I would recommend BitMessage. It is open source and peer2peer. Also the senderID and message are encrypted plus the receiver is completely unknowable. Also the BitMessage wiki has a pretty good breakdown of various other secure messaging services that are also available.
I agree with kaiwai, these stories are bullshit. They never mention the giant parade of unemployed engineers. I myself have two engineering degrees and struggled for a long time to any work. I was able to get occasional short term work, but was unemployed as much as I was employed. I eventually gave up and moved to a different career, being a security guard. As a security guard I was paid more than I ever was in the short stints I was able to find as in engineer.
You only say that the Big Bang was completely uniform in space because science is agnostic as to whether space even existed outside the Big Bang at all. They can't prove that it did exist outside so they maintain that it must not. But they can't prove that it did not. This is a mistake. Scientist can not make a claim about what is true outside of the Big Bang expansion, because they have no way of knowing what it is like. Mind you, I don't either. But to say that my view is incorrect, is to say you know something about the area outside the Big Bang expansion, but you do not.
You say, "This is not a valid analogy." I respond to say, "I is not an analogy - it is a thought experiment".
You say, "If you want a clock at the Big Bang to measure what the age of the universe is, you have to leave it sitting there for the entire duration of the universe." I respond to say, "In my thought experiment, was able to measure the rate of time at the start of the universe only and use that rate of time for the remainder of my observations. So I don't have to leave the clock there."
You say, "There is no observer or reference frame whose clock ticks off the 'gravitational time dilation factor'." I respond to say, "Scientists use theory and thought experiments to estimate the time certain events (i.e. start of the laws of physics, etc.) occurred during the Big Bang, despite the fact that no one observed it."
Gravitational time dilation HAS been experienced by an observer with real clocks.
Gravitational time dilation has been experimentally measured using atomic clocks on airplanes. The clocks that traveled aboard the airplanes upon return were slightly fast with respect to clocks on the ground. The effect is significant enough that the Global Positioning System needs to correct for its effect on clocks aboard artificial satellites, providing a further experimental confirmation of the effect.
Gravitational time dilation has also been confirmed by the Pound-Rebka experiment, observations of the spectra of the white dwarf Sirius B and experiments with time signals sent to and from Viking 1 Mars lander.
This is REAL time measured with real clocks.
Place a clock (lets call it Clock A) next to the big bang. The big bang material produces an enormous amount of gravity. To an observer holding the clock, Clock A is ticking at a standard rate. But to an observer far away it is ticking very slowly. The distant observer has a clock (Clock B). From the vantage point of the observer holding Clock A it seems that Clock B is going very fast. Both observers are staying the same distance from each other over time, so velocity doesn't come into the picture. For a whole day each observer notes the rate of radioactive decay of a certain isotope with both clocks (ignore that it took time for isotopes to even form during the Big Bang - this is a thought experiment). They continue to use this rate of time calibrated to the decay of these isotopes, so the rate of time at the start is the same rate measured throughout. As the big bang propagates out, and in time planets form, the observer holding Clock B measures six days as occurring for the near-center-of-Big-Bang-Time. At the same time the observer near the center of the Big Bang measures that 15 billion years has occurred with far-from-center-time. Which one is correct? The answer is both.
Concerning the gravitational time dilation pertaining to a black hole, no one can confirm that your claim regarding it is true. If your only defense is what happens once you pass into an event horizon, then you have a very weak defense. Does anyone know what occurs inside an event horizon? - nope.
You seem to be saying that time which occurs during time dilation should never be used. You qualify this by saying it should never be used for "proper time". Okay, but Schroeder never claims that "proper time" is what is being used. First you say that "proper time" is the only time frame one can use (not sure why), then you say that gravitational time dilation can not be used to have "proper time" - fine. So you make it seem that gravitational time dilation can never be used for any purpose. Why must time exclusively be told in proper time?
It is like saying that any measurement in non-metric units is invalid. Basically it seems like you are saying that time which has been dilated is invalid for any form of measurement.
I am curious as to what university you teach. I don't claim to have any credentials which would impress but Schroeder earned his PhD in Physics from MIT where he taught as professor. Now he teaches at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
You are confusing time dilation due to gravity (i.e. mass) with time dilation due to velocity. Schroeder doesn't invoke time dilation due to velocity in any of his calculations. You are attempting to knock down his arguments by reasoning against the use of time dilation due to velocity, when he never claims to use this. You are basically using the straw-man technique.
Let me explain by quoting a section of the book. "Waves of sunlight reaching Earth are stretched longer by 2.12 parts in a million relative to similar light waves generated on Earth. That stretching of the light waves means that the rate at which they reach us is lowered by 2.12 parts per million. This lowering of the light wave frequency is the measure of the slowing of time. For every million Earth seconds, the Sun's clock would "lose" 2.12 seconds relative to our clocks here on Earth. The 2.12 parts per million equals 67 seconds per year, exactly the amount predicted by the laws of relativity." (page 50).
He later explains that the techniques used to relate the mass of the sun to the time dilation, can also be applied to the universe as a whole. So the rate of time experienced by the universe during the big bang (or the universe as a whole) can be found as it relates to Earth time. Just as an Earth year equals a Sun year minus 67 seconds, an Earth 15 billion years equals a universe 6 days.
Do understand that the fact that the rate of time being dependent on mass is established science. Schroeder is not creating anything new here, merely teaching what is already taught in physics classes around the world.
I think that Schroeder does not use "time dilation" in the sense that you are explaining it. Just as there is a change in the time over which an observed event occurs based on the velocity of the observer, there is also a similar effect from gravity itself. Imagine a relativistic spacecraft observing a single revolution of the earth around the sun, and someone on mars also observing it. Then compare that to the sun (with its much larger mass) observing it. So Schroeder is using the fact that the rate of time is different depending on the mass of the observer.
He then uses the Cosmic Background Radiation to reasonably estimate the mass of the universe. Then he applies this rate of time to the approximately 15 billion years, and finds that from the universe's perspective it is only 144 hours old (i.e. six days). He is not using "God time" as you say it, but rather universe time. There is nothing preventing someone from using different references to measure time, just like someone can use different units to measure length (feet, meters, angstroms, etc).
Actually there isn't any numerology (something I am quite familiar with) used at all. The science is presented exactly as scientists describe it, only instead of using Earth as the basis for the rate of time, he uses the universe as a whole. This is something that cosmologist would normally calculate. He doesn't use the bible to arrive at his age of the universe, he uses science. He only latter, shows how this scientific finding is in agreement with what the bible describes. Before issuing harsh words against a book, please read it first.
A great book on this is "The Science of God" by former MIT physics professor (and theologian) Gerald L Schroder. In it he estimates the age of the universe to be 15.75 billion years old. He also shows how this is consistent with established biblical interpretation. While the 15.75 billion number is an estimate, we shouldn't think that the 13.73 billion number is without assumptions as well. Schroder's book lays out some of the challenges facing scientists when it comes to getting an accurate number on the age of the universe.
When the supply goes up (CS departments churn em out by the millions) faster than the demand (IT departments increase the number of servers, but also use efficiencies to use less employees) then the price drops. Look at the pay rate data. Computer professional pay has been flatline for some time. Just because there are more employees doesn't mean the market is better. There are a ton of Psych majors too, but I wouldn't recommend getting into that "hot" field.
I graduated in 1998 with a degree in Chemical Engineering and a second in Material Science. Upon graduation the company I interned with went on a 2 year hiring freeze. The job market was greatly depressed. So I did contract work which didn't pay that well and was very unsteady. I did that for about two years. Right now I make a dollar an hour less than I did as a contract worker but the work is very steady. I work as a security guard which only needs a GED!! I paid for my education out of pocket - so when do I get to work in the field for four years?
The device that most thruhikers use is pocketmail. Thruhiking is where you go backpacking for months at a time. There are plenty of resources on thruhiking such as www.practicalbackpacking.com which has a great podcast and www.backpacking.net. Backpacking.net even has stuff for those who want to DIY, with instructions on how to make all your own gear. Pocketmail allows you to write your email and then send it later when you are at a phone. You use pocketmail's server and connection so that everything you need is included. It is a great thruhiker solution.
If Bill was really concerned that US kids are not getting taught right, why doesn't he open a computer college himself? That way he can rake in the money based on the MS brand, and he will have minons already brought into the MS way. I'll tell you why, those minons will want to be paid at non-immigrant wages. Money is the real reason for everything Bill said.
Everyone is talking about the connection between coffee and Cirrhosis without examining how alcohol causes Cirrhosis. The trick that coffee is doing is marginally reversing the harmfull effects that cause Cirrhosis. Basically the alcohol depleats the nutrients that the liver needs, causing Cirrhosis. The coffee has some of the nutrients that alcohol removes. The better idea is to replenish ALL of the nutrients so as to feel no ill-effects from alchohol (as far as health is concerned).
There is a great book writen by a professional nutritionist that discusses how this works in detail. The title is pretty cheesy but the work is solid. It is called, "Drink as Much as You Want and Live Longer" by Frederick M. Beyerlein.
You said "The potential rewards for doing so are much smaller" refering to 'hacking' police vehicle databases. For a stolen car ring it would be worth alot. Steal a car and alter the VIN record so that it appears as if it belongs to someone else. Then some poor clod reports a stolen car that "according to records" isn't his. And how would they catch this?
You mention the slippery slope of the UK. While it seems that UK is using more and more surveillance, it is doing this in a relatively open political process. It is up to the prople to reverse this. Slippery Slope is more than increased surveillance though, it is wholesale abuse of the collected information. The police in the USA have enormous information collection power and with rare exception they use this power for one thing - to catch bad guys. Not exactly slippery slope. Police that do abuse their power do get caught and sent to jail from time to time.
You said "If you were the leader of the opposition party and and you ordered a pizza to be delivered at your mistress's flat they might care, if you were a journalist critical of the government who was eating doughnuts with a source they might care."
I say that a National ID system really wouldn't help the tracker (the They) in this situation. The fact that this person's ID was accesses doesn't need to be collected in an ID system. Besides - one doesn't currently have to show ID to order a pizza. The They can track a pizza delivery with no hassel right now without an ID system. They wouldn't likely use an ID system to do such tracking - as it wouldn't provide them with usefull information - they already know who the person is.
The best reply to this is a system in the USA which is almost exactly what I am describing only for cars. Everyone has a license plate. Any police officer can enter your plate info into their computer which searches an encrypted database to pull the information.
Honestly, how many people in the USA have 'hacked' the database and altered their records? Maybe 12? And how many have 'hacked' in to make a 'fake' license plate? At most one.
Faking a license plate would be easy - but it still doesn't help - because if any police officer runs the plate they will find that the car info and the plate info doesn't match - and suddenly someone is going to jail. The centralized system would work much like this.
Just as the cop doesn't have access to what books you checked out from the library, or what your gross income is from doing a plate lookup - they also wouldn't have that information for an ID check. But since they are cops they would (and should) be able to see if there are any warrents out.
And if you loose your card, it won't matter, because the card is not the ID, the entry in the database is the ID. If someone steals your license plates and you call the cops, they won't bust you for it. In this case, if you have the license plate info, they can look up your car's info and make a report on it. And as far as errors in the database, this does happen in the license plate situation, but it is so rare that it is more folklore.
Many people bring up "what if the network breaks". If the network breaks for the credit card system (which again is a centralized database) this entire enconomy would be screwed. But it hasn't (at least long term or globally). Why? Because there are competant engineers who are actively keeping the thing running.
Most of your other comments fall into the slippery-slope catagory (which is the most common reaction). This mentality of "then they will control our lives" is retarded. If we used that rational for all the systems we encounter in an average day we would be freakin' out. The reality is they already do have all our information - but at the end of the day They Just Don't Care that you went to work and then afterwards stopped at a convience store and bought doughnuts.
Most countries place the ID information on the card. This is foolish as any physical or digital representation can be duplicated with relative ease. This makes the good guys work for naught to stop the bad guys who don't have to worry (as they have proper ID). I propose that all the ID information should be server side (picts etc - presented to a terminal). The only thing on the card should be a Name, Number and Bar Code. The information shown could be location specific - to enhance privacy rights (the reader only sees information germain to their function).
Imagine how many dead-beat dads would be forced to pay. Imagine how many jobs would would newly occupied by legal workers. Imagine how much nicer getting on a commercial airplane would be. Imagine if the person reading the card knew that the ID information they were seeing was coming from an encrypted database in some locked room, as opposed to being produced in the back of a van somewhere.
Check out the company realgoods.com they supply to solar living folks. Their rechargables have a lifetime guarantee (your lifetime, not the batteries). I've used them and they have worked great.
Slashdot Mirror
The site com-http currently lists 175 alt-coins. com-http is a cryptocurrency directory, but it looks more like a periodic table of alt-coins.
I would recommend BitMessage. It is open source and peer2peer. Also the senderID and message are encrypted plus the receiver is completely unknowable. Also the BitMessage wiki has a pretty good breakdown of various other secure messaging services that are also available.
WolframAlpha recently added space weather, including sunspot activity. Seems to me that the next cycle is just a bit of a late riser.
I agree with kaiwai, these stories are bullshit. They never mention the giant parade of unemployed engineers. I myself have two engineering degrees and struggled for a long time to any work. I was able to get occasional short term work, but was unemployed as much as I was employed. I eventually gave up and moved to a different career, being a security guard. As a security guard I was paid more than I ever was in the short stints I was able to find as in engineer.
You only say that the Big Bang was completely uniform in space because science is agnostic as to whether space even existed outside the Big Bang at all. They can't prove that it did exist outside so they maintain that it must not. But they can't prove that it did not. This is a mistake. Scientist can not make a claim about what is true outside of the Big Bang expansion, because they have no way of knowing what it is like. Mind you, I don't either. But to say that my view is incorrect, is to say you know something about the area outside the Big Bang expansion, but you do not.
You say, "If you want a clock at the Big Bang to measure what the age of the universe is, you have to leave it sitting there for the entire duration of the universe." I respond to say, "In my thought experiment, was able to measure the rate of time at the start of the universe only and use that rate of time for the remainder of my observations. So I don't have to leave the clock there."
You say, "There is no observer or reference frame whose clock ticks off the 'gravitational time dilation factor'." I respond to say, "Scientists use theory and thought experiments to estimate the time certain events (i.e. start of the laws of physics, etc.) occurred during the Big Bang, despite the fact that no one observed it."
Gravitational time dilation has been experimentally measured using atomic clocks on airplanes. The clocks that traveled aboard the airplanes upon return were slightly fast with respect to clocks on the ground. The effect is significant enough that the Global Positioning System needs to correct for its effect on clocks aboard artificial satellites, providing a further experimental confirmation of the effect.
Gravitational time dilation has also been confirmed by the Pound-Rebka experiment, observations of the spectra of the white dwarf Sirius B and experiments with time signals sent to and from Viking 1 Mars lander.
This is REAL time measured with real clocks.
Place a clock (lets call it Clock A) next to the big bang. The big bang material produces an enormous amount of gravity. To an observer holding the clock, Clock A is ticking at a standard rate. But to an observer far away it is ticking very slowly. The distant observer has a clock (Clock B). From the vantage point of the observer holding Clock A it seems that Clock B is going very fast. Both observers are staying the same distance from each other over time, so velocity doesn't come into the picture. For a whole day each observer notes the rate of radioactive decay of a certain isotope with both clocks (ignore that it took time for isotopes to even form during the Big Bang - this is a thought experiment). They continue to use this rate of time calibrated to the decay of these isotopes, so the rate of time at the start is the same rate measured throughout. As the big bang propagates out, and in time planets form, the observer holding Clock B measures six days as occurring for the near-center-of-Big-Bang-Time. At the same time the observer near the center of the Big Bang measures that 15 billion years has occurred with far-from-center-time. Which one is correct? The answer is both.
You seem to be saying that time which occurs during time dilation should never be used. You qualify this by saying it should never be used for "proper time". Okay, but Schroeder never claims that "proper time" is what is being used. First you say that "proper time" is the only time frame one can use (not sure why), then you say that gravitational time dilation can not be used to have "proper time" - fine. So you make it seem that gravitational time dilation can never be used for any purpose. Why must time exclusively be told in proper time?
It is like saying that any measurement in non-metric units is invalid. Basically it seems like you are saying that time which has been dilated is invalid for any form of measurement.
I am curious as to what university you teach. I don't claim to have any credentials which would impress but Schroeder earned his PhD in Physics from MIT where he taught as professor. Now he teaches at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Let me explain by quoting a section of the book. "Waves of sunlight reaching Earth are stretched longer by 2.12 parts in a million relative to similar light waves generated on Earth. That stretching of the light waves means that the rate at which they reach us is lowered by 2.12 parts per million. This lowering of the light wave frequency is the measure of the slowing of time. For every million Earth seconds, the Sun's clock would "lose" 2.12 seconds relative to our clocks here on Earth. The 2.12 parts per million equals 67 seconds per year, exactly the amount predicted by the laws of relativity." (page 50).
He later explains that the techniques used to relate the mass of the sun to the time dilation, can also be applied to the universe as a whole. So the rate of time experienced by the universe during the big bang (or the universe as a whole) can be found as it relates to Earth time. Just as an Earth year equals a Sun year minus 67 seconds, an Earth 15 billion years equals a universe 6 days.
Do understand that the fact that the rate of time being dependent on mass is established science. Schroeder is not creating anything new here, merely teaching what is already taught in physics classes around the world.
I think that Schroeder does not use "time dilation" in the sense that you are explaining it. Just as there is a change in the time over which an observed event occurs based on the velocity of the observer, there is also a similar effect from gravity itself. Imagine a relativistic spacecraft observing a single revolution of the earth around the sun, and someone on mars also observing it. Then compare that to the sun (with its much larger mass) observing it. So Schroeder is using the fact that the rate of time is different depending on the mass of the observer. He then uses the Cosmic Background Radiation to reasonably estimate the mass of the universe. Then he applies this rate of time to the approximately 15 billion years, and finds that from the universe's perspective it is only 144 hours old (i.e. six days). He is not using "God time" as you say it, but rather universe time. There is nothing preventing someone from using different references to measure time, just like someone can use different units to measure length (feet, meters, angstroms, etc).
Actually there isn't any numerology (something I am quite familiar with) used at all. The science is presented exactly as scientists describe it, only instead of using Earth as the basis for the rate of time, he uses the universe as a whole. This is something that cosmologist would normally calculate. He doesn't use the bible to arrive at his age of the universe, he uses science. He only latter, shows how this scientific finding is in agreement with what the bible describes. Before issuing harsh words against a book, please read it first.
A great book on this is "The Science of God" by former MIT physics professor (and theologian) Gerald L Schroder. In it he estimates the age of the universe to be 15.75 billion years old. He also shows how this is consistent with established biblical interpretation. While the 15.75 billion number is an estimate, we shouldn't think that the 13.73 billion number is without assumptions as well. Schroder's book lays out some of the challenges facing scientists when it comes to getting an accurate number on the age of the universe.
It is not as geared toward street maps, but it is a mashup of wiki and maps - www.wikimapia.org
When the supply goes up (CS departments churn em out by the millions) faster than the demand (IT departments increase the number of servers, but also use efficiencies to use less employees) then the price drops. Look at the pay rate data. Computer professional pay has been flatline for some time. Just because there are more employees doesn't mean the market is better. There are a ton of Psych majors too, but I wouldn't recommend getting into that "hot" field.
I graduated in 1998 with a degree in Chemical Engineering and a second in Material Science. Upon graduation the company I interned with went on a 2 year hiring freeze. The job market was greatly depressed. So I did contract work which didn't pay that well and was very unsteady. I did that for about two years. Right now I make a dollar an hour less than I did as a contract worker but the work is very steady. I work as a security guard which only needs a GED!! I paid for my education out of pocket - so when do I get to work in the field for four years?
The device that most thruhikers use is pocketmail. Thruhiking is where you go backpacking for months at a time. There are plenty of resources on thruhiking such as www.practicalbackpacking.com which has a great podcast and www.backpacking.net. Backpacking.net even has stuff for those who want to DIY, with instructions on how to make all your own gear. Pocketmail allows you to write your email and then send it later when you are at a phone. You use pocketmail's server and connection so that everything you need is included. It is a great thruhiker solution.
If Bill was really concerned that US kids are not getting taught right, why doesn't he open a computer college himself? That way he can rake in the money based on the MS brand, and he will have minons already brought into the MS way. I'll tell you why, those minons will want to be paid at non-immigrant wages. Money is the real reason for everything Bill said.
Everyone is talking about the connection between coffee and Cirrhosis without examining how alcohol causes Cirrhosis. The trick that coffee is doing is marginally reversing the harmfull effects that cause Cirrhosis. Basically the alcohol depleats the nutrients that the liver needs, causing Cirrhosis. The coffee has some of the nutrients that alcohol removes. The better idea is to replenish ALL of the nutrients so as to feel no ill-effects from alchohol (as far as health is concerned).
1 01737-9453630?v=glance&n=283155
There is a great book writen by a professional nutritionist that discusses how this works in detail. The title is pretty cheesy but the work is solid. It is called, "Drink as Much as You Want and Live Longer" by Frederick M. Beyerlein.
Also a good web reference to debunk alot of alcohol related health myths (with the profesonal research to back it up) is at:
http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/index.html
Amazon link to "Drink as Much as You Want and Live Longer":
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155950188X/002-7
laxisusous
You mention the slippery slope of the UK. While it seems that UK is using more and more surveillance, it is doing this in a relatively open political process. It is up to the prople to reverse this. Slippery Slope is more than increased surveillance though, it is wholesale abuse of the collected information. The police in the USA have enormous information collection power and with rare exception they use this power for one thing - to catch bad guys. Not exactly slippery slope. Police that do abuse their power do get caught and sent to jail from time to time.
You said "If you were the leader of the opposition party and and you ordered a pizza to be delivered at your mistress's flat they might care, if you were a journalist critical of the government who was eating doughnuts with a source they might care."
I say that a National ID system really wouldn't help the tracker (the They) in this situation. The fact that this person's ID was accesses doesn't need to be collected in an ID system. Besides - one doesn't currently have to show ID to order a pizza. The They can track a pizza delivery with no hassel right now without an ID system. They wouldn't likely use an ID system to do such tracking - as it wouldn't provide them with usefull information - they already know who the person is.
The best reply to this is a system in the USA which is almost exactly what I am describing only for cars. Everyone has a license plate. Any police officer can enter your plate info into their computer which searches an encrypted database to pull the information.
Honestly, how many people in the USA have 'hacked' the database and altered their records? Maybe 12? And how many have 'hacked' in to make a 'fake' license plate? At most one.
Faking a license plate would be easy - but it still doesn't help - because if any police officer runs the plate they will find that the car info and the plate info doesn't match - and suddenly someone is going to jail. The centralized system would work much like this.
Just as the cop doesn't have access to what books you checked out from the library, or what your gross income is from doing a plate lookup - they also wouldn't have that information for an ID check. But since they are cops they would (and should) be able to see if there are any warrents out.
And if you loose your card, it won't matter, because the card is not the ID, the entry in the database is the ID. If someone steals your license plates and you call the cops, they won't bust you for it. In this case, if you have the license plate info, they can look up your car's info and make a report on it. And as far as errors in the database, this does happen in the license plate situation, but it is so rare that it is more folklore.
Many people bring up "what if the network breaks". If the network breaks for the credit card system (which again is a centralized database) this entire enconomy would be screwed. But it hasn't (at least long term or globally). Why? Because there are competant engineers who are actively keeping the thing running.
Most of your other comments fall into the slippery-slope catagory (which is the most common reaction). This mentality of "then they will control our lives" is retarded. If we used that rational for all the systems we encounter in an average day we would be freakin' out. The reality is they already do have all our information - but at the end of the day They Just Don't Care that you went to work and then afterwards stopped at a convience store and bought doughnuts.
Most countries place the ID information on the card. This is foolish as any physical or digital representation can be duplicated with relative ease. This makes the good guys work for naught to stop the bad guys who don't have to worry (as they have proper ID). I propose that all the ID information should be server side (picts etc - presented to a terminal). The only thing on the card should be a Name, Number and Bar Code. The information shown could be location specific - to enhance privacy rights (the reader only sees information germain to their function).
Imagine how many dead-beat dads would be forced to pay. Imagine how many jobs would would newly occupied by legal workers. Imagine how much nicer getting on a commercial airplane would be. Imagine if the person reading the card knew that the ID information they were seeing was coming from an encrypted database in some locked room, as opposed to being produced in the back of a van somewhere.
Check out the company realgoods.com they supply to solar living folks. Their rechargables have a lifetime guarantee (your lifetime, not the batteries). I've used them and they have worked great.