modelling and slack
on
Slack
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Another important aspect of slack pops up in Repenning, Understanding Fire Fighting In New Product Development; without it, the system is unstable against transients that tend to draw resources from upstream development (where they are more efficient) into downstream firefighting (where their benefit is more timely). A death spiral results.
Decent paper. Yes, he tends to belabor points the reader should see coming, and the model is clearly simplistic - but these very points might make it accessible for managers, particularly those still enamored of their MBA degrees.
Are you sure about that? I don't recall that behavior from Bravo, and a glance at the Bravo chapter in the Alto User's Handbook doesn't turn up anything.
Perhaps you're thinking of the Alto's Press file editor (Markup); that used a gestures-like interface for invoking rotation and scaling.
--
Re:Computer 'Science'?
on
Think Python
·
· Score: 1
Here's what Feynman actually had to say on the subject:
Computer science also differs from physics in that it is not actually a science. It does not study natural objects. Neither is it, as you might think, mathematics; although it does use mathematical reasoning pretty extensively. Rather, computer science is like engineering - it is all about getting something to do something, rather than just dealing with abstractions and in pre-Smith geology.
That's from the introduction to Feynman Lectures On Computation - which book suggests that RPF thought the subject to be important. Certainly not as important as physics - but if you don't think nothing is more important than your field of study, can we assume you're only in it for the paycheck?
I, for one, don't believe that science can predict when such an event will occur. And certainly not hours in advance.
Get with the program. The official Bush Administration position has changed to "OK, science can predict eclipses, but there's no point in doing anything about them." --
And I hate DST time change, because I have no clue how to set/change the time on my daughters' digital watches (four unlabeled buttons, -- too small to really press properly, none of which has the obvious function of time set).
The lower left button should toggle the stopwatch function. Hold it down for a second or two to access alarm set. Press it once again to access time set. Ask one of your daughters to help if you're still stuck.
. ..take a look at some issues of Computing in Science & Engineering; they have a website, although much of the actual content isn't free. You'll find some successful OO applications there.
Network gaming with graphics goes back considerably further than the article suggests; in the mid-1970s the Plato system hosted a number of multiplayer games that exploited the downloadable "graphics font" capabilities of its monochrome terminals. Can't think of any first person POV examples, though.
The Xerox Alto also had a number of multiplayer games on its bitmapped monochrome display, including at least one first person POV shooter: mazewar.
Appointed. Note that Bush *still* hasn't bothered to name a Science Advisor, while presenting budget proposals that would more than undo the progress made last year in funding of scientific research.
Better hope that continued technological development doesn't depend on scientific research, the corporations aren't taking up the slack.
In general I'm not a fan of conspiracy theories, but I find it difficult to believe the Pentagon would throw in $72M unless they had some so-far-undisclosed interest in Iridium's orbital components.
For example the Galactic Radiation and Background satellite, launched in 1960, carried a second set of hardware to perform signals surveillance of the Soviet Union; this function was not made public until 1968. See http://www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-53/iss-12/p51.h tml
The silly thing is just a nonlinear oscillator. John W. Campbell got all enthusiastic about this 40 years ago; it was bogus then and (the introduction of an electromagnetic component notwithstanding) conservation of momentum says it's bogus now.
Nixon didn't do what Gore is doing now because he didn't want to damage the country.
Actually Nixon didn't have to do anything in 1960 because the Republican National Committee did it for him. Numerous legal challenges to Kennedy's election were in fact launched, and continued as late as mid-December. See the "Talk of the Town" piece in the November 27 New Yorker, or this Slate article.
Paul Krassner is as atheistic as they come; here's what he had to say in the current (and final) issue of The Realist:
According to a recent survey by the Barna Group, an independent market-research company, about one out of five self-described atheists and agnostics (19%) pray to God during a typical week. I know I do. For example, before I go on stage to perform, I always pray, "Please, God, help me to do a good show." And then I always hear God's voice booming, "SHUT UP, YOU SUPERSTITIOUS FOOL!"
I've got something similar in my office - a base about 8" wide with a flat paddle sticking up, LEDs near the tip. Pull it to one side and it flips back and forth, "writing" the time in the air. Not very practical as a clock, as the numbers look best when viewed from more than an arm's length away, but never fails to impress visitors.
The US government is set up to do as little as possible.
Nonsense. The Framers were replacing the Articles of Confederation, under which the US government had been permitted to do too little. The Constitution describes a system under which the US government can do a useful (and not wholly inflexible) collection of things, with safeguards that enable, but do not automatically guarantee, protection of individual liberties.
IIRC the video in question was actually shot at a convention in San Francisco, with Engelbart operating NLS via a 2-way hookup with SRI at Stanford. ..over the phone lines. . .
Slashdot Mirror
Which way *does* the Earth rotate, anyway?
Another important aspect of slack pops up in Repenning, Understanding Fire Fighting In New Product Development; without it, the system is unstable against transients that tend to draw resources from upstream development (where they are more efficient) into downstream firefighting (where their benefit is more timely). A death spiral results.
Decent paper. Yes, he tends to belabor points the reader should see coming, and the model is clearly simplistic - but these very points might make it accessible for managers, particularly those still enamored of their MBA degrees.
Whoops, sorry - I see the OP was referring to a different Bravo. . . .
Regardless, the Markup editor on the Alto would be even earlier art - late 1970s.
--
Are you sure about that? I don't recall that behavior from Bravo, and a glance at the Bravo chapter in the Alto User's Handbook doesn't turn up anything.
Perhaps you're thinking of the Alto's Press file editor (Markup); that used a gestures-like interface for invoking rotation and scaling.
--
This is certainly not a zero probability, but it is still pretty small.
And still too big by a factor of 4 - 120,000 km was already a radius, so you shouldn't have divided by two before squaring.
I, for one, don't believe that science can predict when such an event will occur. And certainly not hours in advance.
Get with the program. The official Bush Administration position has changed to "OK, science can predict eclipses, but there's no point in doing anything about them."
--
And I hate DST time change, because I have no clue how to set/change the time on my daughters' digital watches (four unlabeled buttons, -- too small to really press properly, none of which has the obvious function of time set).
The lower left button should toggle the stopwatch function. Hold it down for a second or two to access alarm set. Press it once again to access time set. Ask one of your daughters to help if you're still stuck.
. . .take a look at some issues of Computing in Science & Engineering; they have a website, although much of the actual content isn't free. You'll find some successful OO applications there.
And how do you know that isn't exactly what SETI@home is doing now?
How scattering can create additional usable channels, from the current Physics Today:
http://physicstoday.org/pt/vol-54/iss-9/p38.html
Network gaming with graphics goes back considerably further than the article suggests; in the mid-1970s the Plato system hosted a number of multiplayer games that exploited the downloadable "graphics font" capabilities of its monochrome terminals. Can't think of any first person POV examples, though.
The Xerox Alto also had a number of multiplayer games on its bitmapped monochrome display, including at least one first person POV shooter: mazewar.
"So vote for your only logical choice: me, George Leroy Tirebiter. Because I never lie. And I'm always right."
I'm sorry, but this is too much like the climax (so to speak) of the novel-within-a-novel in Norman Spinrad's The Iron Dream for my comfort level.
Appointed. Note that Bush *still* hasn't bothered to name a Science Advisor, while presenting budget proposals that would more than undo the progress made last year in funding of scientific research.
Better hope that continued technological development doesn't depend on scientific research, the corporations aren't taking up the slack.
Thanks; that's much more credible.
Two corrections to my original post: GRAB's sigint role was declassified in 1998, and the correct URL has no space.
In general I'm not a fan of conspiracy theories, but I find it difficult to believe the Pentagon would throw in $72M unless they had some so-far-undisclosed interest in Iridium's orbital components.
h tml
For example the Galactic Radiation and Background satellite, launched in 1960, carried a second set of hardware to perform signals surveillance of the Soviet Union; this function was not made public until 1968. See http://www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-53/iss-12/p51.
The silly thing is just a nonlinear oscillator. John W. Campbell got all enthusiastic about this 40 years ago; it was bogus then and (the introduction of an electromagnetic component notwithstanding) conservation of momentum says it's bogus now.
If it's a Python song, surely it ought to be:
Just remember
you're standing on a planet
evolving. . .
should it not?
Those interested in Lem may enjoy reading The Futurological Congress; it's considerably more accessible than Solaris.
Think The Matrix but with more humor and less leather.
I've got something similar in my office - a base about 8" wide with a flat paddle sticking up, LEDs near the tip. Pull it to one side and it flips back and forth, "writing" the time in the air. Not very practical as a clock, as the numbers look best when viewed from more than an arm's length away, but never fails to impress visitors.
Nonsense. The Framers were replacing the Articles of Confederation, under which the US government had been permitted to do too little. The Constitution describes a system under which the US government can do a useful (and not wholly inflexible) collection of things, with safeguards that enable, but do not automatically guarantee, protection of individual liberties.
IIRC the video in question was actually shot at a convention in San Francisco, with Engelbart operating NLS via a 2-way hookup with SRI at Stanford. . .over the phone lines. . .