Umm.. actually that's not precisely true. If you want to talk probabilities, then assume you model the universe as some sort of Markov process. If the chain isn't ergodic, or more precisely, if the state where life evolves is not recurrent, then the chain will never return to that state, no matter how long time runs on.
I'm arguing that just because life evolved once doesn't imply that the probability of life evolving AGAIN is greater than zero (which I think is what you were saying). The marginal probablility of life evolving is greater than zero (since we're here), but not the conditional. Those conditions which existed here when life evolved may not have existed elsewhere, and they may be the only conditions under which life can evolve, and they may never exist again, anywhere. The probability of all these things being true is non-zero, so in the limit, given that life has evolved, the probability of life evolving again doesn't approach 100%.
Of course, this is a ridiculous model.
My guess is that Google has a very good idea of how much click fraud there is, and adjusts their pricing accordingly, (charging less per click).
The clients, on their ends, should see an increase in sales correlating with an increase in advertising spending. If they suddenly observe a spike in billing for their google PPC ads, but their sales haven't moved, there's a strong indication that some kind of fraud is going on.
I'm sure if a customer went to Google with the numbers, something would be done about it. It's the same principle as watching out for credit card fraud. Watch your montly bills and keep an eye out for unexpected patterns. If you're worried about fraud, don't expect Google to be watching your back, do it yourself.
If you're willing to blow 6 trillion on this, you should certainly be willing to blow 10% of that on reducing greenhouse emissions, weaning the world off of oil onto "greener" energy sources, etc, etc..
What the hell ever happened to practicality?
I have to agree with you. It suffices to buy one product and be dissatisfied with it, to make getting the top seller (even if it's more expensive), a good value. This is, of couse, assuming the top seller is doing well because it's a good product.
I guess the bottom line is, do your research before you buy, and if at the end, your conclusions happen to agree with what popular culture is selling, go with it.
I bought a minidisc on a whim some years ago. Man, was I pissed when I found out I couldn't transfer recored material to my PC. Haven't bought a portable digital music player since.
Okay, so asuming that you're one of the human volunteers (which is really creepy, but bear with me), I think it would be a hell of a lot of fun to wake up from this procedure and scare the crap out of everyone by pretending to be a zombie.
**patient opens eyes**
Doc: Hello, sir. How do you feel.
... pause...
** patient grabs doctor's head while gnashing teeth and shrieking**
It occurs to me that this technology wouldn't be the best thing in even mildly polluted water. What's to stop pollutants from being extracted along with the air? I'm not sure if the same caveats would apply as for tank diving. Air must usually be filtered, since small amounts of hydrocarbons, or CO from a truck parked next to the air intake, could kill the diver when inhaled under pressure.
Re:Never write off Microsoft...
on
Gates on Google
·
· Score: 1
the reason why MSIE destroyed Netscape's dominance wasn't its superiority, it was because MSIE was just there, an easy mouse click away on every new Windows 95 PC, whereas Navigator wasn't, and needed to be installed from scratch.
I'd bet that in "today's internet", Netscape would have survived under the same circumstances, simply because today, downloading a new piece of software is much faster with broadband than it was in the 90s with 14.4 or 28.8 k connections. I think many people couldn't be bothered to spend time downloading a better browser, or more accurately, trying out a different browser.
Certainly the firefox phenomenon provides some evidence of this. Its usage is growing not only because it's a better browser, but because it's quick and easy to install, imports all your favorites from That Other Browser, and does a good job of it.
All I'm really saying is that people are generally lazy, but curious. They're willing to try something new as long as it doesn't take too much time, or cause too much trouble. Ease of installation is a big factor for software.
Let's see.. I need an antivirus utility.
What shall it be?
Mcaffee.. no
Norton.. no
AVG..no
Oh, wait! Here's one! Marketscore! That sounds reputable! I've never heard of them before, so they must be good, because they stay out of the "eviil media".
--end scathing sarcasm--
The people "lured" into downloading this utility should probably also have their right to vote restricted for lack of ability to critically process information.
And, by the way, if you've feel vicitmized by this software, I have news for you.. they've recently changed the definition of gullible in the dictionary.
than life in Northern Canada. -50C is standard in the winter, except it's permanently dark. I wonder what kind of tax/salary incentives governments would be handing out to attract doctors and teachers to the Moon.
Maybe they should try hard so send all the lawyers there, too.
Maybe this is a bit off topic, but it has to be said..
Why is every other new tech story on slashdot about one technology/software/whatever trying to KILL another one? I think the appropriate word is "competition". Headlines like the above have lost their sensationalism through over use. Everyone take one step backwards towards reality.
That said.. unless your average 'other user' can spend millions to put together quality and/or entertaining programming, I don't see television leaving the picture anytime soon. (pun intended)
After reading the FAQ, I don't quite see the benefit of this service. They don't seem to offer anything that isn't already freely available (communications and email, they say). As far as professionally printed materials for your club.. anyone who's willing to go to the effort of putting together a club, I'd imagine, would be motivated enough to save the 19 bucks and get things printed themselves. Is there really a market for this service?
I just don't get it.. is there some target group of motivated but lethargic people that are willing to put in the effort to organize, run and manage a club, but somehow, find keeping a list of members' emails a significant barrier to achieving their goals?
I'm ranting a bit, but I'm quite surprised. This is one of the oddest services I've seen on the net. It goes against the intuition of online dating sites, for example. Where the clients may be a little more reserved and slightly anti-social (thus the need for online dating). Meetup is actually targeting what appears to be a socially very active group of clients. I wonder how they're doing.
Any slashdotters using this service? Feel free to enlighten me.
Yeah, you'd think so, but I really wonder if it wouldn't damage the drill first? I mean, magma is pretty damn hot, by any standards. It's been a long time since I've looked into my chemistry texts, but wouldn't the temps and pressures required to melt rock be more than sufficient to put an end to any metals used in the construciton of a drilll? Just a thought. I guess at best you'll end up with your drill embedded in a magma flow. Then you'd need a SECOND drill to retrieve it.
I have to disagree with you on that point. The LOTR movies did a remarkable job recreating what I saw in my imagination when reading the books, despite the bits that were cut out or glossed over (the success of each one of the three movies appears to back this up, and I have never heard complaints from die-hard fans). They very much managed to keep the sprit of the books. After an example like that, you'd think the people producing Hitchhiker's Guide would make more of an effort.
This movie does sound really, really bad. If you haven't read the books, I suspect it'll suck because it makes no sense. If you have, well then it'll suck for all the other reasons stated in the review.
I doubt the studio will be making their money back, (though I don't know the budged of the film).
Bioinformatics is very much in the post genomic era, though, biology certainly is not. Specifically, pre-genomics, the big bioinformatics problem was assembling genomic sequences efficiently. Now that's been solved, so bioinformatics questions now deal with how to treat the mountains of genomic data that have been generated.
Thats' just my interpretation, but on the record, I hate buzz-words.
I'd say it doesn't impact it in a very significant way. Basically this suggests certain genes are replicated (which is nothing new in an evolutionary sense), what's interesting is that the organism can detect mistakes in both loci of a gene, and correct them. What's not really clear is whether the oranism is actually altering those damaged genes, replacing the damaged copy with a functioning copy from nearby locus, or silencing the damaged copy in favor of an undamaged copy at a nearby locus. The latter seems the most plausable. Regardless of which it is, evolution continues as normal, there's just an extra error correcting mechanism to add to the model. Enzymes that replicate DNA have error correcting activity, too, since replication itself is inherently error prone. Remember, it's the mutations that are not detrimental to the organism's survival, those that provide a selective advantage, that are considered steps "forward" in an evolutionary sense.
They say the tent can be delivered sterile to allow surgical procedures to be performed from day one..
Wouldn't that require clean, sterile water? I'd imagine that's something that would be hard to come by in the situations that one would want to use such a tent. (Short of boiling it, but even then it may not be sufficient in some cases, nor practical to boil the quantity required, which is probably a lot, and it would drastically slow things down.)
I did read TFA, but didn't notice how much water these required, anyone?
Slashdot Mirror
Umm.. actually that's not precisely true. If you want to talk probabilities, then assume you model the universe as some sort of Markov process. If the chain isn't ergodic, or more precisely, if the state where life evolves is not recurrent, then the chain will never return to that state, no matter how long time runs on. I'm arguing that just because life evolved once doesn't imply that the probability of life evolving AGAIN is greater than zero (which I think is what you were saying). The marginal probablility of life evolving is greater than zero (since we're here), but not the conditional. Those conditions which existed here when life evolved may not have existed elsewhere, and they may be the only conditions under which life can evolve, and they may never exist again, anywhere. The probability of all these things being true is non-zero, so in the limit, given that life has evolved, the probability of life evolving again doesn't approach 100%. Of course, this is a ridiculous model.
My guess is that Google has a very good idea of how much click fraud there is, and adjusts their pricing accordingly, (charging less per click).
The clients, on their ends, should see an increase in sales correlating with an increase in advertising spending. If they suddenly observe a spike in billing for their google PPC ads, but their sales haven't moved, there's a strong indication that some kind of fraud is going on.
I'm sure if a customer went to Google with the numbers, something would be done about it. It's the same principle as watching out for credit card fraud. Watch your montly bills and keep an eye out for unexpected patterns. If you're worried about fraud, don't expect Google to be watching your back, do it yourself.
If you're willing to blow 6 trillion on this, you should certainly be willing to blow 10% of that on reducing greenhouse emissions, weaning the world off of oil onto "greener" energy sources, etc, etc.. What the hell ever happened to practicality?
I have to agree with you. It suffices to buy one product and be dissatisfied with it, to make getting the top seller (even if it's more expensive), a good value. This is, of couse, assuming the top seller is doing well because it's a good product.
I guess the bottom line is, do your research before you buy, and if at the end, your conclusions happen to agree with what popular culture is selling, go with it.
I bought a minidisc on a whim some years ago. Man, was I pissed when I found out I couldn't transfer recored material to my PC. Haven't bought a portable digital music player since.
Okay, so asuming that you're one of the human volunteers (which is really creepy, but bear with me), I think it would be a hell of a lot of fun to wake up from this procedure and scare the crap out of everyone by pretending to be a zombie.
**patient opens eyes**
Doc: Hello, sir. How do you feel.
... pause...
** patient grabs doctor's head while gnashing teeth and shrieking**
It occurs to me that this technology wouldn't be the best thing in even mildly polluted water. What's to stop pollutants from being extracted along with the air? I'm not sure if the same caveats would apply as for tank diving. Air must usually be filtered, since small amounts of hydrocarbons, or CO from a truck parked next to the air intake, could kill the diver when inhaled under pressure.
the reason why MSIE destroyed Netscape's dominance wasn't its superiority, it was because MSIE was just there, an easy mouse click away on every new Windows 95 PC, whereas Navigator wasn't, and needed to be installed from scratch.
I'd bet that in "today's internet", Netscape would have survived under the same circumstances, simply because today, downloading a new piece of software is much faster with broadband than it was in the 90s with 14.4 or 28.8 k connections. I think many people couldn't be bothered to spend time downloading a better browser, or more accurately, trying out a different browser.
Certainly the firefox phenomenon provides some evidence of this. Its usage is growing not only because it's a better browser, but because it's quick and easy to install, imports all your favorites from That Other Browser, and does a good job of it.
All I'm really saying is that people are generally lazy, but curious. They're willing to try something new as long as it doesn't take too much time, or cause too much trouble. Ease of installation is a big factor for software.
Don't pass off humor from Asterix as your own. That's just lame.
What shall it be?
Mcaffee.. no
Norton.. no
AVG..no
Oh, wait! Here's one! Marketscore! That sounds reputable! I've never heard of them before, so they must be good, because they stay out of the "eviil media".
--end scathing sarcasm--
The people "lured" into downloading this utility should probably also have their right to vote restricted for lack of ability to critically process information.
And, by the way, if you've feel vicitmized by this software, I have news for you.. they've recently changed the definition of gullible in the dictionary.Interpret that however you please.
Yes, and the typical help text is going to be changed to..
"If you don't know who CA is, you can safely ignore them"
Indeed the parent is correct. Methane doesn't contain any sulfur, and it's the sulfur containing compounds that are responsible for the smell.
science fiction slowly becomes reality.
than life in Northern Canada. -50C is standard in the winter, except it's permanently dark. I wonder what kind of tax/salary incentives governments would be handing out to attract doctors and teachers to the Moon. Maybe they should try hard so send all the lawyers there, too.
Maybe this is a bit off topic, but it has to be said.. Why is every other new tech story on slashdot about one technology/software/whatever trying to KILL another one? I think the appropriate word is "competition". Headlines like the above have lost their sensationalism through over use. Everyone take one step backwards towards reality.
That said.. unless your average 'other user' can spend millions to put together quality and/or entertaining programming, I don't see television leaving the picture anytime soon. (pun intended)
I didn't realize my browser reported whether I was male or female as part of the browser Id string!
After reading the FAQ, I don't quite see the benefit of this service. They don't seem to offer anything that isn't already freely available (communications and email, they say). As far as professionally printed materials for your club.. anyone who's willing to go to the effort of putting together a club, I'd imagine, would be motivated enough to save the 19 bucks and get things printed themselves. Is there really a market for this service?
I just don't get it.. is there some target group of motivated but lethargic people that are willing to put in the effort to organize, run and manage a club, but somehow, find keeping a list of members' emails a significant barrier to achieving their goals?
I'm ranting a bit, but I'm quite surprised. This is one of the oddest services I've seen on the net. It goes against the intuition of online dating sites, for example. Where the clients may be a little more reserved and slightly anti-social (thus the need for online dating). Meetup is actually targeting what appears to be a socially very active group of clients. I wonder how they're doing.
Any slashdotters using this service? Feel free to enlighten me.Yeah, you'd think so, but I really wonder if it wouldn't damage the drill first? I mean, magma is pretty damn hot, by any standards. It's been a long time since I've looked into my chemistry texts, but wouldn't the temps and pressures required to melt rock be more than sufficient to put an end to any metals used in the construciton of a drilll? Just a thought. I guess at best you'll end up with your drill embedded in a magma flow. Then you'd need a SECOND drill to retrieve it.
I have to disagree with you on that point. The LOTR movies did a remarkable job recreating what I saw in my imagination when reading the books, despite the bits that were cut out or glossed over (the success of each one of the three movies appears to back this up, and I have never heard complaints from die-hard fans). They very much managed to keep the sprit of the books. After an example like that, you'd think the people producing Hitchhiker's Guide would make more of an effort.
This movie does sound really, really bad. If you haven't read the books, I suspect it'll suck because it makes no sense. If you have, well then it'll suck for all the other reasons stated in the review.
I doubt the studio will be making their money back, (though I don't know the budged of the film).
"Our incredibly expensive uber-drill has pierced through to the earth's mantle! Now let's get it home before the magma damages.. oh crap.."
Bioinformatics is very much in the post genomic era, though, biology certainly is not. Specifically, pre-genomics, the big bioinformatics problem was assembling genomic sequences efficiently. Now that's been solved, so bioinformatics questions now deal with how to treat the mountains of genomic data that have been generated. Thats' just my interpretation, but on the record, I hate buzz-words.
It suffices to affornt French bureaucracy just once to realize that one shouldn't even bother to try to rationalize how they function.
How long would it last if you tossed linux on it and ran it in text mode?
I'd say it doesn't impact it in a very significant way. Basically this suggests certain genes are replicated (which is nothing new in an evolutionary sense), what's interesting is that the organism can detect mistakes in both loci of a gene, and correct them. What's not really clear is whether the oranism is actually altering those damaged genes, replacing the damaged copy with a functioning copy from nearby locus, or silencing the damaged copy in favor of an undamaged copy at a nearby locus. The latter seems the most plausable. Regardless of which it is, evolution continues as normal, there's just an extra error correcting mechanism to add to the model. Enzymes that replicate DNA have error correcting activity, too, since replication itself is inherently error prone. Remember, it's the mutations that are not detrimental to the organism's survival, those that provide a selective advantage, that are considered steps "forward" in an evolutionary sense.
Tragic, tragic, really..
Well, I'm off to but cheap clothes and electronics!
They say the tent can be delivered sterile to allow surgical procedures to be performed from day one..
Wouldn't that require clean, sterile water? I'd imagine that's something that would be hard to come by in the situations that one would want to use such a tent. (Short of boiling it, but even then it may not be sufficient in some cases, nor practical to boil the quantity required, which is probably a lot, and it would drastically slow things down.)
I did read TFA, but didn't notice how much water these required, anyone?