guess this means that M$ won't mond if I start selling copies of W98SE?
Your Guidance Counsellor should be able to provide solid information on this subject. My children's high school has a deal with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute under which a student selected by the Science Department recieves a $10,000 a year 4 year scholarship to RPI. Your milage may vary, ask your guidance counsellor.
The terrible thing is that I read most of these when they were relatively new, of course, so was I. Nonetheless, I enjoyed them immensely. The following were my favorites:
Starship Troopers (1959) is a great coming of age story, and contains a profound meditation on the relationship between civil government and the military. Some folks have tarred it as "fascist" They have not read it or they simply do not understand what fascism really is. In fact the book attempts to square the circle between the desire for republican government and the necessity of military force. This is a serious issue and Heinlein's response to it is thoughtful and interesting.
Glory Road (1963) is a picaresque novel that is enormous fun.
Tunnel in the Sky (1955) and Citizen of the Galaxy (1957) are both "juvenile" novels, but I think they both merit consideration for the depth of character and the imagination of their social worlds.
The following are interesting, but lack the literary quality of the previous books.
Beyond This Horizon (first serialized in 1942) is the earliest SF that I know of that tackles genetic engineering. The book was so far ahead of its time that it referred to the Human Genome as being comprised of 48 chromosomes.
The Door into Summer (1957). IIRC the novel's action began in the 1970's and continued to 2000. I read it in the early 1960's.
Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) is kind of a cultural landmark, but as a novel it was as well characterized as Starship Troopers or Glory Road.
Put the Lime in the Coconut
From the Scientific American web site: an article describing the following patent:
Scientific American was not kidding. You could look it up. The patent was issued on October 1, 2002.The gales of laughter must have reached the Patent Office, because the Director ordered the patent to be re-examined, which I assume means that it will be revoked. It is now apparent that you can file a patent on a ham sandwich and the Patent Office will issue it.
According to Information Week, its already happening:
The USPTO is a bad joke Read this article describing a patent for::Scientific American was not kidding. You could look it up. The patent was issued on October 1, 2002.
The gales of laughter must have reached the Patent Office, because the Director ordered the patent to be re-examined, which I assume means that it will be revoked.
Patent FAT? You could file a patent on fat thighs and the Patent Office would issue it.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but that looks like a wedding ring on her left hand ring finger.
Car and Driver Magazine reviewed 6 luxury sedans in their December 2003 issue. They rated the Lexus and the Jaguar 1 and 2. Here is what they said about the BMW iDrive:
" Ironically, 50,000 people die every year from Automobile accidents and no one looks to blame Ford or GM for these deaths."
That is just not true. Automobile manufacturers are sued for damages created by crashes routinely. Furthermore, they are subject to Federal regulation of safety equipment and must recall defective models.
Let alone the language that the users speak, read and write. I doubt that a majority of Israelis (and I have been there and done business with them) speak, read or write English fluently. OTOH, many of them came from arabic speaking countries or slavic countries. Many of them can hack a few words of English, but the only language that they all have in common is Hebrew.
The burning of the library of Alexandria is one of the master meme plagues of western civilization. IIRC, Carl Sagan waxed most eloquent about that supposed disaster. Edward Gibbon, to my mind the greatest historian and prosidist the Anglosphere has yet produced, recounts the story in Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs -- Part VII of his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:
Now go back and read that quote again. That's right. Edward Gibbon says it did not happen.
Coming right up. Try this link.